Age of Viking settlement revealed using trees and astrophysics

That is a very good question. Disease took out ~80% of the population, it is believed. Would larger numbers have prevented the repeated steps of treaty and settlement and forced removal?

Another good “what if” is if the French had won the French and Indian war. The French (while no means saints) treated Native Americans much differently. In the Great Lakes Region, when formally French forts became British, it was a 180 in how they were treated. The British were much more adversarial and refused to trade with them , nor ply them with customary gifts. (ETA - ,refused to ply them with customary gifts, offered less favorable trade, and would refuse to trade for guns or powder at times.)

Maybe the outcome would have been the same, or maybe France would have adopted a less Manifest Destiny policy in the end.

4 Likes