European settlement of the region that was to become the United States started in earnest around 1650 as three groups—religious fanatics, canny traders, and simple pirates—converged on the region. The religious fanatics wanted to build theocracies. The canny traders wanted to exchange products abundant in Europe for things valuable in Europe but scarce in America. The pirates wanted to loot and steal. Their descendents became the American colonists. The American colonists were rich by pre-industrial standards—perhaps twice as rich as their predecessors and compatriots back even in northwestern Europe. There was lots of unoccupied farm land located on or near watercourses with easy access to the towns, and to the sea. Why there was so much unoccupied farm land in 1650 is an interesting and horrifying story. America had been isolated from the Eurasian disease pool for the twelve thousand years since the end of the last ice age. And Europeans domesticated lots of animals—and slept near them. Because the disease pools were isolated, each side after contact in 1492 was very vulnerable to the other side’s diseases. And because Europeans had domesticated and lived cheek-by-jowl with all kinds of animals for thousands of years lots of diseases had jumped the species barrier in Eurasia, and so the Europeans had many, many more diseases. That, plus conquest, war, plunder, genocide, torture, and enough culture shock to stun a grizzly bear, caused the Amerindian population of the Americas to crash from fifty to a hundred million in 1492 to perhaps five million in both American continents by 1650, with very low population densities in the seventeenth century everywhere but in what had once been relatively densely populated corn lands. The first generations could farm as much land as they wished—and it was very good land to farm too. The religious fanatic settlers were pleased in the short run but disappointed in the long run—their theocracies crumbled. The canny traders were disappointed in the short run (save for the Company of His Majesty’s Merchants and Adventurers Venturing to Hudson’s Bay) but pleased in the long run as settlements grew and began to export. The pirates were disappointed in both the short and the long run: there was
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