Why Native Americans Didnt Wipe Out Europeans with Diseases

[@TodayIFoundOut]

And speaking of wiping, watch this video and find out Why Toilet Paper Is White here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZ7dmZmBl7uVgpo

[@iawarenow658]

you are spreading false history and total nonsense.. why you not do your research and look at the Mongoloid Genocide in what became known as America.. and the way the Mongols invaded nearly all parts of the world long before the Europeans.. pathogens spread by eating pet Dogs, and other animals not common in Western countries is now wiping out other countries..?

[@CiabanItReal]

One thing to consider about how diseases traveled, is while we often think of Europeans coming to the America's in reality, there isn't much difference between the continent of Europe, Asia, and Africa, before the Suez Canal was built, you could conceivably walk or ride from the tip of south Africa, to the tip of Siberia. And the bubonic plague, for instance, started in a lake in China and came to Europe through the silk road.

[@suchendnachwahrheit9143]

Always thought the plague came from Kyrgisisthan

[@theelectricwalrus]

But native Americans DID live in large cities: Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities in the world, but it was decimated by disease.

[@roddaz]

Christopher Silvia Their cities were much clean

[@liamfris256]

Christopher Silvia Yes, and Tenochtitlán used farming as their main food source, not animal husbandry. Plus it was built on a lake, which really made the whole city a natural sewer system

[@garrusn7702]

Christopher Silvia Associations of mostly small and some large city states with few domesticated animals is not the same as what was in Europe.

[@brockluthor1472]

Christopher Silvia native falsehood.

[@brockluthor1472]

Real life Terminator start a business.

[@cortster12]

What kills most of your species, makes your species stronger.

[@tylerstevens1904]

Sadly, what kills most germs also makes them stronger.

[@cortster12]

Tyler Stevens Isn't natural selection wonderful?

[@felyne262]

Or Terrifying.

[@nyudui5952]

native Americans weren't a "species". Beneath the skin were all human.

[@nyudui5952]

TheDarknessStrikes thnx for clearing that up for me! have a blessed day! 😄👍

[@WyliesWorld]

I wonder what the demographics in the U.S. would look like now if the Native American population wasn't so devastated by the European diseases.

[@TheMegalusDoomslayer]

The Word of Wylie There just would have been more genocide.

[@transcendentape]

The US wouldn't exist if 90% of the native population weren't wiped out by disease. Therefore, wondering about what current demographics would be is somewhat silly.

[@WyliesWorld]

transcendentape It's only an open thought I had, not something that you need to dismiss, per se. Would you mind elaborating, though? I can see the implied train of thought in your argument, but I might not be interpreting it right. With the missing explanation, the conclusion seems more presumptive than logically inescapable.

[@DrGerbils]

It's tempting to say that the demographics of whatever political entities would have occupied what is now the US would resemble the demographics of Mexico. However, that would not account for the differences in the colonization policies of England and Spain. It also would not account for the differences in political organization and religion between the people in what are now the US and Mexico. The factors that allowed the Spanish to fairly easily conquer and hold Mexico and Peru would probably not have been present further north.

[@lcarltbmx6743]

You mean european genocide of natives? Oh probably more then there are today.

[@transcendentape]

0:53 native Americans were largely hunters and gatherers, while showing a picture of someone riding a horse, an old world animal.

[@KuraIthys]

Surprisingly, all horses originate from America, but they died out there about 10,000 years ago... Strange... XD

[@6272355463637]

Source? There were horses in the Americas a long time ago but I have never seen any indication that modern Eurasian horses originate from the Americas.

[@transcendentape]

+Marcel Lindner There isn't any indication of such a thing. KuraIthys is taking a fact and distorting it to make a statement that is entirely irrelevant. The origin of the ancestral line of modern horses is meaningless in regard to my original point, which is that native Americans would not have been on horse-back prior to the European invasion.

[@mslita09]

That's not true, horses were brought over here. They did not originate from America.

[@emawerna]

transcendentape, native Americans grew corn, opening the possibility of complex farming civilizations. We don't know what was here because disease spread much faster than the Europeans themselves. No one wrote anything down (at least in a language we can read today) to record their existence. In many cases, we simply don't know where to look or how to interpret what we find. Heck, it took centuries to find the foundations of Pompeii, which we knew existed for certain and about where it was. We also considered it important enough to look at and to study (which isn't a given). We can only see anything at all because of how much stone was used in construction. For all we know, several cities the size of Pompeii existed in North America but used less stone. Even if we ran across the ruins by chance, we wouldn't know what we were looking at. Ironically, their garbage would be the thing most likely to look out-of-place. If we found the garbage like we did many massive shellmounds of discarded oyster shells in the San Francisco Bay Area, we might just note their location but not care enough to study the people who left them in any significant detail.

[@kalebbruwer]

Cgp grey's video about this was literally the first suggestion I got.

[@Themrfuzzypants]

Kaleb Bruwer same

[@grayswandir47]

Americapox. The missing plague. One of his best.

[@kalebbruwer]

grayswandir47 I liked Rules for rulers as well.

[@GrumpyOldFart2]

Absolutely. CPGG's video Why was there no Americapox explains this in much greater detail. Also, his second video about domesticating animals (this is related to the Amercapox video) is pretty good also.

[@waltermc7296]

"Are 'BELIEVED' to have lived in the Americas 'SHORTLY' before Europeans"...???

[@TodayIFoundOut]

+Walter McIntyre The number of people living in the Americas shortly before Europeans arrived isn't known for sure, hence the "approximately 20-50 million people are believed to have lived..."

[@KOakaKO]

Between 1492 and 1642, it's believed that something like 98% of the people who lived in the Northeastern US had already died because of disease that was carried over from Europe. When the "Pilgrims" landed at "Plymouth Rock", as is taught in US elementary schools, there really weren't any native people there to complain about the fact that these people just moved in and started living there like they owned the place. For all practical purposes, they DID own the place now... because their European relatives had already (inadvertently) wiped out the people who were there before them.

[@shilelea]

KOakaKO I guarantee that 100% of natives alive in 1492 were dead by 1642

[@KOakaKO]

shilelea - Please think about it for a moment. I'm talking about the spreading of diseases that were common in Europe, but had never been seen in North America. It took a lot of time for those millions of people to die off, but that's still the main reason why the U.S. was settled by those English "pilgrims" that people talk about so much in 1642.

[@phishfearme2]

KOakaKO what's your reference or evidence for this? I hope it's not your church.

[@itsmatt2105]

Actually, the most well supported estimates of indigenous inhabitants of what was to become America prior to European discovery place the number at 1-2 million with some very poorly supported estimates ranging as high as 9 million. The subsistence existence lived by pre-contact aboriginals required an enormous amount of land to support a few people. I've studied this in great depth. From the tip of Argentina (The Yaghans) to the Bearing Strait to Hudson bay and Greenland,(the Iniut) some common threads running through all aboriginal lives were regular starvation, high infant and adult mortality rates (only the very tough survived) frequent if not constant movement. (Oh, and, anything that moves, kill it and eat it) Things we consider very minor inconveniences like broken bones, infected scratches or even parasites debilitated and killed aboriginal people. The Indians living an idyll "in tune with nature" is a fairy tale on par with Santa Clause. Real life back then was mostly brutal, painful and short. The Indian life most commonly referenced, the one of the Plains and Southwest Indians in the late 1800's had been lifted immeasurably by 100's of years of European imports including the horse, metal implements and the gun.

[@vanHid]

Sagrotan we didn't sacrifice anybody this was a Spanish made up fable to justify our genocide and raping. also the number of people were was much, much more than 2 million. that's just an ignorant comment. read the letters they wrote.

[@DavidRodriguez-ux5ye]

Yaocihuatl Nicanahuac are you talking about the incas or the Aztecs

[@elljay3453]

"Aztec 'Tower Of Skulls' Reveals Women, Children Were Sacrificed NPR-Jul 5, 2017 For nearly five centuries, Huey Tzompantli, a tower of skulls from the victims of Aztec ritual sacrifice, has remained little more than an intriguing ..." Build a wall...

[@andregayle]

When you study and travel so much that you're still calling Natives "Indians..." 🤔

[@havesomedeathsticks]

This was very badly written, I don't think you've studied anything in your life.

[@ellythepyro8972]

thank you! I have been wondering about this for quite a while

[@TTOTheTrueOne]

Finaly! I always asked me this question. Thank you.

[@thexalon]

There's another factor that should have been mentioned here: Native Americans bathed regularly. Europeans didn't. That's one reason the European immune systems were more resilient.

[@blazednlovinit]

Not really mate. It's been understood for a very long time that disease and poor health are corrected to bad smells.

[@ItsDomke]

CGP Grey did a great video on this titled Ameripox: The Missing Plague. Essentially the Americas didn't have plagues to give to the Europeans. Regular diseases, but no plagues.

[@MysteryPonyFiction]

Just yesterday I was playing Europa Universalis IV as a native north american tribe and the Scottish from europe showed up next to me in about 1550 or so and gave my country a horrible disease. I fixed the problem by adopting their more advanced ideology and becoming a Monach rather then a Tribe. But the cost of this change put me from the most fearsome rich country in the region, to struggling and having to dip into debts to upgrade my infrastructure.

[@SlyPearTree]

I knew "Guns, Germs and Steel" would get a mention before starting the video. It's a very interesting book and does much to explain the differences between civilization without resorting to racist ideas.

[@Imperium83]

It's absolute bullshit though.

[@CornerTalker]

@@Imperium83 It has some serious historical problems.

[@Cheddar_Wizard]

@@CornerTalker Would you recommend it for a read?

[@CornerTalker]

@@Cheddar_Wizard I did read it all the way through. It was interesting. Afterward, find a criticism of it so you can take it with a grain of salt.

[@yeshuasage3724]

Guns weren’t that much of a factor Infact the Americans looked down on euro weapons

[@rolando3853]

My grandmother tells a story of how her great grandmother explained that we felt bad for the Europeans as well known in story thanks giving.There was a feast because the Natives helped a fellow race of people good at war only.The Eurpea

[@Stratelier]

To compare, CGP Grey's exploration of this topic places less focus on European immunity and more on European culture -- i.e. densely populated areas + poor sanitation + constant contact with domestic animals = plague paradise.

[@ryan7864]

One of the many horrible consequences of the Fall of Rome was - Poor Urban Sanitation.

[@schizoidboy]

I remember this thing I heard in a history class that had to do with Jamaica. Originally the island was going to be populated with slaves from Ireland, but the Irish had no immunity to the tropical diseases of the Caribbean and they died off so the British brought in slaves from Africa on the plantations, and this is the reason you don't hear of Jamaica being an Irish Island.

[@titusabraham4184]

schizoidboy r

[@SamBrickell]

Perhaps the Irish slaves were "immune" to Jamaica's sunshine.

[@obviouslydead6971]

+SAM BRICKELL You have heard of melanin, right?

[@keeganmoonshine7183]

those irish would have had the worst skinburns ever with that skin working as slaves in the fields ..

[@ekramer1030]

Have recently heard arguments that syphilis may actually have been present in ancient Egypt.

[@electronpusher604]

Watch CGP Grey's video before this one.

[@domenicogrimaldi591]

I just realized...this guy's eyebrows don't fuckin' sit still.

[@tyneggs3792]

Domenico Grimaldi or his damned hands.

[@Hootie.]

Ty Neggs must be a deep cover Italian spy from ww2 that hasn't been activated yet.

[@navonmyhand7999]

+Nick Mettler Hahahah, why?

[@Higuitamax]

Hold on, wait a minute, Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities of its time.

[@breoganomoaldougnaic9276]

Northern British Columbia And Vancouver Island Had Cities Of Upwards Of 200,000 Inhabitants, Such As Dimla Hamid Which Had 250,000 Citizens.You Can Thank Them For The Technology Of Suspension Bridges Which Graced The Skeena River. It Appears That These Cities Were Dismantled After 1600 When The First Smallpox Plague Ravished The Coast Killing 75% Of The People Due To Exposure To Trade Items That Came From Mexico Through California On The Trade Routes. Their Numbers Were Returning When The First Settlers From Europe Arrived In 1790s (Eg. Captain Cook) With More Disease.

[@cameronzero]

Yo, that picture on the left at 0:31 is my dad, Chief Dave Bald Eagle.

[@beatlebabe1969]

Here's a question: I have NEVER seen native Americans depicted or photographed having facial hair. What is the facial hair of a full blooded Native American look like, and does it have a different texture than others? Did native Americans shave before European invasion? What's the history of it? I'm so curious

[@conor7375]

beatlebabe1969 native american genetics in general are not known for being good at growing facial hair. not sure why though. I'm 1/8 native american and those are the most prominent native american genes in my blood.

[@Durangotek]

Yea. Pre Columbian peoples dont grow too much hair. Could be climate. Fair weather year round. God bless Indigenous populations.

[@martyrmessiah3903]

They singed their facial hair off sometimes.

[@martyrmessiah3903]

The alchemists engineered trichinosis among the indigenous people in various degrees. Some [darkskins] even had blue eyes.

[@PainterBo]

Just like some African tribes esp in Ghana. The Europeans saw the indigenous people as blacks. So it is said that the missing 20-50.000.000 were 'used' as slaves and the small pocks story is made up to cover the numbers.

[@mattymaloy3949]

Totally accurate I studied the columbian exchange in the first year of my history degree, reading guns, germs and steel too. (well some of it lets be honest.)

[@peregrination3643]

I'll add this to my list of things that are both good and bad: the general factors that lead to plagues can lead to not being susceptible to illnesses. Different circumstances, of course, but same general factors. The irony of life.

[@TheLTCtrainer]

Very interesting, as always!

[@ritaloy8338]

Simon, I need to take issue with your remark that penicillin was the first cure for syphilis. Arsphenamine, known as 606, was first synthesized in 1907 in Paul Ehrlic's lab by Alfred Bertheim.

[@iasimov4195]

Citing my American history teacher I college, he claimed the Indian population of North American in 1492 was 100,000,000. Because of European diseases, 90 percent died. When the Pilgrims arrived, they discovered cleared fields littered with Indian skeletons and took it as a sign that the land was meant for them to possess. As for me, I don't know how you could take a census of a people who had no written language and, as far as I know, no numbering system.

[@prodeffer]

There were cultural differences in the way that Europeans viewed hunting and processing quarry as opposed to Native Americans. I find the numbers to be largely conjecture, the point (aside from volume of inhabitants) was the impact the diseases had. 100 million MAY have existed (Canada IS a very expansive region of the world remember, and full of resources..Mexico too, though less resources) but we will never know for sure...The numbers were clearly derived from the estimates of a society which cared more about the land than the people...Unfortunately this is still the case, but no one bothers to point that out.

[@blazednlovinit]

Same way as you estimate the amount of any other animal in the world, I guess.

[@blazednlovinit]

I don't get it, why only mammals?

[@breoganomoaldougnaic9276]

Many Of The Turtle Island Tribes Had Written Languages And Numbering Systems Notably In The Potlatch Cultures Often Enumerated In Knotting On Cords. The Micmac Used An Ancient Alphabet That Was Adopted From The Chinese In The Tenth Century And Formed The Basis Of Modern Chinese As Well As Arabic/Aramaic/Persian Etc.

[@carl4636]

Jay M It was probably more or less around 40 million. The native americans from what is now the US were primarily nomadic as well was others throughout. The main population centers, central america/south mexico and peru, definately depended on agriculture( granted had to hunt for meat because no domesticated animals except llama).Corn within itself is probably the best domesticated grain in human history, yes I am considering corn pre-1500s which was probably only 6 inches long. Corn started to get deomesticated 3500BC and is really why it was able to develop from being basically wheat(search up teostine) to a considerable meal for a population who didnt have domesticated animals. In general, if you notice many of the hearty and bulky grains, fruits, and vegetables come from the americas because they had to overcompensate.

[@shmu_el]

this episode should be called "today I watched a cgp grey video"

[@Kermit_T_Frog]

I think he overlooks or underestimates the impact that disease had on early settlers. The might have been more resistant, but I'd wager that it was a two way street.

[@martinramirez1166]

he also seems to of missed out on the part were in large native american cities like Tenochtitlan for example they had janitors throughout the city making sure it stayed clean and had public restrooms, pluming and made sure to dispose/ recycle human waste, along with daily bathing and washing of hands before and after cooking, most native peoples have always been relatively clean in comparison to their pre columbian cousins across the ocean

[@ballenboy]

No this is just a beautification of the reality that one city may have been wonderfully administered and comparing it to another continent in an attempt to feel superior.

[@SirCharles12357]

Two points: 1. Native Americans had one of the largest cities in the world (Tenochtitlanwhen, population 200,000 the size of Paris!) when discovered. And many lived in other large cities along the Mississippi R. and Amazon R.. 2. I have read that on the whole, they were genetically very similar to each other; for example, most were O+. This makes it very easy for a disease to burn through a population.

[@whatthefunction9140]

so why do I get the shits every time I go to latin america?

[@C.G91]

because your body's so use to GMO foods it doesn't know how to react to natural foods so it shit it out

[@whatthefunction9140]

I dont eat gmo's Im a vegan who lives in hawaii. I eat locally grown produce.

[@Bogwedgle]

"your body's so use to GMO foods it doesn't know how to react to natural foods" This makes so little sense that I'm not even sure where to start correcting you. so I'll just make a list. 1. The differences between a GMO and a non-GMO when it comes to being digested are basically zero. 2. No matter where you live, a large portion of the food you eat isn't genetically modified. 3. Most of the genes used to genetically modify anything come from something else you eat anyway. 4. Your body being "Used to" any kind of food when it comes to digestion is just nonsense, you can either digest it or you can't. It's comparable to saying someone can get over lactose intolerance by keeping eating cheese. 5. Your digestive tract is built from the ground up to break down and process food. Any food. The difference between a GMO and a non-GMO wouldn't even fucking register. You can eat something you've never eaten before, and unless it is A: poisonous or B: contaminated with dangerous bacteria, your body will be perfectly happy digesting it, the thought that the difference between GMO corn and Natural Corn would put your body in panic mode is fucking hilarious. TL:DR Spend 5 minutes in a highschool biology classroom.

[@whatthefunction9140]

"The differences between a GMO and a non-GMO when it comes to being digested are basically zero." I used to think the same thing but there is a big difference in the protein profile of many gmo crops. I dont mean the amount of protein I mean the proteins that are expressed. When developing a gmo many blunt genetic tools are used. Its seen as a success if the target protein encoding genes are inserted into the genome but a lot of unwanted protein encoding genes are also inerted. No one knows if these other proteins are harmful or beneficial. I dont want to be the test subject.

[@Bogwedgle]

Dylan T I'd be mighy interested in seeing your source for that claim.

[@nivek326]

The natives were agricultural people who grew mainly plants (potatoes, corn, tomatoes, etc, they only switched BACK to a hunter gatherer society when European horses and weapons made hunting easier and more effective than farming (at least with the North American natives)

[@381MEDALLION]

As someone of African descent that comment is a little condescending, they kept records long before the White man arrived,as all primitive people do. They passed down stories and myths about their ancestors from one generation to the next. One historian said it best when she said your history is a lie that is agreed upon.

[@Tharosthegreat]

The power of the Europeans. Born to rule

[@stoutyyyy]

Not necessarily in all of North America, but in the West Indies, yellow fever and other such diseases were devastating to Europeans. Many British officers would resign their commissions rather than be sent to the West Indies garrison, because it was effectively a death sentence.

[@nonamedpleb]

Guns Germs and Steel by Jarod Diamond is a good book but do read it with a grain of salt, because the book is wildly criticized by the anthropological community. www.reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/1rzm07/what_are_some_of_the_main_anthropological/ thread has some of the main points.

[@c.rutherford]

Its a rather unprofessional account but I remember listening to an audiobook of Columbus's voyages that had a lot of his own documentation. And there were many recorded reports of European sailors becoming very sick after catching Native American bugs, some being knocked out prostrate with fever or other ailments caught in the 'New World' for days on end. However this was early in the discovery years, and on the whole they didn't die. Also as most people know Syphilis was sent back across the ocean and this spread all over Europe caused a great deal of pain for decades. This was mentioned also, with Columbus recording that the Native Americans at the time got the disease too, but to them it was a much more trivial thing, something akin to a common cold that they fully recovered from. IDK. Such was the reading.

[@amdreallyfast]

CGP Grey recently did a more extensive video on this subject called "Ameripox: The Missing Plague". I didn't know about siphilis being a possible candidate though.

[@baqcasanke]

Bro your eyebrows have a life of their own. I dig it

[@matthalbmaier6113]

IT WASNT DISEASE. It was WAR. it was simple too. native americans sold each other out and fought against each other with Europeans

[@anthonyhadsell2673]

Ameripox the missing plague is a great video explaining this in depth

[@lesliefranklin1870]

All true. Additionally, there is a Native American habit that has been adopted by Europeans and Euro-Americans...that of smoking tobacco. Over the centuries, many millions around the world have died from this habit.

[@niklausfletcher2290]

lol because the Natives were clean

[@bew7192]

it's not about being clean. it's about living door to door with sheep, pigs, cows and horses in huge cities with horse shit on the streets and everybody just pours their night pots and dirty water out of the window. that's not the case when you live with only 50 other people in a tent village, hunting what you need. simple is that.

[@DrGerbils]

Even in the Native American towns, such as the one at Cahokia, population density was never close to European levels. At its height, the town at Cahokia had no more than 30,000 inhabitants.

[@tyneggs3792]

Niklaus Fletcher i love how they argued your point for you. it's not that the natives were clean it's that europeans were dirty. lmao

[@bew7192]

europeans can still be dirty today from time to time. meeeeeeow!

[@josephang9927]

"Clean" means they didnt wash their hand so they got sick.

[@ccaro4003]

And kids need to be socially around many people before kindergarten or first school year is a nightmare of colds and more.

[@dcmeserve]

The premise of this video may need to be reexamined. I've heard that the 95% figure was the decrease from pre-Columbus time all the way until around 1900, so the contribution of direct genocide to that decrease needs to be considered. The idea that it was all due to disease may be a way for us European descendants to sort of feel less responsible...

[@Themsbeatlesrock]

Thank you for this comment! Lately, I’ve been wondering about this. Is the ‘disease wiping out natives’, just a cover up for massive genocide?

[@moiquiregardevideo]

We have two immune systems. The older one react directly to pathogens, using kamikaze style attacks. The new immune system is much more complex. It is adaptative, learning from previous infections ; this is how/why vaccine works. It can remember any pathogen, no matter the origin. The new immune system also uses many type of cells. One type of cell identify and tag an invader. Another type destroy anything that has a tag. Presumably, native Americans have the same generic immune system which can learn any pathogen. The massive death could be related to an entire population been exposed to a virus for a first time. The Europeans invaders already got exposed to many of the diseases in their childhood, their immune system already learned the signature and able to fight efficiently the resurgence of the same.

[@LandgraabIV]

It's worth mentioning that Old World diseases also wiped out native populations in Australia, hence European colonization was much successful there and in the Americas.

[@V.Hansen.]

95 % of everyone or just those that came in direct contact? Can that many really have died? Their bodies would be everywhere because thrre wouldn't have been any one left to bury them.

[@vanHid]

V. Hansen they were

[@scattygirl1]

Over several decades.

[@FTTLOMS]

The disease spread farther and faster than the Europeans. A native would encounter a European, pick up germs, go to his tribes camp, they would then send traders to other tribes deeper inland etc. They didn’t need direct contact with the Europeans to be exposed. Just as the video explains with syphilis going from the Spanish to Italy. I didn’t hear him give a body count, but it seems that in just numbers if not percentage, the native Americans “may” have given as good as they received. But who can’t know?

[@RJCHOICE]

My family's history in the medical profession dates back to just before the 20th century, My wife's family also. Plus having many of her ancestors migrating from Asia are particularly self conscious about spreading germs. from wearing outdoor shoes in the house, and bathroom slippers outside the lavatory. It's common knowledge to general practitioners that American Anglos, Germans, Scandinavian, are much more laxed in their personal hygiene than most other ethnic groups. esp. those from lower middle, and working class. African American woman are just the opposite no matter the economics they make every effort to ensure that they are clean and smell pleasant in public and private. American Blacks, North African, Middle Eastern, European Spanish, and Hispanics are generally very particular about hygiene during an examination. However south east Asian men tend to have oral hygiene habits that cause a noticeable odor.

[@thetrumpnewsnetwork7503]

excellent video

[@bobbyharper8710]

One flaw in the syphilis Native American theory is made clear by the absence of epidemics among European explorers after first contact with Natives in America.

[@m.n.d5949]

Interesting. Thanks

[@saraha8219]

Minor nitpick - it's a myth that having to fight off more diseases makes the immune system "stronger" - you just become immune to that particular disease (and even that doesn't apply to all diseases.) The reason the Europeans weren't decimated by Native American diseases is because the Native Americans didn't live in cities and thus, didn't have what we call "urban" diseases - viral diseases that are airborne, highly contagious, but that confer immunity if you survive. Since these sorts of diseases rapidly spread through a population and render nearly everyone either dead or immune, they have to have a constant influx of naive hosts (either through birth or migration into the city) in order to continue their life cycle. In other words, there was simply no Native American equivalent of smallpox or measles for the Europeans to catch.

[@JonatasAdoM]

Does the thumbnail helmets exist? I LIKE THEM

[@kieferonline]

Guns, Germs and Steel is a great reference. It puts to rest the idea that race has anything to do with success. Instead it postulates success was all about geography and animals that happen to be available in those areas by chance.

[@rayfridley6649]

Did you know? Jamestown colony John Ralph married Pocahontas .While the couple was sailing to England, Pocahontas came down with one of the European diseases and died. She had no immunity.

[@CharlieSnowball25]

CGP Grey's video on this is better.

[@xcalibrx1653]

Survival of the fittest boiiii

[@hurlyburly2331]

ig there are benefits of being dirty... I think I'll stop showering for the sake of my offspring. Let's all take one for the team

[@-SUM1-]

The fittest are those who can cooperate with other humans. Not those who kill them.

[@hurlyburly2331]

SUM1 wrong.

[@roddaz]

Mr. Blank today it's the opposite. European populations and fertility are in decline. Interestingly the fastest growing populations are now in Africa.

[@GameFreak7744]

Thats mostly due to availability of contraception, along with other factors like women putting careers first and putting off having a family til it is too biologically late though.

[@SETpriest]

Excuse me, but what about the ancient method of treating syphilis with the fumes of mercury? Sure, it was deadly to humans as well, but if the subject survived - he had no more syphilis.

[@swirlcrop]

This video is wrong about syphilis. There was a mild, harmless type of syphilis in the Americas that actually gave you immunity to the deadly European syphilis. The deadly European syphilis was around before the Europeans went to the Americas too.The European lifestyles did contribute to creating deadlier diseases, like the wearing of so much clothing and lack of bathing and closeness to animals in farming communities. Check out the documentary on syphilis. It explains everything.

[@SociallyTriggered]

Two thoughts I have on this topic: 1) Part of the reason for effect of disease being much more harsh to the native populations than European ones was due to direction of the exposure. Since it was Europeans visiting many areas of North America and South America they were directly exposing the native people to the diseases. Where as diseases passed to the Europeans needed to travel by boat back to European. Very virulent diseases would kill the hosts before they could make it back and less virulent ones with longer incubation times would be the types of diseases that would make their way into Europe. Possibly if it were the natives who visited Europe first the effect would have been just as bad. 2) Native beliefs. When we think of native people we think of people who are highly spiritual and tied closely to nature. I wonder if this is a false believe based on the people who survived the apocalypse that the Europeans brought. You can imagine after such an event the people would have lost much of their technology, societal structures, and their beliefs would become much more based on superstition. It would such of like any post-apocalyptic movie we see where the people are very different and much more primitive. It would be interesting for research to be done on this topic because maybe native's traditions are based on a more modern way of life that wasn't their really traditions at all.

[@jco165]

1) The issue with this is that European immune system were more robust due to all of their exposure to other diseases, and infection brought by many years of domestication, more extensive exploration and communication with other community. The natives on the other hand were quite isolated, they had extensive trade but their trade operation were a bit complicated and limited to select few. To understand this better i recommend watching CGP grey videos on domestication and the one titled "Americapox: the missing plague". It goes more into depth than this video, and is quite a bit more accurate with modern anthropolgical thought on this subject. 2) The Jesuit records, and other historical account, such as those by Champlain and Sagard seem to point that the Eastern Woodland Natives were always spiritual as ritual played an important part in every aspect of their life. This is not a weird thing though, secularization in the public realm is quite recent in human history, France at the time was quite similar with their christian belives. If you would like to know more about the Native's lifestyle, i recommend reading The Ethnography of The Huron Indian by Elizabeth Tooker, it basically compile every aspect of the Wendats(proper name for the huron natives) way of life that was mentioned in the Jesuit records, and address the biases that these account may have early on. It's a very academic approach. Also addressing the part of their primitive thought and technology, they weren't savages, they had technological limitation due to their given environment, they knew how to build shelters, they knew how to farm(the Wendats had large corn fields), they knew how to make pottery and store food. They couldn't do metallurgy as they had no way of maintaining a high enough heat, and domestication was limited, as north american animals were quite finicky, compared to docile herd animals arising from the Levant. After european contact, they never stop producing their own material culture, they even traded with the europeans, and customized european goods to suit their need such as purchasing iron kettles, and using the handles to form metal arrow heads. This saying not all tribes, and not all european settlers got a long. Some Natives knew it was europeans fault, and either blamed it on Jesuit being witches or that they were being poison by being baptized. But yeah during the "early" european contact in the 17th century in southern ontario and quebec, the French and the Wendat got a long quite nicely, they even defended each other from attacks by the English and the Five nation Iroquois. Much of the native resentment occur during European expansion into settlement and eventually colonizing and assimilating their culture. People get pretty piss when their culture is being suppressed, for example the starbucks christmas cup fiasco or people getting mad at having to say "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas", although that is quite petty compared to what Canada and the united states did to the Natives, but it's a much more relatable instance.

[@SociallyTriggered]

Actually I am familiar that the Europeans had more robust immune systems which was mentioned in this video as well. My point was a bit different, that the impact of native diseases would have been more severe if there was more of direct contact with Europe. The black death was an Asian disease in origin and had almost wiped out Europe's population. The robust immunity didn't amount to much. The accounts of a Jesuits are from long after the native population was decimated, so would only provide understanding of the natives' cultural state at that time. I'm more interested in knowing what the traditions were of the people before Europeans came. I saw one documentary on it but still had many questions. Another example was Easter Island where the commonly held believe was that the local populations had wiped themselves out by cutting down all their trees to help build their monuments. Research has shown this is actually not what happened. There was an early account where an explorer met with the people their and they seemed quite stable but later upon returning several years later the society had been reduced and the people were living very primitively. What people didn't realize was the effect of disease. They made the wrong conclusion that it was the monument building that caused the collapse rather than the disease. So my curiosity surrounds wondering how they lived before.

[@jco165]

Well the robust immune system wasn't something they always had, it had to be build up and compared to the native american they had more opportunities to do so. Such as trade with Asia, Africa, and etc.. At this time european city were massive trade ports, there was much new people with new bacteria coming and going. The account of Jesuits are actually quite early considering European contact, as early as 1615. Atleast in southern ontario, and quebec they were the first to settle the land to live among the native, before them trade between the continent was quite limited and only on the shores of the atlantic. They still had large villages, large corn field, extensive trade with other native, they were even able to get material culture from florida. The Native american also had a fall in population before european contact, and it was probably due to either war (The natives fought quite a bit), and we know the New York Iroquois were at war with the Wendats long before the French ever came. But there's also a theory that before european came, there was an american-borne disease that wipe out much of their population, i believe up to 1/3 of their population, but it's hard to get more evidence of this as they kept no written records, and they're quite against the direct study of their ancestors. So paleopathologic research done on this topic is quite bare and old. Oral tradition, and how widespread the late woodland complex was made it seem like they were living this way for quite sometime. That being said, archaeologist have very little idea of their tradition before european contact were, as believe do not preserve well in the archaeological record. All we have to go on is changes in material culture(We can identify different tribes through this), oral tradition, and ethnographies. The Jesuit wrote quite a bit about their religion, and really it's the least bias source we have. I say least bias, as there is still quite a bit that need to be taken with a grain of salt.

[@jco165]

also the European did bring some natives back to Europe, such as Pocahontas. but really there wasn't much to cause a plague or anything, such thought I should mentioned that.

[@SociallyTriggered]

Actually Pocahontas died of disease she got from her travels. There were some native populations like Aztecs that had written histories. I am interested in the field mainly because I wonder if maybe the native populations weren't that much different from the Europeans that conquered them. I'm not trying to justify it but history is built on warfare and through destruction. As a result of our struggles, we advance. I see natives, trying to act as did several hundred years go, as being dishonest to their own history and as denying change and progress. I see the problems natives face today especially in Canada as being a result of not moving forward. As a lover of history I believe people should know their history and learn from it but not dwell on it but look to the future.

[@JeantheSecond]

Good channel, but this explanation is simplified to the point of inaccuracy. Ameripox: The Missing Plague is a great explanation.

[@saxpackabs]

Recent advancements in dating apps have led to an increase in Syphilis today

[@joshhernandez9835]

What a tragedy. The Native Americans have suffered so much due to European colonialism.

[@MistahBryan]

before even watching the video: Native Americans had good manners.

[@artoruvidal2793]

That and the fact that they didn't have livestock

[@TinklestheGoat]

Uhh Europeans domesticated cows from Aurochs, an extremely aggressive species that would attack people for their presence. Same with wild pigs, boars are terrifying and dangerous yet Europeans were able to domesticate both. As for population, Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital) was one of the most populous cities in the world when Europeans arrived. The Incan Empire had a population larger than the entirety of Spain itself. Jared Diamond wrote that book to push an agenda, it is not grounded in reality.

[@theBarefoot]

New studies show syphilis was already in Europe as far back as the Roman Empire.

[@nickkk420]

Make a video on how the pharmaceutical companies skewed public perception of some stds

[@nimbly1693]

Native American is a misnomer. The people we know as Natives migrated to what is now America across the bearing straight from Asia and like all of us are originally from Africa. They are no more native than anyone else.

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

Its not that Europeans had better immunity, its that natives didn't have plagues.

[@alb9022]

Evolution allowed god's creation to thrive in harsh environments by being the means which enables the immune system to develop and evolve to counteract all those little nasties. Nature's good at intelligent design ^.^

[@vincenteatherton483]

maybe the European, realized early, that the native nations population, were susceptible to their disease. and sent disease ridden sailors to this area to decimate the population.

[@spideraxis]

Does this mean the Indian's medicine men weren't able to save their people? The Indians claim to have such a rich, hearty, advanced culture. Therefore I don't comprehend why their advanced medicine men couldn't save them.

[@carultch]

If European explores had waited until our modern hygiene standards developed, before exploring the Americas, would the diseases still wipe out the Native Americans?

[@artoruvidal2793]

Yes but in much shorter rates like 25% instead of 90% thus giving them a better chance at fighting

[@callmeswivelhips8229]

A quick google tells me that syphilis was likely a mutated form of yaws, which originates from Africa 1.5 million years ago. So syphilis would have entered the human population regardless of the New World/Old World situation. Yet the fact the mutation into syphilis was likely to have occurred in the New World is still interesting I suppose.

[@slewone4905]

YOU should of mention that Syphilis did not appear until European arrived. The Amerindians had a different disease that was less severe. Because Europeans have no immunity to T Pallidum. THey got syphillus rather then Pinta or Yaw. PS Native American's are only used to refer those in the United States. Also you should of mention how tropical disease wiped out everyone south of the Mason Dixon line. The reason CDC is in Atlanta, was to help prevent Malaria. Slavery brought some of the worse disease, which encourage more slavery, since Africans have the most resistance to tropical diseases. That's why slavery was not as popular in the North. Tropical disease was so serious, New Orleans would be repeatedly wiped out and rebuilt. Also the reason why desert dwelling Natives was more of a problem is because they had lower population density so they survived better and continue to be an problem for Americans because they maintained their numbers better.

[@jth4242]

How would you know that? The natives didn't keep any records.

[@chankamain908]

Slew One you’re so uneducated it hurts. Please read a history book, dumbass.

[@DevinHeaps]

Your claims seem dubious, especially your estimates of the numbers who died from disease. There is increasing evidence that many tribes died out from starvation, rather than simply disease. The sudden starvation would likely have been caused by the near extinction of their main food supply, Bison. The bison were slaughtered to provide low cost pemmican and other sundries for Colonies and export. Those tribes who most successfully survived usually had alternate sources of protein.

[@vstarcruiser7141]

The Native AMerican still suffers immune issues and is disproportionate in auto immune diseases ..these are great Ancestors to have but sad that we pay a price.

[@wolfizee6516]

0:36 -1 Science point -10 Science points -100 Science points Research.

[@niltomega2978]

Knowing this makes me sad as a white person. When will Native Americans pay reparations to White people for making us sad??

[@martinmarjuszycz4133]

Survival of the fittest - a natural process resulting in the evolution of organisms best adapted to the environment.

[@thanksfernuthin]

So, in the end... 95% of the Native American inhabitants were going to die regardless of who they met first and how nice they were.

[@Romanov117]

thanksfernuthin Once they got touch with a European explorer, no matter how nice they were. Diseases starts to spread by touching them without knowing.

[@nonyabizz9390]

I remember hearing once that most, if not all STDs originated in animals, and came into the human populous by way of a universal (and universally disgusting practice) of bestiality, meaning that everyone who has an STD can trace their sexual history back to a person who got the disease, potentially hundreds or thousands of years ago, by having sex with an animal. And that syphilis in particular came from Llamas. So, seeing as I don't have a clue if there is any truth to that or not, a video request: Why do people suffer from diseases that are explicitly sexually transmitted?

[@wiredwrong760]

Funny thing about that Llamas spit and cows and sheep don't so it seems more likely you would catch something from a Llama.

[@victorgarcia9595]

Cleanliness is next to nativness.

[@jacobrodrig8]

Herd immunity really is crazy.

[@mrcat-nu1jb]

my social studies teacher hates the guns and steel intro since the earth moves the wrong way

[@MogofWar]

Earth moves the wrong way? What the actual fuck are you talking about?

[@VIKDR1]

Mog, mr. cat is saying his/her social studies Teacher is full of hate.

[@TheMasterhomaster]

Mog of War the earth does the lambada.

[@Jinseual]

He keeps saying Europeans as if no one else in the old world caught diseases.

[@derpytw]

Yeah but most of the people that came to the new world were europeans.

[@JasperJanssen]

Jinseual nobody else caught these diseases in Europe.

[@JasperJanssen]

Jinseual yes. They still didn't catch it *in europe*.

[@MK-ex4pb]

and now we know it wasn't genocide

[@UTF016]

Entire civilizations completely wiped out by animal agriculture. Go figure.

[@corthew]

Europeans did have to deal with diseases when they came to this country. If not for the natives offering help more would have been lost than were.

[@hippadistic6250]

Wow, this dude looks great with or without the beard

[@Cqqyy54]

You would think the native Americans should have been able to fight off most of these diseases since they lived off a rich diverse diet. But maybe all it took was a bad winter and more murder than we thought.

[@alexeltroll]

dam.. this video is all over the place. Aztecs lived in a huge city. They were farmers and had a proper route of commerce involving what is today 5 mexican states and were part of a great migration ( the aztec foundation myth) they came from somewhere around arizona. it looks like we are just trying to accommodate history to our vision of reality. by the time Cortez returns to conquer the city he is told that the city has been ravaged by the plague.. just barely after a year that he left. but the real apocalypse came in the 1600's where human conditions for the slave class were absolutely horrible.. i wish more of that could have been explained.

[@BrianH1313]

Interesting, but I was born with a very good immune system. I am rarely sick, and when I am; it is normally gone with in 24 hours.

[@spacecaptain9188]

Given that we now commonly use vaccines, and travel the world, is it possible to compare our modern immune systems (Americans and Europeans) against the ancient Europeans? eg if you or I somehow found ourselves in London around the same time Europe was colonizing the Americas, would we likely survive the illnesses we were exposed to?

[@byzantinebill]

100,000,000 native American's were slaughtered