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In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, early North America was a diverse place. It was a place that contained hundreds of distinct Indigenous nations and peoples who spoke at least 2,000 distinct languages prior to European contact.
Then, in the early sixteenth century, Spain began to establish colonies on mainland North America, and they were followed by the French, Dutch, and English, and the forced migration of enslaved Africans who represented at least 45 different ethnic and cultural groups.
