Comments by "Nicholas Conder" (@nicholasconder4703) on "The Present Past" channel.

One of the things he missed was the impact of European diseases on the local populations. The accidental introduction of these pathogens resulted in the death of half to perhaps 90% of the native populations. There is a story of two missionaries travelling up the Amazon, passing by cities. A few decades later other people passing through the region saw only jungle. Recently, using LIDAR, these missing cities are being rediscovered. Same with many new discoveries in Central America. It is said that the southern region of the US had a flourishing culture until after Ponce de Leon went past the area. Decades later the region was almost completely depopulated. And all this was not deliberate.
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9:00 That kind of colonization had been going on since before the Roman times. After all, Carthage is an example of plantation colonization. So were many of the cities set up by Rome. Or the Greeks. And let's face it, the British did the same thing in Ireland at around this time.
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@keremdelialioglu2197 True, but those were the exception, not the rule. Actually, the worst case of weaponizing diseases was conducted by the Mongols, who were more or less responsible for starting the Black Death epidemic in Europe in the 1300s.
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@erikharaldsson2416 Precisely. It was not a deliberate policy of depopulating so the colonists could move. Rather, the ability to colonize the area was an unplanned and unforeseen circumstance resulting from the inadvertent introduction of infectious diseases for which the local population had no immunity. This does not, in any way, condone the displacement or eradication of the indigenous populations.
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@persoro4015 You forgot about transmission through trade. In many cases diseases arrived before the Spanish because it was spread along the aboriginal Americans' trade routes. Much the same way plagues and epidemics spread in the Roman and Medieval times. It doesn't have to be deliberate.
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@persoro4015 I think the reason why the African slaves were imported is because the indigenous population had been too reduced to serve as a work force. And I won't disagree at all with your statement that the Caribs were, for all intents and purposes, exterminated by European practices. I am not disagreeing with you about the end effect, but rather trying to set the record straight. What you are seeing isn't just European exploitation, but a repetition of things that have gone on in all cultures throughout human history. Pointing fingers doesn't help - trying to work towards preventing anything like this happening again will help.
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@persoro4015 You obviously haven't heard of the Assyrians. Or the Romans.
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@persoro4015 Since when was I justifying what Rome and Assyria did? All I am saying is that this kind of thing has happened before throughout history, and is not unique to North America. It is part of the dark side of human nature, and something that has to be combatted at every turn. If you want to see a modern example of something similar, look to Ukraine. Russia is attempting to destroy the language and culture of an entire people, some 40 million of them. That, too, is a form of genocide. Genghis Khan wiped out over 40 million people and entire cultures in the 1200s. Take a look at the broader picture.
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