Posted on 04/03/2002 2:41:45 PM PST by blam
1491
Before it became the New World, the Western Hemisphere was vastly more populous and sophisticated than has been thought—an altogether more salubrious place to live at the time than, say, Europe. New evidence of both the extent of the population and its agricultural advancement leads to a remarkable conjecture: the Amazon rain forest may be largely a human artifact
by Charles C. Mann
(click on the url to read the rest of the article)(Good Read)
“a city more technologically advanced than any in Europe.”
Please explain.
Wow, old topic you found.
The Western Hemisphere was populated by millions; the population of Mexico was so large at the arrival of Cortez that the illnesses intro’d by the expedition spread rapidly; Bernal Diaz (the last, or one of the last survivors of Cortez’ band) noted that in “The Conquest of New Spain” — the large towns they’d marched through on the way to Tenochtitlan were full of dead and otherwise abandoned as they fled back to Veracruz. The population of Mexico didn’t reach those levels again until the 20th century.
That pattern of boom and bust in the population has been well documented via the chronology of the spread of urban centers, and appears to have followed the natural cycle of climate — the same kind of phenom that has been at work in Europe and the Med basin throughout history.
In North America, the drop of tribal populations was also due in large part to the introduction of diseases. Colonial period writers made note of abandoned tribal towns, in some cases actually giving the number of domiciles left behind. The population of North America east of the Mississippi was probably in the area of twenty millions at times, and had a similar boom and bust pattern. Similarly, the Mississippi basin and the Four Corners region of the SW had that boom and bust pattern.
The migrations that took place in North America seem to be related to climate change (though they have no fixed dates); here in Michigan the earlier groups were invaded from across Lake Michigan, about 1000 years ago; in the upper peninsula two unrelated groups fought something called the Rice Wars — the invading group having left Ontario and upstate NY.
20-200 million, huh. Probably 1 million people per square mile in Mexico City alone in 1491 and all their sewage was deposited on four tomato plants in the back yard. Yeah, I think I follow quite well the reasoning of those who like to pretend the history of yesteryear will follow their vain imagination.
Sorry, I still see no evidence to justify belief in more than maybe around 10000 in all of Mexico at the time of their arrival.
I see no evidence to justify your vain imagination and belief, either.
ping,bflr
Try to run some numbers in logistics before imagining more than 100,000 ever lived in the Americas prior to 1491.
Of course, those who pretend to be well studied on the subject positing millions of inhabitants also don’t mind overthrowing all other scientific datum prior to their generation, simply to advocate their beliefs.
It’s absurd to suggest otherwise, unless one is attempting to overthrow all American governments by suggestion that ‘native’ populations have a more primal right to governance than legitimate authority already possesses.
IMHO, the entire movement is an attempt to counterfeit history to justify modern social restructuring of national governance.
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Book
I’m about a quarter way through Mann’s book 1491. What an excellent read.
I think I heard on Rush one day that there are more trees in the US now then in 1492.
Anyone know if that’s true?
Excellent. Glad you’re enjoying it.
I've heard the same from other sources.
Look here for confirmation.
1491: good book. Worthwhile read.
I just finished the book five minutes ago and I was disappointed that the author didn’t breakdown the histories of western native Americans, plains Indians and Eskimos. But I very much enjoyed it. Back to slogging through Gravity’s Rainbow.
Congratulations.
Willie Brown admits it: Kamala Harris slept her way to the top
By Monica Showalter
Editor's note:
American Thinker normally does not reprint previously published material, but this morning, we are making an exception, owing to the level of interest in Kamala Harris and her political career, which began, as Howie Carr quipped, "working under Willie Brown."
The item below was originally published January 27, 2019.
* * * *
Kamala Harris, that vaunted self-righteous feminist candidate who's using her 'year of the woman' chops to challenge President Trump in 2020, has a little problem: She slept her way to the top.
You know, the mistress thing, not exactly moving on up based on hard work or merit, that little advantage of good looks (President Obama called her the 'best-looking' state attorney general), employed to their optimal practical use. Her political patron, former lawyer to pimps, Mayor of San Francisco, and State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, admitted he helped her get her political start, writing in his bloggy San Francisco Chronicle column:
Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.
And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians.
Now you know where we get these people from. Somehow Harris, who was in her late 20s or at most 30 when she dated the 60-year-old married Brown around 1994 did so because he was just so very irresistable. Here's how the San Francisco Chronicle reported it on Twitter:
WILLIE BROWN: "I’ve been peppered with calls from the national media about my 'relationship' with Kamala Harris, particularly since it became obvious that she was going to run for president. Yes, we dated."https://t.co/xkzR0YhIl0 — San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) January 26, 2019 That of course, was in exchange for certain kinds of favors. Her rival, Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren got her start playing fake Indian. Kamala went the old fashioned way, sleeping her way to the top. Democrats have some pool of candidates here in this 'it's our turn' year of the woman and out to Get Trump offerings.
Willie Brown, of course, was California's most powerful politician, which might have had something to do with why Harris was out 'dating' the married man twice her age. And it's interesting because Brown, a former attorney for pimps in his pre-political days, seems to have a taste for the kind of women often seen in a positive light by pimps, such as this one - who represents Brown's taste in women. Not that it mattered that he was married, he's always had a girlfriend in the picture, according to the article. And well, Kamala was one of them.
Other reports say that once Kamala got the office she wanted from Brown, she dumped him. Brown made a cutesy reference to Kamala saying she was going to ticket him for jaywalking, which sounds like overkill, probably the kind of statement someone with a guilty conscience would make, not wanting anyone to know about how she got her office. What's more, Harris has kept virtually all references to Brown out of her numerous memoirs on the market.
Some feminist she is. She slept her way to the top and now it's out. It's actually not the first time it's been out, but since it's coming out now so early in the campaign, perhaps it was an inoculation shot, the way that candidate Donald Trump's team must have released the Melania Trump nude modelling shots to the New York Post to make it 'old news' so as to assure it would not become a campaign issue the day before the election.
All the same, it's disgusting, and while Trump is no angel on the love front, at least he never offered sex for political favors, either to women or from women. He never cheated on someone's spouse to get himself some political power the way she did. So now that Harris is presented as a role model and antidote-to-Trump these days, is she going to encourage all the little girls out there by saying that getting a politically strong boyfriend is the way to make it big in politics now? One wonders.
Let's hope she has to answer some questions about it from the Trump camp in what's sure to be a pious and hectoring political campaign.
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