Two ideas, the Beaver Wars and the Mourning Wars, have defined the way we think of the Franco-Iroquoian conflicts of the sixteenth-century. Which is better?
Bartolomé de las Casas is one of the most fascinating people in history. He started his life in the Americas as a slaveholder, before having a religious experience and becoming one of the biggest proponents of Native American rights in the wake of European colonization.
The real history of Thanksgiving is story of an unsteady peace between the Wampanoag and the Plymouth colony. And the Pilgrims weren’t as thankful as we like to think.
Hans Staden’s True History is a tale of how a German ended up in Portuguese Brazil on a Spanish ship and as a captive of the Tupí-Namba peoples. It’s quite the ride.
Since the beginning, the United States has been an empire. After the founding fathers called for an ‘Empire of Liberty,’ their children did their damndest to bring it to fruition.