80% of the pre-Columbian population died from old world diseases. Course that was inevitable. Old world people were coming Columbus or no Columbus.
The New world brought some New World diseases of their own......syphilis for one........
I think there were plenty who came before Columbus. Some like the Vikings were known but I suspect there were others.
Exactly! Remember, NO ONE in 1492 had ANY idea how infectious diseases were transmitted, much less of the causative organisms involved. It is frustrating to hear supposedly educated people project present-day knowledge back half a millennium!
And if a boat load of Indians had found the OLD WORLD, they would have returned to the Americas and carried all those Old World diseases with them.
Not our fault Indians did not have any natural immunity from the diseases.