The settlement of America by man went on with. History of the development of America

The first humans settled on the northeastern edge of the North American continent between 22 and 13 thousand years ago. The latest genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that the inhabitants of Alaska managed to penetrate south and quickly populate both Americas about 15 thousand years ago, when a passage opened in the ice sheet that covered most of North America. The Clovis culture, which made a significant contribution to the extermination of the American megafauna, originated about 13.1 thousand years ago, almost two millennia after the settlement of the Americas.

As you know, the first people entered America from Asia, using the land bridge - Beringia, which during the glacial period connected Chukotka with Alaska. Until recently, it was believed that about 13.5 thousand years ago, settlers first passed along a narrow corridor between glaciers in western Canada and very quickly - in just a few centuries - settled throughout the New World up to the southern tip South America... They soon invented extremely effective hunting weapons (Clovis culture *) and killed most of the megafauna (large animals) on both continents.

However, new evidence from geneticists and archaeologists suggests that in reality, the history of the settlement of America was somewhat more complex. A review article by American anthropologists published in the journal Science.

Genetic data. The Asian origins of Native Americans are now undeniable. In America, five variants (haplotypes) of mitochondrial DNA (A, B, C, D, X) are widespread, and all of them are also characteristic of the indigenous population of southern Siberia from Altai to the Amur. Mitochondrial DNA extracted from the bones of ancient Americans is also clearly Asian in origin. This contradicts the recently expressed hypothesis about the connection of the Paleo-Indians with the Western European Paleolithic Solutrean culture ***.

Attempts to establish, based on the analysis of mtDNA and Y-chromosome haplotypes, the time of divergence (separation) of the Asian and American populations have so far yielded rather contradictory results (the resulting dates vary from 25 to 15 thousand years). Estimates of the time when the Paleo-Indians began to settle south of the ice sheet are considered somewhat more reliable: 16.6–11.2 thousand years. These estimates are based on an analysis of three clades **, or evolutionary lineages, subhaplogroup C1, widespread among the Indians, but not found in Asia. Apparently, these variants of mtDNA arose already in the New World. Moreover, an analysis of the geographical distribution of various mtDNA haplotypes among modern Indians showed that the observed pattern is much easier to explain on the assumption that the dispersal began closer to the beginning, and not to the end of the indicated time interval (that is, 15-16 rather than 11- 12 thousand years ago).

Some anthropologists have suggested a "two-wave" population of America. This hypothesis was based on the fact that the earliest human skulls found in the New World (including the skull of the "Kennewick Man", see links below) are markedly different in a number of dimensional indicators from the skulls of modern Indians. But the genetic data does not support the "two waves" idea. On the contrary, the observed distribution of genetic variation strongly suggests that all of the genetic diversity of Native Americans comes from a single ancestral Asian gene pool, and widespread settlement of people across the Americas has occurred only once. So, in all the studied populations of Indians from Alaska to Brazil, the same allele (variant) of one of the microsatellite loci occurs, which is not found anywhere outside the New World, with the exception of the Chukchi and Koryaks (this suggests that all Indians descended from a single ancestral population). The earliest Americans, judging by the data of paleogenomics, had the same haplogroups as the modern Indians.

Archeological data. Already 32 thousand years ago, people - carriers of the Upper Paleolithic culture - inhabited Northeast Asia up to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. This is evidenced, in particular, by archaeological finds made in the lower reaches of the Yana River ****, where items made of mammoth bones and horns of a woolly rhinoceros were found. The settlement of the Arctic took place during a period of relatively warm climate before the onset of the last glacial maximum. It is possible that already in this distant era, the inhabitants of the Asian northeast penetrated Alaska. There were found several mammoth bones about 28 thousand years old, possibly processed. However, the artificial origin of these objects is controversial, and no stone tools or other clear signs of human presence have been found in the vicinity.

The oldest indisputable traces of human presence in Alaska - stone tools, very similar to those produced by the Upper Paleolithic population of Siberia - are 14 thousand years old. The further archaeological history of Alaska is rather complex. Many sites were found here, 12-13 thousand years old with different types of the stone industry. Perhaps this indicates the adaptation of the local population to the rapidly changing climate, but it may also reflect the migration of tribes.

40 thousand years ago, most of North America was covered with an ice sheet, which blocked the path from Alaska to the south. Alaska itself was not covered with ice. During periods of warming, two corridors opened in the ice sheet — along the Pacific coast and east of the Rocky Mountains — along which ancient Alaskans could travel south. The corridors were opened 32 thousand years ago, when people appeared in the lower reaches of the Yana, but 24 thousand years ago they closed again. People, apparently, did not have time to use them.

The coastal corridor reopened about 15 thousand years ago, and the eastern one a little later, 13-13.5 thousand years ago. However, the ancient hunters could theoretically bypass the obstacle. by sea... On the island of Santa Rosa off the coast of California, traces of the presence of a person aged 13.0-13.1 thousand years were found. This means that the population of America at that time already knew well what a boat or a raft was.

The well-documented archaeological south of the glacier begins with the Clovis culture. The flowering of this culture of big game hunters was rapid and fleeting. According to the most recent updated radiocarbon dates, the oldest material traces of the Clovis culture are 13.2–13.1 thousand years old, and the youngest are 12.9–12.8 thousand years old. The Clovis culture has spread so quickly over vast areas of North America that archaeologists cannot yet determine the area in which it first appeared: the accuracy of dating methods is insufficient for this. Just 2-4 centuries after its appearance, the Clovis culture disappeared just as rapidly.

Traditionally, the Clovis people were thought to be nomadic hunter-gatherers, capable of traveling long distances quickly. Their stone and bone tools were highly sophisticated, multifunctional, made using original techniques, and were highly valued by their owners. Stone tools were made from high-quality flint and obsidian - materials that can not be found everywhere, so people took care of them and carried them with them, sometimes taking them hundreds of kilometers from the place of manufacture. Clovis culture sites are small temporary camps where people did not live for a long time, but stopped only to eat another killed large animal, most often a mammoth or mastodon. In addition, in the southeastern United States and Texas, huge accumulations of Clovis artifacts have been found - up to 650,000 pieces in one place. This is mainly waste from the stone industry. The Clovis people may have had their main quarries and weapons workshops here.

Apparently, the favorite prey of the Clovis people were proboscis - mammoths and mastodons. IN North America at least 12 undisputed proboscidean kill and butchery sites have been discovered. This is a lot, given the short-lived existence of the Clovis culture. For comparison, in the entire Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia (which corresponds to a time period of about 30,000 years), only six such sites have been found. It is possible that the Clovis people contributed significantly to the extinction of the American Proboscis. They also did not disdain smaller prey: buffalo, deer, hares and even reptiles and amphibians.

The Clovis culture penetrated into Central and South America, but here it was not as widespread as in North America (only a small number of typical Clovis artifacts were found). On the other hand, in South America, Paleolithic sites with other types of stone tools were found, including those with characteristic fishtail points. Some of these South American sites overlap with the Clovis sites in age. Previously, it was believed that the culture of "fish" points descended from the Clovis, but the refinement of the dating, carried out recently, showed that, perhaps, both cultures descend from some common and as yet not discovered "ancestor".

At one of the South American sites, bones of an extinct wild horse were found. This means that the early settlers of South America probably also contributed to the extermination of large animals.

In white the ice sheet is marked during the period of the greatest distribution 24 thousand years ago;
dotted line the edge of the glacier was outlined during the warming period 15–12.5 thousand years ago, when two “corridors” from Alaska to the south were opened.
Red dots the sites of the most important archaeological finds are shown /
12 - a camp in the lower reaches of the Yana (32 thousand years);
19 - mammoth bones with possible traces of processing (28 thousand years);
20 - Kennewick; 28 - the largest "workshop" of the Clovis culture in Texas (650,000 artifacts); 29 - the oldest finds in Wisconsin (14.2-14.8 thousand years); 39 - South American site with horse bones (13.1 thousand years old); 40 - Monte Verde (14.6 thousand years); 41 , 43 - “fish-like” arrowheads were found here, the age of which (12.9–13.1 thousand years) coincides with the existence of the Clovis culture. Rice. from the discussed article in Science.

During the second half of the 20th century, archaeologists have repeatedly reported finds of more ancient traces of human presence in America than the sites of the Clovis culture. Most of these finds, after careful checks, turned out to be younger. However, for several sites, the "pre-Klovissian" age is now recognized by the majority of specialists. In South America, this is the Monte Verde site in Chile, which is 14.6 thousand years old. In the state of Wisconsin, at the very edge of the ice sheet that existed at that time, two sites of ancient mammoth lovers - either hunters or scavengers - were discovered. The age of the sites is from 14.2 to 14.8 thousand years. In the same area, bones of mammoth legs were found with scratches from stone tools; the age of the bones is 16 thousand years, although the tools themselves were never found nearby. In Pennsylvania, Florida, Oregon and other parts of the United States, several more finds have been made, with varying degrees reliability indicating the presence of people in these places 14-15 thousand years ago. The few finds, the age of which was determined as even more ancient (over 15 thousand years), cause great doubts among specialists.

Subtotals... It is now considered well established that America was inhabited by the species Homo sapiens... There have never been any Pithecanthropus, Neanderthals, Australopithecus and other ancient hominids in America. Although some Paleo-Indian skulls differ from modern ones, genetic analysis proved that the entire indigenous population of America - both ancient and modern - comes from the same population of immigrants from southern Siberia. The first people appeared on the northeastern edge of the North American continent no earlier than 30 and no later than 13 thousand years ago, most likely between 22 and 16 thousand years ago. Judging by the molecular genetic data, the settlement from Beringia to the south began no earlier than 16.6 thousand years ago, and the size of the “founders” population, from which the entire population of both Americas south of the glacier came, did not exceed 5000 people. The theory of multiple waves of settlement was not confirmed (with the exception of the Eskimos and Aleuts, who came from Asia much later, but settled only in the extreme north of the American continent). The theory about the participation of Europeans in the ancient colonization of America has also been refuted.

One of the most important achievements of recent years, according to the authors of the article, is that the Clovis people can no longer be considered the first settlers of the Americas south of the glacier. This theory ("Clovis-First model") assumes that more and more ancient archaeological finds should be recognized as erroneous, and today we can no longer agree with this. In addition, this theory is not supported by data on the geographical distribution of genetic variation among the American Indian population, which indicates an earlier and less rapid settlement of the Americas.

The authors of the article propose the following model of the settlement of the New World, which, from their point of view, best explains the totality of the available facts, both genetic and archaeological. Both Americas were inhabited about 15 thousand years ago - almost immediately after the coastal "corridor" opened, allowing the inhabitants of Alaska to penetrate to the south by dry route. Finds in Wisconsin and Chile show that both Americas were already inhabited 14.6 thousand years ago. The first Americans probably had boats, which could have contributed to their rapid settlement along the Pacific coast. The second hypothesized early migration route is westward along the southern edge of the ice sheet to Wisconsin and beyond. There could be especially many mammoths near the glacier, which were followed by the ancient hunters.

The emergence of the Clovis culture was the result of two thousand years of development of ancient American humanity. Perhaps the center of origin of this culture was the South of the United States, because it is here that their main "workshops" are found.

Another option is not excluded. The Clovis culture could have been created by the second wave of migrants from Alaska, who passed through the eastern "corridor" that opened 13-13.5 thousand years ago. However, even if this hypothetical "second wave" did take place, it is extremely difficult to detect it by genetic methods, since the source of both "waves" was the same ancestral population living in Alaska.

* The Clovis culture is an archaeological culture of the Paleolithic era that existed at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation throughout North America and partly in Central and South America. Named after the Clovis site in the state of New Mexico (USA), explored since 1932 (American archaeologist E. B. Howard and others). Radiocarbon dating 12-9 thousand years ago. It is characterized by stone, lanceolate lanceolate spearheads with longitudinal grooves on both surfaces and a concave base, sometimes in the shape of a fish's tail. At typical sites, which are hunting camps, arrowheads are found together with other tools (scrapers, choppers, engraving points, etc.) and mammoth bones.

** clade - a group of organisms containing a common ancestor and all of its direct descendants. The term is used in phylogenetics.

*** The Solutrean culture is an archaeological culture of the middle of the late Paleolithic, widespread in France and northern Spain. Dated (by radiocarbon method) 18-15 thousand years BC. NS.

**** Yana river - Formed at the confluence of the Sartang and Dulgalakh rivers flowing from the Verkhoyansk ridge. It flows into the Yansky Bay of the Laptev Sea.

According to the latest research, the first settlers came to America in one wave from Siberia not earlier than 23 thousand years ago at the height.

The radiocarbon dates obtained from the study of bone samples revealed during the complex taphonomic analysis of the fauna of the Bluefish Caves in the Yukon gave a calibrated date of 24 thousand years to the present (19650 ± 130 BP). Apparently, then these first migrants stayed in the north for a long time.

Artifacts from the Late Paleolithic Cooper's Ferry site on the Salmon River (Columbia basin) in Idaho (fragments of mammalian bones, remains of burnt coal) date back to 15.28-16.56 thousand years ago. Stone tools from Idaho bear similarities with the industry of the Late Pleistocene site Kamishirataki 2 on Hokkaido Island (Japan). This suggests that humans originally migrated to America along the Pacific coast, but does not rule out subsequent human migrations at a later time through the Ice Free Corridor (IFC) from Beringia to present-day Dakota, which opened between Cordillera and the Laurentian continental ice sheets at the end of the Pleistocene, as suggested by paleogenomics.

According to the frequencies of the most important "eastern" (Mongoloid) marker - the spatula-shaped incisors, only the Indian population of North America seems to be quite homogeneous.

About 13 thousand years ago, they were divided into northern and southern populations - the latter settled in Central, South and partly in North America.

Separately, about 5.5 thousand years ago, the arrival of the Inuit and Eskimos took place, spreading throughout the Arctic (the way they got from Siberia to Alaska remains a mystery, since there was no transition between them then).

Migration models

The chronology of migration patterns is divided into two scales. One scale is based on a "short chronology" according to which the first wave of migration to America occurred no earlier than 14-16 thousand years ago. The results of studies conducted by Rutgers University theoretically showed that the entire indigenous population of America came from only 70 individuals who arrived at 14-12 thousand years. n. along the Bering Isthmus, which then existed between Asia and America. Other estimates put the actual size of the Native American population at approx. 250 people.

Supporters of the "long chronology" believe that the first group of people arrived in the Western Hemisphere much earlier, perhaps 20-50 thousand years ago, and, possibly, other successive waves of migrations took place after it. Paleogeneticists who studied the genome of a girl who lived in the Tanana Valley in Alaska c. 11.5 thousand years ago, they came to the conclusion that the ancestors of all American Indians in one wave moved from Chukotka to Alaska in the late Pleistocene approx. 20-25 thousand years ago, before Beringia disappeared approx. 20 thousand years ago. After that, the "ancient Beringians" in America were isolated from Eurasia. Between 17 and 14 thousand years ago, they were divided into northern and southern groups of Paleo-Indians from which the peoples that settled in North and South America were formed.

One contributing factor to the heated debate is the discontinuity of archaeological evidence for early human history in both North and South America. The North American finds generally reflect the classic set of cultural evidence known as the Clovis culture, which can be traced back at least 13,500 years ago, and is found throughout virtually all of North and Central America. [ ]

The age of the lanceolate spearheads found in Block A at the Debra L. Friedkin site at Buttermilk Creek (Texas) is 13.5-15.5 thousand years ago ...

In 2017, archaeologists unearthed a settlement on Tricket Island off the western coast of Canada, also dating back about 13-14 thousand years ago. It is assumed that this area was not covered with ice during the last glaciation.

South American cultural finds, on the other hand, do not follow the same sequence and represent a variety of cultural patterns. Therefore, many archaeologists believe that the Clovis model is not valid for South America, calling for the creation of new theories to explain prehistoric finds that do not fit into the Clovis cultural complex. Several scholars are developing a Pan American colonization model that integrates both North American and South American archaeological finds. [ ]

The settlement of the American continent is associated with several migration waves that brought Y-chromosomal haplogroups and to the New World. According to the calculations of geneticist Theodore Schurr from the University of Pennsylvania, carriers of the mitochondrial haplogroup B came to North America up to 24 thousand years ago. T. Schurr and S. Sherry believe that the migration of carriers of mitochondrial haplogroups A, B, C and D preceded Clovis and occurred 15-20 thousand years ago. n. The second migration associated with the alleged carriers of haplogroup X from the Clovis culture took place after the formation of the Mackenzie corridor 14-13 thousand years ago.

DNA research from ancient burial grounds of the Pacific coast and the mountainous regions of Peru, Bolivia and Northern Chile, as well as from Argentina and Mexico aged from 500 to 8600 years, showed the presence of mitochondrial haplogroups,,, C1b, C1c, C1d, characteristic of modern Indians. The mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a, common for modern Indians of South America, was not identified in ancient South Americans. In North America, mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a was found in an ancient burial ground (9730-9880 years ago) in a cave On Your Knees on the island of Prince of Wales Island (Alexander Archipelago in Alaska). A Kennewick man who lived 9300 years ago, found in Washington state, has a Y chromosome group Q1a3a (M3) and a mitochondrial haplogroup X2a.

According to scientists, in the period from 20 to 17 thousand years ago, the Pacific coast was covered with a glacier, but then the glacier retreated from the coast and the first people were able to walk along the coast to the south. Corridor between Cordillera and Laurentian ice sheets although it opened approx. 14-15 thousand years ago, it remained lifeless and became available for human migration only after another 1.4-2.4 thousand years. Geneticists who analyzed 91 genomes of ancient Indians who lived in the territory of modern California and southwestern Ontario, came to the conclusion that earlier than 13 thousand years ago, migrants from Asia divided - one part of the ancient Indians went to the east and turned out to be related to the Kennewick man and modern Algonquins, another part of the ancient Indians went south and turned out to be related to the boy Anzik-1 (representative of the Clovis culture). Later, both populations were reunited, since the modern inhabitants of Central and South America turned out to be genetically similar to both the "eastern" and "southern" parts of the ancient Indians. Mixing of populations could occur repeatedly in both North America and South America.

Land bridge theory

An overview of the theory

The "classical" land bridge theory, also known as the "Bering Strait theory" or "short chronology theory", has been generally accepted since the 1930s. This model of migration to western North America suggests that a group of people - Paleo-Indians - crossed from Siberia to Alaska, tracking the migration of a large herd of animals. They could have crossed the strait that now separates the two continents by a land bridge known as the Bering Isthmus, which was located on the site of the modern Bering Strait during the last ice age, the last stage of the Pleistocene.

The classical version speaks of two or three waves of migration through the Bering Strait. The descendants of the first wave became modern Indians, the second (presumably) - the people of the Na-Dene, the third and later - the Eskimos and Aleuts. According to another hypothesis, the ancestors of the modern Indians were preceded by the Paleo-Indians, related not to the Mongoloid, but to the South Pacific races. In this hypothesis, the dating of the first wave is determined about 15 thousand years ago, and the second - 10 thousand years ago.

Thus, according to this theory, migration began about 50 thousand years ago and ended about 10 thousand years ago, when the ocean level was 60 m lower than today. This information was collected using oxygen isotope analysis of deep sea sediments. The land bridge that opened during this period between Siberia and the western coast of Alaska was at least 1600 km wide. According to archaeological evidence collected in North America, it was concluded that a group of hunters crossed the Bering Strait less than 12 thousand years ago and could eventually reach the southern point of South America 11 thousand years ago. [ ]

Based on the spread American languages and language families, the movement of tribes took place along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and in the direction east through the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast, which the tribes reached about 10 thousand years ago. [ ]

Cultural complex Clovis

The culture of big game hunters, known as the Clovis culture, is primarily known for the spearheads carved out of stone. The culture gets its name from the town of Clovis, New Mexico, where the first examples of the instruments of this cultural complex were found in 1932. The Clovis culture was spread over most of North America, and some examples of its tools were found even in South America. The culture is easily distinguished by the characteristic shape of the "Clovis tips," jagged dart tips carved from flint that were inserted into a wooden shank. [ ]

The material from the Clovis culture was dated by analyzing animal bones using carbon dating techniques. While early results gave a heyday of 11,500 to 11,000 years ago, recent re-examinations of Clovis materials, using improved radiocarbon techniques, yielded results between 11,050 and 10,800 years ago. According to these data, the flourishing of culture took place somewhat later and within a shorter period of time than previously thought. Michael R. Water (University of Texas) and Thomas W. Stafford, owner of a private laboratory in Lafayette, Colorado and an expert in radiocarbon dating, jointly concluded that at least 11 of the 22 Clovis sites are “problematic,” including the site near the town of Clovis, and cannot be used for dating due to contamination with older material, although these findings have not found general support among archaeologists. [ ]

In 2014, a group of scientists led by paleontologist James Chatters published the results of a study of the skeleton of a 15-year-old girl who lived supposedly 13 thousand years ago and was discovered in 2007 in the flooded Oyo Negro Cave on the Yucatan Peninsula. Scientists examined the mitochondrial DNA obtained from the girl's molars and compared it with the mtDNA of modern Indians. According to the data obtained, representatives of the Clovis culture and the Indians belong to the same haplogroup D1, to which some modern peoples of Chukotka and Siberia belong.

see also

Links

1. Maxim Russo: Australian footprint in America - POLIT.RU
2. Maanasa raghavan et al. Genomic evidence for the Pleistocene and recent population history of Native Americans, 21 Aug 2015
3. The first Americans came from Siberia 23 thousand years ago - MixedNews.ru
4. Lauriane Bourgeon, Ariane Burke, Thomas Higham... Earliest Human Presence in North America Dated to the Last Glacial Maximum: New Radiocarbon Dates from Bluefish Caves, Canada, PLOS, January 6, 2017.
5. Bone footprints and the settlement of America, January 18, 2017
6. Loren G. Davis et al. Late Upper Paleolithic occupation at Cooper's Ferry, Idaho, USA, ~ 16,000 years ago, 30 Aug 2019
7. CyberSecurity.ru | Research | An analysis of the DNA of a person who lived 4000 years ago was carried out (unspecified) (unavailable link)... Retrieved March 15, 2016.

History New America is not so many centuries old. And it began in the 16th century. It was then on discovered by Columbus new people began to arrive on the continent. The immigrants from many countries of the world had different reasons for coming to the New World. Some of them just wanted to start new life... The latter dreamed of getting rich. Still others sought refuge from religious persecution or government persecution. Of course, all these people belonged to different nationalities and cultures. They were distinguished from each other by their skin color. But all of them were united by one desire - to change their lives and create practically from scratch new world... This is how the history of the colonization of America began.

Pre-Columbian period

People have settled in North America for more than one millennium. However, information about the indigenous inhabitants of this continent before the period of the appearance here of immigrants from many other parts of the world is very scarce.

As a result scientific research it was found that the first Americans were small groups of people who migrated to the continent from Northeast Asia. Most likely, they mastered these lands about 10-15 thousand years ago, passing from Alaska through shallow or frozen ones. Gradually, people began to move inland, to the continent. So they reached Tierra del Fuego and the Strait of Magellan.

Also, researchers believe that in parallel with this process, small groups of Polynesians moved to the continent. They settled in the southern lands.

Both those and other settlers, who are known to us as Eskimos and Indians, are rightfully considered the first inhabitants of America. And in connection with long-term residence on the continent - the indigenous population.

Discovery of a new continent by Columbus

The first of the Europeans to visit the New World were the Spaniards. Traveling to a world unknown to them, they marked India and the western coastal territories of Africa on a geographical map. But the researchers didn't stop there. They began to look for the shortest path that would bring a person from Europe to India, which promised great economic benefits to the monarchs of Spain and Portugal. The result of one of these campaigns was the discovery of America.

It happened in October 1492, when a Spanish expedition led by Admiral Christopher Columbus landed on a small island in the Western Hemisphere. So the first page in the history of American colonization was opened. Immigrants from Spain flock to this outlandish country. Following them, the inhabitants of France and England appeared. The period of colonization of America began.

Spanish conquerors

The colonization of America by Europeans initially did not provoke any resistance from the local population. And this contributed to the fact that the settlers began to behave very aggressively, enslaving and killing Indians. The Spanish conquerors were especially cruel. They burned and plundered local villages, killing their inhabitants.

Already at the very beginning of the colonization of America, Europeans brought many diseases to the continent. The local population began to die from epidemics of smallpox and measles.

In the mid-16th century, Spanish colonists dominated the American continent. Their possessions stretched from New Mexico to Cape Gori and brought fabulous profits to the royal treasury. During this period of American colonization, Spain fought off all attempts by other European states to gain a foothold in this rich natural resources territory.

However, at the same time, the balance of power began to shift in the Old World. Spain, where the kings unwisely spent the huge flows of gold and silver coming from the colonies, began to gradually give up its positions, yielding them to England, in which the economy was developing at a rapid pace. In addition, the decline of the previously powerful country, and the European superpower, was accelerated by the long-term war with the Netherlands, the conflict with England and the Reformation of Europe, on the fight against which huge funds were spent. But the last point of Spain's withdrawal into the shadows was the death in 1588 of the Invincible Armada. After that, England, France and Holland became the leaders in the process of colonizing America. Immigrants from these countries created a new wave of immigration.

Colonies of France

Immigrants from this European country interested, first of all, valuable furs. At the same time, the French did not seek to seize land, since in their homeland the peasants, despite being burdened with feudal duties, still remained the owners of their allotments.

The colonization of America by the French began at the dawn of the 17th century. It was during this period that Samuel Champlain founded a small settlement on the Acadia Peninsula, and a little later (in 1608) - In 1615, the French possessions extended to the lakes of Ontario and Huron. These territories were operated by trading companies, the largest of which was the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1670, its owners received a charter and monopolized the purchase of fish and furs from the Indians. Local residents became "tributaries" of companies, falling into a network of obligations and debts. In addition, the Indians were simply robbed, constantly exchanging the valuable furs they obtained for worthless trinkets.

British possessions

The colonization of North America by the British began in the 17th century, although the first attempts were made by them a century earlier. The settlement of the New World by subjects of the British crown accelerated the development of capitalism in their homeland. The source of the prosperity of the British monopolies was the creation of colonial trading companies that successfully operated on the foreign market. They also brought fabulous profits.

Features of the colonization of North America by Great Britain consisted in the fact that in this territory the government of the country formed two trading companies, which had large funds. They were London and Plymouth firms. These companies had royal charters, according to which they owned lands located between 34 and 41 degrees north latitude, and stretching inland without any restrictions. Thus, England appropriated the territory that originally belonged to the Indians.

At the beginning of the 17th century. a colony was established in Virginia. The Virginia commercial company expected large profits from this venture. At its own expense, the company delivered settlers to the colony, who spent 4-5 years working off their debt.

In 1607 a new settlement was formed. This was the Gemstown colony. It was located in a swampy place where many mosquitoes lived. In addition, the colonists turned the indigenous population against themselves. Constant clashes with Indians and illness soon claimed the lives of two-thirds of the settlers.

Another English colony - Maryland - was founded in 1634. British settlers received allotments of land there and became planters and large entrepreneurs. The workers in these plots were the English poor, who worked out the cost of moving to America.

However, over time, instead of enslaving servants in the colonies, the labor of Negro slaves began to be used. They began to be brought mainly to the southern colonies.

Over the course of 75 years after the formation of the colony of Virginia, the British created 12 more similar settlements. These are Massachusetts and New Hampshire, New York and Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Maryland.

Development of the English colonies

Poor people in many countries of the Old World sought to get to America, because in their view it was the promised land, giving salvation from debt and religious persecution. That is why the European colonization of America was widespread. Many entrepreneurs have ceased to confine themselves to recruiting migrants. They began to arrange real raids on people, soldering them and sending them to the ship until they sober up. That is why there was an unusually rapid growth in the English colonies. This was facilitated by the agrarian revolution carried out in Great Britain, as a result of which there was a massive landlessness of the peasants.

The poor, robbed by their government, began to look for the possibility of buying land in the colonies. So, if in 1625 there were 1980 settlers in North America, then in 1641 there were about 50 thousand immigrants from England alone. Fifty years later, the number of inhabitants of such settlements was about two hundred thousand people.

Displaced behavior

The history of colonization of America is overshadowed by a war of extermination against the native inhabitants of the country. The settlers took the land from the Indians, completely destroying the tribes.

In the north of America, which was called New England, immigrants from the Old World took a slightly different path. Here, lands from the Indians were acquired through "trade deals". Subsequently, this became the reason for the approval of the opinion that the ancestors of the Anglo-Americans did not encroach on the freedom of the indigenous people. However, immigrants from the Old World acquired huge tracts of land for a bundle of beads or for a handful of gunpowder. At the same time, the Indians who were not familiar with private property, as a rule, did not even know about the essence of the contract concluded with them.

The church also made its contribution to the history of colonization. She raised the massacre of the Indians to the rank of a godly cause.

One of the shameful pages in the history of American colonization is the scalp prize. Before the arrival of the settlers, this bloody custom existed only among some tribes inhabiting the eastern territories. With the arrival of the colonialists, such barbarism began to spread more and more widely. The reason for this was the unleashed internecine wars in which firearms began to be used. In addition, the scalping process was greatly facilitated by the proliferation of iron knives. After all, wooden or bone tools that the Indians had before colonization greatly complicated such an operation.

However, the relations of the settlers with the indigenous people were not always so hostile. Ordinary people tried to maintain good neighborly relations. Poor farmers adopted and learned from the Indians, adapting to local conditions.

Immigrants from other countries

But be that as it may, the first colonists who settled in North America did not have uniform religious beliefs and belonged to different social strata. This was due to the fact that people from the Old World belonged to different nationalities, and, therefore, had different beliefs. For example, English Catholics have settled in Maryland. Huguenots from France settled in South Carolina. The Swedes settled in Delaware, and Virginia was full of Italian, Polish, and German artisans. The first Dutch settlement appeared on Manhattan Island in 1613. Its founder was the center of which was the city of Amsterdam, became known as the New Netherlands. Later, these settlements were captured by the British.

The colonialists were entrenched on the continent, for which they still thank God every fourth Thursday in November. America celebrates Thanksgiving. This holiday is immortalized in honor of the first year of life of the settlers in a new place.

The emergence of slavery

The first black Africans arrived in Virginia in August 1619 on a Dutch ship. Most of them were immediately ransomed by the colonists as servants. In America, blacks became slaves for life.

Moreover, this status even began to be inherited. Between American colonies and countries East Africa the slave trade began to be carried out constantly. Local leaders willingly exchanged their young people for weapons, gunpowder, textiles and many other goods brought from the New World.

Development of the southern territories

As a rule, settlers chose the northern territories of the New World for their religious reasons. In contrast, the colonization of South America pursued economic goals. The Europeans, having little ceremony with the indigenous people, resettled them to lands that were poorly suitable for existence. The resource-rich continent promised large incomes to the settlers. That is why in the southern regions of the country they began to cultivate plantations of tobacco and cotton, using the labor of slaves brought from Africa. Most of all goods were exported to England from these territories.

Migrants in Latin America

The territories south of the United States were also explored by the Europeans after Columbus discovered the New World. And today, the colonization of Latin America by Europeans is regarded as an unequal and dramatic collision of the two different worlds, which ended with the enslavement of the Indians. This period lasted from the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century.

The colonization of Latin America led to the death of ancient Indian civilizations. After all, most of the indigenous population was exterminated by immigrants from Spain and Portugal. The inhabitants who survived fell under the control of the colonialists. But at the same time in Latin America the cultural achievements of the Old World were introduced, which became the property of the peoples of this continent.

Gradually, European colonists began to turn into the most growing and important part of the population of this region. And the bringing of slaves from Africa began a complex process of forming a special ethnocultural symbiosis. And today we can say that the colonial period of the 16-19 centuries left an indelible imprint on the development of modern Latin American society. In addition, with the arrival of Europeans, the region began to get involved in world capitalist processes. This has become an important prerequisite economic development Latin America.

The mother of North America was deserted at a time when the Lower and Middle were replaced in the Eastern Hemisphere, and the Eurasian Neanderthal was gradually turning into homo sapiens, trying to live in the tribal system.

The American earth saw a man only at the very end of the Ice Age, 15-30 thousand years ago (From recent research:).

A man came to America from Asia through a narrow isthmus that once existed on the site of the modern Bering Strait. It was with this that the history of the development of America began. The first people went south, sometimes interrupting their movement. When Wisconsin glaciation came to an end, and the land was divided by the waters of the ocean into the Western and Eastern Hemispheres (11 thousand years BC), the development of people who became aborigines began. It was they who were called the Indians, the native inhabitants of America.

Aboriginal Indians named Christopher Columbus... He was convinced that he was standing off the coast of India, and therefore it was a suitable name for the aborigines. It stuck, but the mainland began to be called America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci after Columbus's mistake became apparent.

The first people from Asia were hunters and gatherers. Having mastered the land, they began to engage in agriculture. At the beginning of our era, the territories of Central America, Mexico, Peru were mastered. These were the Maya, Inca (read about), and Aztec tribes.

European conquerors could not come to terms with the idea that some savages created early class social relations, built entire civilizations.

The first attempts at colonization were made by the Vikings in 1000 AD. According to the sagas, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, landed his squad near Newfoundland. He discovered the country, calling it Vinland, the land of grapes. But the settlement did not last long, disappearing without a trace.

When Columbus discovered America, the most motley Indian tribes already existed on it, standing at different stages of social development.

In 1585 Walter Raleigh, favorite of Elizabeth I, founded the first English colony on the island in North America Roanoke... He named her Virginia, in honor of the virgin queen.

The settlers did not want to do hard work and develop new lands. They were more interested in gold. Everyone suffered from the gold rush and went even to the ends of the earth in search of an attractive metal.

The lack of provisions, the brutal treatment of the Indians by the British and, as a result, the confrontation - all this put the colony at risk. England could not come to the rescue, since at that moment it was in a state of war with Spain.

A rescue expedition was organized only in 1590, but there were no settlers there. Hunger and confrontation with the Indians drained Virginia.

The colonization of America was in question, since England was going through hard times (economic difficulties, war with Spain, constant religious strife). After the death of Elizabeth I (1603), he was on the throne Jacob I Stuart who cared nothing about the colony on Roanoke Island. He made peace with Spain, thereby recognizing the enemy's rights to the New World. This was the time of the “lost colony,” as Virginia is called in English historiography.

This state of affairs did not suit the Elizabethan veterans who participated in the wars with Spain. They aspired to the New World out of a thirst for enrichment and a desire to wipe the nose of the Spaniards. Under their pressure, James I gave his permission to resume the colonization of Virginia.

To make the plan come true, the veterans created joint-stock companies, where they invested their funds and joint efforts. The issue of settling the New World was resolved at the expense of the so-called "rebels" and "idlers". This was the name given to people who found themselves homeless or without means of subsistence in the course of the development of bourgeois relations.