Pre-Columbian America

                    America Before Columbus

 

Summer, 1492. After three months at sea, the Pina, Nino, and the Santa Maria, anchor off the Bahamas. Europe has found the Americas. Next comes conquest and colonization by settlers who make America in their image. They advance and destroy. But there is another story. About the animals and plants they bring here, and the natural treasures they find here, and how the Americas are completely transformed. It all began 500 years ago:

 

It’s 1491; in a year from now Christopher Columbus will land on this quite beach. What is here before his arrival is a world of natural wealth. Two vast continents teeming with life. More than 600,000 miles of coastline are surrounded by pristine waters. Shoals so dense they are said to slow passage of ships. Countless species count in the tens of millions. Inland from the Atlantic Ocean, great forests stretch in every direction. This new world is a land of stark contrasts. From the lush jungles of South America to the glaciers of the Arctic North, and the Great Plains of the mid-West where gigantic herds thunder across North America. There is room for caribou, antelope, bison, and the giant grizzly. In the skies above, flocks of birds so great they nearly block out the sun, as millions of pigeons, ducks, and geese, cover the horizon.

No one in Europe has dared even dream of the bounty that exists on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1491, Christopher Columbus stands on the coast of Spain looking west. He dreams of leading an expedition to find a new trade route to the markets of Asia. Success will mean riches for him and the Spanish Monarchy.

 In Europe the nobles have grown wealthy trading with the East. Spices and gold, gemstones and silk, are the most lucrative goods. But the Europeans have lost the Silk Road to the Turks, and foreign trade is in decline. The wealth of kings is in danger. Isabella, Queen of Spain, is desperate to find new routes to India, and she has a plan. Isabella is the most powerful woman in Europe, a continent of expanding horizons, filled with competitive and inventive souls.

For 500 years they have been building palaces, cities, and centers of trade. Kings and Popes have raised armies to fight one another and their enemies on Europe’s borders. Nowhere else are rivalries so intense, gold-fever so widespread, religious fervor and business sense so tight wound as in Europe in 1491.

Ideas are moving forward, curiosity and the thirst for power pushes Europe’s limits. Europe is a very busy continent trying to feed a growing population of 100 million people. Natural resources are already exploited as land becomes scarce and overworked. Most of the peasants are farmers working the land that belongs to someone else, owned by the nobles or the church. Their main diet is bread and porridge, made from harvesting grains. They plant rye or wheat in winter, oats or barley in the spring. Every third year the field lies fallow to regenerate. They have learned to harvest wind and water for power. It is hard work, but good for producing higher yields in smaller spaces. This agriculture explosion has allowed the population to grow. With the help of one more important element – domesticated animals. Horses pull plows; cattle provide meat, milk, and cheese, furs and hides. The pig is a main source of meat and leather. And so too are sheep. And mules can pull a cart.  Cows also give the milk, butter, and cheese.

It is not only people domesticate animals. The big five: horses, cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep, domesticate the European landscape. They contribute to European overcrowding. In 1491, the Americas too are a crowded and prosperous place, but in a very different way.  The Andes cradle a vast empire ruled by powerful god-kings. Mesoamerica is densely populated and home to the most impressive civilizations on the continent. The Atlantic coast is filled with smaller villages and fields. And along the great rivers, great cities are built around monumental plazas. It is an ancient world populated by 100 million people. Hunters and gatherers, fishermen and farmers, kings, slaves, and soldiers.

At the point where the Missouri, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers all merge, lies one of the largest civilizations on the continent.

The native Mississippians are mound builders, who occupy a vast kingdom; ranging from the Great Lakes in the North to Florida in the South. The first of the explorers thought these great mounds were naturally occurring phenomenon, left by retreating glaciers. Now we know, they are the centers of great cities like Cahokia.  There were busy trading posts, of earth and wood, with populations that numbered up to the thousands. No one knows what they called themselves or what language they spoke. But we know why they were successful: they were farmers and their number one crop, MAIZE.