There’s some more recent scholarship than Guns, Germs, and Steel. See Rationalizing Epidemics: Meanings and Uses of American Indian Mortality since 1600 [1]. The truth is maybe a bit more complicated. We had doctors volunteering to visit tribes who recorded what they observed firsthand.

Personally, given the evidence at hand, I think it’s likely the populations on this continent were caught in large boom/bust cycles, and we happened upon them right at a bust cycle. It’s definitely up for debate. There’s also modern work on smallpox using genetic clocks etc to consider.

[1]: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674013056

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alsetmusic 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> we happened upon them

That's the thinking. It's not that people arrived. It's not that ancestors landed. It's that European's happened. This was unavoidable. The rest of the world was deficient for not being ready.

	▲	zirgs 19 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah, someone would have started to cross the oceans eventually. Europeans happened to do that first.
	▲	alsetmusic 42 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Stupid people may not be able to read sarcasm. I figured HN would have enough internet literacy, but maybe not.