• In 1492, Columbus's Europe was primarily agricultural and populated for the most part by Christians who spoke two or three dozen closely related languages, used a written alphabet, and received information through movable type.

• In 1492, the "New World" was populated by native peoples who were hunters and gatherers, followed many different religions, spoke hundreds of languages, and transmitted information through an oral culture.

• Explorers from Spain (Christopher Columbus), England (John Cabot), Italy (Amerigo Vespucci), and Portugal (Pedro Cabral) all crossed the Atlantic Ocean before 1500.

• Spanish explorers, under Ferdinand and Isabella and their grandson Charles V, had the strongest presence in the New World. Between 1515 and 1520, the Spanish Crown sent explorers toward the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, Florida, and the Isthmus of Panama; between 1520 and 1540 men journeyed as far inland as Kansas and the Tennessee River.

• Mutual discoveries took place when Europeans and natives encountered each other: colonists introduced textiles, tools, and the institutions of church and slavery; native peoples shared new kinds of food, plant life, and social customs.

• With their sophisticated weapons and skill in warfare, the Europeans forged much of this new world through struggle, not cooperation. Not only did they unintentionally bring various diseases to the continent, but also they massacred and enslaved Native Americans.

• Yet Indians did benefit somewhat from the European presence, forming alliances with countries to gain power over other native peoples and consolidating their strengths through a league of nations.

• In 1492 Columbus documented his voyage to the New World through letters to the Spanish Crown that catalogued and praised the natural beauty he encountered.

• Writing became a crucial element of exploration: vignettes of exotic Indians who lived among lush greenery and descriptions of abundant natural resources, especially mineral resources, created a desire among Europeans to visit--and claim--this new land for themselves.

• European monarchs often relied on letters from explorers to inform policy decisions for overseas. Unfortunately, because of the geographical and cultural distance between Europe and the Americas, many of their policies were difficult to implement in the New World and often proved disastrous.

• Early American writing also functioned as a literature of witness. Bartolome de las Casas, for instance, chronicled the devastation the Spanish wreaked upon the Native Americans.

• Native Americans also responded to horrific events, such as the conquest of Mexico, through written means. Using the Roman alphabet introduced to them by the Spanish, Aztec writers composed laments for the defeat of their capital.

• Although Europeans composed the majority of exploration literature, Native Americans produced a considerable amount through their oral traditions.

• In 1492, the "New World" was populated by Native peoples who were hunters and gatherers, followed many different religions, spoke hundreds of languages, and transmitted information through an oral culture.

• Whereas Europeans cultivated a modest number of literary forms, including the tragedy, comedy, epic, and lyric, Native Americans had many more various forms, such as seasonal ceremonies, trickster tale cycles, jokes, naming chants, blessing chants, and dream songs.

• In western eyes, it would be hundreds of years before these Native American oral traditions would be given respect equal to that accorded written literature, at least not until the Romantic reconception of literature as able to encompass many different kinds of expression and especially not until the mid to late nineteenth century, when European and Euro-American anthropologists began to translate and transcribe the Native oral performances.