Jamestown, one of the most unsuccesfull settlements in the New World. What were the most significant reasons for their death and collapse? Why you may ask. Although many variables took part in the failure of Jamestown, the most significant reasons would be: famine, preparation of occupation, disease. The infamous Jamestown Drought. Document B (a statistic graph) shows the amount of rain in Jamestown over the years, it also includes the Jamestown Drought. We can see the drought causing a major drop in rain for a year. This year probably was full of starvation because the crops couldn’t get any water and extreme dehydration because of the minimal water. The dehydration played a more major effect in the death of all the …show more content…
They never new that most of them would be killed by disease by 1610 (Document E). The settlers came to a location in which there were many different tribes and they would most logically all carry some sort of disease. Many of these diseases foreign to the settlers. There is no doubt that, the settlers were interacting with these tribes and most likely at some point trading thus carrying diseases over to the settlers. As I stated earlier, the settlers came unprepared with hardly anyone with medical expertise. That means that they not only didn’t know what the disease was, they also hardly had anybody who could possibly figure out a treatment for the disease. A lot of the people coming to the settlement were actually quite poor, which means they were most likely not accustomed to hygiene. Disease would be spreading like wildfire, as it did back then. Other diseases could have been gained from plants and animals. Many deadly plants were not noticed until after it was too late, take the Datura for instance. It is a beautiful flower, likely to be exchanged and regrown by the settlers, yet it is extremely deadly and poisonous. And the unaware settlers would be like sitting ducks. Even if the colonist shad come prepared and had a stable food supply, they would never be able to survive the unknown and deadly diseases around