Monday, December 14, 2009

Smallpox in the blankets

During our visit to the National Museum of the American Indian on Friday, one interesting point was made that I hadn't thought about. Everyone knows how, amongst the many awful things that the Europeans did to the Native Americans, one of the worst was the smallpox infestation in the blankets. Europeans, crammed into cities, had lots of experience with deadly diseases (and had provided those diseases the ideal conditions to spread and mutate), and had developed resistances to them. The Native Americans, spread out in small tribes, had neither the diseases nor the resistances to them. The Europeans didn't intend to devastate the "Indians" with disease; they had no idea that they were doing it. But doing so did fit in with the general pattern of how the Europeans treated them.

Because of the differences mentioned above, it was far more likely that the Europeans would bring deadlier diseases. But there's no reason it couldn't've happened the other way around. What if, by chance, the Native Americans happened to carry a disease to which they'd built up a resistance, but which would tear through the unprepared Europeans? Because of their crowded cities and poor sanitation, a disease completely unrelated to the ones they'd dealt with in the past might have ripped through Europe after the first return voyage bringing "Indians" and their artifacts back. If it were deadly enough, and unrelated enough to European diseases, it could have made the Black Plague seem mild by comparison.

This suggests an alternate history I've never seen explored or even proposed. It could go so many different ways. What a rich ground for exploration of story possibilities.

5 comments:

Tyler said...

Have you read The Years of Rice and Salt? It's an alternate history novel where the Black Plague decimated Europe to the point of near vacancy, making way for neighboring Asian and Mid-Eastern populations to expand and grow in new ways.

Hawthorn Thistleberry said...

Nope. Though one of my fantasy roleplaying campaigns, "And Hope To Die," explored a similar theme.

Hawthorn Thistleberry said...

A sample has been sent to my Kindle, thanks for the tip.

litlfrog said...

Damn, Tyler beat me to it. I have the book in hardcover if you're interested.

Hawthorn Thistleberry said...

Just from glancing over the summary, while it addresses some thematically similar things, it doesn't bring the Native Americans into it at all, which means while it may be the closest thing to what I'm imagining it's still not very close.