Chapter 1 Summary

North and South America were the last of the world's great landmasses to be populated. The

best bet is that, about 15,000 years ago, bands of Stone Age Hunters began to wander from Siberia to

Alaska on a "land bridge" called Beringia. The Paleo-Indians lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering

edible seeds, nuts, berries, leaves, and roots. Paleo-Indian culture diversified rapidly. The most

advanced American culture evolved in a succession of dominant peoples--Olmecs, Maya, and Aztecs.

Each Maya city-state was independent, governing a rather modest agricultural hinterland. By 1520,

most Maya were simple villagers, their large city-states undone by a number of factors. The cultural

heirs of the Olmecs and Maya were the Aztec, who immigrated to Mexico's Lake Texcoco in the 1200s.

The Aztec defeated their neighbors, only wanting submission and tribute. They were a people on edge

in 1519.

The evolution of America as we know it begins with Christopher Columbus's arrival in the

Bahamas in 1492. Columbus had sailed from Spain to find a practical sea lane to the Indies in part out of

religious motivations but also because of greed. The goods of the Indies had trickled into Europe for

centuries but were expensive due to the costs of travel and the profits taken by middlemen.

Portugal was the first to look for new trade routes. Henry the Navigator organized expeditions

to explore the African coast. By 1488, Bartholomeu Diaz had reached Africa's southern extremity.

Another decade later, Vasco da Gama reached India and established a Portuguese presence in the Far

East. Columbus believed it would be faster to travel west and was able to secure funding from Queen

Isabella of Spain. To the day he died, Columbus insisted he had reached some of the islands that ringed

East Asia. Until 1521, knowing Spaniards considered Columbus's islands of little value.

Hernan Cortes's arrival ended Spain's envy of Portugal's commerical empire. Initially welcomed

into Tenochtitlan, the Aztec turned against Cortes and his army in 1520. Cortes returned with Indian
allies and Spanish reinforcements to take the city a year later. The traditional submissiveness of the

common people made it possible for the Spanish to rule with minimal resistance. Thousands of men

rushed to the Americas to find their own Mexicos. Spain's rulers encouraged conquest by granting

conquistadors the lion's share of the gold and silver they won. However, only Francisco Pizzaro was as

successful as Cortes when he conquered the Incas. The resulting gold and silver made Spain the richest

and most powerful nation in Europe. Despite the "black legend" of Spanish cruelty, the atrocities they

perpetrated were close to the norm.

Columbus's voyage established a biological pipeline between the Old World and the New.

Europeans brought new domesticated mammals and valuable grains. In return, American plant foods

revolutionized the European, African, and Asian diets. The most tragic, of the intercontinental

transactions, however, was in the many diseases that the Europeans brought over. America's microbic

revenge was venereal disease.