ABSTRACT
Geographically the topic of American beginnings leads to a focus upon south' western Iberia. Seville and Lisbon were the first great seats of American enterprise, the pivotal points linking American operations to all the wider European world. Although both centers prospered as a result of America, both were as much
involved in the cause as in the effect. Each had grown from rich surroundings, the plains of Andalusia and Estremadura, which had been brought to a state of intensive cultivation and high productivity under the Muslims, before being conquered by Christian kingdoms from the north.
