E.L.D. Cornerstone.  Life in words & pictures

HISTORY OF AMERICA

American History, Evolution of a Continent

From one continent to six: 200 - 20 million years ago

The reshaping of the surface of the earth, into the pattern now familiar to us, takes place between 200 and 20 million years ago. First south America splits from Africa and drifts westwards (it is the snug fit between their coast lines which suggests the idea of continental drift to Alfred Wegener in 1912). Then Antarctica, India and Australia separate from Africa. Antarctica moves to the south, while India and Australia drift north and east. 

Africa and India move slowly but forcefully towards Europe and Asia, reducing the Tethys Sea to its present-day remnant (the Mediterranean) and throwing up the Alps and the Himalayas from the force of the collision. 

Finally North America splits from Europe and Asia (though remaining almost linked at its northern tip), thus forming the Atlantic Ocean and completing the disposition of the continents as we know them. 

Temporary bridges: 60,000 - 10,000 years ago

The Ice Ages play an essential part in mankind's advance from Asia into both Australia and America. The effect of an ice age is to lower the sea level by 100 meters and more. This narrows the gaps between many islands and sometimes even exposes a complete land ridge. One such sunken ridge is the Sahul Shelf, under the largest stretch of sea between the Indonesian islands and Australia. Another lies between Siberia and Alaska.

The first Americans: 30,000 - 5000 years ago

During the most recent of the Ice Ages, lasting from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, an undersea ridge between Siberia and Alaska emerges from the sea. Known as the Bering Land Bridge, it lies partly south of the ice cap. It develops a steppe-like ecology of grasslands, grazed by large animals such as horses, reindeer and even mammoth. 

Gradually, in many separate incursions, the hunter-gatherers of the Siberian steppes pursue their prey across the land bridge and into America. When the melting ice submerges the bridge, about 10,000 years ago, these northeast Asians become isolated as the aboriginal Americans; of the undiscovered continent. 

The Siberian hunter-gatherers probably make their way along the north coast of Alaska and down through the valley of the Mackenzie River. Archaeological evidence shows that by about 15,000 years ago the central plains of America are widely inhabited. Traces of human activity at this time are preserved in the remarkable La Brea tar pit in Los Angeles. The glacial conditions further north mean that the central plains are at this time cool and moist. During the next 5000 years, while the glacial period continues, humans penetrate far into South America. 

The retreat of the ice caps (see Ice Ages) makes northern regions increasingly habitable both for large animals and for the humans who prey on them. By 8000 years ago hunter-gatherers have moved up the eastern side of the continent into Newfoundland and the prairie provinces of Canada. 

From about 7000 years ago human groups adapt to the conditions of the northern coast of Canada, living mainly as hunters of sea mammals. They spread gradually eastwards along the edge of the Arctic Circle, eventually reaching Greenland. These hardiest of all human settlers survive today as the Eskimo (or, in their own name for themselves, Inuit - meaning simply 'the people'). 

The first American farmers: 5000 - 2500 BC

The cultivation of crops in America begins in the Tehuacan valley, southeast of the present-day Mexico City. Squash and chili are the earliest plants to be grown - soon followed by corn (or maize) and then by beans and gourds. These are all species which need to be individually planted, rather than their seeds being scattered or sown over broken ground. This is a distinction of importance in American history, for there are no animals in America at this time strong enough to pull a plough. 

At first these crops merely supplement the food produced by hunting and gathering. But by 3000 BC the people of this area are settled agriculturalists. In this development they are followed by the hunter-gatherers of South America and then, considerably later, by some in the northern part of the continent. 

The earliest known settled community in South America is at Huaca Prieta, at the mouth of the Chicama River in Peru. By about 2500 BC the people here have as yet no corn, but they cultivate squash, gourds and chili. They also grow cotton, from which they weave a coarse cloth. 

The first American civilizations: from 1200 BC

The earliest civilization in America develops in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico. Dating from around 1200 BC, it is the achievement of the Olmec people. Their culture is contemporary with Mycenae and the Trojan War, with the spread of the Aryans through northern India and with the Shang dynasty in China. At approximately the same time the Hebrew are moving from Egypt through Sinai towards the promised land of Canaan. 

The Olmecs represent the beginning of civilization in Central America. They are followed, about three centuries later, by the earliest civilization of South America - the Chavin culture of Peru. These two first American civilizations, in Mexico and Peru, set a pattern which will last for more than 2000 years. A succession of highly developed cultures, all strongly influenced by the traditions of their predecessors, follows in the same two limited regions of the continent - in Central America (also known as Mesoamerica) and in the strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific. 

Archaeology provides evidence of these various cultures, but the only ones known about in any great detail are those surviving when the Spaniards arrive - to marvel and destroy. These are the very ancient Maya, and the relatively upstart dominant cultures of the time, the Aztecs and the Incas. 

Greenland: from the 10th century

From high ground in western Iceland the peaks of Greenland are sometimes visible, across 175 miles of water. In about981 the distant sight attracts a Viking adventurer, Eric Thorvaldsson, also known as Eric the Red. He has a reason for leaving Iceland. He has been exiled for three years as a punishment for manslaughter. Eric puts his family in a long-ship, together with their retainers and their livestock, and they sail towards the distinct peaks. They land in the southern tip of the island, near what is now Julianehaab, where they survive the necessary three years.

At the end of his exile Eric returns to Iceland to persuade more settlers to join him. With a better sense of public relations than of accuracy, he gives his territory the attractive name of Greenland. He sets off again with twenty-five long-ships, of which fourteen complete the journey (some turn back). About 350 people land with their animals. The colony survives four centuries in this inhospitable climate; eventually Greenland is abandoned in the early 15th century. Meanwhile, in the very earliest years of Greenland, an outpost settlement is briefly established in North America. 

Vinland: c.1000 - 1013

Icelandic sagas of the 13th century give various versions of how Leif, a son of Eric the Red, comes to spend a winter at a place west of Greenland which he names Vinland (the root vin in old Norse could imply either that grape vines or flat grassland characterized the place). In some accounts Leif loses his way when returning from Norway, in others he is following up reports made fifteen years earlier by Bjarni Herjolfsson, another Viking blown off course. Either way it seems likely that in about the year 1000 Leif Ericsson lands at three successive spots in North America which he calls Helluland, Markland and Vinland. There is no way of identifying them, but it is possible that they fall somewhere on the coasts of Baffin Island, Labrador and Newfoundland, as Leif makes his way southward. 

Leif returns in the following year to Greenland, but the sagas state that a few years later an Icelandic expedition - led by Thorfinn Karlsefni - establishes a new settlement at Vinland. The settlers survive only three winters, before being discouraged by the hostility of the Native Americans - called in the sagas Skraelings, or 'savages'. 

Archaeology proves that Vikings did indeed settle, however briefly, in North America. A site at L'Anse aux Meadows, in Newfoundland, has a longhouse with a great hall in Viking style. It has also yielded artifacts of a kind used in Iceland - including a soapstone spindle, suggesting that women were among the settlers. The famous Vinland map, however, has been proved a forgery.

The European invasion: 1492-1532

The two leading civilizations of 15th-century America, the Aztecs and the Incas, meet their sudden end at the hand of Spanish adventurers in 1521 and 1532 respectively. But the first people of the Americas to come face to face with the intruding Europeans are Neolithic farmers. They live on the islands which enclose the Caribbean Sea. Somewhere in the Bahamas (probably in the island known today as San Salvador) members of an Arawak tribe give a friendly welcome to strangers who arrive in October 1492.

San Salvador, Cuba and Hispaniola: 1492-1493

Columbus and the Pinzón brothers step ashore on 12 October 1492 on an island in the Bahamas. They plant in the ground the royal banner of Spain, claiming the place for Ferdinand and Isabella. They name it San Salvador, after Jesus the Savior. (It is not known which island they landed on, though one in the Bahamas now bears the name San Salvador.) 

These are not the first Europeans to reach the American continent, but they are the first to record their achievement. Columbus believes that he has reached the East Indies. Greeted by friendly inhabitants of San Salvador, he therefore describes them as Indians - an inaccurate name which has remained attached to the aboriginal peoples of the whole American continent. By the same token this region becomes known to Europe as the West Indies. 

The Tordesillas Line: 1493-1500

When Columbus returns to Spain in 1493, with the first news of the West Indies, Ferdinand and Isabella are determined to ensure that these valuable discoveries belong to them rather than to seafaring Portugal. They secure from the Borgia pope, Alexander VI, a papal bull to the effect that all lands west of a certain line shall belong exclusively to Spain (in return for converting the heathen). All those to the east of the line shall belong on the same basis to Portugal. The pope draws this line down through the Atlantic 100 leagues (300 miles) west of the Cape Verde islands, Portugal's most westerly possession. The king of Portugal, John II, protests that this trims him too tight. The line cramps the route which Portuguese sailors must take through the Atlantic before turning east round Africa. 

Spanish and Portuguese ambassadors, meeting in 1494 at Tordesillas in northwest Spain, resolve the dispute. They accept the principle of the line but agree to move it to a point 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands. The new line has a profound significance which no one as yet appreciates. It slices through the entire eastern part of South America from the mouth of the Amazon to São Paulo. The east coast of South America is first reached by Spanish and Portuguese navigators in the same year, 1500. The agreement at Tordesillas gives the territory to Portugal. 

Thus the vast area of Brazil, the largest territory of South America, becomes an exception in the subcontinent - the only part not to be in the Spanish empire, and the only modern country in Latin America with Portuguese rather than Spanish as its national language. 

Latin America and North America: 16th - 20th century

Spanish and Portuguese colonists and administrators, settling in central and south America during the 16th century, are soon followed by the French, Dutch and English staking a claim to North America. A clear pattern becomes established. The two Atlantic seaboard countries of southern Europe concentrate on the southern part of the newly found continent, while their three European neighbors to the north struggle between themselves to dominate North America. The story of the continent becomes divided into distinct parts - Latin America and North America. 

Today there seems to be a neat division between the two along the northern boundary of Mexico, but this is a relatively recent and southerly dividing line. For much of the past five centuries Latin America has extended far further to the north, encompassing the southern states of what is now the USA and the entire Pacific coast as far north as Oregon. This new division of the continent in the colonial era is accompanied by a drastic change in the make-up of America's population. 

New Americans: 16th - 19th century

The Spanish discovery of America begins the process which changes out of all recognition the population of the continent. Spanish and Portuguese colonists reduce the original inhabitants (now to become known as Indians) to an underclass in much of Latin America. In North America the smaller number of Native Americans is almost wiped out by the English colonists and their successors in the United States. 

The slave trade delivers black Africans to the continent in the 17th and 18th centuries, while hardship in Europe later brings across the Atlantic large numbers of Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Jewish immigrants. One of the world's most unmixed populations is transformed, after Columbus, into the outstanding example of ethnic diversity.