(September 27, 2011 at 2:49 pm)paintpooper Wrote:(September 27, 2011 at 2:22 pm)Chuck Wrote:(September 27, 2011 at 2:19 pm)paintpooper Wrote: But I though Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America? Right? That's what I was taught in school. So if there were people already here what happened to them all??? Hahahaha
Columbus bought diseases that killed 95% of them by some more recent estimates.
But they sure don't teach that in school. They make you celebrate the extinction of the indigenous people. When I think back about some things I learned in school, its pretty sad how much stuff they omitted.
There is a lot of recent research on pre-columbian America that hasn't reach popular history yet. These research suggests pre-columbian Indian world is so enormously different from pervailing popular conception to a degree that is truly mind boggling. It also suggest these Indian cultures practiced land management techniques totally unique and had such stupendous golbal ecological impact that what the Indians did materially effected the rise and fall of classical old world civilizations like Rome and China.