History books have traditionally described pre-Columbian America as a pristine wilderness, where small local villages lived in harmony with nature. But the scientific evidence tells a different story: When Columbus landed in 1492, millions of people were already living there. America is not exactly a new world, but a very old world, where its inhabitants built sprawling infrastructure like cities, orchards, canals, and dams.
The British brought bees to the Americas for honey, but the bees pollinated East Coast orchards. Many crops brought by Europeans, such as apples and peaches, thrived thanks to wild bees. About 12,000 years ago, North American mammoths, ancient horses, and other large mammals disappeared. The first horse in America since Columbus and the Pleistocene in 1493.
Settlers in America told of rivers with more fish than water. The South American potato helped spark the population explosion in Europe. In 1491, with few domesticated animals in the United States, llamas were used as pack animals.
In 1491, America had more people than Europe. The first conquerors were sailors and adventurers. In 1492, America was not a pristine wilderness but a crowded farmland. The now barren Chaco Canyon was once covered in vegetation. Along with crops such as wheat, weeds such as dandelions were also brought to the Americas by Europeans.
The domestication of turkeys is believed to have begun in pre-Columbian Mexico and did not exist in Europe by 1491. By 1500, European settlers and their flora and fauna had transformed much of the American landscape. Beans, potatoes, and corn from the Americas became important crops on the European continent.
