obstacle to Europe's trade routes. Eventually,
the potential profitability
of the New World attracted 16th century exploration and settlers.
(The best-known settlement, Jamestown, was actually
the second,
the program tells us.
The first settlement, Roanoke, disappeared, its vulnerable inhabitants vanished.) There were people in
North America for 10,000 years before Spain, France, and England began carving out territory. Europe's systematic dismantling and destruction
of the American continent's diverse environment, animal life, and Native nations happened in a number
of ways, Land
of the Eagle tells us. White traders paid
Indians for hundreds
of thousands
of beaver pelts, otter skins, and deer hide. Those creatures dwindled in numbers, leav...
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