QUOTE : Even if there is a general consensus that reduces the figure from one hundred million to fifty million—and some qualified investigators concede that we could hardly settle for less than that number—we must now accept the fact that the dismal story of Indian depopulation after 1492 is a demographic disaster with no known parallel in world history. We must also acknowledge that the catalyst of all this was undoubtedly the European invasion of the New World.1 The estimate of the aboriginal population of the New World not only has important consequences for American history, it may also force us to draw some very unpleasant parallels with contemporary events in Central and South America.