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A comment on The size of an empire cannot be larger than 1 month of travel from capital. Parent comment

Re:The size of an empire cannot be larger than 1 month of tr... by macspoofing on Friday January 06, 2023 @02:14PM (#34279398)
>They were killed by what the settlers brought with them. No, it was not deliberate (#), but nevertheless, their arrival is what killed most of the natives.

That's all I meant to clarify. You'd be surprised how many people today actually think that the native population was wiped out through deliberate and intentional action. Your wording made it seem you believed that as well, but that seemed to not be the case.

>Obviously the settlers would have preferred to keep the natives alive since then they would not have needed to ship vast quantities

That's a caricature.

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Re:The size of an empire cannot be larger than 1 month of tr... by 8note on Friday January 06, 2023 @02:28PM (#34279612)
It was intentional though. The bison didn't disappear because of western disease, they were hunted out to break up the natives ability to resist, so they could be killed and corralled, and the land be granted to settlers.

Canada intentionally withheld food it owed to natives as part of treaty agreements, with the understanding that if a bunch of people starved to death, Canada wouldn't need to send as much food.

Similarly, disease was spread intentionally through small pox blankets, with the intention listed

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Re:The size of an empire cannot be larger than 1 month of tr... by ldh0011 on Friday January 06, 2023 @02:35PM (#34279726)
It may not be the case that deliberate and intentional actions alone could have wiped out the natives but it seems pretty clear that there were a lot of deliberate and intentional actions both to kill them and take their land (Trail of Tears, Spanish conquests in South America). Those actions just wouldn't have been as successful without the diseases.
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