Before Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492
(A) the land route to Asia was virtually controlled by Italian city-states and middle eastern rulers
(B) most of the exploration of the Atlantic was accomplished by Spanish and Italian explorers
(C) slavery did not exist in Africa
(D) there was little motivation to find an easy route from Europe to the Orient
(E) Vasco de Gama sailed from Portugal to India
Warm Up Question #1
The late 15th century contact between Europeans and Indians A) resulted in the death of perhaps 80 million people in the first 150 years after contact
B) brought syphilis to the Americas
C) brought corn and potatoes to the Americas
D) led to a flourishing English colonial presence in the Americas within 100 years of the voyage of Columbus
E) marked the first time any European had reached the New World
Warm Up Question #2
Answer: (A) the land route to Asia was virtually controlled by Italian
city-states and middle eastern rulers
Explanation: While the arrival of Columbus and his crew in the New
World in 1492 was monumental, Portuguese explorers had ranged to
the tip of Africa and explored the eastern Atlantic before his
voyage. The desire to find a water route to Asia that would avoid the
dominance of the Italian city-states and the rulers of the middle east
proved a strong motivation to exploration. Slavery existed in Africa long
before Europeans began exploiting it. Vasco de Gama reached India in
1498.
Answer: A) resulted in the death of perhaps 80 million people in the first 150 years after contact
Explanation: While some Indians encountering Europeans died in battle or were worked to death as slaves, most died as a result of contracting European
diseases, particularly smallpox. Eric Foner estimates that 1/5th of the world's population died in the first century and a half of New World-Old World contact. European adventurers brought syphilis back from the Americas. Corn and
potatoes were New World crops that became staples of the European diet. English attempts at colonization did not succeed until the Virginia and
Massachusetts Bay colonies in the 1600s. The Vikings were the first Europeans to reach the New World, establishing a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland.
America Prior to
the Arrival of
The Land Bridge Theory
◦ a Land Bridge emerged linking Asia & North America across the Bering Sea. People walked across the "bridge" thus populating the Americas.
Many peoples
◦ Groups spread across North, Central, and South America.
◦ Tribes emerged with an estimated 2,000 languages
Incas: Peru, with elaborate network of roads and bridges linking
their empire.
Mayas: Yucatan Peninsula, with their step pyramids.
Aztecs: Mexico, with step pyramids and huge sacrifices of
conquered peoples.
As migration progressed…
warmer climates ,animals such as wooly mammoth
and giant bison hunted into extinction led, and changing environments led to the
development of
agriculture…including
maize, squash and beans.
Larger, settled civilizations
emerged
The First Americans
Indian Societies of the Americas
Mound Builders of the Mississippi
River Valley
Western Indians
Along the Atlantic Coast of North
America, Native Americans lived in
smaller, mobile bands:
◦ Farming was supplemented by hunting and gathering
◦ Eastern woodland Indians were likely the first natives to be encountered by
English settlers
The First Americans
Native American Religion
◦ Directly related to farming/hunting
◦ Authority given to those who seemed to have spiritual power
The First Americans
Native American Religion
Land and Property
◦ Land not viewed as commodity
◦ Communal ownership
◦ Wealth not important – trade was as much of a social/cultural relationship as it was economic
The First Americans
Native American Religion
Land and Property
Gender Relations
◦ Most Native American societies were matrilineal
Indian Freedom, European
Freedom
On the map provided, label and
shade trade patterns & the
regions of the world colonized
by
(a) Spain
,
(b) France
,
(c)
England
, &
(d) Dutch
during the
Age of Exploration
The Reformation
In the early 1500s, reformers, like Martin Luther, call
for changes in the Church. Some reformers broke
away from the Roman Catholic Church and form
Protestant churches, creating a divide between
Catholics and Protestants.
The Renaissance
The 1400s were the time of
“rebirth” of the interest in
the physical world
Queen Isabella Sponsors Columbus
Spain expels the Moors and unifies. Christopher
Columbus asks the Spanish monarchy for money
Hernán Cortés v. Moctezuma II
In 1518, a Spanish conquistador leads a rogue
expedition into Mexico. Cortés forges alliances with
subjugated tribes en route to Tenochtitlan.
His forces seize the capital island city and arrest
Moctezuma.
The Spanish
Colonies in
Culture Clash
Native Americans were eager for European trade; they
were not initially victims of Spanish exploration
Disease decimated perhaps 80-90% of Native
American population
The arrival of the Spanish was a disaster for
Native Americans. Many acquired smallpox
and tens of thousands died.
Slave Trade
15th-century Portuguese
exploration of the African
coast starts European
colonialism.
Spaniards first use African
slaves in the New World
due to a shortage of labor
caused by the spread of
disease.
From the 1500s -1800s, about
10 mil. Africans are taken to
Spanish Conquests &
Colonies
Spanish missionaries focused
heavily on converting Native
Americans & establishing missions
The Spanish used the encomienda system to
create large cash crop plantations using
By 1650, 1/2 million Spaniards
immigrated to the New World
◦ Mostly unmarried males came to New World; intermarriage led to mixed-blood
mestizos & mulattos
◦ Distinguished between social classes:
peninsulares & creoles
◦ The Spanish gov’t operated strict control over the colonies
From Plunder to Settlement
Whites from Spain
Sistema de Castas
o la Sociedad de Castas
The Spanish develop vocabulary to describe ethnic divisions and attribute social hierarchy. Spaniards were differentiated
from American-born Spanish people, or Creoles.
Spaniard + Indian = Mestizo
Spaniard + Mestiza = Castizo
Indian + Mestiza = Coyote
Indian Man + African Woman = Chino
Pueblo Revolt (Popé’s Rebellion)
1680 – frustrated by Franciscan missionaries suppression of native religion, indigenous tribes
fought against their Spanish overlords in the
province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The Pueblo Revolt killed 400 Spanish and drove the remaining
2,000 settlers out of the province.
The French
In 1608, Samuel de Champlain
founded Quebec; French Empire
eventually included St. Lawrence
River, Great Lakes, Mississippi
The French gov’t strictly controlled
the colonies but made little effort to
encourage settlement
Because the fur trade was the basis
of the colonial economy, Indians
became valued trading partners (
not
exploitive like Spain
)
Strict rule by King of
France-autocratic
Population consisted of fur traders
(
coureurs de bois
), boatmen of the
inner river ways (
voyaguers
), and a
number of small farmers
To secure its claims to the vast
Mississippi River region, New
Orleans was founded at the mouth
of he Mississippi River
In the 1600s, English settlers
arrived in North America
◦ English colonization differed from
Spanish & French because the English gov’t had no desire to create a
centralized empire in the New World
◦ Different motivations by English settlers led to different types of colonies
17
thcentury England faced major
social changes:
◦ The most significantly was a boom in population; Competition for land, food, jobs led to a large mobile population (vagrants?)
◦ People had choices: could move to cities, Ireland, Netherlands, or America (but this was most expensive & dangerous)
Motives for migration to America:
◦ Religious: purer form of worship
◦ Economic: Escape poverty or the threat of lifelong poverty
◦ Personal: to escape bad marriages or jail terms
Migration to America was facilitated
by the English Civil War & Glorious
Revolution
The values of the migrants dictated
the “personality” of the newly
created colonies; led to distinct (not
unified) colonies
◦ The Chesapeake
◦ New England
◦ Middle Colonies
◦ The Carolinas & Georgia
By the early 1600s, Spain, England, & France
had large territorial claims in North America
(but these colonies were not heavily populated,
especially in Spanish & French claims)
These colonial claims came largely
at the expense of the Native
What did
America
look like
in the
18
thBy the early 1600s, Spain, England, & France
had large territorial claims in North America
(but these colonies were not heavily populated,
especially in Spanish & French claims)
These colonial claims came largely
at the expense of the Native
Americans already living there
The Spanish & French adopted
Frontiers of Inclusion
while the British
North American Population, 1750
Native Americans
1.5 million
New England
400,000
Chesapeake
390,000
Pennsylvania
230,000
New York
100,000
Lower South
100,000
Backcountry
100,000
New France
70,000
Native Americans
By the 18
thCentury, the Indians in
contact with European colonists
became dependent upon them:
◦
For manufactured clothes, guns, &
trade
◦
The French had the best relationship
with Indians
The Spanish Borderlands in
1770
The Spanish borderlands had slow population
growth (unlike the British colonies)
Spain never had a secure political
or military hold on the borderlands
St. Augustine was not
attractive to settlers
Popé’s (Pueblo) Revolt in
1692 limited Spanish
control north of Mexico
18
thCentury
French
Settlemen
ts
Population in the “French
Crescent” grew 500% by 1750
due to natural reproduction
Jesuit missionaries
converted Native
Americans
Most French colonists were
coureur des bois
(fur traders)
or
habitants
(farmers)
