Latin America Has No Natural Predators

[drealm]

Their geography has been a blessing and a curse. It's almost a perfect example of a place that's never needed to improve. No harsh winters, no wars, an abundance of food. The last time a foreign genome invaded they turned the entire continent into Spanish. Funny enough the invaders became as lazy and stupid as the natives. Since then latin America has never had to deal with a real foreign invader. I bet if there was one tiny Muslim Island off the coast it would of conquered all of Latin America within a long time ago.

[MrMan]

Their geography has been a blessing and a curse. It's almost a perfect example of a place that's never needed to improve. No harsh winters, no wars, an abundance of food. The last time a foreign genome invaded they turned the entire continent into Spanish. Funny enough the invaders became as lazy and stupid as the natives. Since then latin America has never had to deal with a real foreign invader. I bet if there was one tiny Muslim Island off the coast it would of conquered all of Latin America within a long time ago.

No harsh winters? What about up in the Andes? Those people who resorted to cannibalism after a plane crash up there probably thought the winter was harsh. The desert climate of northern Mexico, hot in the day and cold at night doesn't sound very mild.

The Spanish, from more densly populated Europe, connected by land and narrow sea passages to the historical civilizations of the earth, had developed superior metullurgy and military technology. The natives of Mexico had cotton for armor and sticks with fragile but uber-sharp volcanic glass attached. Spain had Toledo steal blades, metal armor, horses, battle formations, and ships able to sail around the world. Other tribes in Mexico were probably glad to see someone conquer the Aztecs. At least the Spanish did not cut their hearts out and eat their flesh.

I would not be surprised if some of those natives cried out to the most high God to send some people to deliver them, and it happened.

I saw a documentary, and the account the conquistadors told probably wasn't accurate. Instead of 90-some Spaniards conquering a huge empire, the archeological evidence supports the idea that they had the support of a local native army. Still, it was a remarkable conquest for such a small band to forge an alliance and conquer such a huge empire.

The Spaniards brought the diseases that the connected 'Old World' had built up immunities to over the centuries. The natives, exposed to them all at once, started dying out.

As far as laziness goes, both empires had accomplished quite much. The Americans had it's own agricultural revolution. About a half of the food in the world comes from American cultivars. Think of the crops that came from the Americas, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes: pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, etc., hot chilli peppers, bell peppers, the common bean: green beans, kidney beans, lima beans, and cotton. Corn and potatoes are huge crops worldwide. Many Asian cuisines must have been quite boring without hot pepper.

The Incas, though they did not have the wheel, had united a huge empire in rough mountainous terraine, storing potatoes as a food source. Central and South America harvested corn, beans, and squash.

There definitely were wars in central and South America before the Spanish arrived.

As far as literal 'natural predators' are concerned, jaguars seem rather serious predators, and so do certain types of snakes.

[El_Caudillo]

What are you smoking? How much about Latin American geography and history do you know? There are harsh winters in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. The Portuguese fought the Dutch to take over a lot of Northern Brazil. The English tried to invade Argentina. Paraguay had a war with Brazil and Argentina. The middle classes are much less intellectually lazy than those in North America and the U.K....get back to chewing your spitting tobacco and cooking grits. Ever heard of a puma, a jaguar, an ocelot?

[Wolfeye]

I wouldn't think an ocelot would be much issue, but the puma & jaguar- hell yeah. Not to mention various aquatic animals (piranhas come to mind & I'm pretty sure they get either gators or crocodiles). Not too sure about sharks around the coasts, too (at least the Caribbean seems to get them- I remember hearing about fishermen throwing habanero peppers out of their boat as shark repellent). Dogs and/or wolves/coyotes can be an issue at times, although I don't know if they're native to those areas.

The wars seem to be less other countries within Latin America trying to take over & or drug wars or internal strife for one reason or another (a plus to that is them at least fighting things instead of just putting up with more & more- certain countries which will remain nameless seem to like throwing their chests out about revolutions that happened a while ago but don't really seem to be the types to do today & are proud of themselves for a theoretical revolution or civil war that hasn't happened in advance).

I've found there are two poles in terms of laziness & stupidity with Latin Americans- either it's high amounts one way or high amounts the other way. A double-edged thing with them seems to be that they don't feel the need to constantly destroy whatever came before. They'll make adjustments here & there, but they're not really into constant renovation & making every damn previous thing obsolete or something humans can't operate without some kind of mechanical intermediary (a thing that's getting ridiculous in the States & elsewhere- every fuckin' thing lately needs a password or a keycard or a transponder or some damn thing & there's no way to override it- at least by hand).