Unit 1 - Period 1: 1491 - 1607 (1-3)

1.1 Context

Objective: Explain the context for European encounters in the Americas from 1491 to 1607.

• Columbus’s first voyage was a turning point in world history because it initiated lasting contact between people on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This, and European exploration and settlement in the Americas, impacted how people on every continent lived.

• Jamestown settlement marked the beginning of the framework of a new nation.

Cultural Diversity in the Americas.

• Existing cultures varied greatly because of differences in geography and climate. Cultures developed different trains in response to environment. Ex: sugar grown on tropical islands, forests had lots of animals, and fertile soil allowed for growing corn (maize).

• Native Americans also transformed environments to support life (example: people in dry regions created irrigation systems).

Motives for Exploration.

• European explorers (and later, other like the Spanish, Portuguese, and French) competed for land in the Americas.

• “God, Gold, and Glory”

  • Some explorers were motivated by desire to spread Christianity

  • Some by desire to become wealthy. Examples: Finding new trade routes to Asia, establishing trade posts, operating gold or silver mines, or developing plantations.

• Because the land was already inhabited, Europeans often used violence to subdue or drive away natives.

Transatlantic Exchange.

• Exploration into the Americas kicked off a transatlantic trade of animals, plans, and germs known as the Columbian Exchange that changed life for people across the world.

• Crops from the Americas changed the diet of Europeans.

  • Corn (maize), potatoes, and tomatoes.

• The population of native people in a region declined by 90% within a century after the arrival of Europeans.

Addition of Enslaved Africans.

• Enslaved Africans were kidnapped and brought to the Americas by Europeans to work in mines and on plantations.

European Colonies

• Spanish and Portuguese explorers and settlers developed colonies that depended on natives and enslaved Africans for labor in agriculture and mining precious metals.

Key Questions

1. Describe a historical context for understanding the diverse Native American cultures that had developed in the Americas by the 1490s.

2. Explain a historical context for the European exploration in the Americas from the 1490s to early 1600s.

3. Explain a historical context for the interactions between Europeans and Native Americans int he period from 1491 to 1607.

1.2 Native American Societies Before European Contact

Objective: Explain how various native populations interacted with the natural environment in North America in the period before European contact.

• Migrants from Asia may have crossed a land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska at least 10,000 years ago. Then, people migrated southward from the Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America.

• As people adapted to their environments, they developed their own tribes, cultures and languages.

• By 1491, the population was probably between 50 million to 100 million people.

Cultures of Central and South America

• Native population concentrated into 3 highly developed civilizations.

  • Mayas (300 and 800) in the Yucatan Peninsula (now Guatamala, Belize, and southern Mexico)

  • Aztecs in central Mexico.

  • Incas in Peru

• These civilizations developed highly organized societies, had extensive trade, and created calendars based on scientific observations. All three grew crops: corn (maize) for Mayas and Aztecs; potatoes for the Incas.

Cultures of North America

• Population in region north of Mexico in the 1490s was anywhere between 1 million to over 10 million.

General Patterns.

• Native societies in this region had fewer people and less complex social structures than those in South America and Mexico.

• One reason is because of how slow growing corn spread north from Mexico.

  • Corn was more nutrient dense and allowed for larger populations.

  • Larger populations in centralized areas allowed people to specialize in their work.

• Some most populous societies in North America had disappeared by the 15th century.

• By the time of Columbus, people living in what is now the US and Canada had semipermanent settlements with groups that usually didn’t exceed 300 people.

  • Men usually made tools and hunted for game (food), while women gathered plants and nuts or grew crops (corn, beans, and tobacco).

Language Differences.

• Beyond broad similarities, cultures of American Indians were diverse.

• Languages constituted more than 20 language families.

  • Algonquian (northeast), Siouan (Great Plains), Athabaskan (southwest)

Southwest Settlements.

• Hohokam, Anasazi, Pueblos

• Lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings.

• Spread of maize cultivation led to development of irrigation system and economic growth. That growth allowed for more complex societies to develop with greater differences between social and economic classes.

• By the time Europeans arrived, extreme drought and other hostile natives took toll on these groups.

Northwest Settlements.

• Alaska to northern California.

• Lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses.

• Carved totem poles to remember stories, legends, and myths.

• Environment (high mountain ranges) isolated tribes from each other which is one barrier to development.

Great Basin and Great Plains.

• Dry climate in the grasslands so people were mobile (nomadic).

• Nomadic tribes survived on hunting (mostly buffalo) and lived in teepees. The grew corn, beans, and squash and traded with other tribes.

• American Indians eventually got horses by trading or stealing them from the Spanish.

Mississippi River Valley.

• Adena-Hopewell

• Ohio Valley into New York

• Combined hunting and farming. Farming exhausted soi quickly, so they had to move to new land often.

• Lived in longhouses.

• Several tribes living near the Great Lakes and in New York formed a powerful political union called the Iroquois Confederation. This group battled other American Indians as well as Europeans.

Northeast Settlements.

Atlantic Seaboard Settlements.

• New Jersey south to Florida

• Woodland mound builders - built timber and bark lodgings along rivers and Atlantic Ocean which provided source of food.

Overall Diversity.

• Variety of landforms and climate prompted people in North America prior to 1492 to develop widely different cultures.

Key Questions

1. Describe the influence of the natural environment on the society and culture that various Native Americans had developed.

1.3 European Exploration in the Americas

Objective: Explain the causes of exploration and conquest of the New World by various European nations.

• Until late 1400s, natives of the Americas traded with each other, Europeans/Asians/Africans traded with each other, but there wasn’t cross continental trade.

• In the 1400s, religious and economic motives prompted Europeans to trade more widely than before.

European Context for Exploration

• Vikings had previously visited North America and Greenland, but they didn’t have a lasting impact.

• Columbus’s voyages brought people into ongoing contact with the Americas.

Changes in Thought and Technology

• European Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century led to technological advances

  • Gunpowder - invented by the Chinese

  • Sailing Compass - adopted from Arab merchants who learned about it from the Chinese

  • Printing Press

Religious Conflict

• Later years of Renaissance had lots of conflict and intense religious zeal

• Roman Catholic Church (and pope) dominated Western Europe

• Ottoman Turks, Muslims, and rebellious Christians challenged the pope’s authority

• Islamic Moors from North Africa invaded and conquered Spain.

  • Spanish Christians reconquered land and set up several independent kingdoms.

  • Two of the largest kingdoms united when Isabella (of Castile) and Ferdinand (of Aragon) married. Together, they conquered Granada.

• Isabella and Ferdinand funded Christopher Columbus on voyages.

• In the early 1500s, Christians in Germany, England, France, Holland and other northern European countries revolted against the pope. This is known as the Protestant Reformation.

  • Conflict between Catholics and Protestants led to a series of religious wars and death of millions during the 16th and 17th centuries.

  • Conflict also caused Roman Catholics and Protestants to want to spread their own versions of Christianity to people in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

  • Religious motive for exploration and colonization was added to political and economic motives.

Expanding Trade

• Economic motives for trade grew out of competition among Europeans for increased trade with Africa, India, and China. Trade used to be on land and was slow. That land route was blocked in 1452 when Ottoman Turks took control of Constantinople.

• New Routes to Asia was either sailing south along West African coast and then into China, or sailing west across Atlantic. Portuguese realized southern route was the shortest past. Henry the Navigator - opened a long sea route around South Africa.

• Slave Trading. People in Europe Africa, and Asia had enslaved people captured in war for a long time. In 15th century, Portuguese began trading for enslaved people from West Africa on new sugar plantations off the African coast. This idea later spread when they began to settle in the Americas.

Developing Nation-States

• Europe was changing politically during the 15th century. Small kingdoms uniting into larger ones. Enormous multiethnic empires were beginning to break up.

• Small kingdoms and muti-ethnic empires were replaced by nation-states. Monarchs of these nation-states depended on trade to bring in needed money, and on the church to justify their right to rule.

Dividing the Americas

• Western European monarchs used power to search for riches abroad and spread influence of their version of Christianity. This led to competition to control land in the Americas.

• Spain and Portugal were first European kingdoms to claim territories in the Americas.

  • Territories often overlapped which led to disputes. They used a line to clarify land ownership.

  • Treaty of Tordesillas established Portugal’s claim to Brazil.

• England first claimed land in the Americas with the voyages of John Cabot. England didn’t do much exploration and settlement early on because of religious conflict after Henry VIII’s break from the Roman Catholic Church.

  • Later, Queen Elizabeth I challenged Spanish shipping and attacked Spanish settlements.

  • Sir Walter Raleigh established Roanoke Island which failed.

• French monarchy sponsored voyage by Giovanni Verrazzano to find routes to Asia (he explored North American eastern coast).

  • English and French were slow to develop colonies in the Americas.

  • French monarchy was preoccupied with European wars and internal religious conflicts between Roman Catholics and French Protestants.

Key Questions

1. Explain what supported and motivated European exploration and colonization in the New World.