1. Contact and Exploration
Units 1 and 2

2. First Americans
First Americans - approximately 35,000 years ago – long before Neolithic revolution
Date subject to debate
First Americans were hunter- gatherers
Crossed land bridge at Beringia
Gradual migration over thousands of years  NAs throughout North and South America 14,000 years ago

3. Cultural differences -different ecological regions
diversity languages spoken in the Americas
1491: 50 to 100 million Native Americans (as many as Europeans), maybe 10M north of Mexico, 700,000 on coastal plain and piedmont

4. Native American Unity
NO MORE UNITED THAN EUROPE WAS!!! NO UNITY TO RESIST EUROPEANS. SOME SAW EUROPEANS AS POSSIBLE ALLIES AGAINST ENEMIES

6. Native American World View
Animists: every part of the natural world was sacred and world inhabited by beings with spirits linked together into a sacred whole
Land should not be exploited.
Land not privately held. Territorial boundaries existed but within these limits land held in common.
The collective not the individual was emphasized. No emphasis on private accumulation.

7. Note: Be sure to take good notes on the Native American culture groups shared in class!!!

8. Regional Cultures – VERY IMPORTANT
Regional Cultures – VERY IMPORTANT!! Pueblo People of Southwest (Hopi, Pueblos)
Noted for: arid environment  smaller populations, intricate irrigation systems and hillside terracing to work dry environment, ceramics and cotton, use of adobe, a Spaniard wrote in 1559 wrote, “they live very much the same as we do”

9. Great Plains: Lakota (Sioux), Comanche, Crow
Noted for: originally hunter-gatherers, and farming BUT Columbian Exchange transformed these tribes. Horses led to more success in buffalo hunting AND expansion into lands held by others. Some small farming communities remained.

10. Pacific Coast – generally rejected agriculture due to abundance of food resources
California - home of localized groups many groups remained hunter gatherers
Northwest – Chinooks, Tlingits: use of ocean going dugout canoes, stratified societies governed by wealthy families, expert woodcarvers – ceremonial masks
Potlaches: winter gatherings sponsored by leading families gave away possessions to satisfy tribe members

11. Atlantic Coast – Iroquois, Coastal Tribes
Iroquois: 5 nations. matrilineal, the Iroquois Confederation, reciprocity, shaming and communalism
Coastal Indians – including Powhattan and Pequot
hunting, fishing and farming supported small villages often surrounded by wooden stockades as well as smaller mobile communities,
Many different nations which prevented unity and was exploited by European conquerors.

12. Factors Contributing to European Expansion
1. Significance of the Catholic (universal) Church. Protestant Reformation not until 16th Cent.
Envy of Muslim lands/ trade routes
2. Ottoman Empire cut Europeans off from land based trade in spices and luxury goods with Asia!
3. New routes to Asia were
Needed!

13. 4. New technologies, geographical knowledge and cartographical skills
Caravel and triangular sails for ocean voyages
Gunpowder and steel
Astrolabe and Compass
The shape and size of world had been known! Columbus using Biblical ideas refused to accept the distance to Asia was miles; he thought it was 3500!

14. 5. More powerful nation states
England and France slowly developing following the Hundred Years’ War (1337 – 1453).
Spain:
Aragon and Castile merged when Ferdinand and Isabella married in
In 1492, their armies defeated Muslims at Granada; Muslims and Jews expelled from the land

15. Columbus
Hoped to convert Asians to Christianity and find wealth to assist Europeans in struggle with Islam
Pope recognized conquest – Treaty of Tordesillas gave Spain newly discovered western lands and Portugal newly discovered eastern lands

16. “I found very many islands filled with people innumerable, and of them all I have taken possession for their highnesses”

17. Columbus
Treated people of Caribbean horrifically! (as non-Christians they could be exploited). Took slaves to return to Europe.
Ideas spread rapidly due to newly invented printing press.

18. Columbus (2)
Coumbus and Indians as envisioned in “the Black Legend” told by rival English
1493 Columbus returned to found colony - base of further exploration, and gain wealth
(gold, furs, sugar, slaves)
War of Conquest – using horses, canon, steel and trained dogs - hundreds of Taino killed on Hispaniola

19. Slaves taken to work on plantations ( it was legal to take slaves in a “just war”)
Inspiration for other Spanish and European conquerors.

20. The Spanish empire Conquests:
Lured first by desire for slaves in the Caribbean, later a lust for gold
Conquistadors – victorious due to use of steel weapons, use of frightening horses and war dogs, boldness, dishonesty but mostly - the impact of disease which weakened and demoralized Indians

21. The Spanish in North America – mostly looking for gold or riches
Conquistadors:
First Caribbean, Mexico and Peru,
Ponce de Leon: Florida (1513 – 1521)
Hernando de Soto: Mississippi Valley (1539 – 42)
Mostly met by gift bearing Indians, he still destroyed villages and tried to enslave them
First Permanent Settlement in America – St. Augustine – 1565
The Spanish in North America – mostly looking for gold or riches

22. The Spanish Conquest and Columbian Exchange
Columbian Exchange = the interchange of diseases, plants and human cultures between the New and Old Worlds after 1492
Completely remade North American environment!
Introduction of new crops (sugar), new animals (horses, sheep, cattle and pigs), and new pathogens.

24. Columbian Exchange in the New World: Epidemics  A Holocaust
On Hispaniola: From 300,000 in  33,000 in 1510 and 500 in
Diseases spread rapidly people had no immunities and were overworked by conquerors
GENERALLY a 90% drop in population
Large tracts of land now open to European settlement. In many cases like New England already cleared!

25. Columbian Exchange in Old World : A population explosion!
Cassava transported to Africa, potatoes and corn to Europe led to rapid population growth
Europe 1492 = 80M; 1650 = 105M
African population growth made slave trade easier.

26. The Spanish In the New World – The Black Legend Spanish church and rulers committed to bringing Indians freedom through Christianity Colonizers interested in wealth to free Spain from conflicts

27. Colonists and Indians
Conquistadors rewarded with grants known as encomiendas – the right to forced labor in return for “Christianizing” Indians
Indians conscripted, exposed to disease, and overworked on large plantations
EVENTUAL ASSIMILATION WAS GOAL!

28. New Spain
Colonists mostly young men resulted in intermarriage with Native Americans and a new caste system
New Spain became rich as a result of sugar plantations and silver mines.

29. Bartolome de Las Casas
Las Casas, Spanish priest, wrote of mistreatment of Indians, and pleaded for intervention by Spanish authorities.
Although he later changed his mind, he called for use of African Slavery to spare the Indian population
Recognized as a hero by indigenous peoples of Mexico
His work contributed to Black Legend

30. New Mexico and Pope’s Revolt II
Spanish ruled harshly – demanding labor and attempting to crush Pueblo traditional practices.
1680 Pope, pueblo leader, led revolt of 17,000 the greatest defeat of Europeans in American history
Pope urged Pueblo to restore traditional practices and reverse baptisms. Built kivas on church sites.
Spanish forced back to Mexico! Complete rejection of Spanish influence!
Spanish did not regain control for a dozen years but repealed ecomiendas, accepted religious compromises

31. Tremendous wealth!
Spain became the dominant power AND a perceived threat to other European nations

32. New France
Original goal: Northwest Passage and to find gold  failure. Fur trade became motivation of French efforts
Quebec 1608,
Sieur de La Salle claimed Mississippi Basin
Sparsely settled – only 19,000 by 1700, unable to defend!
King opposed settlement
Numbers not needed for beaver trade

33. New France and Indians
Emphasis on trade  a generally better relationship, alliances with various tribes
Did not appropriate land or force labor
Generally promoted Indian assimilation, however many French became assimilated into Indian cultures

34. The Dutch in North America (New Netherlands)
By 1614 Dutch settled Albany New York; 1624 purchased Manhattan (named New Amsterdam)
centered on fur trade
Very tolerant and diverse communities
Colony governed as a harsh military outpost
Large estates offered to patroons on Hudson River to attract wealthy investors who would transport servants – not generally successful
Only 9000 lived in New Netherlands when Britain seized it in mid 1600s,