Threadedpast

[Threadedpast @threadedpast]

Hernando Cortés described Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) as "as large as Seville," but more populated than London. It had "wide and handsome streets," fine houses, engineered canals, and a complex hydroponic agricultural system. One conquistador looked upon it "with sudden dread"

[Threadedpast @threadedpast]

Before it was a "New World," it was just the world. Home to an estimated 50-100 million people. So numerous that a Spanish priest lamented they were like "leaves of grass." This isn't a story of an empty continent. It's a story of a world lost. 🌎 #History

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

A woman paying for her groceries with a check, 1970s.

[Threadedpast @threadedpast]

10/10 This initial wave of violence and social collapse is what shattered Indigenous societies, leaving them critically vulnerable to the wave of disease that followed. hat’s the truth beneath the myth of an “empty” New World. It's a story of a world lost.

[Threadedpast @threadedpast]

1/10 The “empty” New World is a myth. The Americas were crowded, cultivated—and then 9 out of 10 people vanished. How did that happen? 🧵👇

[Threadedpast @threadedpast]

9/10 The architects of this "Conquistador terror" were the leaders of Spanish expeditions, acting with the approval of the Spanish Crown.

Men like Hernán Cortés in Mexico, Francisco Pizarro in Peru, and Pedro de Alvarado in Central America led the military campaigns.