Pre-Columbian Societies Ch. 1 of the American Pageant, New World Beginnings, Pp. 1-14

Pre-Columbian Societies – Ch. 1 of The American Pageant, “New World Beginnings,” pp. 1-14

Overall main idea: As a result of European technology and demand for trade, in 1492 Columbus established contact with the Americas, which had developed widely spread and diverse societies after Asian migration during the Ice Age.

Part One: Founding the New Nation

Main idea: British colonists in America were divided in many ways, but were united in their long fight to win independence from Great Britain and create the new United States of America after years of self-rule and subjugation of Native Americans and African slaves.

The Shaping of North America

Main idea: North America broke off from a supercontinent and was geologically changed by the Great Ice Age.

Some dates for perspective:

Several billion years B.C.E. - Earth formed

225 million B.C.E. - Pangea supercontinent broke apart

10 million B.C.E. - North America had basic geological shape

2 million B.C.E.-8,000 B.C.E. - Great Ice Age

5,000 B.C.E. - corn agriculture developed

1492 C.E. - Columbian Exchange

Appalachian Mountains are much older than Rockies and other American mountains

Glaciers of the Ice Age moved down from Canada as far as Ohio and Pennsylvania, then retreated as the Ice Age ended, scraping away topsoil and forming many lakes

LakeBonneville was an ancient lake formed by the glaciers that eventually drained and shrank to become the Great Salt Lake

Peopling the Americas

Main idea: The Ice Age opened a land bridge that allowed Asians to migrate to the Americas between 35,000 and 10,000 years ago, spreading across the continent to form diverse cultures.

Some Asians may have come to America in crude boats, but most probably came by land across the Bering Land Bridge, probably following herds of game

BeringLand Bridge - between Asia and Alaska; formed when some of the Earth’s ocean waters froze and lowered sea levels; recovered by water when the Ice Age ended, stranding the Asian immigrants

Asian immigrants formed thousands of different cultures, adapting to environment and becoming “Native Americans”

Meso-American (Middle American) cultures built large, complex civilizations around agriculture, especially corn, without draft animals or the wheel - Aztecs, Mayans

The Earliest Americans

Main idea: Though some large civilizations existed, most Native Americans lived in small, widely dispersed societies with little effect on the environment.

Some Native American civilizations rivaled those of Europe - Cahokia (near present day St. Louis, MO), the Anasazi (New Mexico), Iroquois Confederacy (NE United States), the Aztecs (Mexico) and Incas (Peru, South America); again, built around corn farming

As corn farming spread, so did stable societies; also beans and squash

Women tended crops while men did more manual tasks; many Native societies were matrilineal

Besides deliberate forest fires to improve hunting habitat, Natives did not affect the environment much

Natives were widely and thinly spread across the Americas; probably around 4 million at time of European contact

Indirect Discoverers of the New World

Main idea: Europeans sought to find a cheaper trade route to Southeast Asia for new developing consumer goods.

Norsemen (“Vikings”) from Scandinavia founded the first known European settlement in America in Newfoundland, Canada, around 1,000 C.E.; it did not last and was abandoned

Christian crusaders attempted to take the Holy Land away from Muslims; in their defeat, they increased trade with Asia, seeking new goods

Asian goods: silk, drugs, perfumes, fabric, spices, sugar

Europeans Enter Africa

Main idea: New technologies and discoveries allowed the Portuguese to sail to southern Africa and beyond to Asia, increasing trade, desires, and plantation slavery.

Marco Polo - Italian whose tales of China and Asia increased European desires for trade and exploration; may not have actually made it there in 1295

Caravel - newly developed ship with shallow depth and triangular lateen sails; easier navigation against winds and along shallow shores; developed by Portuguese

Portuguese sailed south of Sahara in Africa, establishing trading posts and bringing back gold and slaves; slaves were used on plantation farms on African islands

Timbuktu - Large African city in Mali Empire; trading post and center of Islamic learning

Africans and Arabs had been involved in slave trading for centuries before Portuguese arrived

Spain was united in the late 1400s; Reconquista - Spanish Catholics drove all Muslims from Spain by 1492; Spain grew more powerful and expansionist

Columbus Comes upon a New World

Main idea: Christopher Columbus’s contact with the Americas was a result of multiple causes and would bring together four different continents.

Factors leading to the shift of history caused by Columbus’s contact:

1. European demand for goods outside of Europe

2. African precedent of slave labor and plantation agriculture

3. Arabic and Portugese sailing experience, technology and precedent

4. Spanish unification into nation of wealth and power

5. Printing press spread knowledge and news faster

Christopher Columbus - English version of Cristoffa Corombo, Italian explorer who sailed for Spain to find a new oceanic route to Asian trade; he underestimated the size of the ocean but instead accidentally landed in the Americas

“Indians” - Columbus thought he was just off the coast of Asia and India and so misnamed the Native Americans as Indians

Columbus’s voyages were important because they began European interest, exploration, and colonization of Americas and globalization of multiple continents and cultures

Spanish Conquest and Colonization – Ch. 1 of The American Pageant, “New World Beginnings,” pp. 14-24

Overall main idea: As a result of disease, technology and a desire for wealth, the Spanish conquered much of the Americas in the 16th through 18th centuries, subjugating Natives and creating colonies of New Spain.

When Worlds Collide

Main idea: European contact with the Americas set off the transfer of goods and organisms in the Columbian Exchange, resulting in the pandemic death of Natives and increased population in Europe.

Columbian Exchange - the transfer of goods and organisms as a result of Columbus’s contact with the Americas

From Old World (Europe) to New World (America) - Some foods (wheat, sugar, rice, coffee), livestock (horses, cows, pigs), weeds, “diseases of civilization”

From New World (America) to Old World (Europe) - Gold, silver, many important foods (corn, potatoes, fruits, tomatoes, tobacco, beans, chocolate), syphilis

Foods from America fed a population growth in Europe and Africa; 3/5 of all foods grown today are originally from America

Horses brought by the Spanish reached Plains Indians in America, revolutionizing their lifestyles

Sugarcane brought to America fueled a “sugar revolution” in Europe and fueled slave labor from Africa

Estimates vary, but the Americas had approximately 4 million Natives in North America and another 50 million in Meso and South America - European diseases wiped out some 90% of Natives, who did not have antibodies against them

The Spanish Conquistadores

Main idea: Spanish conquistadores explored and conquered much of the regions around MesoAmerica, bringing back gold and silver that greatly increased the wealth of Europe.

Treaty of Tordesillas - treaty made between the Pope, Spain and Portugal that divided the “heathen lands” of America and Africa

Conquistador = “conqueror,” military leaders of Spanish exploration; motivated by gold, glory, and God - usually in that order

Famous conquistadores:

Balboa - reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513

Magellan - circumnavigated the globe, 1519-1522

Cortes - conquered Aztec Empire, 1519-1521

Ponce de Leon - explored Florida, 1513, 1521

Coronado - explored future western U.S., reached Grand Canyon and “discovered” bison, 1540-1542

De Soto - explored future southeast U.S., reached Mississippi River, 1539-1542

Pizarro - conquered Incas in Peru, 1532

Why didn’t the Spanish create long-lasting settlements in the future U.S.? Because they didn’t find much gold or silver there. Ponce de Leon, Coronado, De Soto were basically failures.

Flood of gold and silver from Americas increased European wealth, drove up prices, and laid the foundation for modern banking, commerce, and perhaps even capitalism

Encomienda system - brutal system used by Spanish in America that granted land and Natives to individual Spanish owners; Spanish were to extract wealth and Christianize Natives; Natives had to pay a “tribute”; if they couldn’t pay, they were usually enslaved

Bartolome de Las Casas - Spanish missionary who was appalled by Spanish treatment of Native Americans and spoke out against it

The Conquest of Mexico

Main idea: Using better technology, disease and dissent within the Empire, Spanish soldiers and Native allies under Cortes conquered the largest civilization in America, the Aztec Empire.

Cortes only had several hundred men but recruited some twenty thousand Native allies who were unhappy with the Aztecs; he lusted for their wealth and gold; some 20 million Natives in the Empire

The Spanish defeated the Natives by riding horses, using guns and attack dogs; the Aztec ruler Moctezuma/Montezuma thought that Cortes might be a returning god (Quetzalcoatl) from legends; disease rampaged the empire

Tenochtitlan - huge, amazing capital city of the Aztecs; today’s Mexico City

After the conquest, Spanish and Native populations and cultures molded together to form Mestizo culture; Mexico today is still a unique blend of the two

Makers of America: The Spanish Conquistadores

Main idea: Though not always achieving the gold and glory they desired, Spanish Conquistadores applied military skills from the Reconquista to conquer the Americas and create a new mestizo culture.

Reconquista - the Spanish Christian campaign that drove Muslims out of Spain by 1492; many former Reconquista soldiers went to fight in America

They conquered a lot of territory very fast

Besides the leaders, few were actually nobles; most were young and of middle to lower class; few available Spanish women led the conquistadores to marry Natives and merge cultures

The Spread of Spanish America

Main idea: Though other European powers would also explore and colonize, the Spanish established and expanded the strongest hold in the Americas from 1500-1800.

Spanish established cathedrals, printing presses, and universities - first in the New World at Mexico City and Lima, Peru

Other early European explorations in the 1500s:

Caboto (Cabot) - English, NE North America, 1497-1498

Verrazano - French, NE North America, 1524

Cartier - French, 1534, NE North America, future Canada

St. Augustine, FL - Spanish settlement, oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the U.S.

Spanish exploration and colonization into future SW U.S. and California found little gold but established Christian missions and enslaved Natives

Pope’s Rebellion / Pueblo Revolt - Pueblo indians under Pope’ revolted against Spanish control in “New Mexico” - destroyed churches and pushed Spanish out for close to 50 years; when Spanish returned, they abolished the encomienda system

The “Black Legend” - concept used by other Europeans to insult the Spanish as bloodthirsty evil conquerors who did nothing but torture and kill for gold, glory and God

Spanish laid the foundations of many Latin American countries today; they merged with Native cultures to create new, rather than push them out like the English