[wagglebee]

The reality is that eventually Europeans or north Africans were going to "bump into" the Americas eventually whether they were looking for new trade routes or not. The discovery that black tar on ships allowed them to sail greater distances made it inevitable.

WHEN the Americas were discovered all of Europe was going to find out and the Europeans were going to establish colonies for commercial purposes. And when large groups of Europeans came, they were going to bring diseases that would overwhelm the immune systems of the natives.

This was GOING TO HAPPEN whether it was the Spanish, English, Italians, Dutch, Portuguese or some other group. It might be PC to blame Columbus, but the truth is that the Europeans had NO WAY of knowing this would happen or preventing the spread of disease once it took hold.

[tbw2]

In some ways, it already happened. The Vikings tried and failed. If it wasn’t for very little contact between Vikings and Inuits, the viral decimation easily could have happened 400 years sooner - and North America would have been Viking colonized before Columbus’ era.