1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Charles C. Mann is a journalist and science writer. Mann graduated from Amherst College in 1976. He has won multiple awards for his writing, including awards from the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Physics, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation.

Mann’s book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus explores the Americas prior to the Columbian Exchange. His book details the ways in which Indigenous peoples in the Americas were larger in number and more developed than previously thought. The book reveals the many ways in which Indigenous peoples shaped and altered the American landscape. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created picks up where 1491 left off, presenting how the Columbian Exchange influenced global changes to ecology, economy, and humanitarian issues.

Christopher Columbus is best known as the voyager who discovered the New World. In 1493, Columbus landed on the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola. His venture to Hispaniola opened the Columbian Exchange and established European colonies in the Americas. Believing he was on a mission from God to bring Christianity to China, Columbus sought a new route to China to open trade with this prolific empire and spread his religious message.