Posted on 05/06/2019 6:15:09 AM PDT by artichokegrower
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, bringing to the New World a bounty of wonder: coffee, horses, turnips, grapes, wine.
But Columbus and his fellow explorers, in addition to importing crops and animals we now take for granted, were also the Typhoid Marys of their time.
The New World before Columbus: no typhoid, no flu, no smallpox, no measles.
The New World after Columbus: epidemics of death.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
bttt
Wait a minute...
WHO says there were no diseases here before Columbus??
Did they find this fact in an indigenous library pre-Columbus or something?
Indians NEVER got sick or died til Columbus got here, right?
...Mmmm Hmm... right.. got it..
This.
..........go back to the pre-Columbian stone age living as hunter gatherers....
The buggers were canibals on a grand scale.
And the North Americans gave the Europeans syphilis which killed millions in Europe.
..........go back to the pre-Columbian stone age living as hunter gatherers....
The buggers were cannibals on a grand scale.
Fixed it.
Two biospheres collided during the Colombian Exchange. Of course, nobody understood germs or bacteria or viruses at the time. Blaming Colombia or White guys for this is no more reasonable than it would be for Westerners to blame the Chinese for Bubonic Plague since thats where scientists think it originated. Mass epidemics were very destructive and tragic but they werent anybodys fault particularly.
I remember that Diamond used to write an interesting monthly column in the long defunct Science Digest magazine back in the 80s. At one point he wrote a column called "The Arrow of Disease" that posed this question. He had no answers and since then it's always stuck with me as a curiosity (hence I recall the name of that column, for example). I imagine he expanded his thinking behind that column into a book. Maybe I'll check it out to see where it led him.
Also, the Indians sent syphilis back to Europe so it went both ways.
According to the best estimates the Americas were populated by Asians who came over a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska 10,000 - 12,000 years ago. for his drivel to even have a chance of being true, that would have to mean that those diseases evolved in the last 10-12k years. Extremely unlikely. Does anyone think that stone age man in Europe and Asia was disease free?
Then there is the total lack of verification of the diseases tolls upon the natives. Nothing factual at all just speculation. this kind of drivel is uncritically accepted by morons which is some regard why there are Democrats in government today - representing the credulous morons in the country.
It’s been pointed out to me that smallpox does not exist outside a few laboratories anymore. So although our illegal invader brethren are gifting us with a variety of new (and old) diseases, smallpox is not among them.
but they werent anybodys fault particularly.
https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/act+of+god
And if the Indians had discovered Europe first, they would have still brought home those same diseases, and left Syphilis behind, which devastated Europe, which it did when Columbus returned to Europe.
Many diseases come from living in close proximity with domesticated animals. Native Americans also had some domesticated animals, but Europeans had many more, different animals than the Natives.
A good book about this is “Guns, Germs & Steel” by Jarred Diamond.
Her is a rather interesting link I found years ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/29/science/don-t-blame-columbus-for-all-the-indians-ills.html
“Here”, said Columbus....”Put this trunk of measles in Cabin 4. We’ll drop it off in the New World...which is where....who the hell knows”.
I agree with you there ... a fantastic book ...
Syphilis, it seems, developed in the New World from yaws, perhaps 1,600 years ago, and was waiting for Columbus and his crew. The Rothschilds are now examining skeletal collections from the Bahamas to look for evidence of syphilis nearer to Columbus’ landfall.
General topic - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.