1. Day 1: Pre-Columbian Society & Exploration
Essential Questions:
What were characteristics of the major groups of Native Americans before contact?
Why did Europeans colonize the Americas?
Readings:
Kennedy Ch. 1 (beginning - Columbus Comes upon a New World)
Zinn – Columbus (pgs. 1-7) or
Exploration - Cortez vs Aztec Account

2. Notes: Pre-Columbian Society & Exploration

3. Three Worlds Meet
Americas
Africa
Europe
Population:
Land Area:
16 million square miles
12 million square miles
4 million square miles
Important Empires:
Major Advancements:
Contact with Other Worlds:
Draw this chart in your notes and complete it using pgs of the Nystrom History Atlas

4. Central and South America (continue notes)
Maya – 1500 BCE to 1546 CE
Aztecs – CE
Inca CE
Common Features:
Complex governmental and social structures
Polytheistic
Sprawling cities and road systems
Advanced calendars, mathematics, and communication systems.

5. Southwest Harsh and inhospitable environment.
Anasazi - Ancestors of the Hopi and Pueblo. Built huge cities, often in the sides of cliffs.
Hopi, Yuam, and Zuni - farmers, permanent homes.
Maize Cultivation
Apache and Navajo - nomadic hunters.

6. Northwest
Hunting, fishing (salmon) and cedar made these tribes wealthy.
Massive canoes known to hold fish and 20 warriors.
No written language - used totem poles to record stories through images.
Social system - nobles, commoners, slaves
Examples:
Chinook
Cowlitz
Nooksack
Tlingit

7. Great Plains Nomadic - followed the buffalo migrations.
Used all parts of the buffalo for food, shelter, clothing, weapons, tools, spoons, cups, whips, and containers.
Used tepees while on their hunting trips for shelter and to transport possessions.
Early Europeans reintroduced the horse = better hunting and travel
Examples:
Blackfoot
Cheyenne
Comanche
Crow
Pawnee
Sioux

8. Northeast
Variations of climate, landscape, and natural resources = wide variations of cultures
Wigwams and longhouses
Iroquois - group (league) of tribes originally comprised of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca tribes.
Matrilineal
Other examples
Chippewa
Huron
Shawnee

9. Southeast Hunters, gatherers, and farmers.
Remained in the same general area, but were move where food was most abundant.
The Three Sisters: Corn, squash, and beans
Examples:
Cherokee
Chickasaw
Choctaw
Creek
Seminole

10. Age of Discovery European Explorers fueled by a desire for:
new sources of wealth
increased power and status
converts to Christianity.
Spain and Portugal wanted to establish trade with Asia and financed overseas exploration

12. The Age of Discovery Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
Sponsored by the King and Queen of Spain
Sailed west to find a quicker route to Asia
1st voyage led to 3 more – further explored Caribbean and destroyed natives.
Treaty of Tordesillas: divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain

13. You will be assigned an excerpt from this reading passage.
Document 1.1: “Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress” Howard Zinn – A People’s History of the United States
You will be assigned an excerpt from this reading passage.
The Discovery (pg 2-3)
The Goals (pg 3-5)
The Natives (pg 5-6)
The Impact (pg 6-7)
Complete today’s document journal entry, and then be prepared to present your findings to the class.
You will be asked to share sections of your APPARTS so the rest of the class will have a more complete understanding of their own reading.

14. Questions for Columbus
If Columbus walked in the door right now, what questions (clarifying, challenging, contextual) would we have for him?
The Discovery
The Goals
The Natives
The Impact

15. Other Explorers (continue notes)
Portugal
Vasco de Gama ( ): Discovered an all water route to India.
Ferdinand Megellan ( ): 1st to sail around the world
England:
John Cabot: claimed parts of North America
France:
Jacques Cartier: St. Lawrence River
Samuel Chaplain: Great Lakes area
Robert de la Salle: Mississippi River
Dutch:
Henry Hudson: Hudson River looking for a “Northwest Passage” to Asia.

16. Wrap Up
What were characteristics of the major groups of Native Americans before contact?
Why did Europeans colonize the Americas?