This opening chapter traces the long, violent, and improbable beginning of what would become the United States—from Columbus’s arrival in 1492 to the eve of revolution in 1776. It is a story of collision and transformation: Old World ambition meets New World vastness, empires rise and fracture, and settlers carve out fragile footholds along an unforgiving frontier. Beneath the familiar dates lies something deeper—an experiment in survival, belief, and power, where cultures clash, identities are forged, and the foundations of a new nation are laid, often at great cost.
