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Bill Fell Mr. Rowells AP US History 20 August 2009 Chapter One  In chapter one I have learned that about six thousand years ago recorded history of the Western world began. Five hundred years ago, European explorers landed in the Americas. Te continent of North America came from one single supercontinent that contained all the land in the world. This is proven fro m the identical species of fish that swim in separated freshwater lakes of various continents. During the Ice Age, there were two mile thick ice sheets that thawed out about 10,000 years ago. Ancient Native Americans came to America over the Bering Strait. When Europeans came to America in 1492, 54 million people lived in the Americas. Corn planting reached the American Southwest in about 12000 B.C. Native Americans would make 1000 acre forest fires to make better hunting ground for deer. In about 1000 A.D. Scandinavians landed in Vinland, but their nation was not strong enough to habitat the land. Marco Polo founded Africa. With the discovery of America, a million slaves from Africa were taken. Bartholomeu Días rounded the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488. Spain sailed west because Portugal controlled the ocean gateway to India, The Printing press and with the help of the Renaissance, Spain was eager for adventure. On October 12 1492, Christopher Columbus’s crew founded an island in the Bahamas. Columbus called the people at Americas Indians, because he thought that they were natives of the Indies. In 1493 Columbus sailed back to the Americas with 17 ships that had 1200 men, and loathes of cattle, swine, and horses. The horses made the Apaches, Sioux, and Blackfoot extremely mobile. In the centuries after Columbus came, 90 percent of the Native Americans Perished. The Indians purposely “injected” syphilis, and STD, to Europeans by putting infected blood onto their master’s hand. The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 divided the new world between Spain and Portugal. Vasco Nunez Balboa was known as the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean. Ferdinand Magellan was the first person to sail across the globe from 1519-1522. The West Indies used encomienda, which gave Indians to colonists in order to Christianize them, slavery. The first colleges in America were in Mexico City and Lima, Peru, in 1551. “The Black Legend” was a false idea hold that the conquerors merely tortured and butchered the Indians, “killing for Christ.”