CGP Grey explains why European diseases devastated the Americas while few deadly diseases traveled the other way. He ties it to livestock domestication, dense cities, and the ideas of Guns, Germs and Steel.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters point to it as a clear, short explanation of one-directional disease spread and the core argument of Guns, Germs, and Steel.
“I think CGP Grey does a great job at communicating the actual meat of Guns, Germs, and Steel here”HN comment, 2019
“CGPGrey just put out a fantastic video comparing t”
Compares how geography and domestication shaped the New World and Old World.
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> So any theory of "geographical stunting" would need to explain what changed in the geography after 1492. What changed was technology. Once you have ships going back and forth across the Atlantic, everything changes. Europeans introduced cows, sheep, pigs, chickens. The New World's only domesticable native animal is the llama, which is the main reason why civilizations sprung up in Central and the northern parts of South America, that's where llamas were. Now, to the Europeans, with vastly superior farming technology, the Caribbean and North America were veritable cornucopias of geopolitical possibility. Islands sheltered plantations. Europe could project real power only very closely to the shore, where the big naval guns could reach. The reason was supply. To maintain a group of soldiers requires not just food but adequate clothing, weapons, ammunition, and horses to carry all of that. It took over a century of growth for a colony to get to the point to where it could maintain and supply an army for deeper treks inland. By that time the colonies would have been deeply entrenched in native political systems. Because the warships protecting your colony could only hang around for so long, colonies were quite vulnerable to native military action, or even just having them hang around outside the settlement and killing whoever goes outside, say, to chop wood. It made sense for settlers to be nice to the locals, at least at first. CGPGrey just put out a fantastic video comparing t
Strongly recommendsbigmattystylesOct 2022
“CGP Grey had this amazing video”
Explains why European diseases ravaged the Americas but not the reverse.
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Expanding on this, CGP Grey had this amazing video ( this video ) of why European diseases in the Americas were so bad on the people that were already here when the two worlds met but you hardly heard of Europeans getting any super contagious illness from the people living in the Americas. Meaning European genomes had some adaptations (as well as antibodies?) from dense and unsanitary living, as well as animal farming in European prior to contact whereas that type of living setup was rarer in the Americas.
Recommendsvalarauca1Oct 2016
“This video explains the history of man kind”
Explains the history of human infectious illness.
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>Indians had no trouble crisscrossing America Well yeah there weren't any human infectious illness where... there aren't any humans. This video explains the history of man kind's infectious illness very well this video
RecommendspartycoderJun 2017
“I recommend the following video by CGP Grey, largely based on the book”
Video summary of Guns, Germs and Steel ideas on disease and conquest.
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I recommend the following video by CGP Grey, largely based on the book "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond: this video Now, history doesn't give a lot of merit to natives. The largest battle in the Americas, the siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, was won with the help of 80,000 to 200,000 Tlaxcalan natives, which amounted for 99% of the infantry used.
RecommendssquirrelicusJan 2019
“I think CGP Grey does a great job at communicating the actual meat of Guns, Germs, and Steel here”
Communicates the core argument of Guns, Germs, and Steel well.
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I remember being struck by his anecdotes of Papua New Guineans seeming just as smart as anyone else as supposed evidence of... What exactly? I don't think Neil Diamond is wrong but it's kind of baby's first reading on the differences between groups in the world. I think CGP Grey does a great job at communicating the actual meat of Guns, Germs, and Steel here this video
RecommendsreallydudeAug 2019
“CCP Makes a pretty good case regarding livestock -”
Makes a good case that livestock explain one-directional disease spread.
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CCP Makes a pretty good case regarding livestock - this video America did offer a new disease that ravaged Europe. Syphillis.
RecommendsmajewskyFeb 2021
“I can recommend this video on why the native Americans were killed by diseases imported by the European conquerors”
Explains why Europeans' diseases devastated Native Americans but not vice versa.
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Epidemics are a relatively new phenomenon as far as human evolution is concerned. Within a purely human set of hosts, germs don't feel evolutionary pressure to become more deadly. If anything, it's advantageous for a germ to be less deadly. The most successful viruses are the common cold viruses, not SARS or Ebola. Epidemics only really became a thing once we started domesticating animals and therefore being around live animals for prolonged periods of time. This allowed germs originally adapted to these animals the opportunity to jump over to human hosts, for which they may be more dangerous than for the original host animal. For more details on this point, I can recommend this video on why the native Americans were killed by diseases imported by the European conquerors, but the conquerors didn't bring any deadly diseases back to Europe: this video
RecommendsHokusaiOct 2021
“CGP Grey has a great video about this topic”
Shows that big cities are needed to sustain plagues.
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CGP Grey has a great video about this topic: Americapox: The Missing Plague - this video TL;DR; You need big cities to keep plagues ongoing.
Recommendsseph-reedOct 2021
“CPG Grey has a great video on this exact subject”
Explains that cities let viruses persist and develop.
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CPG Grey has a great video on this exact subject: this video In short, you need cities to develop these types of viruses. Cities where the virus can just keep killing, without ever hitting a dead end.
RecommendskrrrhOct 2021
“good CGP Grey video on this called Americapox.”
Explains why no American disease devastated Europeans.
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If a disease native to the Americas emerged and became endemic, it would have infected Europeans when they arrived. There’s a good CGP Grey video on this called Americapox. this video
Recommendsakerl_Aug 2023
“is a good watch here,”
Explains why Europeans caught no reciprocal plagues in the Americas.
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this video is a good watch here, if you're curious why Europeans didn't catch reciprocal plagues when traveling to the Americas. Spoiler: it's what the adjacent comment said, the Americas didn't have the factors for plagues.
Cites itjack9Apr 2016
“More likely, simple domestication.”
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> the primary reason for greater productivity of European settlers compared to native inhabitants of Americas would be culture More likely, simple domestication. The "culture" of cities are born of the variety of euro-domestication. Horses, Sheep, etc. ( this video )
Cites itbigbugbagMar 2017
“Cholera only existed in the old world and is a byproduct of animal domestication and urbanization[1].”
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Cholera only existed in the old world and is a byproduct of animal domestication and urbanization[1]. [1]: this video
Cites itLeifCarrotsonMar 2020
“Two other sources for this are the book Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond,”
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Yes. Two other sources for this are the book Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, [1] and the video Americapox by CGPGrey. [2] [1]: link [2]: this video
Cites itslavik81Mar 2020
“a nice CGP Grey video on this”
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It's not the same. Live ocean creatures are isolated from each other. They're stored in water-tight containers by necessity. By contrast, live land animals are stored in cages and often stacked on top of each other. Vox has a video explaining "Why new diseases keep appearing in China" [1]. They include footage of Chinese wet markets around the 2:00 mark. I think they make an excellent case for strictly regulating, or even outright banning wet markets. Long ago, Europe had the same problem. The cities were full of wet markets, and were basically the perfect conditions for creating new plagues. There's a nice CGP Grey video on this, "Americapox: The Missing Plague" [2]. [1]: link [2]: this video
Cites itJumpCrisscrossJul 2024
“Proximity, to humans and animals, drives disease.”
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> Some of the scariest viruses of the 20th/21st century emerged in large-scale farming operations Before that they emerged from small-scale farming. “Whooping cough comes from pigs as does flu as well as from birds; our friend the cow alone is responsible for measles, tuberculosis and smallpox” [1]. Proximity, to humans and animals, drives disease. [1] this video
