Charles C. Mann: belief

Transcript context

…Now, we turn our attention back to the history of the New World. Here’s a question from a reader, and I quote, “If Napoleon had not conquered France, leading to the Louisiana Purchase, would there have been no Indian Removal Act and no American Civil War? Is Napoleon therefore responsible for the collapse of the Native American civilizations?” I think not, although your reader has obviously got an alt history book right there, [laughs] in which that would be true. Disease emptied these areas in the 1780s. There’s a wonderful book by Elizabeth Fenn, called Pox Americana, which is about this enormous smallpox epidemic. She also wrote a book about the Mandan that came out recently that talks about it as well. So the native groups were just smashed by this disease. It seems to have been maybe 40 percent, maybe even 50 percent mortality rates. Very difficult for societies to recover from that, and I think that people would have just moved in. It is possible that Andrew Jackson didn’t have to be such a jerk. I’m working now with a project with the Choctaw, who are in Oklahoma and used to be in Mississippi, and they certainly remember. They allied with him in 1812 and were partially responsible for his great victories in 1812, which led him to the presidency. So, they feel like he directly and personally stabbed them in the back. In fact, when they said they’re taking him off the $20 bill, there was great rejoicing in Choctaw country. [laughs] Now, as you well know, there’s huge literature on how Cortez and the Spaniards managed to conquer the Aztec Triple Alliance. For me, it’s one of mankind’s most remarkable but also tragic stories. But in the whole set of explanations, what do you think is the underrated factor in how so few people managed to take over such a mighty, and in many ways highly advanced, civilization?…

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