[jimmyray]

Many aboriginal cultures were brutal and bloodthirsty, many were not. FWIW, Columbus and those that followed brought European diseases that resulted in the death of up to 95% of the native populations.

[Bulwyf]

The main thing to realize is, the folks they call native weren’t native at all. They had come from elsewhere too.

In North America, there is a lot of evidence that says white boy was here first.

Where do I get my free handouts?

[oldplayer]

Indian cultures were as diverse as European or African cultures. Some were great and well suited to their environment - some were not. Some just sucked.

BUT, I think if we looked closely, we would see what? “Bush’s Fault!”

[PeterPrinciple]

Columbus and those that followed brought European diseases that resulted in the death of up to 95% of the native populations.

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and the aboriginal culture sent back syphilis, who won and what is your point?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

That’s what I USED TO THINK until I found a massive epidemic similar to Hantavirus destroyed the Indians well before Columbus “sailed the ocean blue”.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/29/science/don-t-blame-columbus-for-all-the-indians-ills.html

[gundog]

No intent. Columbus gets a Hillary.

[Honest Nigerian]

jimmywray wrote:
... FWIW, Columbus and those that followed brought European diseases that resulted in the death of up to 95% of the native populations. ....

While that is probably true (but it can only be inferred based on the evidence available), it is also thought that there were some diseases (let’s called them exotic diseases) that were taken back to Europe by the explorers.
I have seen some articles that claim venereal diseases were unknown in the “Old World” prior to this age of exploration.
Anyhow, the proverb that, “what a man sows, he shall also reap”, seems to apply here.

[JohnBovenmyer]

European imported disease deaths were mostly from smallpox and measles. But that wasn’t a one way street. The locals had diseases to which they were tolerant that the Europeans had never seen. Most notably ‘the great pox’ more familiar to us today under the name of some bad ilalian poetry, syphylis. Europeans didn’t have immunity to it, but were protected to the degree they lived up to their own cultural moral standards.