pt. 1. Three peoples collide -- Native Americans -- Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas -- Europeans and Africans -- European overseas expansion -- Christopher Columbus, path to conquest -- Stepping stones, the conquest of the Caribbean -- Rise of Hernán Cortés -- Fall of Montezuma -- Conquistadors and Incas -- Frontiers of empire -- Portuguese Brazil, the King's plantation. pt. 2. Atlantic slave trade -- Haciendas and plantations -- American silver and Spanish galleons -- Sword and the cross -- New peoples, new religions -- Late arrivals, the English in North America -- Conquest by dispossession -- Late arrivals, the French in the Americas -- Pirates of the Caribbean -- Clash of cultures, victors and vanquished -- Rise of 'American' identities -- Americas, collisions and convergence.