What if the Americas never existed?

Imagine that...no Pinguin! Why? It must be Heaven!

If we consider it primarily in the colonial context, then Spain would have continued on as a near backwater in Europe, the entire european economy would have collapsed from a very present bullion crisis before they plundered all the wealth of the natives, Spain's overpowering economic might in the 16th century would not have existed, and they wouldn't have been able to shape European politics in the important ways that they did, and for the most part Europeans wouldn't have been nearly as powerful or influencial as they turned out to be on a world stage later.

Pabbicus wrote: If we consider it primarily in the colonial context, then Spain would have continued on as a near backwater in Europe, the entire european economy would have collapsed from a very present bullion crisis before they plundered all the wealth of the natives, Spain's overpowering economic might in the 16th century would not have existed, and they wouldn't have been able to shape European politics in the important ways that they did, and for the most part Europeans wouldn't have been nearly as powerful or influencial as they turned out to be on a world stage later.

pinguin wrote: I found this idea somewhere else, and I found it very interesting. How would be the world if the Americas had never existed?   Well, in animals somebody mentioned the camel developed in the Americas . I don't know about that but I do know that the horse developed in the Americas, too. And that would had made a big difference in the development of mankind.   With respect to agriculture, just imagine a world without potatos, tomatos, maize, avocados, strawberries, vanilla, chocolate, peanuts, pineapples, and thousand agricultural products more.   Just imagine a world without rubber and how we could drive our cars with wheels made of wood . Imagine a world without quinine, where Africa was never colonized. Imagine a world without the red jackets of the U.S. Independence. Imagine a world without platinum, or without the rubber pears that help clean out bellies when people got sick .   Imagine a world without Rum. A world without Tequila. A world whitout the inventions of the U.S. or the painters of Mexico. A world without tacos !!   Would Europe have developed as it did without the gold, silver, suggar, rum, cotton and tobacco from the Americas?   The question has been asked.     Yes, it would be a very different world.

Just look at the rest of the world before the Europeans came to the Americas. It did quite well. So some of the post 1492 products from America the rest of the world could live without, even if the life probably would have differed in many aspects.

The implications of missing some of the animals and earlier plants that evolved on the American continent is another matter, they could have been rather serious. But who knows, without the concurrence from some of the animals that first developed in the Americas, the ecological niches they came to occupy would maybe be occupied by other animals that maybe could have been used in similar ways by humans.

Another thing one can add is that the weather and climate would probably also be different without the American continent(s). Winds, sea currents and similar would have had another distribution.

The world would have looked different today without the Americas, that is for sure, but exactly how it would have looked can just be speculations.

What total lack of imagination...and preoccupation for primitive flora and fauna not to mention whether it's going to snow of Tuesday!

Sarmat wrote: How world would be different?  There wouldn't be USA right now and Spain would remain the second rate European power the rest of its history. Spanish language wouldn't have its current significance. All the rest would remain pretty much the same.

 

Edited by drgonzaga - 11 Dec 2009 at 14:26

Carcharodon wrote: ... Just look at the rest of the world before the Europeans came to the Americas. It did quite well. ...

If you don't know how to plant potatoes, of course, or depend on a single variety.
Now, how could the old world had managed without horses nor camells, I wonder.

gcle2003 wrote: Turnips, parsnips and swedes[1] are much healthier than potatoes.

Just imagine those guys without Vodka (and Vodka is usually made of potatoes)

gcle2003 wrote: The best foodstuff to come from the Americas was probably the bean, but Europe already had sme varieties of beans (cf Pythagoras).

Half the foods came fro m the Americas

Proof, please . I bet you fall in your own trap this time....

As usual, the Pinguin exaggerates. The paleontological ancestors of the horse and camel have been discovered in what is now the Western Hemisphere; however, the continents of then were not the land masses of today. So the conjecture is rather irrelevant and akin to postulating if there were no Africa there would be no homo sapiens sapiens.

Edited by drgonzaga - 12 Dec 2009 at 03:57

Carch, why, why why?

No! You still can not export your pills stateside! Something about quality control...

drgonzaga wrote: And where oh where has Protoflea gone?

Edited by gcle2003 - 12 Dec 2009 at 18:59

drgonzaga wrote: As usual, the Pinguin exaggerates. The paleontological ancestors of the horse and camel have been discovered in what is now the Western Hemisphere; however, the continents of then were not the land masses of today. So the conjecture is rather irrelevant and akin to postulating if there were no Africa there would be no homo sapiens sapiens.