- 26 Jan 2010 11:19
#13303680
Some of the highest estimates I'm aware of claim that around 90% of the native population of the Americas were killed by European diseases. Estimates of pre-Columbian populations vary from 10 to 100 million, but it is safe to say that diseases were far mightier in conquering the Americas than any bullet or sword.
So I'm wondering what the Americas might look like today, had disease not played a role? I personally think the Americas would look something akin to Africa. Europeans would have had political hegemony and there might have been some limited colonization, but there would not have been the kind of population displacement that essentially wiped out the native populations. Granted, Africans had access to things like steel swords, which Americans didn't have, but I don't see how Europeans could have accomplish what they did had there been considerable populations to resist them.
So I'm wondering what the Americas might look like today, had disease not played a role? I personally think the Americas would look something akin to Africa. Europeans would have had political hegemony and there might have been some limited colonization, but there would not have been the kind of population displacement that essentially wiped out the native populations. Granted, Africans had access to things like steel swords, which Americans didn't have, but I don't see how Europeans could have accomplish what they did had there been considerable populations to resist them.