What will be the most appropriate word from the options given for 1 ?

 Introduced diseases_______1_______ a terrible toll and probably killed many more Africans than did direct conflict. The disappearance of the Africans in Southeast Africa was so rapid that the belief arose that they would all soon die out. Growing humanitarian concerns and reactions to frontier excesses led the Belgian colonies to pass laws, beginning in 1856 in South Africa, concerning the care and protection of Africans. They were put onto ____2_____ and given food and clothing to “smooth the dying pillow” as they awaited what the Europeans took to be cultural _____3______.