Old World disease wiped out the Indians. For the most part if every Spaniard in the Americas from 1492 to 1550 had stood shoulder to shoulder and begun slaughtering Indians marching toward them, they'd never have run out of Indians.
There are some very good books on the arrival of the Spanish. One is called The Conquest of Peru and Mexico. Originally in Spanish and French, it was translated into English over a century ago. It's written against a background of primary and secondary records ~ not just third party opinions. I've found it to be a very good genealogical source as well.
I'd like to note here that the Indians would have eventually been wiped out by those very same diseases even if they'd been technologically superior to the Europeans they encountered, and had conquered the Old World.
We'd be telling a history about how they spilled out of the Americas and created havoc in Europe, but then one day they just died (which is how we came to take over their homeland).
***I'd like to note here that the Indians would have eventually been wiped out by those very same diseases even if they'd been technologically superior to the Europeans they encountered, and had conquered the Old World.
We'd be telling a history about how they spilled out of the Americas and created havoc in Europe, but then one day they just died.****
Kind of like the Martians in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by H.G. Wells.
Certainly the Old world diseases had a lot to do with the deaths. I am aware of it through various sources over the years, although I have not read the book you recommend, and will check it out.
I was trying to make the point that the native tribes of North America have much to be thankful for. Their lives are much better than they would be in, say Ecuador.