The Atlantic World and The America's Before Contact
The Atlantic World
- The America’s, Europe, Africa
* all large, diverse, complex, constantly changing
* none was unified politically or culturally
- beginning late 1400s, became deeply interconnected
* via “the colombian exchange”
* process reshaped all 4 continents
- over time, there became an interlinked “atlantic world”
* bound by trade, politics, violence, kinship, and new cultural forms
* between 1500-1800 CE
- first human populations migrated from Siberia 12-40 thousand years ago
- both continents populated by 7000 years ago
- agriculture began about 9000 years ago in present day Mexico and then gradually spread
- by 15th century, 50-60 million people (north and south America)
* huge diversity of culture and life ways
* deeply interconnected
- a complex world already in motion