laura ([info]shinyobject) wrote,
@ 2007-12-21 04:13:00
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What do you think would have happened if native Americans had discovered and implemented a system of writing before European contact?

As in many UChicago tests, there is no singular right answer.
There are only logical, fact-based answers and answers which either fail the factual, logical, or both qualities.

So?



***Obviously, at least to me, this question is a leading question toward the conclusion that the fact that Europeans had a method of permanently etching their views of history in stone, that this fact has altered the course of human history in a significant way. The history that is read is the history that is written, and if an entire race is wiped out by smallpox, that race's history is not written. The fact that I'm writing in English and not Hopi is because of Mr. Gutenberg and gunpowder.

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[info]bokuniwa
2007-12-21 12:50 pm UTC (link)
We see a stark difference between societies that developed writing themselves and those that didn't. However, I don't think the Native Americans would have necessarily better equipped to fend off a European invasion. If we had wanted to invade Japan, for example, during their isolationist days, it wouldn't have been that hard. China was a formidable opponent perhaps, if only because of their size.

Then again, if the Native Americans not only developed a system of writing, but also formed an intertribal alliance, then they might have had something there.

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[info]shinyobject
2007-12-21 11:53 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, we had to break out the opium for China to de-isolate itself.

I agree though, if they'd banded together and started fighting from the start rather than losing land a little at a time through broken treaties, even guns wouldn't have guaranteed a european victory. Just transporting enough of them across the Atlantic would have been extremely difficult back then. If they hadn't been able to get supplies from the land and build forts, if there'd been people attacking them every time they set foot onshore instead of helping them through the winter, I think very few expeditions would've ever been heard from again and after a while, they'd stop trying.

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[info]omegix
2007-12-21 04:36 pm UTC (link)


Maybe casino's would have better calligraphy on their chips?

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