America before columbus - Research Paper Example

The period before the arrival of Christopher Columbus is known as pre-Columbian. Pre-Columbian is a term used to refer to the culture of the “New World”, as per Columbus description of America, in the era prior to European influence. The indigenous cultures before civilization continued to develop until Europeans challenged it though many centuries after 1492 when Columbus discovered the New World (Wulffson 52). This paper seeks to explore deeply on what America was like before arrival of Columbus.

A lot of literature suggests that Columbus was not the first one to discover America as it is perceived and explained by Europeans. According to Mroueh (1) Muslims from Spain and West Africa were before him by about five centuries. They started their journey in the mid-tenth century during the reign of Umayed Caliph Abdul-Rahmna III only to return later from a strange land thought to be America (Mroueh 1). In addition, there are higher chances that Amerigo Vespucci, discovered America. Both of them set out at different times in their navigation ventures.

Columbus had planned to go to Asia but without knowing, he headed to the West Indies. Throughout the journey, he believed he was headed for Asia but that was not the case. According to Wulffson (98), Columbus died still thinking that he was headed for Asia while Amerigo Vespucci was so certain that he had found a new land. America is therefore named after Amerigo Vespucci as the person who discovered it. Before Columbus arrived in America, America was sparsely populated due to the nomadic nature of the natives (Mann 465).

They lived in highly stratified, complicated and perfectly organized societies. In his new book titled "1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus," Charles C. Mann compiled evidence of the sophistication of pre-Columbian America (Crabtree 1). According to him, the urban revolution took place way before the Europeans settled in America. As a result, there was the growth of very refined cities that have existed, grown and spread all through the American continent. As a result, the people practiced agriculture and domesticated crops and animals; this was done 5,000 years prior to arrival of Columbus.

Funny enough, with the domestication of plants and animals, the health of the people was on a decline instead of improving. This was attributed to growth of the population as well as government policies that favored urbanization (Crabtree 1). However, there were still big portions of land that were highly underutilized before agriculture was introduced. When it was introduced, the populations exploded as many people sort to make use of the widely unused land. Diseases outbreaks were widespread in America that made the people to consider resettling into large, less complex and disorganized communities.

This did not still solve the issue. The re-emergence of industrialization and urbanization led to trade and migration. Incidences of pollution increased from industrial emissions and the population was faced by a challenge of housing due to explosive population numbers. As a result, infections were on the rise as most of the people congregated and squatted in cities, hence the disease outbreak experienced in the 1400s was the highest that has ever been recorded. The death rates increased and hence, the lives of the people became unbearable.

All this was a product of pre-Columbian efforts to industrialize and urbanize America. The people suffered from degenerative joint disease, trauma,