1. Objective: Summary of Origins and Lifestyles of Early Americans
 Era of Exploration
“Young Omahaw, War Eagle..." by Charles Bird King  1821

2. New World Beginnings THEME:
Motivated by economic and technological developments in European society, Portuguese and Spanish explorers encountered and then conquered much of the New World. This “collision of worlds” deeply affected all the Atlantic societies – Europe, the Americas, and Africa – as the effects of disease, conquest, slavery and intermarriage began to create a truly “new world” in Latin America, including the borderlands of Florida, New Mexico, and California, all of which later became part of the United States.

3. ECONOMIC
HISTORY
SOCIAL
POLITICAL

4. Map: Peopling of the Americas
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5. Map: First Americans Enter the New World
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6. Map: Locations of Selected Native American Peoples, C.E. 1500
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7. Map: Indian Economies in North America
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8. THE OLMECS 1200 BCE ??? http://www.sitchin.com/images/olmecs.jpg

9. MAYANS 250-900 CE http://www.maya.at/Bilder/Maya-Rad_Index.gif

10. AZTECS 1200-1500 CE The Great Temple at Tenochtitlán
Aztec home scene from Florentine Codex (The Art Archive) Houghton Mifflin Company

11. The Great Temple at Tenochtitlán
At the height of Aztec-Toltec civilization in central Mexico, which coincided with the arrival of Cortés and his Spanish soldiers in 1519, this capital city had a dense population of over 300,000, more than any European city. Built on marshy lowlands and linked to the mainland by broad causeways, it had great public works and pyramids to the sun and moon that were connected by an elaborate irrigation system. From this metropolis, priests, warriors, and rulers held absolute authority over hundreds of thousands of people in the countryside. (American Museum of Natural History #32659)
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12. Inca Suspension Bridge, 1613CE
Inca Suspension Bridge, 1613
Bridges like this one, sketched by a native Andean, enabled the Incas to move people and goods through the mountains. An Inca administrator stands to the left, overseeing the bridge. (Det Kongelige Bibliotek)
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13. HOHOKUM 3000 BCE ???

14. ANASAZI 3000 BCE ??? Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon
Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon
Pueblo Bonito illustrates the richness and grand scale of Anasazi architecture. (Richard Alexander Cooke III)
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15. 1450 Pueblo spiritual being
Among the Pueblo Indians, spirit partners were believed to communicate with people, helping them to maintain balance between their spiritual and physical qualities. These beings were sometimes rendered as three-dimensional figures (katsinas or kachinas) and in paintings like this one. Spanish Franciscans, among them Fray Alonso de Benavides, made a major effort to destroy these images as part of their effort to "civilize" the Indians. (Private Collection)
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16. Adena, Hopewell, Missippian (Mound-builders) 800-1500 CE

17. Cahokia Mounds
Cahokia Mounds
This contemporary painting conveys Cahokia's grand scale. Not until the late eighteenth century did another North American city (Philadelphia) surpass the population of Cahokia, c (Cahokia Mounds Historic Site, painting by William R. Iseminger)
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18. Iroquois Confederacy (Five Nations) 1100 ? – 1800’s CE
Mohawk: People Possessors of the Flint Onondaga: People on the Hills Seneca: Great Hill People Oneida: Granite People Cayuga: People at the Mucky Land Tuscarora: Shirt Wearing People became the Sixth Nation.
Iroquois Confederacy (Five Nations) 1100 ? – 1800’s CE
Reconstructed Iroquian village
Iroquois towns consisted of rows of longhouses, often surrounded by defensive walls. (Richard Alexander Cooke III)

19. THE GREAT BINDING LAW, GAYANASHAGOWA
1. I am Dekanawidah and with the Five Nations' Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of Great Peace. I plant it in your territory, Adodarhoh, and the Onondaga Nation, in the territory of you who are Firekeepers. I name the tree the Tree of the Great Long Leaves. Under the shade of this Tree of the Great Peace we spread the soft white feathery down of the globe thistle as seats for you, Adodarhoh, and your cousin Lords. We place you upon those seats, spread soft with the feathery down of the globe thistle, there beneath the shade of the spreading branches of the Tree of Peace. There shall you sit and watch the Council Fire of the Confederacy of the Five Nations, and all the affairs of the Five Nations shall be transacted at this place before you, Adodarhoh, and your cousin Lords, by the Confederate Lords of the Five Nations.
5. The Council of the Mohawk shall be divided into three parties as follows: Tekarihoken, Ayonhwhathah and Shadekariwade are the first party; Sharenhowaneh, Deyoenhegwenh and Oghrenghrehgowah are the second party, and Dehennakrineh, Aghstawenserenthah and Shoskoharowaneh are the third party. The third party is to listen only to the discussion of the first and second parties and if an error is made or the proceeding is irregular they are to call attention to it, and when the case is right and properly decided by the two parties they shall confirm the decision of the two parties and refer the case to the Seneca Lords for their decision. When the Seneca Lords have decided in accord with the Mohawk Lords, the case or question shall be referred to the Cayuga and Oneida Lords on the opposite side of the house.
9. All the business of the Five Nations Confederate Council shall be conducted by the two combined bodies of Confederate Lords. First the question shall be passed upon by the Mohawk and Seneca Lords, then it shall be discussed and passed by the Oneida and Cayuga Lords. Their decisions shall then be referred to the Onondaga Lords, (Fire Keepers) for final judgement. The same process shall obtain when a question is brought before the council by an individual or a War Chief.

20. Native American Village Life

21. John White's drawings of Indians fishing
John White, an artist with Raleigh's 1585 expedition (and later the governor of the ill-fated 1587 colony), illustrated three different fishing techniques used by Carolina Indians: to the left, the construction of weirs and traps; in the background, spearfishing in shallow water; and in the foreground, fishing from dugout canoes. The fish are accurately drawn and can be identified today. (Trustees of the British Museum)
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John White's drawings of Indians fishing

22. Native American Planting Maize, from Folio 121 from Histoire Naturelles Des Indes
Maize (corn), which was genetically engineered by Native Americans in what is now Mexico some 7,000 years ago, became one of the staple food sources for many Indian groups in North America. This sixteenth-century illustration depicts traditional Native American agricultural practices and typical foods including corn, squashes, and gourds. (The Pierpont Morogan Library/Art Resource, New York)
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23. Map: Europe and Its Neighbors, c. 1000
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24. Map: Europe, Africa, and Southwestern Asia in 1500
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25. Map: Atlantic Winds and Islands
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27. L'Anse aux Meadows artifacts: Whorl and butternut
Artifacts from L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, a site the Vikings called Straumond. These inconspicuous items revealed a great deal to archaeologists investigating the Norse settlements in North America. The small circular object, a spindle whorl used for spinning yarn, shows the presence of women at Straumond. The nut comes from a tree that grows only south of the St. Lawrence River, indicating the extent of Viking travel along the coast. (L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada)
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29. Marcellus Map, 1489, Insularium Illustratum
This map, produced in 1489 by Henricus Marcellus, represents the world as Christopher Columbus knew it, and incorporates information obtained after Bartholomew Dias, a Portuguese sailor, rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa in Marcellus did not try to estimate the extent of the ocean separating the west coast of Europe from the east coast of Asia. (British Library)
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30. Map: Major Transatlantic Explorations, 1000-1587
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32. What factors were behind European exploration of the Americas?

33. Map: Major Mesoamerican Cultures, c. 1000
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34. The Mexican Counterattack, Codex Durán
The differences between European and Native American styles and conceptions of warfare were often striking. This scene, from the Codex Durán, illustrates a Spanish force besieged by Aztec warriors. Note the contrast in clothing, for example. For most Indian groups, warfare was a highly spiritual affair surrounded by ceremony, often involving colorful and fanciful costumes. The European battle dress, however, bespeaks a very different conception of warfare: practical and deadly. (Archivo fotografico)
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35. The Columbian Biological Exchange
Forms of Biological Life Going From:
Old World to New World:
New World to Old World:
Diseases:
Smallpox Measles Chicken Pox Malaria Yellow Fever Influenza The Common Cold
Syphilis
Animals:
Horses Cattle Pigs Sheep Goats Chickens
Turkeys Llamas Alpacas Guinea Pigs
Plants:
Rice Wheat Barley Oats Coffee Sugarcane Bananas Melons Olives Dandelions Daisies Clover Ragweed Kentucky Bluegrass
Corn (Maize) Potatoes (White & Sweet Varieties) Beans (Snap, Kidney, & Lima Varieties) Tobacco Peanuts Squash Peppers Tomatoes Pumpkins Pineapples Cacao (Source of Chocolate) Chicle (Source of Chewing Gum) Papayas Manioc (Tapioca) Guavas Avocados
| This page was last updated on 12/3/98. | Return to History 111 Supplements | Site Map |
Dr. Harold D. Tallant, Department of History, Georgetown College 400 East College Street, Georgetown, KY 40324, (502)

36. Pre-Columbian figure with lesions
A male effigy dating from C.E., found in a burial site in Nayarit, Mexico. The lesions covering the figurine suggest that the person it represents is suffering from syphilis, which, untreated, produces these characteristic markings on the body in its later stages. Such evidence as this pre-Columbian effigy has now convinced most scholars that syphilis originated in the Americas--a hypothesis in dispute for many years. (Private Collection)
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37. Indians with smallpox
Indians with smallpox
European diseases killed many millions of Indians during the initial stages of contact because they had no immunity to such epidemic illnesses as influenza, measles, and plague. Smallpox was one of the deadliest of these imported diseases. This Aztec drawing illustrates smallpox's impact, from the initial appearance of skin lesions through death. Traditional Indian medical practices were unable to cure such diseases, and physical contact between shamans and patients actually helped to spread them. (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana)
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38. “El Abrazo” Gonzales Camarena

39. Bartolomé de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapas - 1542
New Spain was discovered in …During the 12 years {from 1518 to 1530} the Spanish killed more than four million men, women, and children with swords and lances, and by burning people alive…. This does not count those who have died, and continue to0 die every day, from the slavery and oppression that the Spanish impose….
Among other massacres perpetrated by the Spanish was one that took place in Cholula, a city with thirty thousand inhabitants. Dignitaries and priests from the city and the surrounding countryside greeted the Spanish with great solemnity and respect, and escorted them into the city and lodged them in the homes of the local nobility. The Spanish decided to stage a massacre – or a “chastisement” as they call it – in order to terrorize the population.
To accomplish this, the Spanish summoned the local dignitaries. As soon as they arrived to hold talks with the Spanish commander, they were taken captive and had no opportunity to warn others. Then the Spanish demanded five to six thousand Indians to carry their loads. ….Once these poor wretches assembled in the courtyard, guards blocked the gates with the Spanish soldiers slaughtered the Indians with swards and lances.
The pretext under which the Spanish invaded these areas, massacred their harmless inhabitants, and depopulated the country was to make the Indians subjects of the king of Spain.

40. What was the significance of the Columbian Exchange?

41. Map: The Spanish and Portuguese Empires
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42. Depiction of Racial Mixtures by Miguel Cabrera
One of the few extant depictions of a mixed-race family in eighteenth-century North America, by the Mexican artist Miguel Cabrera, The Spanish father and Indian mother have produced a mestiza daughter. Families such as this would have been frequently seen in New Mexico as well. (Private Collection )
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