The history of Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans to the New World

- Estimation of 12,000-14,000 civilization expanded into the New World

- Around 9,000 B.C the migration reached the southern tip of South America
- By the first contact with Europe, there was already millions living in the New World
- In the long term the natives were dominated by Europeans, it was a very violent affair
- Diseases rapidly killed many natives
- Weren’t able to eliminate the influence of the “Indians”
The varied societies, populations, and cultures of Native Americans at the time of Columbus
- Peru, Incas had roughly 6 million population
The economic, demographic, and political changes in Western Europe that spurred colonization of
new lands
The rise of the Spanish Empire, from Christopher Columbus to the age of “conquistadors”
The evolution of the Spanish Empire’s treatment of Native American peoples
The biological and cultural exchanges between the New and Old Worlds, including the diseases and
crops brought from Europe
The African cultures from which black slaves were taken, and the early development of the African
slave trade
The economic and religious motives propelling English colonization of the New World
The early experience of the French and Dutch in North America
The first efforts of the English to establish a colony in the New World, the lessons they took from their
experience in Ireland, and the reasons for their early failures