How Did Europeans Discover America

You might think that the Europeans were the first people to discover America. But you would be quite wrong; in reality many years before Christopher Columbus’ ships landed, there were already groups of people living on the land. “In fact, scholars estimated that more than 50 million people were already living in America” (History). These people became known as the Native Americans, a name we have all come to know.

The first confirmation showing that native people settled in North America points out that they migrated over 11,000 years ago. People slowly crossed the Pacific from island to island, later reaching the South American Coast. More than likely, they crossed the Bering Bridge, which could be found during the ice age. After this time period, several large waves of migration took place (History). Clearly we can see that not only was Columbus not the "discoverer" of America, but Europeans were actually relative late arrivals to this land. By the time Europeans came, North and South America were filled by a large diversity of groups, ranging from the hunters to the gatherers of the central and northern plains, to the agriculturalists as well as city builders of the Mississippi plus South America, to the established fisherman of the Pacific Northwest.

Many lived in permanent settlements, known as pueblos, built of stone and other materials. The other south westerns were more nomadic. They survived by hunting, gathering and raiding their more established neighbors. Since these people were always moving their homes were much less stable. By the time the southwestern territories became part of the United States after the Mexican war, many of the regions native’s people had already been exterminated. During the second half of the 19th century, the federal government resettled most of the regions remaining natives onto reservations