Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 1, The New World.

Remember that this is a listener-supported podcast and can only exist through the support of its members.

So I would like to begin by saying thank you to listeners Tom and Richard, who are our first

members.

It is because of people like Tom and Richard who keep this show going.

If you would like to become a member, please go to the history of podcast.com and click the

PayPal subscription button. You can select a membership option, either monthly or yearly.

You will then receive an email from me with a link to the membership feed,

and you'll have access to the membership episodes, the first one of which will go out next week,

and will be an introduction to the Aztecs. Won't that be fun?

So the website again is the history of podcast.com. Go there and click the subscribe button. Thank you.

But now, onto the good stuff. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Despite thinking that he had actually made his way to India, Columbus accidentally discovered America,

except by discovered, of course, I mean he found something

that millions of people knew about already. There were, of course, the indigenous people who had

been living in America for thousands of years, in addition to the Norse Vikings having landed

in a Newfoundland five centuries beforehand. Columbus would be a really odd place to start telling the story of

America. Though the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica is highly interesting, which is why it will be where

our member series starts, should you wish to subscribe to that feed. But, as I say, that isn't where

the main story starts. The story of America starts with the settlement of Jamestown in what would become the state of Virginia.

But before we get into that, I want to give a bit of background, which is why we will start today,

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