201–210 of 408 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
CPG Grey has a great video on this exact subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYh5WACqEk In short, you need cities to develop these types of viruses. Cities where the virus can just keep killing, without ever hitting a dead end.
I think the other, more important, factor CPG Grey mentions in the video is domesticated animals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I'm remembering Guns, Germs, and Steel correctly, a popular/pluasible theory is that even without the disease conquistador swords and armor were so much better than the natives, they'd eventually win regardless. Something about more advanced metallurgy. Having horses may also have helped. There were no beasts of burden (iirc) in North America until the Spanish arrived.
Well, there were around 3000 Spanish conquistadors. Could they really conquer the whole Aztec empire (5 mln people) without alliances with local tribes?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always wondered why this wasn't a two-way street. Wouldn't native people also have diseases to share? I know the imperialists weaponized their diseases and intentionally tried to spread it and that may be the difference. Usually the smallpox theory is presented in a way that removes agency and culpability from the conquerers. It's always struck me as remarkably convenient and quite unbelievable; they were an idy…
> Wouldn't native people also have diseases to share? Not all diseases are equally harmful, right? Perhaps the indigenous populations of the Americas simply lacked a disease as deadly as those brought by the Europeans.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Leif Erikson led an expedition to Newfoundland over 20 years ago I guess that's technically not wrong.
I'm just impressed that Leif Erikson was leading expeditions while still in public school.
Is "cognisance" really the right term here? I didn't really follow the whole article and it seemed mostly unrelated to my question anyway, so sorry if I missed something. It just seems to me that for there to be any European awareness, there would have to be proof of a return voyage, no?
Is this not really just talking about "European presence"? I'm being highly pedantic, I'm well aware.
There are plenty of valid claims that many other civilizations contacted America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_co... But it is meaningless since they did not write about it nor they stablished commerce. The fact is that before 1492, most civilizations in Africa/Asia/Europe did not know that America existed and that other humans lived there. After 1492, that changed forever.
> But it is meaningless since they did not write about it not they stablished commerce Depends on what you find meaningful! There was almost certainly exchange of goods between Polynesians and South Americans. The presence of early sweet potato agriculture in Polynesia and genetic admixture in both regions points to non-trivial contact. There are even parallels in terms of folk-tales [0]! (Though these are likely old…
The media is really pushing this (and related) story hard this year. Anything to delegitimize Columbus.
Don't you prefer accurate history?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But it is meaningless since they did not write about it not they stablished commerce Depends on what you find meaningful! There was almost certainly exchange of goods between Polynesians and South Americans. The presence of early sweet potato agriculture in Polynesia and genetic admixture in both regions points to non-trivial contact. There are even parallels in terms of folk-tales [0]! (Though these are likely old…
I live in Vanuatu and is it very far to the west side of the Pacific yet the almost southern most island of Vanuatu, Aneityum, has stories of what they called the "Yellow People" that were on the island before they, Melanesians, arrived from northern islands. These people on the island were excellent stone carvers and could make stone walls which the current locals admit they never learned from the "yellow people". O…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
CPG Grey has a great video on this exact subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYh5WACqEk In short, you need cities to develop these types of viruses. Cities where the virus can just keep killing, without ever hitting a dead end.
Fwiw that's based on "Guns, Germs and Steel" which is not very respected as an academic work
The far left says it's a cop out on racism, blaming white evil on natural conditions. The far right says that it's too PC, that plenty of other places had the right conditions and gives no credit to culture or innovation.
So both the far left and far right want to take credit from chaos and put it on the people: either to hate them, or to take pride.
This in and of itself is not proof of anything. But if something pisses off far left and right at the same time, I tend to think of it as a green flag.