Before Columbus, where the hell were we?

In this episode, John examines the regions of the world that will intertwine with one another to create what will be the United States, well before those regions were even aware of one another. What was North America like before Europeans arrived? How did North and West African civilization function before Europeans began to trade with those areas regularly? And what was going on in Western Europe before Europeans began to look outward and imagine themselves as part of a much larger world?This series is all about context and this show will explore the backgrounds of the most important places to have an influence on what will eventually be the United States. John will explain what they all looked like before they regularly interacted with one another and how their existing conditions would affect the ways in which they would behave when they finally did meet and start to coexist.