Earth begins forming 225 million years ago And super continent was called Pangea.

The Canadian shield was a zone made of ancient rock and was the first part of what became the North American landmass that emerged from sea level.

North America formed after 2 mile thick ice sheets called glaciers melted about 10,000 years ago.

Melting glaciers also formed bodies of water like the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.

It is believed that Bering land bridge connecting Asia and North America is what allowed the first humans to reach the Americas. The sea level dropping is what exposed the land bridge.

Nomadic Asian hunters also known as ancestors native Americans.

europeans arrived in 1492 and about 54 million people lived in the two American continents. Lead to more than 2000 different languages diverse religions cultures and ways of living.

The Incas were in Peru, the Mayans In Central America, And Aztecs in Mexico.

Maize = Indian Corn. It was the primary food source in Mexico

Lack of animals like horses and oxen and technology like the wheelS

Aztecs offered human sacrifices as a part of their religion in favor of the Gods.

Agriculture was the main source of food for native Americans civilizations in Mexico and South America.

Corn turned nomadic hunters into settled agricultural villagers.

Corn planting in the American Southwest began in 2000 BCE and molded the Pueblo culture.

The Pueblo peoples were in the Rio Grande and made irrigation systems to water their cornfields.

Pueblo translates to village in Spanish.

Corn Didn’t actually reach northern parts of America until much later.

Nation states

Cahokia was in Mississippian settlements near present day. East St. Louis was home to 25,000 people they were called the Anasazi’s and they built a village with interconnected rooms. Sadly, this culture fell to decline in 1300 CE.

Three sister farming were made possible because of the cultivation of maize, beans, and squash, which reached North America in 1000 CE.

Three system farming was made possible with Beans growing on the trellis of corn stocks and squash, covering the planting mounds to keep moisture in.

Three sister farming produced some of the highest population on the continent because of this farming strategy.

The Iroquois Were in the north eastern woodlands, and they developed a political and organizational skills to gain an excellent military alliance.

All Native Americans were scattered around North America.

Men hunted, fished, and gathered fuel and woman tended to the crops because of sexism.

The Native Americans were a lot more peaceful than the greedy Europeans.

Europeans discovered the New World because they wanted to conquer and trade.

The Christian Crusaders acquired taste for the goods of Asia, like silk for clothing, drugs, perfumes for unbathed bodies, draperies, and spices, especially sugar.

The spice Islands are Indonesia, China, and India. The Muslim middlemen taxed The Europeans a lot who were traveling across the Indian ocean, the Persian Gulf and the red Sea to reach Asia or the Arabian peninsula.

Marco Polo was an Italian adventure who returned to Europe into 1295 And told everyone about his 20 year sojourn in China.

In 1450 the Portuguese overcame obstacles like wins and south currents near Africa by developing the caravel, which was a ship that could sell more closely into the wind and found Africa.

Europe took a lot of African gold on camelback.

Portuguese developed trading post along the African shore for the purchase of gold and slaves.

Slavery was a thing from a very early age.

The Portuguese took influence from the Arab and Africans, who enslaved people and enslaved people into working on sugar plantations that were developed on the African coastal plains of Madeira, The Canaries, etc.

40,000 Africans were carried into the Atlantic Sugar Islands during the second half of the 15th century.

Plantation systems was developed and based entirely on commercial agriculture and exploitation of slave labor.

Then the Europeans pushed further into the south in order to gain access to Asia.

The kingdom of Spain became united because of the marriage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Portugal controlled the African coast and the Gateway to the round Africa water route to India.

Renaissance in the 14th century. Printing press was introduced in 1450 and mariners compass was borrowed from the Arabs.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian seafarer and he grabbed a crew in three tiny ships headed west. After six weeks at see on October 12, 14 and two, the crew sided in Ireland in the Bahamas and they discovered the New World.

The Columbian exchange was an exchange of people, diseases, food, gold, and iron between the New World, the old world and Africa.

The Europeans traveled a lot over the next two centuries and spread all the way up to Canada using horses to travel.

Although the Europeans carried some good stuff, they also carried diseases like smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria into the old world and the natives living in America. Millions were killed after the arrival of the Spanish. Microbes spread through the New World and killed 90% of the native Americans living in the Americas.

The Treaty of Tordesillas Was established in 1494, which split the new world between Portugal and Spain. The Americas went to Spain, Portugal received territory in Africa and Asia and some lands that would be known as Brazil to this day.

Caribbean sea islands were used as storage. Encomienda system was a technique that allowed the government to give Indians to certain colonists for the promise to try and convert them to Christianity, a.k.a. slavery.

Bartolemé de Las Casas was a Spanish missionary severely dislike the encomienda system in Hispaniola.

Hernán Cortés Tatsu from Cuba with horses and hundreds of men in 11 ships to go to Mexico.

Malinche was a female Indian slave picked up by Hernán Cortes who knew both Mayans and Knahuatl, which were the languages of the most powerful Aztec rulers in central Mexico. She eventually learned Spanish and baptized with the name of Doña Marina.

Cortes Learned about the gold wealth stored in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán And gathered his troops of 20,000 Indian allies and marched into the city where he was greeted with fabulous gifts from the Aztec chieftain Mocetezuma. Believing that Cortes was a God, the chieftain let Cortes and his troops into the capital. The Spaniards hunger for gold and power made them lust for it.

On the night of June 30 1520 which was known as “noche triste” (sad night) Where the Spanish murdered a lot of people and laid siege to the city of Tenochtitlán. They eventually captured the city on August 13, 1521. The same year the smallpox epidemic made its way through the Valley of Mexico. The Aztec Emperor gave away to three centuries of Spanish rule. The temples of the city were destroyed, and turned into Christian cathedrals and the population of Mexico shrank from 20 million to 2 million people in less than a century.

Francisco Pizarro was a conqueror crushed the Incas of Peru in 1532. By the 1600s, Spain was fabulously rich from silver in the New World found in the mines of Potosí, in Bolivia. This increased consumer cost by 500% after the mid 16th century. Scholars see this as the reason and growth of the economic system known as capitalism. It also led to the foundations of the modern banking system.

Invaders brought more conquest and death than trade. They brought crops, animals, language, and laws, customs, and religion, which were adapted by the people in the Americas. The culture of mesitzos was when Europeans and Indians intermarried and created a mix of Indian and European heritage.

Spanish conquistadores (conqueror)

Vasco Nuñez Balboa was known as the European discover of the Pacific Ocean. Ferdinand Magellan was killed by the inhabitants of the Philippines. In 1522 his one remaining vessel completed the first circumnavigation of the globe.

In 1513 and 1521 Juan Ponte de Leon explored Florida, so he can find gold and the “fountain of youth”, which was a myth. Instead, he was murdered by an American Indian arrow. In 1540 to 1542, Francisco Coronado, who was looking for Golden cities through Arizona and New Mexico, discovered the Grand Canyon and the Colorado river as well as lot of bison.

Hernando De Soto undertook a gold seeking expedition in between 1539 to 1542 where he discovered the Mississippi river. He died after mistreating the American Indians by a fever and wounds.

Giovanni Caboto (AKA John Cabot) went to explore the north eastern coast of North America in 1497 and 1498. 10 years after Frenchman Jacques Cartier journeyed the St. Lawerence River.

Spain wanted to block other European countries from getting access to North America and they also wanted to convert more American Indians into Christianity so they began to make a fortress in Saint Augustine, Florida, in order to block rivals out.

The battle of Acoma occurred in 1599 and the pain cut off one foot of each of the American Indians that survived. they proclaimed the area to be the province of New Mexico in 1609 and then proclaimed the capital the following year (Santa Fé).

The pulp rebellion occurred in 1680 when the Roman Catholic mission became to suppress native religious customs. The Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic Church in the province and killed a lot of priest and hundreds of Spanish settlers. then the American Indians rebuilt a kiva, Which was a ceremonial religious chamber on the ruins of the Spanish plaza at Santa Fé.

Robert de La Sal’s, had an expedition down the Mississippi River in 1716 to establish homes in Texas.

Spain directed its attention to California, after previous attempts of exploration by Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo.

Father Junipero Serra, established a mission to teach the American Indian’s horticulture and basic crafts, and they converted. They also lost their ability to contact their native cultures and also died because of the European diseases.

Black Legend - concept that said the conquerors only tortured and murdered the American Indians and stole their gold. But they also built a huge empire from California and Florida to Tierra del Fueho.