The First Discoverers of America

• For some 25,000 years people crossed the Bering land bridge from Eurasia to North America

• Gradually they dispersed southward down ice-free valleys, populating both the American continents

North American Natives

Iroquois (NE woodlands) - closest civilization to Incas and Mayans “Iroquois Confederacy”

• Most natives lived in small, impermanent settlements

• Many matrilineal

Three Sister Farming:

• Beans, Cornstalk, Squash

• Used SE Atlantic Seaboard leads to large populations such as Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Iroquois

Principal Voyages of Discovery

• Much of the earliest exploration was done by Italians, notably Christopher Columbus of Genoa

• John Cabot (1497-98), another native of Genoa (his original name was Govanni Caboto), sailed for England’s King Henry VII

• Giovanni da Verrazano (1524, 1534) was a Florentine employed by France

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), by Ridolfo di Domenico Ghirlandaio

• By 1492 roughly 54 million natives in Americas: 2000 languages

• Largest civilizations: Incas, Mayans, Aztecs

  • Cultivation of maize

  • Human/Blood sacrifices

• In North America (Above Mexico) no complex city-states to compare against

The Columbian Exchange

• Columbus’s discovery initiated the kind of explosion in international commerce that a later age would call “globalization”

  • Killed up to 90% of Native populations in New World

Treaty of Tordesillas 1494

Pope Alexander VI took action to clear up any confusion that may have arisen over territorial claims. He issued a decree which established an imaginary line running North and South through the Mid-Atlantic, 100 leagues (480 km) from the Cape Verde islands.

• Spain would have possession of unclaimed territories to the west of the line

• Portugal would have possession of unclaimed territory to the east of the line

“Black Legend”

• There is a fusion of cultures in Spanish held America that will NOT be seen in English held America

Principal Early Spanish Explorations and Conquests

• Coronado traversed northern Texas and Oklahoma

  • He found a drab encampment, probably of Wichita Indians

Important Factors That Stimulated Trade and Discovery

• The Christian Crusaders who brought back a taste for the silks and spices of Asia

• The Arab slave traders on the east coast of Africa

• The Scandinavian sailors who had kept up continuous trade contacts with North America

• The division of Spain into small kingdoms competing for wealth and power

• Copernicus’s discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun

The Flood of Gold and Silver

• This flood of gold and silver into Europe plays a large role in the:

  • Rise of Capitalism and modern merchant banking

  • Protestant Reformation

  • Development of an industrial working class

  • Expansion of the Jewelry industry

  • development of a modern system of precious metal currency

The Indian Peoples of the Americas

• Developed no advanced forms of civilization

• Migrated by boat from the South Pacific region about 10,000 B.C.

• Were under the control of the two large empires of the Incas and Aztecs

• Relied primarily on nomadic hunting for their sustenance

• Were divided into many diverse cultures, speaking more than 2000 different languages