APUSH Period 1 (1491-1697)

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