Inspired by the "Even American Natives" thread.
It's striking to me the parallel between Spanish conquest of the Americas and the Russian conquest of Siberia. Both European conquerors were at the same level of technology and the native peoples were roughly on par as well. Granted I'm leaving out population centers like MesoAmerica and the Andeas in making the comparison.
How could the Siberian native peoples be improved technologically and organizationally to the point where they could withstand Russian expansion? As far as guns germs and steel goes they didn't fair any better than Native Americans.
It appears most died from Russian diseases despite being native to Eurasia, and that somehow horses and iron were either scarce or non-existant among many Siberian tribes. They had domesticated the reindeer and though there were some yaks in parts of Mongolia and Russia, I don't recall the Siberians domesticating them the way the Himalaysian people have.
It's striking to me the parallel between Spanish conquest of the Americas and the Russian conquest of Siberia. Both European conquerors were at the same level of technology and the native peoples were roughly on par as well. Granted I'm leaving out population centers like MesoAmerica and the Andeas in making the comparison.
How could the Siberian native peoples be improved technologically and organizationally to the point where they could withstand Russian expansion? As far as guns germs and steel goes they didn't fair any better than Native Americans.
It appears most died from Russian diseases despite being native to Eurasia, and that somehow horses and iron were either scarce or non-existant among many Siberian tribes. They had domesticated the reindeer and though there were some yaks in parts of Mongolia and Russia, I don't recall the Siberians domesticating them the way the Himalaysian people have.