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There was a study recently that involved taking samples from Viking skeletons.. that showed they were already carrying smallpox in the 600s. It is possible that Vikings did bring smallpox to North American Indians. But their personal contact w/Indians was a lot less & briefer than Spanish contact. So, guess it makes sense that it would've been less damaging than later Spanish colonization (?)
The Spaniards to the south left behind animals which were the effective disease vectors, especially horses and pigs. This is detailed in Charles Mann’s 1491. None of the literature I have read indicates that the Vikings left behind domesticated animals. That may well account for the lack of contagion. While there may have been some spread humans did not have the mobility of four-legged animals.
None of the literature I have read indicates that the Vikings left behind domesticated animals.
No, you're quite right. I did recently watch something that showed evidence of rats that would have come over in Viking ships to Baffin Island, but they wouldn't have survived the harsh winters.
I've also heard that L'anse aux meadows looks like a ship maintenance sight, rather than settlement. Anyone thing it was a post before they carried on along the coast? Would seem odd to have a maintenance site at the end of a journey.
No, you're quite right. I did recently watch something that showed evidence of rats that would have come over in Viking ships to Baffin Island, but they wouldn't have survived the harsh winters.
I've also heard that L'anse aux meadows looks like a ship maintenance sight, rather than settlement. Anyone thing it was a post before they carried on along the coast? Would seem odd to have a maintenance site at the end of a journey.
Did the maintenance site at L'anse aux meadows have a gasoline or diesel pump?
Columbus wrote a letter(s) while returning from his first voyage.. the letter was translated in to Latin and disseminated thru Europe. I don't know if/when that first letter arrived to Scandinavian audiences, but news of Columbus' first voyage to 'the Indies' was spread thru copies of that letter.
I understand quoting my own post is lame, but.. I read today (reported by author Samuel Eliot Morison), that Columbus' first-voyage letter went thru eleven different editions in 1493. And the news "circulating more by word of mouth than by pen, threw maritime Europe into a whirl of activity".
I understand quoting my own post is lame, but.. I read today (reported by author Samuel Eliot Morison), that Columbus' first-voyage letter went thru eleven different editions in 1493. And the news "circulating more by word of mouth than by pen, threw maritime Europe into a whirl of activity".
I think that says more about European life than Columbus. People felt constrained at best, persecuted at worst. Europe had become a must to escape from.
I think that says more about European life than Columbus. People felt constrained at best, persecuted at worst. Europe had become a must to escape from.
Amen.. I think your point (if I understand) is something that's being lost on a lot of Columbus' modern day critics. Columbus opened a safety valve for a lot of people (especially religious sectarians) who were suffering in Europe. His modern day critics are focused on Columbus' personal sins (real and imagined, or mis-assigned) and forget how awesome it was to have a New World to start over in..
There was a stretch thru the 20th century where speculation gathered that Columbus may be Jewish, because of the beneficial nature Columbus' path blazed (for Jews to escape European persecutions.) Simon Wiesenthal even wrote a book about this theory (Sails of Hope), that Columbus was a Jew, preparing a path for Jews to leave Europe. The book is good, but I think it's credible to accept that Columbus was ethnically Italian, not a Jewish converso..
I understand quoting my own post is lame, but.. I read today (reported by author Samuel Eliot Morison), that Columbus' first-voyage letter went thru eleven different editions in 1493. And the news "circulating more by word of mouth than by pen, threw maritime Europe into a whirl of activity".
I think that says more about European life than Columbus. People felt constrained at best, persecuted at worst. Europe had become a must to escape from.
Amen.. I think your point (if I understand) is something that's being lost on a lot of Columbus' modern day critics. Columbus opened a safety valve for a lot of people (especially religious sectarians) who were suffering in Europe. His modern day critics are focused on Columbus' personal sins (real and imagined, or mis-assigned) and forget how awesome it was to have a New World to start over in..
There was a stretch thru the 20th century where speculation gathered that Columbus may be Jewish, because of the beneficial nature Columbus' path blazed (for Jews to escape European persecutions.) Simon Wiesenthal even wrote a book about this theory (Sails of Hope), that Columbus was a Jew, preparing a path for Jews to leave Europe. The book is good, but I think it's credible to accept that Columbus was ethnically Italian, not a Jewish converso.
You do understand my point. One thing that should not be underestimated was the number of conversos, and the number of families that we now call "Jewish-adjacent", or heavily connected to Jewry (both converso and otherwise) through family ties or commerce. If current Jewry is a guide, I would expect that Columbus might have been one, though that is hardly evidence.
Whether for Jews or otherwise, European life was stultifying, varying between stagnation and warfare. It's no wonder that there was a massive brain drain from Europe when travel to New Worlds became more reliable. Even Australia attracted non-prisoners eventually.
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