History of Canada and the United States

What? The United States and Canada weren’t always here? NO! The land was here, but the country wasn’t Around 12,000 years ago nomads crossed over the Bering Land Bridge to modern-day Alaska from Siberia. The nomads multiplied and gradually spread and settled throughout the Americas. As they spread out and occupied different areas and environments, they became the different distinct indigenous cultures of North and South America.

Eventually there were MANY different Native cultures in North America. This map shows the original location of Native American tribes in the United States.

Then the Europeans came barging onto the scene! Around 1000 AD Vikings from Scandinavia visited Newfoundland, but did not stay long. In 1492 Christopher Columbus became the first of many European explorers who came to the Americas in search of the Northwest Passage, a shorter trade route to China. Christopher Columbus

The Conquistadors (Spanish for “The Conquerors”) The Spanish did most of the early exploring. They were looking for gold and they wanted to spread Christianity. Spanish explorers were known as conquistadors. Among them were Hernan Cortez, Francisco Pizarro, and Hernando De Soto. Hernando De Soto Francisco Pizarro

Impact of Spanish on Indigenous People ALL Europeans brought new diseases, such as measles and smallpox, which killed as many as 90% of some indigenous populations. Native Americans were often enslaved by Spanish colonists who forced them to work in mines and on farms. Many Native Americans were forced to adopt Christianity.

Columbian Exchange: With exploration came the trade/exchange of goods, plants, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Plant and animal species that had been completely separated by the Atlantic, were introduced to new locations, with some good and some disastrous results.

Good & Bad Results of Columbian Exchange The new nutritional foods introduced into the European diets contributed to better health and a population boom in Europe. Conversely, European diseases like measles and small pox were introduced in the Americas, causing native American populations to become sick and die. –By 1595, 18 million native people had died in Mexico alone.

The French and English followed the Spanish, forming their own settlements & colonies in North America. Impact of the French on Indigenous Peoples The French were interested in furs, not gold, and in spreading Christianity. They were mostly traders and missionaries. They claimed land along the St. Lawrence and Mississippi Rivers. French settlers had few conflicts with the Native Americans. They lived among the native people, shared the land, and learned native ways, rather than imposing their culture on the indigenous peoples.

Impact of British/Americans on Indigenous Peoples The British claimed most of the Atlantic Coastal lands. They came to claim new lands, for religious and political freedom, to escape debt, for business ventures, and some came as indentured servants. –British colonists, and later the Americans, frequently clashed with the Native Americans. –American settlers killed and forced the Native Americans out of the prime lands into less desirable parts of America as the US expanded westward.

The American Revolution resulted in the formation of the United States of America with its new democratic government. The US began as the area between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. The idea of Manifest Destiny, pushed the young Americans to start migrating west. They thought it was God’s destiny for them to possess the whole continent, and to spread democracy and Christianity. They did not think the Native people living here had the right to stop them. The government adopted policies that pushed Native Americans out of most of their homelands and into the less desirable lands in the US.

Aided by the Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled the size of the U.S. (We paid France $15 million---about $390 billion in today’s money.), and other acquisitions the US eventually spread to include all the lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and beyond.

Remember all those Native American tribes that inhabited North America? –Well this is what’s left in the US today after American westward expansion! Current Distribution of Native American Tribes Former Distribution of Native American Tribes