Teacher Notes Period 1: 1491-1607
Teacher Notes Period 1: 1491-1607
This historical period begins before Columbus’ fateful, and failed, journey to the Indies and ends with the founding of Jamestown, the first successful English colony in the Americas. This section focuses on interactions between natives, natives and Europeans, Europeans and Africans, and Africans and natives. A large focal point of this period is the treatment of natives by the Spanish and English as well as the beginnings of indentured servitude to fill an economic need among the colonies.
Key Concept 1.1 – As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America over time, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments.
The ancestors of Native Americans crossed the land bridge between present day Siberia and Alaska sometime between 13000 and 3000 B.C. When the glaciers melted, these first Americans were cut off from the continent of Asia. Most natives practiced animism, the belief that the natural world was suffused with power. Natives also established complex societies, whether matriarchal, patriarchal, or class based. The introduction of European diseases to the healthy and fit native populations decimated America’s first peoples, decreasing their numbers significantly as European influence spread across the continent.
- Mesoamerica: (Incas, Mayans, Aztecs)
- Capital cities (Tenochtitlan, Cuzco)
- Large tribute empires; vast trade networks; human sacrifice
- Gold, silver, & precious gems
- Irrigation systems
- Invaded by Spanish Conquistadors
- Mississippi Valley: (Hopewell, Cahokia)
- Mound building & pottery
- Sun Worship
- Staple crop: maize (corn)
- Eastern Woodlands: (Delaware, Munsee, Algonquian, Iroguoian)
- Powhatan – father of Pocahontas
- Hiawatha
- Chesapeake
- Matriarchal societies
- Hunters & gatherers; fisherman
- Staple crops: maize (corn), beans, squash
- Great Lakes: (Ottowas)
- Hunters & fisherman
- Algonquian speaking
- Clan identities: ex. Beaver, Otter, Sturgeon, Deer, etc.
- Great Plains: (Comanche, Sioux, Shoshonean, Crow)
- Hunters & gatherers
- Nomads (mobile tribes)
- Horse breeders
- Bison (buffalo) hunters
- Southwest: (Anasazi, Hopi, “Pueblos”)
- Adobe
- Irrigation
- Staple crop: maize (corn)
- Pacific Coast: (Haidas, Chinhooks)
- Hunters & gatherers; fisherman
- Longhouses & totem poles
- Warrior traditions
Key Concept 1.2 – Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian exchange and significant social, cultural, and political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
- Reasons for European Exploration of the Americas:
- Religious persecution
- Protestant Reformation (anti-Catholic)
- Predestination – certain people chosen salvation, others for damnation, before birth
- Belief: Christians should look to scripture and not priests
- Counter Reformation (Catholic response to Protestant Reformation)
- Martin Luther & John Calvin (Protestants)
- Jesuits (Catholic)
- Crusades – Christianity v. Islam (to win back holy lands and gain control over trade routes – Silk Road)
- Reconquista – campaign by Spanish Catholics to drive Muslim Arabs from the European mainland
- The Columbian Exchange:
- Plants: Euro – wheat, barley, rye, rice; Native – maize, potatoes, manioc, sweet potatoes, tomatoes
- Animals: Euro – cattle, swine (pigs), horses, oxen, chickens, honeybees; Native – dogs, llamas
- Disease: Euro – smallpox, influenza, measles, yellow fever; Native – syphilis
- Spanish Conquistadors:
- Juan Ponce de Leon – Florida
- Vasco Nunez de Balboa – Panama
- Hernan Cortes – Yucatan Peninsula
- Francisco Pizarro – Peru
- Encomienda System (Spain):
- Conquistadors claimed tribute in labor and goods from Native communities
- Natives became slaves
- Greatly benefitted the Spanish crown
- Caste System (Spain):
- Mestizos – Spanish & Native American
- Mulattos – Spanish & African
- Zambo – Native American & African
- Indentured Servitude:
- Human bondage until passage to Americas recouped; often unfair and difficult to gain freedom
- Headright system – 50 acres to anyone who paid the passage of a new immigrant to the Americas
- Ends with Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676, Virginia
- Africa & Slavery:
- Trans-Saharan trade – gold, copper, salt, slaves
- Gold Coast
- Slave Coast – Portugal began the slave trade
- Staple crop: yams
- Disease: Tsetse Fly, Malaria
- Chattel Slavery – the ownership of human beings as property
- Slavery will replace indentured servitude
- New France
- Fur trade
- Missionary work
- Huguenots barred from migrating to New France
- Robert de La Salle – founded and named the Louisiana territory
- New Netherland
- New Amsterdam (Manhattan) – later New York
- Fur Trade
- Less successful than the French in establishing alliances with natives
- Indian Wars led West India Company to ignore trade with new Amsterdam; cripples the economy
- English invade and seize control of Island and rename it New York
- New England
- Pilgrims & William Bradford
- The Mayflower & Mayflower Compact
- Plymouth, Massachusetts
- Puritans & John Winthrop
- Massachusetts Bay Colony
- “City upon a Hill”
- Joint-stock Corporation
- Predestination
- Roger Williams & Rhode Island – opposed an official religion; preached religious tolerance; exiled to Rhode Island
- Anne Hutchinson & Rhode Island – “covenant of grace”; held weekly prayer meetings for women, exiled with Roger Williams
- Salem, Massachusetts
- Yeoman Society (1630-1700)
- Rejection of feudalism
- Town meetings; widespread ownership of land; larger plots awarded to higher social status; creates tension between rich and poor
- Indian Wars
- Metacom’s War/King Phillip’s War
- New England; Massachusetts & Rhode Island
- Wampanoag v. Puritans