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[–]jet199 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think disease.

The first explorers reported back huge numbers of villages full of people along the shores and river banks wherever they went in the Americas.

The next generation found a near empty continent mostly filled with nomadic tribes.

The germs went over with Columbus and did the most damage at that stage. What came after was nothing in comparison. Whole civilisations disappeared without trace.