APUSH Period 1 (1491-1697)

Period 1 (1491-1697) Ancestors of Native Americans+ European Exploration

P1 (1491-1697) Context

  • Prior to European contact in the Americas

  • 1607 : Jamestown

    • First permanent English settlement in North America

    • During the reign of James I

    • Many came seeking for wealth


Ancestors of Native Americans

  • 10,000-40,000 years ago : Ice Age

  • Many may have crossed the ice bridge to America

  • Over a thousand tears, many groups migrated and covered two continents

  • Hunter-gatherers

    • Many remain in this class at first


Similarities and Differences

  • Closeness with nature

    • Animism

  • Natives did not fight for annihilation

    • Fought with purpose to push back opponent

    • Adapted to warfare because of this

  • Hunter-gatherers

    • Traveled in family units, little specialization, small evidence of hierarchy

      • Evolved into semi-sedentary groups followed by the discovery of agriculture : maize

      • Farming, hunting, gathering

        • Natural process to fully sedentary groups

Sedentary Groups

  • Built complex, sophisticated societies

  • Why?

    • Stayed in one place because of agriculture

    • Specialization : jobs such as military and labor

    • Dense populations->complex social structures->central government 

      • Government typically ruled by the rich (nobles, priests)

    • Hierarchy (hereditary rules)

    • Organized religion (mostly polytheistic)

Meso-America

Central America and Mexico

  • Birth place of history in Americas because of first documented records


Olmec (5th-6th century B.C.)

  • Pyramid building for rituals

  • Polytheistic

  • Organized religion with human sacrifices to please the gods

  • Teotihuacan


Maya (14-13th century A.D.)

  • Advanced mathematicians

  • Came up with a calendar

  • Pyramids and human sacrifices

  • Constant warfare (contributed to their demise/fall)

  • Complex social structures


Aztecs (12th century)

  • One of the greatest empire

  • Built Tenochtitlan 

  • Thrived in agriculture, dominated groups around them, demanded tributes 

    • Lots of enemies

  • Last emperor : Montezuma II

    • Met the Spanish

    • Sacrificed around 10,000 people

    • Failure to please the gods made him vulnerable

    • Conquered by Hernan Cortes in 1521


Inca Empire 

  • Andes Mountain

  • Machu-Picchu

  • Elaborate infrastructure and architecture

  • Increased trade and easier rule

  • Last emperor: Atahualpa

  • Conquered by Pizzaro

Northern American Civilizations

  • Social, political, economical aspects


  • Artic Region: Eskimos (Inuits)

    • Animism

    • Cold environments

      • Fishing, igloos


  • Great Plains Indians : Sioux, Wichita

    • Influence of environment

      • Hunter-gatherers : migratory/semi-nomadic

      • Moved with bison

    • Gave honors to animals they killed

    • Monotheistic: Great Spirit


  • Southeast: Cherokee, Creeks/Muscogees

    • Enemies

    • Sedentary, settled communities

    • Descended from the Mississippian people

    • Built mounds 

      • Burial, religious ceremonies, storage

    • Chiefdoms were common 

      • Things taken care of in the family dynamics

    • Creeks: best example of attempting to compromise with Europeans


  • Northeast/Eastern Woodlands : Iroquois

    • Semi-sedentary

      • Thrived in farms

      • Three sisters : maize, beans, squash

    • Women held influential positions

      • Controlled land ownership

        • Still in ownership even if they married and decided how to split it

      • Held a lot of annual festivals 

        • Example of later syncretism

    • “Holy Days”

      • Monotheistic : saw something spiritual in everything

    • Ways of life

      • Long-houses

      • Established the Iroquis confederation

      • Democratic-style government consisted of 5 tribes


  • Southwest: Anasazi, Pueblo

    • Sedentary : farming

    • Engineering : irrigation works, astronomy, “apartment” style houses

    • Polytheistic

      • Religious shrines

    • Prospered for more than a thousand years

European Exploration


Contextualization

  • 15th century Europe

  • Unification of many countries

    • Portugal, Spain, France

    • Led to establishment of monarchy

  • Pursuit of wealth combined with technology led to exploration

  • Europe is emerging out of a plague at this time

    • Weak and small

    • Royals look for vulnerable places

      • Asia

    • Asia had goods such as spices and silk


European Exploration

  • Turks controlled the path to Asia across the Mediterranean Sea

    • Religiously tolerant, yet had a tax for the People of the Book

    • Europeans wanted to find a way to make money, not spend money-> led to the west

  • Technology

    • Led to better weapons 

      • Europe led the arms race, or a weapons race

    • Portugal, first to unite, led the way in sea exploration

      • Prince Henry the Navigator initiated

  • Portugal (15th Century)

    • Controlled the sea route around Africa

    • “God, Gold, and Glory”

    • Traded slaves

    • Justification for exploration/conquest

      • If beliefs did not match, Europeans were free to conquer

  • Spain (15th Century)

    • Context:

      • Moors infiltrate Spain (Al-Andalus)

      • Took centuries to kick out

      • Unified and began monarchy

      • Pursuit of wealth and competition with Portugal

    • King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

      • Unified Spain

      • Sponsored Columbus to travel west

    • Belief that if they attain wealth, they gain salvation

    • Columbus

      • Reached America in Oct. 1492

      • Tortured, killed NA with justification of God

      • Initiated/caused transformation of the world

    • Columbus’s Legacy 

      • 4 trips to America

      • Discovery of the New World

      • “Genocide” 

      • Met with the Taino people

      • Rewarded soldiers by giving them teenage girls

      • Spanish responsible for bringing the first Africans to America

  • Conquistadors

    • Spanish conquerors

    • Goal : to become wealthy

    • Has to send 1/5 of their wealth to the Spanish king

    • 1519 Ferdinand Magellan

      • Traveled west around the tip of South America

      • First to sail around the world 

        • Actually around the Philippines

          • Named after King Philip

      • Died on the trip

    • 1519 Hernan Cortes

      • 1521 : Conquered the Aztecs

      • Set ships on fire with no way back

        • “Conquer or die”

      • Aztecs thought he was a god

      • Communicated with Montezuma II

      • Lost the first battle, insisted on taking 8 tons of gold

      • Came back with guns and horses

      • Killed over 25,000 people

      • Led to Spain controlling Mexico and Central America

    • 1533 Francisco Pizzaro

      • Conquered the Incas

      • Pig farmer in Spain

      • Got 60 men and conquered the Incas

      • Killed by another conquistador

      • Spain claimed South America

    • Other conquests of Spain to the Southeast and Southwest

      • SE: Florida/St. Augustine

      • SW: Pueblos

  • Spanish Hierarchy in America (in order)

    • Peninsulares

      • Born in Spain

      • Typically the wealthiest

    • Creoles

      • Descendants of Peninsulares born in the New World

    • Mestizos

      • Spanish + NA

    • Native Americans 

    • African Slaves

      • African slaves, NA, and Mestizos took up most of the population

    • Specific gender roles and racial issues

      • Race based slavery

    • Creation of caste system

      • Born into and difficult to leave

  • Encomienda System

    • Spanish are allowed to enslave NA’s and take their land

      • Dogs trained to chase NA’s

    • How could they do this?

      • Cognitive dissonance: convincing self to see others as worthless and to see themselves as superior

    • Completely altered South, Central America, and Mexico

      • Language, religion, hierarchy, diet, appearances

    • Led to the Columbian Exchange

  • Columbian Exchange

    • Exchange of food, culture disease, people, technology, plants, and animals from America to the rest of the world and vice versa

    • Examples of exchange

      • Pigs E-A

      • Cows E-A

      • Maize A-W

      • Wheels E-A

      • Horses E-A

        • Benefit to NA

        • Hunting for buffalos (herding)

        • Other NA civilization becoming dominant

        • Changed culture (hunter-gatherers)

      • Diseases

        • Became the biggest weapon for Europeans against NA

        • 90 percent NA died, unintentional

        • Small pox, flu

    • Natives were pushed west and people joined different civilizations to survive

      • Led to cultures falling down

      • Florida, Southwest, and Southeast dominated by Europeans

  • Why did European requisition of land end around 1540?

    • Increased competition (Portugal)

    • Gold is no longer discovered

      • People begin to settle down





















































































Continuity









Continuity

French Settlement (New France in NW)

  • Catholics

  • Where and why?


Samuel de Champlain

  • Crossed Atlantic, landed in the Northeast of America

  • Found Quebec in 1608

    • Capital of New France

  • Expanded through the Great Lakes

  • Incentive: fur trade expansion to Europe

    • Economics led to a good relationship with Natives

    • French learned customs/languages and intermarried

  • Alliances were built, especially with the Hurons

    • French vs. Britain : 7 Years War

      • Supported by NA alliances

  • Never sent big populations but controlled large areas


Geography

  • Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, Mississippi River to New Orleans

  • Claimed Louisiana in 1680s after Louis XIV

Early English Settlement

  • Context

    • 1517 Protestant Reformation

    • Civil Wars

      • War of the Roses

      • Tudor dynasty emerge after


Henry VIII

  • Broke with the Catholic Church in 1527

  • Goal : divorce with Catherine for a heir

  • Established the Church of England (Anglican)

    • Protestant


Effect 

  • Much of English settlement in America was by Protestants

  • 1558 Elizabeth I to the throne

    • Killed Mary Queen of Scots

    • Intention on making England a world power and Protestant nation (succeeded)

    • No heir, last of the Tudors

    • Allowed secret attacks on Spain : “Sea Dogs”

      • 1588 Spanish Armada

        • Spanish angered, sent the Spanish Armada to kill England and lost

        • England defeats Armada

        • Effect : victory opened America to colonization and Atlantic trade


James I

  • Took over After Tudor in 1603-1628

  • Stuart Dynasty

  • Son of Mary Queen of Scots

  • Also James VI of Scotland

  • Raised as a Protestant

    • No intention of changing England

  • Allowed joint-stock companies to sponsor trips to America/Virginia

    • Incentive: wealth

    • Charters granted to companies

    • Transferred England Liberty and Laws to America

    • Beginning of self-government

      • Virginia company

        • Sponsered the settlement at Jamestown

        • Settlers devoted to England

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