The Americas were discovered in 1492, and the first Christian settlements established by the Spanish the following year [I]t would seem... that the Almighty selected this part of the world as home to the greater part of the human race [T]heir delicate constitutions make them unable to withstand hard work or suffering and render them liable to succumb to almost any illness, no matter how mild. . . . It was upon these gentle lambs... that, from the very first day they clapped eyes on them, the Spanish fell like ravening wolves upon the fold, or like tigers and savage lions who have not eaten meat for days. . . . The native population, which once numbered some five hundred thousand, was wiped out by forcible expatriation to the island of Hispaniola. Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1552An implication of Las Casas’ argument is that a major cause of the decline of the native populations in the Americas after 1492 was thea) importation of European and African wildlife to the Americasb) large-scale clashes between native armies and the Spanishc) resistance of indigenous groups to religious conversiond) epidemics brought to the Americas by Europeans