New World Beginnings: The Great Ice Age

New World Beginnings Before the founding of America and the flood of new animals, crops, and land, there was a supercontinent that once held all of Earth’s dry land. As it split apart, it left what is today North and South America, Australia, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Millions of years later, the world froze over in the Great Ice Age. Many believe that the ice, some of which was two miles thick, created a bridge that connected Eurasia and North America. Animals and people crossed the bridge and trekked for more than two hundred fifty centuries. When the ice melted, it took the bridge down with it. Following the Ice Age, by 1419, around fifty-four million people were living in both North and South America. Many tribes and groups formed, speaking
In an effort to find silk, drugs, and spices, Portugal set out to Africa. There, they set up trading posts for slaves and gold. This inspired Spain to do the same. With their new found unity and the Renaissance upon them, many felt ambitious and hopeful. Christopher Columbus, an Italian seafarer, felt as though he could help. He convinced Spanish monarchs to give him three small boats and a crew. By October 12, 1492, his crew had spotted an island in the Bahamas. When they first approached, he believed it was the Indies, hence why he called them the Indians. As he realized that it was new land he had come upon, the continents around him came with hope and an unprecedented amount of wealth and materials. Europe provided the market, the capital, and the technology. Africa brought slaves, and the New World offered new metals and soil. Not only did the New World bring fresh land to Europe, it also brought new crops such as tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes. In addition, Europe traded as well, bringing cattle, pigs, horses, blue-grass, and dandelions. However, they also brought diseases such as smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria. As many as ninety percent of Native Americans died in relation to the
People, called Conquistadores, fanned out across America in hope of finding God, glory, and gold. They were a group of about ten thousand men that hoped for royal titles and favors. In 1519, Hernán Cortés left Cuba with sixteen horses and and hundreds of men on eleven ships. He had hoped to reach Mexico and gain power. This angered many Natives, and on June 30, 1520, the Aztecs attacked. The fighting only lasted a few months, and eventually the Aztecs surrendered. Although it left the area marked with death and disease, Cortés and the conquistadores had brought animals, customs, religion, and laws to the Native Americans. By the 1600s, Spain was rich with silver and land, increasing their consumer price by five hundred percent in one hundred years. Spain’s empire grew quickly, and hundreds of Spanish cities and towns developed in the