They didn't so much as resist the pandemics as have a significantly higher baseline population.
British instead of Spanish conquer aztecs
- Thread starter joeyanonymous
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There were just more people in Mesoamerica than North America. The Mesoamerican societies were ravaged just as badly by European diseases as the ones in North America.
Every single modern estimate agrees that the population in the USA and Canada just before the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th century was less than 10 million, with the overwhelming majority even saying it was under or at 5 million. Those figures are well below those of both Mesoamerica as well as a multitude of individual European countries at that time, spread out over a much larger area than any than those. Even if you leave out all the unused lands and lands only used as e.g. hunting grounds the area they occupied was still as large or larger. So no matter how you look at it the USA was sparsely populated.
Just to cite some actual work: George Milner and George Chaplin's 2010 paper places the most likely estimate around 4 million (highest below 6) for the entire continent (except Mexico), of which no more than half lived in the eastern woodlands. By comparison: at the same time there also lived 2.5M people on the island of Great Britain, and Great Britain was sparsely populated by European standards.
Just to cite some actual work: George Milner and George Chaplin's 2010 paper places the most likely estimate around 4 million (highest below 6) for the entire continent (except Mexico), of which no more than half lived in the eastern woodlands. By comparison: at the same time there also lived 2.5M people on the island of Great Britain, and Great Britain was sparsely populated by European standards.
raharris1973
Gone Fishin'
Your article puts the high end of North America north of Mexico estimates at 18 million. With its own estimate at, indeed, 4 million.
1983 is not what I would consider a "modern" estimate. Snow (2001) puts it at 3.4M, Alchon (2003) at 3.5M, and one of the highest recent estimates was Thronton (2007) at 7M. So like I said, current consensus is in fact below 10M, and most put it below 5M.
Furthermore the article goes out of its way to explicitly state why that 18 million estimate is impossible:
"Dobyns's (1983) 18 million, couples optimistic estimates of environmental carrying capacity with unrealistic assumptions about the effectiveness of food-acquisition strategies ... The extrapolation has received its share of criticism, and Dobyns's (1983) assessment of the Timucua far exceeds figures based on more sober appraisals of historical accounts and archaeological evidence. High population estimates are consistent with maps that associate particular groups with irregular areas that collectively cover the land in its entirety, as if nothing was left unoccupied.
Maps showing contiguous occupation, however, have the effect of implying that all equally productive land, most importantly resource-rich shorelines and river valleys, was similarly and continuously occupied. A much different picture has emerged from archaeological work over the past several decades. Not only were there large and infrequently used areas between late prehistoric population aggregates, the vacant areas often encompassed highly productive land suitable for permanent settlement."
Maps showing contiguous occupation, however, have the effect of implying that all equally productive land, most importantly resource-rich shorelines and river valleys, was similarly and continuously occupied. A much different picture has emerged from archaeological work over the past several decades. Not only were there large and infrequently used areas between late prehistoric population aggregates, the vacant areas often encompassed highly productive land suitable for permanent settlement."
Yeah I meant that the higher population that comes from better developed agriculture meant their societies endured disease better
To the main point, I think English rule would likely be worse organised and executed due to Spain having much more experience in conquering and assimilating peoples from Andalusia and the canary isles, England had Ireland of course but it was far closer and had a very similar climate to England, yes Spain is not tropical and neither is the canaries but in terms of heat it’s much closer to Mexico than Ireland or England is,
I think English Mexico would look like early company India, small groups of soldiers and traders making exceptional amounts of money from exploiting locals and building up a state structure but a state structure entirely based around extraction, that small group would be mostly single men and probably created a considerable Anglo-Mexican population
An interesting question is if a parliament for Mexico is created as the Parliament in Ireland was
I think English Mexico would look like early company India, small groups of soldiers and traders making exceptional amounts of money from exploiting locals and building up a state structure but a state structure entirely based around extraction, that small group would be mostly single men and probably created a considerable Anglo-Mexican population
An interesting question is if a parliament for Mexico is created as the Parliament in Ireland was
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If by "assimilating the Canaries" you mean almost completely replacing the native population then they didn't learn much given they didn't do that in most of the Americas.
Genetic testing has found Guanche dna in the modern Canarian population is between 42 and 73 percent, hardly a almost total replacement
it seems like a very similar process to the mestizaje in Latin America where intermarriage and the preference of Hispanic culture leads to a hispanicised but mostly mixed population
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Some quick research indicates the English using arquebusses during the 16th century, to the point that some people were complaining that this was causing the decline of the longbow.
Arquebus: Long Guns in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Eras
17th-century arquebus. / Photo by Tylwyth Eldar, Château de Foix Museum, Wikimedia Commons With volley firing, the arquebus went from being a support weapon to the primary focus of most early moder…
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