Human settlement of America began after. The settlement of ancient America

From ill. from "Science Express"

According to the latest research, the first settlers came to America in one wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago at the peak. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the study of bone samples identified in the course of a complex taphonomic analysis of the fauna of the Bluefish caves in the Yukon gave a calibrated date of 24 thousand years before present (19650 ± 130 BP) . Apparently, then these first migrants remained in the north for a long time.

According to the frequencies of the most important "eastern" (Mongoloid) marker - the spade-shaped incisors, only the Indian population seems to be quite homogeneous North America.

About 13 thousand years ago, they were divided into northern and southern populations - the latter settled in Central, South and partly in North America.

Separately, about 5.5 thousand years ago, the Inuit and Eskimos arrived, spreading throughout the Arctic (the way they got from Siberia to Alaska remains a mystery, since there was no transition between them then).

Migration Models

The most probable route of resettlement to the new world of the ancestors of the Indians

The chronology of migration patterns is divided into two scales. One scale is based on the "short chronology", according to which the first wave of migration to America occurred no earlier than 14 - 16 thousand years ago. The results of studies conducted by Rutgers University theoretically showed that the entire indigenous population of America descended from only 70 individuals who arrived at 14-12 thousand years ago. n. along the Bering Isthmus, which then existed between Asia and America. Other estimates put the actual size of the Native American population at ca. 250 people.

Supporters of the "long chronology" believe that the first group of people arrived in the Western Hemisphere much earlier, perhaps 20 - 50 thousand years ago, and, perhaps, other successive waves of migrations took place after it. Paleogeneticists who studied the genome of a girl who lived in the Tanana Valley in Alaska ca. 11.5 thousand years ago, they came to the conclusion that the ancestors of all American Indians moved in one wave from Chukotka to Alaska in the Late Pleistocene ca. 20-25 thousand years ago, before Beringia disappeared ca. 20 thousand years ago. After that, the "ancient Beringians" were isolated from Eurasia in America. Between 17 and 14 thousand years ago, they were divided into northern and southern groups of Paleo-Indians, from which the peoples that settled North and South America were formed.

One factor fueling the heated debate is the discontinuity of archaeological evidence. early periods human existence in both North and South America. The North American finds generally reflect the classical body of cultural evidence known as the Clovis culture, which can be traced back to at least 13,500 years ago, and found throughout virtually all of North and Central America. [ ]

In 2017, archaeologists unearthed a settlement on about. Tricket Island off the west coast of Canada, also dated to about 13,000-14,000 years ago. It is assumed that this area was not covered with ice during the last glaciation.

South American cultural finds, on the other hand, do not follow the same sequence and are diverse cultural patterns. Therefore, many archaeologists believe that the Clovis model is not valid for South America, calling for the creation of new theories to explain prehistoric finds that do not fit into the Clovis cultural complex. Some scholars are developing a Pan-American model of colonization that combines both North American and South American archaeological finds. [ ]

The settlement of the American continent is associated with several migration waves that brought Y-chromosome haplogroups and to the New World. According to the calculations of geneticist Theodor Schurr from the University of Pennsylvania, carriers of the mitochondrial haplogroup B came to North America up to 24 thousand years ago. T. Schurr and S. Sherry believe that the migration of carriers of mitochondrial haplogroups A, B, C and D preceded Clovis and occurred 15-20 thousand years ago. n. The second migration associated with the alleged carriers of haplogroup X from the Clovis culture took place after the formation of the Mackenzie corridor 14-13 thousand years ago.

A study of DNA from ancient burial grounds of the Pacific coast and mountainous regions of Peru, Bolivia and Northern Chile, as well as from Argentina and Mexico aged from 500 to 8600 years, showed the presence of mitochondrial haplogroups , , , C1b, C1c, C1d , which are also characteristic of modern Indians. The mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a, which is common for modern Indians of South America, has not been identified in ancient South Americans. In North America, the mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a was found in an ancient burial ground (9730-9880 years ago) in a cave On Your Knees on the island of Prince of Wales Island (Alexander Archipelago in Alaska). A 9,300-year-old Kennewick man found in Washington state has a Y-chromosomal group Q1a3a (M3) and a mitochondrial haplogroup X2a.

According to scientists, in the period from 20 to 17 thousand years ago, the Pacific coast was covered with a glacier, but then the glacier retreated from the coast and the first people were able to walk along the coast to the south. Corridor between Cordillera and Laurentian Laurentide ice sheet) ice sheets, although it opened approx. 14-15 thousand years ago, remained lifeless and became available for human migration only after another 1.4-2.4 thousand years. Geneticists who analyzed 91 genomes of the ancient Indians who lived on the territory of modern California and southwestern Ontario came to the conclusion that earlier than 13 thousand years ago, the settlers from Asia split up - one part of the ancient Indians went east and turned out to be related to the Kennewick man and modern Algonquins, another part of the ancient Indians went south and turned out to be related to the boy Anzik-1 (representative of the Clovis culture). Later, both populations reunited, since the modern inhabitants of Central and South America turned out to be genetically similar to both the "eastern" and "southern" parts of the ancient Indians. Mixing of populations could occur repeatedly both in North America and in South America.

land bridge theory

Theory overview

The "classical" land bridge theory, also known as the "Bering Strait theory" or "short chronology theory", has been generally accepted since the 1930s. This model of migration into western North America suggests that a group of people - the Paleo-Indians - crossed from Siberia to Alaska, tracking the migration of a large herd of animals. They could have crossed the strait that now separates the two continents over a land bridge known as the Bering Isthmus, which was at the site of the modern Bering Strait during the last ice age, the last stage of the Pleistocene.

The classical version speaks of two or three waves of migration through the Bering Strait. The descendants of the first wave became modern Indians, the second (presumably) - the Na-Dene peoples, the third and later - the Eskimos and Aleuts. According to another hypothesis, the ancestors of modern Indians were preceded by Paleo-Indians, related not to the Mongoloid, but to the South Pacific races. In this hypothesis, the dating of the first wave is determined about 15 thousand years ago, and the second - 10 thousand years ago.

Thus, according to this theory, migration began about 50 thousand years ago and ended about 10 thousand years ago, when the ocean level was 60 m lower than today. This information was collected using oxygen isotope analysis of deep sea sediments. The land bridge that opened during this period between Siberia and the west coast of Alaska was at least 1,600 km wide. Based on archaeological evidence collected in North America, it has been concluded that a group of hunters crossed the Bering Strait less than 12,000 years ago and may have eventually reached the southern tip of South America 11,000 years ago. [ ]

Based on the spread of American languages and language families, the movement of the tribes took place along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and eastward across the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast, which the tribes reached about 10 thousand years ago. [ ]

Cultural Complex Clovis

The big game hunter culture, known as the Clovis culture, is primarily known for javelin heads that are hewn from stone. The culture got its name from the name of the town of Clovis in the state of New Mexico, where the first samples of the tools of this cultural complex were found in 1932. The Clovis culture was spread over most of North America, and individual examples of its tools have been found even in South America. Culture stands out easily characteristic form"Clovis points", scalloped flint-hewn darts that were inserted into a wooden handle. [ ]

Clovis culture materials have been dated by analysis of animal bones using carbon dating techniques. While early results gave a heyday age of 11,500 to 11,000 years ago, recent re-examinations of the Clovis materials, using improved radiocarbon dating, have yielded results between 11,050 and 10,800 years ago. According to these data, the flowering of culture took place somewhat later and over a shorter period of time than previously thought. Michael R. Water (University of Texas) and Thomas W. Stafford, owner of a private laboratory in Lafayette, Colorado, and an expert in radiocarbon dating, together concluded that at least 11 of the 22 Clovis sites are "problematic", including the site near the town of Clovis, and cannot be used for dating due to contamination with older material, although these conclusions have not found general support among archaeologists. [ ]

In 2014, a group of scientists led by paleontologist James Chatters published the results of a study of the skeleton of a 15-year-old girl who supposedly lived 13 thousand years ago and was discovered in 2007 in a flooded cave in Oyo Negro on the Yucatan Peninsula. The scientists studied the mitochondrial DNA obtained from the girl's molars and compared it with the mtDNA of modern Indians. According to the data obtained, representatives of the Clovis culture and the Indians belong to the same haplogroup D1, to which some modern peoples of Chukotka and Siberia also belong.

How did the colonization of America take place?

European colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th and 11th centuries, when western Scandinavian sailors explored and briefly settled small areas on the coast of modern Canada. These Scandinavians were Vikings who discovered and settled in Greenland, and then they sailed to the arctic region of North America near Greenland and down to neighboring Canada to explore and then settle. According to the Icelandic sagas, violent conflicts with the indigenous population eventually forced the Scandinavians to abandon these settlements.

Discovery of North American lands

Extensive European colonization began in 1492 when a Spanish expedition led by Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to Far East, but inadvertently moored to the lands that became known to Europeans as the "New World". Moving through the northern part of Hispaniola on December 5, 1492, which was inhabited by the Taino people since the 7th century, Europeans founded their first settlement in the Americas. This was followed by European conquest, large-scale exploration, colonization and industrial development. During his first two voyages (1492-93), Columbus reached the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands, including Haiti, Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1497, setting out from Bristol on behalf of England, John Cabot landed on the North American coast, and a year later, on his third voyage, Columbus reached the coast of South America. As sponsor of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Spain was the first European power to settle and colonize most of North America and the Caribbean up to the southernmost tip of South America.

Which countries colonized America

Other countries, such as France, established colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America, on a number of islands in the Caribbean, and also on small coastal parts of South America. Portugal colonized Brazil, tried to colonize the coast of modern Canada, and its representatives settled for a long period in the northwest (east bank) of the La Plata River. In the era of the great geographical discoveries the beginning of territorial expansion by some European countries was laid. Europe was occupied with internal wars, and was slowly recovering from the loss of population as a result of the bubonic plague; therefore the rapid growth of her wealth and power was unpredictable at the beginning of the 15th century.

Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere came under the apparent control of European governments, resulting in profound changes in its landscape, population, and flora and fauna. In the 19th century, more than 50 million people left Europe alone for resettlement in North and South America. The time after 1492 is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange, a large and widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, populations (including slaves), infectious diseases, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres, which followed Columbus's voyages to the Americas. .

Scandinavian voyages to Greenland and Canada are supported by historical and archaeological evidence. The Scandinavian colony in Greenland was established at the end of the 10th century and continued until the middle of the 15th century, with a court and parliamentary assemblies sitting in Brattalida and a bishop who was based in Sargan. The remains of a Scandinavian settlement at L'Anse-o-Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada were discovered in 1960 and have been dated around 1000 (carbon analysis showed 990-1050 AD); L'Anse-o-Meadows is the only settlement which has been widely accepted as evidence of pre-Columbian transoceanic contact. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It should also be noted that the settlement may be related to the failed Vinland colony founded by Leif Erickson around the same time, or more broadly to the West Scandinavian colonization of the Americas.

Colonial history of America

Early explorations and conquests were made by the Spanish and Portuguese immediately after their own final reconquest of Iberia in 1492. In 1494, by the Treaty of Tordesillas, ratified by the Pope, these two kingdoms divided the entire non-European world into two parts for exploration and colonization, from the northern to the southern border, cutting the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern part of modern Brazil. Based on this treaty and on the basis of earlier claims by the Spanish explorer Núñez de Balboa, discoverer of the Pacific in 1513, the Spaniards conquered large territories in North, Central and South America.

The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortes conquered the Aztec kingdom and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca empire. As a result, by the mid-16th century, the Spanish crown had gained control of much of western South America, Central America, and southern North America, in addition to the early Caribbean territories it had conquered. During the same period, Portugal took over land in North America (Canada) and colonized much of the eastern region of South America, naming it Santa Cruz and Brazil.

Other European countries soon began to challenge the terms of the Tordesillas Treaty. England and France tried to establish colonies in the Americas in the 16th century, but failed. England and France succeeded in establishing permanent colonies in the next century along with the Dutch Republic. Some of these were in the Caribbean, which had already been repeatedly conquered by the Spanish, or depopulated by disease, while other colonies were in eastern North America, north of Florida, that had not been colonized by Spain.

Early European possessions in North America included Spanish Florida, Spanish New Mexico, the English colonies of Virginia (with their North Atlantic offshoot, Bermuda) and New England, the French colonies of Acadia and Canada, the Swedish colony of New Sweden, and the Dutch colony of New Netherland. In the 18th century, Denmark-Norway resurrected their former colonies in Greenland, while the Russian Empire established itself in Alaska. Denmark-Norway later made several claims to land ownership in the Caribbean starting in the 1600s.

As more countries gained interest in colonizing the Americas, the competition for territory became more and more fierce. The colonists often faced the threat of attacks from neighboring colonies, as well as native tribes and pirates.

Who paid for the expeditions of the discoverers of America?

The first phase of a well-funded European activity in the Americas began with the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by Christopher Columbus (1492-1504), financed by Spain, whose original purpose was to try to find a new route to India and China, then known as the "Indies". He was followed by other explorers such as John Cabot, who was funded by England and reached Newfoundland. Pedro Alvarez Cabral reached Brazil and claimed it on behalf of Portugal.

Amerigo Vespucci, working for Portugal on voyages from 1497 to 1513, established that Columbus had reached new continents. Cartographers still use a Latinized version of their first name, America, for the two continents. Other explorers: Giovanni Verrazzano, whose voyage was funded by France in 1524; the Portuguese João Vaz Cortireal in Newfoundland; João Fernández Lavrador, Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real and João Alvarez Fagundes in Newfoundland, Greenland, Labrador and Nova Scotia (from 1498 to 1502, and in 1520); Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), Henry Hudson (1560-1611), and Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) who explored Canada.

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and led the first European expedition to view the Pacific Ocean from the western coast of the New World. In fact, sticking to the previous history of conquest, Balboa claimed that the Spanish crown laid claim to the Pacific Ocean and all adjacent lands. This was before 1517, before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America, landing on the Yucatan coast in search of slaves.

These explorations were followed, in particular by Spain, by a stage of conquest: the Spaniards, having just completed the liberation of Spain from Muslim domination, were the first to colonize the Americas, applying the same model of European administration of their territories in the New World.

colonial period

Ten years after the discovery of Columbus, the administration of Hispaniola was transferred to Nicolás de Ovando of the Order of Alcantara, founded during the Reconquista (liberation of Spain from Muslim domination). As in the Iberian Peninsula, the inhabitants of Hispaniola received new landowners-masters, while religious orders led the local administration. Gradually, an encomienda system was established there, which obliged European settlers to pay tribute (having access to local labor and taxation).

A relatively common misconception is that a small number of conquistadors conquered vast territories, bringing only epidemics and their powerful caballeros there. In fact, recent archaeological excavations have suggested the existence of a large Spanish-Indian alliance numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Hernán Cortés finally conquered Mexico with the help of Tlaxcala in 1519-1521, while the Inca conquest was carried out by about 40,000 traitors of the same people, led by Francisco Pizarro, between 1532 and 1535.

How did the relations between the European colonists and the Indians develop?

A century and a half after the voyages of Columbus, the indigenous population of North and South America dropped sharply by about 80% (from 50 million in 1492 to 8 million people in 1650), mainly due to outbreaks of diseases of the Old World.

In 1532, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, sent a viceroy to Mexico, Antonio de Mendoza, to prevent the independence movement that had arisen during the reign of Cortés, who finally returned to Spain in 1540. Two years later, Charles V signed the New Laws (which replaced the Laws of Burgos of 1512) banning slavery and repartimiento, but also claiming ownership of American lands and considering all the people inhabiting these lands to be his subjects.

When in May 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued the bull "Inter caetera", according to which the new lands were transferred to the Kingdom of Spain, in exchange he demanded the evangelization of the people. So, during the second journey of Columbus, Benedictine monks accompanied him along with twelve other priests. Because slavery was forbidden among Christians, and could only be applied to prisoners of war who were not Christians, or to men already sold as slaves, the debate over Christianization was particularly heated during the 16th century. In 1537, the papal bull "Sublimis Deus" finally recognized the fact that Native Americans possessed souls, thereby forbidding their enslavement, but did not end the discussion. Some argued that the natives, who rebelled against the authorities and were captured, could still be enslaved.

Later, a debate was held in Valladolid between the Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas and another Dominican philosopher, Juan Gines de Sepúlveda, where the former argued that Native Americans were creatures with souls, like all other human beings, while the latter argued the opposite and justified their enslavement.

Christianization of Colonial America

The process of Christianization was brutal at first: when the first Franciscans arrived in Mexico in 1524, they burned the places dedicated to the pagan cult, chilling relations with much of the local population. In the 1530s they began to adapt Christian practices to local customs, including the building of new churches on the sites of ancient places of worship, which led to the mixing of Old World Christianity with local religions. The Spanish Roman Catholic Church, in need of native labor and cooperation, preached in Quechua, Nahuatl, Guarani and other Indian languages, which contributed to the expansion of the use of these indigenous languages and provided some of them with writing systems. One of the first primitive schools for Native Americans was one founded by Fray Pedro de Gante in 1523.

In order to encourage their troops, the conquistadors often gave away Indian cities for the use of their troops and officers. Black African slaves replaced local labor in some places, including in the West Indies, where the native population was close to extinction on many islands.

During this time, the Portuguese gradually moved from the original plan of establishing trading posts to extensive colonization of what is now Brazil. They brought millions of slaves to work their plantations. The Portuguese and Spanish royal governments intended to manage these settlements and receive at least 20% of all treasures found (in Quinto Real, collected by the Casa de Contratación government agency), in addition to collecting any taxes they might have levied. By the end of the 16th century, American silver accounted for one-fifth of Spain's total budget. In the 16th century, about 240,000 Europeans landed at American ports.

Colonization of America in search of wealth

Inspired by the wealth derived by the Spaniards from their colonies based on the conquered lands of the Aztecs, Incas, and other large Indian settlements in the 16th century, the early English began to settle permanently in America and hoped for the same rich discoveries when they established their first permanent settlement. at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. They were funded by the same joint-stock companies such as the Virginia Freight Company, financed by wealthy Englishmen who exaggerated the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this colony was the hope of finding gold.

It took strong leaders like John Smith to convince the Jamestown colonists that in their search for gold they needed to put aside their basic needs for food and shelter, and the Biblical principle "He who does not work shall not eat". to an extremely high death rate was very unfortunate and a cause for despair among the colonists.Many supply missions were organized to support the colony.Later, thanks to the work of John Rolfe and others, tobacco became a commercial export crop, which ensured the sustainable economic development of Virginia and the neighboring colony of Maryland .

From the very beginning of Virginia's settlement in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor was a large part of the immigrants, in search of a new life, who arrived in foreign colonies to work under the contract. During the 17th century, wage laborers made up three-quarters of all European immigrants in the Chesapeake region. Most of the hired workers were teenagers, originally from England, with poor economic prospects in their homeland. Their fathers signed documents that gave these teenagers the opportunity to come to America for free and get unpaid work until they reach adulthood. They were provided with food, clothing, housing and training in agricultural work or household services. American landowners needed workers and were willing to pay for their passage to America if these workers served them for several years. By exchanging a passage to America for unpaid work for five to seven years, after this period they could begin an independent life in America. Many migrants from England died within the first few years.

Economic advantage also prompted the creation of the Darien Project, the ill-fated venture of the Kingdom of Scotland to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s. The Darien project had as its object the control of trade through that part of the world, and thereby was to assist Scotland in strengthening her strength in world trade. However, the project was doomed due to poor planning, low food supplies, poor leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, and a devastating disease. The failure of the Darien Project was one of the reasons that led the Kingdom of Scotland to enter into the Act of Union in 1707 with the Kingdom of England, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and giving Scotland commercial access to the English, now British, colonies.

In the French colonial regions, sugar plantations in the Caribbean were the backbone of the economy. In Canada, the fur trade with the locals was very important. About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers. The vast majority became farmers, settling along the St. Lawrence River. With favorable conditions for health (no disease) and plenty of land and food, their numbers grew exponentially to 65,000 by 1760. The colony was ceded to Great Britain in 1760, but there were few social, religious, legal, cultural and economic changes in a society that remained true to the newly formed traditions.

Religious immigration to the New World

Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate to the New World, as the settlers of the colonies of Spain and Portugal (and later, France) belonged to this faith. The English and Dutch colonies, on the other hand, were more religiously diverse. The settlers of these colonies included Anglicans, Dutch Calvinists, English Puritans and other nonconformists, English Catholics, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, German and Swedish Lutherans, as well as Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, and Jews of various ethnicities.

Many groups of colonists went to America in order to gain the right to practice their religion without persecution. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century broke the unity of Western Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which were often persecuted by the authorities. state power. In England, many people came to the question of the organization of the Church of England towards the end of the 16th century. One of the main manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to "purify" the existing Church of England of its many residual Catholic rites, which they believed had no mention in the Bible.

A firm believer in the principle of government based on divine right, Charles I, King of England and Scotland, persecuted religious dissenters. Waves of repression led about 20,000 Puritans to migrate to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they established several colonies. Later in the same century, the new colony of Pennsylvania was given to William Penn as a settlement of the king's debt to his father. The government of this colony was established by William Penn about 1682, primarily to provide a refuge for persecuted English Quakers; but other residents were also welcome. Baptists, Quakers, German and Swiss Protestants, Anabaptists flocked to Pennsylvania. Very attractive were the good opportunity to get cheap land, freedom of religion and the right to improve their own lives.

The peoples of the Americas before and after the start of European colonization

Slavery was a common practice in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans, as different groups of American Indians captured and held members of other tribes as slaves. Many of these captives were subjected to human sacrifice in Native American civilizations such as the Aztecs. In response to some cases of enslavement of the local population in the Caribbean during the early years of colonization, the Spanish crown passed a series of laws prohibiting slavery as early as 1512. A new, stricter set of laws was passed in 1542 called the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Protection of the Indians, or simply the New Laws. They were created to prevent the exploitation of indigenous peoples by encomenderos or landowners by severely limiting their power and dominance. This helped to greatly reduce Indian slavery, although not completely. Later, with the arrival of other European colonial powers in the New World, the enslavement of the native population increased, as these empires did not have anti-slavery legislation for several decades. Indigenous populations declined (mainly due to European diseases, but also from forced exploitation and crime). Later, the indigenous workers were replaced by Africans brought in through the large commercial slave trade.

How were blacks brought to America?

By the 18th century, the overwhelming number of black slaves was such that Native American slavery was much rarer. The Africans who were taken on board the slave ships sailing to North and South America were mostly supplied from their African home countries by the coastal tribes, who captured them and sold them. Europeans bought slaves from local African tribes who took them prisoner in exchange for rum, weapons, gunpowder and other goods.

Slave trade in America

An estimated 12 million Africans were involved in the total slave trade in the islands of the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. The vast majority of these slaves were sent to the sugar colonies in the Caribbean and Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the number of slaves had to be constantly replenished. At best, about 600,000 African slaves were imported into the US, or 5% of the 12 million slaves exported from Africa. Life expectancy was much higher in the US (due to the best food, fewer diseases, easier work and better medical care), so that the number of slaves grew rapidly from the excess of births over deaths and reached 4 million by 1860 according to the census. From 1770 to 1860, the natural growth rate of North American slaves was much higher than the population of any country in Europe, and was almost twice as fast as that of England.

Slaves imported into thirteen colonies/USA in a given time period:

1619-1700 - 21.000
1701-1760 - 189.000
1761-1770 - 63.000
1771-1790 - 56.000
1791-1800 - 79.000
1801-1810 - 124.000
1810-1865 - 51.000
Total - 597.000

Indigenous losses during colonization

The European way of life included a long history of direct contact with domesticated animals such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and various domesticated birds from which many diseases originally originated. Thus, unlike the indigenous peoples, the Europeans accumulated antibodies. Large-scale contact with Europeans after 1492 brought new microbes to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Epidemics of smallpox (1518, 1521, 1525, 1558, 1589), typhoid (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) swept America after contact with Europeans, killing between 10 million and 100 million people, up to 95% of the indigenous population of North and South America. Cultural and political instability accompanied these losses, which together greatly contributed to the efforts of various colonists in New England and Massachusetts to gain control of the great wealth in land and resources commonly enjoyed by the indigenous communities.

Such diseases have added human mortality to an undeniably enormous severity and scale - and it is pointless to try to determine its full extent with any degree of accuracy. Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas vary greatly.

Others have argued that the large population differences after pre-Columbian history are the reason for treating the largest population count with caution. Such estimates may reflect historical population highs, while indigenous populations may have been at levels slightly below these highs, or at a time of decline just prior to European contact. Indigenous peoples reached their ultimate lows in most areas of the Americas in the early 20th century; and in some cases growth has returned.

List of European colonies in the Americas

Spanish colonies

Cuba (until 1898)
New Granada (1717-1819)
Captaincy General of Venezuela
New Spain (1535-1821)
Nueva Extremadura
Nueva Galicia
Nuevo Reino de Leon
Nuevo Santander
Nueva Vizcaya
California
Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico
Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1824)
Captaincy General of Chile
Puerto Rico (1493-1898)
Rio de la Plata (1776-1814)
Hispaniola (1493-1865); the island, now included in the islands of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, was under Spanish rule in whole or in part from 1492- to 1865.

English and (after 1707) British colonies

British America (1607- 1783)
Thirteen Colonies (1607-1783)
Rupert's Land (1670-1870)
British Columbia (1793-1871)
British North America (1783-1907)
British West Indies
Belize

Courland

New Courland (Tobago) (1654-1689)

Danish colonies

Danish West Indies (1754-1917)
Greenland (1814-present)

Dutch colonies

New Netherland (1609-1667)
Essequibo (1616-1815)
Dutch Virgin Islands (1625-1680)
Burbice (1627-1815)
New Walcheren (1628-1677)
Dutch Brazil (1630-1654)
Pomerun (1650-1689)
Cayenne (1658-1664)
Demerara (1745-1815)
Suriname (1667-1954) (After independence, still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands until 1975)
Curaçao and Dependencies (1634-1954) (Aruba and Curaçao are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bonaire; 1634-present)
Sint Eustatius and dependencies (1636-1954) (Sint Maarten is still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sint Eustatius and Saba; 1636-present)

French colonies

New France (1604-1763)
Acadia (1604-1713)
Canada (1608-1763)
Louisiana (1699-1763, 1800-1803)
Newfoundland (1662-1713)
Ile Royale (1713-1763)
French Guiana (1763–present)
French West Indies
Saint Domingo (1659-1804, now Haiti)
Tobago
Virgin Islands
Antarctic France (1555-1567)
Equatorial France (1612-1615)

Order of Malta

Saint Barthelemy (1651-1665)
Saint Christopher (1651-1665)
St. Croix (1651-1665)
Saint Martin (1651-1665)

Norwegian colonies

Greenland (986-1814)
Danish-Norwegian West Indies (1754-1814)
Sverdrup Islands (1898-1930)
Land of Eric the Red (1931-1933)

Portuguese colonies

Colonial Brazil (1500-1815) became a Kingdom, the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
Terra do Labrador (1499/1500-) claimed territory (occupied periodically, from time to time).
Corte Real Land, also known as Terra Nova dos Bacalhaus (Land of the Cod) - Terra Nova (Newfoundland) (1501) claimed territory (occupied periodically, from time to time).
Portuguese Cove Saint Philip (1501-1696)
Nova Scotia (1519 -1520) claimed territory (occupied periodically, from time to time).
Barbados (1536-1620)
Colonia del Sacramento (1680-1705 / 1714-1762 / 1763-1777 (1811-1817))
Sisplatina (1811-1822, now Uruguay)
French Guiana (1809-1817)

Russian colonies

Russian America (Alaska) (1799-1867)

Scottish colonies

Nova Scotia (1622-1632)
Darien Project on the Isthmus of Panama (1698-1700)
City of Stuarts, Carolina (1684-1686)

Swedish colonies

New Sweden (1638-1655)
St. Barthelemy (1785-1878)
Guadeloupe (1813-1815)

American museums and exhibitions of slavery

In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and the Virginia Historical Society (VHS) co-hosted a traveling exhibition to recount the strategic alliances and violent conflicts between European empires (English, Spanish, French) and the native peoples of the American North. The exhibition was presented in three languages and from different points of view. Artifacts on display included rare surviving local and European artifacts, maps, documents, and ritual objects from museums and royal collections on both sides of the Atlantic. The exhibition opened in Richmond, Virginia on March 17, 2007 and closed at the Smithsonian International Gallery on October 31, 2009.

A linked online exhibition is dedicated to the international origins of the societies of Canada and the United States, and to the 400th anniversary of the three permanent settlements at Jamestown (1607), Quebec (1608), and Santa Fe (1609). The site is available in three languages.

Today we will consider the settlement of South America by man. Even now, archaeological finds challenge the generally accepted theory of Clovis hunters. There is still controversy regarding the date of the first human settlement of America. According to some estimates, this happened about 50 thousand years ago, and according to others - 14 thousand years ago.

Questions of chronology

The chronology of migration patterns is divided into two scales. One scale is based on the "short chronology", according to which the first wave of migration to America occurred no earlier than 14 - 16 thousand years ago. Proponents of the "long chronology" believe that the first group of people arrived in the Western Hemisphere much earlier, perhaps 20 - 50 thousand years ago, and, perhaps, other successive waves of migrations took place after it.

generally accepted theory

First, let's get acquainted with the settlement of North America. About 15 thousand years ago there was an isthmus between Siberia and Alaska (Berengia). The Beringian land bridge was a vast area of the continental shelf, protruding above the sea surface or hiding under it due to cyclical changes in the level of the World Ocean. The most favorable conditions for the migration of fauna, people and animals were created 14 thousand years ago, when the path to the south lay up to 100 km wide and about 2000 km long along the so-called Mackenzie ice-free corridor. The landscape of Beringia was a cold tundra-steppe with islands of shrubs and birch forests on floodplains.

It is believed that ancient hunters crossed this isthmus following herds of large land mammals, whose meat was the basis of their diet.

The oldest archaeological culture in the Americas is the Clovis culture. According to the latest data, representatives of the Clovis culture appeared about 15,000 years ago. The main occupation was hunting and gathering, this is confirmed by the finds of bones of mammoths, bison, mastodons and other mammals at the sites. In total, more than 125 species of plants and animals are known to be used by the Clovis people. Characterized by stone chipped lanceolate spearheads with longitudinal grooves on both surfaces and a concave base, sometimes in the shape of a fish tail. Their anthropology is known from only two finds: the remains of a boy, nicknamed Anzik-1 (Montana, 2013), and a girl (Mexican Yucatan, 2014).
The theory known as "Clovis first" has been dominant among archaeologists since the second half of the 20th century. It implies that the Clovis people were the first inhabitants of the Americas. The main argument in favor of the theory is that no convincing evidence of the presence of a person on the American continent before the Clovis culture has been found.

However, South American cultural finds, on the other hand, do not follow the same sequence and represent diverse cultural patterns. Therefore, many archaeologists believe that the Clovis model is not valid for South America, calling for the creation of new theories to explain prehistoric finds that do not fit into the Clovis cultural complex. Let's take a look at these findings below.

Archaeological finds at the Serra da Capivara indicate a possible human arrival around 50,000 BC. BC, but the evidence is still questioned by some researchers. This evidence either points to a crossing of the Bering Strait much earlier than previously thought, or to a sea route for the settlement of America. In the northeast of Brazil, near São Raimundo Nonatu, on an area of 40,000 sq. km. found a number of monuments of prehistoric art, which are both color drawings and outline images. Color drawings were found near the foot of vertical coastal cliffs and in caves. Carved contour images are also found on individual rocks at the entrances to the caves. Some galleries contain over a thousand images, but most include between 10 and 100 shapes. These are mostly anthropomorphic images. People are presented on the move, some figures make up very dynamic compositions, although their interpretation is difficult. Archaeological excavations have established an approximate chronology of settlement in this area and the development of ancient art. Most ancient period- Pedra Furada is divided into four successive phases. The appearance of art is usually attributed to the period of Pedra Furada I (about 46,000 BC), fragments of rocks with colored marks have already been found in the archaeological layers of this period. Carved contour images appeared only in the last stage (Pedra Fuad IV, about 15000 BC).

At the Santa Elina site in a ravine under an overhanging rocky cliff in western Brazil, a lot of interesting things have been preserved. Large foci and heaps of stones, plant remains and placers of skin ossifications-osteoderms of the giant sloths of the glossotherium, layers of ash and again the bones of sloths. Of course, there were also stone tools, although rather primitive, made of limestone. At the Santa Elina site, two giant sloth osteoderm pendants were found with holes drilled for hanging. The most interesting, of course, are the dates. The oldest layer with traces of settlement in the form of several flakes and drilled pendants has an antiquity of 26.887-27.818 thousand years ago. Above it, a couple more layers are dated 25.896-27.660 thousand years ago. Then silent strata follow, where no human traces are found, and the second time people came here 11.404-12.007 thousand years ago, after which they did not disappear anywhere. Thus, it turns out that in the center of South America, in the Amazon jungle, people appeared close to thirty thousand years ago. Good stratigraphy and an abundance of consistent dates make these figures among the most reliable for the Americas.

Monte Verde site in south-central Chile, where crude stone tools were found. The age of the monument was determined at 14.5 thousand years ago. Thus, Monte Verde, if its dating is correct, is evidence of the appearance of the Paleo-Indians in America at least 1000 years before Clovis. Initially dismissed by the archaeological community, the Monte Verde finds have gained increasing acceptance over time, despite continued criticism from those who advocate the theory that the first wave of human settlement in the Americas was associated with Clovis. The culture of the inhabitants of Monte Verde is completely different from the culture of the Clovis hunters. Although the inhabitants of Monte Verde made advanced bifaces, they mostly made minimally processed pebble tools. And indeed, stone tools were mainly obtained simply by choosing pebbles that had split from natural factors. Some of them show no more or less traces of use. Others show traces of intentional retouching of the working edge. This strongly resembles the description of European eoliths. By a lucky chance: the parking lot is located in a swampy area in which perishable plants and animals have been preserved. Two pebble tools were stuck into a wooden handle. 12 building foundations were also found; they were made of planks driven into the ground and small logs. Large dwelling hearths and large coal stoves lined with clay were found there. On one piece of clay, they saw the footprint of an eight-nine-year-old child. Also found were rough wooden mortars that stood on wooden supports, millstones, the remains of wild potatoes, medicinal plants and plants from the sea coast with a high salt content. In general, the Monte Verde site sheds light on the existence of creatures that could make and use crude pebble tools during the Pliocene and Miocene in Europe, or at the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in Africa. In this case, this culture had all the comforts of home made from decaying materials. The cultural level of the site is much higher than the cultural level of human ancestors. Through accidental preservation, we see that the artifacts from Monte Verde represent an advanced culture that was accompanied by the crudest types of stone tools.

The earliest human presence was found in Piedra Museo in the province of Santa Cruz and dates back to 11 thousand BC. e. Together with archaeological finds in Monte Verde (Chile) and Pedra Furada (Brazil), they are the most ancient places of human habitation in South America and are evidence of the theory of the early settlement of America, that is, before the emergence of the Clovis culture.

anthropological question

According to the generally accepted theory, America was settled by representatives of Asian races (Mongoloids). However, many anthropologists take a different view. And there are reasons for this.

Luzia

The skull of a woman, whose age is about 11 thousand years, was discovered in 1974 in the Lapa Vermelha cave (Lagoa Santa municipality of the state of Minas Gerais) by a group of Brazilian and French archaeologists, led by Annette Laming-Amperer (1917-1977). The name Luzia was given as an analogue of Lucy, a famous anthropological find of 1974 in Tanzania, 3.5 million years old.
Skeletal studies have shown that Luzia was one of the very first inhabitants of South America. The skull of a woman has an oval shape and a small size, a face with a protruding chin. Archaeologists suggest that Luzia was between 20 and 25 years old when she died in an accident or from a wild animal attack. The woman belonged to a hunting and gathering group.

When studying the cranial morphology of Luzia, Neves discovered features characteristic of modern Australian aborigines and Africans (despite the fact that, according to modern ideas about races, Negroids and Australoids are genetically very far from each other). Together with his Argentine colleague Héctor Pucciarelli of the Museum of La Plata, Nevis formulated the hypothesis that the settlement of the Americas occurred as a result of two different waves of hunter-gatherers from Asia through the Bering Isthmus that existed until the end of the last glaciation. At the same time, these waves were biologically and ethnically completely different groups. The first (the so-called "natives of America") crossed the isthmus about 14 thousand years ago - Luzia also belonged to them. The same group could include the Kennewick man, whose facial features are also different from those of the Indians. The second group was racially close to the Mongoloids, and moved to America about 11 thousand years ago, and almost all modern Indian peoples of North and South America descend from it.

Chinchorro culture - ancient culture, which existed on the western Pacific coast of South America in the territory of the modern region of Tacna (Peru), and the regions of Arica-i-Parinacota and Tarapaca (Chile) in the period of about 9-4 thousand BC. e. They were one of the first peoples with a village culture who carried out ritual mummification of all their dead. The age of the oldest of the mummies is more than 9 thousand years - these are the most ancient human mummies in the world. For the first time, the remains of this culture were discovered and described by the German archaeologist Max Ule. The archaeological remains of the Chinchorro culture are preserved and studied at the University of Tarapaca. The university has an archaeological museum where you can see some of the mummies. A study of 10 new available ancient genomes from the Americas showed that the genome of the Chinchorro mummy had a significantly higher amount of Caucasoid admixture than the rest of the studied ancient genomes of the Indians. Mitochondrial haplogroup A2 was identified among representatives of the Chinchorro culture.

Although there is no archaeological evidence for American-Polynesian contacts, many researchers consider the suggestion of such contacts to be credible. One of the evidence in favor of this theory is the fact that sweet potatoes were grown in Polynesia long before contact with Europeans. The homeland of sweet potato, like ordinary potatoes, is America. It is assumed that either the Polynesians brought sweet potatoes from South America, or American travelers brought them to Polynesia. An "accidental" entry of sweet potato tubers into Polynesia by sea seems extremely unlikely. The very name of sweet potato in Polynesian languages (Rapanui kumara, Maori kumāra, Hawaiian ʻuala) is associated with the Quechuan k'umar ~ k'umara "sweet potato", which is also indirect evidence of the American-Polynesian contact.
In addition, there should not have been chickens in South America before the arrival of Europeans, however, the Spanish conquistadors first mentioned the breed of chickens laying blue eggs in 1526. The main feature of the birds of this breed is that they carry blue or greenish eggs, and this is a dominant feature that could not have formed in the 30 years that have passed since the discovery of the New World. It is most likely that these chickens were brought by Polynesian travelers.
In the legends and myths of the Polynesians, many memories of the voyages of their ancestors to distant lands in the east have been preserved. So, in the Marquesas Islands, a legend is told about the huge Kahua catamaran boat, which was built by people from the island of Hiva-Oa. The boat was so large that the sailors bailing out water could not even reach the slots in the sides with their scoops. Its two sections were connected by a plank platform, on which stood a canopy of palm leaves. Under it were stored food supplies. This boat first sailed northwest to visit the island of Nuku Hiva, and then turned east, and after a long voyage came to the coast of the country that the Polynesians called Te Fiti. For some time, the Polynesian sailors stayed on the new land, and then, leaving some of their people here, returned to the island of Hiva-Oa. The only land to the east of the Marquesas can only be South America, and the coast of Ecuador or Peru must be considered the country of Te Fiti.
And the inhabitants of the island of Rarotonga tell how a large sea expedition led by the leader Maui Marumamao once went east from the island of Raiatea (Society Islands). Polynesian canoes passed by the island of Rapa Nui (Easter), and then sailed eastward for a long time until they reached the "country of mountain ranges." Here the leader of Maui died, and his son Kiu, leading an expedition, went west to the islands of Polynesia.

Contacts with Africa

In the legends of the Peruvian Indians, memories of the arrival of dark-skinned people from the east have been preserved. And in 1513, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered in Panama, on the Isthmus of Darien, unusual Indians with black skin. It was clearly the descendants of Africans! In the Spanish chronicles dating back to the time of the first conquistadors, in general, there are frequent references to both the "Black Caribs" and the "Black Antilles". The 16th-century chronicler Franco Garcia, who spent many years in America, reports that he saw an African tribe on an island near Cartagena (Colombia). The English historian Richard Eden is sure that there could be no mistake: when the Europeans first arrived in the New World, they clearly distinguished the long black hair of the Indians from the curly hair of the "Moors". In addition, the facts are known that in the 19th century, African fishermen were washed to the shores of Brazil by wind and currents.

Conclusion

As we can see from the above, the problem of the settlement of South America has not yet been fully resolved. And I think we are waiting for many more interesting discoveries in this matter. Below is my version of the settlement of South America. I agree that the main stream went through Berengia, but the influence of Africans and Polynesians affected both coasts.

Paleo-Indians

Human settlement on Earth ended with the colonization of the American continents. We can trace the route of the movement of ancient people by. The first people settled on the northeastern edge of the North American continent 22,000 - 16,000 years ago. The results of modern genetic and archaeological research indicate that the inhabitants of Alaska managed to penetrate south and quickly populate the Americas about 15,000 years ago, when a passage opened in a glacier that covered most of North America.
The first people entered North America from Asia, along the land bridge - Beringia, which during the glaciation period connected Chukotka with Alaska. The Asian origin of Native Americans today is not in doubt. In America, there are five variants (haplotypes) of mitochondrial DNA (A, B, C, D, X). All of them are also characteristic of the indigenous population of Southern Siberia from the Altai to the Amur. The mitochondrial DNA that was extracted from the bones of ancient Americans is also clearly Asian in origin. Based on the analysis of evolutionary lines widely distributed among the Indians, but not found in Asia, the time of the beginning of the settlement of the ancient Indians to the south of the ice sheet was established: 16,600 - 11,200 years ago.
Some anthropologists have suggested "two waves" of American settlement, but the data genetic research this has not been confirmed. The observed distribution of genetic variation strongly suggests that all Native American genetic diversity is rooted in a single ancestral Asian gene pool, and human settlement only once in the Americas.

Ancient people could theoretically bypass the glacier by sea

The oldest undisputed traces of human presence in Alaska are 14,000 years old, stone tools similar to those produced by the Upper Paleolithic population of Siberia.
About 40,000 years ago, a large part of North America was covered with a glacier that blocked the way from Alaska to the south. At the same time, Alaska itself was not covered with ice. During warmings, two corridors opened in the glacier, one along the Pacific coast, the other east of the Rocky Mountains, along which the ancient inhabitants of Alaska could pass to the south. The corridors were opened 32,000 years ago when people appeared in the lower reaches of the Yana (North-Eastern Siberia), but 24,000 years ago they closed again. People, apparently, did not have time to use them. The coastal corridor reopened about 15,000 years ago, and the eastern one about 13,000 to 13,500 years ago. However, according to some reports, ancient hunters could theoretically bypass the glacier by sea. On the island of Santa Rosa (Santa Rosa) off the coast of California, traces of the presence of a person aged 13,000 - 13,100 years were found.
For many decades it was believed that the first Americans were the Clovis people, who left their distinctive spearheads throughout the American Midwest and Southwest about 13,000 years ago. But in recent years, a number of evidence of earlier settlements have been unearthed all along the Pacific coast, from the US Northwest to southern Chile. Artifacts from the caves of Paisley, Oregon, indicate that the people who left them were different from the Clovis culture carriers who lived at the same time. More and more scientists are inclined to the version that the first settlers from Asia about 15,000 years ago quickly settled the western coast of both Americas, and only then moved further east, creating, among other things, the Clovis culture.
Both the Clovis culture and the Paisley cave dwellers probably came from the same wave of Asian migration, but it remains an open question whether these were originally separate groups or whether they split later.

Clovis culture

The well-documented archaeological history of the American continent south of the glacier begins with the Clovis culture. It originated about 13,100 years ago. By this time, people had already penetrated into South America. The Clovis culture is characterized by stone chipped lanceolate spearheads with longitudinal grooves on both surfaces and a concave base, sometimes in the shape of a fish tail. Approximately 400 years after its appearance, the Clovis culture disappeared just as rapidly. The Clovis people were traditionally thought to be nomadic hunter-gatherers capable of moving quickly over considerable distances. Their tools made of bone and stone were very perfect and multifunctional. They were made using original techniques and were highly valued by their owners. Stone tools were made from high quality flint and obsidian. These materials could not be found everywhere, so the ancient people took care of them and always carried them with them, often taking them hundreds of kilometers away from the place of manufacture. The sites of the Clovis culture are characterized by small temporary camps where people did not live for a long time, but stopped only to eat the next big animal they caught - most often a mammoth or mastodon. Significant accumulations of Clovis artifacts have been found in the southeastern United States and in Texas - up to 650,000 pieces in one place, mostly waste from the stone industry.
Judging by the sites discovered in North America with the so-called "places for slaughtering and cutting proboscis" (12 such places in total), the favorite prey of the Clovis people were proboscis - mammoths and mastodons. It is possible that people of the Clovis culture made significant contributions to North America. Also, the diet of the ancient Americans included smaller prey - bison, deer, hares, and even reptiles and amphibians. The Clovis culture penetrated into Central and South America, but did not receive such wide distribution as in North America. In South America, ancient sites with other types of stone tools have been discovered, including those with characteristic tips resembling fish in shape. Some of these South American sites are close in age to the Clovis sites. Recent studies have shown that it is possible that both cultures are descended from some common and as yet undiscovered "ancestor".
At one of the sites in South America, the bones of an extinct wild horse were found. It follows that the first people on this continent probably also contributed to the extermination of large animals.

Some facts about the settlement of America

To date, it has been unequivocally established that America was inhabited by the species Homo sapiens.
There have never been any Pithecanthropes, Neanderthals, Australopithecus and other ancient hominids in America.
Genetic analysis has proven that the entire indigenous population of America comes from the same population of immigrants from southern Siberia.
The first people appeared in Alaska no earlier than 30,000 and no later than 13,000 years ago, most likely between 22,000 and 16,000 years ago.
Judging by molecular genetic data, human settlement from Beringia deep into North America began no earlier than 16,600 years ago, and the size of the population of pioneers, from which the entire population of both Americas south of the glacier originated, did not exceed 5,000 people.
The theory of several waves of settlement in America has not been confirmed, with the exception of the Eskimos and Aleuts, who came from Asia much later, but settled only in the far north of America.
Also, the theory about the participation of Europeans in the ancient colonization of the American continent was not confirmed.

The Great Descent of Man - America - BBC Film

By the time the last ice age began to decline, humans had long inhabited Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia. But America remained deserted. The Atlantic stretches to the east of it, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the north of the continent was ice-bound. The territory of modern Alaska and Canada was covered with an ice sheet up to several kilometers thick. How did people manage to get to America, cut off from the world by a wall of ice?

Almost half of the Viceroyalty of New Spain founded by them was located where the states of Texas, California, New Mexico, etc. are located today. The name of the state of Florida is also of Spanish origin - this is how the Spaniards called the lands known to them in the southeast North America. The colony of New Netherland arose in the valley of the Hudson River; further south, in the valley of the Delaware River, is New Sweden. Louisiana, which occupied vast territories in the basin of the Mississippi, the largest river on the continent, was the possession of France. In the XVIII century. the northwestern part of the continent, modern Alaska, began to be developed by Russian industrialists. But the most impressive success in the colonization of North America was achieved by the British.

For settlers from the British Isles and from other countries of Europe across the ocean, wide material opportunities opened up, they were attracted by the hope of free labor and personal enrichment. America also attracted with its religious freedom. Many Englishmen moved to America during the period of revolutionary upheavals in the middle of the 17th century. Religious sectarians, bankrupt peasants, and the urban poor left for the colonies. All sorts of adventurers and adventurers also rushed across the ocean; cited by criminals. The Irish and Scots fled here when life in their homeland became completely unbearable.

The south of North America is washed by the waters Gulf of Mexico. Floating on it, the Spaniards discovered the peninsula Florida, covered with dense forests and swamps. Now it is a famous resort and a place to launch American spaceships. The Spaniards came to the mouth of the largest river in North America - Mississippi falling into Gulf of Mexico. In Indian Mississippi - "big river", "father of the waters." Its waters were muddy, uprooted trees floated along the river. To the west of the Mississippi, wetlands gradually gave way to drier steppes - prairies where herds of bison roamed like bulls. The prairie stretched all the way to the foot of rocky mountains stretching from north to south throughout the North American continent. The Rocky Mountains are part of a huge mountainous country of Cordillera. Cordillera go to the Pacific Ocean.

On the Pacific coast, the Spaniards discovered peninsula california And gulf of california. Falls into it colorado river- "red". The depth of her valley in the Cordillera amazed the Spaniards. Under their feet was a cliff 1800 m deep, at the bottom of which a river flowed like a barely noticeable silvery snake. For three days people walked along the edge of the valley grand canyon, looking for a descent down and could not find.

The northern half of North America was mastered by the British and French. In the middle of the 16th century, the French pirate Cartier discovered bay And St. Lavrentie river In Canada. The Indian word "Canada" - a settlement - became the name of a huge country. Moving up the St. Lawrence River, the French reached Great lakes. Among them is the world's largest fresh lake - Upper. On the Niagara River, which flows between the Great Lakes, a very powerful and beautiful Niagara Falls.

Natives of the Netherlands founded the city of New Amsterdam. Now it is called NY and is largest city United States of America.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the first British colonies appeared on the Atlantic coast of North America - settlements whose inhabitants grew tobacco in the south, grain and vegetables in the north.

Thirteen (13) colonies

Systematic colonization of North America began after the approval of the Stuart dynasty on the English throne. The first British colony, Jamestown, was founded in 1607 in Virginia.Then, as a result of the mass migration of the English Puritans overseas, the development of New England.First Puritan colony in what is now the state Massachusetts appeared in 1620. In subsequent years, immigrants from Massachusetts, dissatisfied with the religious intolerance that reigned there, founded colonies Connecticut And Rhode Island. Massachusetts seceded from Massachusetts after the Glorious Revolution New Hampshire.

On the lands north of Virginia, granted by Charles I to Lord Baltimore, a colony was founded in 1632 Maryland.On the lands located between Virginia and New England, the Dutch and Swedish colonists were the first to appear, but in 1664 they were captured by the British. New Netherland was renamed a colony NY, and to the south of it a colony arose New Jersey. In 1681, W. Penn received a royal charter for the lands north of Maryland. In honor of his father, the illustrious admiral, the new colony was named Pennsylvania. Throughout the XVIII century. separated from her Delaware. In 1663, the settlement of the territory south of Virginia began, where colonies later appeared. North Carolina And South Carolina. In 1732, King George (George) II allowed the development of land between South Carolina and Spanish Florida, which were named in his honor Georgia.

Five more British colonies were founded on the territory of modern Canada.

In all the colonies there were various forms of representative government, but the majority of the population was deprived of the right to vote.

Economy of the colonies

The colonies differed greatly in types of economic activity. In the north, where small-scale farming prevailed, household crafts associated with it developed, foreign trade, shipping and sea crafts were widely developed. Large agricultural plantations dominated in the south, where tobacco, cotton, and rice were grown.

Slavery in the colonies

Growing production required workers. The presence of undeveloped territories to the west of the borders of the colonies doomed to failure any attempts to turn the poor whites into wage labor, since there was always an opportunity for them to go to free lands. The Indians could not be forced to work for the white masters. Those of them who were tried to be made slaves quickly died in captivity, and the merciless war waged by the settlers against the Indians led to the mass extermination of the red-skinned natives of America. The problem with the labor force was solved by the massive importation of slaves from Africa, who were called blacks in America. The slave trade became the most important factor in the development of the colonies, especially the southern ones. Already by the end of the XVII century. Negroes became the predominant labor force and, in fact, the basis of the plantation economy in the south. material from the site

The Europeans were looking for a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Englishman Henry Hudson tried to sail along the northern American coast between the mainland and the islands lying to the north. Canadian arctic archipelago. The attempt failed, but the Hudson opened a huge Hudson Bay- a real "ice bag", on which ice floes float in the summer.

In the spruce and pine forests of Canada, the French and the British hunted fur-bearing animals, bartered their skins from the Indians. In the middle of the 17th century, the English Hudson's Bay Company arose to buy furs. The company's agents penetrated deep into the mainland, bringing information about new rivers, mountains, lakes. At the end of the 18th century, Alexander Mackenzie and his companions on canoes made of birch bark made a trip along the rivers and lakes of northern Canada. They hoped that the cold river, later named after Mackenzie will lead to the Pacific Ocean. The traveler himself called it the "river of disappointment", realizing that it flows into the Northern Arctic Ocean. Mackenzie went to his homeland, to Scotland, a country in the north of the British Isles, to study geography. Returning, he climbed the river valleys and crossed over the Rocky Mountains. Having passed the mountain passes of the Cordillera, Mackenzie began to descend along the rivers flowing to the west, and in 1793 he was the first to reach the Pacific coast.