America Before Columbus

History books traditionally depict the pre-Columbus Americas as a pristine wilderness where small native villages lived in harmony with nature. But scientific evidence tells a very different story: When Columbus stepped ashore in 1492, millions of people were already living there. America wasn't exactly a New World, but a very old one whose inhabitants had built a vast infrastructure of cities, orchards, canals and causeways.

The English brought honeybees to the Americas for honey, but the bees pollinated orchards along the East Coast. Thanks to the feral honeybees, many of the plants the Europeans brought, like apples and peaches, proliferated. Some 12,000 years ago, North American mammoths, ancient horses, and other large mammals vanished. The first horses in America since the Pleistocene era arrived with Columbus in 1493.

Settlers in the Americas told of rivers that had more fish than water. The South American potato helped spark a population explosion in Europe. In 1491, the Americas had few domesticated animals, and used the llama as their beast of burden.

In 1491, more people lived in the Americas than in Europe. The first conquistadors were sailors and adventurers. In 1492, the Americas were not a pristine wilderness but a crowded and managed landscape. The now barren Chaco Canyon was once covered with vegetation. Along with crops like wheat, weeds like dandelion were brought to America by Europeans.

It’s believed that the domestication of the turkey began in pre-Columbian Mexico, and did not exist in Europe in 1491. By 1500, European settlers and their plants and animals had altered much of the Americas’ landscape. While beans, potatoes, and maize from the Americas became major crops in continental Europe.

Summer 1492.

After three months at sea,

the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Niña
anchor off the Bahamas.

Europe has found the Americas.

Next comes conquest
and colonization by settlers

who remake America in their image.

They advance

and destroy.

But there is another story
about the animals and plants

they bring here

and the natural treasures they find here

and how the Americas
are completely transformed.

It all began 500 years ago.

It's 1491, a year from now.

Christopher Columbus will set foot
on this quiet beach.

What is here before he arrives
is a world of unbelievable natural wealth.

Two vast continents teeming with life,

more than 600,000 miles of coastline
are surrounded by pristine waters.

Shoals so dense they were said
to slow the passage of ships.

Countless species number
in the tens of millions.

Inland from the Atlantic shores
great forests stretch in every direction.

This new world is a land
of stark contrasts.

From the lush jungles of South America

to the glaciers of the Artic north

and the great plains of the Midwest

where gigantic herds thunder
across North America,

there is room for caribou,

antelope,

bison

and the giant grizzly.

In the sky above flocks of birds
nearly block out the sun

as millions of pigeons, ducks and geese
cover the horizon.

No one in Europe has dared imagine
the magnificent bounty

that exists on the other side
of the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1941, Christopher Columbus stands
on the coasts of Spain, looking West.

He dreams of leading an expedition
to find a new trade route to Asia.

Success will mean glory and riches
for himself and the Spanish monarchy.

In Europe, the nobles had grown wealthy
by trading with the East.

Spices and gold, gemstones and silk
are the most lucrative goods.

But Europeans have lost
the Silk Road to the Turks

and foreign trade is in decline.

The wealth of kings is in danger.

Isabella, Queen of Spain, is desperate
to find new routes to India

and she has a plan.

Isabella is the most
powerful woman in Europe,

a continent of expanding horizons

filled with competitive
and inventive souls.

For 500 years they have been building
castles, palaces and centers of trade.

Kings and Popes have raised armies
to fight each other and their enemies

from Europe's borders.

Nowhere else are rivalries so intense,

gold fever so widespread

religious fervor and business expertise
as tightly wound as in Europe, in 1491.

Ideas are moving forward.

Curiosity and the thirst for power
pushes Europe's limits.

Europe is a busy and crowded continent

trying to feed a growing population
of 100 million people.

Natural resources are already exploited
as land becomes scarce and overworked.

Most of the peasants are farmers
working land that belongs to someone else,

owned by the nobles or the church.

Their main diet is bread and porridge,
both made from harvesting grains.

They plant rye or wheat in winter,
oats or barley in the spring

and every third year, the field
lies fallow to regenerate.

They have learned to harness water
and wind for power.

It is hard work but good for producing
higher yields in smaller spaces.

This agricultural revolution
allows the European population to grow.

With the help of one more
important element,

domesticated animals.

Horses pull ploughs,
cattle provide meat, fur and hides.

The pig is a main source
of meat and leather

and so too are sheep.

And mules can pull a cart.

Cows also give them milk,
butter and cheese.

It is not only people
that domesticate animals.

The big fives — horses, cattle,
goats, pigs and sheep —

domesticate the European landscape.

They contribute to Europe's
overcrowded conditions.

In 1491, the Americas too
are a crowded and prosperous place

but in a very different way.

The Andes cradle a vast empire
ruled by powerful guard kings.

Mesoamerica is densely populated

and home to the most impressive
civilizations on the continent.

The Atlantic coast is filled
with smaller villages and fields

and along with the great rivers

great cities are built around
monumental plazas.

It is an ancient world inhabited
by 100 million people,

hunters and gatherers,
fishermen and farmers,

kings, slaves and soldiers.

Down among the trees

where the Missouri, Illinois
and Mississippi rivers merge

lies one of the largest civilizations
on the continent.

The native Mississippians
are mound builders

occupying a vast region
from the Great Lakes in the North

to Florida in the South.

The first explorers thought
these great mounds

were naturally carved
by retreating glaciers.

Now we know that they are
the centerpieces of cities.

Cities like Cahokia,

busy trading posts of earth and wood

with populations of up
two thousand of people.

No one knows what they called themselves
or what language they spoke

but we know why they were successful.

These Mississippians are farmers,

Their staple crop is fuel
for the ever-growing population.

It is a plant native to the Americas
unknown to the rest of the world.

But corn is not a blessing from Nature
or a gift of the Gods.

This crop is the outcome of man's
first feat of genetic engineering.

Once they learned how to grow it
they could stay in one place,

This simple diet translated straight
into the energy to build a civilization.

The cultivation of corn is a key
to flourishing cultures in the Americas

before Columbus.

The staple crop in North America was corn.

Six thousand years ago,

ears of corn were only about
as long as a person's thumb

and they were barely edible.

It took thousands of years to develop
a more nourishing and larger hybrid

and also, a hybrid that grow
in cooler climates

outside of Mesoamerica.

And it was not until about 1,100 years ago

the corn reached
the Mississippi river valley.

Corn is the result of the domestication
of the wild teosinte grass.

Early Americans started
with this spindly stalk

and over the centuries they developed it
into today's giant cob.

Archeologists and biologists
are still debating

how corn was achieved out of a tiny grass.

Corn is one of the keys
to understand American civilization.

Wherever it flourishes,
so do great cultures.

Yet the greatest American Empire
of them all is found

where corn cannot grow,
high in the Andes.

The Inca Empire stretches nearly
2500 miles down the west coast

of South America.

Inca built palaces, storehouses
and castles, in the tall mountains.

In their realm of six million people

they rely on manpower to transport stones
without animals or the wheel,

and the energy for that is provided
by another amazing food source.

They are famed for their gold
but their true treasure is less glamorous.

A tuber, native to the Americas
and unknown in Europe.

Cultivated here some 8000 years ago,
in the region around Lake Titicaca,

in today's Peru and Bolivia,
12 500 feet up.

What is now a staple food in Europe
was an American invention.

By the year 1491, the Inca grow
thousands of varieties

domesticated from wild ancestors,

some poisonous, some even carnivorous.

They preserved the tuber by mashing them
into a substance called "chuño".

After harvest potatoes are spread on straw
and left out to freeze at night.

During the day
they are exposed to the sun.

Trampling them eliminates water
and allows them to dry.

"Chuño" can be stored for 10 years
providing excellent insurance

against possible crop failures.

The Inca carved step-like terraces
into the mountain sides

to stop the soil eroding and create
a flat surface for their crops.

Terraces absorb more sunlight
than steep slopes

so, potatoes can grow
at the highest altitudes.

All this is achieved by manpower alone
using wooden tools.

In North and South America, in 1491,
farmers grow corn and potatoes

to feed their people.

They have none of the domesticated animals
that benefit Europe.

For Inca farmers in the Andes
their chief source of meat

and transporting goods
is the llama.

This is the biggest domestic mammal
in the Americas.

The llamas also offer dung for the soil
and hides for clothes.

But they can't milk or ride them
and the animals can't pull a plow

so, they are no good for farming
or for travel.

But their wool is a true blessing.

It is warmer and lighter than sheep's wool

and produces a greater yield.

The second principle domesticated
animal of the Americas

is much smaller.

For the Aztecs the turkey is vital
even today for their descendants

in Mexico and Guatemala.

The turkey is so important

that they dedicate
two religious festivals to it.

Native Americans have such few
domesticated animals

because the biggest native mammals
in the Americas died out long ago.

At the end of the last Ice Age
the megafauna in Americas,

the giant bison and the mastodons
went extinct

and the reasons for that
are probably twofold.

First of all, as the Ice Age was ending,

the climate became much hotter and drier
and this killed the vegetation

that these very large animals depended on.

Secondly, the arrival of hunters
into North America

crossed over the Bering Strait land bridge
from Asia

coincided with the extinction
of these animals

and very likely these hunters
went after these large animals

who were slow and had a lot of meat.

What this left in North America
were animals such as bison,

deer and antelope that are not suited
to domestication.

In 1491, native American tribes
hunt wild animals to survive.

But the village dwellers in the forests
in the Northeast and nomads on the plains

developed methods to guarantee
their meat supply.

They can't domesticate these animals

so, they find a way of making their prey
come to them.

In the years before Columbus

native Americans notice that grass
grows better

after being burned by lightning strikes.

So, they start to burn
the prairies and plains themselves.

Many tribes used this technique
including the Sioux, Cheyenne,

Comanche, Shoshone and the Blackfeet.

America in 1492 was not
a pristine wilderness,

that is a romanting myth.

It was in many ways a managed landscape.

Natives regularly burned
the forests and the prairies

in order to attract game.

Not only does burning
create lush grassland

it keeps the forest open
and makes hunting easier.

The new rich pastures lure and increase
the numbers of herbivores

as well as the predators
that feed on them.

They domesticate the land
in order to attract wild animals.

Nomadic central plane Indians
are able to lure the biggest mammals

in the Americas,

the bison.

Wherever they roam,
bison are the main source

of food and clothing

and of tools made from their bones.

But still the bison thrive.

By 1491, North America is home
to perhaps 30 million.

They reign on the prairies
from Montana to Texas

pushed East by native Americans
along a path of fire,

opening up the forest into virgin land.

The bison gained a new habitat,
far beyond their original range.

Native Americans have no guns or horses,
they hunt on foot,

They dress in hides to get
as close as possible

and hunt with a bow and arrow
or spears

all made of wood and leather,
bone and stone.

Hunting the bison is essential
for their survival.

In Europe, hunting is no longer
about survival.

Noblemen hunt for sport,
for pleasure and prestige.

And only the nobles are allowed to hunt.

If ever they catch a peasant hunting,
he will be punished for poaching.

Unlike in America, there is no room here
for an abundance of wildlife,

for endless herds.

In Europe the land is man-made.

Agriculture and cities
push the wildlife back.

Untamed land is now a rarity.

But they have one other major food source.

Fish had long been cheap and abundant

for every social class in Europe.

Christianity, the common religion
all over Europe in 1941 approves a fish.

Eating meat is banned
on more 100 days a year.

The demand for fish is huge.

But intense agricultural
is damaging the fish supplies.

Once unlimited supplies in Europe
are dwindling fast.

What happened
to the fish stocks in Europe?

As people started to grow crops
and cut back the wild woods

this released huge amounts of sediment
into the water courses

which changed them from being
fast clear flowing rivers and streams

into slow turbid rivers and streams

and the fresh water fish
found a problem with this,

particularly migratory species
that came up from the sea

to spawn in rivers,

animals like salmon and sturgeon.

There was another factor
which also cut down the supplies

of these migratory fish

and that was the people started
to build dams along rivers

and when that happened

the migration runs were blocked
and the populations declined.

When supplies of fish dwindle
in their polluted lakes and rivers

they turned to the sea.

For the first time, they set up
large-scale sea fishing.

They find abundance on scale
never seen before

and they exploited it.

Cod and herring from the North Sea
are the first to be fished.

Every five years catches double.

By 1300 thousands of tons of dried fish
are exported from Norway to Britain alone.

But this is 1491.

Europe's rivers and lakes
are now dirty and empty

and surrounding seas
are fast becoming depleted.

In the Americas before Columbus
fishing is not an industry.

They don't need it.

Fish offer the taking.

Their rivers are not used for power
and are not affected by farming.

Native Americans transport their fish
far away from the coasts and waterways

into the interior,
high up into the mountains.

The Inca, high in the Andes,
enjoy fish from the Pacific.

The Mississippians trade with communities

as far away as the Great Lakes
to the North

and the Gulf Coast to the South.

They even eat fish and seafood
from the Atlantic.

Here too there is space for abundance.

The waters teem with fish and with whales,

dolphins and manatees.

Wherever native Americans trawl their nets

they find a bounty
of thousands of different species

— menhaden, channel catfish
and sheepshead.

They never have to take more
than nature can replace.

Northern South America appear to be
a primitive untamed paradise.

But looks can be deceiving.

The greatest numbers of fresh water fish
live in the Amazon,

the largest river in the Americas
and the most voluminous in the world.

To our eyes, the Amazon rainforest
is an almost untouched Garden of Eden

but it was once a very different place
than what we know today.

When the jungle was cleared
in the 20th century

for agricultural purposes

people found the remains
of a sophisticated civilization

that once managed this landscape.

In 1491 this area is home
to thousands of people.

They tend orchards of all kinds of fruits

— papaya, mango, coco, nuts and palms.

They speak many different languages

and live in many different social systems.

There are tightly-packed settlements

covering an area
of more 46,000 square miles.

They are linked by raised causeways,
bridges and canals.

Much of this is natural savanna
created by annual flooding.

But they have expanded the grasslands

regularly setting huge areas on fire.

By 1491, they have created an ecosystem
of plant species adapted by fire

that cannot exist in Nature.

Eventually, the jungle will reclaim it.

Further North in what is now New Mexico

another grand civilization
has already come and gone.

It flourished in a place that today

looks like no humans
could ever have lived there,

the Chaco Canyon.

There is almost no vegetation,
no water and no animals to be seen

and it was already like this in 1491.

But once this area looked
completely different.

This is the story of a civilization
that developed as far as it could.

used his resources as well as it could

and still declined.

Chaco Canyon was once covered
with lush vegetation

and forests of pine and juniper.

The fertile area was home to the Anasazi.

From the year 700 on, the Anasazi built
the highest and the largest buildings

in North America.

One is several stories high
and has 600 rooms

that overlook the majestic canyon.

One thousand people lived here.

They had no animals
to transport materials.

Thousands of felled trees
were dragged down to the Chaco Canyon

on men's bare backs.

There is no written account of their lives
or of their disappearance

but environmental historians
can tell us what happened

by counting tree rings

and analyzing rat nests.

Nathan English of the University of Arizona
spends much time in the canyon

looking for traces of the ancient nests.

Our interest in Chaco Canyon
is to learn more

about how the ancestral Puebloans live

and there is a few ways we can do that.

We do that through
traditional archeology

where we dig up ruins insights

or we can also look at
what the environment was like

around the ancestral Puebloans.

The way we do that is by looking
at pack rat middens.

Each pack rat midden
is like a little snapshot in time

of the area around the midden itself.

So, you could think of it like a picture

and the midden can be up
to 40,000 years old in some places.

What the midden is

is the pack rat makes a nest
and it poops in that nest

and then it only gets its water
from eating plant vegetation

so, its urine is very thick and viscous.

That urine seeps into
the pile of poop, essentially,

and solidifies almost like amber.

In the meantime, the pack rat
is also collecting things

for the plants around it also pot shards,

sometimes even corn or seeds of squash

and those macro fossils
are incorporated into the midden.

So, we go out, we collect the midden

and then we examine
the macro fossils in that midden

to look at what the ecology
around that midden was like, at that time.

Not only do rat mittens hold information.

Trees do to.

Scientists count the rings of ancient logs

to give the exact date
when the very last tree was cut down.

The Anasazi used juniper and pine
for their timber and fire,

too much of it, some think.

With the trees goes the soil,
the forest cannot recover.

Because of the erosion,
water drains down

creating gullies on the way.

Irrigation and agriculture
are no longer possible.

This large population cannot
feed itself anymore.

But did they destroy the forests
or did the forests leave them?

We are on the edge of this
pine-and-juniper woodland

and so, it is possible
that natural climate change

would have caused it to move back

but it is also we know
that the people were harvesting wood

for fuel and for timber.

So, it is likely that a combination
of the two things

are what led to the loss of forests
in this area.

The year 1130 rolls around.

It is one of the driest of years.

The Anasazi have survived
previous droughts

but the population has increased greatly

and there is no suitable territory
to expand into.

Without rain it is impossible
to grow enough food

to support the population.

No agriculture means no culture.

The Chaco Canyon is abandoned.

These ancient Americans
cut down the last tree

and move on.

Over in Europe in 1491
they are cutting down the forests rapidly.

Their growing population
needs more food

and more space in which to grow

and they badly need the wood.

They have the tools.

They have the means to transport it.

And they have the energy.

But they are beginning
to run out of space and time.

Only wood can help them
to move forward.

The Middle Ages were the era of wood.

Wood was the most important material

for building, for makings tools,
furniture and for burning.

It was the only fuel,
there was hardly any coal.

It is an era of competition

and wars used up forests too.

Whole armies are equipped
with bows made of yew.

The yew tree is almost
exterminated in Europe.

Armies need iron weapons
and smelting ovens burn day and night.

At the same time, whole forests
are used to satisfy

another European craving,

for magnificent buildings.

The cathedrals in the cities
are made of stone

yet they require millions of logs
for their bases and frames.

Larches are needed for roof supports.

Solid logs of oak, alder and elm
are sunk into the ground

to create foundations.

Wood is indispensable
for pillars and ceilings,

posts and roof panels.

ax handles and cartwheels.

European castles, cathedrals,
monasteries and churches

consume entire forests

in Germany, France, Italy,
Spain and England.

No wonder that all the great social
economic struggles in the Middle Ages

are fought in the forests,
around the forests and about the forests.

In this competition for timber
those who have money make the rules

and the money is now in the cities.

Perhaps the richest city
of all is Venice.

It is built on wood, literally.

Piles sunk into the mud
to create the platform

on which the great stone façades can float.

But behind all this, is commerce
and a great maritime Republic.

The goods that are bought and sold
are transported in wooden galleons.

Venice has denuded the forests
all around them, to build its fleet.

The city's demand is insatiable

and they start to deplete the Alps.

Spruce for masts, larch for planking,

elm for capstans,

walnut for rudders

and most importantly, oak for hulls.

When that is not enough
they cut a swath across Europe

all the way to the Baltic.

The Europeans have exploited
their natural resources

leaving a continent where
there are few fish in their rivers

and less and less timber
in their forests.

Their towns are crowded with people
and they don't know what to do with them.

Rivalries between princes and kings
have grown intense.

Religious fervor, curiosity and greed
are widespread in 1491.

There is a constant hunger
for new ideas.

The printing press is invented.

Books and ideas spread.

But where do they go from here?

Where can all this raw energy
be channeled?

This is the time when European
kings and queens send explorers

beyond the horizon to expand
and enhance their power.

Some explorers go around Africa
to find the sea route to India.

One has the vision to sail West
to arrive in the East.

He is a seaman from Genoa, Italy,
a fervent amateur

who has the crazy idea
of sailing into the unknown

to reach India.

Christopher Columbus has spent five years

trying to gain royal support
to finance his voyage.

Isabella, Queen of Spain,
finally agrees.

What does the Spanish crown have to lose?

It doesn't cost much
to finance three ships

Spain has so much to gain
from a shortcut to India

— treasures, trade and land.

At first no one wants to board his ship.

Finally he drags together
a motley crew of 87 men.

Many are illiterates,
petty criminals, even murderers,

who choose probable death at sea
in preference to the gallows.

Many are soldiers, with nothing to do
since Spain expelled the Moors

just months before.

Now they are soldiers of fortune.

With his band of "desperados"
Christopher Columbus set sail

from the port of Seville.

It was the summer of 1492.

He promises the Queen
that his expedition will be a success

and in a matter of weeks
he will change the course of History.

"Land!!!"

It is October 12, 1492,
when Columbus sights land.

"I saw neither sheep, nor goats
nor any other beasts.

"All the trees were as different
from ours as day from night.

"And so the beach,
the rocks and all things".

Three Spanish ships sail West
for three months

in search of India.

Then finally they arrived.

87 men, among them "conquistadores",
pig farmers, murderers.

But this is not Asia.

It is an island in the Caribbean.

They have no idea that
they have come to a new world.

The air is hot, the water is warm.

They have survived the voyage
and have found land

for the Spanish crown

and in the name of God.

They are exhausted, tired,
but thankful.

What land is this?

Where are the ports, the cities,
the ships and traders they expected?

The natives have seen many people
arrive from the sea, other tribes,

but no one like these.

(In Indian dialect)

They will both soon discover
that this is just the beginning.

Columbus and his men stay
for three months in the Bahamas

and have no idea that they are
on the edge of two great continents,

about ten times bigger than Europe.

From the tropical seas

to the arid deserts

this is vast

and there is space

with room for every possible landscape.

stretching from the northernmost
to almost southernmost points

of the globe.

Spain's royal monarchy made
Columbus' voyage possible.

It is 1493 and they have waited
eagerly for seven months

to learn of his discoveries.

Upon his return he delivers the news
in a report to Queen Isabella.

In a few pages, Columbus describes
the paradise he has found in her name,

lands to conquer,
converts for Christianity,

riches to exploit

and gold.

In Europe, no news stays local for long.

Traders, armies and pilgrims
carry news across the continent in weeks.

Columbus' letter is translated, copied
and becomes a best-seller.

Now many Europeans are aching
for their share of the treasures.

A few months later in Spain
men are moving towards the ports

of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Men who have no land and no work.

They cross the barren Spanish regions
that offer little to live off.

"Desperados" with nothing to lose.

Men in need of a job

and the Queen needs them.

Anyone can come along

anyone can be a "conquistador".

Even a pig farmer can win glory
and riches in faraway lands.

In 1493, 17 ships arrived in the new world

on an island in the Caribbean Sea,

carrying 1,200 Spaniards.

Columbus' second voyage
begins a stampede

of Spanish exploration and conquest.

Some will go South, some to the Andes,
some along the Mississippi.

It is the conquest of the Americas
driven by greed,

carrying weapons and with one animal
that does not exist on this continent.

With the horse, the Spanish are able
to annihilate whole empires

in just a few decades.

Within 40 years, the Inca in the Andes
fall to Pizarro.

And the Aztecs,
in Central America, to Cortez.

Where there were towns and cities
inhabited by millions of people

the Spaniards leave only ruins.

And no one to manage the land.

Spanish explorers invade the Americas
and bring with them the horse.

First brought to the Caribbean islands

these animals reproduce and spread
in the new world as fast as the wing.

Horses have not be seen here
since the Ice Age.

Now they are back.

It is as though the landscape
has been waiting for them.

Once ashore a few horses run wild.

A new breed evolves, which soon
takes over North America,

the mustang.

Within 300 years, they have reached
the central plains and the Rocky Mountains.

At the end of the 18th century
the mustang makes it as far as Canada.

150 years later there may be
7 million wild horses in North America.

For the nomadic tribes like
the Blackfeet, Cheyennes,

Sioux and Comanches
in the central plains,

these wild horses are a blessing.

What they used to do on foot,

fighting, hunting, traveling,

they can now do on the backs
of wild horses from Europe.

It transforms their lives.

This old-world animal becomes
a symbol of their native culture.

Although the horse once
came from across the Atlantic,

it is now an image of nomadic America.

As soon as the "conquistadores"
have conquered South and Central America

one of them heads north.

Hernando de Soto travels from Florida
up the Mississippi river

looking for gold.

The Spaniards leave death in their wake

and something else they bring along
to keep them alive.

As they journey through unknown jungles

the pigs help them survive.

They are a perfect source of food.

They don't take up much space
in the boats,

they look after themselves

and they eat everything they can
in this new continent.

They are prolific little beasts.

A healthy sow can give birth
to ten piglets at a time.

When the "conquistadores"
leave some behind

they will have an ever-growing food supply

for those who come after them.

The pigs are key to their survival

But to native Americans they are a curse.

In North America natives
do not fence their fields

and their staple crop of corn
is irresistible.

There is no evidence that
native Americans know

how to fight this plague of pigs.

Soon European swines are eating
the seeds and young shoots.

Only a few generations
after running wild

the animal becomes very different
from the typical farm cake.???

It grows tusks and gets
bigger and aggressive.

What began with a few pigs
becomes a daily nightmare

for the native Americans.

In addition to horses, Columbus
brought eight pigs to America

on his second voyage.

Within 20 years, there are 30,000 pigs
on the island of Cuba alone.

They multiply, conquering the Andes,
the Amazon and North America.

But the Spaniards, his horse and his pig
would never have been so successful

in the conquest of the new world
without a hidden passenger.

It is when the old and the new worlds touch

that the native American
meets his worst enemy,

a very black dose for the continent.

A Spanish missionary reports,

"An epidemic broke out,
a sickness of pustules,

"large bumps spread on people,

"some were entirely covered
on the face, the head, the chest.

"They lay in their dwellings
and sleeping places

"no longer able to move or stir.

"The pustules caused great desolation,
very many people died of them

"and many starved to death.

"No one took to care of others
any longer".

Deadly diseases contaminate
both continents of the Americas.

"For the natives", writes a chronicler,

"they are near all dead of the smallpox.

"So, the Lord hath cleared our title
to what we possess".

To this day scientists are still working
to identify these diseases,

to trace their paths and count the dead.

Smallpox was accidentally
introduced in the Americas

in the 16th century.

The smallpox virus is very hardy
in blankets

that were used by smallpox victims.

The scabs can live for weeks,
carrying the virus

and smallpox can also pass
from host to host

on board of a transatlantic vessel
until it reaches the Americas

and of course, once smallpox
reached the Americas

it was introduced to millions
of new hosts, human hosts,

who had no acquired immunities
to these diseases.

So, smallpox together with measles
and influenza had a devastating impact

on native American populations.

No one knows exactly
what the mortality was.

Conservative estimates are about 50%.

It is probably closer to 90%
or even higher.

Through trade between native peoples

diseases spread
through the whole continent.

Many natives died of foreign diseases
without ever seeing an European.

Microbes move faster
than the "conquistadores"

who brought them.

Some 50 years after Columbus
first set foot in the Americas

"conquistadores" and explorers
find neither towns nor people.

No one stands in their way.

Most of the people are dead
and nature reclaims the land.

Everything they now find
is pure wilderness,

a Garden of Eden without humans.

"A thousand of different kinds of birds
and beasts of the forest

"which have never been known
neither in shape nor name

"and whereof there is no mention made
neither among the Latins nor Greeks

"nor any other nations of the world",

reports a Spanish missionary,

"It may be God have made
a new creation of beasts".

Explorers send exotic plants and animals,
evidence of God's second creation

on the ships back to Spain.

"Hombres! I got it."

Corn,

chili and pumpkins

domesticated in the new world,
unknown in Europe,

tomatoes

and potatoes.

But there is an unwelcome
passenger on board,

an unintentional gift from the natives.

It will lead to death in Europe.

It was spread in the brothels,
in the ports and cities of the old world.

It will be painful,

it drives its victims mad,

and it can take a long, long time to kill.

This is the French Pox
or the Spanish sickness.

Syphilis.

Europeans had no idea
that this disease came from America

where more and more are aching to go.

In a 17th century, the new wave of people
heads to the new world, the settlers.

England has defeated Spain
to become a new European superpower.

The English crown sets out
to claim its share.

In 1607, the British start a colony
on the east coast of northern America

in what is now Virginia.

They named it Jamestown,
after their king.

This will become their new world.

Their job is to make money
for the British trading companies

that sent them here.

The land they seize seems to be
the right place to exploit.

Forests and rivers, coasts and lakes,
owned by no one.

But not all native Americans
succumbed to European diseases

and this land is neither empty
nor uninhabited.

It is the land of the Powhatan.

More than 14,000 people
living in small communities

around 200 villages on the coast
and along rivers

in large houses surrounded
by cleared forests

and mix fields of squash, beans and corn.

These are farmers and hunters.

There is no gold, no silver
that settlers dream of.

Just the land and its people.

For a while, the settlers and the natives
manage to coexist.

This land is rich with resources
that Europe lacks.

In the long run resources that are
far more valuable than gold and silver.

And there is more than enough
for everyone.

Europeans wanted to travel west
to the great empires of Asia.

Instead, the New World they find
amazes them

with its natural abundance.

They discovered almost miraculous
unbelievable quantities of fish

in these estuaries and rivers.

One particular kind of fish
which very much impressed settlers

was the river herring or alewife
as it is otherwise called

and seasonally these would ascend
the rivers to spawn from the sea

in their millions.

For example, in the Potomac river,
in near Washington D.C.

during the 18th century

something like 750 million alewives
were caught

just from that one river, in one year.

It was a remarkable abundance
and people described the rivers

as having more fish than water.

Whole shoals are caught
in the settlers' nets.

In the 18th century,
hundreds of thousands of tons of cod

are shipped in one single year
sent from North America

to England, Portugal and Spain.

Fishing boats sink
under the weight of their catches

and the colonies thrive.

It takes only 200 years to achieve

what had taken a thousand years in Europe,

overfishing.

Fishing tends to remove the biggest,
oldest individuals from a population

and by doing this, it changes
the selected pressures on the population

so that fish begin to grow more slowly,

they reach reproductive maturity
at a smaller size and earlier in life

and these things all reduce
the productivity of a population.

Fish are salted, hacked
and sent home for money.

Along with them the settlers
send another resource

that the old world is desperate for.

It is said that there are trees
as far as the eye can see

such that a squirrel starting off
at the Atlantic coast

needs never touch the ground
till he got to Georgia.

This is so different
from the Europe they left behind.

They have finally found a replacement
for something that is disappearing at home,

an infinite, accessible source
of the raw material of the age.

The forests must fall
if the settlers are to succeed.

From now on the trees are doomed.

The first settlers arrived
in the new world, they found forests

they had never seen in Europe,

endless forests with huge trees
penetrating into the heart of the land.

It was also a war against the forest.

The ax became the Yankee emblem.

At the same time, forests were
the great resource that land had to offer.

You could make plenty of money
exporting timber.

In Europe wood had become
expensive

and so the greatest forest destruction
in History took place.

The clearing of forests that seemed
to belong to no one and cost nothing

goes so far that by the late 17th century

many areas of the Caribbean and Atlantic
islands are completely bald.

"An incredible amount of wood is really
squandered in this country for fuel.

"Day and night all winter
for nearly half a year, in all rooms

"a fire is kept going", observes
an European traveler.

Wood consumption in the forests
of New England, just like in Europe,

is out of control. for fuel, for building
and to clear agricultural land.

The resources in this vast continent
seemed to be inexhaustible

but in time fish stocks will dwindle
in the Americas too.

They create this new world
in the image of the one they left.

Europeans change America
by what they take away

but they change this continent even more
by what they bring with them.

They come in search of their own land,

something almost impossible
to find in Europe.

They come in search of religious freedom,
in search of a better life.

They believe they are responsible
for their own success and happiness.

For the first time,
women settlers come too

and they bring a whole way
of life with them.

They bring animals and plants
that are all new to the American continent

Livestock and grains from Europe
will transform the new world

and make it a true New England.

With the newly imported plow
they will leave little land untilled.

These domesticated livestock
and metal tools

have never been seen on this continent.

An environmental revolution takes place.

In no time their European wheat
is growing in this foreign soil.

Wheat, barley, oats and rye
are brought to America.

But in the process
some less welcome guests just arrived,

Europeans introduced crops
such as wheat to the Americas

but in the bags of seeds
that they brought with them

they also brought along
seeds for weeds,

dandelions, other kinds of weeds,

and these are everywhere
in the Americas now.

From the most insignificant weed
to the continent's greatest mammal

the bison,

nothing is untouched.

America's native flora and fauna
is forever changed.

Where the bison once reigned
cattle soon roam.

To the settlers' delight their livestock
multiplies more quickly here

than it did in Europe.

In a few hundred years, European cows
eat away American grass

and trample the soil,
deposit their excrements

and distribute the seeds of the weeds.

The invasion of the European
insects and animals

changes the American landscape forever.

Horses, pigs, sheep, goats,
chickens and huge herds of cattle,

take over North and South America.

The cattle alone double in numbers
every 15 months

and feed the settlers.

The new world settlers
defend themselves inside sturdy forts

but there are no shortages of any kind.

Meat has become one of the cheapest foods
in the Americas.

They are the best fed people in the world.

Hides are in great demand in America
as well as in Europe.

And fur from the wild animals they shoot
brings in a steady export income.

Some, like the beaver, are hunted
almost to extinction.

Settlers are not forced
to adapt to the landscape

They domesticate and dominate it.

Most trees were cut down
and turned into pasture

and gardens, where all kinds
of vegetables and root crops

that we know in England,
grow in profusion.

They replace the trees they have cut down
with their own trees.

Europeans bring peaches, pears and plums.

They bring figs, olives and bananas.

And their trees flourish.

They never know how lucky they are.

Because the settlers also bring bees
with them for their honey.

The native American bee
pollinates only a few species

but European honey bees
can live almost everywhere

and pollinate any plant in sight.

Gardens turned into plantations

for consumption at home and abroad.

Apples thrive and become
a major industry in North America,

eventually yielding a harvest
of five million tons a year,

all beginning with European seedlings.

This is biological imperialism
in full swing.

Europe's fruits and vegetables
conquer the new world.

But it is also an exchange,

it is the Colombian exchange.

European kitchens may not see
native meat from America,

bison or llama,

but new world vegetables
make a big impact.

The plant with the greatest impact
on Europe

needs a couple of centuries
to take root in its culture.

This tuber is insipid and mealy.

It cannot be classed among
the agreeable foodstuffs

but it furnishes abundant and rather
wholesome nutrition to men

who are content to be nourished.

It is justly regarded as flatulent

but what are winds to the vigorous organs
of peasants and laborers.

Introduced into Spain,
potatoes slowly spread to Italy

and to northern and eastern Europe.

By 1600, the potato has entered Austria,
Holland, France, Switzerland,

England and Germany.

Frederic the Great himself
urges its cultivation in Prussia.

But it is the Irish who adopt
the potato with open arms.

They have a limited food supply

and grain grown here
has often been destroyed or burned

as the result of war.

But the potato safely underground
survives these hardships.

In one hundred years the Irish population
more than doubles

and towns like Berlin
grow into great cities.

By 1700, there is an unprecedented
population explosion in Europe

thanks to a plant from the faraway Andes.

Only one domestic animal
from the new world sets forth to Europe,

the turkey.

Turkey and a few vegetables
enhanced the European diet

but otherwise their life
is relatively unchanged.

So, why was the Columbus Exchange
so one-sided?

Why did it go primarily in one direction
from Europe to America

with the exception of things
like potatoes and potato blight?

Why was Europe not overtaken
by American plants and animals?

It is difficult to say
why something did not happen

but you have to remember
that the ecological invasion

was a cooperative enterprise.

Diseases and plants and animals
were working together

and Europe remained densely populated.

It didn't have diseases
depopulate its people.

So, you didn't have niches open up
for livestock to graze

and weeds to take over the areas
of livestock had overgrazed and trampled.

So, without that critical part,
it worked in one direction primarily.

The European elite want more
than just turkeys and potatoes

from the new world.

They want luxury products.

Sugar and tobacco meet
the requirements of the upper class.

The first British settlers quickly acquire
a taste for American tobacco

and export large shipments to Europe.

To satisfy such high demand
settlers build immense plantations.

Growing sugar becomes a business
on the same scale as tobacco.

The new monocultures cover
entire landscapes.

For this sole purpose
some 10 million Africans

are transported to America

enslaved to cultivate luxury items
for Americans and Europeans.

Because of the rapid depopulation
of the Americas owing to disease

Europeans faced a shortage of labor
in their effort to exploit the resources

in the new world,
particularly to exploit the soil.

So, the Europeans,
first the Portuguese and then the Dutch,

and then eventually the English
imported slaves from West Africa

to cultivate sugar
in the Caribbean and Brazil

tobacco in Virginia,
rice in South Carolina

and by the 19th century,
in mainland North America, cotton.

It's no exaggeration to say
that these cash commodities

produced by slave labor
were essential to the export economies

of the Americas.

By The 18th century, the metamorphosis
of much of the America is complete.

New Spain and New England
are fully established.

Nature has been transformed
and is in the hands of men.

Now pioneers are heading West.

There is still empty land
in that direction.

They will complete
what was begun in the East.

In the creation of the new world

perhaps 90% of the native
American people died.

The people who took their place
came from all over Europe

as "conquistadors", settlers,

explorers

and colonists.

And they came from Africa as slaves.

But it was the transfer
of animals and plants

from Europe to the Americas

that really made the creation
of the new world possible.

In today's chrome and steel cities

we sometimes seem so cut off from Nature

that it may be difficult to believe
the Columbian Exchange ever happened.

But in the final analysis, the skyscrapers
and the melting pot of the races

owe their existence not only to humans
but also to the natural world.

People came to the Americas
for many reasons.

Some came to make money,
some came for religious freedom,

some came Involuntarily as slaves.

But those populations took hold
in the Americas

because of the accident of ecology

because of microbes that plants
the animals that they brought with them

that gave them an advantage
over the people who are already here.

The legacy of the Columbian Exchange
is also still largely biological.

That legacy will continue into the future.

It all began 500 years ago.

Columbus had a vision

and three ships set out
in a quest for India

and found the New World.