American Indians in World History

This chapter explains the role of American Indians in world history by exploring the concept of a mutual encounter in the Americas in the first centuries following the Columbus voyages. The chapter quickly shifts to an examination of narrative constructions of North American history, in particular focusing on the relationship between American Indians, Atlantic World empires, and their settler colonies. This examination centers on an analysis of American Indian history and world history in the context of evolving social worlds that formed after contact. That context delineates an Atlantic New World of empires, colonies, trade, and alliance, and an indigenous New World in the interior of the continent, where autonomous Native peoples and homelands experience radical change as they incorporate new peoples, things, and ideas into their lives.