ABSTRACT
The controversy that exists over estimates of the native population in the New World is more difficult to resolve in the Central America because of the relative lack of documentary evidence and the speed with which the population declined. The controversy that exists over estimates of the native population in the New World is more difficult to resolve in Central America because of the relative lack of documentary evidence and the speed with which the population declined. Kroeber assumed that the Indian population had grown at a regular rate since the time of conquest and derived his estimates by projecting the growth rate backwards from figures provided by Humboldt for the end of the eighteenth century. He thus disregarded the devastating impact of the newly introduced diseases and the disruptive effect of conquest and colonization on the economic and the social life of the Indians.
