Alexander Huang
17 August 2010
AP US History / 2A
Chapter #1: New World Beginnings
The Shaping of North America
1. How different could North
America have been,
geographically speaking?
2. Which geographic locations of
North America are prominent
and possibly strategic in the
future New World?
3. How would you prove that the
Great Ice Age changed the
geographical history of North
America?
Peopling the Americas
1. What are the chances of
nobody reaching North
America by the time of
Columbus?
2. What might have prompted
the Indian tribes to continue
migrating after reaching North
America?
3. What theories could be made
about transitions from Eurasia
to the Americas?
The Earliest Americans
1. What might have happened if
the Iroquois became a
powerful empire like the
Aztecs and Inca?
2. What factors in early Indian
settlement habits might testify
to the later domination of the
Europeans?
3. What differences are there
between large nation-states
like the Aztecs and the Inca,
and small colonies?
-Supercontinent 225m b4; chunks broke off to form
continents
-Anchored to “Canadian shield” mass of rock; first part of NA
-Many mountain ranges created after NA formed
-Great Ice Age 2m b4; ice sheets blanketed NA, Europe, Asia
-Glaciers melted after Great Ice Age, depressing Canadian
shield and creating lakes (Bonneville, shrank until only Great
Salt Lake)
-Snake/Columbia Rivers (West to Pacific) and
Missouri/Mississipi/Ohio Rivers (East to Atlantic) ; drains to
oceans
-Rockies “roof of America”
-Great Lakes formed due to drainage of water
-35,000 ago, land bridge between Siberia and Canada formed;
10,000 ago, land bridge disappeared into the water
-First ancestors of Indians possibly Asian hunters
-Indians nomadic, migrating from the Western United States
area east and south
-Sophisticated civilizations; Inca (Peru) and Aztec (Mexico)
-54 million people
-Might have arrived NA via crude boats
-Agriculture, esp. corn, transformed tribe after tribe of Native
Americans from hunting to farmers, started 5000 BC
-“Societies” scarcely existed
-One reason why Europeans bullied was because Aztecs and
Inca were not known at time
-Iroquois almost became as powerful as Aztecs/Inca, had a
confederacy and a military alliance
-Women dominant in culture; male hunted, women farmed
-Aside from igniting forest fires for better game, Natives did
not desire to harm nature
Indirect Discoverers of the New World
1. What might have happened if -Scandinavians chanced upon the northeastern part of North
the Scandinavian explorers
America; called it Vinland; did not have support to maintain
had the willpower and support control over it
to maintain a strong
-Europeans restless for conquest/trade… went to Africa/Asia
occupation of Vinland?
-Crusaders failed to capture Holy Land from Muslims
2. Had the Americas been
-Found and craved goods like silk, perfume and drugs
known beforehand, do you
-Transportation long and expensive
think the Europeans would
-Desired a new and shorter trade route
first attempt to conquer or
trade with the settlements
there, or stick with Africa and
Asia?
Europeans Enter Africa
1. What benefit is there in first
-Marco Polo first talked of China; Europe further desires to
making contacts with
discover trade route
Africans?
-Portuguese used caravels to make contact with Africans;
2. What conclusions can you
brought the idea of flesh trade and plantations to Europe
make about the Europeans’
-Portuguese continued their domination over Africa;
competitive nature?
discovered most of Africa’s shape and found India
-Spain unites under 1 (Ferdinand and Isabella marry)
-Spain desires to beat Ports; goes west to find route to Indies
cuz south/east controlled by Ports
Columbus Comes upon a New World
1. Why are the Native Americans -Technology boomed; printing press, mariner’s compass
commonly misnamed as the
-Christopher Columbus, Italian sailor
“Indians?”
-Took 3 ships and sailed west
2. What other decisions could
-6 weeks passed until Columbus’s crew discovered what
Columbus have done after he
was originally thought of as the “Indies,” but actually an
discovered what he thought was island in the Bahamas
the “Indies,” instead of
-Dawned eventually upon them that this was a large land
returning home?
mass (land barrier)
-Africa: labor, Europe: technology + markets; New World:
materials
When Worlds Collide
1. Were the trades between the
Old and the New Worlds—
including disease—worthwhile
in the effort of globalization?
2. Why did the Native American
tribes quickly die to the
diseases that Europeans did not
die of?
-Species of flora/fauna not known to Europeans
-3/5 of today’s crops are originally from the Americas
-The Old World brought wheat, sugar, rice, coffee, horses,
cows, pigs and deadly diseases
-The New World gave gold, silver, crops (like corn,
tomatoes, beans and tobacco) and syphilis
-Africa gave labor
The Spanish Conquistadores
1. What noticeable similarities are
there between the Spanish
conquistadores?
2. How did the conquistadores
affect the New World’s future?
3. How might you explain the
venturous nature of the
conquistadores?
The Spanish Conquistadores
1. What probable alternative to
Cortés’s arrival at Tenochtitlan
might have resulted in a
stronger future?
2. How has Spain’s lust for gold
shaped the world we live in
today?
-Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494; Spain gets New World,
Portugal gets Asia/Africa/Brazil
-Vasco Nunez Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean
-Ferdinand Magellan led the first circumnavigation of globe
-Coronado explored inland of New World
-Hernando de Soto also explored inland and abused Indians
-Francisco Pizarro defeated the Incas of Peru
-The great amount of silver from New World allowed
stronger trade with Asia
-1519, Hernan Cortés sailed to Mexico
-On route, rescued Spanish castaway and Indian slave
Malinche, translators and informers
-With 20,000 Indian allies, Cortés traveled to Tenochtitlan
and informed chieftain Moctezuma that he desired gold
-Moctezuma invited Cortés and his troops in the city, where
they discovered the Spaniards’ lust for gold
-Aztecs attacked on noche triste (sad night; June 30, 1520),
driving out Spaniards
- Cortés sieged and captured city in August 13, 1521
-War and disease led to the fall of the Aztecs
-Mexicans first born from Aztecs and Spanish
The Spread of Spanish America
1. What religion did the Spaniards
wish to pass on to the Indians?
2. Compare and contrast the
Spanish conquistadores’
attitude towards the Indians
with the Crusaders’ attitude
towards the Holy Land and the
Portuguese’s attitude toward
Africa.
Chapter Summary
-Spanish universities created, cities erected
-Other Europeans (French, English) wished to take some of
the New World
-Christianity spread across America
-New Mexico: 1609, took from Pueblos
-New Mexico would be a hub for Christian religion until
Pope’s Rebellion in 1680, where Pueblos recaptured New
Mexico for almost half century
-California Christian mission by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
-“Black Legend:” Spaniards did little to Indians but kill
them, steal their gold, enslave them, and infect them. Not
necessarily true, also modernized them and allowed their
cultures to remain
Approximately 35,000 years ago, Asian hunters and nomads traveled from a
land bridge between Siberia and Canada into North America. These hunters
eventually settled across both Americas, forming tribes (including the Aztec
and Incan empires). With the introduction of corn about 7000 years ago, most
hunting tribes became strictly agrarian.
When the Portuguese took control of all known trade routes to Asia, Africa, and
the fabled “Indies,” the newly formed Spanish empire decided to search
westward for a trade route. In 1492, Italian sailor Christopher Columbus took
three ships and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, arriving at an island in the
Bahamas some six weeks later. After Columbus found the “New World,” many
other Spanish explorers, known as conquistadores (or “conquerors”) arrived in
search of treasure.
The first gifts the New World brought the Spanish included crops, silver and
gold—prizes the Spanish originally wanted from the Indies. The Spanish gave
the New World animals like the swine and the horse, but also gave the Native
Americans deadly Old World diseases that wiped out over 90% of their
population.
Soon, the conquistadores began to construct settlements. Lust for gold and
silver led to the destruction of the Aztec and Incan empires, the largest known
tribes of the Native Americans. Other small tribes, such as the Pueblos, were
tortured, enslaved, and driven out of their homeland. The Old World gained
wealth like no other, allowing stronger trade between Asia and Africa.
Furthermore, the Spanish were also successful in converting Native Americans
into Christians.
Vocabulary
Overall, despite the Native American depopulation—a terrible catastrophe in
human history—the Spanish had integrated two cultures into one (seen in
Mexico, where Aztecs and Spaniards married and gave birth to the first
Mexicans) and modernized the New World greatly.
Canadian shield, Great Ice Age, Siberia, Canada, Indians (Native Americans),
Inca, Aztec, Iroquois, Crusaders, Marco Polo, Muslims (Moors), Portuguese
(Portugal), Spanish (Spain), Christopher Columbus, Indies, Treaty of
Tordesillas, Hernan Cortes, Tenochtitlan, Mexicans, Christianity, New Mexico,
Pope's Rebellion, Black Legend