There are a number of chuds and overall shit people in South America that genuinely think Colombus brought "civilization" to this continent, that the natives were "unable to build stuff" and ended up being "simply inferior" to the Europeans. They say that "The egyptians built the pyraminds, what did the natives ever do?"
Oh you know, like 90% of the native population was killed directly and indirectly by the Europeans, forced displacement of people, shitfting from agricultural production to mining which led people to reduce their eating habits and leaving their immune systems vulnerable to viruses and diseases, overexploitation and cultural genocide which led the natives to literally just stop reproducing. As for the material legacy, either it was demolished, burned or taken to Europe and then lost, the MASSIVE city of Tenochtitlan (which sometimes even tripled in size to those cities in Europe) was simply destroyed by the Spanish, few relics of incredible and well functioning civilizations such as the Aztecs and the Incas remain. So, some people consider the arrival of Colombus as a "blessing".
Imagine seeing the Inca build one of the most impressive road systems in history, in the fucking Andes Mountains, and concluding "nope, they build nothing of value".
The Inca may well have had a writing system, the quipu, which consists of knotted strings of different colors. Certainly used for numeric work, they may also have been used as a kind of writing. Not many have survived, and few know how to read them, but it presents a fascinating way that they recorded data.
When we saw so many cities and villages built in the water and other great towns on dry land we were amazed and said that it was like the enchantments (...) on account of the great towers and cues and buildings rising from the water, and all built of masonry. And some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream? (...) I do not know how to describe it, seeing things as we did that had never been heard of or seen before, not even dreamed about.
— Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain
Also like, geography played a big part in why the Europeans had better tech than Native Americans. Gunpowder was a Chinese invention, and America lacked animals that could be domesticated like horses, dogs, pigs, cows etc
One thing that really annoys me on this too is that people always disconsider the non sedentary natives as uncivilized, and that is so dumb, the brazilian natives for example even though they were not building great cities they were a civilization, the whole coastal was a group of tribes that were a cultural homogenous and spoke same language (A thing that actually made Portuguese comunication pretty easy as most of the first natives they found were speaking the same language) with tribes and subtribes living on a semi nomadic lifestyle, planting some food and fishing. these tribes were indepent and had like diferent interests for example during the french attempt to take over brazil ( a classic french goof) two rival tribes alied to each power to try to defeat the other one, and they founded a city after winning, which is the one i live (there is a big statue of the chief like on the street of my house)
another thing people dismiss is all of the very serious and extensive geoengineering and decentralized agriculture done at incredible scale by tribes in north and south america. europeans act like agriculture is when you micromanage the rock pile you've settled down on in order to force food to grow in the barren soil.
like yeah there is a lesser need to innovate to survive when you live in pure abundance, like for example the Amazon Natives had way more of a understanding of engineering like doing moats around their settlements and roads but that is because they were in way less habitable place they need this understanding to deal with the amazon rain and the rivers while the costal natives were living in the atlantic forest which is a lot less agressive and there is also a lesser danger from wildlife as there were not many animals that could hurt a man like in the amazon forest so them being just fine hanging makes a lot of sense there is food everywhere you can make multiple camping sites and re-use them when you come back to the area next time, which takes a lot of mapping and knowing about the area to do
There are a number of chuds and overall shit people in South America that genuinely think Colombus brought "civilization" to this continent, that the natives were "unable to build stuff" and ended up being "simply inferior" to the Europeans. They say that "The egyptians built the pyraminds, what did the natives ever do?"
Oh you know, like 90% of the native population was killed directly and indirectly by the Europeans, forced displacement of people, shitfting from agricultural production to mining which led people to reduce their eating habits and leaving their immune systems vulnerable to viruses and diseases, overexploitation and cultural genocide which led the natives to literally just stop reproducing. As for the material legacy, either it was demolished, burned or taken to Europe and then lost, the MASSIVE city of Tenochtitlan (which sometimes even tripled in size to those cities in Europe) was simply destroyed by the Spanish, few relics of incredible and well functioning civilizations such as the Aztecs and the Incas remain. So, some people consider the arrival of Colombus as a "blessing".
Imagine seeing the Inca build one of the most impressive road systems in history, in the fucking Andes Mountains, and concluding "nope, they build nothing of value".
All without writing, draft animals, money, or the wheel no less!
The Inca may well have had a writing system, the quipu, which consists of knotted strings of different colors. Certainly used for numeric work, they may also have been used as a kind of writing. Not many have survived, and few know how to read them, but it presents a fascinating way that they recorded data.
Whoa, this is amazing. Thanks for the link, looks like I've some reading to do!
The Spainish sailors own accounts disprove this
— Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain
Narrator's Voice: "They then procedded to demolish all these structures and violently overthrow the societies that built them."
Also like, geography played a big part in why the Europeans had better tech than Native Americans. Gunpowder was a Chinese invention, and America lacked animals that could be domesticated like horses, dogs, pigs, cows etc
One thing that really annoys me on this too is that people always disconsider the non sedentary natives as uncivilized, and that is so dumb, the brazilian natives for example even though they were not building great cities they were a civilization, the whole coastal was a group of tribes that were a cultural homogenous and spoke same language (A thing that actually made Portuguese comunication pretty easy as most of the first natives they found were speaking the same language) with tribes and subtribes living on a semi nomadic lifestyle, planting some food and fishing. these tribes were indepent and had like diferent interests for example during the french attempt to take over brazil ( a classic french goof) two rival tribes alied to each power to try to defeat the other one, and they founded a city after winning, which is the one i live (there is a big statue of the chief like on the street of my house)
another thing people dismiss is all of the very serious and extensive geoengineering and decentralized agriculture done at incredible scale by tribes in north and south america. europeans act like agriculture is when you micromanage the rock pile you've settled down on in order to force food to grow in the barren soil.
like yeah there is a lesser need to innovate to survive when you live in pure abundance, like for example the Amazon Natives had way more of a understanding of engineering like doing moats around their settlements and roads but that is because they were in way less habitable place they need this understanding to deal with the amazon rain and the rivers while the costal natives were living in the atlantic forest which is a lot less agressive and there is also a lesser danger from wildlife as there were not many animals that could hurt a man like in the amazon forest so them being just fine hanging makes a lot of sense there is food everywhere you can make multiple camping sites and re-use them when you come back to the area next time, which takes a lot of mapping and knowing about the area to do
love it when they imply that it was the romans who ackshully achieved everything of note in Egypt
How the fuck can they say this about people who built their own fucking pyramids?