What If Europe NEVER Conquered the Americas

It's 1492. Christopher Columbus pitches his plan to sail west to Asia... and this time, Queen Isabella says NO. So what happens to the Aztecs, the Inca, the Maya, and the Haudenosaunee if no conquistadors ever arrive? Do they survive? And what does the rest of the world lose without potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, chili peppers, and Potosí's silver? But there's a twist. Europe probably finds the Americas anyway, and the deadliest invader was never a ship or a sword. In this alternate history, we explore what the Americas could have looked like without the conquest, and whether these civilizations could have survived the germs without the conquerors. Which do you think did more damage: the conquerors or the germs? Let us know in the comments! ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Spain Says No 0:57 The Americas in 1492 1:15 Tenochtitlan & the Aztec Triple Alliance 1:58 The Inca Empire 2:46 The Haudenosaunee Confederacy 3:12 The Maya 3:28 Europe Looks East 3:53 A World Without Cortés 4:41 The Inca Without Pizarro 5:34 The Maya Library Survives 5:57 No Beaver Wars 6:35 What the World Loses 7:09 No Potosí Silver 7:28 No Transatlantic Slave Trade 7:54 Plot Twist: Europe Arrives Anyway 8:16 The Invisible Invader 9:32 Societies That Survived Contact 10:14 The Americas Today 10:59 The Real Question 📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READING Charles C. Mann, "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" (2005) Charles C. Mann, "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created" (2011) Alfred W. Crosby, "The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492" (1972) Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" (1997) Noble David Cook, "Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650" (1998) Matthew Restall, "Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest" (2003) Ross Hassig, "Mexico and the Spanish Conquest" (1994) Terence N. D'Altroy, "The Incas" (2002) Michael D. Coe, "Breaking the Maya Code" (1992) Daniel K. Richter, "The Ordeal of the Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois League in the Era of European Colonization" (1992) Dennis O. Flynn & Arturo Giráldez, "Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of World Trade in 1571," Journal of World History (1995) Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, SlaveVoyages.org Ole J. Benedictow, "The Black Death, 1346–1353: The Complete History" (2004) Noel Perrin, "Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543–1879" (1979) Raymond Jonas, "The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire" (2011) Pekka Hämäläinen, "The Comanche Empire" (2008) Koch, Brierley, Maslin & Lewis, "Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492," Quaternary Science Reviews (2019) Note: The "what if" sections of this video are speculative alternate history. Everything presented as "real history" is based on the sources above. #alternatehistory #history #aztecs #inca #whatif #columbus #maya #historyanimated