1. Alan Brinkley, AMERICAN HISTORY 12/e
Chapter One:
The Meeting of Cultures
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

2. America Before Columbus
The Civilizations of the South
Incas: Cuzco, Machu Picchu
Modern day Peru
Mayans: Mayapan
Central America,
Yucatan Peninsula
Aztecs: Tenochtitlan
Mexico   
The Mayan Pyramid of Kukulkan (Royalty-Free/CORBIS)
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3. America Before Columbus
The Civilizations of the North
Complex and Varied Civilizations 
 Mobile Societies
No large empires or political systems like Incas, Mayas,
or Aztecs
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4. Europe Looks Westward Commerce and Nationalism
A Reawakening of Commerce
Century following Bubonic plague provided population rebound, with such growth came a rise in land values.
Marco Polo leaves for the Far East (Bibliothèque Nationale de France)
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5. Chapter One: The Meeting of Cultures
Commerce and Nationalism
A Reawakening of Commerce
Century following Bubonic plague provided population rebound, with such growth came a rise in land values.
Centralized Nation-States
New nations began to rise that were more powerful than the weak feudal lords of the past.
Strong monarch emerged with centralized nations, courts, armies, and tax systems.
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6. Prince Henry the Navigator
Portuguese monarch
Actually sought to explore African coast and develop a Christian empire
After his death, his crew continued further past the Cape of Good Hope and opened routes to India.
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7. Europe Looks Westward Christopher Columbus Columbus’s First Voyage
Italian by birth, trained
by Portuguese mariners,
but didn’t receive funding
Eventually convinced
Ferdinand and Isabella of
Spain to sponsor his trip
Christopher Columbus (Library of Congress)
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8. Europe Looks Westward Amerigo Vespucci Ferdinand Magellan
First explorer to record trip to new world and recognize it as a new place.
Also sailed for Portugal
Ferdinand Magellan
Sailed south around the Straits of Magellan
First to discover the Pacific Ocean
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9. Europe Looks Westward The Conquistadores Francisco Pizarro
Cortés Conquers the Aztecs
First conquest of the capital was a failure, but they unknowingly exposed them to smallpox
Viewing this as an act of god, they brutally ruled them
Francisco Pizarro
Conquered the Incas and revealed the wealth of Gold that could be found in the new world.
Hernando de Soto
Deputy of Pizarro, explored what is today Florida. The first European east of the Mississippi River.
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10. Spanish America Ordinances of Discovery
Military conquest of the Americas, conquistadores sought Gold and wealth
For 300 years the
Spanish settlements
yielded more than 10
times the gold than
the rest of the world
combined.
Spanish America
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11. Spanish America Second Phase of Spanish Development Catholic Missions
Once gold refinery dwindled the new wave of conquest turned to agricultural development.
Developed European elements of civilization
Permanently altered the landscape and social structure of the Americas.
Catholic Missions
Adhering to the church, Ferdinand and Isabella required Catholicism as only religion of new establishments
Most established missions were connected with military garrisons called Presidios where they combined economic and military power.
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12. Northern Outposts St. Augustine Onate in New Mexico
1565: First settlement in present day U.S.
Military outpost and administrative center for Franciscan Monks.
Onate in New Mexico
Established settlement with Pueblos and built agricultural wealth through cattle trade on ranchos.
Peaceful cohabitation with natives until Catholic priests forced complete native conversion.
Led to Revolt of 1680

13. The Empire at High Tide Vast lands Little ability of Spanish
By end of the 16th Century Spanish lands would stretch from California through Central America, Florida, and eventually
Brazil
Little ability of Spanish
lords to form political
groups apart from the
Crown, unlike later
British Colonies.
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14. The Meeting of Cultures
Biological and Cultural Exchanges
Increasing Levels of Exchange
Demographic Catastrophe
Deliberate Subjugation and Extermination
Since native societies were actually highly advanced, the Europeans used brutal tactics to put down the threat.
New Crops and Agricultural Techniques
A Complex Racial Hierarchy
Reasons for Intermarriage
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15. Africa and America Between 1500 and 1800 over half of the new
arrivals in the Americas
were from Africa.
Inset from Map of Africa and Americas (Library of Congress)
1633 Map of Atlantic (Royalty-Free/CORBIS)
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16. Africa and America African Society African Slavery
Highly sophisticated, especially in places like Ghana and Mali, centers of trade
Matrilineal societies with significant sexual equality
Elaborate social hierarchy
Priests and nobles, farmers, traders, craftsmen, slaves
African Slavery
Not permanent, still had rights, not inherited
Much different than in America
Need for laborers on sugar cane plantations created initial African slave trade.
By 1700 it was a thriving business.
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17. The Arrival of the English
Search for a Northwest Passage
John Cabot arrived roughly 5 years after Columbus
The Commercial Incentive
Increased demand for wool
caused many landlords to
pasture their fields rather than
grow crops. 
No more jobs for tenant
Farmers.
Wasdale Head, Cumbria, England (Royalty-Free / CORBIS)

18. The Commercial Incentive
Surplus population
Unemployed beggars caused problems, and since fewer crops were grown England did not have enough food to feed the people.
Chartered Companies
Groups of merchants acquired charters from the monarch allowing them to finance trips to new world and in turn reap benefits of such colonies.
Mercantilism
Belief that a nation always builds wealth at the expense of other nations.
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19. The Religious Incentive
Protestant Reformation
1517 Martin Luther challenge
basic beliefs and practices of
the Catholic Church.
English Reformation
Began as a dispute between
Henry VIII and the Pope.
Long struggle between
Catholics and Protestants for
control of England
“Bloody Mary” & Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth I (Portrait Gallery)

20. Religious Incentive Puritan Separatists Puritan Discontent
Religious radicals that believed they should break from the Catholic Church completely and free to worship as they wished.
Against the law
Puritan Discontent
James I became the first Stuart to obtain the throne and refused to compromise with Puritans in any way, favoring the Catholics.
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21. English roots in Ruling others
The English in Ireland
Irish use of Gaelic/Catholic culture caused the English to view them as wild and ignorant “savages”.
The English refused to believe the Irish could be included in civilized culture, and learned their role as colonizers from their treatment of the Irish.
Plantation Model
English gov’t sought to create plantations of English society in new lands, and remain separate from any natives they controlled.
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22. French and Dutch in America
Quebec – First French settlement
Few French Catholics felt the need to come, and Protestants were forbidden
Coureurs de Bois:
French fur traders developed a close relationship with natives
Aspect of colonization unique to the French
New Amsterdam preacher (Library of Congress)
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23. Dutch in America Henry Hudson: New Amsterdam
Englishman employed by the Dutch, sailed up the Hudson River
Because it was so wide, he thought he had finally found the Northwest passage to the Pacific
He was wrong, and his crew’s mutiny near Hudson Bay left him for dead.
New Amsterdam
Dutch settlement in the America’s on what is today New York.
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24. The First English Colonies
Gilbert’s Expedition to Newfoundland
Humphrey Gilbert, friend of Queen Elizabeth, received permission to build in the unclaimed territories.
Upon looking for a place to build his military outpost, his ship was lost at sea.
Roanoke
Sir Walter Raleigh, Gilbert’s half brother, organized an expedition a year later.
They settled on a small island off the coast of Virginia
In 1590 the group’s leader, John White, returned to England for supplies
Conflicts with Spain delayed his return for 3 years.
When he finally returned the colony had been abandoned.
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