The video discusses the impact of European explorers on the indigenous population of the New World, particularly focusing on the spread of diseases. It explains that the indigenous population dropped by at least 90 percent between the arrival of the first Europeans in 1492 and the Victorian Age. The cause of this drop was not the conquistadors and company, who killed many people, but the diseases they brought with them, including smallpox, typhus, tuberculosis, influenza, bubonic plague, cholera, mumps, measles, and more. These diseases spread quickly from the first explorers to the coastal tribes, then onward through a hemisphere of people with no defenses against them, resulting in tens of millions of deaths.
The video also explains that these germs decided the fate of these battles long before the fighting started. It distinguishes between regular diseases like the common cold and what it calls plagues, which spread quickly between people and kill you quickly or you become immune. The video suggests that the reason Europeans didn't get sick if New Worlders were vulnerable to Old World diseases is that the New World didn't have plagues for them to catch. They had regular diseases but no America pox to carry these.
The video then delves deeper into the topic, discussing cholera, a plague that spreads if a civilization does a bad job of separating drinking water from pooping water. It explains that cholera can rip through dense neighborhoods, killing swathes of the population before moving onward. However, a plague-like cholera cannot survive in a small isolated group; it kills all available victims, leaving only the immune.
The video also discusses the role of cities in the spread of plagues. It explains that historically, in city borders, plagues killed faster than people could breed, causing cities to grow. Cities only started growing from their own population in the 1900s when medicine finally left its leeches and bloodletting phase and entered its soap and soup phase, giving humans some tools to slow death.
The video concludes by discussing the role of domestication in the spread of diseases. It explains that most germs don't want to kill you, and that germs jumping species is extraordinarily rare. The video suggests that the lack of New World animals to domesticate limited not only exposure to germ sources but also limited food production, which limited population growth, which limited cities, which made plagues in the New World and almost impossibility in the Old World.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Between 1492 and the Victorian age, the indigenous population of the New World dropped by at least 90%.
2. The cause of this decline was not primarily the actions of the conquistadors, but rather the diseases they brought with them.
3. Diseases such as smallpox, typhus, tuberculosis, influenza, bubonic plague, cholera, mumps, and measles were introduced to the New World by Europeans.
4. These diseases spread quickly through the New World population, which had no defenses against them.
5. The New World population was reduced by tens of millions of people due to these diseases.
6. The Europeans were not significantly affected by diseases from the New World because the New World did not have diseases that could spread to Europeans.
7. Regular diseases, such as the common cold, are different from plagues in that they do not spread quickly and do not kill quickly.
8. Plagues are characterized by their ability to spread quickly and kill quickly, with most victims dying within 7-30 days.
9. Plagues require a population with no defenses against them in order to spread.
10. Cities are required for plagues to thrive, but they are not the sole cause of plagues.
11. Plagues come from animals, and the old world had more opportunities for diseases to jump from animals to humans.
12. The new world did not have good animal candidates for domestication, which limited the spread of diseases.
13. The fertile crescent and central Europe had more valuable and easy-to-domesticate animals, such as cows, pigs, and sheep.
14. Domestication of animals is a key factor in the development of complex societies.
15. The lack of domesticatable animals in the New World limited food production, population growth, and the development of cities, making plagues almost impossible.
16. The old world had more opportunities for diseases to spread due to the presence of domesticated animals and dense populations.
17. The game of civilization is influenced by the availability of domesticated animals, rather than the players themselves.
18. Access to domesticated animals is a key resource for bootstrapping a complex society.
19. Domesticated animals can bring unintentional biological weaponry, devastating to outsiders.
20. The direction of disease and death in history is influenced by the availability of domesticated animals.