00:00Thousands of years before modern nations, this land was already alive with powerful civilizations, mysterious cities, and millions of people.
00:10Gigantic earth pyramids stood along great rivers.
00:13Massive stone temples rose from dense jungles.
00:18And entire nations ruled lands that stretched for thousands of miles.
00:23But then, explorers from across the ocean arrived, and everything changed forever.
00:29This is the forgotten history of America before America existed.
00:34Before the world knew it, as the United States, the land we now call America, had a very long and
00:44fascinating history.
00:45Long before European explorers arrived, this vast continent was already home to millions of people, thriving civilizations, and powerful cultures.
00:55To understand the history of America before America existed, we have to travel back thousands of years.
01:02First, scientists believe that the earliest humans arrived in North America around 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, during
01:10the last ice age, a huge land bridge called Bering Land Bridge connected Asia and North America.
01:17This bridge existed between modern-day Siberia and Alaska.
01:21Small groups of hunter-gatherers followed animals like mammoths and bison across this frozen path.
01:27Over many generations, these people slowly spread across the entire continent.
01:33Thousands of years passed, and these early people developed into hundreds of unique cultures and tribes.
01:39These are today known as Native Americans, or indigenous peoples of America.
01:44They were not a single group, but many different nations with their own languages, traditions, and ways of life.
01:51Some tribes lived as hunters on the vast plains.
01:54Others built farming societies near rivers and forests.
01:58In the southwest, people like the ancestral Pueblons built incredible stone cities carved into cliffs.
02:04Their homes, called cliff dwellings, still stand today as proof of their advanced skills in architecture and community planning.
02:11In the eastern regions of North America, powerful societies built enormous earth mounds for ceremonies and burials.
02:18One of the largest cities was Cahokia, located near the Mississippi River.
02:23Around the year 1100, Cahokia was larger than most European cities at that time and had thousands of residents.
02:29Massive pyramid-shaped mounds dominated the landscape, showing how organized and advanced this civilization was.
02:37Farther south, in present-day Mexico and Central America, even greater civilizations flourished.
02:44The Maya civilization built great cities, studied astronomy, and developed one of the most advanced writing systems in the ancient
02:51world.
02:52Their pyramids, temples, and observatories still stand today in the jungles.
02:57Later, another powerful empire rose in central Mexico.
03:01The Aztec Empire, their capital city, Tenochtitlan, was built on an island in a large lake and connected by causeways
03:09and canals.
03:09When European explorers first saw it, they were astonished by its beauty and size.
03:15Some even said it was more impressive than cities in Europe.
03:18While these civilizations thrived, the northern regions of the continent were filled with diverse tribes, such as the Iroquois Confederacy,
03:27a powerful alliance of nations in the northeast.
03:30Their political system was highly organized, and some historians believe it later influenced early democratic ideas in North America.
03:37For thousands of years, the continent lived in this rich diversity.
03:41Trade routes connected distant tribes.
03:44Goods, such as turquoise, shells, copper, and obsidian traveled thousands of miles between communities.
03:51Entire networks of commerce existed long before Europeans arrived.
03:55Then, in 1492, everything changed.
03:58An explorer named Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and reached the islands of the Caribbean.
04:06Although he never actually landed in what is now the United States, his voyage opened the door for European exploration
04:13and colonization of the Americas.
04:16Soon after, more explorers arrived.
04:18Among them was Amerigo Vespucci, whose writings helped Europeans realize that this land was not Asia, but an entirely new
04:27continent.
04:27Because of him, the continent eventually received the name America.
04:32From that point onward, European powers like Spain, France, and England began establishing colonies across the land.
04:39Over time, these colonies would grow, fight wars, and eventually, form a new nation.
04:45But long before the United States existed, long before the name America appeared on maps, this land already had thousands
04:52of years of human history.
04:54It was a world of ancient cities, powerful tribes, complex cultures, and deep traditions of forgotten chapter that shaped the
05:01continent long before modern nations were born.
05:09What more?
05:09What do you think you'd like to be and returned to a nation?
05:17You
Comments
1