This chapter examines the backgrounds of the peoples of three continents and glimpses the changes occurring with each of their many societies as the time for a historic convergence neared. This allows us to better understand the advent of colliding cultures among societies rimming the Atlantic Ocean. In narrating this historic meeting of societies previously distanced from each other, historians have too often portrayed Europeans reaching the Americas as the carriers of a superior culture that inevitably vanquished people living in a primitive if not "savage" state. Such a view renders Native Americans and Africans passive and static people-so much dough to be kneaded by advanced Europeans. Modern historical scholarship, however, tells us that Africans and Native Americans played critically important roles in a complex intercultural birthing of a "new world." Thus we examine the complexities of West African societies, delve into the societies of some of the peoples of North and South America, and study Western Europeans of the late fifteenth century. In drawing comparisons and contrasts, we equip ourselves to see three worlds meet as a new global age began.
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