this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
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Explanation: The height of indigenous technology in what-is-now USA and Canada was actually in the 15th century AD, with well-developed urban centers, copperworking, and increased understanding of the mechanical processes of the world.
For reasons that are not entirely certain, but certainly were at least exacerbated by European diseases, these thriving civilizations had a massive collapse in the 16th century, resulting in indigenous societies that were effectively post-apocalyptic by the 17th and early 18th century.
Unfortunately, that was also around the time European colonization began in earnest.
I thought (probably wrong, not a historian) that it was disease that spread faster than the Europeans that brought it? As in, first contact happened, and then basically the continent died before any real settlement action could begin because of the diseases first contact brought?
European disease definitely spread faster than the Europeans themselves did, it's just not certain what the exact chain of events was. It's definitely not an area I'm extremely well-read in, but I know there's speculation that the collapse of complex urban civilizations in what-is-now the USA and Canada may have started before Euro disease started rampaging through, for a variety of factors.
Undoubtedly, though, the massive disease death tolls put some sturdy nails in the coffin.