The Atlantic World Before European Colonization of North America

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The Atlantic World was a busy place for hundreds of years before European colonization of the Americas. The first Native Americans, originally from Siberia, migrated over the land bridge at the Bering Strait about 15,000 years ago. A genetic marker on the male Y chromosome is shared by Asians and Native Americans, offering strong evidence of Native American origins in Asia. About 8,000 years ago the second migration from Asia occurred via water across the Bering Strait. Finally, the third migration took place 5,000 years ago. Then for 300 generations the Native Americans were isolated from the rest of the world because of the end of the Ice Age which cut off a route from Asia to North America. This isolation played a critical role in the events that occurred upon European colonization hundreds of years later. The Native Americans moved through what is now Canada, the United States and Central and South America. They hunted with spears and later bows and arrows. The tribes were very diverse and their lifestyles varied depending on the environment in which they lived. Kin-based groupings evolved into complex tribal frameworks with rituals, folklore and artisan-made materials. There were approximately 40 million people living in Mesoamerica before 1492 as opposed to about 7 million living in what is now the United States. Mesoamerican societies were much more complex than those in the present-day United States, ruled by warrior-kings and priests. Their civilizations had art, religion and economies that were the equivalent of those of Europe and the Mediterranean world. By 6000 b.c. some Natives in Mesoamerica were raising domesticated crops such as corn, beans and squash, providing them nutritious diets that allowed for surpluses and caused population growth over the years. These surpluses and the population growth spurred the foundation of urban societies.
The Native Americans north of the Rio Grande did not ...