At 250 Years: Encounter and Conquest

Episode 1, “Encounter and Conquest,” begins the American story before Columbus, with the Indigenous peoples, cultures, cities, and trade networks that already filled the continent. From there, the episode traces the arrival of European powers, the ambitions that drove exploration, the devastation of disease and slavery, the rise of Spanish and French colonization, and the surprising connection between the Protestant Reformation and English expansion. It is a story of encounter, ambition, mission, exploitation, and empire—and a reminder that Christians must tell history with both gratitude and honesty.