355 Harris Ave.
People throughout the Americas have lived in varied environments that shaped their cultures over the millennia. With the arrival of European settlements in the Americas beginning in 1492 profound changes took place across the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
Plants, animals, and other resources were taken east across the Atlantic. Can you imagine Ireland without potatoes? Italy without tomatoes? Asian foods without chilies? These foods are indigenous to the Americas. The movement of food plants, new medicines, and resources from the Americas enriched the lives of rulers, merchants, and even lower classes across Europe. By the late 1500s common people in larger European cities had silver coins in their pockets – silver from Bolivian mines.
Moving westward across the Atlantic were enslaved Africans first to the Caribbean, then to other colonies to face a wretched existence. A terrible threat to indigenous Americans was carried into every region: diseases that killed on average 80% of the local people for they had no natural resistance.
Join us as we learn about Pre-Columbian America, Europe and Africa in the 1500s, and the collision and exchange that came with sustained contact.
Registration ends March 30
