Chapter 1 New World Beginnings

A. Bering Land Bridge1. As the Ice Age was ending and the sea level

dropped, it exposed a land bridge connecting Eurasia with North America in the area of the present-day Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska

2. By 1492, as many as 54 million people lived in the Americas

3. Main crop was maize (corn)4. Didn’t have horses, oxen, or even the wheel, but

still managed to build large cities

I. Peopling the Americas

A. Corn began to transform nomadic hunting bands into settled agricultural villagers1. The Pueblo (means village) people in the Rio Grande valley constructed intricate irrigation systems to water their cornfields

B. Population and the Complexity of Society1. Throughout the continent to the north and east of the land of the Pueblos, social life was less elaborately developed2. No dense concentrations of population or complex nation-states comparable to the Aztec empire existed in North America outside of Mexico3. This was one reason for the relative ease with which the European colonizers subdued the native Americans

II. The Earliest Americans

C. Iroquois1. Located in the northeastern woodlands2. In the 16th century, inspired by the legendary leader Hiawatha, they sustained the closest thing to the great nation-states of Mexico and Peru3. The Iroquois Confederacy developed the political and organizational skills to sustain a military alliance that menaced its neighbors, Native Americans, and Europeans alike, for well over a century

II. The Earliest Americans

D. Native American Settlements1. Most native Americans in North America were living in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements2. By 1492, there were about 4 million Native Americans in North America

II. The Earliest Americans

A. Norse1. Scandinavia seafarers landed in present-day Newfoundland about AD 10002. The area had many wild grapes, so they called it Vinland3. Their venture failed because they weren’t supported by a nation-state

III. Indirect Discoverers of the New World

Disputed Map of Vinland (15th C.)

B. Christian Crusaders1. Foiled in their military assaults on the Muslims in the Holy Land from the 11th to 14th centuries, the crusaders acquired a taste for the exotic delights of Asia2. Goods that had been virtually unknown in Europe now were craved:

a. Silkb. Drugsc. Perfumesd. Draperiese. Spices

- Sugar, a rare luxury in Europe before the crusades, was used to preserve and flavor food

III. Indirect Discoverers of the New World

C. Wanting a New Route1. The above goods had to be transported enormous distances from China and India in ships or on camel2. By the time the goods reached Europe, they were so costly that purchasers and profits alike were limited3. European consumers and distributors were naturally eager to find a less expensive route

III. Indirect Discoverers of the New World

A. Portuguese and Africa1. With the development of better ships, the Portuguese mariners could overcome obstacles of wind and current2. As a result, the Portuguese began to creep down the West African coast in the middle of the 15th century (Dark Continent)

B. Slavery1. They set up trading posts along the African shore for the purchase of gold and slaves. Arabs and Africans had traded slaves centuries before the Europeans had arrived2. Portugal was the origin of the modern plantation system, based on large-scale commercial agriculture and exploitation of slave labor

IV. Europeans Enter Africa

C. Spain1. In the late 15th century, Spain became more powerful from:

a. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon & Isabella of Castile

b. Expulsion of the “infidel” Muslim Moors after centuries of Christian-Islamic warfare

c. As a result of their new strength, the Spaniards were eager to outdo their Portuguese rivals. Since Portugal controlled the waterways around Africa, Spain looked west

IV. Europeans Enter Africa

A. The Stage Is Set1. Europeans – Clamored for more and cheaper products from the lands beyond the Mediterranean2. Africa – Was established as a source of cheap slave labor for plantation agriculture3. Portuguese voyages – Demonstrated the feasibility of long-range ocean navigation4. Spain – Was taking shape, with unity, wealth, and power to shoulder the formidable tasks of discovery, conquest, and colonization5. Renaissance – In the 14th century, it nurtured an ambitious spirit of optimism and adventure6. Printing presses – Facilitated the spread of scientific knowledge7. Mariner’s compass – Possibly borrowed from the Arabs, eliminated some of the uncertainties of sea travel

V. Columbus Comes Upon a New World

B. Result of Columbus’ Discovery1. He returned with gold, encouraging further expeditions2. An interdependent global economic system would emerge

a. Europe – provided the markets, capital, and technology

b. Africa – furnished the laborc. New World – Offered its raw materials,

especially metals and soil for sugar cane, tobacco, corn, and more

V. Columbus Comes Upon a New World

A. Positive Results of Columbus’ Discovery1. New World plants, such as tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes eventually revolutionized:

a. The international economyb. The European diet (3/5 of the crops cultivated around the globe today

originated in the Americas)c. Fed the rapid population growth

VI. When Worlds Collide

2. Columbus returned to Hispaniola (Dominican Republic today) with cattle, swine, and horses

a. The horses reached the North American mainland through Mexico and in less than two centuries had spread as far as Canadab. North American Indian tribes like the Apaches, Sioux, and Blackfoot swiftly

adopted the horse, transforming their cultures into highly mobile, wide-ranging hunter societies that roamed the grassy Great Plains in pursuit of the shaggy buffalo

VI. When Worlds Collide

B. Negative Results of Columbus’ Discovery1. The Europeans also brought the germs that caused smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria2. During the Indians’ millennia of isolation in the Americas, most of the Old World diseases disappeared from them and so their bodies didn’t need the protective antibodies. These diseases would quickly devastate the Native Americans. 90% of the Native Americans perished3. Indians infected early explorers with syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that was transferred to Europe

VI. When Worlds Collide

C. Results of Spanish Discoveries1. By 1600, Spain had a huge amount of silver. This resulted in:

a. The foundation of the modern commercial banking system

b. Increased consumer costs by as much as 500%c. Could have led to the growth of capitalismd. Spread commerce and manufacturinge. Paid for trade with Asiaf. Islands of the Caribbean Sea (West Indies) served

as bases for the Spanish exploration of mainland America (supplies could be stored and men/horses could be rested)

VI. When Worlds Collide

3. The West Indies also served as a place to test the encomienda system. It allowed the government to give Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to try to Christianize them. It was actually slavery. With the death of Native American slaves, Spaniards began importing African slaves

VI. When Worlds Collide

encomienda system

A. Protecting Their New World1. To secure the northern periphery of

their New World domain and to convert more Indian souls to Christianity, the Spanish began to fortify and settle their North American borderlands

B. The Spanish erected a fort at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. This founded the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the future U.S.

VII. The Spread of Spanish America

C. Catholicism in the New World1. Found few furs and little gold, but they did discover a wealth of Indians to be converted to the Christian religion2. Pope’s Rebellion of 1680

a. The Indians were upset that missionaries were suppressing their religious customs

b. Indian rebels destroyed every Catholic church in the province and killed priests and hundreds of settlers

c. It took nearly half a century for the Spanish fully to reclaim New Mexico from the Indians

D. Effects of the Spanish in the New World1. Misdeeds of the Spanish established the “Black Legend.” This concept held that the conquerors merely:

a. Tortured and butchered the Indiansb. Stole their goldc. Infected them with smallpoxd. Left little but misery behinde. They also erected a large empire from Florida to

Californiaf. They input their culture, laws, religion, and languageg. Intermarried and incorporated native culture into their own (rather than shun and eventually isolate the Indians

as the English did)h. Laid the foundations for many Spanish-speaking nations