The Old and New World in 1491, and the biological conquest after their collision.

History books traditionally depict the pre-Columbus Americas as a pristine wilderness where small native villages lived in harmony with nature. But scientific evidence tells a very different story: When Columbus stepped ashore in 1492, millions of people were already living there. America wasn't exactly a New World, but a very old one whose inhabitants had built a vast infrastructure of cities, orchards, canals and causeways.

From our school days, we remember how in 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. However, what few of us realise is that there was a world that existed there for thousands of years prior to Columbus's voyage. This one-off documentary film investigates the cultures and environment of America, before Columbus arrived.—Tom Daly