What would happen if the entire old world from Europe and Africa to Japan and Polynesia didn't exist and the new world continued on it's track? What powers would emerge out of this? what new technological breakthroughs would happen and what new empires would rise/fall? (also no comments about kamchatka not existing thus no people in the americas)
-----------

I guess that in Meso-America, the Aztecs would continue to be superior for a while longer, the Maya would reestablish itself into more citystates and slowly regain it's former population. Any Anasazi empire would not happen due to the area becoming mostly uninhabitable.

I could see more and more North American tribes settling down after develping agriculture, starting with groups such as the Iroquois. Pacific groups in areas like BC would start gaining more and more in population. My knowledge is lacking in other areas of North America.

Andes civilization would continue to advance, but i can see other groups past the andes start to develop in areas like southern brazil and argentina. A mayan-style civilization could appear in Venezuela.

I say that the Aztec's would continue to be hated by all their neighbors and would fall to another power that would likely treat them as just as badly. Turkey domestication may have grown and expanded throughout North America.


The Maya were never very environmentally sustainable, so they would have continued to destroy their own and each other's lands and fallen anyway. Actually, I don't think that Europeans were particularly important in their fall.


The Inca's governmental system where each deceased but deified emperor continued to own all his palaces, servants, etc., and where living rules constantly struggled with the dead could not have lasted all that long. It was a young empire when it fell mostly because the Europeans triggered a civil war, which would have happened eventually anyway. The Andes had long been a site of advanced civilizations though, so other advanced empires would probably have taken its place. There is no telling if they would have been better or worse. Llama and Alpaca domestication might have eventually grown to be more like Eurasian herding, but it would take a very long time for such creatures to evolve into beasts of burden equivalent to horses, even under careful breeding. Cotton Weaving-based technologies (including amour, ships, and suspension bridges) would probably continue to advance.


Amazon civilizations would probably have continued to develop. They would probably learn metal working from those in the Andes eventually, but would choose to continue relying on orchards instead of cutting down the trees for farms. (They were actually more advanced than many think, and managed to create natural fertilizers for their orchards that are superior to modern ones and made some of the world's worst soil into the best. Large areas of the Amazon are actually carefully planted orchards gone wild.) Their pottery and paining techniques would probably continue to develop too. Perhaps they would have gone on to domesticate animals like Peccaries, as they had already domesticated Guinea Pigs as had their neighbors in the Andes.


North America would continue to be one of the best places to live, with the most food available per capita and the most egalitarian governments. Tribes here had long relied on agriculture, and developed crops that are far more nutritious than common modern ones (although with much lower yields). Many tribes were semi-migratory, but there weren't many real nomads until such tribes formed from refugees tribes destroyed by Europeans. The values and environment of North American peoples would make establishing large monarchical societies more difficult, and the lack of a strong central government may have continued to halt development, but the growth of republics like the Iroquois League may have changed this.


Eventually maybe metallurgy would have taken a turn towards more practical uses and lead to more advanced weapons and technologies, but I suspect it would have remained mostly for the creation of fine jewelry for quite a while. As the Wheel was already used in toys, it would probably have come to be used for transport and pottery eventually.

What would happen if the entire old world from Europe and Africa to Japan and Polynesia didn't exist and the new world continued on it's track? What powers would emerge out of this? what new technological breakthroughs would happen and what new empires would rise/fall? (also no comments about kamchatka not existing thus no people in the americas)

I was just about to point that out :lol:

I think that the Native Americans seriously screwed their future when they killed off most big mammals in Americas. Essentially, they destroyed their pool of animals they could have domesticated later (some of them).

Then there is the problem of North-South axis of the Americas. As Diamond explained, this slows down the spread of agriculture. He also explained that the civilizations in Americas were in fact very isolated - they probably didn't even know about each other. Compare that to Eurasia; both Europeans and Chinese knew about each other, despite the knowledge was often very vague.

I believe that if any civilization was to develop enough to start real modernization, it would have been the Native American nations in North America, where the climate was much more suitable and where there was abundance of land. In any case, it would have taken a LOOOOOOONG time to develop to our present-day levels of technology. Perhaps it wouldn't have happened at all. Many civilizations got stuck in some period and stopped evolving - just look at East Asia. If it wasn't for European pressure, they would never have modernized.

Well yes, the inca's didn't know abouth anything past colombia, then mayans and aztecs knew nothing of anything past the mexican desert and the north americans barely knew each other. Communication would have to evolve first.

Well yes, the inca's didn't know abouth anything past colombia, then mayans and aztecs knew nothing of anything past the mexican desert and the north americans barely knew each other. Communication would have to evolve first.

Then ask "why would it evolve?" Civilizations in Eurasia developed long-distance travel because of the trade. It was profitable to trade with each other, and with trade came the knowledge. Don't forget that maritime trade was very important in Mediterranean and the Indian ocean (not so much in East Asia). I am not an expert in seafaring, but the directions of major sea currents near Americas don't look very favourable to me.

Also, what would they sell to each other?

Well, i don't know, which is why i made the thread. How would Civilization continue to develop in the Americas?

Well, i don't know, which is why i made the thread. How would Civilization continue to develop in the Americas?

Would it? ;) I believe there is a possibility it would simply reach some level of development (like China) and stop developing due to lack of motivation/stimulation.

^that is only temporarily. Eventually some scientist/engineer will come along, or one group would conquer another and claim a huge amount of land or something like that. The need for new technology for new weapons would always be needed. And if someone is conquering a huge empire they'll need good communication and transportation inside the empire. Trade routes would also likely form sooner or later.

Trade did exist between Meso America and South America(through panama/costa rican peoples. Given more time i think the region would have hit an early bronze age since some metal tools were being used like (axes,needles,and tweezers).