The Spanish 100% knew. What pipe are you smoking from friend? They would intentionally trade items from the people in their camp that had smallpox to the natives. That's how the initial outbreak on the coast started in 1518. They explicitly knew this would happen because they first exploited Cuba and the other New world Islands and found out there in the 1490s.

[–] edel@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago

Germ theory was unknown then and those Spaniards lacked understanding of contagion, well I'm lying, the people then knew about contagion with blood and corpses but not through items like air or blankets. The disease spread, while catastrophic it was fully unintentional. The only accounts like the famed Bartolomé de las Casas described the diseases as "divine punishment" or "mysterious plague", never as a warfare tool.

However with the British, again more than 2 centuries later, there was knowledge and intent as per Jeffrey Amherst and Colonel Henry Bouquet discussing it "Could it not be contrived to send the smallpox among the disaffected tribes?" "I will try to inoculate them with some blankets…" during the Siege of Fort Pitt (1763).

[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So Spanish are just as bad as the English then. That doesn't help your case.

[–] Forester@pawb.social 0 points 2 days ago

Case? You seem confused, I said the natives were mostly gone before the English stepped foot in the new world. That's a historical fact read a book. I'm not saying anything else. I have no case.