this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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Late Stage Capitalism
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I always wondered if I got dropped off into 1650s North America if I could get the Native Americans technically advanced enough to have semi autos by the time I die before the huge colonizer/settler events happen.
I bet even just muskets and penicillin could have tipped the scales.
Gunpowder is a bitch. I don't even know where to find potassium nitrate off the top of my head. You can get sulphur from hot springs and charcoal is simple. From experience, in a lab environment, getting the ratios for a useful explosion is a hard, even when you know what the possibilities are. Unless you have this memorized, that will be a 5 to 10 year adventure.
Thankfully, this is an easy problem to solve. If you're planning a time trip, just research the locations of potassium nitrate deposits before you go.
Now I'm imagining a movie where someone tries this. Except, as you alluded, the only way to really do this would be to completely change indigenous society. As the movie goes on, it becomes clear the protagonist is just doing colonialism all over again. Sure, they can say, "it's for their own good though!" The cry of every Christian missionary.
Smart. They would probably think your a prophet if you could do things like that. I think the hardest part is convincing them into at least a semi industrialist type mindset.
iirc, we were pretty dependent getting nitrates for gunpowder from urine and bat guano until we were able to start synthesizing it.
Guncotton might just be easier, and far more effective.
Gunpowder would be an easy sell.
Mining/forging might be rough to bootstrap without capitalism. You'd be fighting against their love and respect for nature. Convince a number of them to mine, get black lung.
You'd also have to convince a bunch of different tribes with different languages to stop fighting long enough to fend off invaders, and well, to know the people coming are assholes that will destroy them.
Advanced medicine would be amazing, chemistry.
Honestly, if you wanted them to win, I think you'd just have to get them to band together, maybe bomb ports. If the ships couldn't properly resupply that'd be one hell of a fight.
Are you a Factorio player? If so, then yes.
95% of the population was wiped out by smallpox. Guns weren't the problem.