What if the Native Americans had Horses?
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I do have some doubts Horses would have been available to the Aztec. The Khmer also didn't use horses despite there being horses in Asia. Horses just aren't suited for the hot jungle environment and you can see that horse based militarizes like the Mongols never managed to conquer large jungle regions. The Aztec would have likely used camels more as they are better suited to the environment of Northern Mexico. They would know of horses and would use them but only in war as they are too costly to use in economics. Something similar to the Egyptians.
The Aztec would likely be somewhat more isolated as there is far more pressure from the tribes up north. I would indeed think they would be very similar to the Khmer. If anything it would make the central American civilizations weaker as they can't really use horses similar to how the kingdom of South-East Asia could thrive but could never grow overly powerful as they can't expand. If horses existed in North America it would block expansion of the Aztec's similar to how the Mongols blocked the Chinese.
That is not to say they wouldn't be affected as there would be very complex politics between the Aztecs and the northern tribes.
Date: 2022-07-15
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Comments and reviews: 9
Howard
One point you didn't cover: disease. With horses, people could travel much more easily and thus spread diseases farther, meaning that the natives would have been exposed to a larger diversity of disease. More importantly though is that with horses, like the Europeans, they would have had a chance of catching new diseases. Most of our killer diseases, like smallpox and measles, originally infected our domesticated animals. Then the pathogens mutated and became capable of infecting us. IOT, the natives, lacking large populations of domestic animals, did not have such a source while the Europeans did. With horses it's possible that the natives would have contracted some diseases from the horses and thus not as many would have died after first contact with Europe. I say not as many because the Europeans would have had a richer diversity of diseases due to their higher variety of domestic animals.
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One point you didn't cover: disease. With horses, people could travel much more easily and thus spread diseases farther, meaning that the natives would have been exposed to a larger diversity of disease. More importantly though is that with horses, like the Europeans, they would have had a chance of catching new diseases. Most of our killer diseases, like smallpox and measles, originally infected our domesticated animals. Then the pathogens mutated and became capable of infecting us. IOT, the natives, lacking large populations of domestic animals, did not have such a source while the Europeans did. With horses it's possible that the natives would have contracted some diseases from the horses and thus not as many would have died after first contact with Europe. I say not as many because the Europeans would have had a richer diversity of diseases due to their higher variety of domestic animals.
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Nathanael
I still think that the americans would have been at a verry big technological dissadvantige similar to the sudsaharan african tribes and becouse of the shape and geografy of the continent but colonization would go slower and thus the europeans would not have been able to conquor all of the americas and places like the incans terratories and the californian coast would not be colonized in time and those places would have time to fully adapt gunpowder weponery and other things braut by the europeans aswell as astablish their own mordenized kingdoms and empires
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I still think that the americans would have been at a verry big technological dissadvantige similar to the sudsaharan african tribes and becouse of the shape and geografy of the continent but colonization would go slower and thus the europeans would not have been able to conquor all of the americas and places like the incans terratories and the californian coast would not be colonized in time and those places would have time to fully adapt gunpowder weponery and other things braut by the europeans aswell as astablish their own mordenized kingdoms and empires
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75
You'd probably have larger cities in north America, and more of them. As a beast of burden a horse would aid in plowing for greater crop yield. Messengers, trade goods, and armies move faster over land, so there might have been bloodier raids and skirmishes. More migration over time. Question is, if natives had horses millennia ago, would they have attempted to herd and domesticate bison and pronghorn instead of just hunting them? Lack of pastoral societies made pre Columbian NA very different from contemporary Eurasia and Africa.
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You'd probably have larger cities in north America, and more of them. As a beast of burden a horse would aid in plowing for greater crop yield. Messengers, trade goods, and armies move faster over land, so there might have been bloodier raids and skirmishes. More migration over time. Question is, if natives had horses millennia ago, would they have attempted to herd and domesticate bison and pronghorn instead of just hunting them? Lack of pastoral societies made pre Columbian NA very different from contemporary Eurasia and Africa.
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vin
This guy is so uninformed I almost feel for him. First, the ancient American horse were about the size of a large dog. You do know that? The first horse and domestication of them was from the Steppes. Tocharians brought them to the Tarim basin over 4000 years ago, thus the Chinese hundreds of years later had the horse and chariot. Horse came to Egypt and the Levant around 1400 BC, probably from Thracian or Mycenaean peoples, since they are not native to that area.
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This guy is so uninformed I almost feel for him. First, the ancient American horse were about the size of a large dog. You do know that? The first horse and domestication of them was from the Steppes. Tocharians brought them to the Tarim basin over 4000 years ago, thus the Chinese hundreds of years later had the horse and chariot. Horse came to Egypt and the Levant around 1400 BC, probably from Thracian or Mycenaean peoples, since they are not native to that area.
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Dragoninthewest
I still think they would have been colonization of the Americas but it would have been on a much smaller scale similar to that of what happened in South Africa and even in some cases like India. A country like Britain taking advantage of the economic and political stability of the smallpox plague which have on the native population annexes the territory of a native Kingdom
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I still think they would have been colonization of the Americas but it would have been on a much smaller scale similar to that of what happened in South Africa and even in some cases like India. A country like Britain taking advantage of the economic and political stability of the smallpox plague which have on the native population annexes the territory of a native Kingdom
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MrHistory
I dont think that the Native Americans and Eurasia would have similar technology geography doomed the americas due to the continent being tall rather then wide Africa had the same issue watch Atlas Pros video How geography doomed Africa ifs the same issue in the Americas
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I dont think that the Native Americans and Eurasia would have similar technology geography doomed the americas due to the continent being tall rather then wide Africa had the same issue watch Atlas Pros video How geography doomed Africa ifs the same issue in the Americas
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Cory
I could argue in many directions. There are so many nations in America still that are more advanced then modern America. Being that they are considered criminal for not being white is racist and you are racist for being a part of such ridiculousness.
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I could argue in many directions. There are so many nations in America still that are more advanced then modern America. Being that they are considered criminal for not being white is racist and you are racist for being a part of such ridiculousness.
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Anthony
If the Native Americans had horses and camels, what else of the old American megafauna would have survived? If the Indians of India could domesticate elephants, then likely the Native Americans could domesticate mammoths.
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If the Native Americans had horses and camels, what else of the old American megafauna would have survived? If the Indians of India could domesticate elephants, then likely the Native Americans could domesticate mammoths.
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Bubonic
There is debate one whether Native Americans hunted the North American Horse to extinction. I think it is more likely due to a migration prompted by food loss from a change in climate.
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There is debate one whether Native Americans hunted the North American Horse to extinction. I think it is more likely due to a migration prompted by food loss from a change in climate.
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