Summary of the 1491
Today’s Research by Charles Mann
Indians were here far longer than previously believed.
Indians were here in much larger number than previously believed.
Indians had far more impact on the environment than previously believed.
Only vision they had was of the cattle scattered over the savannahs.
Beni, size of Illinois and Indiana put together.
Over every half of the year, the water from the snow and the rain covered the land irregularly and ended up in the sub-subtributries of the Amazon.
Archipelago of forest islands, 30000 square miles of forest mounds surrounded by raised fields and linked by causeways built by populous society around 2000 years ago.
Erickson and Baleechallenged the conventions of what the western hemisphere was like before 1492. The area was not mostly wilderless but landscape changed by the native populations according to their needs.
Recent scholarship about the landscape is controversial. Pristine myth by William Denevan.
Indians rapped fish in seasonally flooded grass. To keep the land clear of any inwanted trees they set huge areas on fire regularly. And over time, fire adapted species emerged.
John Billington- mayflower survived during the extreme winter by killing the native Indians and robbing their graves and houses. But the epidemic (viral hepatitis) may have killed 90 percent of the people in New England.
How many people lived in Americas before Columbus? William Deneven wrote a book in 1976.
Dobyns concluded that Indians in Peru had faced plagues from the day when the conquistadors showed up. Brought to Mexico by a sick Spaniard around 1575 and eliminated more than half of the population of the Incan Empire. Small pox was the first Epidemic, Typhus in 1546, Influenza, Diphtheria, Measles.
How many people were there to begin with if most of the people died by these epidemics?
Native Americans had no experiences with these diseases.
Soto landed in Tampa, Florida. Very rich merchant. The worst things the Spanish did
Indians were here far longer than previously believed.
Indians were here in much larger number than previously believed.
Indians had far more impact on the environment than previously believed.
Only vision they had was of the cattle scattered over the savannahs.
Beni, size of Illinois and Indiana put together.
Over every half of the year, the water from the snow and the rain covered the land irregularly and ended up in the sub-subtributries of the Amazon.
Archipelago of forest islands, 30000 square miles of forest mounds surrounded by raised fields and linked by causeways built by populous society around 2000 years ago.
Erickson and Baleechallenged the conventions of what the western hemisphere was like before 1492. The area was not mostly wilderless but landscape changed by the native populations according to their needs.
Recent scholarship about the landscape is controversial. Pristine myth by William Denevan.
Indians rapped fish in seasonally flooded grass. To keep the land clear of any inwanted trees they set huge areas on fire regularly. And over time, fire adapted species emerged.
John Billington- mayflower survived during the extreme winter by killing the native Indians and robbing their graves and houses. But the epidemic (viral hepatitis) may have killed 90 percent of the people in New England.
How many people lived in Americas before Columbus? William Deneven wrote a book in 1976.
Dobyns concluded that Indians in Peru had faced plagues from the day when the conquistadors showed up. Brought to Mexico by a sick Spaniard around 1575 and eliminated more than half of the population of the Incan Empire. Small pox was the first Epidemic, Typhus in 1546, Influenza, Diphtheria, Measles.
How many people were there to begin with if most of the people died by these epidemics?
Native Americans had no experiences with these diseases.
Soto landed in Tampa, Florida. Very rich merchant. The worst things the Spanish did