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Pre-Columbian Societies, European Exploration and Transatlantic Encounters
Pre-Columbian Societies, European Exploration and Transatlantic Encounters
1. What were the Americas like prior to Columbus arriving?
2. What motivated European exploration and what new technology made it possible?
3. What are some effects of colonization in the Americas?
Essential Questions
Pre-Columbian Societies:What were the Americas like prior to Columbus?
The First Americans• Siberian hunters crossed
Bering Land Bridge– Nomadic people who
followed herds of animals• Agricultural Revolution
begins in the Americas 7,000 years ago– Settle into villages– Domesticate animals
Cultures of Central and South America• Maya 400 BCE-1500 CE– Known for developing
“zero,” their own writing system, and religious pyramids
• Aztec 1400-1521 CE– Known for their large
empire and tributary system, huge capital Tenochtitlan, and human sacrifices
Aztec Sacrifice
Earliest North American Cultures• Different environments
led to different types of societies
• Anasazi 200 BCE-1300 CE– Multistory adobe
buildings called pueblos
North American Cultures in the 1400s• Over 2,000 different tribes• Population between 1- 10M• Villages organized by kinship• Some villages headed by
chiefs, others by a council of elders
• Shared land• Spiritual connection to
natural world• Large trade network based
on bartering system
Native-American TradeThose living in fertile regions traded surplus food…
Some traded desirable minerals likeflint, copper, turquoise…
Native-Americans in the southwest traded cotton seed and cloth…
Native-Americans living near oceans traded shells and pearls…
Others would trade crafts like baskets and pottery…
Talk to your neighbor:
What were the Americas like prior to Columbus arriving?
European Exploration:What motivated European exploration and what new
technology made it possible?
The Crusades Spark Curiosity• Fears of sea monsters
and boiling seas• The Crusades 11-13th C
– Pope Urban II calls on Christian kings and princes to recapture the Holy Land
– Effects: open eyes to world outside Europe, increased trade with ME• Spices, sugar, silk, carpets,
fruits, perfumes
The Age of Exploration Begins• Desire to explore– Rulers want to increase power and wealth– Marco Polo travels to China and writes “Travels”– Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal funds
voyages to find sea route to India• Better sailing technology– Caravel, astrolabe, improved magnetic compass
Searching for a Sea Route to India
• Overland trip too long• Progress is made w/
courageous explorers from Portugal– Bartolomeu Dias
rounds Cape of Good Hope
– Vasco da Gama lands on Indian coast
“IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN”
Talk to your neighbor:
What motivated European exploration and what new technology made it possible?
Transatlantic Encounters:What are some effects of
colonization in the Americas?
Christopher Columbus
• Vikings are first Europeans to land in N.A., not Columbus– Greenland in late 900s, Canada in
1000– Settlers left after three years
• Christopher Columbus– Before Vasco Da Gama’s success– Dreams of reaching India by crossing
Atlantic– Convinces Ferdinand and Isabella of
Spain to fund voyage
Columbus cont.
• Miscalculates the diameter of the world and distance to India
• In Oct 1492 his crew lands on an island in the Caribbean– Names the island San
Salvador– He believes he is in India
“in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”
Columbus cont.
• Founds the colony La Navidad in Hispaniola and leaves for Spain
• Upon his return learns men acted wildly in his absence and have been killed by Indians
• Some Indians are enslaved, others sent to Europe to be slave labor
Columbian Exchange:Exchange of products and species between old world and new
world
How is this picture evidence of the Columbian Exchange?
• Spread of European diseases to New World– Native Americans
had no resistance – Influenza, measles,
chicken pox, mumps, typhus
– Smallpox killed millions
– 95% of entire Aztec population died within a few years of contact
Biological Exchange
Talk to your neighbor
What are some effects of colonization in the Americas?
