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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 1903832" data-attributes="member: 7240">Wrong on both fronts. China maintained Vietnam and Korea as colonies on and off. By the Middle Ages, they were running zoos full of exotics from Africa, India and Indonesia. Starting in the 8th century, they were in regular contact with the Caliphate which is considered to be one of the ways that the West received a jump-start in alchemical knowledge. Also by the 8th century, there were Christian advisors in the imperial court. The archaeological record shows that in the medieval period, Chinese porcelain was in use from present-day Mozambique to Java. And that wasn't the main preoccupation of 15th century Europeans? Christopher Columbus was an Italian. Are you really telling me that India's kingdoms were smaller and less unified than those in Italy?Nope. Everyone's treatment was basically useless. It was not until the 18th century that China developed a smallpox vaccine and even then, it was all about immunity not treatment. Being the filthiest and most animal-dependent people in the world -- that was our advantage. Every endemic disease starts as an epidemic. Smallpox was endemic. Tuberculosis was endemic and, by the 16th century, so was the plague to an extent. In some places they have. Many Latin American states teeter on the brink of mestizos and aboriginals comprising the majority. Guatemala is approaching an aboriginal majority. Saskatchewan is forecast to have an aboriginal majority sometime this century and, of course, the far north never lost its native majority. While syphilus is has drawn a lot of attention and is indigenous, many of the diseases people feared in the colonies were African diseases brought by the slaves rather than indigenous American diseases.EDIT: Sorry I forgot to address your statement that Europe's population centres were larger than those in the Americas. Remember that Tenochtitlan was the largest city in the world when Europeans arrived there. With respect to overall population densities, California, the Andes, the Mexico Valley, parts of the Pacific Northwest and the southern portion of the Northeastern woodlands all had comparable population densities to Europe.</blockquote>

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