Patriach's History

1) I believe that it doesn’t matter if the population estimates of the Native Americans are accurate after 1491. Though there is significance in how how many people died, there is still no denying the main point which is that Columbus and the other Europeans brought diseases that took out many of the Natives. In the first excerpt, the author says that “no one dismisses the accidental transmission of deadly diseases that actually affected the North and Central American Indians.” This shows that people are aware of the fact that the Europeans brought over diseases that had a lasting effect on the Natives. In the second excerpt, the author writes “the epidemic killed about one out of every five people on earth.” Even with rough estimates, the studies showed that the disease killed about ⅕ of the population.

Word Count: 137

2) I found Mann’s analysis to be a lot more convincing than Schweikart and Allen. To be honest, it is simply because Mann presented his work in a way that seemed logical and appealing while the other two seemed to point fingers and criticize other historians. Both articles had solid evidence and scientific studies to back their arguments up. In the first article, they talked a lot about recent studies and archaeological work by Betty Meggers. In the second article, Mann used records, an eyewitness, and a scientific study. However in terms of tone, Mann was organized and seemed to be giving the facts and dates. Schweikart and Allen almost seemed upset with the high inflated numbers of the native population and then in paragraph four, placed the blame right on Dobyns.

Word Count: 131