The birth of biology: 5th - 4th century BC
The Greek philosophers, voracious in their curiosity, look with interest at the range of living creatures, from the humblest plant to man himself. A Greek name is coined by a German naturalist in the early 19th century for this study of all physical aspects of natural life - biology, frombios (life) andlogos (word or discourse). It is a subject with clear subdivisions, such as botany, zoology or anatomy. But all are concerned with living organisms.
The first man to make a significant contribution in biology is Alcmaeon, living inCrotona in the 5th century. Crotona is famous at the time for its Pythagorean scholars, but Alcmaeon seems not to have been of their school.
Alcmaeon is the first scientist known to have practised dissection in his researches. His aim is not anatomical, for his interest lies in trying to find the whereabouts of human intelligence. But in the course of his researches he makes the first scientific discoveries in the field of anatomy.
The subsequent Greek theory, subscribed to even byAristotle, is that the heart is the seat of intelligence. Alcmaeon reasons that since a blow to the head can affect the mind, in concussion, this must be where reason lies. In dissecting corpses to pursue this idea, he observes passages linking the brain with the eyes (the optic nerves) and the back of the mouth with the ears (Eustachian tubes).
Human vivisection: c.300 BC
Early in the 3rd century BC two surgeons in Alexandria, Herophilus and Erasistratus, make the first scientific studies designed to discover the workings of human anatomy.
The cost of their contribution to science would be considered too high in modern times (they acquire much of their information from Human vivisection, the patients being convicted criminals). But Celsus, a Roman writer on medical history, energetically justifies the suffering of the criminals as providing 'remedies for innocent people of all future ages'.
The influential errors of Galen: 2nd century AD
The newly appointed chief physician to the gladiators in Pergamum, in AD 158, is a native of the city. He is a Greek doctor by the name of Galen. The appointment gives him the opportunity to study wounds of all kinds. His knowledge of muscles enables him to warn his patients of the likely outcome of certain operations - a wise precaution recommended in Galen'sAdvice to doctors.
But it is Galen's dissection of apes and pigs which give him the detailed information for his medical tracts on the organs of the body. Nearly 100 of these tracts survive. They become the basis of Galen's great reputation in medieval medicine, unchallenged until the anatomical work ofVesalius.
Through his experiments Galen is able to overturn many long-held beliefs, such as the theory (first proposed by the Hippocratic school in about 400 BC, and maintained even by the physicians ofAlexandria) that the arteries contain air - carrying it to all parts of the body from the heart and the lungs. This belief is based originally on the arteries of dead animals, which appear to be empty.
Galen is able to demonstrate that living arteries contain blood. His error, which will become the established medical orthodoxy for centuries, is to assume that the blood goes back and forth from the heart in an ebb-and-flow motion. This theory holds sway in medical circles until the time of Harvey.
Science's siesta: 8th - 15th century
In the profoundly Christian centuries of the European Middle Ages the prevailing mood is not conducive to scientific enquiry. God knows best, and so He should - since He created everything. Where practical knowledge is required, there are ancient authorities whose conclusions are accepted without question -Ptolemy in the field of astronomy,Galen on matters anatomical.
A few untypical scholars show an interest in scientific research. The 13th-century Franciscan friar Roger Bacon is the most often quoted example, but his studies include alchemy and astrology as well as optics and astronomy. The practical scepticism required for science must await the Renaissance.
Showing posts with label Histories Of The World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Histories Of The World. Show all posts
Sunday, 28 February 2016
HISTORY OF ANATOLIA
Centre of innovation: from 7000 BC
The high plateau between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean is the setting for many of the most significant advances ofneolithic manand his successors in the early stages of civilization.
In the use of metals Anatolia is regularly first, or among the first.Copperimplements are found here from around 7000 BC.Bronze is used in the 3rd millennium BC, later than Sumeria but not by much. Iron is first worked here, in about 1500 BC.
One of the world's first towns, Catal Huyuk, is on the southern edge of the Anatolian plateau. Excavation has revealed evidence of quite developed agricultural communities living on this site from about 6500 to 5700 BC.
Several millennia later Anatolia is the site of the first of the many empires established byIndo-European tribes - eventually the dominant group in the Eurasian land mass all the way from the Atlantic to India. These first Indo-European conquerors, ruling Anatolia from the 17th to 12th century BC, are the Hittites.
Troy: 1900-1250 BC
Contemporary with the Hittites, but controlling a much smaller tract of territory in the northwest of Anatolia, are the Trojans. They too are an Indo-European tribe, arriving in the region in about 1900 BC. Troy is ideally placed to prosper from trade, being on the north-south sea link between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and on the east-west land route between Asia and Europe.
Troy survives many disasters, including several major fires, but none is so destructive as the sacking of the town by Greeks, in about 1250 BC, in the Trojan War. Not long after this the Hittites too are destroyed, by marauders from the coasts of Anatolia known as the Sea Peoples.
Ionia and Lydia: 8th - 6th century BC
The centuries after the collapse of both Hittitesand Trojans are unsettled ones. Stability begins to return to Anatolia, at any rate on the west coast, with the establishment of Greek colonies. The most important of these is Ionia. Consisting originally of many small independent settlements, Ionia emerges in the 8th century as a league of twelve cities which between them dominate western Anatolia. Some, such as Miletus, will take a prominent role in the spread of Greek civilization.
The region becomes known at this time by its classical name, Asia Minor - accurately acknowledging that this is indeed a small appendage of Asia, dangerously exposed to the east. At present the threat comes from Lydia.
Lydia emerges in the 7th century BC as a rich and powerful state in the interior of Anatolia, with its capital at Sardis. The last king of Lydia, Croesus, has survived in popular memory as a man of legendary wealth (he is the first ruler in history to mint coins of gold and silver).
The Lydians raid into Ionia, with increasing success. By the mid-6th century Croesus controls Ephesus and many other Greek cities in Asia Minor. But in 546 he is defeated by a greater conqueror from the east,Cyrus. Within a year or two the Persian empire has engulfed Ionia. Greek civilization is confronted with its defining challenge.
Fault line between empires: 6th c. BC - 15th c. AD
With the rise of the Persian empire to the east, and the combined strength of Greece to the west, Anatolia acquires the role which it will fulfil through much of history - that of a buffer state, over which the powers of southeast Europe and southwest Asia repeatedly clash.
The prolonged struggle of theGreco-Persian wars is finally resolved in Greece's favour, in the late 4th century BC, whenAlexander the Great marches east. But for the subsequent three centuries Anatolia is disputed betweenHellenistic rulers, competing for the scraps of Alexander's territorial acquisitions.
By the 1st century BC a new western force is securely in place. The Roman empire has extended its rule to the eastern Mediterranean coast. The Roman legions hold Anatolia with little more than occasional corrective expeditions (of which Caesar'sVeni, vidi, vicirecords one rapid triumph). Nevertheless, successive empires in Persia remain a constant threat. In the 7th century AD, on two separate occasions, Persian armies reach the walls of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople.
The 7th century also sees the rise of a new force which will eventually wrest Anatolia from theByzantine empire, making it instead the heart of a Turkish empire.
Within fifty years of the death of Muhammad, the Muslims are threatening Anatolia. They attack Constantinople in 673. This proves a campaign too far, and Anatolia remains within the Christian empire. But just to the east of Anatolia, Syria and Armenia are lost to Islam.
By the end of the 11th century Muslim Turkish tribes have infiltrated much of Anatolia. The entire region becomes, once again, a shifting frontier between two great power blocs - representing now Christianity and Islam. Muslim victory in the struggle is finally assured with thefall of Constantinoplein 1453. Anatolia becomes the centre of aTurkish empire, and today comprises most of modern Turkey.
The high plateau between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean is the setting for many of the most significant advances ofneolithic manand his successors in the early stages of civilization.
In the use of metals Anatolia is regularly first, or among the first.Copperimplements are found here from around 7000 BC.Bronze is used in the 3rd millennium BC, later than Sumeria but not by much. Iron is first worked here, in about 1500 BC.
One of the world's first towns, Catal Huyuk, is on the southern edge of the Anatolian plateau. Excavation has revealed evidence of quite developed agricultural communities living on this site from about 6500 to 5700 BC.Several millennia later Anatolia is the site of the first of the many empires established byIndo-European tribes - eventually the dominant group in the Eurasian land mass all the way from the Atlantic to India. These first Indo-European conquerors, ruling Anatolia from the 17th to 12th century BC, are the Hittites.
Troy: 1900-1250 BC
Contemporary with the Hittites, but controlling a much smaller tract of territory in the northwest of Anatolia, are the Trojans. They too are an Indo-European tribe, arriving in the region in about 1900 BC. Troy is ideally placed to prosper from trade, being on the north-south sea link between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and on the east-west land route between Asia and Europe.
Troy survives many disasters, including several major fires, but none is so destructive as the sacking of the town by Greeks, in about 1250 BC, in the Trojan War. Not long after this the Hittites too are destroyed, by marauders from the coasts of Anatolia known as the Sea Peoples.
Ionia and Lydia: 8th - 6th century BC
The centuries after the collapse of both Hittitesand Trojans are unsettled ones. Stability begins to return to Anatolia, at any rate on the west coast, with the establishment of Greek colonies. The most important of these is Ionia. Consisting originally of many small independent settlements, Ionia emerges in the 8th century as a league of twelve cities which between them dominate western Anatolia. Some, such as Miletus, will take a prominent role in the spread of Greek civilization.
The region becomes known at this time by its classical name, Asia Minor - accurately acknowledging that this is indeed a small appendage of Asia, dangerously exposed to the east. At present the threat comes from Lydia.
Lydia emerges in the 7th century BC as a rich and powerful state in the interior of Anatolia, with its capital at Sardis. The last king of Lydia, Croesus, has survived in popular memory as a man of legendary wealth (he is the first ruler in history to mint coins of gold and silver).
The Lydians raid into Ionia, with increasing success. By the mid-6th century Croesus controls Ephesus and many other Greek cities in Asia Minor. But in 546 he is defeated by a greater conqueror from the east,Cyrus. Within a year or two the Persian empire has engulfed Ionia. Greek civilization is confronted with its defining challenge.
Fault line between empires: 6th c. BC - 15th c. AD
With the rise of the Persian empire to the east, and the combined strength of Greece to the west, Anatolia acquires the role which it will fulfil through much of history - that of a buffer state, over which the powers of southeast Europe and southwest Asia repeatedly clash.
The prolonged struggle of theGreco-Persian wars is finally resolved in Greece's favour, in the late 4th century BC, whenAlexander the Great marches east. But for the subsequent three centuries Anatolia is disputed betweenHellenistic rulers, competing for the scraps of Alexander's territorial acquisitions.
By the 1st century BC a new western force is securely in place. The Roman empire has extended its rule to the eastern Mediterranean coast. The Roman legions hold Anatolia with little more than occasional corrective expeditions (of which Caesar'sVeni, vidi, vicirecords one rapid triumph). Nevertheless, successive empires in Persia remain a constant threat. In the 7th century AD, on two separate occasions, Persian armies reach the walls of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople.
The 7th century also sees the rise of a new force which will eventually wrest Anatolia from theByzantine empire, making it instead the heart of a Turkish empire.
Within fifty years of the death of Muhammad, the Muslims are threatening Anatolia. They attack Constantinople in 673. This proves a campaign too far, and Anatolia remains within the Christian empire. But just to the east of Anatolia, Syria and Armenia are lost to Islam.
By the end of the 11th century Muslim Turkish tribes have infiltrated much of Anatolia. The entire region becomes, once again, a shifting frontier between two great power blocs - representing now Christianity and Islam. Muslim victory in the struggle is finally assured with thefall of Constantinoplein 1453. Anatolia becomes the centre of aTurkish empire, and today comprises most of modern Turkey.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
A mood of rebellion: 1763-1770
During the years after the end of the French and Indian War there is mounting tension between Britain and her American colonies. The contentious issues are British taxes and the presence of British troops on American soil. Unrest centres particularly on the most radical of the colonial cities, Boston.
In 1770 there is an incident in Boston of a kind familiar in northern Ireland two centuries later. An unruly crowd throws stones at the much resented troops. The soldiers open fire, killing five. The event becomes famous in folk history as the Boston Massacre. Even more famous, three years later, is Boston's response to cargoes of tea which are subject to the most resented of British taxes.
Boston Tea Party: 1773
Early in December 1773 three East India Companyships are in Boston harbour, waiting for their cargo of tea to be unloaded. No one will take it off the ship, because it will pay British duty as soon as it is transferred to American soil. However, if it is still in the harbour on December 17, the cargo can be legally seized by the British customs and sold.
At a mass meeting in Boston on the evening of December 16 the question is pointedly raised: 'Who knows how tea will mingle with salt water?' Soon some Bostonians appear, roughly disguised as Indians. With the 'Indians' in the lead, the crowd marches to the harbour, boards the ships, and throws some 350 chests of tea into the water.
The night ends with a triumphal march through Boston to the accompaniment of fife and drum. The exciting news spreads rapidly through the colonies, but it takes more than a month for details to reach London of this direct act of defiance. The response of the prime minister, Lord North, is that the time for conciliation has passed. As an example to the other colonies, Boston must be brought to heel.
A succession of acts are passed in London during the summer of 1774. Known officially as the Coercive Acts (but in America as the Intolerable Acts), their purpose is to punish Boston - at the very least until compensation for the tea is paid to the East India Company.
The first of these parliamentary acts closes Boston's port. Subsequent ones place the city under the military command of General Thomas Gage and provide new arrangements for the quartering of troops. It is a policy which can only inflame the situation.
In colony after colony during 1774 provincial assemblies voice their support for Boston, bringing them into direct conflict with their own British governors - who in some cases use their powers to dissolve the assemblies. As a result a new idea gains rapid and excited support. Each colony is invited to send delegates to a congress in Philadelphia in September. Only Georgia hangs back from this next act of defiance.
First Continental Congress: 1774
Fifty-six delegates from twelve colonies convene in Philadelphia. They are leaders of their own communities (George Washington is here for Virginia). Their voices will carry weight, and the message that they send to Britain is uncompromising.
They state that the recent measures passed into law at Westminster violate natural rights (a theme developed two years later in theDeclaration of Independence) and that as such they are unconstitutional. They declare their united support for Massachusetts. In more practical terms they announce a joint boycott, from December, of all imported goods from Britain and the British West Indies. It is to be followed nine months later by a similar block on exports to those markets from America.
The delegates agree to reconvene in May 1775, but it is clear that the Congress has made war probable. This is welcome news to half the American colonists, who become known as the Patriots. Those who still hope to find an accomodation with Britain (perhaps 25% of the population) acquire the name of Loyalists.
The Patriots spend the winter in preparation, and events soon prove they are right to do so. An exasperated parliament in London decides that more forceful measures are needed. General Gage, commanding the redcoats in Boston, is sent an order to employ his troops more forcefully. He decides to make a surprise raid on the Patriots' stock of military supplies in Massachusetts.
Lexington and Concord: 1775
The target of General Gage's supposedly secret foray is a store of weapons held at Concord, twenty miles northwest of Boston. But the secret leaks out. When a force of 700 redcoats moves from the city, a horseman gallops from Boston to warn the local Patriots of their approach.
Popular tradition has long identified the horseman as the distinguishedHuguenotsilversmith Paul Revere. The tradition may well be correct. Revere, one of the 'Indians' taking part in the Tea Party of 1773, often rides with urgent messages from Boston's Committee of Public Safety.
On April 19 the redcoats reach Lexington, on the road to Concord. They find some seventy-five minutemen (the local name for volunteers ready to mobilize at a moment's notice) waiting to oppose their passage. It is not known who fires the first shot - later immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as 'the shot heard round the world'. But after a brief engagement eight minutemen are dead and ten wounded.
The British contingent marches on to Concord, only to find that all the weapons have been removed. Meanwhile the Massachusetts militia has assembled in force. The redcoats suffer heavily from snipers on the journey back to Boston. The American Revolution, also known as the War of American Independence, has begun.
Second Continental Congress: 1775
When the delegates of the continental congress reconvene as planned, in May 1775, hostilities have already broken out in the skirmish at Lexington. These are followed by a great mustering of militiamen of Massachusetts, soon joined by supporters from neighbouring colonies.
This American volunteer army is laying siege to British-held Boston when the delegates assemble in Philadelphia. These events transform their congress into a de facto government of the united colonies, with responsibility for conducting the military campaign. Their first duty is to select a commander-in-chief of the colonial army, to take charge of the campaign at Boston.
On June 15, after much preliminary negotiation, the choice falls on George Washington. He has his own past military successes to recommend him, but his selection also fulfils a political necessity in that he comes from the south. The present quarrel involves the most populous and prosperous northern colony, Massachusetts. Virginia has the same status among the southern colonies.
If north and south are to cooperate in a shared cause, it is appropriate that a southern general commands the northern militia (formally adopted by the congress on May 31 as the Continental Army). Within a few days of his appointment, Washington travels north to take up his post.
Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights: 1775-1776
Two weeks before Washington reaches Boston, an important engagement has taken place on Bunker Hill (or more accurately Breed's Hill) - a height overlooking the city from the north. Colonial troops occupy and fortify this vantage point, constituting a threat to the British in the city.
On June 17 the British storm the hill. They eventually succeed in taking it, but only after a battle so hard fought (some 1000 British casualties to only about 450 American) that it seems a victory for the amateur colonial militia rather than the British regulars. Certainly Washington is impressed by the spirit of the men he has come to command.
Washington spends the rest of 1775 training his troops, who number some 20,000. He also arranges for the transport, over difficult roads, of cannon captured by the colonists when they seize Fort Ticonderoga in a surprise attack in May 1775. On the first day of 1776 Washington flies for the first time a new colonial flag. With thirteen alternating red and white stripes, one for each of the colonies, the design evolves a year later into theStars and Stripes.
To the south of Boston, overlooking the harbour, there is a promontory - Dorchester Heights - which has been inexplicably left undefended by the British. During the night of 4 March 1776 Washington moves his Ticonderoga cannon up the slopes of this hill.
From his commanding position Washington can now make the harbour unsafe for British naval vessels. The move proves decisive. On March 17 the British in Boston (by now under the command of William Howe) evacuate the city and sail to safety in Nova Scotia. They leave in the city two hundred cannon and large numbers of muskets with their ammunition - valuable additions to the American arsenal.
Washington, anticipating that New York is the next likely target for a British assault, marches to its defence. After settling his army in Manhattan and on Brooklyn Heights, he continues south to spend two weeks at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The subject under discussion is a contentious one - independence.
Steps to independence: 1775-1776
During the eleven-month siege of Boston there have been significant political developments on the wider stage. Hopes that parliament in Britain might adopt a more conciliatory tone are dashed by the declaration in August 1775 that the American colonies are in a state of rebellion. This is followed by a Prohibitory Act in November instituting a naval blockade of the American coastline.
Meanwhile the congress in Philadelphia is still in session. It is carrying out the practical activities associated with government - organizing public finances, issuing money, running a postal service, placing orders for munitions, even commissioning the first colonial navy.
Increasingly, during these months, colonists are coming to the view that a complete break from Britain may be the only way forward. In May 1776 the revolutionary convention of Virginia votes for independence and instructs the Virginia delegation to present this motion to the Continental Congress. Early in June, in Philadelphia, a small committee is set up to draft a declaration of independence. Its five members include Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The task of composing the document is left to Jefferson. It is passed on June 12 as the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
This powerful move towards independence comes to a head in early July. In the month between July 2 and August 2 the final break is proposed, proclaimed and eventually signed as the Declaration of Independence.
Declaration of Independence: 1776
The real date of American independence from Britain is 2 July 1776 - the day on which Virginia's resolution is put to the congress of thirteen colonies and is passed 'unanimously' (though New York in fact abstains). The resolution states uncompromisingly: 'That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be totally dissolved.'
Jefferson's document is already to hand, expressing this stark political fact in more philosophical terms. It is presented to the congress two days later.
In his Declaration of Independence Jefferson affirms political theories which have been current since Locke argued (in support of theRevolution of 1688) that the legitimacy of government is based on the consent of the governed. In Jefferson's resounding words: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness' and that 'to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed'.
Congress accepts this document on July 4. Its inspirational quality rightly makes that the date of America's Independence Day.
On July 9 the text of the Declaration of Independence is declaimed in public before George Washington's army, now defending New York. Taking this as the necessary act of public proclamation, the congress orders on July 19 that an appropriate document shall now be prepared. The text begins to be written on a large piece of parchment.
By August 2 it is ready to be signed. The signing is fairly haphazard. Those who happen to be at the congress on that day sign it, though several of them were not present when it was voted through on July 4. Signatures of absent delegates continue to be added into 1777.
The first to sign the Declaration is John Hancock (causing his name later to become a slang term for a signature). While the delegates sign, Benjamin Franklin makes a famous observation - as alarmingly true as it is witty. He points out that they are putting their names to a document which, if they lose the war, will be deemed highly seditious. 'We must indeed all hang together,' says Franklin. 'Or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately'.
Within a few months of Franklin's remark the prospects look very bleak indeed. George Washington loses New York to the British and retreats towards Philadelphia with a severely depleted army.
New York, Philadelphia and Saratoga: 1776-1777
George Washington's defence of New York in 1776 and subsequently of Philadelphia in 1777 do not rank among his successes. In a series of engagements between August and November 1776 he is driven first from Long Island and then from Manhattan Island with heavy losses of men (mainly captured rather than killed).
On his retreat southwards in midwinter, with an army of only about 6000, he achieves two psychologically important victories by surprise attacks on isolated sections of the British army at Trenton and then at Princeton. These successes raise the colonial morale, and help Washington to recruit more forces. But they are followed by a further disaster in 1777.
Philadelphia, as the first city of America and the seat of the Continental Congress, has great symbolic importance. Intent on capturing it, Howe brings his army down from New York by sea in the summer of 1777, landing them at the head of Chesapeake Bay. Washington attempts to block their progress to Philadelphia but is severely defeated in a battle at Brandywine (in which the 20-year-oldLafayette fights bravely and is wounded, marking the first appearance of the hero of two revolutions). The congress delegates make a hurried escape from Philadelphia, which the British enter in triumph in September.
Yet the triumph proves hollow. In the same month another British army, under John Burgoyne, is in trouble north of Albany.
Burgoyne has made a difficult march south from Quebec as part of a strategy to join up with Howe, moving north from New York. The plan is to isolate the New England colonies. But Howe has instead gone south to Philadelphia. Burgoyne is unsupported, short of food and ammunition. After defeat in two battles near Saratoga, in September and October 1777, he surrenders to a larger American force under Horatio Gates.
Less than 6000 men are involved, but the propaganda benefit to the colonial cause is incalculable. Indeed Saratoga can be seen as the turning point in the war. The surrender of an entire British army to rebellious colonists attracts the serious attention of a nation with no love for Britain. France begins to negotiate an American alliance.
The international phase: 1778-1781
A French treaty with the colonists is agreed in February 1778 and two months later a large French fleet sails for America. In the following year, in the established tradition of Bourbon family compacts, France persuades a reluctant Spain to join the fray (as the major colonial power in America, Spain is understandably wary of taking up arms on behalf of rebels).
These developments transform the war between Britain and the colonists. Up to this point the British have been able to ship troops and supplies across the Atlantic with no obstacle other than the elements. Now there are hostile French and Spanish fleets to contend with.
There is even the unexpected affront of warships from the infant American navy sailing from French ports to carry out raids on the coastal regions of Britain. The first American naval hero, John Paul Jones, makes successful sorties in the spring of 1778 and the autumn of 1779, seizing British vessels and launching sudden raids inland. The second voyage ends with the dramatic encounter between theBonhomme Richard and theSerapis off Flamborough Head.
But the new French alliance has its greatest effect on military strategy in America. The main strategic aim of both sides, from 1778 to the end of the war, is to ensure that armies are well placed to receive naval support.
The first dramatic example of this is the sudden British departure from Philadelphia in 1778. Advance news of the expected arrival of the French fleet in the Chesapeake is enough to terrify the British, facing the possible prospect of being cut off in hostile territory without any source of supplies. They leave the city and march northeast to greater safety in New York.
This setback, combined with stalemate in the northern colonies, prompts a new British strategy - that of moving troops south by sea to attack the weaker southern colonies. But, after some striking initial successes, this is the campaign which eventually loses the war for Britain.
In December 1778 a British expeditionary force of 3500 men from New York lands in Georgia and captures Savannah. During 1779 the British win control of the whole of Georgia. In 1780, after shipping more troops to the region, they move into South Carolina. Charleston is taken in May 1780, and some 5000 American troops are captured in the city, after a siege of more than a month by both land and sea.
From this point the British, under the command now of Charles Cornwallis, face increasingly strong opposition as they press on into North Carolina. There are numerous bitterly fought skirmishes, often in the nature of civil war, because theLoyalists in this region are very active in support of the British.
Yorktown: 1781
The final result of the campaigns of 1780 and 1781 is that Cornwallis presses too far north, deep into Virginia, and finds himself isolated. He moves his army to Yorktown, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, and sets about fortifying this position as one where he can survive until relieved by a fleet from New York.
Meanwhile George Washington has been waiting to mount a joint operation with the French navy. Seeing his chance in the plight of Cornwallis, he arranges a rendezvous in the Chesapeake with the admiral commanding a French fleet in the West Indies. He then marches an army south through New Jersey and embarks them on ships in Delaware Bay for transport to Williamsburg, a few miles west of Yorktown.
By the end of September 1781 Washington is besieging Yorktown with an army of about 14,000 men (including 5000 French troops) and the French fleet is completing the blockade by sea. With no practical hope of any relief from New York, Cornwallis surrenders on October 19.
This effectively brings to an end the war of the American Revolution. The European nations continue to scrap at sea (Spain takes Minorca back from the British in 1782), but Yorktown is the last engagement of the war in America. The British drag their heels in evacuating their two prizes of the campaign - they remain in Charleston until November 1782 and in New York until October 1783. By then a peace treaty has been signed in Paris.
Independence achieved: 1783
The treaty signed in Paris on 3 September 1783 brings the American Revolution to its successful conclusion. The American commissioners in the negotiations (Benjamin Franklin and John Adams among their number) win extremely good terms for the new nation. Its independence is acknowledged without reservation, and its agreed frontiers are unexpectedly generous.
To the coastal strip of the thirteen colonies is now added the entire region west as far as the Mississippi and north to the Great Lakes. This was the area bitterly fought over between Britain and Francein 1754-60. It now falls to the colonists as an immensely rich area available for westward expansion.
During the years after the end of the French and Indian War there is mounting tension between Britain and her American colonies. The contentious issues are British taxes and the presence of British troops on American soil. Unrest centres particularly on the most radical of the colonial cities, Boston.In 1770 there is an incident in Boston of a kind familiar in northern Ireland two centuries later. An unruly crowd throws stones at the much resented troops. The soldiers open fire, killing five. The event becomes famous in folk history as the Boston Massacre. Even more famous, three years later, is Boston's response to cargoes of tea which are subject to the most resented of British taxes.
Boston Tea Party: 1773
Early in December 1773 three East India Companyships are in Boston harbour, waiting for their cargo of tea to be unloaded. No one will take it off the ship, because it will pay British duty as soon as it is transferred to American soil. However, if it is still in the harbour on December 17, the cargo can be legally seized by the British customs and sold.
At a mass meeting in Boston on the evening of December 16 the question is pointedly raised: 'Who knows how tea will mingle with salt water?' Soon some Bostonians appear, roughly disguised as Indians. With the 'Indians' in the lead, the crowd marches to the harbour, boards the ships, and throws some 350 chests of tea into the water.
The night ends with a triumphal march through Boston to the accompaniment of fife and drum. The exciting news spreads rapidly through the colonies, but it takes more than a month for details to reach London of this direct act of defiance. The response of the prime minister, Lord North, is that the time for conciliation has passed. As an example to the other colonies, Boston must be brought to heel.
A succession of acts are passed in London during the summer of 1774. Known officially as the Coercive Acts (but in America as the Intolerable Acts), their purpose is to punish Boston - at the very least until compensation for the tea is paid to the East India Company.
The first of these parliamentary acts closes Boston's port. Subsequent ones place the city under the military command of General Thomas Gage and provide new arrangements for the quartering of troops. It is a policy which can only inflame the situation.
In colony after colony during 1774 provincial assemblies voice their support for Boston, bringing them into direct conflict with their own British governors - who in some cases use their powers to dissolve the assemblies. As a result a new idea gains rapid and excited support. Each colony is invited to send delegates to a congress in Philadelphia in September. Only Georgia hangs back from this next act of defiance.
First Continental Congress: 1774
Fifty-six delegates from twelve colonies convene in Philadelphia. They are leaders of their own communities (George Washington is here for Virginia). Their voices will carry weight, and the message that they send to Britain is uncompromising.They state that the recent measures passed into law at Westminster violate natural rights (a theme developed two years later in theDeclaration of Independence) and that as such they are unconstitutional. They declare their united support for Massachusetts. In more practical terms they announce a joint boycott, from December, of all imported goods from Britain and the British West Indies. It is to be followed nine months later by a similar block on exports to those markets from America.
The delegates agree to reconvene in May 1775, but it is clear that the Congress has made war probable. This is welcome news to half the American colonists, who become known as the Patriots. Those who still hope to find an accomodation with Britain (perhaps 25% of the population) acquire the name of Loyalists.
The Patriots spend the winter in preparation, and events soon prove they are right to do so. An exasperated parliament in London decides that more forceful measures are needed. General Gage, commanding the redcoats in Boston, is sent an order to employ his troops more forcefully. He decides to make a surprise raid on the Patriots' stock of military supplies in Massachusetts.
Lexington and Concord: 1775
The target of General Gage's supposedly secret foray is a store of weapons held at Concord, twenty miles northwest of Boston. But the secret leaks out. When a force of 700 redcoats moves from the city, a horseman gallops from Boston to warn the local Patriots of their approach.
Popular tradition has long identified the horseman as the distinguishedHuguenotsilversmith Paul Revere. The tradition may well be correct. Revere, one of the 'Indians' taking part in the Tea Party of 1773, often rides with urgent messages from Boston's Committee of Public Safety.
On April 19 the redcoats reach Lexington, on the road to Concord. They find some seventy-five minutemen (the local name for volunteers ready to mobilize at a moment's notice) waiting to oppose their passage. It is not known who fires the first shot - later immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as 'the shot heard round the world'. But after a brief engagement eight minutemen are dead and ten wounded.
The British contingent marches on to Concord, only to find that all the weapons have been removed. Meanwhile the Massachusetts militia has assembled in force. The redcoats suffer heavily from snipers on the journey back to Boston. The American Revolution, also known as the War of American Independence, has begun.
Second Continental Congress: 1775
When the delegates of the continental congress reconvene as planned, in May 1775, hostilities have already broken out in the skirmish at Lexington. These are followed by a great mustering of militiamen of Massachusetts, soon joined by supporters from neighbouring colonies.
This American volunteer army is laying siege to British-held Boston when the delegates assemble in Philadelphia. These events transform their congress into a de facto government of the united colonies, with responsibility for conducting the military campaign. Their first duty is to select a commander-in-chief of the colonial army, to take charge of the campaign at Boston.
On June 15, after much preliminary negotiation, the choice falls on George Washington. He has his own past military successes to recommend him, but his selection also fulfils a political necessity in that he comes from the south. The present quarrel involves the most populous and prosperous northern colony, Massachusetts. Virginia has the same status among the southern colonies.
If north and south are to cooperate in a shared cause, it is appropriate that a southern general commands the northern militia (formally adopted by the congress on May 31 as the Continental Army). Within a few days of his appointment, Washington travels north to take up his post.
Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights: 1775-1776
Two weeks before Washington reaches Boston, an important engagement has taken place on Bunker Hill (or more accurately Breed's Hill) - a height overlooking the city from the north. Colonial troops occupy and fortify this vantage point, constituting a threat to the British in the city.
On June 17 the British storm the hill. They eventually succeed in taking it, but only after a battle so hard fought (some 1000 British casualties to only about 450 American) that it seems a victory for the amateur colonial militia rather than the British regulars. Certainly Washington is impressed by the spirit of the men he has come to command.
Washington spends the rest of 1775 training his troops, who number some 20,000. He also arranges for the transport, over difficult roads, of cannon captured by the colonists when they seize Fort Ticonderoga in a surprise attack in May 1775. On the first day of 1776 Washington flies for the first time a new colonial flag. With thirteen alternating red and white stripes, one for each of the colonies, the design evolves a year later into theStars and Stripes.
To the south of Boston, overlooking the harbour, there is a promontory - Dorchester Heights - which has been inexplicably left undefended by the British. During the night of 4 March 1776 Washington moves his Ticonderoga cannon up the slopes of this hill.
From his commanding position Washington can now make the harbour unsafe for British naval vessels. The move proves decisive. On March 17 the British in Boston (by now under the command of William Howe) evacuate the city and sail to safety in Nova Scotia. They leave in the city two hundred cannon and large numbers of muskets with their ammunition - valuable additions to the American arsenal.
Washington, anticipating that New York is the next likely target for a British assault, marches to its defence. After settling his army in Manhattan and on Brooklyn Heights, he continues south to spend two weeks at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The subject under discussion is a contentious one - independence.
Steps to independence: 1775-1776
During the eleven-month siege of Boston there have been significant political developments on the wider stage. Hopes that parliament in Britain might adopt a more conciliatory tone are dashed by the declaration in August 1775 that the American colonies are in a state of rebellion. This is followed by a Prohibitory Act in November instituting a naval blockade of the American coastline.
Meanwhile the congress in Philadelphia is still in session. It is carrying out the practical activities associated with government - organizing public finances, issuing money, running a postal service, placing orders for munitions, even commissioning the first colonial navy.
Increasingly, during these months, colonists are coming to the view that a complete break from Britain may be the only way forward. In May 1776 the revolutionary convention of Virginia votes for independence and instructs the Virginia delegation to present this motion to the Continental Congress. Early in June, in Philadelphia, a small committee is set up to draft a declaration of independence. Its five members include Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The task of composing the document is left to Jefferson. It is passed on June 12 as the Virginia Declaration of Rights.This powerful move towards independence comes to a head in early July. In the month between July 2 and August 2 the final break is proposed, proclaimed and eventually signed as the Declaration of Independence.
Declaration of Independence: 1776
The real date of American independence from Britain is 2 July 1776 - the day on which Virginia's resolution is put to the congress of thirteen colonies and is passed 'unanimously' (though New York in fact abstains). The resolution states uncompromisingly: 'That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be totally dissolved.'
Jefferson's document is already to hand, expressing this stark political fact in more philosophical terms. It is presented to the congress two days later.
In his Declaration of Independence Jefferson affirms political theories which have been current since Locke argued (in support of theRevolution of 1688) that the legitimacy of government is based on the consent of the governed. In Jefferson's resounding words: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness' and that 'to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed'.
Congress accepts this document on July 4. Its inspirational quality rightly makes that the date of America's Independence Day.
On July 9 the text of the Declaration of Independence is declaimed in public before George Washington's army, now defending New York. Taking this as the necessary act of public proclamation, the congress orders on July 19 that an appropriate document shall now be prepared. The text begins to be written on a large piece of parchment.
By August 2 it is ready to be signed. The signing is fairly haphazard. Those who happen to be at the congress on that day sign it, though several of them were not present when it was voted through on July 4. Signatures of absent delegates continue to be added into 1777.
The first to sign the Declaration is John Hancock (causing his name later to become a slang term for a signature). While the delegates sign, Benjamin Franklin makes a famous observation - as alarmingly true as it is witty. He points out that they are putting their names to a document which, if they lose the war, will be deemed highly seditious. 'We must indeed all hang together,' says Franklin. 'Or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately'.
Within a few months of Franklin's remark the prospects look very bleak indeed. George Washington loses New York to the British and retreats towards Philadelphia with a severely depleted army.
New York, Philadelphia and Saratoga: 1776-1777
George Washington's defence of New York in 1776 and subsequently of Philadelphia in 1777 do not rank among his successes. In a series of engagements between August and November 1776 he is driven first from Long Island and then from Manhattan Island with heavy losses of men (mainly captured rather than killed).
On his retreat southwards in midwinter, with an army of only about 6000, he achieves two psychologically important victories by surprise attacks on isolated sections of the British army at Trenton and then at Princeton. These successes raise the colonial morale, and help Washington to recruit more forces. But they are followed by a further disaster in 1777.
Philadelphia, as the first city of America and the seat of the Continental Congress, has great symbolic importance. Intent on capturing it, Howe brings his army down from New York by sea in the summer of 1777, landing them at the head of Chesapeake Bay. Washington attempts to block their progress to Philadelphia but is severely defeated in a battle at Brandywine (in which the 20-year-oldLafayette fights bravely and is wounded, marking the first appearance of the hero of two revolutions). The congress delegates make a hurried escape from Philadelphia, which the British enter in triumph in September.
Yet the triumph proves hollow. In the same month another British army, under John Burgoyne, is in trouble north of Albany.
Burgoyne has made a difficult march south from Quebec as part of a strategy to join up with Howe, moving north from New York. The plan is to isolate the New England colonies. But Howe has instead gone south to Philadelphia. Burgoyne is unsupported, short of food and ammunition. After defeat in two battles near Saratoga, in September and October 1777, he surrenders to a larger American force under Horatio Gates.
Less than 6000 men are involved, but the propaganda benefit to the colonial cause is incalculable. Indeed Saratoga can be seen as the turning point in the war. The surrender of an entire British army to rebellious colonists attracts the serious attention of a nation with no love for Britain. France begins to negotiate an American alliance.
The international phase: 1778-1781
A French treaty with the colonists is agreed in February 1778 and two months later a large French fleet sails for America. In the following year, in the established tradition of Bourbon family compacts, France persuades a reluctant Spain to join the fray (as the major colonial power in America, Spain is understandably wary of taking up arms on behalf of rebels).
These developments transform the war between Britain and the colonists. Up to this point the British have been able to ship troops and supplies across the Atlantic with no obstacle other than the elements. Now there are hostile French and Spanish fleets to contend with.
There is even the unexpected affront of warships from the infant American navy sailing from French ports to carry out raids on the coastal regions of Britain. The first American naval hero, John Paul Jones, makes successful sorties in the spring of 1778 and the autumn of 1779, seizing British vessels and launching sudden raids inland. The second voyage ends with the dramatic encounter between theBonhomme Richard and theSerapis off Flamborough Head.
But the new French alliance has its greatest effect on military strategy in America. The main strategic aim of both sides, from 1778 to the end of the war, is to ensure that armies are well placed to receive naval support.
The first dramatic example of this is the sudden British departure from Philadelphia in 1778. Advance news of the expected arrival of the French fleet in the Chesapeake is enough to terrify the British, facing the possible prospect of being cut off in hostile territory without any source of supplies. They leave the city and march northeast to greater safety in New York.
This setback, combined with stalemate in the northern colonies, prompts a new British strategy - that of moving troops south by sea to attack the weaker southern colonies. But, after some striking initial successes, this is the campaign which eventually loses the war for Britain.
In December 1778 a British expeditionary force of 3500 men from New York lands in Georgia and captures Savannah. During 1779 the British win control of the whole of Georgia. In 1780, after shipping more troops to the region, they move into South Carolina. Charleston is taken in May 1780, and some 5000 American troops are captured in the city, after a siege of more than a month by both land and sea.
From this point the British, under the command now of Charles Cornwallis, face increasingly strong opposition as they press on into North Carolina. There are numerous bitterly fought skirmishes, often in the nature of civil war, because theLoyalists in this region are very active in support of the British.
Yorktown: 1781
The final result of the campaigns of 1780 and 1781 is that Cornwallis presses too far north, deep into Virginia, and finds himself isolated. He moves his army to Yorktown, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, and sets about fortifying this position as one where he can survive until relieved by a fleet from New York.
Meanwhile George Washington has been waiting to mount a joint operation with the French navy. Seeing his chance in the plight of Cornwallis, he arranges a rendezvous in the Chesapeake with the admiral commanding a French fleet in the West Indies. He then marches an army south through New Jersey and embarks them on ships in Delaware Bay for transport to Williamsburg, a few miles west of Yorktown.
By the end of September 1781 Washington is besieging Yorktown with an army of about 14,000 men (including 5000 French troops) and the French fleet is completing the blockade by sea. With no practical hope of any relief from New York, Cornwallis surrenders on October 19.
This effectively brings to an end the war of the American Revolution. The European nations continue to scrap at sea (Spain takes Minorca back from the British in 1782), but Yorktown is the last engagement of the war in America. The British drag their heels in evacuating their two prizes of the campaign - they remain in Charleston until November 1782 and in New York until October 1783. By then a peace treaty has been signed in Paris.
Independence achieved: 1783
The treaty signed in Paris on 3 September 1783 brings the American Revolution to its successful conclusion. The American commissioners in the negotiations (Benjamin Franklin and John Adams among their number) win extremely good terms for the new nation. Its independence is acknowledged without reservation, and its agreed frontiers are unexpectedly generous.
To the coastal strip of the thirteen colonies is now added the entire region west as far as the Mississippi and north to the Great Lakes. This was the area bitterly fought over between Britain and Francein 1754-60. It now falls to the colonists as an immensely rich area available for westward expansion.
THE AMERICAN INDIANS
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, thehunter-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.
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 remarkableLa 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 noanimals 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 Hebrews are moving from Egypt through Sinai towards the promised land of Canaan.
The Olmecsrepresent the beginning of civilization in central America. They are followed, about three centuries later, by the earliest civilization of south America - the Chavinculture 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 Aztecsand the Incas.
The people of north America: 1500 BC - 1500 AD
The original people of north America live in a wide range of environments. On the east side of the continent there are woodlands, where they kill elk and deer. On the grass plains of the midwest they hunt to extinction several American species, including the camel, mammoth and horse. In the desert regions of the southwest human subsistence depends on smaller animals and gathered seeds. In the Arctic north, where there is very much more hunting than gathering, fish and seals are plentiful.
The first trace of settled village life is in the southwest, where by the 2nd millennium BC gourds, squash and corn (or maize) are cultivated (seehunter-gatherers).
The natives of this region derive theircrops from the more advanced civilization to the south, in Mexico. The same cultural influence brings a custom eventually shared by many of the tribes, that ofmound building. From about 1000 BC great burial mounds begin to be constructed around tomb chambers of log or wood.
The earliest burial mounds in north America are those of the Adena culture of the Ohio valley, closely followed by nearby Hopewell tribes. The period of greatest activity is from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD, by which time a vast number of mounds have been built throughout north America.
During and after this period two regions of North America develop quite advanced farming societies - the Mississipi valley and the southwest. Farming, accompanied by village life, spreads up the east coast, where fields are cleared from the woodlands for the planting of maize. But in most parts of the continent the tribes continue to live a semi-nomadic existence, in the traditional manner of hunter-gatherers, even though they lack the one animal which makes movement on the plains easy.
Hunted to extinction in America, this useful creature will only become available again to the Indians through the event which destroys their way of life. The Spaniardsarrive with horses.
Pre-Columbian Indians: before1492
The arrival ofColumbus in 1492 is a disaster for the original inhabitants of the American continent. The chief agent of their downfall is disease. With no resistance to new germs, tribes rapidly succumb to unfamiliar illnesses on their first brief contact with Europeans - in many cases vastly reducing the number of the Americans without anyone even firing a shot.
Where the tribes develop a closer relationship with the new arrivals, they are frequently tricked, tormented and massacred by their visitors. Two elements make the Europeans both strong and ruthless - their possession of guns, and an unshakable conviction in the rightness of their Christian cause.
The event of 1492, the biggest turning point in the history of America, has had the Eurocentric effect of defining that history in terms of this one moment. Historians describe the previous American cultures as pre-Columbian. And the original people of the continent become known as Indians, simply because Columbus is under the illusion that he has reached the Indies.
In recent years 'native Americans' has come into use as an alternative name. But it is a misleading phrase - meaning, but failing to say, aboriginal or indigenous Americans. In spite of its quirky origins, American Indians remains the more direct and simple term.
Post-Columbian Indians: after1492
The fate of the American Indians varies greatly in different parts of the continent. The regions of the great American civilizations, in central America and down the western coastal strip of south America, are densely populated when the Spanish arrive. Moreover the Spaniards are mainly interested in extracting the wealth of these regions and taking it back to Europe.
The result is that the Europeans inLatin Americaremain a relatively small upper class governing a population of Indian peasants. From Mexico and central America, down through Ecuador and Colombia to Peru and Bolivia, Indians survive in large numbers through the colonial centuries and retain even today much of their own culture.
North America, by contrast, is less populated and less developed when the Europeans arrive. No part of the continent north of Mexico has reached a stage which could be defined ascivilization. The breadth of the continent offers a wide range of environments in which tribes live as hunter-gatherers, or as settled neolithic farmers, or - most often - in any appropriate combination of the two.
In another significant contrast, the Europeans arriving in these regions (the French, the British, the Dutch) are primarily interested in settling. Much more than the Spanish, they want to develop this place as their own home. Their interests directly clash with those of the resident population.
When Europeans begin to settle in north America, in the 17th century, the tribes are spread thinly over the continent and they speak hundreds of different languages. The names by which the tribes are now known are those of their language families.
Each group of Indian tribes becomes prominent in the story of north America as the Europeans spread westwards and compete with them for land. The first to be confronted by the challenge from Europe are thePueblo of the southwest, reached by Spaniards exploring north from Mexico; and two large tribal groups in the eastern part of the continent, the Algonquiansand theIroquois, whose lands are threatened by English and French colonists.
Secotan and the English: 1584-1586
The Indians with whom the English first make contact in America are from the Algonquian group of tribes. The first encounter is friendly. Two ships sent byRaleigh on reconnaissance reach Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, in 1584. The local Secotan Indians welcome an opportunity for trade.
The Secotan offer leather goods, coral and a mouth-watering profusion of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. What they want in return is metal implements, for they have no source of iron. Hatchets and axes are handed over by the English. Swords, even more desirable, are withheld. The visitors set sail that autumn for England, taking back to Raleigh a good report of the area for a likely settlement.
This first encounter reveals very clearly the interests of the two sides, mutual at first but leading easily to conflict once the Europeans attempt to settle. Many of the Indian tribes are friendly and welcoming by nature, but they also have a passionate desire for the material goods of the west - including, eventually, horses and guns.
The settlers at first need the help of the Indians in the difficult matter of surviving. Yet the newcomers are also a nervous minority in a strange place, armed with deadly weapons. In any crisis there is the likelihood that the Europeans will react with sudden and extreme violence.
Moreover there is a clash of attitudes in relation to land. The English settlers arrive with the firm intention of owning land. But the Indians of eastern America are semi-nomadic. During the spring and summer they live in villages to grow their crops. In the winter they hunt in the thick forests. Land, in the Indian view, is a communal space, impossible to own. The question of land leads eventually to appalling conflicts, with the Indians the inevitable losers.
By a happy chance we can glimpse an Indian community before these conflicts develop. When a second English expedition sent out by Raleigh reaches Roanoke Island in 1585, a member of the party is a talented painter, John White.
White's drawings give an enchanting picture of the Secotan Indians in their everyday lives. They are seen in their villages, fishing, cooking, eating, dancing. Beautifully engraved by Theodore de Bry, and published in 1590 in four languages (the English title is A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia), these illustrations rapidly provide Europe with an enduring image of the American Indian.
Unfortunately, owing to the effect on the Indians of the disease, alcohol, brutality and treachery associated with European expansion in America, the image lasts rather longer than the reality.
Meanwhile the first attempts at English colonization in America also end badly. The 1585 settlers in Roanoke Island initially enjoy good relations with the Indians, but by the following spring they are on the verge of war. The English strike first, employing the ancient technique of treachery. On June 1, 1586, the Indian chief Pemisapan and other tribal leaders are invited to a council on the shore of the Croatan Sound. As they approach, they are shot.
Ten days later Francis Drake arrives, on his way home from preying on Spanish ships in the Caribbean. The settlers by now think it wise to abandon their new settlement and return with him to England. But in spite of these experiences, a third group of settlers, this time including women and children, reaches Roanoke Island in 1587. But when the next English ship arrives, in 1590 (the threat of theArmada has altered English priorities in the intervening years), there is no remaining trace either of the settlers or their settlement.
Powhatan and the English: 1607-1644
The first successful English settlement, atJamestown, falls in the territory of the Powhatan confederacy, a group of nine Algonquian tribes. Here the Europeans meet an unfriendly reception. Within two weeks of their arrival, in 1607, they suffer an Indian attack. It is easily fought off with muskets and cannon.
The appeal of trade, and the link made with the settlers byPocahontas, turns a distinctly uneasy relationship into one which is workable. But the Powhatan are well aware of the threat to their well-being, as the Virginians establish new townships and tobacco plantations along the rivers.
By 1622 the colonists number more than 1000. In that year a new Powhatan chieftain, Opechancanough, decides upon a sudden attack on the English settlements, killing 347 colonists in a single day. The most discreditable moment in the European reprisals occurs in 1623, when the English organize a peace conference. The Indians attending it are systematically murdered, some by poison and some by gunshot.
In 1644 the Powhatan make one final assault on the now thriving colony, still under the leadership of Opechancanough, carried now into battle on a litter . Five hundred colonists die in the surprise attack. Two years later the aged chieftain of the confederacy is captured and executed, ending the last significant Indian threat to Virginia.
Wampanoag and the English: 1621-1676
When thePilgrim Fathersare struggling through their first winter on American soil, from December 1620, they see no sign of any Indians. The reason, they later discover, is that the local tribes have recently been wiped out by a European epidemic.
This news reaches them in March 1621, when they are visited by Wampanoag Indians. Living some forty miles away, they are leaders of anotherAlgonquianconfederacy. The Wampanoag are friendly. Their territory is not threatened by this small English group. The Indians help the settlers with their agriculture, and join them in their celebration ofThanksgiving.
The Wampanoag chieftain, Massasoit, makes a treaty of friendship which holds good for forty years, until his death in 1662. During that periodPlymouth and the later English colonies thrive. The main effect of Massasoit's peaceful policy is that his tribal lands are steadily whittled away in the face of ever-increasing demands from the newcomers.
By the time Massasoit dies, there are some 40,000 English settlers in New England. They outnumber the Indian population by perhaps two to one. Indians find themselves working for the settlers as labourers or domestic servants. They are expected to behave according to Puritan standards, and are punished for following their own traditions.
Massasoit's son, Metacom, decides that the only hope is a joint uprising by the Indian tribes of New England. It begins with devastating suddenness in 1675. Of ninety colonial settlements, fifty-two are attacked and many of them burned to the ground.
The chaos spreads throughout New England, but eventually English fire-power proves too strong. By the summer of 1676 English deaths number about 600. The Indian figure is at least five times as large. And hundreds of Indians have been shipped to the West Indies for sale as slaves.
Among those sent into slavery are the wife and 9-year-old son of the chieftain, Metacom. The Rev. Increase Mather, minister of a church in Boston, notes with satisfaction that this 'must be bitter as death for him, for the Indians are marvellously fond and affectionate towards their children'.
Metacom himself is captured and killed in August 1676. He is known to the English colonists as King Philip, with the result that this last Indian uprising against colonial rule in New England has entered the history books under the name King Philip's War.
Pueblo and the Spanish:1540-1680
The most successful Indian uprising against colonial intrusion occurs in 1680 in the region which is now New Mexico. The arid territory around the Rio Grande has been, from about 2000 years ago, the home of the distinctive Anasazi culture. The Spanish give the name Pueblo to this tribal group of American Indians.
The Pueblo live in elaborate towns of multi-storied mud houses, often clustered in rocky inaccessible places. It is their misfortune that the rumour spreads among the Spaniards of Mexico, from the 1530s, that these mysterious towns are places of fabulous wealth, full of gold, jewels and fine cloth.
Spanish expeditions to find this wealth - particularly those of Coronado in 1540 and of OÑate in 1598 - inflict great cruelty on the Indians and bring a large province under Spanish rule. A colonial administration is established from 1610 in a new capital founded at Santa Fe.
With no riches discovered in the region, the Spanish settlers remain few in number (only about 2000). But the friars are busy here, as elsewhere, with vigorous efforts to replace the rituals of the Indians with those of Christianity. Eventually Spanish provocation, both secular and religous, is such that in 1680 the normally passive Pueblo kill twenty-one missionaries and some 400 colonists.
After this disaster of 1680 the Spanish withdraw to Mexico for twelve years. When they eventually return, in 1692 with a large army, a more responsible era of Spanish rule begins. A new respect is shown for the Indians of the region. Royal grants are produced to give the Pueblo guaranteed rights in their ancestral territories.
This sequence of events, combined with the relatively inhospitable region which they inhabit, has enabled the Pueblo Indians to preserve more of their distinctive religion and their culture - in particular pottery and weaving - than other tribal groups among the American Indians.
Iroquois and Huron: 16th - 17th century
The Indian tribes of greatest significance to the early French and British colonists are the Iroquois and a rival group, the Huron (part of the same Iroquois linguistic family). The Huron are the Indians first encountered along the St Lawrence river by Jacques Cartierin 1534. But by the time Samuel de Champlainreturns to claim the region for France, in 1603, the Huron have been driven west by the Iroquois.
The two tribal groups are fierce competitors in the developing fur trade. In the late 16th century both sides establish protective confederacies. The Huron confederacy brings together the Bear, Cord, Rock and Deer tribes into an alliance numbering some 20,000 people.
The Iroquois derive from south of the Huron territory, in the region stretching from the eastern Great Lakes down through the Appalachian mountains into what is now the state of New York. Their confederacy, also formed in the late 16th century, is an alliance between five tribal groups - Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. Together they become known as theIroquois League.
The Iroquois League is no larger than the Huron equivalent, but it is better organized and more aggressive. In 1648-50 Iroquois raiding parties kill and capture thousands of Hurons, driving the survivors west towards Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. As a result the Iroquois gain control of a region of great strategic significance in the expansion of European colonial interests.
The Iroquois territory lies between the coastal colonies of the English and the fur-tradingempire of the French, stretching from the Great Lakes down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The friendship of the Iroquois League becomes an important factor in the new-world struggle between the two European powers. It is the misfortune of the French that they have from the start befriended the Huron, ancient enemies of the Iroquois. The Iroquois incline for this reason to the English. From 1664 the town of Albany (acquired in that year by the English from the Dutch) becomes the Iroquois' main link with the colonists - both in terms of trade and diplomacy.
Albany and the Iroquois: 1689-1754
Representatives of the Iroquois League are present at a gathering in Albany in 1689 which is one of the first joint assemblies of English colonies. Delegates from New York, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth and Connecticut discuss with the Iroquois a plan for mutual defence.
The Iroquois are again present at the much more significant Albany Congress of 1754. On this occasion the topic is a very specific threat of war. Even while they talk, George Washington is skirmishing with French troops in the Ohio valley. It is the opening engagement in what becomes known as theFrench and Indian War.
Each European side is eager to secure the support of its traditional Indian allies. The Iroquois are particularly important as they control the Appalachian mountains which separate the British colonies from the Ohio valley.
There are 150 Indian representatives at the congress, negotiating with twenty-five commissioners from the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The Iroquois are sent away with presents and with promises (later disregarded) that English settlers will not encroach on their lands. In the event Iroquois support for the English is not solid in the coming conflict, but this does not affect the outcome.
Pontiac: 1763-1766
The victory of the British in the French and Indian War is followed by the departure of the French from all their forts. This leaves their Indian allies at the mercy of the British, whose interests are very different from those of the French.
The French colonists, consisting mainly of soldiers and traders, have established an easy relationship with the tribes. There is no direct rivalry, and both sides benefit from the trade in fur. Indians have traditionally been welcome in French forts and have been given presents, including even guns and ammunition. By contrast the British, interested in settled agriculture, are a direct threat to the Indians' territory.
Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa Indians, responds to the new situation by planning an uprising of the Indian tribes. Skilfully synchronized to begin in May 1763, with each tribe attacking a different fort, the campaign has an early and devastating success. Many garrisons are overwhelmed and massacred, in an attempt to drive the British back east of the Appalachians. But a ferocious counter-offensive is launched by the governor-general, Jeffrey Amherst.
Amherst lacks any form of moral scruple in his treatment of tribes whom he regards as contemptible savages. He even suggests spreading smallpox by gifts of infected blankets (and Indians given blankets by the British, in a peace conference at Pittsburgh in 1764, do develop the disease).
In the first flush of Pontiac's success, in 1763, the British government is so alarmed that a royal proclamation is issued; all land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi is to be reserved as hunting grounds for the Indians. But two years later the British army regains control of the situation. Pontiac makes formal peace in 1766, whereupon the royal proclamation is soon forgotten.
Settlers press west in increasing numbers into the Ohio valley. With the threat from both French and Indians removed in the recent wars, the colonists are now in buoyant mood. Soon they even feel sufficiently confident to confront the British crown.
The Northwest Territory: 1787-1795
When the American colonists win their war of independence against the British, the resulting treaty of Paris in 1783 transfers to the new state not only the thirteen colonies but also the territories west of the Appalachians to which various colonies lay claim. These regions around the Ohio river, the hunting territories of many Indian tribes, have already been the scene of violent conflict in the French and Indian War.
Now, in the 1790s, there is a desperate Indian attempt to resist the westward pressure of American settlers. The Indians are dangerously misled in their campaign by British encouragement, which is never transformed into any degree of practical help.
Before independence four colonies (Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts) have claims under their original charters to parts of the Ohio region. During the 1780s they cede these claims to the federal government. In 1787 Congress defines the region as the Northwest Territory. All land within it is to be sold in lots, either to individuals or companies.
It is expected that as many as five states will eventually emerge from this area. Meanwhile separate parts of it are to be administered as territories. Once a territory has a population of 60,000 free inhabitants, it will have the right to draw up a state constitution and to enter the union on equal terms with the original thirteen states.
These careful proposals pay scant attention to the interests of the Indians. They rely on disputed treaties, virtually imposed on the tribes by American delegates in 1784-5 and rapidly repudiated by the Indians themselves. In 1789 the government builds Fort Washington (the kernel of the future Cincinnati) on the north bank of the Ohio river. Meanwhile violent Kentucky frontiersmen have been creating mayhem in raids on Indian villages.
The result is equally violent reprisals, led by the chiefs of the Miami and Shawnee tribes who are determined to keep the American intruders south of the Ohio river.
Two expeditions sent by George Washington against the tribes are complete disasters. The second, in 1791, is led by a personal friend of Washington, Arthur St Clair. His 1400 men are surprised by the Indians at dawn in their camp beside the Maumee river. Three hours later more than 600 are dead and nearly 300 seriously wounded. Indian casualties are 21 killed and 40 wounded. It is one of the worst days in US military history.
The Americans have their revenge in 1794, once again in the region of the Maumee, when an army commanded by Anthony Wayne defeats a force of Shawnees and other tribes at a woodland location which becomes known as Fallen Timbers.
In the aftermath of Fallen Timbers, representatives of the defeated tribes assemble for peace talks in Fort Greenville in 1795. Their leaders accept a treaty which cedes to the United States much of present-day Ohio.
This concession, giving the green light to a surge of new land speculation and settlement, is only the first of many in the region. Eventually the Northwest Territory yields five states, joining the union between 1803 and 1848 (Ohio 1803, Indiana 1816, Illinois 1818, Michigan 1837, Wisconsin 1848). In the early years, until 1813, Indian resistance to this encroachment is gallantly continued byTecumseh. But the beginning of the National Road in 1811 is a powerful sign of American determination to open up the region.
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, thehunter-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.
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 remarkableLa 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 noanimals 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 Hebrews are moving from Egypt through Sinai towards the promised land of Canaan.
The Olmecsrepresent the beginning of civilization in central America. They are followed, about three centuries later, by the earliest civilization of south America - the Chavinculture 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 Aztecsand the Incas.
The people of north America: 1500 BC - 1500 AD
The original people of north America live in a wide range of environments. On the east side of the continent there are woodlands, where they kill elk and deer. On the grass plains of the midwest they hunt to extinction several American species, including the camel, mammoth and horse. In the desert regions of the southwest human subsistence depends on smaller animals and gathered seeds. In the Arctic north, where there is very much more hunting than gathering, fish and seals are plentiful.
The first trace of settled village life is in the southwest, where by the 2nd millennium BC gourds, squash and corn (or maize) are cultivated (seehunter-gatherers).
The natives of this region derive theircrops from the more advanced civilization to the south, in Mexico. The same cultural influence brings a custom eventually shared by many of the tribes, that ofmound building. From about 1000 BC great burial mounds begin to be constructed around tomb chambers of log or wood.
The earliest burial mounds in north America are those of the Adena culture of the Ohio valley, closely followed by nearby Hopewell tribes. The period of greatest activity is from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD, by which time a vast number of mounds have been built throughout north America.
During and after this period two regions of North America develop quite advanced farming societies - the Mississipi valley and the southwest. Farming, accompanied by village life, spreads up the east coast, where fields are cleared from the woodlands for the planting of maize. But in most parts of the continent the tribes continue to live a semi-nomadic existence, in the traditional manner of hunter-gatherers, even though they lack the one animal which makes movement on the plains easy.
Hunted to extinction in America, this useful creature will only become available again to the Indians through the event which destroys their way of life. The Spaniardsarrive with horses.
Pre-Columbian Indians: before1492
The arrival ofColumbus in 1492 is a disaster for the original inhabitants of the American continent. The chief agent of their downfall is disease. With no resistance to new germs, tribes rapidly succumb to unfamiliar illnesses on their first brief contact with Europeans - in many cases vastly reducing the number of the Americans without anyone even firing a shot.
Where the tribes develop a closer relationship with the new arrivals, they are frequently tricked, tormented and massacred by their visitors. Two elements make the Europeans both strong and ruthless - their possession of guns, and an unshakable conviction in the rightness of their Christian cause.
The event of 1492, the biggest turning point in the history of America, has had the Eurocentric effect of defining that history in terms of this one moment. Historians describe the previous American cultures as pre-Columbian. And the original people of the continent become known as Indians, simply because Columbus is under the illusion that he has reached the Indies.
In recent years 'native Americans' has come into use as an alternative name. But it is a misleading phrase - meaning, but failing to say, aboriginal or indigenous Americans. In spite of its quirky origins, American Indians remains the more direct and simple term.
Post-Columbian Indians: after1492
The fate of the American Indians varies greatly in different parts of the continent. The regions of the great American civilizations, in central America and down the western coastal strip of south America, are densely populated when the Spanish arrive. Moreover the Spaniards are mainly interested in extracting the wealth of these regions and taking it back to Europe.
The result is that the Europeans inLatin Americaremain a relatively small upper class governing a population of Indian peasants. From Mexico and central America, down through Ecuador and Colombia to Peru and Bolivia, Indians survive in large numbers through the colonial centuries and retain even today much of their own culture.
North America, by contrast, is less populated and less developed when the Europeans arrive. No part of the continent north of Mexico has reached a stage which could be defined ascivilization. The breadth of the continent offers a wide range of environments in which tribes live as hunter-gatherers, or as settled neolithic farmers, or - most often - in any appropriate combination of the two.
In another significant contrast, the Europeans arriving in these regions (the French, the British, the Dutch) are primarily interested in settling. Much more than the Spanish, they want to develop this place as their own home. Their interests directly clash with those of the resident population.
When Europeans begin to settle in north America, in the 17th century, the tribes are spread thinly over the continent and they speak hundreds of different languages. The names by which the tribes are now known are those of their language families.
Each group of Indian tribes becomes prominent in the story of north America as the Europeans spread westwards and compete with them for land. The first to be confronted by the challenge from Europe are thePueblo of the southwest, reached by Spaniards exploring north from Mexico; and two large tribal groups in the eastern part of the continent, the Algonquiansand theIroquois, whose lands are threatened by English and French colonists.
Secotan and the English: 1584-1586
The Indians with whom the English first make contact in America are from the Algonquian group of tribes. The first encounter is friendly. Two ships sent byRaleigh on reconnaissance reach Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, in 1584. The local Secotan Indians welcome an opportunity for trade.
The Secotan offer leather goods, coral and a mouth-watering profusion of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. What they want in return is metal implements, for they have no source of iron. Hatchets and axes are handed over by the English. Swords, even more desirable, are withheld. The visitors set sail that autumn for England, taking back to Raleigh a good report of the area for a likely settlement.
This first encounter reveals very clearly the interests of the two sides, mutual at first but leading easily to conflict once the Europeans attempt to settle. Many of the Indian tribes are friendly and welcoming by nature, but they also have a passionate desire for the material goods of the west - including, eventually, horses and guns.
The settlers at first need the help of the Indians in the difficult matter of surviving. Yet the newcomers are also a nervous minority in a strange place, armed with deadly weapons. In any crisis there is the likelihood that the Europeans will react with sudden and extreme violence.
Moreover there is a clash of attitudes in relation to land. The English settlers arrive with the firm intention of owning land. But the Indians of eastern America are semi-nomadic. During the spring and summer they live in villages to grow their crops. In the winter they hunt in the thick forests. Land, in the Indian view, is a communal space, impossible to own. The question of land leads eventually to appalling conflicts, with the Indians the inevitable losers.
By a happy chance we can glimpse an Indian community before these conflicts develop. When a second English expedition sent out by Raleigh reaches Roanoke Island in 1585, a member of the party is a talented painter, John White.
White's drawings give an enchanting picture of the Secotan Indians in their everyday lives. They are seen in their villages, fishing, cooking, eating, dancing. Beautifully engraved by Theodore de Bry, and published in 1590 in four languages (the English title is A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia), these illustrations rapidly provide Europe with an enduring image of the American Indian.
Unfortunately, owing to the effect on the Indians of the disease, alcohol, brutality and treachery associated with European expansion in America, the image lasts rather longer than the reality.
Meanwhile the first attempts at English colonization in America also end badly. The 1585 settlers in Roanoke Island initially enjoy good relations with the Indians, but by the following spring they are on the verge of war. The English strike first, employing the ancient technique of treachery. On June 1, 1586, the Indian chief Pemisapan and other tribal leaders are invited to a council on the shore of the Croatan Sound. As they approach, they are shot.
Ten days later Francis Drake arrives, on his way home from preying on Spanish ships in the Caribbean. The settlers by now think it wise to abandon their new settlement and return with him to England. But in spite of these experiences, a third group of settlers, this time including women and children, reaches Roanoke Island in 1587. But when the next English ship arrives, in 1590 (the threat of theArmada has altered English priorities in the intervening years), there is no remaining trace either of the settlers or their settlement.
Powhatan and the English: 1607-1644
The first successful English settlement, atJamestown, falls in the territory of the Powhatan confederacy, a group of nine Algonquian tribes. Here the Europeans meet an unfriendly reception. Within two weeks of their arrival, in 1607, they suffer an Indian attack. It is easily fought off with muskets and cannon.
The appeal of trade, and the link made with the settlers byPocahontas, turns a distinctly uneasy relationship into one which is workable. But the Powhatan are well aware of the threat to their well-being, as the Virginians establish new townships and tobacco plantations along the rivers.
By 1622 the colonists number more than 1000. In that year a new Powhatan chieftain, Opechancanough, decides upon a sudden attack on the English settlements, killing 347 colonists in a single day. The most discreditable moment in the European reprisals occurs in 1623, when the English organize a peace conference. The Indians attending it are systematically murdered, some by poison and some by gunshot.
In 1644 the Powhatan make one final assault on the now thriving colony, still under the leadership of Opechancanough, carried now into battle on a litter . Five hundred colonists die in the surprise attack. Two years later the aged chieftain of the confederacy is captured and executed, ending the last significant Indian threat to Virginia.
Wampanoag and the English: 1621-1676
When thePilgrim Fathersare struggling through their first winter on American soil, from December 1620, they see no sign of any Indians. The reason, they later discover, is that the local tribes have recently been wiped out by a European epidemic.
This news reaches them in March 1621, when they are visited by Wampanoag Indians. Living some forty miles away, they are leaders of anotherAlgonquianconfederacy. The Wampanoag are friendly. Their territory is not threatened by this small English group. The Indians help the settlers with their agriculture, and join them in their celebration ofThanksgiving.
The Wampanoag chieftain, Massasoit, makes a treaty of friendship which holds good for forty years, until his death in 1662. During that periodPlymouth and the later English colonies thrive. The main effect of Massasoit's peaceful policy is that his tribal lands are steadily whittled away in the face of ever-increasing demands from the newcomers.
By the time Massasoit dies, there are some 40,000 English settlers in New England. They outnumber the Indian population by perhaps two to one. Indians find themselves working for the settlers as labourers or domestic servants. They are expected to behave according to Puritan standards, and are punished for following their own traditions.
Massasoit's son, Metacom, decides that the only hope is a joint uprising by the Indian tribes of New England. It begins with devastating suddenness in 1675. Of ninety colonial settlements, fifty-two are attacked and many of them burned to the ground.
The chaos spreads throughout New England, but eventually English fire-power proves too strong. By the summer of 1676 English deaths number about 600. The Indian figure is at least five times as large. And hundreds of Indians have been shipped to the West Indies for sale as slaves.
Among those sent into slavery are the wife and 9-year-old son of the chieftain, Metacom. The Rev. Increase Mather, minister of a church in Boston, notes with satisfaction that this 'must be bitter as death for him, for the Indians are marvellously fond and affectionate towards their children'.
Metacom himself is captured and killed in August 1676. He is known to the English colonists as King Philip, with the result that this last Indian uprising against colonial rule in New England has entered the history books under the name King Philip's War.
Pueblo and the Spanish:1540-1680
The most successful Indian uprising against colonial intrusion occurs in 1680 in the region which is now New Mexico. The arid territory around the Rio Grande has been, from about 2000 years ago, the home of the distinctive Anasazi culture. The Spanish give the name Pueblo to this tribal group of American Indians.
The Pueblo live in elaborate towns of multi-storied mud houses, often clustered in rocky inaccessible places. It is their misfortune that the rumour spreads among the Spaniards of Mexico, from the 1530s, that these mysterious towns are places of fabulous wealth, full of gold, jewels and fine cloth.
Spanish expeditions to find this wealth - particularly those of Coronado in 1540 and of OÑate in 1598 - inflict great cruelty on the Indians and bring a large province under Spanish rule. A colonial administration is established from 1610 in a new capital founded at Santa Fe.
With no riches discovered in the region, the Spanish settlers remain few in number (only about 2000). But the friars are busy here, as elsewhere, with vigorous efforts to replace the rituals of the Indians with those of Christianity. Eventually Spanish provocation, both secular and religous, is such that in 1680 the normally passive Pueblo kill twenty-one missionaries and some 400 colonists.
After this disaster of 1680 the Spanish withdraw to Mexico for twelve years. When they eventually return, in 1692 with a large army, a more responsible era of Spanish rule begins. A new respect is shown for the Indians of the region. Royal grants are produced to give the Pueblo guaranteed rights in their ancestral territories.
This sequence of events, combined with the relatively inhospitable region which they inhabit, has enabled the Pueblo Indians to preserve more of their distinctive religion and their culture - in particular pottery and weaving - than other tribal groups among the American Indians.
Iroquois and Huron: 16th - 17th century
The Indian tribes of greatest significance to the early French and British colonists are the Iroquois and a rival group, the Huron (part of the same Iroquois linguistic family). The Huron are the Indians first encountered along the St Lawrence river by Jacques Cartierin 1534. But by the time Samuel de Champlainreturns to claim the region for France, in 1603, the Huron have been driven west by the Iroquois.
The two tribal groups are fierce competitors in the developing fur trade. In the late 16th century both sides establish protective confederacies. The Huron confederacy brings together the Bear, Cord, Rock and Deer tribes into an alliance numbering some 20,000 people.
The Iroquois derive from south of the Huron territory, in the region stretching from the eastern Great Lakes down through the Appalachian mountains into what is now the state of New York. Their confederacy, also formed in the late 16th century, is an alliance between five tribal groups - Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. Together they become known as theIroquois League.
The Iroquois League is no larger than the Huron equivalent, but it is better organized and more aggressive. In 1648-50 Iroquois raiding parties kill and capture thousands of Hurons, driving the survivors west towards Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. As a result the Iroquois gain control of a region of great strategic significance in the expansion of European colonial interests.
The Iroquois territory lies between the coastal colonies of the English and the fur-tradingempire of the French, stretching from the Great Lakes down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The friendship of the Iroquois League becomes an important factor in the new-world struggle between the two European powers. It is the misfortune of the French that they have from the start befriended the Huron, ancient enemies of the Iroquois. The Iroquois incline for this reason to the English. From 1664 the town of Albany (acquired in that year by the English from the Dutch) becomes the Iroquois' main link with the colonists - both in terms of trade and diplomacy.
Albany and the Iroquois: 1689-1754
Representatives of the Iroquois League are present at a gathering in Albany in 1689 which is one of the first joint assemblies of English colonies. Delegates from New York, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth and Connecticut discuss with the Iroquois a plan for mutual defence.
The Iroquois are again present at the much more significant Albany Congress of 1754. On this occasion the topic is a very specific threat of war. Even while they talk, George Washington is skirmishing with French troops in the Ohio valley. It is the opening engagement in what becomes known as theFrench and Indian War.
Each European side is eager to secure the support of its traditional Indian allies. The Iroquois are particularly important as they control the Appalachian mountains which separate the British colonies from the Ohio valley.
There are 150 Indian representatives at the congress, negotiating with twenty-five commissioners from the colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The Iroquois are sent away with presents and with promises (later disregarded) that English settlers will not encroach on their lands. In the event Iroquois support for the English is not solid in the coming conflict, but this does not affect the outcome.
Pontiac: 1763-1766
The victory of the British in the French and Indian War is followed by the departure of the French from all their forts. This leaves their Indian allies at the mercy of the British, whose interests are very different from those of the French.
The French colonists, consisting mainly of soldiers and traders, have established an easy relationship with the tribes. There is no direct rivalry, and both sides benefit from the trade in fur. Indians have traditionally been welcome in French forts and have been given presents, including even guns and ammunition. By contrast the British, interested in settled agriculture, are a direct threat to the Indians' territory.
Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa Indians, responds to the new situation by planning an uprising of the Indian tribes. Skilfully synchronized to begin in May 1763, with each tribe attacking a different fort, the campaign has an early and devastating success. Many garrisons are overwhelmed and massacred, in an attempt to drive the British back east of the Appalachians. But a ferocious counter-offensive is launched by the governor-general, Jeffrey Amherst.
Amherst lacks any form of moral scruple in his treatment of tribes whom he regards as contemptible savages. He even suggests spreading smallpox by gifts of infected blankets (and Indians given blankets by the British, in a peace conference at Pittsburgh in 1764, do develop the disease).
In the first flush of Pontiac's success, in 1763, the British government is so alarmed that a royal proclamation is issued; all land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi is to be reserved as hunting grounds for the Indians. But two years later the British army regains control of the situation. Pontiac makes formal peace in 1766, whereupon the royal proclamation is soon forgotten.
Settlers press west in increasing numbers into the Ohio valley. With the threat from both French and Indians removed in the recent wars, the colonists are now in buoyant mood. Soon they even feel sufficiently confident to confront the British crown.
The Northwest Territory: 1787-1795
When the American colonists win their war of independence against the British, the resulting treaty of Paris in 1783 transfers to the new state not only the thirteen colonies but also the territories west of the Appalachians to which various colonies lay claim. These regions around the Ohio river, the hunting territories of many Indian tribes, have already been the scene of violent conflict in the French and Indian War.
Now, in the 1790s, there is a desperate Indian attempt to resist the westward pressure of American settlers. The Indians are dangerously misled in their campaign by British encouragement, which is never transformed into any degree of practical help.
Before independence four colonies (Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts) have claims under their original charters to parts of the Ohio region. During the 1780s they cede these claims to the federal government. In 1787 Congress defines the region as the Northwest Territory. All land within it is to be sold in lots, either to individuals or companies.
It is expected that as many as five states will eventually emerge from this area. Meanwhile separate parts of it are to be administered as territories. Once a territory has a population of 60,000 free inhabitants, it will have the right to draw up a state constitution and to enter the union on equal terms with the original thirteen states.
These careful proposals pay scant attention to the interests of the Indians. They rely on disputed treaties, virtually imposed on the tribes by American delegates in 1784-5 and rapidly repudiated by the Indians themselves. In 1789 the government builds Fort Washington (the kernel of the future Cincinnati) on the north bank of the Ohio river. Meanwhile violent Kentucky frontiersmen have been creating mayhem in raids on Indian villages.
The result is equally violent reprisals, led by the chiefs of the Miami and Shawnee tribes who are determined to keep the American intruders south of the Ohio river.
Two expeditions sent by George Washington against the tribes are complete disasters. The second, in 1791, is led by a personal friend of Washington, Arthur St Clair. His 1400 men are surprised by the Indians at dawn in their camp beside the Maumee river. Three hours later more than 600 are dead and nearly 300 seriously wounded. Indian casualties are 21 killed and 40 wounded. It is one of the worst days in US military history.
The Americans have their revenge in 1794, once again in the region of the Maumee, when an army commanded by Anthony Wayne defeats a force of Shawnees and other tribes at a woodland location which becomes known as Fallen Timbers.
In the aftermath of Fallen Timbers, representatives of the defeated tribes assemble for peace talks in Fort Greenville in 1795. Their leaders accept a treaty which cedes to the United States much of present-day Ohio.
This concession, giving the green light to a surge of new land speculation and settlement, is only the first of many in the region. Eventually the Northwest Territory yields five states, joining the union between 1803 and 1848 (Ohio 1803, Indiana 1816, Illinois 1818, Michigan 1837, Wisconsin 1848). In the early years, until 1813, Indian resistance to this encroachment is gallantly continued byTecumseh. But the beginning of the National Road in 1811 is a powerful sign of American determination to open up the region.
HISTORY OF AMERICA
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 metres 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, thehunter-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.
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 remarkableLa 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 noanimals 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 Hebrews are moving from Egypt through Sinai towards the promised land of Canaan.
The Olmecsrepresent the beginning of civilization in central America. They are followed, about three centuries later, by the earliest civilization of south America - the Chavinculture 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 Aztecsand 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 longship, 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 longships, 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; eventuallyGreenland 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 artefacts 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, theAztecs 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 theCaribbeanSea.
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 Saviour. (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
WhenColumbusreturns 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 theCape 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 whichPortuguese 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 inLatin 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 neighbours 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 theUSA 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 ofLatin America. Innorth 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 Jewishimmigrants. One of the world's most unmixed populations is transformed, after Columbus, into the outstanding example of ethnic diversity.
This History is as yet incomplete.
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 metres 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, thehunter-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.
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 remarkableLa 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 noanimals 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 Hebrews are moving from Egypt through Sinai towards the promised land of Canaan.
The Olmecsrepresent the beginning of civilization in central America. They are followed, about three centuries later, by the earliest civilization of south America - the Chavinculture 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 Aztecsand 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 longship, 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 longships, 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; eventuallyGreenland 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 artefacts 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, theAztecs 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 theCaribbeanSea.
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 Saviour. (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
WhenColumbusreturns 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 theCape 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 whichPortuguese 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 inLatin 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 neighbours 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 theUSA 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 ofLatin America. Innorth 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 Jewishimmigrants. One of the world's most unmixed populations is transformed, after Columbus, into the outstanding example of ethnic diversity.
This History is as yet incomplete.
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