Okay, so, I think it can be agreed that one of the biggest helps to European conquest of the Americas were the plagues they brought with them that completely wiped out most of the native populations.
So, let's say some Basque fishermen or your discoverer-of-the-Americas of choice somehow with every disease which OTL fucked over the natives comes into contact with natives, spreads the disease to them, and the disease is somehow miraculously spread to all of the native populations of the New World some hundred years before Columbus sets foot in the Caribbean. It does it's thing and wipes out societies and cultures leaving only a handful of natives alive.
A few things, now
A. What's the earliest something like this could happen
B. How long would it take for the natives to recover, number wise and societal organization wise?
C. How long would it take for the diseases in Europe to mutate and be far enough removed from the diseases introduced to the natives so that it wipes them out all over again?
D. Would natives naturally lose their immunity to European diseases even without the diseases mutating? Give them three hundred years, and could they be vulnerable all over again?
So, let's say some Basque fishermen or your discoverer-of-the-Americas of choice somehow with every disease which OTL fucked over the natives comes into contact with natives, spreads the disease to them, and the disease is somehow miraculously spread to all of the native populations of the New World some hundred years before Columbus sets foot in the Caribbean. It does it's thing and wipes out societies and cultures leaving only a handful of natives alive.
A few things, now
A. What's the earliest something like this could happen
B. How long would it take for the natives to recover, number wise and societal organization wise?
C. How long would it take for the diseases in Europe to mutate and be far enough removed from the diseases introduced to the natives so that it wipes them out all over again?
D. Would natives naturally lose their immunity to European diseases even without the diseases mutating? Give them three hundred years, and could they be vulnerable all over again?