Colonization
What was North American society like before colonization?
- first human populations migrated from Siberia 12-40 thousand years ago
- agriculture began about 9000 years ago in present-day Mexico and then it gradually spread
- by 15th century, 50-60 million people (north and south america)
- huge diversity of culture and life ways (spoke hundred of languages)
- deeply interconnected
- complex world already in motion
- much hunting and gathering
How and why did European colonization first begin?
- politically and culturally fragmented
- many different cultures and different political sides that divided people
- christianity and catholic church were the only real unifiers
- brought groups together with common religion
- peasant majority
- increasingly powerful elite minorities in port cities:
- merchants, soldiers, clergy, political class
- growing demand for luxury goods from “the east”
- powerful islamic neighbors