CONTACT: EUROPEANS
& AMERINDIANS
AP US HISTORY
OVERVIEW: BIG IDEAS
• By 1600, Europeans had created the world’s first
truly global economy.
OVERVIEW: BIG IDEAS
• Meanwhile, the "age of discovery" resulted in the greatest
human catastrophe the world has ever known: 90% of
Amerindians killed by 1600; slavery of 10s of millions of Africans.
OVERVIEW:
BIG IDEAS
• Cultural differences
between the European
and Amerindians were
so immense that
conflict was tragically
inevitable in the 15th,
16th and 17th centuries.
NATIVE AMERICANS (AMERINDIANS)
• Population: approx. 100 million c. 1500 (high
estimate); probably 50-70 million
• Migration
NATIVE AMERICANS (AMERINDIANS)
• New research in origins of Amerindians –
challenges previous thought
NATIVE
AMERICANS
(AMERINDIANS)
• By 8,000 BCE,
Amerindians
reached tip of
South America.
• Hundreds of
tribes with
different
languages,
religious &
cultures
inhabited
America
NATIVE AMERICANS (AMERINDIANS)
• Developed civilizations ("sedentary
societies"—non migratory)—late-Stone Age
NATIVE AMERICANS (AMERINDIANS)
• North
American
Indians less
developed:
most "semisedentary”
by
Columbus’
time
NATIVE AMERICANS (AMERINDIANS)
• Differences between Amerindians and Europeans
• Societal
• Economic
WHICH WERE THE FOUR CIVILIZED
SOCIETIES IN NORTH AMERICA?
CIVILIZED SOCIETIES IN NORTH AMERICA
(EXCEPTIONS TO THE PREDOMINANCE OF LESSDEVELOPED TRIBES ON THE CONTINENT)
• Pueblo
CIVILIZED SOCIETIES IN NORTH AMERICA
(EXCEPTIONS TO THE PREDOMINANCE OF LESSDEVELOPED TRIBES ON THE CONTINENT)
• Mound Builder civilizations in the Mississippi and
Ohio Valleys
CIVILIZED SOCIETIES IN NORTH AMERICA
(EXCEPTIONS TO THE PREDOMINANCE OF LESSDEVELOPED TRIBES ON THE CONTINENT)
• Atlantic seaboard tribes began growing maize,
beans, & squash (c.1000 CE)
• Creeks practiced democratic style government
• Choctaw and Cherokee also prominent
CIVILIZED SOCIETIES IN NORTH AMERICA
(EXCEPTIONS TO THE PREDOMINANCE OF LESSDEVELOPED TRIBES ON THE CONTINENT)
• Iroquois in eastern woodlands built a strong military
confederacy (led by Hiawatha, late 16th c.)
• Mohawk Valley (New York)
• Consisted of Five Nations: Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas, and the Senecas.
RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES
• European view
• Amerindian view
DIFFERENCES IN WAR
• Amerindians curious why Europeans sought decisive
battles.
• Europeans could not easily catch Amerindian
warriors.
• Amerindians often captured children of other tribes
and assimilated them.
• Adult warriors often sacrificed in America
• European weapons deeply intensified warfare
among Amerindians
NON-EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
• Non-Europeans came prior to Columbus but did not
stay.
• Afro-Phoenicians c. 1000 BCE-300 AD may have reached
Central America
• West Africa (Mali) c. 1311-1460 sailed to Haiti, Panama,
possibly Brazil
• Who were the first Europeans in the New World?
EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
• Vikings & Leif Erickson had temporary settlement at
Newfoundland c. 1000 CE
EUROPEAN MOTIVES FOR EXPLORATION
DURING AGE OF DISCOVERY
• Power
• Economics
• Spread Christianity
• Enabled by new ideas/technology of the
Renaissance
PORTUGUESE EXPLORATION LED
OTHERS
•
•
•
•
•
Prince Henry the Navigator
Bartholomeu Dias
Vasco de Gama
Pietro Cabral
Amerigo Vespucci
PORTUGUESE EXPLORATION
SPANISH EXPLORATION
• Christopher Columbus (1492)
SPANISH DISCOVERERS
•
•
•
•
•
Vasco Nunez Balboa
Ferdinand Magellan
Ponce de Leon
Francisco Coronado
Juan Cabrillo
• By 1519, Spain had gained little economically from
Exploration (gold & silver mines not developed until
1540s)
SPANISH
CONQUERORS
• Hernando de Soto
• Hernando Cortez
• Francisco Pizarro
LONG-TERM IMPACT OF SPANISH
CONQUEST IN THE NEW WORLD
• Intermarriage created distinctive Latin American
culture of mestizos: Amerindian & Spanish
• Empire stretched from California and Florida to the
tip of South America.
• St. Augustine fortress erected (1565): oldest European
settlement in U.S.
• New Mexico (1609)
• Texas (1716)
• California (1763)
FRENCH EXPLORERS
• Giovanni da Verrazano
• Jacques Cartier
• Samuel de Champlain
OF THE EUROPEAN POWERS, THE FRENCH WERE THE
MOST SUCCESSFUL IN CREATING AN EFFECTIVE
TRADING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INDIANS
• English settlers sought to remove or exterminate
Amerindians
• Spanish sought to Christianize Indians and use them
for forced labor.
• Utilized the encomienda system (forced labor in towns),
hacienda system (forced labor for farming), and later, the
mission system (forced conversion).
• The French became great gift givers (the key to
getting on with Amerindians who based inter-tribal
relationships on gift giving)
THE FRENCH & TRADE
• The beaver trade led to exploration of much of
North America; (heavy demand for fur in European
fashion)
• Coureurs de bois (“runners of the woods”) – Rough
frontiersmen who sought to tap the lucrative fur trade.
• French seamen - voyageurs -- recruited Indians into the fur
trade
JESUITS
• Catholic Missionaries who sought to convert Indians
and save them from the fur trappers.
OTHER FRENCH EXPLORERS
• Antoine Cadillac
• Robert de la Salle
IMPACT OF FRENCH EXPLORATION
• Diseases
• Gun warfare
• alcoholism
ENGLAND’S SEARCH FOR EMPIRE
• Eventual peace with Spain provided opportunities
overseas without harassment
• Population growth provided workers/ potential
colonists
• Unemployment (economic opportunity), farm land,
adventure, markets, political freedom, religious
freedom, social change.
• Joint-stock companies provided financial means:
investors pooled resources for sea expeditions.
ORIGINAL ENGLISH EXPLORATION
• John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), 1497-98
• Martin Frobisher, 1576
• Sir Francis Drake, 1577 - 1590
SPANISH ARMADA (1588)
• Protestant England vs. Catholic
Spain
• Queen Elizabeth vs. King Phillip II
• Spanish invaded England
• England wins
• Ensured English naval
dominance
ENGLISH ATTEMPTS TO COLONIZE IN
THE LATE-16TH CENTURY
• Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 1583
• Sir Walter Raleigh, 1585
RESULTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN
NATIVE-AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS
• For Native Americans
• Mass death and genocide: By 1600, nearly 90% of
Native American population perished
• European impact on culture: cattle, swine and
horses, firearms.
RESULTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN
NATIVE-AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS
• For Europeans
• Global empires for 1st time in human history.
• Explosion of capitalism (Commercial Revolution)
• Revolution in diet
CONTRIBUTIONS OF MOTHER
COUNTRIES TO NORTH AMERICA
• England: Democratic forms of local gov’t; tradition
of hard-working, zealous individuals, English
language
• France: Language, culture, and religion introduced
to Canada and Louisiana and to many
Amerindians west of Appalachians; large-scale
trade with Amerindians
• Spain: Schools, hospitals, and printing presses
established by missionaries; Spanish language in the
Southwest; teaching of Christianity and handicrafts
to Amerindians
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bailey, Thomas A., Kennedy, David M.: The American Pageant, 10th edition, Lexington,
Massachusetts: D.C. Heath, 1994
College Board, Advanced Placement Course Description: History -- United States, College
Entrance Examination Board, 2004
Foner, Eric & Garraty, John A., editors: The Reader’s Companion to American History, Boston:
Houghton MifflinCompany, 1991
Josephy, Jr., Alvin M., 500 Nations: An Illustrated History of North American Indians, Alfred A
Knopf, New York, 1994.
Loewen, James W., Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got
Wrong, New York: The New Press, 1995
Murrin, John et al, Liberty, Equality, and Power: A History of the American People, 2nd ed.,
Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace 1999
Nash, Gary: American Odyssey, Lake Forest, Illinois: Glencoe, 1992
Waldman, Carl, Atlas of the North American Indian, New York: Facts on File, 1985
Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States,