Why was there a Technological Difference between Afro-Eurasia and Native America?
Around 25,000 years ago, Native Americans crossed the land bridge Beringia that, for a time, connected the continents of Eurasia and America together. As the Ice Age ended, Beringia became an ocean, forever separating the two continents. This put Native Americans at a severe disadvantage in technological development when compared to the Old World, because the New World constituted the last continent-sized land masses that humans settled, and were consequently behind by thousands of years by the time Native American settlers arrived. Not only were they late to technological development, but the Americas also had a much smaller population compared to Afro-Eurasia. It takes a long time to grow a large population, and the original settlers and ancestors of the Native Americans only numbered around 250 people while Afro-Eurasian peoples had already settled. This meant that in the first year of the common era, Afro-Eurasia had a population of 219 million people, while the Americas only had 8 million people. Even during the colonization of the Americas, the population of the Americas was only 20 million compared to Afro-Eurasia’s 409 million. Lesser population meant less people to make innovations.
The comparatively smaller population and particular geography of the Americas also meant that it was more difficult for densely populated urban areas to develop in the Americas. Afro-Eurasia had geography that aided in the creation of trade routes such as the Silk Road or the trans-Saharan trade, which led to a greater amount of connectivity that allowed for the spread of ideas. If copper was invented in one place in Afro-Eurasia, it could easily spread throughout the entire continent, while any innovations by Native Americas would have to be developed independently from one another.
Lastly, another reason that the Americas never had the same amount of interconnectivity as Afro-Eurasia was the lack of important domesticated animals such as camels, cattle, and horses. Cattle provided labor for farming and a food source, while horses provided fast travel. Both of these animals were vital to the success of many Afro-Eurasian civilizations, and Native Americans did not have any domesticated equivalents until much later.
Still, many Native American peoples in the Americas did achieve a high level of technological advancement. Some civilizations that the Americas had like the Maya could be compared to earlier Afro-Eurasian civilizations, such as the Fertile Crescent civilizations. Because of this evidence, it is likely that given enough time, the Americas could have had similar developments to Afro-Eurasia if left alone.
Sources:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2003&context=ccr
https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/columbian-exchange
