• Native Americans were portrayed as ‘exotic savages’ by Europeans

  • Their savagery was evidenced in their practice of eating the flesh of their enemies

The Discovery of the Americas

• The discovery did not begin with Christopher Columbus in 1492

• The discovery began thousands of years before 1492 when human beings first crossed into the American continent and began to establish their habitat

• These humans, now called Native Americans, experienced many changes and many catastrophes but their biggest catastrophes were when the Europeans brought with them diseases and the violent years when the Spanish and Portuguese explore the Americas

The Peoples of the Pre-Contact America

• For many decades scholars believe that all early migrations into the Americas came from humans crossing an ancient land bridge over the Bering Strait into it is now Alaska approximately 11,000 years ago.

• The ‘Clovis’ people established one of the first civilizations in the Americas and they lived about 13,000 years ago.

• The Clovis were among the first people to make tools and eat other animals.

• The Clovis were believed to travel from Siberia across the Bering land bridge into Alaska and then move southward to warmer regions including New Mexico.

• Recent archaeological evidence shows that not all early migrants came to the Americas across the Bering Strait.

• Some migrants from Asia appeared to have settled as far south as Chile and Peru before moving into North America by land this suggests that these first South Americans have come by sea using boats

• The early population of the Americas was much more diverse and scattered than scholars used to believe

• During the archaic period, humans continued to support themselves through hunting and gathering using stone tools

• Later in the archaic period population groups also began to develop new tools (nets and hooks for fishing, traps for smaller animals, and baskets for gathering berries, nuts, seeds, and other plants)

• Some groups began to farm: the most important farm crop was corn but others grew crops such as beans and squash

The Growth of Civilizations: The South

• Most elaborate early civilizations emerged in Central and South America

• The Incas created the largest empire in the Americas

• Meso-Americans, the people of what is now Mexico in March of Central America

• The Mayan civilization was a more sophisticated culture emerging around 800 CE in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico and in parts of Central America

• 1300 CE Mexico established a city named Tenochtitlán now present-day Mexico City

• The residents of Tenochtitlán created public buildings, schools, an organized military, a medical system, and a slave workforce

The Civilizations of the North

• Civilizations relied on a variety of hunting, gathering, and fishing

• Eskimos fished and hunted seals traveling by dogsled

• Nomads hunted moose and caribou

• Tribes of the Pacific Northwest fished for salmon

• In the southwest and great plains region, most tribes engaged in sedentary farming of corn and or other grains and lived in permanent settlements

• In the northeast, most tribes combine farming with hunting as much of the land in the region was less fertile

Tribal Cultures

• In all regions of the United States, tribes were becoming more sedentary and developing new sources of food, clothing, and shelter

• Most regions were experiencing significant population growth

• Tasks were divided according to gender: women have the job of caring for children, preparing meals, tending the field, and gathering certain food. men hunted and fought battles

The Clovis people: established one of the first civilizations in the Americas

The Archaic: a term for the history of humans in America during a period of about 5000 years beginning around 8000 BCE

Pachacuti: powerful leader of the Incas, means ‘world shaker’

1.1: Europe Looks Westward

• Europeans were unaware of the existence of the Americas before the 15th century.

Commerce and Nationalism

• Commerce and Nationalism gave the first incentive for Europeans to look toward new lands

• An epidemic of the Bubonic Plague killed a third of the European population which debilitated its already limited economy causing Europeans to look for land and people elsewhere.

• As shipbuilding made long-distance travels more feasible, interest in developing new markets, finding new products, and opening new trade routes rapidly increased

• Europeans have dreamed of trade with the East since the 14 century

• Prince Henry the Navigator was sent to find a sea route to Asia but instead wanted to explore the western coast of Africa

Christopher Columbus

• Born in Genoa, Italy

• He believed the world was far smaller than it actually is and believed that the Asian continent extended farther eastward than it actually does

• His first voyage was set for Japan, but he ended up in one of the islands of the Bahamas

• Columbus had been celebrated for centuries as the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea”

• “God made me the messenger of the new heaven and new Earth and showed me a spot where to find it” Columbus

The Conquistadors

• Means conquerors

• Spanish explorers in the New World began to consider it a possible source of wealth rivaling

• By the mid 16th century, the Spanish were well on their way to creating a substantial American empire

Spanish America

• The Spanish released diseases that killed many natives

• Lured by dreams of treasure, Spanish explorers, conquistadores, and colonists established a vast empire for Spain in the New World.

• The first Spaniards to arrive in the New World had been interested in only getting rich.

• In the sixteenth century, the mines in Spanish America yielded more than ten times as much gold and silver as the rest of the world’s mines put together

• Catholic Church was an important force for colonization

Northern Outposts

• St. Augustine: a Spanish fort established in 1565. Became the first European settlement in the current United States

• Colonies were destroyed when Pueblos revolved in 1680

• After the revolt, the encomienda system was replaced with a less demanding and oppressive one. Intermarriage between Europeans the Indians became more common

The Empire at High Tide

• By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spanish Empire had become one of the largest in the history of the world.

• The Spanish were far more successful than the British would be in extracting gold and silver from their American colonies.

• The Europeans quickly reproduced and began to outnumber natives while the Spanish ruled their empire but didn't people it

Biological and Cultural Exchanges

• European and native cultures never entirely merged in the Spanish colonies.

• Millions of natives died after the importation of European diseases (Influenza, measles, chickenpox, mumps, etc.) that Europeans had grown an immunity to

• Europeans considered natives “Savages”, uncivilized people considered somehow not fully human.

• Europeans introduced important new crops to America (including sugar and bananas), domestic livestock (cattle, pigs, and sheep), and perhaps most importantly the horse

• European livestock spread rapidly to natives

• Corn became an important staple among settlers

• American foods such as squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, etc also found their way back to Europe

• Mestizos: people of mixed race

• The natives could not meet all the labor needs of the colonists

• In 1502, European settlers began importing slaves from Africa.

Africa and America

• Most of the African men and women who were forcibly taken to America

• White Americans portrayed Africans as uncivilized and primitive to justify their enslavement

• In the sixteenth century, the market for slaves grew as a result of the rising demand for sugarcane.

• Sugar was a labor-intensive crop, and demand for workers increased rapidly. European slave traders increased the recruitment of workers from along the coast of West Africa

1.2: The Arrival of the English

• England’s first documented contact with the New World came only five years after Spain’s

The Commercial Incentive

• A part of the attraction to the New World was the newness

• America seemed like the place where a perfect society could be created without flaws

The Religious Incentive

• The spirit of religious reformation spread rapidly throughout Europe

• The English Reformation was very different from the Protestant Reformation because it occurred because of a political dispute between the king and the pope than as a result of doctrinal revolts

• The most ardent Protestants became known as “Puritans,” because they hoped to “purify” the church.

• Some Puritans took genuinely radical positions. They were known as Separatists

• Along with the other economic and social incentives for colonization, such religious discontent helped turn England’s gaze to distant lands.

The English in Ireland

• England’s first experience with colonization was in Ireland

• The Irish lived in ways the English thought beastly.

• Because of the Irish experience, the English said that all English settlements in distant lands must retain a rigid separation from the native populations.

The French and the Dutch in America

• English settlers in America would run into natives as well as other Europeans

• France’s first colony was in Quebec founded in 1608

• French colony’s population grew extremely slow but they had a large influence because of their close, positive relationship with natives

• Coureurs de bois: adventurous fur traders and trappers

• The Netherlands gained its independence from Spain in the early 17th century

• The Netherlands became one of the leading trading nations in the world

The First English Settlements

• The first English settlement was in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607

• The English was developing a powerful sense of nationalism that encouraged dreams of expansion

• England was leery of Spain, the dominant force of America

Roanoke

• Now North Carolina

• Raleigh asked the queen for permission to name the entire region “Virginia” in honor of Elizabeth, “the Virgin Queen.” (did not work out because the Queen wouldn’t finance)

• Daughter of the commander of the Roanoke expedition, John White, gave birth to a daughter, Virginia Dare, the first American-born child of English parents.