American History - The New World in 1491

It is doubtful that anybody in 1491 in had any idea how much the momentous occasion that was to occur the following year. If you could travel back in time and tried to tell people in Europe that a giant undiscovered continent lay westward across the Atlantic Ocean, most would likely laugh at you. You would likely get a similar response if you tried to tell Native Americans that the apocalypse was coming courtesy of pale strangers from across the sea. Don’t believe me? Imagine somebody trying to tell you something like that right now. Yeah, sounds pretty fucking crazy. Besides, given that two of the three great civilizations in what is today the United States had collapsed rather recently, most Native Americans had much larger worries than the ravings of some weirdly dressed stranger.

By 1491, the Mississippi culture had all but completely disappeared amongst the Siouan peoples of the Midwest, with the exception of some hold outs along the western edge of the Great Lakes. With their once mighty city-states largely abandoned, the Siouan were scattered and weakened. As a result, the Algonquian peoples of the Northeast were pushing westward across the Appalachian Mountains, seeking new hunting grounds as they themselves were being pushed out of up-state New York and Pennsylvania by the expansionist Iroquois, who were moving south from the area of the St. Lawrence River. Under such pressure, many of the Siouan peoples were increasingly beginning to move westward onto the edges of the Great Plains.

In the southeast the Muskogean remained firmly in control with many of the earlier Mississippi culture city-states still intact, though showing significant signs of decline. The region was a confusing mess of layered territorial claims, alliances, feuds, and rivalries. To the west, the Caddo peoples were also maintaining the remnants of the Mississippi culture. Though faced with increasing pressure from Siouan peoples moving westward, they were managing to hold their ancestral homelands along the eastern edges of the Great Plains in large part thanks to many Caddo groups forming defensive confederacies with each other. Several Caddoan groups were also expanding northward into Kansas.

In the southwest, the Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo had largely settled back into peaceful farming communities along the rivers and other waterways of their desert homes. The Navajo, who had entered the area some 90 years before, had largely done the same, taking on many of the agricultural and cultural aspects of the Pueblo and becoming closely aligned with them. However, the Apache, who had originally arrived with the Navajo, took a very different stance. Laying claim to the harsh environments away from easy sources of water, they lived a hunter-gatherer existence, raiding their neighbors as they saw fit. Some Apache bands had even began to expand onto the southern Great Plains, putting them into conflict with the Caddoan and other peoples already in the area.

Along the Pacific Coast, the multitude of peoples were living as they had for thousands of years, their cultures kept safely intact by the abundance of the fertile Pacific Coast and the protection of the mountains and deserts to the east. Scattered together were various speakers of the Salish, Penutian, Na-Dene, Hokan, Yukian, and Chimakuan language groups. Of these, the Salish and Penutian were most widespread. The Penutian tribes controlled large parts of California, the Cascade Mountains, the Oregon Coast, and the southern half of the Columbia Plateau. The Salish tribes were centered more around the Puget Sound and the northern half of the Columbia Plateau.

The remaining areas of what later became the United States, namely the Great Basin and the Great Plains were harsh environments, only able to support scattered populations and small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers. These were the homes of the Numic peoples, who lived in the Great Basin and the northern Great Plains, and the Tonkawa people, who lived in the southern Great Plains. Though massive buffalo herds roamed the large parts of both of these areas at the time, the difficulty of killing such large game made them not a significant food resource. As a result, both groups were largely left alone, though the Tonkawa were beginning to face incursions by the Caddoan people from the east and the Apache from the west.

South in Mesoamerica, the Aztec were becoming a major power. First migrating south into central Mexico in the thirteenth century, they took on many of the characteristics of advanced Mesoarmerican civilizations in the area and built a mighty city known as Tenochtitlan at the present day sight of Mexico City in 1325 CE. In 1425 CE, they began a series of wars of conquest against their neighboring city-states. By 1491 CE, they were the the largest and most successful of the powerful Mesoamerican city-states and kingdoms. Further to the south, in the Andes Mountains, the Inca began a major expansion of their territories in 1438 CE, conquering and assimilating their neighbors over the next eighty years. By 1491 CE, they were the largest empire in New World history, covering large parts of western South America.

American History - First Contacts

Arguably the first contact between the Old World and the New World occurred around 3,000 BCE when the Eskimo peoples began crossing the fifty miles of the Bering Strait to Alaska. Originally a people of the Arctic Coast of eastern Siberia, the Eskimos were well adapted to the freezing North American shores of the Arctic Ocean, which was a good thing given that the more habitable territories of the New World were already claimed and the Eskimos lacked the numbers needed to displace them. The Eskimos brought with them several innovations unknown to the earlier Amerind and Na-Dene migrants, notably the bow and arrow, which even after spreading across Alaska and northern Canada did not spread south for some three thousand years for god only knows what reason. Anyways, unlike their predecessors, the Eskimos continued to have fairly regular contact with their forbearers back in Siberia, including conducting trade and some groups moving back and forth between the two land masses. This likely continued to at least 500 CE, with many pieces of Old World technology, such as the crossbow, making its way to the Eskimos. Most likely, semi-regular contact between groups in Alaska and western Siberia never ceased. However, given the isolation of the groups in both Siberia and the North American Arctic, such exchanges had little effect on the rest of the New World.

The first definitive contact between Europeans and the New World took place some four thousand years later in 1000 CE. At the time, the Norse of Scandinavia were a expansionist people, sailing their well crafted long ships long distances, including west to the British Isles, south to the Mediterranean Sea, and east deep into the heart of Russia via its many rivers. In 870 CE, a group of Norse, blown off course while sailing to the Faroe Islands, discovered Iceland, home to only a few scattered communities of Irish monks. At the time, such monks had made their way to many isolated islands, both looking to spread the word of the Christian god and to find places of peace from the near constant Norse raids in Ireland. By 930 CE, the entirety of Iceland’s habitable lands were settled. In 980 CE, a Norseman by the name of Erik the Red was banished from Iceland for manslaughter. Unable to return to Norway for similar reasons, he took a gamble based on rumors of land masses further west, discovering Greenland after sailing some 700 miles. Erik sent word to Iceland for more settlers to follow, and eventually some 3,000 Norse called Greenland home. In 989 CE, a group of these settlers, led by Bjarni Herjolfsson, was blown off course sailing to Greenland. Finding themselves far to the west, they spotted land but decided to instead push on to Greenland. This was the first verified sighting of the North American coast by a European.

Erik the Red’s son, Leif Erikson, was enraptured with the idea of discovering a new land like his father. In 1000 CE, at the age of thirty, he got his father’s blessing to proceed and sailed west. After crossing some 650 miles of open ocean, he arrived in what is today Labrador, before moving south to present day Newfoundland where he camped during the winter before returning home. Calling the new land Vinland, Leif told the Norse of Greenland about a wonderous land full of giant trees and strange native peoples he called Skraelings. Enticed by the promise of large trees, something decidedly lacking in Greenland, Leif’s younger brother, Thorvald Erikson followed his brothers route westward in 1004 CE, camping for the winter in the same spot. However, unfortunately Thorvald was killed by the Skraeling, who attacked in retaliation for an earlier unprovoked attack by the Norsemen. His fellows took his body back to Greenland. This slowed thoughts of returning to Vinland, at least until 1009 CE, when Thorfin Karlsefni decided to found a new settlement in the mysterious land. Leading some 200 women and children, he set sail and did just that, but had little more luck than his predecessors. Though at first peaceful trade was established with the Skraeling, a misunderstanding quickly led to violence, and the settlement was abandoned the next year. After that the Norse largely gave up on the idea of Vinland, though a few expeditions did come westward over the years to cut lumber, hunt, and do some trading. However, this ceased as the Little Ice Age began, which eventually forced the abandonment of the Greenland settlements in 1350 CE.

Another point of contact between the Old World and the New World was likely the Polynesians. Expert sailors, the Polynesians took their outriggers thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, discovering and inhabiting island across the southern hemisphere. These settling sailors reached Easter Island and the Hawaiian Islands around 400 CE. While no written records exist, it is possible that the Polynesians of Easter Island crossed the 2,300 miles of open ocean to the west coast of South America as early as 700 CE. At least it was around this time that the sweet potato, indigenous to South America, mysteriously spread westward across Polynesia as a food crop. A more definitive period of contact took place between 1300 and 1400 CE, with Polynesian genetics appearing amongst some Native American groups, indicating some level of settlement and intermingling.

Beyond the largely confirmed Siberian, Norse, and Polynesian contacts, numerous other legends and rumors claimed early contact by Romans, Irish, Welsh, Chinese, and Japanese. However, no proof exists that any of these contact ever actually took place. Is it possible that isolated incidents did occur. For example, during the 17th through 19th centuries several dozen incidents took place where Japanese sailors cast adrift in their damaged vessels arrived at the Pacific Coast of North America at times over a year later. However, even if they did occur, such contacts would’ve been little more than curiosities, with no actual meaningful impact on either the Old World or the New World.

American History - Myth and Perspective

If this was a history book about Europe or other parts of the Old World, at this point you would be likely over halfway done with it. In the Old World, recorded history begins around 3,000 BCE, and though it has taken time to untie all the knots and translate the words left behind, and though there is still much we don’t know, overall we have a fairly detailed account of most of these past civilizations. We know their histories, their important people, their mythologies, and even their music. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the New World. Aside from the major civilizations of the Mesoamerica and the Andes; such as the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, Aztecs, and Incas; most cultures in the New World never developed detailed writing systems, relying on an oral tradition to share their histories and myths. Leaving behind only artifacts, the piecing together of their history is almost entirely the responsibility of archeologists. Beyond this we know fairly little about them, not even the names with which they called themselves. The reasons for this are complex, and hopefully by this point understood by you, which if they aren’t you should go back and start reading from the beginning.

Unfortunately, due to this gap in history, we have a tendency to picture Native Americans always being the way they were when Europeans first made contact with them. A collection of hunter-gatherer and early agricultural tribal societies frozen in time, unchanged for thousands of years. A belief system propagated by not only our own ignorance, but also at times for political or religious reasons. In truth, by and large, Native American societies and culture were in every bit as constant of a state of flux as their Old World counterparts. People migrated, traded, and came into conflict with each other. Civilizations rose and fell. New ideas spread, were assimilated, and at times forgotten. People are people no matter where they live, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The New World was every bit as dynamic as the Old World, the only difference being the New World was behind in its development, again, for reasons that if you don’t know then you better damn well go back and start reading from the beginning.

You’d have to be an idiot to not know what is coming next in this history book. It is after all, one of the most monumental and devastating moments in human history. However, one can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened if the New World had continued on its path of development uninterrupted. Though still in the early stages of development, largescale civilizations were beginning to become more prominent. Yes, cultures rose and fell, but the same patterns exist in Old World history as well. With each fall comes a greater rise, fueled by innovations spurred on by the collapse of the previous iteration. Yes, there are examples of cultures lasting in the long-term, the peoples of the Pacific Coast being a good example whose way of life remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years, but unchanged is another term for stagnation. The same can be said of groups in the Great Basin and Great Plains, peoples analogous with those in the Old World living in the difficult climates and terrains of the Asian steppes and African deserts. Given this, it is fair to wonder how would these stagnant civilizations have eventually dealt with the evolving civilizations of the Southwest, Eastern Woodlands, Mesoamerica, and Andes? Unfortunately we will never know.

There is a certain mystique we give hunter-gatherer and early agricultural cultures in our society. It makes sense, compared to the complex hierarchal societies in which we have encased ourselves, they seem very much simpler, fairer, and more in touch with the natural world. This is fair, because they most certainly are these things, but we also have a tendency to forget the negatives, which are pretty significant all things considered. If such cultures are simpler and fairer, its because they can only involve so many people, if they are more in touch with nature, it’s only because they have to be in order to avoid starving to death. Living in such societies is not easy, which is probably why the majority of us live in the more complex societies we live in today. Given this, the question must be asked, if Native American societies had been allowed to continue developing on their own, how different would they be than what we have today? We don’t know. Instead we have an illusion in our head based upon a world interrupted by the closest thing to an apocalypse in human history. An illusion that in many ways strips Native Americans of their humanity every bit as much as the bigotry and abuses of the first Europeans to arrive in the New World.

Anyways, back to the history.