Alan Taylor’s book American Colonies: The Settling of North America, although a quarter of a century old, is as fresh and readable today as it was the day it came off the presses. It covers the history of (mostly) North America from, roughly, 13,000 B.C. until shortly after the American Revolution in 1776. I’ve always thought my education and further reading thereafter provided me with a pretty good picture of our country’s history and development. However, after reading (and enjoying) this lengthy and detailed account, I’ve realized that my prior education in American History was largely focused on Euro-centric colonization, with particular emphasis on those pioneers who originated in England, France, and Spain. The actions, interactions, and reactions of those immigrants who began to populate the Americas about 15,000 years ago receive little or no thoughtful recognition in what we consider to be our history.
The earliest Americans arrived in the Western Hemisphere around 15,000 B.C. by crossing the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska, the only way such people could travel, given the lack of ocean travelling to last another 13,000 or so years. These inhabitants gradually multiplied and spread across both Americas, living off the land in small, nomadic bands. Over the next millenia, they spread across North and South America in small bands who lived off the land, cultivated the forests, and made war with other such bands. They lived in what was, until quite recently, considered to be a completely “primitive” existence. Actually, these “Indian” groups lived in harmony with nature and their environment. They hunted for food, learned to plant edible plants, and fought battles against other bands of their near relatives, who spread across North and South America. Taylor estimates that the population of North America at the time Europe discovered it to have been about 8.4 million, but this estimate is considered low by some scholars.
Meanwhile, colonizers from Spain “discovered” what are now known as the Caribbean Islands, establishing sugar plantations on the many islands, while enslaving the native populations to the deathly work as slaves. They brought with them western weapons and diseases as well as seeing the indigenous populations to be primitive and even non-human.
As ship building and navigational tools became increasingly sophisticated. Europeans from Spain, France, and England explored along the Eastern coasts. They slowly advanced west across what became the fourteen original European colonies, encountering various tribes of what have now become known as “Indians,” although the various bands differed in organization, diet, and a variety of languages.
The western migration of European interests grew as Western Europe began to lust after the furs and mineral riches to be found in North and South America. During this period they battled the indigenous population, winning most encounters because of the advantages metal weapons and gunpowder gave them. Meanwhile, distinctive cultural differences emerged, largely because of the different opportunities to grow plants and the availability of local game for food. Small farms were established and independent villages slowly emerged. Opportunities for independence emerged as Europeneons started small villages and learned to live off the land.
Tribal Map of North America c. 1500
As I read this book, I came to realize how eurocentric and narrow my education in American history had been, and the way my attitudes toward the primacy of European immigrants to America destructive the growing supremacy of European culture into the Americas had been to the native population.. My own learning, emphasizing the importance of the development from Pennsylvania north to New England, truly represented a small bit of the understanding that a larger and lengthier telling would have offered.
Filled with deep and thoughtful approaches to the important contributions and tragedies of African slavery and Indian destruction, both by the Europeans skill with metal weapons and their spreading of diseases which neither indigenous group had acquired added both depth and understanding to the country we were at our birth at the end of the 18th century and have become during the nearly 300 years since.
I highly recommend Alan Taylor’s exploration of American Colonies: The Settling of North America to anyone interested in widening and deepening their vision and understanding about the beginning of who we are and who we have become.
I read American Colonies in a paperbound edition I bought through https://www.thriftbooks.com/ a used book outlet that I highly recommend.