In what is now the southwest the indigenous population practi-
United States, the Anasazi, ancestors cally from the time of initial con-
of the modern Hopi Indians, began tact . Smallpox, in particular, ravaged
building stone and adobe pueblos whole communities and is thought
around the year 900 . These unique to have been a much more direct
and amazing apartment-like struc- cause of the precipitous decline in
tures were often built along cliff the Indian population in the 1600s
faces; the most famous, the “cliff than the numerous wars and skir-
palace” of Mesa Verde, Colorado, mishes with European settlers .
had more than 200 rooms . Another
Indian customs and culture at the
site, the Pueblo Bonito ruins along time were extraordinarily diverse,
New Mexico’s Chaco River, once as could be expected, given the ex-
contained more than 800 rooms .
panse of the land and the many dif-
Perhaps the most affluent of the ferent environments to which they
pre-Columbian Native Americans had adapted . Some generalizations,
lived in the Pacific Northwest, where however, are possible . Most tribes,
the natural abundance of fish and particularly in the wooded eastern
raw materials made food supplies region and the Midwest, combined
plentiful and permanent vil ages pos- aspects of hunting, gathering, and
sible as early as 1,000 B .C . The opu- the cultivation of maize and other
lence of their “potlatch” gatherings products for their food supplies .
remains a standard for extravagance In many cases, the women were
and festivity probably unmatched in responsible for farming and the
early American history .
distribution of food, while the men
hunted and participated in war .
NATIVE-AMERICAN
By all accounts, Native-American
CULTURES
society in North America was closely
T
tied to the land . Identification with
he America that greeted the first nature and the elements was integral
Europeans was, thus, far from an to religious beliefs . Their life was
empty wilderness . It is now thought essentially clan-oriented and com-
that as many people lived in the munal, with children allowed more
Western Hemisphere as in West- freedom and tolerance than was the
ern Europe at that time — about 40 European custom of the day .
million . Estimates of the number of
Although some North Ameri-
Native Americans living in what is can tribes developed a type of hi-
now the United States at the onset of eroglyphics to preserve certain
European colonization range from texts, Native-American culture was
two to 18 million, with most histori- primarily oral, with a high value
ans tending toward the lower figure . placed on the recounting of tales
What is certain is the devastating ef- and dreams . Clearly, there was a
fect that European disease had on good deal of trade among various
8
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
groups and strong evidence exists
Columbus never saw the main-
that neighboring tribes maintained land of the future United States,
extensive and formal relations — but the first explorations of it were
both friendly and hostile .
launched from the Spanish posses-
sions that he helped establish . The
THE FIRST EUROPEANS
first of these took place in 1513
T
when a group of men under Juan
he first Europeans to arrive in Ponce de León landed on the Florida
North America — at least the first coast near the present city of St .
for whom there is solid evidence Augustine .
— were Norse, traveling west from
With the conquest of Mexico in
Greenland, where Erik the Red 1522, the Spanish further solidi-
had founded a settlement around fied their position in the Western
the year 985 . In 1001 his son Leif is Hemisphere . The ensuing discov-
thought to have explored the north- eries added to Europe’s knowledge
east coast of what is now Canada and of what was now named America
spent at least one winter there .
— after the Italian Amerigo Ves-
While Norse sagas suggest that pucci, who wrote a widely popular
Viking sailors explored the Atlan- account of his voyages to a “New
tic coast of North America down World .” By 1529 reliable maps of the
as far as the Bahamas, such claims Atlantic coastline from Labrador
remain unproven . In 1963, however, to Tierra del Fuego had been drawn
the ruins of some Norse houses dat- up, although it would take more than
ing from that era were discovered at another century before hope of dis-
L’Anse-aux-Meadows in northern covering a “Northwest Passage” to
Newfoundland, thus supporting at Asia would be completely abandoned .
least some of the saga claims .
Among the most significant ear-
In 1497, just five years after ly Spanish explorations was that of
Christopher Columbus landed in Hernando De Soto, a veteran con-
the Caribbean looking for a west- quistador who had accompanied
ern route to Asia, a Venetian sail- Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of
or named John Cabot arrived in Peru . Leaving Havana in 1539, De
Newfoundland on a mission for
Soto’s expedition landed in Florida
the British king . Although quickly and ranged through the southeast-
forgotten, Cabot’s journey was later ern United States as far as the Missis-
to provide the basis for British claims sippi River in search of riches .
to North America . It also opened
Another Spaniard, Francis-
the way to the rich fishing grounds co Vázquez de Coronado, set out
off George’s Banks, to which Eu- from Mexico in 1540 in search of
ropean fishermen, particularly the the mythical Seven Cities of Cibo-
Portuguese, were soon making reg- la . Coronado’s travels took him to
ular visits .
the Grand Canyon and Kansas, but
9