In a Nutshell On a North American continent controlled by American Indians, contact among the peoples of Europe, the Americas, and West Africa created a new world.

 Part 1  A. Before the arrival of Europeans, native populations in North America developed a wide variety of social, political, and economic structures based in part on interactions with the environment and each other  B. As settlers migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America, they developed quite different and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments.

 Part 2  C. European overseas expansion resulted in the Columbian Exchange, a series of interactions and adaptations among societies across the Atlantic.  D. The arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere in the 15th and 16th centuries triggered extensive demographic and social changes on both sides of the Atlantic.  E. European expansion into the Western Hemisphere caused intense social/religious, political, and economic competition in Europe and the promotion of empire building.

 Part 3  F. Contacts among American Indians, Africans, and Europeans challenged the worldviews of each group.  G. European overseas expansion and sustained contacts with Africans and American Indians dramatically altered European views of social, political, and economic relationships among and between white and nonwhite peoples.  H. Native peoples and Africans in the Americas strove to maintain their political and cultural autonomy in the face of European challenges to their independence and core beliefs.

 Pueblo ◦ A name for the Native Americans of the present- day southwestern United States. Pueblos were also apartment-like structures made of adobe and mud that formed the “towns” of the Pueblo people.  Chinook ◦ Native Americans living in the Pacific Northwest of the present-day United States.

 Native societies responded to the lack of natural resources in the Great Basin and the western Great Plains by developing largely mobile lifestyles.

 a. Iroquois ◦ Native Americans living in the present-day northeastern United States.  b. Algonquin ◦ Native Americans found living over a large area from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes.

 a. smallpox ◦ Infectious disease brought to America by the Spanish that devastated native populations.  b. Mestizo ◦ A term used by the Spanish that referred to a people whose ancestors were both European and American Indian.  c. Zambo ◦ A term used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies to describe someone of African and American Indian ancestry.

 Spanish and Portuguese traders reached West Africa and partnered with some African groups to exploit local resources and recruit slave labor for the Americas

 The introduction of new crops and livestock (e.g. horses and cows) by the Spanish had far-reaching effects on native settlement patterns, as well as on economic, social, and political development in the Western Hemisphere.

 Columbian Exchange ◦ The exchange of people, plants, and animals between Europe, Africa, and North America that occurred after Columbus’s arrival in the Western Hemisphere.

 In the economies of the Spanish colonies, Indian labor, used in the encomienda system to support plantation-based agriculture and extract precious metals (e.g., silver), and other resources (e.g., sugar), was gradually replaced by African slavery

 encomienda system ◦ Spanish system to regulate and control Native Americans. The Spanish crown granted Spanish colonists a specified number of natives for whom they were to take responsibility.

 European exploration and conquest were fueled by a desire for new sources of wealth, increased power and status, and converts to Christianity.

 a. Christopher Columbus ◦ Led a voyage to the present-day Bahamas in 1492 and claimed the land he explored for the king and queen of Spain. By 1504, Columbus had made four voyages to America.  b. Juan Ponce de León ◦ Claimed Florida for the king of Spain in  c. St. Augustine, 1565 ◦ Pedro Menédez de Avilés established a colony for the Spanish that has become the oldest continuously-occupied European settlement in the United States.

 d. Walter Raleigh ◦ Englishman who sponsored the failed attempt to establish an English colony at Roanoke.  e. Roanoke, 1586 ◦ First attempt by the English to establish a colony in America. The settlers on Roanoke Island, which is located off the coast of North Carolina, managed badly and when an expedition with supplies arrived in 1590, the colonists were gone. What happened to the colonists remains a mystery.

 New crops (e.g., corn and potatoes) from the Americas stimulated European population growth, while new sources of mineral wealth facilitated the European shift from feudalism to capitalism.

 Improvements in technology and more organized methods for conducting international trade helped drive changes to economies in Europe and the Americas.

 a. sextant ◦ An instrument used to measure the angle between a celestial object and the horizon that became essential to navigation at sea.  b. joint stock companies ◦ Businesses owned by shareholders that invested in exploration and colonization.

 With little experience dealing with people who were different from themselves, Spanish and Portuguese explorers poorly understood the native peoples they encountered in the Americas, leading to debates over how American Indians should be treated and how “civilized” these groups were compared to European standards.

 a. Juan de Sepúlveda ◦ Spaniard who supported the Spanish Empire’s right of conquest and colonization in the New World. Sepúlveda also argued in favor of the Christianization of native Americans.  b. Bartolomé de Las Casas ◦ Spaniard who fought against the enslavement and colonial abuse of native Americans.

 Many Europeans developed a belief in white superiority to justify their subjugation of Africans and American Indians, using several different rationales.

 European attempts to change American Indian beliefs and worldviews on basic social issues such as religion, gender roles and the family, and the relationship of people with the natural environment led to American Indian resistance and conflict.

 a. Spanish Mission System ◦ The Spanish network of missions in the New World established to bring Christianity to native Americans who were required to learn the Spanish languages, as well as Christian teachings.  b. Juan de Oñate ◦ Spanish Conquistador and governor of the Spanish province of New Mexico. In the Acoma Pueblo uprising of 1598 his soldiers killed over 800 native Americans.

 In spite of slavery, Africans’ cultural and linguistic adaptations to the Western Hemisphere resulted in varying degrees of cultural preservation and autonomy.

 a. Maroons ◦ African refugees who had escaped slavery in the Americas and developed their own communities in Brazil and the Caribbean  b. African American Religion ◦ African saves mixed African beliefs and practices with Catholic rituals and theology, resulting in the formation of entirely new religions such as vaudou in Haiti (later referred to as "voodoo"), Santeria in Cuba, and Candomblé in Brazil.

 1. astrolabe: ◦ Instrument for measuring the position of the sun and stars; using these readings, navigators could calculate their latitude (their distance north and south of the equator).  2. conquistadors: ◦ Spanish soldiers who conquered Indian civilizations.