Incas meet the French instead of Spanish

[othyrsyde]

Diseases did not cause a 90% population drop. It was the largest killer, but it was the combination of pandemics, war, intense exploitation, and ethnic transformation into mestizos (many "full blooded" Natives pretended to be mestizos to escape the encomiendas, and continue to do so today to escape poverty and racism) that caused the demographic drop overall.

 

[RGB]

I think some people in this thread are REALLY underestimating the capabilities of Bronze Age Levantine states and forgetting how what an environment or ruthless competition they existed in.

Stone age technology with good social organisation can be formidable by itself, no question, but that doesn't mean there isn't a gap of thousands of years of technological advantage in the middle.