What kind of contact with the old world would have been just enough to give them our germs (and livestock etc) but not so much as to decimate them. Is such a thing even possible?
I think there would arose the same problems with wheat-like grass. In Eurasia there are the very wide latidudinal belt were arose most of the early civilizations and where wheat come from while in America they inevitably must spread along the longitude and constantly to adjust to the different climate.I just posted a map on the Map Thread with large New World Empires. The POD is two fold:I got the idea from reading J. Diamonds Guns Germans and Steel.
- There a large, domesticable, farm mammals that survive human contact in America
- There is a wheat-like wild grass in America, meaning that the NA's dont have to go through the lengthly process of domesticating corn.
That is true. One of the things brought up in GG&S is that because Eurasia's continetal axis is East-West, people, ideas and crops can spread across large areas with the same climate. In the Americas, they have to go through many different climates.I think there would arose the same problems with wheat-like grass. In Eurasia there are the very wide latidudinal belt were arose most of the early civilizations and where wheat come from while in America they inevitably must spread along the longitude and constantly to adjust to the different climate.
I think enough plant crops were available in the Americas, the Mexican trinity of maize, beans and squash and the Andean Potato and quinoa, especially if all 5 were available to everyone. The lack of animals is more of a problem, but even there, there is a reasonable array if they were all put together. If there was a 'silk road' style constant contact between the civilisation areas these crops and animals could have been transmitted to all centres. Other things that developed in parts of the Americas but were not transmitted were wheels, bronze metalurgy and writing, which in combination energised old world civilisation.
You've got a Catch-22 there though... teh Silk Road would only arise from excess production (advanced civilization) allowing for luxuries to be traded far, but the excess production doesn't arrive without the Silk Road...
I had a timeline where the Teotihuacani civilization went farther and colonized an empire from Oregon to the Mississippi to Peru and Guyana. Over 300 years they allowed for trade of plants and animals, with the Central Valley and other areas growing almost every New World plant for food and raising llamas for protein/meat. They have the wheel and make giant roads running from Chaco to San Francisco Bay and Little Egypt (southern Illinois). Naval technology allows for delivery of large cargoes to Caribbean colonies though the only major map discoveries are Antarctica, the fact that South Smerica can be circumnavigated, Greenland, and the Kamtchatka Peninsula, both of the latter convince the Empire that they are the limits of the known world. Technology levels at the peak of the Empire is varied, their mathematics are approx. early 19th century but they lack ironworking tech until the Empire breaks up. Though the Empire prospers it eventually declines as civil wars break out and two dozen states arise. "Savages" who adapt the agricultural practices give rise to another dozen nascessent nations that build their own roads and civilizations. By the time the Europeans arrive, they've got a native population approaching 145 million between the two continents and most of the continent is already occupied.