Right, I remember that, from the essay form of "1491" (is there a book now?) Plus, allegedly, their own inexperience with highly contagious diseases, so friends and family would cluster around the sickbed. Europeans didn't know germ theory, but they did no quarantime: board up the plague victim's house and run away until they recover enough to claw back out. (Excaggerated for morbid effect. I hope.)
On the other hand I kind of have the impression that the Iroquois and Cherokees, say, had recovered from the initial plagues -- maybe not to full strength, but you weren't having 90% die every generation. Thing about high death rates is that it's a strong selection pressure; if it keeps up then either the population *does* evolve fast or else it goes extinct.
Of course, now some people are saying some of the later Mexcian plagues were actually native hantaviruses from a disturbed rodent population. Which might be the sort of thing an alt-hist can change short of "voila! I ignore biology!"
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yati
Re: Colonialism in fantasy
Date: 2007-02-06 09:34 pm (UTC)On the other hand I kind of have the impression that the Iroquois and Cherokees, say, had recovered from the initial plagues -- maybe not to full strength, but you weren't having 90% die every generation. Thing about high death rates is that it's a strong selection pressure; if it keeps up then either the population *does* evolve fast or else it goes extinct.
Of course, now some people are saying some of the later Mexcian plagues were actually native hantaviruses from a disturbed rodent population. Which might be the sort of thing an alt-hist can change short of "voila! I ignore biology!"