Comment on Iron to Dust by Kurarun
So ground sloths are most likely to survive in Patagonia and the Caribbean, I see. I'm not hopeful for their survival once European settlers appear on the scene, but in this world they'll definitely survive long enough for European settlers to see them!
There would definitely be a few areas with a European majority, probably in regions where smallpox hit the hardest, or in economically important regions controlled by European powers. You'd definitely get a few Caribbean islands with almost entirely European populations, or majority European populations with the rest made up of Native or imported slave labourers.
As for the slave trade, in our timeline the slave trade (from Africa to the Americas) was driven by a labour shortage - a labour shortage that does not exist in this world due to the greater numbers and resilience of Native Americans. I have no doubt that some black slaves will be brought across, particularly to regions with less organised and developed native states, but the slave trade would be no where near as huge as it was in our timeline.
Europeans would most likely use Native Americans for manual labour, sometimes outright enslaving them, and otherwise treating them as second-class citizens. This wouldn't win them any friends among the remaining native countries, as slavery is rare (or at least rarer) among Native Americans in this world - especially in the Kawek Empire where the clan-based caste system designates who will be a farmer or labourer - but most native countries won't be able to do anything about it.
Slavery is sometimes used by the Kawek Empire to force someone to pay back debts or taxes in the form of labour, and on rare occasion they may force many people to provide the state with labour (though again said labourers would gain an exemption from a certain amount of future taxes) with these occasions getting more common as smallpox reduces the number of people in the farming and labourer castes, but there was never any real slave trade - at least not in eastern North America - and whether forcing people to do labour in lieu of paying taxes counts as real slavery is debatable (as said labourers are never actually owned as property).
So, to summarise, less slaves are brought across from Africa, many Native Americans are forced into slavery or other forms of servitude, and there's little to no real systematic slavery or slave trade in eastern North America before Europeans start moving in.
There would definitely be a few areas with a European majority, probably in regions where smallpox hit the hardest, or in economically important regions controlled by European powers. You'd definitely get a few Caribbean islands with almost entirely European populations, or majority European populations with the rest made up of Native or imported slave labourers.
As for the slave trade, in our timeline the slave trade (from Africa to the Americas) was driven by a labour shortage - a labour shortage that does not exist in this world due to the greater numbers and resilience of Native Americans. I have no doubt that some black slaves will be brought across, particularly to regions with less organised and developed native states, but the slave trade would be no where near as huge as it was in our timeline.
Europeans would most likely use Native Americans for manual labour, sometimes outright enslaving them, and otherwise treating them as second-class citizens. This wouldn't win them any friends among the remaining native countries, as slavery is rare (or at least rarer) among Native Americans in this world - especially in the Kawek Empire where the clan-based caste system designates who will be a farmer or labourer - but most native countries won't be able to do anything about it.
Slavery is sometimes used by the Kawek Empire to force someone to pay back debts or taxes in the form of labour, and on rare occasion they may force many people to provide the state with labour (though again said labourers would gain an exemption from a certain amount of future taxes) with these occasions getting more common as smallpox reduces the number of people in the farming and labourer castes, but there was never any real slave trade - at least not in eastern North America - and whether forcing people to do labour in lieu of paying taxes counts as real slavery is debatable (as said labourers are never actually owned as property).
So, to summarise, less slaves are brought across from Africa, many Native Americans are forced into slavery or other forms of servitude, and there's little to no real systematic slavery or slave trade in eastern North America before Europeans start moving in.
Indeed, some people have theorized the natives may have farmed ground sloths to some extent, but the dates don't seem to march up, perhaps you could have them doing that ensure some survive?
That's an excellent idea! It's certainly possible for people in Central and South America to domesticate and farm some for their meat and fur in this timeline.
Oh, another animal I wanted to survive in the Americas was the Saiga Antelope - mainly because it looks so alien!
Oh, another animal I wanted to survive in the Americas was the Saiga Antelope - mainly because it looks so alien!
Not sure how useful the fur would be, in most there are lots of osteoderms that would make it kind of bumpy.
Now that's a cool beastie, I don't see why they shouldn't have survived, the managed to in places where mighty nomad empires occasionally to sprung up.
Now that's a cool beastie, I don't see why they shouldn't have survived, the managed to in places where mighty nomad empires occasionally to sprung up.