When Columbus led the European parade to the new world, he brought germs to which America's indigenous populations had never been exposed. Estimates suggest that up to 95% of the American population was killed by these strange germs for which the locals had no immunity.
The earlier stages of globalization had proven nearly as deadly to Europeans. A ship carrying dead and dying seamen reached port in Italy in 1347. The cargo included the pandemic known as the Black Death to Europe - killing somewhere between one-third to two-thirds of the population.
European civilization could easily have been displaced by, say, Asian culture if the plague had been brought by foreign conquerors rather than domestic traders. Fortunately for Europeans, the terrible Black Plague was not a companion to people staking a claim to their continent.
It does not take an overly active imagination to reverse the order of exploration from Asia or the Americas to Europe, instead of from Europe. Had such a thing happened, it's conceivable that the area in what we know as the south of France might include a city named New Huron in the state of New Iroquois, or the area around the city we call London might be named New Beijing.
That peoples from the earth's various continents would eventually meet and merge was inevitable. That it would move in the direction it actually did was not.
Happy Columbus Day! Or, as they say in a parallel universe, celebrating the discovery of Europe, Happy Deganawida Day! [Picture is of Haiwatha discovering the wheat fields of central Europe.]
The earlier stages of globalization had proven nearly as deadly to Europeans. A ship carrying dead and dying seamen reached port in Italy in 1347. The cargo included the pandemic known as the Black Death to Europe - killing somewhere between one-third to two-thirds of the population.
European civilization could easily have been displaced by, say, Asian culture if the plague had been brought by foreign conquerors rather than domestic traders. Fortunately for Europeans, the terrible Black Plague was not a companion to people staking a claim to their continent.
It does not take an overly active imagination to reverse the order of exploration from Asia or the Americas to Europe, instead of from Europe. Had such a thing happened, it's conceivable that the area in what we know as the south of France might include a city named New Huron in the state of New Iroquois, or the area around the city we call London might be named New Beijing.
That peoples from the earth's various continents would eventually meet and merge was inevitable. That it would move in the direction it actually did was not.
Happy Columbus Day! Or, as they say in a parallel universe, celebrating the discovery of Europe, Happy Deganawida Day! [Picture is of Haiwatha discovering the wheat fields of central Europe.]
