Yes, Henua saved civilization. At least, historians give Henua seafarers credit for saving the civilizations of the Americas from the potential disaster of European diseases. How could such a tiny island save an entire hemisphere? Read on.
Around the year 1000, Henua sailors reached the coast of South America, a perilous journey that ranks as one of their nation's great achievements. But the voyage was much more than a daring feat. Geopolitically, it connected the trade networks of Polynesia with those of the Americas. With strong nd active trade centered on hubs such as Fiji and Wa'ab (Yap), the result was a series of links in an unbroken commercial chain stretching from Southeast Asia to South America.
By 1400, Henua had a permanent trade connection with South America to the west and Mangareva (the Gambiers) to the east. From America came the sweet potato, and the Quichua word for it, kumara. This crop became the basis of subsistence throughout eastern and central Polynesia. And moving in the other direction came something less appealing at first, but a savior in the long run: disease. Some Eurasian diseases slowly and gradually made their way along the chain, exposing the Americans to them early on, in the late medieval period. This resulted in some epidemics, but in the end the result was an American population that by 1500 had immunity to many European diseases.
Obviously, new strains brought by the colonists did take their toll: the trickle of Polynesian traders coming to South America was nothing compared to the flood of germ-ridden colonists now arriving up and down the continents. But the Pacific trade gave the American immune systems just enough of a boost to ensure the permanent survival of Native societies in such places as the Great Lakes, the Andes, Mejico, and the Paraguayan plains.
Historians speculate that if the brave Henua seafarers had not journeyed to South America, or if the wise Henua rulers had allowed trade to lapse at this crucial hub, the Americans would have not been exposed to foreign diseases, and would have been decimated at the first arrival of Europeans. And have the Americans given the Henua so much as a thank-you?
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