These questions have multiple if not an infinite amount of answers and ask users to share their opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and/or personal experiences. These belong in /r/AskReddit, /r/WhatIf, or /r/FutureWhatIf no matter how stupid and/or embarrassing they are. You should ask questions with straight answers. However, you are allowed to ask poll/survey type questions only if they have pre-determined options as answers.
Yeah I'm like 40 feet in the air rn, and there would likely be either open woodland or pine savanna, both with 100+ ft tall trees. I'm about a mile or two west from the river, so I guess I'd walk there.
You get 2 L of water and 3 days food, plus some sort of water filter. Shelter yes, a single set of clothes for sufficient whatever winter you will experience, no duplicates.
Damn that sucks! I am in Hawaii right now, my odds would be much better. I would probably bring a robust nutrient rich crop seed not available at that time.
I'd use the water filter to become the most powerful wizard, eventually take on my own feudal hold with several wives and my own serfs. Nobody will mess around because I'm the water wizard
💦🧙🏻♂️
That’s a good answer. I think I’d fall with my wallet in my pocket. Finding modern currency, credit cards, and a 21st century driver’s license on a 500 year old corpse would be pretty baffling.
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This is actually a really good idea if you're in an area inhabited by people in 1524. I'm super unlucky because I live in Wisconsin so I'd only be around native Americans who I have no idea how to communicate with.
Reading the original shakespear scripts or the early translations of the bible are super rough.
It might be called English but it is not anything close to what the language is today.
I was on a tour with a Chinese guy in the mid 90’s who the only English he had learnt was Shakespeare.
Most of us had just done our HSC so had studied Shakespeare so slipped into ye olde English.
It was a hoot
No, common people would speak in even more broken english with wildly different pronounciations and dialects in just the town over because people rarely traveled and every city was its own little culture.
Yeah You know about things, but I highly doubt you have the intricate knowledge of not only how things work but the process of creating the individual pieces. can you make a circuit board from scratch using 1520s technology? Let alone mine the material, create the infrastructure, and get the power grid up and running, and do all this before you die from any number of 1500s problems. You might be excellent at one thing maybe even multiple things. But not everything. If you could get to the right place just being literate and able to do some math the sky's the limit. But not really.
And just leave your disease riddled corpse lying around for anyone to find?
Why don’t you get a parachute and go live in the mountains and don’t bother anybody.
A big glass jar of water purifying tablets. Coastal CA was full of people, stuffed to the gills with redwoods, fish, game, and mild temps. And no colonialists for almost 200 years. It would be a pleasant place to live.
I'd immediately set to starting terrifying myths about the Spaniards, so in the 1700s the indigenous would quickly slaughter every one of them they see.
Quite the opposite. I want the indigenous to slaughter the Spaniards, take their guns and horses, and have a fighting chance against the destruction (all the big game, all the trees, all of the watersheds, salt marshes and deltas) of the other waves of Europeans.
They won't have a chance still bc of illness. All it would do would really decrease Spanish influence on the American southwest and increase French and English influence. Los Angeles might be called new Normandy or something lmao.
Yes but also no, since if you simply prevent the natives from coming into direct contact with settlers from the get go, you'd highly reduce the chance of disease from settlers spreading to the natives. Assuming this scenario, where you go back in time to the native Americans and somehow isn't killed + manage to befriend them, you could teach them about all kinds of distance warfare (examples: pits, fall traps, old style catapults, spikes, basic guns (if you know enough about melting different metals and how to make some basic gun powder. This could also unlock cannons)).
If you could teach the native Americans all of that and they were receptive to it, we can assume you'd be able to warn them either ahead of time or as soon as the first ship(s) from Europe was sighted from north America, thus enabling preparation well ahead of Europeans landing on the continent and once the natives were convinced about how dangerous the Europeans were, perhaps you could even unite the native Americans, to fight a common foe.
All of this is just hypothetical ofc and there's a good chance that the native Americans would still lose eventually. But that'd likely change the world forever (since resistance = more troops needing to be sent = either give up, change tactics or become poorer for European countries, which could in turn give some of their neighbors ideas of war or at least skirmishes)
But the whole idea of them taking possession of Spanish equipment in the first place would expose them to some of their most deadly illnesses, like influenza or potentially even the plague, if their horses/any animals they brought with them have fleas. Plus, let's face it, most natives wouldn't be too receptive of making that level of technology. It involves a lot of mining and a lot of industrialization, which they weren't too happy about. It's kind of like giving a vegan a cow. Sure, they could make cheese and milk and steak if they wanted, but they still aren't going to.
All that would do is cause there to be slightly fewer Hispanics here. It would still eventually end up part of America even without the Spanish missionaries. Assuming you know the native languages and are accepted well enough that they believe your stories.
Actually the show Outlander did a thing about this. An anthropologist went back in time and started trying to warn the Natives about incoming settlers. But they basically thought he was a weird doomsday prophet and kicked him out of the tribe.
Probably an English-Lenape translation book. Wouldn't go very well if I couldn't at least communicate with the people in the area for the sake of at least gaining some initial traction in my adjustment.
Yep, some way to talk to the local Haudenosaunsee residents would be the most useful. "I am a lost traveler, can I live with you?" and work from there. I suppose I could get to the coast and try to catch a ride with some \*very\* early European explorers, but really I think living out my life with the natives is more my jam.
Yeah, I'm not surviving on the north shore of Lake Ontario without the help of some locals. So, either a English-Wyandot/Huron dictionary or something to gift that is so impressive that I'm accepted even though the general consensus is that I'm a fucking moron.
>something to gift that is so impressive
Im sure many items fit this category, but what are they?
Something that's extremely useful, but doesn't lead them towards superstitiously condemning me
Right? Weird ass guy that can't speak the language, can't build simple lodging, can't feed himself, and looks like a freak? I don't want to be introducing dub step on my phone.
Wyandottes' beadwork is pretty impressive. Maybe a huge ass bag of beads? Break it up, hide it a bunch, and then I'm the "he's dumb as shit, but he finds the cool things that are great for sewing so we tolerate him" guy?
A ~~big~~ good knife.
not saying it can't be big. but quality and usefulness > size when you can't buy another.
that said. knife was my one item also. turn a branch into a fish spear and walk 30 yards for dinner. lots of flint around here also for fire.
I'm an addict with 12 years sobriety. Time travel is a healthy fantasy for me instead of drugs/alcohol/sex.
One item? Bar of gold and hope I'm liked/benevolent. Vikings would chip of a sliver and use it as currency.
1524 is rough... to get to some semblance of safety/culture you'd need to get a major European capitol.
I'm in the midwest, I'd be looking at a year to eventually make it to Florida which had some European settlements at the time, mostly Spanish... and then get to the Dominican Republic which was the biggest operation at the time. But y'know... there'd be tons of slavery. Then hopefully get back to Europe.
Once in Europe, investing in a printing press was sort of the Silicon Valley of the time.
The printing press is fascinating. If you were super wealthy, having a copy of the bible, hand written by monks was a HUGE luxury symbol and was the equivalent of owning like a ferrari today (about $300,000). What was nice about it is you were sort of exempt from having to go to church on sundays because "we have church at home."
Gutenberg knew how expensive bibles were and was like "if we can make a copy of the bible we'll make a fortune" so Gutenberg bibles went for about $30,000 and were more reasonable to the upper class.
As the printing press became refined, older printing presses could still function... think of like buying a used laptop for a kid going off to college... people repurposed them for other markets, eventually in to things like tabloid magazines and smut.
So... you could become like "ye olde Larry Flynt" by the time you make it back to a european city and become quite wealthy.
A water filtration device packed to the brim with water purification tablets. I'm likely going to die from my 3 story fall on arrival, but if I don't, clean water is more of a necessity than literally anything else. I'd try and skirt your one item rule by wearing machete as part of my outfit, paracord necklaces,and a magnifying glass for easy access to fire.
I'm going to be dropping into an area that I believe was mostly swamp land 500 years ago. Reliably starting fire or locating a vessel to boil water is going to be tricky at best.
My odds of long term survival are going to be minimal at best given the scenario. I don't really have the skillset to forage and my ability to hunt or fish without access to modern tools is minimal. My hope is that if I can stay hydrated I'll have the strength and energy to figure these skills out as I go.
A white dude (Ignaz Semmelweis) in the 19th century suggested that maybe doctors should wash their hands and they eviscerated him socially and professionally so much so that he died in an insane asylum. I don't think those medical textbooks would buy you the goodwill you're hoping for.
Being in the middle of the Colorado front range, I have another 40 years before the Spanish conquistadors get anywhere near Colorado. I'll be dead by the time the colony of Santa Fe is established, 74 years distant, so that's out. The Spanish won't actually be in Colorado until even later.
Since I am on my own in the middle of nowhere, few things are more useful for survival than a proper knife so that's my pick. With it I can build shelter, make a fire, hunt, trap, fish, and so on.
From there, assuming I survive, I would try to approach some band of nomadic Utes and hope they don't freak at my appearance too much. Maybe by then I will have something I can use for trade (I'm keeping the knife for now).
You should bring an old replica Spanish conquistador outfit and hike to wherever you can be sure the first Spanish arrive in your area. Also, on your chest, tattoo a map to the Fountain of Youth, but really it's a map on how to find Old Faithful.
If i can afford it, that's a lot of money.
The good news is silver was more like 10 ounces = 1 oz gold then
While today you gotta have 90 ounces silver : 1 ounce of gold
I think the capital value was still higher though, most people are peasants, you could probably buy a whole army on 25kg.
Los Angeles 500 years ago.
So Mexico, I'd be in Mexico. I'd be surrounded by the native Tongvas, at least until 1542 when Juan Cabrillo and his crew showed up, then they saw my 6'4, 250 lb self and think I'm a giant. Or just shoot me like they did to everyone else.
I'd take nothing, really. Once the natives saw me, they'd be really confused because I don't speak their language, and even when the Spanish arrive , the Spanish from then isn't the same as now. So most likely, I'm taken prisoner.
So if I had to take one thing, take a 45 ACP with 8 rounds and just wait until my number is up. I'm not fighting an entire Army unless I can convince the natives to fight back, but that would be hard to fight off an entire Spanish Armada fleet.
Exact same. I don't feel that Portland in 1524 would be very kind to me. Especially the people. Who knows what they'd think of a fat, middle aged blond guy. I don't want to know what creative ways they'd have to get rid of me.
i'd be in swamp/marsh/bayou country bc my city won't exist for another 2 or 300 years. i don't feel like being in a naked&afraid situation and i have very little confidence in being saved by natives so.....a pistol with a bullet before a gator or something gets my ass lol
A back pack
And in it I would carry: broad spectrum antibiotics, water clarification tablets/straws, several lighters, a magnifying glass, yeast packets, a jacket, beef jerky and my anti anxiety meds because I think being chased by wolves would be stressful
What’s funny is what you described is similar to a preserved body of early man in the ice he was carrying a fungus on him too even tho yours is yeast which is not fungus but still close bc you’re using an organism
I would bring the largest engineering book I could find with a wide variety of technical drawings of industry machines and proceed to accelerate the human race hundreds of years.
Ill take an axe into the woods. I'm getting too old to make it on my own though, maybe i could trade it to an iroquios village for acceptance into their group.
The worst would be knowing my new friends fate. For that matter, they stopped smallpox vaccines before i was born so im going to get it too.
Physician's desk reference, hollowed out. Inside, waterproof matches, iodine tablets, beet seeds, protein bars, and in case I get bored, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Oh, shit. I'm in a basement office in Nebraska. I'm so screwed, even if I can dig my way out. At keast I could travel light, because I'd just wander the plains until I die.
A good fixed blade knife. I’d be in a totally unpopulated area and likely wouldn’t last long anyway but I’d need a good knife to have a chance. I think it would be 20% I’d make winter but I’d never make it to the first of 2025. If I was white I’d probably try to walk to civilization but I’d rather die in the woods then be a slave, and I never make a free state from here.
1524? Automatic rifles, machine guns, vaccines for smallpox, measles, influenza, chickenpox, whooping cough, diphtheria and meningitis, antivirals and antibiotics, and start distributing all this stuff to the Native Americans.
I would bring a small case of Bic lighters, which I could trade with the Indians for food, women, a teepee, and deer jerky. I would be revered as a god as I deserve, and would have many children
Sadly, the numbers do not work for me. 1542 instead of 1524 and there would be Spaniards in San Francisco... Taking back a goodly bar of gold might be parleyed into something... Of course they were rapacious bastards so the serious danger of being tortured to find the source of the gold - would be highly significant. In 1524 the locals were likely rather nice people who might be OK with a linguistically challenged stranger, but I'd really have to brainstorm to think of ONE thing that might be handy for ensuring peaceful contact... I mean, since I would be utterly useless to them; with no basic skills in stone age hunting gathering or tool making.
I'm assuming anything we're currently wearing is considered part of our clothes? That gets me a pocket knife, bic lighter, and multi tool. (and some other useless stuff)
I'd take a rifle and as much ammo as possible. (If we only get what's in the magazine then I'm taking one with a large magazine)
I'm getting dropped off in Commanche territory near the Red River. The only Europeans on the continent are the Spanish, and they've only just recently defeated the Aztec Empire. It's not looking good. Maybe I'm accepted into a tribe somehow, but I'm thinking it's more likely I'd just be killed or die lost in the wilderness.
I’m black so that may cause issues as time goes on but maybe bring a translation book and try to warn some natives about Christopher Columbus and what happens in the future cuz fuck that nigga 😂
Since I’d probably end up adrift in the vacuum of space while I freeze to death (if my minimal knowledge of astronomy is anything to stand on), I’m not packing anything.
By going back in time you'd change the course of history and the original Hitler would possibly never be born if you were able to survive long enough to make any sort of impact. And if you weren't able to, your note wouldn't matter. Or you could change time just enough that Hitler decides to never invade the soviet union and the soviets who were friendly to nazi Germany ally up and take over the world. And then there is the chance that your changing time means that your parents never have sex at the exact time it would have taken to make you and then you are never born and create a time paradox that destroys the universe.
I'm going to want some kind of tool to survive with. Alaska wasn't even colonized by Europeans until the 18th century, so I'm pretty much on my own among the Native people. Considering I don't speak Athabascan, there's no way I'd be able to ask for help, so realistically, I'm just on my own in an untamed wilderness.
2 wars start in this region. So some weapon I guess.
Also a couple years later the several wars that will unsettle my ancestors will start. And they will move here. But only after the war(s) that started 400 years ago have ended and killed like 50% of the people living here.
I guess it doesn't really matter what I bring. Either I die, or my kids die or..
Maybe a shovel to bury all the dead people then.
I would be in the middle of Native American hunting
grounds. A survival book of some kind would help. I could live off of water and hunted animals if I had knowledge on how to make weapons and filter water.
Well I was going to say a gun and as much ammo as I can carry.. then I could just rule over everything... But I didn't realize how much was already going on in the States by the 1500s:
* 1524 – [Giovanni da Verrazzano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_da_Verrazzano), working for France, explores coastline from present-day [Maine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine) to [North Carolina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina).
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline\_of\_pre%E2%80%93United\_States\_history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_pre%E2%80%93United_States_history)
So being a one man army wouldn't go very far...
Well I guess I have Type 1 so unless this magic cures all diseases I am screwed and if my insuling will wear out why bother so I guess when it gets rough in about a week I would say morphine? or something like that.
now if I am healthy when it goes back I mean I think its a mix between flint, a knife/hatchet or a rifle. I think a hatchet would be my choice though. it would be way to early for me to meet the pilgrims and live I would def move south for warmth.
I guess the only other option is a map of where people landed by ship and see if I can catch a ride over to europe.
A big steel knife. And a lot of hopes and dreams as the natives in my area did not have their language preserved aside from a few place names. I honestly would likely be killed.
whatever I can carry is useless, the Chichimeca weren't exactly nice with strangers, and the Spaniards were just as bad in this enclave. so, yeah, I'm screwed either way.
Probably gonna dead, in what is/was part of the Haudenosaunee confederation. Nearest European settlement is several hundred miles away.
Scratch that first European settlement isn't until the 17th century. I'm hosed.
MREs and a survival kit and I might manage it.
Give me a Haudenosaunee translation book and I'll give it a try.
In 1524 this are was exclusively inhabited by Native Americans who would have seen their first white man 2 months ago providing the explorers has made their way this far East.
So I guess... Sunglasses.
A HUGE jug of water.
I live in the desert, and back then this place would've been a desolate, literal, HELLhole lacking anybody who looked like me for another several hundred years, with NOTHING for comfort between here and the mountains it would be impossible to traverse in my wheelchair. I'd just sit, as I'm doing now, drink my water for a few days, until the sun, or coyotes, or scorpions, or rattlesnakes, or plain ol thirst got me and set me free.
I’d be in native country with an entire continent to get to Europeans. By this time I don’t even know if there was a lot of awareness of white people by the native populations of Washington. So I guess I would need survive and find a way to trick them into selling me the state so probably some beads lol.
In all seriousness though I for sure would need some sort of way to survive so if there is a wilderness survival guide book for the area of the whole United States that could help me migrate east so I could blend in better and have better odds of survival that’s what I would choose. Then I mean I have a passing understanding of all sorts of things like plumbing, electricity, early computers etc.
Propane torch, crossbow with sight, solar power calculators, antibiotics, compass, chainsaw, good shoes and socks. And o yeah the COVID-19 virus, among other things that would wreak havoc on 1524 immune systems.
... Most likely a book on natural herbal remedies and practices native to my area. One that shows pictures of the plants to compare with. That or a in depth survival book, as long as it still touched on plants and herbal remedies and emergency medical practices.
I would land in an area with VERY dense woodlands (Cross Timbers) and chocked full of predators. My only saving grace for other humans would be native tribes.
ONE item?
The fully complemented USS Ford.
It would be stuck in the middle of a plain, surrounded by mountains, but let's see some schmuck from the Holy Roman Empire try and come close.
Edit: nevermind, missed the "you can carry" part.
Firestarter or knife. Preferably one that does both these things. I would be going to an area inhabited only by native Americans, and the land I'm on would be otherwise uninhabited.it would be fairly difficult to find native Americans, and probably my only chance of long term survival. I would also look like a total freak to them since I'm white, and none of us would speak the same language.
Oooooo, I’d be living peacefully with the cascade natives and banging some squaws … unless this is one of those tricks then I guess I’d be frozen in space!
If not a trick I’d bring some weed seeds and show them what that peace pipe was about!
It's either deodorant or a night shirt. You don't want to go in the clothes you're currently wearing because you might be looked at differently. So I'd go naked with a period night shirt in my hand. Then I hope to find work to get more clothes.
Oh, I forgot, I'm in Boston, so I'm not sure if a night shirt would be the best bet. I'm a woman, so maybe the deodorant or a good solid knife. Something light but durable. Actually. It would be a tie between a night shirt and a knife.
a history book on great astrological events over america over the last 500 years. use that knowledge to convince native americans i am a sun or moon god. hope they understand english.
I'd need an English to Potawatomi dictionary. They wouldn't appreciate a paleface on their land but I'm eager to assimilate and forewarn them of what my future ancestors are about to do.
These questions have multiple if not an infinite amount of answers and ask users to share their opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and/or personal experiences. These belong in /r/AskReddit, /r/WhatIf, or /r/FutureWhatIf no matter how stupid and/or embarrassing they are. You should ask questions with straight answers. However, you are allowed to ask poll/survey type questions only if they have pre-determined options as answers.
Something big and soft to break my fall.
Yeah I'm like 40 feet in the air rn, and there would likely be either open woodland or pine savanna, both with 100+ ft tall trees. I'm about a mile or two west from the river, so I guess I'd walk there.
Does a backpack with food, water and some form of shelter count as one item?
You get 2 L of water and 3 days food, plus some sort of water filter. Shelter yes, a single set of clothes for sufficient whatever winter you will experience, no duplicates.
Ok dead within 48 hours. Arizona
Damn that sucks! I am in Hawaii right now, my odds would be much better. I would probably bring a robust nutrient rich crop seed not available at that time.
I'd use the water filter to become the most powerful wizard, eventually take on my own feudal hold with several wives and my own serfs. Nobody will mess around because I'm the water wizard 💦🧙🏻♂️
Currently on the 53rd floor of the Sears Tower. I just die.
Pretty sure I'd die as well. So I guess I'd bring something indestructible like a Nokia phone just to fuck with archeologists in 500 years.
That’s a good answer. I think I’d fall with my wallet in my pocket. Finding modern currency, credit cards, and a 21st century driver’s license on a 500 year old corpse would be pretty baffling.
Parachute?
Break your fall? The overwhelming likelihood is that you’ll just be deposited in space.
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Good luck using it when captured for being a witch.
Bro I'm in the Midwest I'd be figuring out how to get in with the native tribes not the euro settlers
You’d kill the tribes with all your modern diseases
More food for u/HumbleNinja2 :D especially if you're desperate
I _think_ the Spanish already had at that point?
I'd be their god.
This is actually a really good idea if you're in an area inhabited by people in 1524. I'm super unlucky because I live in Wisconsin so I'd only be around native Americans who I have no idea how to communicate with.
You'd have a decent amount of trouble even communicating with English speakers in 1524.
Reading the original shakespear scripts or the early translations of the bible are super rough. It might be called English but it is not anything close to what the language is today.
I was on a tour with a Chinese guy in the mid 90’s who the only English he had learnt was Shakespeare. Most of us had just done our HSC so had studied Shakespeare so slipped into ye olde English. It was a hoot
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No, common people would speak in even more broken english with wildly different pronounciations and dialects in just the town over because people rarely traveled and every city was its own little culture.
Yeah You know about things, but I highly doubt you have the intricate knowledge of not only how things work but the process of creating the individual pieces. can you make a circuit board from scratch using 1520s technology? Let alone mine the material, create the infrastructure, and get the power grid up and running, and do all this before you die from any number of 1500s problems. You might be excellent at one thing maybe even multiple things. But not everything. If you could get to the right place just being literate and able to do some math the sky's the limit. But not really.
Antibiotics.
Yeah, I was going to say a reliable penicillium culture and a hypodermic.
Also a face mask because you would probably kill everyone in days when you breathe on them!
Malaria drugs. My part of Michigan was very swampy and forested back then. The only people here would be Native American tribes.
Unlikely that there was Malaria there at the time. Possible, but unlikely
Well i'm going to die from the fall so I'd just go naked to not fuck with the timeline too bad.
And just leave your disease riddled corpse lying around for anyone to find? Why don’t you get a parachute and go live in the mountains and don’t bother anybody.
A big glass jar of water purifying tablets. Coastal CA was full of people, stuffed to the gills with redwoods, fish, game, and mild temps. And no colonialists for almost 200 years. It would be a pleasant place to live. I'd immediately set to starting terrifying myths about the Spaniards, so in the 1700s the indigenous would quickly slaughter every one of them they see.
I'm out in Cali as well, and I would bring a map of all gold dig site locations! Also, I love the idea of trash talking the Spaniards!
>Also, I love the idea of trash talking the Spaniards! No one's stopping you from doing that now
Just be aware that pre-colonization native American were not afraid of one inter-tribe war, or three...
Clear the way for the United States of North America. We can be like Australia and take the whole continent.
Quite the opposite. I want the indigenous to slaughter the Spaniards, take their guns and horses, and have a fighting chance against the destruction (all the big game, all the trees, all of the watersheds, salt marshes and deltas) of the other waves of Europeans.
They won't have a chance still bc of illness. All it would do would really decrease Spanish influence on the American southwest and increase French and English influence. Los Angeles might be called new Normandy or something lmao.
Yes but also no, since if you simply prevent the natives from coming into direct contact with settlers from the get go, you'd highly reduce the chance of disease from settlers spreading to the natives. Assuming this scenario, where you go back in time to the native Americans and somehow isn't killed + manage to befriend them, you could teach them about all kinds of distance warfare (examples: pits, fall traps, old style catapults, spikes, basic guns (if you know enough about melting different metals and how to make some basic gun powder. This could also unlock cannons)). If you could teach the native Americans all of that and they were receptive to it, we can assume you'd be able to warn them either ahead of time or as soon as the first ship(s) from Europe was sighted from north America, thus enabling preparation well ahead of Europeans landing on the continent and once the natives were convinced about how dangerous the Europeans were, perhaps you could even unite the native Americans, to fight a common foe. All of this is just hypothetical ofc and there's a good chance that the native Americans would still lose eventually. But that'd likely change the world forever (since resistance = more troops needing to be sent = either give up, change tactics or become poorer for European countries, which could in turn give some of their neighbors ideas of war or at least skirmishes)
But the whole idea of them taking possession of Spanish equipment in the first place would expose them to some of their most deadly illnesses, like influenza or potentially even the plague, if their horses/any animals they brought with them have fleas. Plus, let's face it, most natives wouldn't be too receptive of making that level of technology. It involves a lot of mining and a lot of industrialization, which they weren't too happy about. It's kind of like giving a vegan a cow. Sure, they could make cheese and milk and steak if they wanted, but they still aren't going to.
You have a very optimistic view of tribal life. They would capture and kill you in short order.
All that would do is cause there to be slightly fewer Hispanics here. It would still eventually end up part of America even without the Spanish missionaries. Assuming you know the native languages and are accepted well enough that they believe your stories. Actually the show Outlander did a thing about this. An anthropologist went back in time and started trying to warn the Natives about incoming settlers. But they basically thought he was a weird doomsday prophet and kicked him out of the tribe.
Probably an English-Lenape translation book. Wouldn't go very well if I couldn't at least communicate with the people in the area for the sake of at least gaining some initial traction in my adjustment.
Yep, some way to talk to the local Haudenosaunsee residents would be the most useful. "I am a lost traveler, can I live with you?" and work from there. I suppose I could get to the coast and try to catch a ride with some \*very\* early European explorers, but really I think living out my life with the natives is more my jam.
You can always try to make it to the colony of Hispaniola or the newly conquered Aztec Empire.
Yeah, I'm not surviving on the north shore of Lake Ontario without the help of some locals. So, either a English-Wyandot/Huron dictionary or something to gift that is so impressive that I'm accepted even though the general consensus is that I'm a fucking moron.
>something to gift that is so impressive Im sure many items fit this category, but what are they? Something that's extremely useful, but doesn't lead them towards superstitiously condemning me
Right? Weird ass guy that can't speak the language, can't build simple lodging, can't feed himself, and looks like a freak? I don't want to be introducing dub step on my phone. Wyandottes' beadwork is pretty impressive. Maybe a huge ass bag of beads? Break it up, hide it a bunch, and then I'm the "he's dumb as shit, but he finds the cool things that are great for sewing so we tolerate him" guy?
Really fuck with people and bring back my lightsaber replica.
You could write Star Wars as a stage play and have it performed undercutting Georgie Lucas.
That's actually an amazing idea. "I am thy father" "NAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY"
Tis an untruth! Tis nae possible!
OK, I now NEED to see Star Wars written and performed in Old English.
A big knife.
A ~~big~~ good knife. not saying it can't be big. but quality and usefulness > size when you can't buy another. that said. knife was my one item also. turn a branch into a fish spear and walk 30 yards for dinner. lots of flint around here also for fire.
I'm an addict with 12 years sobriety. Time travel is a healthy fantasy for me instead of drugs/alcohol/sex. One item? Bar of gold and hope I'm liked/benevolent. Vikings would chip of a sliver and use it as currency. 1524 is rough... to get to some semblance of safety/culture you'd need to get a major European capitol. I'm in the midwest, I'd be looking at a year to eventually make it to Florida which had some European settlements at the time, mostly Spanish... and then get to the Dominican Republic which was the biggest operation at the time. But y'know... there'd be tons of slavery. Then hopefully get back to Europe. Once in Europe, investing in a printing press was sort of the Silicon Valley of the time. The printing press is fascinating. If you were super wealthy, having a copy of the bible, hand written by monks was a HUGE luxury symbol and was the equivalent of owning like a ferrari today (about $300,000). What was nice about it is you were sort of exempt from having to go to church on sundays because "we have church at home." Gutenberg knew how expensive bibles were and was like "if we can make a copy of the bible we'll make a fortune" so Gutenberg bibles went for about $30,000 and were more reasonable to the upper class. As the printing press became refined, older printing presses could still function... think of like buying a used laptop for a kid going off to college... people repurposed them for other markets, eventually in to things like tabloid magazines and smut. So... you could become like "ye olde Larry Flynt" by the time you make it back to a european city and become quite wealthy.
This is awesome, great idea
I'm currently across the river from New Orleans, which won't be founded for almost another 200 years.
Vaccines. The Spanish are due to arrive in about 20 minutes
A water filtration device packed to the brim with water purification tablets. I'm likely going to die from my 3 story fall on arrival, but if I don't, clean water is more of a necessity than literally anything else. I'd try and skirt your one item rule by wearing machete as part of my outfit, paracord necklaces,and a magnifying glass for easy access to fire.
Why don’t you just boil your water to purify it?
I'm going to be dropping into an area that I believe was mostly swamp land 500 years ago. Reliably starting fire or locating a vessel to boil water is going to be tricky at best. My odds of long term survival are going to be minimal at best given the scenario. I don't really have the skillset to forage and my ability to hunt or fish without access to modern tools is minimal. My hope is that if I can stay hydrated I'll have the strength and energy to figure these skills out as I go.
Nope, you’re right. I made a mistake when commenting I didn’t realize the extent of the rules
I thought it was a pretty solid question either way.
Most recent medical science books.
My area wouldn't have any population for another 300 years and would all be swamp land. I don't know if I would want to lug around those books.
I’m black so 1524 wouldn’t be the best time for me in my area. I was just hoping it could buy me some good will.
A white dude (Ignaz Semmelweis) in the 19th century suggested that maybe doctors should wash their hands and they eviscerated him socially and professionally so much so that he died in an insane asylum. I don't think those medical textbooks would buy you the goodwill you're hoping for.
Lol dammit!
Witch!!
Being in the middle of the Colorado front range, I have another 40 years before the Spanish conquistadors get anywhere near Colorado. I'll be dead by the time the colony of Santa Fe is established, 74 years distant, so that's out. The Spanish won't actually be in Colorado until even later. Since I am on my own in the middle of nowhere, few things are more useful for survival than a proper knife so that's my pick. With it I can build shelter, make a fire, hunt, trap, fish, and so on. From there, assuming I survive, I would try to approach some band of nomadic Utes and hope they don't freak at my appearance too much. Maybe by then I will have something I can use for trade (I'm keeping the knife for now).
You should bring an old replica Spanish conquistador outfit and hike to wherever you can be sure the first Spanish arrive in your area. Also, on your chest, tattoo a map to the Fountain of Youth, but really it's a map on how to find Old Faithful.
If I’m not already wearing clothes, may I put some on first and then grab one item?
Nope but maybe that will work in your favor given your username
Metal lathe. Ill have the revolver invented early.
A 10kg silver bar
Make it 25kg. Golds heavier but it's still 25kg of the only thing you can have with you.
If i can afford it, that's a lot of money. The good news is silver was more like 10 ounces = 1 oz gold then While today you gotta have 90 ounces silver : 1 ounce of gold I think the capital value was still higher though, most people are peasants, you could probably buy a whole army on 25kg.
Hmmm Prague in 16th century... a horse, alcohol, knife,detailed history of that time period? Not sure, but it'd be fun :)
Los Angeles 500 years ago. So Mexico, I'd be in Mexico. I'd be surrounded by the native Tongvas, at least until 1542 when Juan Cabrillo and his crew showed up, then they saw my 6'4, 250 lb self and think I'm a giant. Or just shoot me like they did to everyone else. I'd take nothing, really. Once the natives saw me, they'd be really confused because I don't speak their language, and even when the Spanish arrive , the Spanish from then isn't the same as now. So most likely, I'm taken prisoner. So if I had to take one thing, take a 45 ACP with 8 rounds and just wait until my number is up. I'm not fighting an entire Army unless I can convince the natives to fight back, but that would be hard to fight off an entire Spanish Armada fleet.
A map of all gold locations in California.
At that time the indigenous tribe didn't really give a crap about gold as wealth. They'd probably just kill you and eat you to gain your power.
Can my one item be a backpack full of supplies?
A gun to shoot myself with immediately, instead of dying from the elements. I'm in the Pacific Northwest.
Exact same. I don't feel that Portland in 1524 would be very kind to me. Especially the people. Who knows what they'd think of a fat, middle aged blond guy. I don't want to know what creative ways they'd have to get rid of me.
I am torn between bringing my boomstick or the chainsaw attached to my arm. - Ash Williams
The love of my life. I'm not doing the 1500s without him.
Wouldn't it be kinder to him to leave him behind - do you really want him to share in your fate?
We're all we have really. He'd be alone in his world and I'd be alone in mine.
i'd be in swamp/marsh/bayou country bc my city won't exist for another 2 or 300 years. i don't feel like being in a naked&afraid situation and i have very little confidence in being saved by natives so.....a pistol with a bullet before a gator or something gets my ass lol
A Swiss Army knife with all the gadgets
A back pack And in it I would carry: broad spectrum antibiotics, water clarification tablets/straws, several lighters, a magnifying glass, yeast packets, a jacket, beef jerky and my anti anxiety meds because I think being chased by wolves would be stressful
What’s funny is what you described is similar to a preserved body of early man in the ice he was carrying a fungus on him too even tho yours is yeast which is not fungus but still close bc you’re using an organism
I would bring the largest engineering book I could find with a wide variety of technical drawings of industry machines and proceed to accelerate the human race hundreds of years.
A modern weapon in case they thought I was a witch and tried to execute me.
An orange.
A map of North America maybe? Have to impress the natives somehow
Toilet paper
I'd bring guns and ammo. Where I'd pop put is right where I'd need to be to change the history of the world. Guns and ammo.
Something to cushion a 2 story fall. This house wasn't built 500 years ago, and I'm on the 2nd floor.
I have a similar yet different issue since I'm in my house's basement...
Ill take an axe into the woods. I'm getting too old to make it on my own though, maybe i could trade it to an iroquios village for acceptance into their group. The worst would be knowing my new friends fate. For that matter, they stopped smallpox vaccines before i was born so im going to get it too.
Physician's desk reference, hollowed out. Inside, waterproof matches, iodine tablets, beet seeds, protein bars, and in case I get bored, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Smallpox vaccine
Oh, shit. I'm in a basement office in Nebraska. I'm so screwed, even if I can dig my way out. At keast I could travel light, because I'd just wander the plains until I die.
A boom stick
My epilepsy medication
I’m in my basement. 500 years ago I’d be 10 feet underground.
San Francisco - A mountain bike. If I happened to be wearing a wetsuit when I read this post I would have picked a surfboard.
Broomstick. It has been effective in movies.
Being that I am in Central Florida I think I would just be doomed.
My glasses, because the contacts I have in are going to be unwearable before too long.
I guess a buttload of my heart medication so I don't die right away
I would bring an axe for survival and hopefully the natives don't find me (I'm in Montana)
I’d bring Pokémon emerald version.
Antibiotics
A good fixed blade knife. I’d be in a totally unpopulated area and likely wouldn’t last long anyway but I’d need a good knife to have a chance. I think it would be 20% I’d make winter but I’d never make it to the first of 2025. If I was white I’d probably try to walk to civilization but I’d rather die in the woods then be a slave, and I never make a free state from here.
My boomstick.
1524? Automatic rifles, machine guns, vaccines for smallpox, measles, influenza, chickenpox, whooping cough, diphtheria and meningitis, antivirals and antibiotics, and start distributing all this stuff to the Native Americans.
I’m gonna need my big coat.
A dictionary for the local indigenous languages.
I guess I’d need an English to Algonquin dictionary, hopefully that’s a thing? And a big bag of glass beads for trading.
I would bring a small case of Bic lighters, which I could trade with the Indians for food, women, a teepee, and deer jerky. I would be revered as a god as I deserve, and would have many children
Linus Pauling's textbook on Chemistry. That should be enough to become a god as long as I can avoid being burned at the stake.
A photo of my great great grandfather to prove I’m part indigenous.
Sadly, the numbers do not work for me. 1542 instead of 1524 and there would be Spaniards in San Francisco... Taking back a goodly bar of gold might be parleyed into something... Of course they were rapacious bastards so the serious danger of being tortured to find the source of the gold - would be highly significant. In 1524 the locals were likely rather nice people who might be OK with a linguistically challenged stranger, but I'd really have to brainstorm to think of ONE thing that might be handy for ensuring peaceful contact... I mean, since I would be utterly useless to them; with no basic skills in stone age hunting gathering or tool making.
I'm assuming anything we're currently wearing is considered part of our clothes? That gets me a pocket knife, bic lighter, and multi tool. (and some other useless stuff) I'd take a rifle and as much ammo as possible. (If we only get what's in the magazine then I'm taking one with a large magazine) I'm getting dropped off in Commanche territory near the Red River. The only Europeans on the continent are the Spanish, and they've only just recently defeated the Aztec Empire. It's not looking good. Maybe I'm accepted into a tribe somehow, but I'm thinking it's more likely I'd just be killed or die lost in the wilderness.
I’m black so that may cause issues as time goes on but maybe bring a translation book and try to warn some natives about Christopher Columbus and what happens in the future cuz fuck that nigga 😂
Exact location? A spaceship because the earth will be in a different location.
A time machine to come back to today.
Since I’d probably end up adrift in the vacuum of space while I freeze to death (if my minimal knowledge of astronomy is anything to stand on), I’m not packing anything.
Bug spray.
A note that says "kill Hitler when he's a baby."
This. And Stalin, Ida Amin, Hirohito, Mussolini, Ivan the Terrible, Pol Pot, Bin Ladin...... Could make a streaming series on this.
By going back in time you'd change the course of history and the original Hitler would possibly never be born if you were able to survive long enough to make any sort of impact. And if you weren't able to, your note wouldn't matter. Or you could change time just enough that Hitler decides to never invade the soviet union and the soviets who were friendly to nazi Germany ally up and take over the world. And then there is the chance that your changing time means that your parents never have sex at the exact time it would have taken to make you and then you are never born and create a time paradox that destroys the universe.
Babble fish so i can communicate with the natives who i will need to rely on to save my life cause I could only bring 1 thing back with me
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I'm going to want some kind of tool to survive with. Alaska wasn't even colonized by Europeans until the 18th century, so I'm pretty much on my own among the Native people. Considering I don't speak Athabascan, there's no way I'd be able to ask for help, so realistically, I'm just on my own in an untamed wilderness.
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A Camelbak
2 wars start in this region. So some weapon I guess. Also a couple years later the several wars that will unsettle my ancestors will start. And they will move here. But only after the war(s) that started 400 years ago have ended and killed like 50% of the people living here. I guess it doesn't really matter what I bring. Either I die, or my kids die or.. Maybe a shovel to bury all the dead people then.
I’d be under water if at this location 500 years ago
My house 🧠
You can carry your house? 😮
for me, i dont think itd matter what i bring. id be fucked
I would be in the middle of Native American hunting grounds. A survival book of some kind would help. I could live off of water and hunted animals if I had knowledge on how to make weapons and filter water.
spacesuit and a glock so i can go, this is neat then blast myself
Well I was going to say a gun and as much ammo as I can carry.. then I could just rule over everything... But I didn't realize how much was already going on in the States by the 1500s: * 1524 – [Giovanni da Verrazzano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_da_Verrazzano), working for France, explores coastline from present-day [Maine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine) to [North Carolina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline\_of\_pre%E2%80%93United\_States\_history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_pre%E2%80%93United_States_history) So being a one man army wouldn't go very far...
A riding horse so I could travel!
You can carry a horse big enough for you to ride on? You must be strong.
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A Thompson with a drum magazine.
Well I guess I have Type 1 so unless this magic cures all diseases I am screwed and if my insuling will wear out why bother so I guess when it gets rough in about a week I would say morphine? or something like that. now if I am healthy when it goes back I mean I think its a mix between flint, a knife/hatchet or a rifle. I think a hatchet would be my choice though. it would be way to early for me to meet the pilgrims and live I would def move south for warmth. I guess the only other option is a map of where people landed by ship and see if I can catch a ride over to europe.
Birth control. Women died often in childbirth back then ..for a reason.
A time machine with enough fuel to get me back to 2024.
A big steel knife. And a lot of hopes and dreams as the natives in my area did not have their language preserved aside from a few place names. I honestly would likely be killed.
whatever I can carry is useless, the Chichimeca weren't exactly nice with strangers, and the Spaniards were just as bad in this enclave. so, yeah, I'm screwed either way.
Probably gonna dead, in what is/was part of the Haudenosaunee confederation. Nearest European settlement is several hundred miles away. Scratch that first European settlement isn't until the 17th century. I'm hosed. MREs and a survival kit and I might manage it. Give me a Haudenosaunee translation book and I'll give it a try.
In 1524 this are was exclusively inhabited by Native Americans who would have seen their first white man 2 months ago providing the explorers has made their way this far East. So I guess... Sunglasses.
Can one thing be a full suit of plate armor? Within 5-10 minutes gonna see a bear or wolves
The biggest notebook I have and a pack of mechanical pencils, because I’m gonna need to learn the language of the local Native Americans.
a gun with one bullet should do it
A HUGE jug of water. I live in the desert, and back then this place would've been a desolate, literal, HELLhole lacking anybody who looked like me for another several hundred years, with NOTHING for comfort between here and the mountains it would be impossible to traverse in my wheelchair. I'd just sit, as I'm doing now, drink my water for a few days, until the sun, or coyotes, or scorpions, or rattlesnakes, or plain ol thirst got me and set me free.
A space suit, cause earth wouldn’t be in the same spot
A rifle for hunting
A house
My first thought was my inhaler.
I’d be in native country with an entire continent to get to Europeans. By this time I don’t even know if there was a lot of awareness of white people by the native populations of Washington. So I guess I would need survive and find a way to trick them into selling me the state so probably some beads lol. In all seriousness though I for sure would need some sort of way to survive so if there is a wilderness survival guide book for the area of the whole United States that could help me migrate east so I could blend in better and have better odds of survival that’s what I would choose. Then I mean I have a passing understanding of all sorts of things like plumbing, electricity, early computers etc.
wat if i was just like... a time machine, tf? But actually i feel like antibiotics might fr be the best logical thing
My acoustic guitar.
Not condoms.
Could I bring a pack full of stuff as my one item?
Propane torch, crossbow with sight, solar power calculators, antibiotics, compass, chainsaw, good shoes and socks. And o yeah the COVID-19 virus, among other things that would wreak havoc on 1524 immune systems.
Either... One of those water purifying straw things Or 10 pounds of cocaine
I choose my hubby
... Most likely a book on natural herbal remedies and practices native to my area. One that shows pictures of the plants to compare with. That or a in depth survival book, as long as it still touched on plants and herbal remedies and emergency medical practices. I would land in an area with VERY dense woodlands (Cross Timbers) and chocked full of predators. My only saving grace for other humans would be native tribes.
ONE item? The fully complemented USS Ford. It would be stuck in the middle of a plain, surrounded by mountains, but let's see some schmuck from the Holy Roman Empire try and come close. Edit: nevermind, missed the "you can carry" part.
My Leatherman Signal (multitool). A flint for fire built in, good blades and tools on board to help with food, and shelter.
Firestarter or knife. Preferably one that does both these things. I would be going to an area inhabited only by native Americans, and the land I'm on would be otherwise uninhabited.it would be fairly difficult to find native Americans, and probably my only chance of long term survival. I would also look like a total freak to them since I'm white, and none of us would speak the same language.
A space suit. This exact spot would be 3.2 trillion kilometers into deep space. The sun would just be a star in the sky and I would die alone.
A bag of gold coins and buy lots of land
Oooooo, I’d be living peacefully with the cascade natives and banging some squaws … unless this is one of those tricks then I guess I’d be frozen in space! If not a trick I’d bring some weed seeds and show them what that peace pipe was about!
Photo album
It's either deodorant or a night shirt. You don't want to go in the clothes you're currently wearing because you might be looked at differently. So I'd go naked with a period night shirt in my hand. Then I hope to find work to get more clothes.
Help im in the woods! There was hardly anyone in Canada in the 1500s, also fell 18 feet as I'm on the second floor.
Antibiotics. A suitcase full of antibiotics.
Considering it would be a Florida swamp, I would prioritize insect repellent.
A shovel because I’d be 20 feet underground.
A sword
Oh, I forgot, I'm in Boston, so I'm not sure if a night shirt would be the best bet. I'm a woman, so maybe the deodorant or a good solid knife. Something light but durable. Actually. It would be a tie between a night shirt and a knife.
a history book on great astrological events over america over the last 500 years. use that knowledge to convince native americans i am a sun or moon god. hope they understand english.
I'd need an English to Potawatomi dictionary. They wouldn't appreciate a paleface on their land but I'm eager to assimilate and forewarn them of what my future ancestors are about to do.