1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

by Charles C. Mann

Did the proximity of Indian societies with slaves to sell help grease the skids for what would become African slavery in the South?

Inherited malaria resistance occurs in many parts of the world, but the peoples of West and Central Africa have more than anyone else—they are almost completely immune to vivax, and (speaking crudely) about half-resistant to falciparum.

Biology enters history when one realizes that almost all of the slaves ferried to the Americas came from West and Central Africa.

Biologically speaking, they were fitter, which is another way of saying that in these places they were—loaded words!—genetically superior.

preoccupation with display said to be characteristic of antebellum southern culture are rooted in the constant menace of disease. Others

The Spanish silver peso became a universal currency, linking European nations much as the euro does today. (It was called, famously, a “piece of eight,” because it was worth eight reales—reales were then the basic Spanish coin.)

From the summit, everything for miles around was visible, cars and tractors picked out by the sun with dizzying