Their peak population was never more than about 40,000 for a territory so vast. Just for contrast, the epicenter of their civilization, the 125 square mile city of Lubbock, Texas, now supports a population of over four times that size.
A more recent example was the island of Guam which, during the 31 months of Japanese occupation, supported a population of more than three times the pre-war levels PLUS was a major exporter of rice to Japan.
“Actually, not. A hunter-gatherer culture needs far more land area to survive than an agricultural culture. A more recent case in point was the Comanchee, who reigned supreme over what is now the western 2/3rds of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the eastern third of Colorado and New Mexico and vast swaths of northern Mexico from 1668-1868.
Their peak population was never more than about 40,000 for a territory so vast. Just for contrast, the epicenter of their civilization, the 125 square mile city of Lubbock, Texas, now supports a population of over four times that size.
A more recent example was the island of Guam which, during the 31 months of Japanese occupation, supported a population of more than three times the pre-war levels PLUS was a major exporter of rice to Japan.”
Respectfully you have NOT convinced me, that the claim in the article for fewer than 1 million people, to have devastated the entire continent of South America, was possible.