1. Chapter 1
New World Beginnings

2. Planetary Perspectives

3. The Beginnings
6,000 years ago recorded history of the western world began
500 years ago the American Continent was discovered
America started from scratch on a vast and virgin continent, a rare opportunity for a great social and political experiment

4. The Shaping of North America

5. Formation of America
Pangea broke apart to become Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the Americas some 225 million years ago
Appalachians million years old Rockies - between 135 and 25 million
The Great Ice age - 2 million years ago
Lake Boneville - Utah, Nevada, and Idaho

6. Pangea

7. The First Discoverers of America

8. The Bering Straight
Low sea levels uncovered land bridge between Eurasia and North America
First inhabitants, probably following migrating herds of game, ventured across for some 250 centuries
Ice Age ended 10,000 years ago, covering the straight

9. Original Americans Spread Out
As the ice melted, new valleys were opened, and the people moved Southward and Eastward
They eventually reached the Southern tip of South America, 15,000 miles from Siberia
Around 72 million inhabitants when Columbus arrived in 1492

10. Culture
Countless tribes, over 2000 languages, diverse religions, cultures, and ways of life.
Incas in Peru, Mayans in Central America, and Aztecs in Mexico shaped sophisticated civilizations.
Advanced agricultural practices based on maize, fed large populations
Elaborate cites and far-flung commerce
Astronomical observations
Aztecs used human sacrifices

11. Aztec Monument and Calendar

12. The Earliest Americans

13. Agriculture and corn
Corn growing accounted for size and sophistication of Native American civilizations
As corn cultivation spread, it slowly transformed nomadic tribes into agricultural villages
Pueblos built intricate irrigation systems
Three-sister farming using beans, cornstalks, and squash produced highest population densities

14. Societal Organizations
Iroquois Confederacy most effective in political and organizational skills
Sustained a robust military alliance
Most lived in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements
Women tended crops while men hunted, fished, gathered fuel, and cleared fields for planting
Gave substantial authority to women
Many developed matrilinear cultures

15. Attitudes Native Americans did not manipulate nature aggressively
Revered the physical world and endowed nature with spiritual properties
Only about 4 million in North America in 1492

16. Indirect Discoverers of the New World

17. The trail to discovery
Norse seafarers from Scandinavia had landed in or near New Foundland in 1000 A.D.
Called it Vinland
Forced to leave without support of a strong nation state
Restless Europeans sought contact with a wider world, whether for conquest or trade

18. Christian Crusaders
Crusaders acquired a taste for the exotic delights of Asia while trying to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control
Europe now cried for less expensive silk, drugs, perfumes, colorful draperies, spices, and especially sugar
Luxuries came across the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea or over Asia or the Arabian peninsula
Muslim middlemen exacted heavy tolls en route

19. Europeans Enter Africa

20. Europeans growing desire
Marco Polo ignited European desires for a cheaper route to the the East with his tales of a 20 year sojourn in China
Portuguese mariners developed the caravel, allowing Europeans to sail along the West coast of Africa
Set up trading posts along the shore for gold and slaves
Arab traders deliberately separated tribes, fostering the extinction of cultures and tribal identities

21. Middle East

22. The Portuguese and slavery
Portuguese adopted Arab slave practices
Built a systematic traffic in slaves to work the sugar plantations on coastal islands
Slave trading became a big business
40,000 Africans sent to the Atlantic sugar islands
The modern plantation system finds its origins in the Portuguese in Africa

23. The Portuguese Press on
Bartholomeu Dias rounded the tip of the “Dark Continent” in 1488
Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498
Meanwhile, Spain became united in the late 15th century
Resulted from the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and from the expulsion of the Muslim Moors
Spaniards eager to outstrip their Portuguese rivals in the Indies
Couldn’t go South, so looked West

24. Bartholomeu Dias

25. Vasco da Gama

26. Columbus Comes upon a New World

27. Christopher Columbus
Printing press and mariner’s compass helped make knowledge and exploration more appealing
October 12, 1492
Successful failure
Indian misnomer

28. When Worlds Collide

29. Contrasting Ecosystems
Tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes revolutionized the international economy and the European diet
European brought new crops (sugar cane) and animals, transforming the Native American way of life

30. The Spanish Conquistadores

31. New World Prizes
Gold and silver from Indian civilizations attracted Europeans
The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
Spain received most, but Portugal got Brazil
Spain became the dominant exploring and colonizing power in the 1500’s

32. The Conquistadores
In the service of God, as well as for gold and glory, they came to the Caribbeans and to the mainland
Vasco Nunez Balboa
Discoverer of the Pacific Ocean
Ferdinand Magellan
Headed first circumnavigation of the globe, around the Southern tip of South America

33. Vasco Nunez Balboa

34. Ferdinand Magellan

35. Other Conquistadores Juan Ponce de Leon explored Florida
Francisco Coronado wandered through Arizona and New Mexico, even to Kansas
Discovered the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River and huge buffalo herds
Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River
Francisco Pizarro crushed the Incas in Peru

36. Ponce de Leon’s path

37. Francisco Coranado

38. Hernando De Soto’s Route

39. Franciso Pizarro’s Route

40. Effects of Exploration
Gold and silver changed world economy, and perhaps gave birth to capitalism
Stimulated commerce and manufacturing
Laid foundations of modern commercial banking
Encomienda allowed the government to “commend,” or give, Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to try to Christianize them - slavery

41. The Conquest of Mexico

42. Hernan Cortes
Malinche, a female Indian slave, picked up by Cortes as an interpreter
He gathered 20,000 Indian allies and marched on Tenochtitlan for gold
Mistaken for the god Quetzalcoatl, he was allowed to approach the city unopposed

43. Hernan Cortez

44. The Fall of the Aztecs
Welcomed at first, Cortes thirsted for gold and power
Noche triste - the Aztecs attacked the Spaniard
August 13, Tenochtitlan fell
The Spaniards built over the old capital and used their new crops, animals, language, and laws
Aztecs died of disease and conquest

45. The Spread of Spanish America

46. Spanish Spread Hundreds of Spanish cities and towns, cathedrals
Universities at Mexico City and Lima
Threatened by other powers
English John Cabot in
Italian Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524
French Jacques Cartier in 1534
Fortress at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 to block the French

47. Continued Expansion
Don Juan do Onate traveled North and cruelly abused the Pueblo peoples.
Battle of Acoma in 1599 very cruel
Proclaimed the area to be the province of New Mexico in 1609 and founded Santa Fe as its capital
Roman Catholic mission became central in New Mexico until Pope’s Rebellion in 1680
Pueblos killed hundreds and rebuilt a kiva at Santa Fe

48. Spanish Power
Some refugees from New Mexico moved to Texas and established missions there, including the Alamo
In California, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo had explored the coast in 1542
In 1769, Father Junipero Serra founded San Diego s the first of 21 missions
Converted thousands of Indians
Black Legend somewhat true, but not completely