CONTACT: EUROPEANS
& AMERINDIANS
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
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.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CULTURES
• Social
• Economic
• Religious
• Military
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
• Gold (Economic opportunity)
• God (Christianity)
• Glory (power)
• Enabled by new ideas/technology of the
Renaissance
SPANISH EXPLORATION
• Christopher Columbus (1492)
SPANISH DISCOVERERS
•
•
•
•
Vasco Nunez Balboa
Ferdinand Magellan
Ponce de Leon
Francisco Coronado
• 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
PORTUGUESE
• Actually paved way for world exploration (before
the Spanish; led by Prince Henry the Navigator)
• Amerigo Vespucci
FRENCH EXPLORERS
• Giovanni da Verrazano
• Jacques Cartier
• Samuel de Champlain
OTHER FRENCH EXPLORERS
• Antoine Cadillac
• Robert de la Salle
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.
• The French became great gift givers (the key to
getting on with Amerindians who based inter-tribal
relationships on gift giving); very successful fur
traders
ORIGINAL ENGLISH EXPLORATION
• John Cabot, 1497-98
• Sir Francis Drake, 1577 - 1590
ENGLISH ATTEMPTS TO COLONIZE IN
THE LATE-16TH CENTURY
• Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 1583
• Sir Walter Raleigh, 1585
SPANISH ARMADA (1588)
• Protestant England vs. Catholic
Spain
• Spanish invaded England
• England wins
• Ensured English naval
dominance
RESULTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN
NATIVE-AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS
• For Native Americans
• Mass death (disease) 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
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,