Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL that horses went extinct in North America about 10,000 years ago. They were then reintroduced to the continent by the Spanish as early as the 1550s. (www.pbs.org)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I've heard some indigenous people say that horses never went extinct in North America pointing to the fact that although Spanish horses were released in NA in the 16th century, 17th century European explorers documented great plains tribes with advanced horse cultures which would be hard to attribute to a handful of releases from the 16th century expeditions.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In fairness it only took like 30 years to develop advanced car culture.

The utility of the horse and the breeding and lack of predators would’ve made them pervasive in no time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Also, most existing indigenous civilisations had collapsed due to genocide and the diseases imported by the European invaders. It was literally a post-apocalyptic scenario. The survivors were basically Mad Maxing it, only cars hadn't been invented yet so they had to use horses.