The Americas and Africa were not nearly as populated as Eurasia in the Classical Era. Due to this population imbalance historians focused less on early Africa and America. This caused me to wonder why, what is the cause of this difference. Eurasia made up over eighty percent of the entire worlds population in the Classical Era, whereas Africa and the Americas only made up ten to fifteen percent of the worlds population. There were many environmental and technological reasons for this difference.
One of the main reasons for the difference in population was in Africa and America there was a lack of animals available for domestication. With this, there was not as much food, nor animals to be trained and ready to pull a plow for agriculture or to help transport things over large distances. Eurasia was able to do all of these things because of live stock, horses and other animals. However, because Africa was so close to Eurasia, it was not long until these animals were in use in Africa.
Several technological differences were holding back some of the African and American civilizations from advancement. The civilizations in Africa and America did not have the tools that Eurasian settlements had because of a less developed system of Metallurgy. Weapons and Tools made of iron that very very important in the development of Eurasian civilizations were not around in early African and American civilization.
One of the things that advanced the society of Eurasian civilizations the most was a complex system of writing. African and American civilizations had forms of writing but they were not as effective or widespread as Eurasian writing. Without a form of communication advancement of a culture was very difficult.
Strayer, Robert W. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.
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You highlighted a lot of reasons as to why there may have been more people in Eurasia than in the Americas. Although we can definitely say that there were more people living in Eurasia, archaeologists and historians now recognize that the population of the Americas was much higher than previously estimated. These people were more settled, had a more complex agricultural system, and greater effect on their surrounding environment. According to the book 1491 by Charles Mann, "The Indian population in 1491 was between 90 and 112 million people. Another way of saying this is that when Columbus sailed more people lived in the Americas than in Europe." I'm not saying that this is entirely true, but it does raise the point that cultures in the new world were not as primitive as we've been led to believe. Unfortunately, we will never have an exact estimate, because European diseases killed so many native people in the Americas.
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