America Before Columbus - Full Documentary - National Geographic

  • 5 years ago
America Before Columbus Facts- There were no apples and peaches in America before Columbus arrived. The American horse died out at the end of the last Ice Age and came back with Spanish conquistadors. Settlers in the Americas claimed they could hardly navigate their boats because the water was so full of fish. The potato, native to South America, sparked a population explosion in Europe?

The largest domesticated animal in the American continent was the llama. In 1491, natives did not know about the horse, cow, sheep or pig.

In 1491, it's possible that Europe and the Americas had similar populations.

In 1491, portions of the Amazon rainforest contained well-settled farming communities.

The barren Chaco Canyon once was covered with vegetation.

Because of the European honeybee, European plants flourished in the New World.

Weeds like clover and dandelion were brought to America by Europeans.

The turkey, domesticated by the Aztec, did not exist in Europe in 1491.

The first settlers made their living with the timber and fish they sold to Europe.

No one wanted to join on Columbus first voyage.

Passenger pigeons used to travel in the millions, so much that settlers had to run for cover or they would be covered in excrement.

History books traditionally depict the pre-Columbus Americas as a pristine wilderness where small native villages lived in harmony with nature. But scientific evidence tells a very different story: When Columbus stepped ashore in 1492, millions of people were already living there.

Columbus found Cuba, though a few years later the sea explorer Amerigo Vespucci found the continent of (south) America. After Amerigo puplished his exploring finds, Martin Waldseemüller dubbed the new continent America; after the Italian explorer.

America wasn’t exactly a “New World,” but a very old one whose inhabitants had built a vast infrastructure of cities, orchards, canals and causeways.

Recommended