In the 1870s, when Europeans first came to Hawaii, they brought diseases. The king and queen of Hawaii made a plan to forestall this by formally aligning with Britain. They were going to gain the protection of Britain but got sick while in Europe; that blew up their plan. And lo and behold, there is Barack Obama coming from Hawaii to end up as president as the United States.
This week Adam welcomes an author whose book blew his mind more than perhaps any other. Americans are typically taught that prior to the arrival of European settlers, indigenous communities were sparsely populated, lacked technology, and did little to shape the natural landscape. But as this week’s guest Charles C. Mann’s 1491 tells Adam, the most recent research reveals that the American indigenous civilizations were sophisticated, dynamic, and massively populated. Purchase his books 1491 and 1493 at http://factuallypod.com/books.
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