Native American economy: Pomo people fishing (California, 1816) Fishing and gathering food When people first came to North America, maybe about 15,000 BC, they were probably mostly following the fish along the coast, and fishing is what they spent most of their time doing. In California, and along the East Coast, people like the Iroquois also gathered [...]
Amir Kabir Mohammed Qajar died in 1848, a year of revolution and democracy in Europe. In Iran it brought change too: Mohammed's son, Nasser al-Din, was only 17 when his father died, and for the first three years, Nasser's prime minister Amir Kabir held power. Amir Kabir, who had risen from poverty, first centralized [...]
Arawak history: Arawak family in Trinidad, ca. 1500 AD The Arawak arrive in Venezuela The Arawak probably first arrived in South America with the second wave of people, around 15,000 BC. They were probably fishing people with canoes or boats, travelling south along the Atlantic coastline following the fish. The Arawak settled first in what is now Venezuela, [...]
History of Brazil: The Tapuia people, ca. 1650 (by Albert Eckhout) Tupi war with Tapuia In the late 1400s AD, the Tupi people had just won a big war with the Tapuia people. They had gotten control of the Atlantic coast of South America (modern Brazil). They forced most of the Tapuia people inland. So the [...]
Brigham Young in the 1840s After a mob killed Joseph Smith, the Mormons chose a new leader, Brigham Young (BRIG-am yung) and wisely left Illinois. In 1847, Brigham Young decided that the Mormons should move way out west to Utah, where the Ute and Paiute people lived. Utah was part of Mexico at this time. In the next year, though, [...]
Thomas Paine (by Matthew Pratt, about 1790) In the late 1700s AD, around the same time that Voltaire, du Chatelet, and Rousseau were writing philosophy in France, and Hume was writing in England, Thomas Paine was writing philosophy in America. Paine was born in England, and his father was a Quaker, and owned a small business. Young Paine didn't go to [...]
Slave fort in Ghana Although other people, both white and Native American, have been held as slaves in North America, the experience of the African people who were forced to come to North America as slaves was more unusual, because more than half of the people living in slave states were slaves. Most of the people who became [...]
Venetian trade bead from the 1400s AD Just about 1500 AD, many, many people in North America began to die from mysterious diseases like smallpox and measles that nobody in North America had ever seen before. Soon people saw that they were catching these diseases from European sailing men who had come to the Atlantic coast to trade knives and [...]
Crow men In the 1600s AD, Crow people were still living in the Dakotas. But they caught smallpox and measles from their neighbors, the Mandan, and many Crow people died. So even though they had not yet met any Europeans, Crow people's lives were still very much changed by European settlers. Crow people met Europeans for the first time in [...]
History of tobacco: Tobacco plants growing Early history of tobacco Tobacco is an American plant. Like other flowering plants, it probably evolved during the Triassic era, about 250 million years ago. Tobacco plants are related to tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes - and to deadly nightshade. (More about tomatoes) All of these are American plants. [...]
