Episode 1

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Published on:

1st Aug 2025

S1E1 - The New World: Indigenous America Before 1492 | American Yawp Chapter 1 Explained

Welcome to Star-Spangled Studies, where U.S. history gets the depth it deserves! In this premiere episode, historian Dr. G kicks off Season 1 by dismantling the myth of the "New World" and exploring the vibrant, complex civilizations that existed in the Americas before 1492.

You’ll learn about:

  • Native American origin stories and Indigenous worldviews
  • Monumental cities like Cahokia and democratic systems like the Iroquois Confederacy
  • Columbus’s journals and the violent logic of conquest
  • The Columbian Exchange and the greatest demographic collapse in human history
  • The Spanish conquest, the Black Legend, and the rise of cultural syncretism

Using The American Yawp as our guide, we challenge Eurocentric narratives and uncover the deep human histories that shaped the Western Hemisphere before colonization.

🔗 Resources & Links

Textbook: The American Yawp – Chapter 1: The New World

Instagram: @star_spangled_studies

Facebook: Star-Spangled Studies Page


📚 Subscribe & follow along each week as Dr. G walks you through the story of America—based on one of the most widely used OER textbooks in the country.


Keywords: U.S. History podcast, American Yawp podcast, Indigenous history, Cahokia, Iroquois Confederacy, Columbian Exchange, Christopher Columbus, Spanish colonization, The New World, American Yawp Chapter 1, Dr. G, Star-Spangled Studies

Transcript
Speaker:

Hello y'all.

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It's me.

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It's me.

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It's Dr.

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G, and welcome back to another

season of Star Spangled Studies.

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I'm so thrilled to be

back at the mic with you.

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And we're kicking off this season by

going back, way back, way, way back

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to a time before the United States,

before the colonies, before the ships

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even set sail across the Atlantic.

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We're starting with the very first

chapter of the American story, a chapter

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that that is often titled The New World.

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But here's the first and maybe the most

important question we have to ask New.

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To whom the textbook we're

using to guide our season.

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The Open Source American

Yop puts it perfectly.

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It says, quote, Europeans called

the Americas the New World,

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but for the millions of Native

Americans they encountered.

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It was anything but end quote.

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For them.

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This was home.

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A world with a history stretching

back over 10,000 years.

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A world of dynamic diverse peoples

who spoke hundreds of languages and

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had created thousands of distinct

cultures from coast to coast.

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So today we're going to tear down

that old misleading signposts the

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new world, and try to understand

the Americas on their own terms.

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Before 1492, we'll explore the magnificent

civilizations that rose and fell, the

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complex societies they built, and then

we'll witness the moment of collision when

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two worlds which have been separated from

millennia were violently and permanently.

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Rejoined.

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This is the real beginning of the

American Yop, that loud, barbaric yop

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that Walt Whitman wrote about a sound

of history that is both complex and

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contradictory and still echoes today.

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So to understand American history, we

have to begin with the first Americans.

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But where exactly does that story start?

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This question itself raises a.

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Fundamental tension in how we approach

the past from a scientific perspective.

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The story begins with migration.

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The most widely accepted theory holds

that between 12 and 20,000 years ago

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during the last ice age, lower sea levels.

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Blows a land bridge called bia,

connecting Asia to America.

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Over the centuries, people migrated

across this bridge and perhaps along

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the coastline in small boats, and they

populated the continent from the Arctic

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ice at the tip of the South America.

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This is the archeological story written

in some stone tools in ancient DNA.

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But for Native American peoples

themselves, their stories don't start

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with a journey to a place They start.

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In place.

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Their histories are rooted in the

American soil emerging from the land

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itself through sacred acts of creation.

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These origin stories are not just myths.

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They are foundational historical

texts that reveal the deepest

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values and worldview of a people.

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Now our textbook reader shares two

beautiful examples, the selenium

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people of present Day, California,

for instance, tell of a bald eagle,

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the chief of the animals who saw

an incomplete world and decided to

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make human beings the eagle, quote.

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Took some clay and molded the figure

of a man, but as yet, he had no life.

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End quote.

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Seeing that the man should not be alone,

the eagle quote pulled out a feather

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and laid it beside the sleeping man.

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End quote.

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And from that feather, a woman was formed.

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Meanwhile, the the LA nap

tradition from the north.

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East tells of a watery world

where the earth was made.

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Sky woman fell from the heavens and with

the help of a muskrat and a beaver, she

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landed safely on a turtle's back that

turtle's back became North America.

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A place many indigenous people still

call Turtle Island, the Cherokee Tell

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of an Earth as a quote, great island

floating in a sea of water and suspended

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at each of the four cardinal points by

a cord hanging down from a sky vault.

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End quote.

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Presenting these two ways of knowing the

past, the scientific and the indigenous

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isn't about choosing one over the other.

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It's about recognizing that history is

more than just a timeline of events.

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It's also a conversation about meaning.

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For thousands of years before Europeans

arrived, native Americans had their

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own profound understanding of their

origins, their place in the cosmos and

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their history in America, a history

that began long before human memory.

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So let's permanently erase the.

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Old tired image and idea of a

vast empty wilderness sparsely

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populated by a few nomadic tribes.

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The Americas in 1491 were

a bustling, vibrant, and

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incredibly diverse hemisphere.

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The pre-contact populations were.

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Enormous.

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They fiercely debated with one another

as we'll see later, but no one disputes

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that these were millions of people living

in thousands of distinct societies.

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From a massive urban centers to

sophisticated political confederacies

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to understand this diversity.

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Let's put two of these societies under

a microscope so we can better understand

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the diversity of the continent.

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So first we're gonna travel to the heart

of the continent near modern day St.

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Louis here.

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Around the year 10 50 CE a city exploded

into existence Today we call that cahokia.

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It at its peak around 1100.

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Cahokia was an urban metropolis with

a population that may have reached

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20,000 people, making it larger

than London was at the same time.

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It was the center of the Mississippian

culture, a network of agricultural

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societies that spanned the Midwest and

the Southeast Cahokia was a masterwork of

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urban planning, covering six square miles,

featuring a grand plaza the size of 35.

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Football fields and surrounded

by a formidable two mile long

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defense stockade wall that was

built from 20,000 timber logs.

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The city was dominated by over 100

massive manmade earth and mounds.

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The largest now called monk's.

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Mound was a four terrorist pyramid

that stood 100 feet tall and

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covered 15 acres at its base, atop

these mounds at the temples and

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residences of the city's rulers.

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This was a highly stratified society,

a theocratic chiefdom where power was

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concentrated in the hands of priest.

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Rulers at the very top was a

paramount chief, the great son

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who was believed to be a living

God descended from the sun itself.

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Below him was an elite class of priests

and nobles who oversaw religious rituals,

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trade, and massive public works projects.

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And then the vast majority of which

of the population were the commoners

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who farmed the fields, built the

mounds, and served the elites.

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This hierarchy wasn't just

political, it was spiritual.

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The elite's power came from their

perceived ability to mediate with the

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supernatural world to ensure the reigns

came and the harvests were bountiful.

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But even this picture of a rigid, top-down

hierarchy is being complicated by new

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research historian Gail Fritz in her

book Feeding Cahokia Challenges, the

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idea that the city was run entirely by a

small group of male elites obsessed with.

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Corn.

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She argues that since women were the

primary farmers, the ones with the

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critical knowledge of crops and wild

plants, they would have held significant

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positions of power and respect.

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Fritz points to a small Flint clay.

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Statues of women found at Cahokia

suggesting they represented a powerful

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Earth mother or godmother Diary.

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She proposes that women's farming

collectives, perhaps like the

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sort of goose societies of later

Sioux and tribes, were central to

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Cahokia spiritual and economic life.

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This place is quote, the farmer

themselves as key players rather

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than placing them under the control

of an elite centered priesthood.

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End quote.

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Now let's shift our focus to

the other side in the Northeast

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to the eastern woodlands.

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And look at a completely different

model of social political organization.

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The ROIs Confederacy formed

centuries before European contact.

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The Confederacy was a sophisticated

alliance of initially five, and

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then later six distinct nations.

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The Mohawk on on Onaga.

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In Seneca, their system of government

was codified in the great law of

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peace, a remarkable constitution that

established a federal system with clear

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checks and balances while each nation

managed its own internal affairs.

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A grand council of.

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Chiefs or saches met to

deliberate on matters of common

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concern like war and diplomacy.

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Crucially, decisions were not made

by majority rule, but by consensus.

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A process that required extensive

debate and compromise to ensure unity.

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This political structure was so

effective in enduring that it drew

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the admiration of American colonists,

ncluding Benjamin Franklin in:

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frustrated by the colony's inability

to unite against the French Franklin.

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Pointed to the Iroquois Confederacy

as a model writing quote.

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It would be a very strange thing

if six nations of ignorant savages

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could be capable of forming a scheme

for such a union, and yet that like

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a union should be impractical for

10 or a dozen English colonies.

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End quote.

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The social structure of the Confederacy

was a distinct as it was political.

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It was a matrilineal society, so this

means that the family identity, the

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property, and the clan membership were

all passed down through the female

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line, through the mothers women,

therefore held enormous influence.

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While men served as the satins on

the council, it was the clan mothers

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who selected them for office and who

could also remove them if they failed

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to represent the people's interests.

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A man's status and influence were

often dependent on his relationship

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to the women in his family.

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So just in these two examples,

we see the incredible diversity

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of the pre-contact Americas.

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On the one hand you have Cahokia,

a centralized hierarchical

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theocratic urban state.

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On the other hand, the Iqua

Confederacy a decentralized.

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Federalist.

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Consensus-based democracy was strong.

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Matrilineal traditions.

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There was no single Native

American experience.

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The hemisphere was a laboratory of

political and social experimentation, a

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reality that would profoundly shape the

various ways indigenous peoples would

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later respond to the arrival of Europeans.

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But one thing is for sure,

they were not savages.

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They were not.

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Ignorant, and maybe most

importantly, it wasn't a wide open

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place with nobody living on it.

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These were smart, sophisticated,

and very complex societies that

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the Europeans just did not know.

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Anything about,

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so if the Americas were indeed this

complex world, which they were.

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What was happening on the other side of

the Atlantic that propelled a handful

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of ships across a vast unknown ocean.

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The Europe of the late 15th century,

the 14 hundreds, was a continent in

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flux, driven by a powerful combination

of motives that historians often

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summarize as God, gold and glory.

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For centuries, European access to

the riches of Asia, including spices,

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silks, and other luxury goods not

found in Europe, was controlled

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by a complex network of overland

trade routes, the famous Silk Road.

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But this trade was dominated by

Muslim empires and Italian city

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states like Venice and Genoa, who

charged exorbitant prices for those

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spices, silks, and luxury goods.

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Ambitious new monarchies on the Atlantic.

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Coast, particularly new naval powers like

Portugal and Spain, were desperate to find

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a new all water route to Asia to bypass

all these middlemen and difficulties

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of the Silk Road and seize control of

the lucrative trade for themselves.

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These economic ambitions were

fueled by intense political

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and religious energy in Spain.

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The year 1492 itself was monumental.

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It marked the end of the Reconquista, the

centuries long Christian campaign to drive

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Muslim rulers from the Iberian Peninsula.

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With the fall of Granada, which was the

last Muslim Kingdom, king, Ferdinand,

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and Queen Isabella had consolidated

a powerful unified Spanish state

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infused with a militant Catholic faith.

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They were now eager to project that

power outward, to continue the crusade

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against the non-believers and to reap

the economic rewards of an empire.

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The technological advances in sailing

like new caravel ships and the

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Astro lab finally made long distance

ocean travel voyages feasible.

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The stage was now set.

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All they needed was a man

with a bold, if flawed plan.

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And that's what brings us to that

man himself, Christopher Columbus.

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It's easy to paint him as a one

dimensional hero or villain, but as

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historians, our job is to understand him

in his own context, through his own words.

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And thankfully, we have his journals

from that first voyage in:

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And oh, boy, does that give

us a stunningly clear window

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into the mind of a colonizer.

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Both brutal and ambitious.

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When Columbus had his men first made

landfall on an island in The Bahamas,

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his description of the local Tano people

at first glance was full of admiration.

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He describes them as a quote, very

handsome people, all of good stature

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and remarkably generous to him.

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He writes, quote, they brought

schemes of cotton, thread parrots,

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darts, and other small things,

and they give all in exchange for

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anything that may be given to them.

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They took all and gave what they

had with goodwill end quote.

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But this perception of gentleness

and generosity is immediately and

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chillingly processed through the

lens of power and exploitation.

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The Tino's lack of familiarity

with European weaponry

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is not seen as a sign of.

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Peace but of weakness.

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Columbus notes, they neither carry

nor know anything of arms for.

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I showed them swords and they

took them by the blade and cut

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themselves through ignorance.

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This observation leads directly

to a cold strategic calculation.

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In his letter to the Spanish

monarchs, he declared that the

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land could easily be conquered.

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And in his journal, he makes one

of the most revealing statements

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in the history of colonialism.

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Listen to this quote.

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They should be good servants and

intelligent for, I observe that they

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quickly took in what was said to them.

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With 50 men, they can all be subjugated

and made to do what is required of them.

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End quote.

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In other words, they

would make good slaves.

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I.

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This dual vision, seeing the indigenous

people as both innocence to be converted

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and resources like slaves to be exploited

runs through his entire account.

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The two motives, God and gold

are inextricably then linked.

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He sees them as a people without

religion, ripe for conversion writing.

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Quote.

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I believe that they would easily be

made Christians as it appears to me

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that they had no religion, end quote,

but that of course was incorrect.

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But the spiritual mission is

constantly shadowed by his

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primary objective to make slaves.

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He writes to his patrons that quote,

their Highnesses will see that I can

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give them as much gold as they desire.

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End quote, in a later letter, he makes

the connection explicitly stating.

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Quote, he who has gold, makes and

accomplishes whatever he wishes

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in the world, and finally uses

it to send souls to paradise.

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End quote.

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In Columbus's own words, we

see foundational logic for

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European colonization laid bare.

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It is a logic that simultaneously

appraises and dehumanizes the

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indigenous peoples in which they

found themselves in contact with.

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The very qualities he seems to admire

in the tano, their generosity, their

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gentleness, their lack of guile

are the same qualities that make

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them in his eyes, uh, suitable for

subjugation and servitude as slaves.

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So it's not a simple contradiction.

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But it's two sides of

the same colonial coin.

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The language we use to describe these

events matters immensely because

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it shapes how we understand them.

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For a long time, textbook talked about

the discovery of America, but discovery

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is a profoundly Eurocentric term.

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You can't discover a place that's

already home to millions of people.

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In response, historians and

activists began to use stronger

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words like invasion or.

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Conquest, which rightly centers the

violence and power dynamics of the event.

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More recently, some scholars like

Colin Callaway and Gary Nash have

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framed it as an encounter, an event

that created new worlds for all.

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Those are their terms.

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This term highlights the cultural

exchanges and transformations

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that affected everyone involved,

but encounter feels for me.

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Too gentle, too neutral for an event that

led to such catastrophic consequences.

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Perhaps the most powerful

and accurate term comes from

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the title of our textbooks.

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Second chapter, colliding Cultures.

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A collision implies force

momentum, a shattering impact.

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It suggests that two separate complex

worlds moving on their own historical

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trajectory suddenly and violently crashed

into one another, and in the aftermath,

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neither world would be recognizable.

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Everything was broken and from the

wreckage, something entirely new,

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violent and global would be born

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When these two worlds collided, they

didn't just exchange ideas and goods.

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They exchanged biology.

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For the first time in at least

10,000 years, the ecosystems of

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the Americas and Afro Eurasia were

suddenly and violently reunited.

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Scholars call this process

the Colombian Exchange and its

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consequences were so profound that

historian Charles Mann has argued.

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It was, quote, arguably

the most important event.

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Since the death of the dinosaurs, it

irrevocably homogenized the world's

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biological landscape, remaking

the population of not just people,

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but also of plants and animals.

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For the people of the Americas,

the biological collision was a

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catastrophe on an unimaginable scale.

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Europeans and Africans that they

enslaved brought with them a host

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of diseases that were entirely new.

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To those living in the Western

Hemisphere, and these include diseases

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like smallpox, measles, influenza,

typhus, chickenpox, cholera, and more.

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These were diseases that had co-evolved

for centuries in the old world,

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alongside domesticated animals like

cattle, pigs, and sheep animals

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that did not exist in the Americas.

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Over generations.

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Eurasians had developed some

measure of immunity, but don't

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get me wrong, smallpox, measles,

influenza, and the like, killed

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thousands of people in Europe, if

not millions on a year to year basis.

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But Native Americans had no immunity.

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Whatsoever they were living on what

epidemiologists call virgin soil.

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When these pathogens arrived, they swept

through indigenous communities with

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terrifying speed and enormous lethality.

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An infect IMP person could

travel along trade routes.

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Unknowingly carrying a virus to dozens of

communities before even showing symptoms.

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The results was apocalyptic.

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Entire villages often were wiped out.

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Some estimates suggest that in the decades

following the first European contact,

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up to 90 or even 95% of the indigenous

population of the Americas perished.

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Our textbook did not mince

words when it said quote.

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This was the greatest

biological terror, the world.

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Had ever seen end quote, this demographic

collapse wasn't just a loss of life.

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It was the destruction of entire

societies, social structures,

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political leadership, and millennia

of cultural knowledge transmitted by

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elders were all shattered, leaving

communities profoundly vulnerable to

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the European conquest that followed.

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To truly grasp the scale of this

tragedy, we have to ask a question that

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has sparked one of the most intense

debates in early American history.

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How many people were actually

living in the Americas in:

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For much of the 20th century, the

consensus, which was led by scholars,

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you know, anthropologist Alfred Kroger,

held that the pre-contact population was

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actually quite low, perhaps only eight to

9 million people in the entire hemisphere.

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These low estimates were actually

rooted in the implicit and sometimes

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explicit racist assumption that

so-called primitive societies.

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Simply could not have sustained

large populations, but that view

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has been dramatically challenged.

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Starting in the sixties, a new generation

of scholars, most notably anthropologists

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like Henry Dobbins, began using different

methods to try to calculate the number.

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They argued that the populations Europeans

first encountered were already the ravage

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survivor of initial waves of disease.

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Dobin took in population estimates

from the post epidemic period.

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And extrapolated backwards arguing

that diseases that had killed as

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much as 95% of the population,

his conclusion was staggering.

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He proposed that there was not

eight or 9 million people, but

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actually more than 10 times.

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That somewhere between 90 and 110

on people in the Americas and:

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Today, while most historians find Dogen's

95% mortality rate too high, maybe for

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the entire hemisphere, the scholarly

consensus has shifted decisively towards

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the high counters, as they call them.

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Geographer William Denevan

synthesizing Many regional

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studies arrived at a consensus

count of about 54 million people.

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More recent studies,

like one in:

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Analyze drops in atmospheric CO2

caused by massive refor reforestation

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on abandoned farmland figures.

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More like 60 million.

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The numbers themselves are staggering,

but the implications of this

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debate are what's truly profound.

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Shifting the estimated population from 8

million to 60 million completely changes

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the story of early American history.

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It transforms the narrative of one Euro,

you know, one of European settling a vast.

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Empty wilderness to one of Europeans

building their societies atop the

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:

graveyard of the single greatest

demographic disaster in human history.

372

:

The exchange itself was a two-way

street, and while it brought death.

373

:

To the Americas, it brought a population

explosion to the rest of the world,

374

:

primarily through the transfer of plants.

375

:

American crops were calorie rich

and could often grow in soils where

376

:

European staples themselves struggled.

377

:

The potato originally from the

Andes revolutionized agriculture in

378

:

Northern Europe, especially Ireland,

fueling a massive population boom.

379

:

After.

380

:

Contact maize or later corn became

a staple food for both humans and

381

:

livestock across Africa and Europe.

382

:

As historian Alfred Crosby wrote quote,

if maize were the only gift the American

383

:

Indian ever presented to the world,

he would deserve undying gratitude.

384

:

End quote.

385

:

And it's hard to imagine Italian cuisine

without tomatoes, Thai food without

386

:

chili peppers, or Swiss culture without

chocolate, all of which are western

387

:

hemisphere, American, and origin.

388

:

This new food supply is a key reason

why the population of Europe grew so

389

:

dramatically in the centuries after

:

390

:

for wave after wave of migration that

would eventually colonize the Americas.

391

:

In the other direction, Europeans

introduced animals that itself would

392

:

also radically transform American life.

393

:

Pigs which were set loose by explorers,

ran rampant and became an invasive

394

:

species, reshaping many landscapes,

but no animal had a greater impact than

395

:

the horse for plains Indian groups.

396

:

The reintroduction of the horse, which had

gone instinct in the Americas thousands

397

:

of years earlier, was revolutionary.

398

:

It allowed them to hunt buffalo with

incredible efficiency, transforming many

399

:

groups from settled agriculturalists

into nomadic hunting societies with new

400

:

levels of wealth and military power.

401

:

The Colombian exchange thus

created a powerful and deeply.

402

:

Unequal feedback loop American crops

strengthen European populations,

403

:

enabling them to send more

colonists across the Atlantic.

404

:

Those colonists arrived in American lands

that had been tragically and conveniently

405

:

for the Europeans emptied by the diseases

the Europeans brought The potato in an

406

:

Irish field is inextricably linked to

the smallpox virus in the Aztec capital.

407

:

That is the complex and often brutal

legacy of our interconnected world.

408

:

This demographic collapse what?

409

:

People call the Great Dying made the

Spanish military conquest of the great

410

:

Aztec and Incan empires shockingly swift.

411

:

With populations weakened in societies

and turmoil, small bands of conquistador

412

:

were able to topple entire empires.

413

:

And in the wake of such conquest,

Spain established a brutal blueprint

414

:

for Empire One designed to extract

maximum wealth from the land at

415

:

its people at maximum violence.

416

:

The cornerstone of this

system was called the nda.

417

:

Under the system the Spanish crown.

418

:

Granted, conquistadors and officials

control over native communities

419

:

and the right to demand tribute

and force labor from them.

420

:

In theory, the end commando or

grant holder was supposed to protect

421

:

the Native Americans and instruct

them in Christianity in practice.

422

:

It was basically a system of slavery

or near slavery leading to historic

423

:

abuse, violence, and exploitation

and death on a large scale.

424

:

We don't have to guess the

brutality of this system.

425

:

We actually have a powerful firsthand

account from a most unlikely source.

426

:

A Spanish Dominican priest named

Bar de la Casas La Casas had come to

427

:

the Americas as a colonist and even

held one of these ENC EZ himself.

428

:

But he underwent a profound crisis

of consciousness, and he gave up

429

:

his holdings and he dedicated the

rest of his life to documenting

430

:

the atrocities and fighting for the

rights of these indigenous peoples.

431

:

In 1542, he wrote his most famous work.

432

:

A short account of the destruction

of the Indies addressed it

433

:

directly to the King of Spain.

434

:

The language is searing.

435

:

He describes the Spanish colonists

as they entered the Americas quote.

436

:

Into and among these gentle sheep endowed

by their maker did creep the Spaniards,

437

:

who no sooner had knowledge of these

people than they became like fierce

438

:

wolves and tigers, and lions who have gone

many days without food or nourishment.

439

:

End quote.

440

:

He was unflinching about

the Spanish motives quote.

441

:

Their reason for killing and destroying

such an infinite number of souls is

442

:

that the Christians have an ultimate

aim, which is to acquire gold and

443

:

to swell themselves with riches

in a very brief time end quote.

444

:

Perhaps his most damning indictment

was this quote, the Spaniards

445

:

have shown not the slightest

consideration for these people,

446

:

treating them not as brute animals.

447

:

Indeed, I would to God had they done

and shown them the consideration they

448

:

afford to their animals so much as piles

of dung in the public squares End quote.

449

:

La Casas hoped his shocking

account would lead to some form

450

:

of reform, and to a degree it did.

451

:

His work was influential in the

passage of the new laws of the Indies

452

:

in 1542, which sought to abolish

the en Kanda system and end the

453

:

enslavement of indigenous Americans.

454

:

But his book had another much larger

and entirely unintended consequences.

455

:

Thanks to the new technology

of the printing press.

456

:

A short account of the destruction of

the Indies was quickly translated and

457

:

became a massive bestseller across

Europe, especially in Protestant countries

458

:

like England and the Netherlands,

where Spain's greatest political rivals

459

:

and religious rivals were located.

460

:

These rival powers seized upon La

CASA's work using his own words

461

:

as the perfect propaganda tool.

462

:

They used it to construct what

historians now call the Black legend,

463

:

a narrative that portrayed the

Spanish as a uniquely cruel, bigoted,

464

:

depraved, and tyrannical people.

465

:

This propaganda wasn't born

out of a genuine concern

466

:

for the indigenous peoples.

467

:

It was a geopolitical weapon.

468

:

It allowed Spain's rivals to

paint their own colonial ambitions

469

:

in a more noble light as the

English promoter of colonization.

470

:

Richard Hack light argued

in:

471

:

Presence in the Americas was necessary to

save native peoples from Spanish tyranny.

472

:

The historian a Viva Chomsky

summarizes this narrative perfectly.

473

:

Quote, the British.

474

:

In contrast, according to their

own account, were hardworking

475

:

forward-looking colonists who

industrially set up self-sufficient

476

:

farming villages on empty lands.

477

:

End quote.

478

:

The black legend therefore served

to justify other supposedly more

479

:

benevolent forms of colonization.

480

:

Spoiler alert, they

weren't more benevolent.

481

:

This raises difficult historiographical

questions that scholars still debate.

482

:

Debate today.

483

:

How should we think

about the Black legend?

484

:

On one hand, some argue that it is as

the Chilean scholar, Alejandro Lipshultz

485

:

called it, quote, malicious propaganda

that unfairly singles out Spain for

486

:

brutal practices that were common to.

487

:

All empires.

488

:

But on the other hand, historians

like Charles Gibson have argued

489

:

that while it was certainly used as

propaganda, the substantive content

490

:

of the black legend asserts that the

Indians were exploited by Spaniards

491

:

and in empirical facts they were.

492

:

And quote, he calls it a

great, but essentially.

493

:

Inaccurate interpretation.

494

:

End quote.

495

:

The debate continues with some

scholars today arguing The legend has

496

:

largely faded while others insist.

497

:

It still subtly shapes modern

perceptions of Spain and Latin America.

498

:

What this debate teaches us is that

historical narratives are Battlegrounds

499

:

La CASA's Plea for reform, written

for an internal Spanish audience

500

:

was hijacked and repurposed into a

weapon of international conflict.

501

:

It's a powerful lesson in how the meaning

of a text is often determined more by

502

:

its audience than by its author, and

it complicates any simple narrative of

503

:

good colonizer versus bad colonizer.

504

:

It pushes us towards a more systemic

critique of colonialism itself, forcing

505

:

us to ask, not quote, which empire

was worse, but what were the brutal

506

:

logistics common to all empires?

507

:

Those are questions.

508

:

That we still have to grapple with today.

509

:

Despite the violence, the disease, the

exploitation out of the crucible of this

510

:

contact new cultures and new peoples

with new identities began to form.

511

:

Now this process was not one of simple

replacement, but it's rather something

512

:

of synchronism, a blending of different

beliefs and practices together.

513

:

I.

514

:

In the Spanish colonies, the vast

majority of colonists were men.

515

:

This led to widespread intermarriage

and relationships between

516

:

Spanish men and indigenous women.

517

:

Their children known as Mestizos, quickly

became a huge part of the colonial

518

:

population, creating a new colonial

cultural hierarchy that was racially as

519

:

much as it was unique to the Americas.

520

:

This blending was also religious.

521

:

While Spanish missionaries worked to

eradicate indigenous beliefs, native

522

:

peoples found ways to adapt and merge

Catholicism with their own traditions.

523

:

The most powerful symbol of this story

is the Virgin of Guadalupe in:

524

:

just a decade after the fall of the

Aztec Empire, a recently converted

525

:

Aztec man named Juan Diego reportedly

seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

526

:

One who appeared with dark skin and

spoke to him in his native language.

527

:

The Virgin of Guadalupe became a

uniquely Mexican and indigenous

528

:

symbol of Christianity, a powerful

fusion of two worldviews that remains

529

:

a central icon of Mexican identity.

530

:

To this day, these new peoples

and new faiths were unexpected,

531

:

as well as enduring products

of a world turn upside down.

532

:

So we're gonna end this first

look where we began with a world

533

:

utterly and permanently transformed.

534

:

The Americas were not discovered.

535

:

They were invaded, conquered, and remade.

536

:

The collision of these two worlds

unleashed centuries of violence and

537

:

possibly the greatest biological

catastrophe in human history.

538

:

But the conclusion also remade

Europe, Africa, and Asia.

539

:

Global diets, economies and populations

were reshaped by American crops.

540

:

European empires were built on American

gold and silver, shifting the center

541

:

of global power from the east to the

Atlantic, and new peoples new cultures.

542

:

New ideas were born from the violent.

543

:

Fusion of these once separated

hemispheres as our textbook so

544

:

powerfully concludes after this global

exchange of people, animals, plants,

545

:

and microbes, quote, neither world

would ever again be the same End quote.

546

:

But the story was far from over

Spain's stunning wealth and the

547

:

horrifying stories of its conquest.

548

:

The black legend didn't

just shock its rivals.

549

:

It actually inspired them.

550

:

The Spanish experience was both a

warning and a tantalizing invitation.

551

:

Other Europeans saw the immense

potential of the Americas, and they

552

:

believe they could do it better, or

at least more profitably, and perhaps

553

:

in their own eyes more humanely.

554

:

So next time we get together on Star

Spangled studies, we'll watch as new

555

:

players enter the colonizing game and

the collision of cultures intensifies,

556

:

the French will push deep into the heart

of the continent in search of furs,

557

:

building a vast trading empire that

relied on alliances and a cultural middle

558

:

ground with Native American nations.

559

:

The Dutch, the Masters of Global

Commerce at the time, will turn a small

560

:

island at the mouth of a river into a.

561

:

Bustling diverse hub of trade called

New Amsterdam and the English well.

562

:

They arrive with very different ideas

about land, religion, and empire,

563

:

setting the stage for a new and even

more consequential phase of colonization.

564

:

The race for North America was

on, and you won't wanna miss it.

565

:

I'm Dr.

566

:

G, and I'll see y'all in the past.

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About the Podcast

Star-Spangled Studies
Star-Spangled Studies is a college-level U.S. history podcast created by professional historian Dr. G—built for students, teachers, and curious listeners alike. Season 1 covers the era from 1865 to the present, using The American Yawp, a free and open educational resource (OER) textbook, as its guide. Each episode unpacks key events, movements, and ideas that shaped the modern United States—through rich narrative, scholarly insight, and accessible storytelling.

Whether you're enrolled in a course or exploring history on your own, you’ll get clear, engaging episodes that follow the chapters of The American Yawp. Bring your curiosity, download the textbook, and join Dr. G for a star-spangled journey through American history.

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