Unit 1 - Period 1: 1491 - 1607 (1.2)
1.2 Native American Societies Before European Contact
Objective: Explain how various native populations interacted with the natural environment in North America in the period before European contact.
Migrants from Asia may have crossed a land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska at least 10,000 years ago. Then, people migrated southward from the Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America.
As people adapted to their environments, they developed their own tribes, cultures and languages.
By 1491, the population was probably between 50 million to 100 million people.
Cultures of Central and South America
Native population concentrated into 3 highly developed civilizations.
Mayas (300 and 800) in the Yucatan Peninsula (now Guatamala, Belize, and southern Mexico)
Aztecs in central Mexico.
Incas in Peru
These civilizations developed highly organized societies, had extensive trade, and created calendars based on scientific observations. All three grew crops: corn (maize) for Mayas and Aztecs; potatoes for the Incas.
Cultures of North America
Population in region north of Mexico in the 1490s was anywhere between 1 million to over 10 million.
General Patterns.
Native societies in this region had fewer people and less complex social structures than those in South America and Mexico.
One reason is because of how slow growing corn spread north from Mexico.
Corn was more nutrient dense and allowed for larger populations.
Larger populations in centralized areas allowed people to specialize in their work.
Some most populous societies in North America had disappeared by the 15th century.
By the time of Columbus, people living in what is now the US and Canada had semipermanent settlements with groups that usually didn’t exceed 300 people.
Men usually made tools and hunted for game (food), while women gathered plants and nuts or grew crops (corn, beans, and tobacco).
Language Differences.
Beyond broad similarities, cultures of American Indians were diverse.
Languages constituted more than 20 language families.
Algonquian (northeast), Siouan (Great Plains), Athabaskan (southwest)
Southwest Settlements.
Hohokam, Anasazi, Pueblos
Lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings.
Spread of maize cultivation led to development of irrigation system and economic growth. That growth allowed for more complex societies to develop with greater differences between social and economic classes.
By the time Europeans arrived, extreme drought and other hostile natives took toll on these groups.
Northwest Settlements.
Alaska to northern California.
Lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses.
Carved totem poles to remember stories, legends, and myths.
Environment (high mountain ranges) isolated tribes from each other which is one barrier to development.
Great Basin and Great Plains.
Dry climate in the grasslands so people were mobile (nomadic).
Nomadic tribes survived on hunting (mostly buffalo) and lived in teepees. The grew corn, beans, and squash and traded with other tribes.
American Indians eventually got horses by trading or stealing them from the Spanish.
Mississippi River Valley.
Adena-Hopewell
Ohio Valley into New York
Combined hunting and farming. Farming exhausted soi quickly, so they had to move to new land often.
Lived in longhouses.
Several tribes living near the Great Lakes and in New York formed a powerful political union called the Iroquois Confederation. This group battled other American Indians as well as Europeans.
Northeast Settlements.
Atlantic Seaboard Settlements.
New Jersey south to Florida
Woodland mound builders - built timber and bark lodgings along rivers and Atlantic Ocean which provided source of food.
Overall Diversity.
Variety of landforms and climate prompted people in North America prior to 1492 to develop widely different cultures.
Key Questions
Describe the influence of the natural environment on the society and culture that various Native Americans had developed.
Additional Unit 1.2
Indigenous peoples were really diverse. This included language customs, traditions, etc.
Some were nomadic hunter gatherers, lived in massive cities, or lived in semi permanent settlements.
Maize was key when it came to the native settlements in the Americas. This allowed for people to participate in what is called sedentary agriculture, which made it so people could live in permanent settlements rather than migrating.
This allowed for advanced economics (trade routes), permanent settlements, advancements in irrigation techs (good irrigation → more food → population increase), and social diversification in class and jobs.
Geography also played a key role in the diversification of native Americans.
In the great Basin resided the Ute people which were nomadic peoples of around 20-100 people. They lived in mobile shelters and moved with the seasons because of their dry climate.
The native Americans living in the east were more fortunate with their land, which allowed them to settle based off of agriculture.
The Mississippians were blessed with rich soil and had traded with their rivers. Maize allowed for complex civilizations which also contributed to their large populations.
In the northeast was the Iroquois and they lived off of maize and other crops, which allowed them to be semi sedentary. They used the abundance of timber to create longhouses. They were also the ones to create the Iroquois confederacy which settled conflicts between rival tribes.
The Cherokee were native Americans who lived on the Atlantic coast (Florida). They were agricultural based (maize, squash, beans). They were also semi sedentary because of gender roles.
The native americans who were on the pacific coasts were hunter gatherers but they also created permanent settlements because of the ocean. (chinook and chumash)
1.3 European Exploration in the Americas
Objective: Explain the causes of exploration and conquest of the New World by various European nations.
Until late 1400s, natives of the Americas traded with each other, Europeans/Asians/Africans traded with each other, but there wasn’t cross continental trade.
In the 1400s, religious and economic motives prompted Europeans to trade more widely than before.
European Context for Exploration
Vikings had previously visited North America and Greenland, but they didn’t have a lasting impact.
Columbus’s voyages brought people into ongoing contact with the Americas.
Changes in Thought and Technology
European Renaissance in the 15th and 16th century led to technological advances
Gunpowder - invented by the Chinese
Sailing Compass - adopted from Arab merchants who learned about it from the Chinese
Printing Press
Religious Conflict
Later years of Renaissance had lots of conflict and intense religious zeal
Roman Catholic Church (and pope) dominated Western Europe
Ottoman Turks, Muslims, and rebellious Christians challenged the pope’s authority
Islamic Moors from North Africa invaded and conquered Spain.
Spanish Christians reconquered land and set up several independent kingdoms.
Two of the largest kingdoms united when Isabella (of Castile) and Ferdinand (of Aragon) married. Together, they conquered Granada.
Isabella and Ferdinand funded Christopher Columbus on voyages.
In the early 1500s, Christians in Germany, England, France, Holland and other northern European countries revolted against the pope. This is known as the Protestant Reformation.
Conflict between Catholics and Protestants led to a series of religious wars and death of millions during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Conflict also caused Roman Catholics and Protestants to want to spread their own versions of Christianity to people in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Religious motive for exploration and colonization was added to political and economic motives.
Expanding Trade
Economic motives for trade grew out of competition among Europeans for increased trade with Africa, India, and China. Trade used to be on land and was slow. That land route was blocked in 1452 when Ottoman Turks took control of Constantinople.
New Routes to Asia was either sailing south along West African coast and then into China, or sailing west across Atlantic. Portuguese realized southern route was the shortest past. Henry the Navigator - opened a long sea route around South Africa.
Slave Trading. People in Europe Africa, and Asia had enslaved people captured in war for a long time. In 15th century, Portuguese began trading for enslaved people from West Africa on new sugar plantations off the African coast. This idea later spread when they began to settle in the Americas.
Developing Nation-States
Europe was changing politically during the 15th century. Small kingdoms uniting into larger ones. Enormous multiethnic empires were beginning to break up.
Small kingdoms and muti-ethnic empires were replaced by nation-states. Monarchs of these nation-states depended on trade to bring in needed money, and on the church to justify their right to rule.
Dividing the Americas
Western European monarchs used power to search for riches abroad and spread influence of their version of Christianity. This led to competition to control land in the Americas.
Spain and Portugal were first European kingdoms to claim territories in the Americas.
Territories often overlapped which led to disputes. They used a line to clarify land ownership.
Treaty of Tordesillas established Portugal’s claim to Brazil.
England first claimed land in the Americas with the voyages of John Cabot. England didn’t do much exploration and settlement early on because of religious conflict after Henry VIII’s break from the Roman Catholic Church.
Later, Queen Elizabeth I challenged Spanish shipping and attacked Spanish settlements.
Sir Walter Raleigh established Roanoke Island which failed.
French monarchy sponsored voyage by Giovanni Verrazzano to find routes to Asia (he explored North American eastern coast).
English and French were slow to develop colonies in the Americas.
French monarchy was preoccupied with European wars and internal religious conflicts between Roman Catholics and French Protestants.
Additional Unit 1.3 Notes
Europe was facing a major decline economically and socially because of developments such as the black plague.
Europe was able to stabilize because of:
Climate warming
Improved agriculture
More food
Desire for asian luxury goods
Renaissance (major social movement which focused on art and society in Europe)
Political unification
So why did Europe seek to explore the rest of the world? Triple g
Gold
Since many people wanted to get Asian goods, there was a need to find routes to Asia. This was because the only routes to get to Asia were through land routes. And since the ottomans controlled the routes, they thought they could get to Asia by sea.
So they improved banking systems in order to facilitate trade.
In a sense, Portugal was first because they under the leadership of Vasco da Gama and Henry the navigator were able to set trading post empires to establish their presence on the Indian Ocean trade routes.
Spain wanted to grow their presence but because the Portuguese set their own on the Indian ocean, they wanted to look for alternative routes. Christopher Columbus arises.
Columbus would arrive in the Caribbeans but because at the time people underestimated the size of the world, they thought they arrived in Asia.
<-- what european countries wanted to replicate
God
Europe was facing a religious crisis and the people's main religion was Roman Catholic Christianity.
pray
People thought that the church was corrupt regarding their own beliefs (paying off sins) and church positions (paying for positions).
Martin Luther ragebaits with the 95 theses about the injustices of the church.
This sparks the protestant reformation which created a battle between catholic christianity and protestant christianity.
In Spain, the reconquista occurred which ousted the muslims from Catholic Spain. Also the inquisition eliminated religious dissent which resulted in the removal of minorities.
They funded Columbus with great support because they basically wanted to prove to Asia how Catholicism was the best.
<--everyone in Europe trying to show how their religion was the best
Glory
Competition of colonial land would give the country the leverage of power in Europe.
In some European states, the bigger empires were falling apart while the smaller ones were coming together stronger such as Spain.
This resulted in competition on which nation would become the bigger and stronger one. This can be seen in the example of Spain and Portugal`s conflict over land. The Treaty of Tordesillas was created under the pope which basically gave spain a fuck ton of land while portugal got a sliver in south america (new world only though).
Key Questions
Explain what supported and motivated European exploration and colonization in the New World.