Old and New Worlds.

For the first time in recorded history, the voyages of Christopher Columbus established regular, sustained long-term contact between the civilizations and cultures of the American New World on the one hand and those of the Old World of Europe, Africa, and Asia on the other. For the people of the Americas, the arrival of the Europeans obviously had far-reaching consequences that radically transformed their lives. From the point of view of native Americans, the legacy of this contact was largely negative. European conquest and imperialism, the enslavement of native populations in many areas, and outbreaks of Old World diseases such as smallpox against which the Americans had no immunity resulted in widespread death and suffering. Yet the Atlantic Ocean in the age of exploration and expansion was not simply a one-way street. Contact...