Chapter 1 - The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492
1. The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492
Global context: Globalization accelerates with western Europeans’ pursuit of East Asian riches; the Atlantic World emerges as a new trade network.
Crusades (1095-1291) sparked European demand for spices, silk, porcelain, sugar, and other luxuries.
Overland Silk Road trade became costly and dangerous; Europeans sought a cheaper, safer sea route, spurring Atlantic exploration.
Early explorers misnamed the New World inhabitants as “Indians,” reflecting a belief that they had reached the East Indies.
West Africa becomes key to the Atlantic slave trade; Africans and Native peoples are essential to European colonial ventures.
The 1507 Waldseemüller and Ringmann map is cited as the first to use the term "America" (illustrating how the New World was being named and imagined).
Learning takeaway: Global interconnectedness existed long before modern globalization, but the Atlantic connections intensified European expansion and exploitation.
1.1 The Americas
Learning objectives (summary):
Locate major pre-Columbian American civilizations on a map.
Discuss cultural achievements of these civilizations.
Compare lifestyles, religious practices, and customs among Native peoples.
Migration and early settlement
Some scholars propose a land bridge between Asia and North America called Beringia, formed by migrations reaching the Americas.
Between 9{,}000 and 15{,}000\text{ years ago}, populations moved southward, creating diverse cultures from the Arctic to the Andes.
Genetic evidence: shared Y-chromosome markers support migration from Asia.
Coastal migration possibly occurred along the west coast of South America.
Agricultural revolution: about 10{,}000\text{ years ago}, domestication of plants and animals supported more settled, agricultural societies.
Mesoamerica: general pattern
Mesoamerica extends from north of Panama to central Mexico.
This region develops urban, complex societies with similar religious, artistic, and architectural traits.
Trade diffuses culture across long distances, even without a centralized empire.
The Olmec (the mother culture of Mesoamerica)
Timeframe: roughly 1200-400\text{ BCE} along the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
Religion: polytheistic; gods exhibit male and female traits; blood sacrifice and ritual bloodletting are integral.
Diet and economy: maize (corn) domesticated by 5000\text{ BCE} forms the dietary base; beans, squash, and tomatoes also cultivated.
Innovations: developed a calendar, a mathematical system, monumental architecture, and a true writing system in the Western Hemisphere.
Trade: long-distance exchange of obsidian weapons, jade, feathers, cacao beans; an elite class emerges from trade networks.
Notable artifacts: giant stone heads, La Venta pyramid, aqueducts for water transport and irrigation.
Influences: Olmec culture lays the foundation for later Maya and Aztec civilizations.
The Maya
Geography: territory includes present-day Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala.
Urban centers: Teotihuacan (near modern Mexico City) becomes a major hub with population estimates over 100,000 at its height (ca. CE 500).
Architecture: extensive city-building; pyramids such as the Pyramid of the Sun (approx. 200\text{ ft}) and Pyramid of the Moon (approx. 150\text{ ft}).
Writing and mathematics: Maya advanced calendar system and a written numeral system used for agricultural planning and trade; glyphs document history.
Trade networks: city-states like Copán, Tikal, and Chichén Itzá connected by trade routes; observatories and temples dot the landscape.
Decline: around 900\text{ CE} due to factors including drought and soil exhaustion.
Legacy: Maya contributions to astronomy and timekeeping influence later Mesoamerican cultures.
The Aztec (Mexica) and Tenochtitlán
Arrival context: Cortés reaches the Gulf coast (Veracruz) in the 16th century; learns of a wealthy capital city, Tenochtitlán.
Founding legend: Aztecs migrate from Aztlán, settle on an island in Lake Texcoco; by 1325, Tenochtitlán is established and grows into a massive city.
Population and wealth: by 1519, population exceeds 200{,}000; the city is among the largest in the Western Hemisphere.
Urban planning and infrastructure: well-planned, clean, and orderly; specialized neighborhoods, organized markets, dual aqueducts, and sophisticated public works.
Economy and agriculture: chinampas (floating gardens) enable intensive agriculture; reed barges transport soil and crops to the gardens.
Social structure and religion: warrior nobles and priests form the ruling class; daily human sacrifice is conducted to sustain the sun and agricultural cycles; ritual violence centers on offering human hearts to gods.
Deities and cosmology: each god governs natural and social aspects (heavens, rain, fertility, warfare, etc.).
Sacred heart ceremony: the sacrificial ritual often uses an obsidian knife to remove the heart, as depicted in contemporary illustrations.
Prelude to contact: Aztec omens and omens in Florentine Codex describing Spanish arrival; a dream-like interpretation of future events by Moctezuma and others foreshadowing conquest.
The Inca
Geography and reach: the Inca Empire stretches along the western coast of South America, from present-day Colombia to Chile, spanning about 2{,}500\text{ miles} and rising to elevations around 14{,}000\text{ ft} above sea level.
Road system: an extensive, well-maintained network rivaling Roman roads; enables rapid communication via runners called chasquis.
Writing and administration: no formal writing system; uses a knotted-string device called the quipu for records and communication.
Labor and economy: mita system requires peasants to work on public projects; storehouses ensure food security.
Agriculture: terraced fields support crops like corn, beans, squash, quinoa, and potatoes; the sun god Inti is central; gold is viewed as the "sweat" of the sun.
Religion and sacrifice: generally limited human sacrifice; when necessary, prisoners are sacrificed, including, at times, children who are kept well-fed for this purpose.
Machu Picchu: rediscovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911; built ca. 1450\text{ CE} and abandoned after about a century; UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 1983; notable for its finely fitted stonework without mortar.
Native Americans across North America
North American diversity: unlike the large civilizations of Mesoamerica, Native North American populations included many dispersed, smaller communities.
Plains and horses: after the introduction of horses by Europeans, Plains tribes could more easily hunt bison.
Pueblo peoples in the Southwest: Mogollon (NM) with distinctive painted bowls; Hohokam developed irrigation canals; Anasazi built cliff dwellings with multi-story pueblos; roads linked settlements (e.g., 180 miles connectivity to Chaco Canyon).
Cahokia (near present-day St. Louis): peak around 1100\text{ CE}, home to >10{,}000 in the urban center and tens of thousands in surrounding farms; 120 earthen mounds of varying sizes; declined after 1300\text{ CE}, possibly due to environmental constraints and overpopulation.
Eastern Woodlands: Native peoples east of the Mississippi commonly lived in small autonomous clans or tribes; gender roles often more flexible than in Europe; matriarchal influences seen among groups like Iroquois, Lenape, Muscogee, and Cherokee; women participated in governance and passed on traditions.
Land use and ownership: widespread absence of private land ownership concepts; European colonists later introduce different land-use ideologies that lead to conflict with Native peoples.
1.2 Europe on the Brink of Change
Learning objectives (summary):
Describe European societies engaged in conversion, conquest, and commerce.
Discuss motives for and mechanisms of early European exploration.
Context: The late Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and the rise of new Europe
The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476\text{ CE} marks a transition from classical to medieval Europe.
The European Renaissance begins in the late fourteenth century, reinvigorating learning, science, and exploration.
With no single centralized power, Europe experiences political and military volatility during the Middle Ages.
In this period, people live in walled cities for protection from marauding groups such as Vikings, Mongols, Arabs, and Magyars.
Feudal structure emerges: lords, knights, and protected peasants; mobility is limited, and most travel barely beyond a ten-mile radius from birthplaces.
The medieval economy and social organization set the stage for later expansion, trade networks, and the Atlantic World.
Key implications for exploration and contact
Economic motivations (wealth, trade routes, resources) push Europeans to seek new maritime routes to Asia and beyond.
Cultural exchanges, technological advances (navigation, shipbuilding), and religious aims (conversion) shape early exploration and colonization efforts.
Intersections with Africa and slavery (brief context)
Although not fully detailed in this excerpt, the broader chapter connects European expansion with the Atlantic slave trade, involving West Africa and the incorporation of enslaved labor in the New World.
Connections, Implications, and Summaries
Interconnectedness across continents pre-1492 laid groundwork for modern globalization, but also established patterns of conquest, exchange, and coercion that would intensify with the Columbian Exchange.
Technological and cultural achievements across the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Inca showcase sophisticated urban planning, writing systems, astronomical knowledge, agricultural innovations, and monumental architecture.
Native North American societies illustrate a wide range of adaptations, governance structures, and gender roles, with significant regional differences in land use, religion, and social organization.
European contexts before 1492 reveal a Europe fragmented by political instability yet primed for maritime exploration due to economic pressures, technological progress, and the revival of learning.
Key Terms and Dates (condensed)
1095-1291: Crusades, heightening European interest in trade with the East.
476\text{ CE}: Fall of the Western Roman Empire.
1325, 1519: Founding and peak of Tenochtitlán within the Aztec civilization; Cortés’s arrival and conquest period begins.
1450\text{ CE}: Machu Picchu built by the Inca (ca. 1450); later rediscovered.
900\text{ CE}: Maya decline in some southern regions.
10{,}000\text{ years ago}: Beginning of agricultural domestication in the Americas.
9{,}000-15{,}000\text{ years ago}: Possible migration from Asia across Beringia into the Americas.
2{,}500\text{ miles}: Inca Empire length along the Andes.
14{,}000\text{ ft}: Elevation of some Inca cities.
200{,}000: Population of Tenochtitlán at its peak.
10{,}000: Population of Cahokia at its height (in the urban center).
365: Number of days reflected in the steps of El Castillo at Chichén Itzá.
Acknowledgments and Further Exploration
Mayan codices and the destruction of many documents by Bishop Diego de Landa in 1562 illustrate the fragility of indigenous knowledge under colonial pressure.
The Florentine Codex contains Aztec omens and prophecies about Spanish arrival, reflecting the interplay between prophecy and the interpretation of new observers.
Machu Picchu’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1983) highlights the enduring significance of Inca architectural mastery.