Period One
1491-1607
Geologic Timeline
• 10,000,000 years ago
– Canadian Shield rises above sea level
• 35,000 years ago
– Land Bridge from Siberia to Alaska “opens”
• 25,000 – 17,000 years ago
– Migration takes place over the land bridge
• 10,000 years ago
– Land Bridge from Siberia to Alaska “closes”
• Think about migration. Why did they leave?
The Civilizations of America
…advanced societies
were developing in
isolation in the Americas
While classical
civilizations were
developing in the
Mediterranean & Asia…
Title
• Text
During the Ice Age,
prehistoric nomads migrated
across the land bridge
between Asia & America
During the Neolithic
Revolution, these
nomads settled into
farming villages;
Some of which
became advanced
civilizations
•PreColumbian
time period.
•First
Americans
came from
Asia
•Crossed the
Bering Strait
during the Ice
Age
•Following a
food source
•Gradual
migration
Early Human Migrations
1st Migration, 38,000-1800 BCE
2nd Migration, c. 10,000-4,000 BCE
3rd Migration, c. 8,000-3,000 BCE
The “Land Bridge” Theory
As the Great Ice Age diminished, so did the glaciers over North America.
The theory holds that a “Land Bridge” emerged linking Asia & North America
across what’s today the Bering Sea. People were said to have walked across
the “bridge” before the sea level rose and sealed it off and thus populated the
Americas.
The Land Bridge is suggested as occurring an estimated 35,000 years ago.
Many peoples emerged…
Those groups that traversed the land bridge spread across North, Central,
and South America.
Countless tribes emerged with an estimated 2,000 languages. Notably…
Incas – Peru, with elaborate network of roads and bridges linking their
empire.
Mayas – Yucatan Peninsula, with their step pyramids.
Aztecs – Mexico, with step pyramids and huge sacrifices of conquered
peoples.
"TEACHING MEASURES OF TIME
The usage of B.C.E. (Before the Common
Era) and C.E. (Common Era) as replacing
the exclusively Christian dating of B.C.
(Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini or
After Death). You should also make sure
you are familiar with the names of the
centuries and their dates; i.e., the year
1492 was in the fifteenth century."
Development of Corn
Development of corn or “maize” around
5,000 B.C. in Mexico was revolutionary in
that…
• Then, people didn’t have to be huntergatherers, they could settle down and be
farmers.
• This fact gave rise to towns and then
cities.
• Corn arrived in the present day U.S.
around 1,200 B.C.
•Took along time to spread to present day
U.S.
Cultures of North America
Class Discussion:
What caused these different
regions ?
Are there any intervening
obstacles that caused these
different regions.
The slowness
of the
northward
spread of
corn resulted
in less
sophistication
than those in
Mexico and
South
America.
How did landscape, climate and
resources influence the development of
Native Americans society.
Write for 10 minutes answering this question.
Exploration Before Columbus
By the time Christopher Columbus landed in the Western
Hemisphere in 1492, the New World had already been
“discovered” more than once. First, of course, there were the
Native Americans we discussed in the previous section.
But there is solid evidence that other Europeans made it to
the Americas long before Columbus did.
• Around A.D. 1000, Viking Norsemen led by Leif Ericson sailed from
Norway across the Atlantic Ocean and settled in Newfoundland, in
northeast Canada.
• These Vikings also explored some distance up and down the coast.
• This settlement, however, was short-lived.
• The Norsemen soon sailed back across the ocean, having had little
to no effect on North America.
Big Picture Question?
What factors made an oceanic
crossing and exploration
possible in the late 1500s?
Europe Moves toward Exploration
What factors made an oceanic crossing and
exploration possible in the late 1500s?
•The Renaissance
•Better Maps
•Caravels/Better shipbuilding techniques
•Better use of gunpowder
•Compass
•Mariner's Astrolabe
•Gutenberg’s printing press
Europe Moves toward Exploration
Spain’s Banner Year The later years of the
Renaissance were a time
1492
of intense religious zeal
• The last Moorish stronghold is
and conflict. The Roman
defeated at the Battle of Grenada.
Catholic Church that had • Queen Isabella of Castile and King
once dominated Western
Ferdinand of Aragon funded
Christopher Columbus on his
Europe was threatened
historic first voyage and “discovers
from the Ottoman Turks
America”.
who were followers of
• All of these events signaled new
Islam and from within by a
leadership, hope and power for
revolt against the Pope’s
Europeans who followed the Roman
authority.
Catholic religion.
Europe Moves toward Exploration
The Protestant Reformation
• The Protestant
Reformation was the breakoff from the Roman Catholic
Church within Western
Christianity initiated by
Martin Luther, John Calvin,
and other early Protestants.
• Although there had been
significant attempts at
reform before Luther, the
date most usually given for
the start of the Protestant
Reformation is 1517, when
Luther published The
Ninety-Five Theses.
• Reasons? Why
•It led to the creation of
new national Protestant
churches.
•The largest of the new
churches groupings were
the Lutherans (mostly in
Germany
•the Baltic’s and
Scandinavia)
•Reformed churches
(mostly in Germany,
France, Switzerland, the
Netherlands and Scotland).
Direct Causes = 3 G’s
• Religious: spread Christianity and weaken Middle
Eastern Muslims. (GOD)
• Economic: Search for new trade routes with direct
access to Asian/African luxury goods would enrich
individuals and their nations (GOLD)
• Political: Become a world power through gaining wealth
and land. (GLORY)
The 3 motives reinforce each other
Expanding Trade
Economic motives for
exploration grew out of
fierce competition among
Europeans Kingdoms for
increased trade with
Africa, India and China.
The land route had
become blocked in 1453
when the Ottoman Empire
seized control of
Constantinople.
Islam controls route East
• Spices, silk, & tea introduced to Europe
via the Crusades (1000 AD)
• 1400 AD – Islam controls Middle East,
Italy becomes middle man in trade
• Portugal seeks “short cut” around Africa
• Begins trade in gold and slaves with
African states, slowly moves down the
coast
• Henry the Navigator
• Dias reaches Cape of Good Hope in
1488
• da Gama reaches India via ship in 1496
Expanding Trade
•Seeking
Europeana planters
maritimeturned
route to
these
the riches
of
Atlantic
the trans-Saharan
islands into laboratories
trade routes,for
Prince
cash crops,
Henryincluding
of Portugal
sugar
(1394–1460)
cane,
established
wheat, wineagrapes,
naval academy.
and woad, a blue
•Portuguese
dye plant. sailors developed a new
ship,
In thethe
Canary
caravel,
Islands,
riggedCastilian
with a lateen
or
adventurers
triangular sail.
used Guanches, the
•This
natives
innovation,
of the islands,
whichas
allowed
their for
better
enslaved
and labor
longer-distance
force.
sailing in
the
By treacherous
1500, Madeira
waters
sugaroffbecame
the
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available in
African
small,coast,
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led toquantities
the
discovery
in London,and
Paris,
colonization
Rome, and
of the
Madeira
Constantinople.
and Azore islands.
•From there, they sailed in 1435 to
sub-Saharan Sierra Leone, where they
traded salt, wine, and fish for African
gold and ivory.
Expanding Trade
•Initially the Portuguese carried a few
thousand African slaves each year to
work on sugar plantations in the Cape
Verde Islands, the Azores, and the
Madeira Islands; they also sold slaves
in Lisbon, which soon had an African
population of 9,000.
•After 1550, the Atlantic slave trade
expanded enormously as other
Europeans joined West Africa’s longestablished trade in humans and
forcefully shipped hundreds of
thousands of slaves to new American
sugar plantations in Brazil and the
West Indies.
European trade routes
Important Names in The Age of Exploration
Name
Country
Achievement(s)
Christopher Columbus
Spain
1492: Reached Bahamas; explored Cuba, Haiti
1493: Established Santo Domingo
John Cabot
England
1497/8: Claimed Nova Scotia, Newfoundland for England
Amerigo Vespucci
1499: Explored coast of S. America for Spain
Spain, Portugal 1501: Explored coast of S. America for Portugal
Ponce de Leon
Spain
1513/21: Explored Florida
Ferdinand Magellan
Spain
1519: Began the first circumnavigation of the globe
Hernando Cortez
Spain
1519–1522: Conquered the Aztecs in Mexico
Francisco Pizarro
Spain
Hernando de Soto
Spain
1530–1536: Conquered the Incas in Peru
1539–1542: Explored coast between Mississippi River and
Florida
Jacques Cartier
France
1542: Traveled St. Lawrence River to Montreal
Samuel de Champlain
France
1608–1615: Explored Great Lakes, founded Quebec,
established fur trade with Native Americans
Henry Hudson
Netherlands
1609–1611: Sailed up Hudson River
The Major Players in the Age of Exploration
The individual explorers often get the glory, but for the APUSH exam, it is more important that you know the broader context:
the nations that sponsored those explorers; the reasons those nations were so interested in exploring and settling the New
World; and the geographical territories that each nation claimed as its own. Don’t get me wrong: familiarity with the individual
explorers is helpful (that’s why I gave you the chart), but you should understand the explorer’s contributions within the larger
context of the age.
Christopher Columbus
The Spanish monarchy
began the Age of
Exploration when it
sponsored Christopher
Columbus’s journey
westward, across the
Atlantic Ocean, in search
of Asia. Columbus failed
to reach Asia, landing
instead on the Bahama
Islands in 1492. He
returned to the New
World in 1493 and
established the
settlement of Santo
Domingo as a base for
further exploration
NEW
WORLD
OLD
WORLD
Columbian Exchange – food (old vs. new)!
Columbian Exchange – animals & diseases
Treaty of Tordesillas 1494
•In 1493, the Pope declared
that all lands west of the Azores
and the Cape Verde Islands
belonged to Spain, but
Portugal, another great sea
power, disputed the papal
decree.
•The two countries reached a
compromise with the Treaty of
Tordesillas in 1494, which
divided all future discoveries
between Castile (a region of
Spain) and Portugal.
•The Treaty of Tordesillas
reveals that both Portugal and
Spain led the charge in
exploring the New World.
•But while the Portuguese
focused on navigation and
geographical observation, the
Spanish put their efforts into
expedition and colonization.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
•After the Treaty of Tordesillas,
Spain quickly established itself
as the premier European power
in the New World, sending wave
after wave of explorers into
South America.
•These Spanish expeditions, led
by conquistadors, set out in
search of gold, slaves, lucrative
trade routes, and fame. Indeed,
they succeeded in creating an
enormous empire.
•By 1522, the Spaniard
Hernando Cortez had
conquered the Aztecs in Mexico
and by 1536, under the
leadership of Francisco Pizaro,
Spain had conquered the Incas
in Peru.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
•Conquistadors plundered
the indigenous tribes for
treasure and slave labor.
•They established numerous
encomiendas—sprawling
estates populated with
native slaves.
•Under Conquistador rule,
many of the natives died
from disease, malnutrition,
and fatigue, and they were
soon replaced on the
encomiendas by African
slaves brought in by
Portuguese slave traders.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
Hernando Cortez conquered the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan.
Cortez went from Cuba to present day Vera Cruz, then marched over
mountains to the Aztec capital.
Montezuma, the Aztec king, thought Cortez might be the god
Quetzalcoatl who was due to re-appear that very year. Montezuma
welcomed Cortez into Tenochtitlan.
The Spanish lust for gold led Montezuma to attack on the noche triste, sad
night. Cortez and men fought their way out, but it was smallpox that
eventually beat the Indians.
The Spanish then destroyed Tenochtitlan, building the Spanish capital
(Mexico City) exactly on top of the Aztec city.
A new race of people emerged, mestizos, a mix of Spanish and
Indian blood.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
•The Spanish invasion
changed life forever in the
Americas.
•Disease and warfare wiped
out virtually all of the Indians
of Hispaniola—at least
300,000 people.
•Peru’s population of 9 million
in 1530 plunged to fewer than
500,000 a century later.
• The decline of
Mesoamerica’s population
from 20 million in 1500 to just
3 million in 1650 represented
one of the great demographic
disasters in world history.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
•In North America, Spain initially
proved just as dominant. Ponce de
Leon claimed Florida for Spain in
1513, and Hernando de Soto led a
Spanish exploration of the
southeastern United States in
1539, discovering the Mississippi
River.
•In 1565, Spain established the
first successful European
settlement in North America—a
fortress in St. Augustine, Florida.
•Around the turn of the
seventeenth century, Spanish
settlers moved into the Southwest,
establishing the colony of Santa
Fe in 1610.
English Claims
•Compared to other European
powers, England got a
relatively late start in the
exploration and colonization of
the New World. True, King
Henry VII of England did send
explorer John Cabot across
the Atlantic in 1497, and Cabot
claimed Nova Scotia,
Newfoundland, and the Grand
Banks for England.
•But after Cabot’s efforts, the
English became more
concerned with domestic
issues and generally ceased
exploring.
•For much of the sixteenth
century, England had no real
presence in the New World.
English Claims
•England’s first effort to establish a
settlement in the New World ended badly.
•In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh gained a royal
charter to found the settlement of
Roanoke, located on an island off the coast
of North Carolina. Raids by Native
American tribes and disease devastated
the settlement, and it was eventually
abandoned.
•Still, the Spanish monarchy, determined to
eliminate their New World rivals,
dispatched the great Spanish Armada in
1588 to attack the British off the coast of
England.
•Through luck and ingenuity, a fleet of
outgunned English ships decimated the
Armada.
•With this victory, England began its ascent
as a premier naval power, which bolstered
its colonial efforts, and Spain fell into a
slow decline.
English Claims
•The struggle between Britain and
Spain dragged on throughout the end
of the sixteenth century, so that by
1600 the English crown and
Parliament were hesitant to spend
money on colonization.
•In place of government funding, jointstock companies formed to gather
funding for colonization through the
sale of public stock.
•Along with religious groups—who
saw the rise of the English navy as a
real opportunity to move to the New
World and escape religious
persecution—these joint-stock
companies were responsible for most
English colonization throughout the
seventeenth century.
French Claims
•France also played a strong
role in the New World,
though its efforts were
mainly confined to North
America.
•The French led the charge
to find a Northwest Passage,
a much-hoped-for water
route through which ships
might be able to cross the
Americas to access Asia.
•In three voyages between
1534 and 1542, French
explorer Jacques Cartier
traveled the St. Lawrence
River as far as Montreal.
French Claims
•Despite its failures, France continued to
be a major player in North America.
•Most notably, the French engaged in the
highly profitable fur trade, setting up
trading outposts throughout Newfoundland,
Maine, and regions farther west.
•Samuel de Champlain founded the first
permanent French settlement in 1608 at
Quebec, and established a fur trade with
the region’s Native American tribes.
•By the end of the seventeenth century the
French controlled the St. Lawrence River,
the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes and,
therefore, much of the land in the heart of
the continent.
•Of all the European colonial powers, the
French enjoyed the best relationship with
Native Americans.
Samuel de Champlain
was the founder of
Quebec City, the first
permanent French
settlement in North
America in 1608
French explorers
French priest Jacques Marquette and fur
trader Louis Joliet explored the Great
Lakes and upper Mississippi River Valley
LaSalle
(1683ish)
explored the
lower
Mississippi
River, claiming
the entire
valley for
France, naming
it “Louisiana”
in honor of
Louis XIV
42
The Coureurs De Bois (Runners of the Woods)
– New France was built on the beaver
skin trade.
– Young beaver trappers (coureurs de
bois or “runners of the woods”)
paddled canoes into trapping lands,
worked with the Indians, and hauled
out their beaver skins for sale.
– They were also known as
voyageurs.
– Their Indian friends were decimated
by the whites’ diseases.
– The beaver population eventually
began to run thin.
– Important areas founded: DetroitOhio Valley-To Check Spain in
Florida, LaSalle settles the Gulf of
Mexico
Dutch Claims
•The Dutch East India Company became
interested in North American settlement in
1609, when Henry Hudson sailed up the
river that now carries his name.
•In 1625, the Dutch bought Manhattan
island from the natives who lived there and
established the settlement of New
Amsterdam at the mouth of the Hudson
River.
•While the colony flourished on account of
the fur trade, the Dutch did little to expand
their landholdings beyond their domain
around the Hudson.
•A European conflict between England and
the Netherlands spread to the New World
in 1664, during which the English took over
New Amsterdam, renaming it New York.
After 1664, Dutch influence waned.
Effects of Colonization on the Natives
•Colonization had a disastrous effect on the native population.
War, slavery, and starvation claimed many lives, but disease,
especially smallpox, had the most devastating effect.
•In present day Mexico, the native population plummeted from
25 million in 1519 to 2 million by 1600. European settlement
physically displaced numerous tribes, setting in motion the sad
fate of Native Americans throughout American history.
•The Spanish, however, provided the Native Americans of the
Great Plains with an unintended gift: horses.
•During the conquistadors’ expeditions into the Southwest,
some horses escaped and formed large herds on the Great
Plains.
•Within a few generations, Native Americans in the plains region
became experts on horseback, expanding their hunting and
trading capabilities and dramatically transforming Native
American culture.
Big Idea:
How did the political, economic and religious systems of Native Americans ,
Europeans and Africans compare and how did things change as a result of
contacts among them?
You must be able to answer this question…
Compare
Change
• All were dependent on
• All became dependent on each
agriculture
for trade
• All had some form of religion
• Diseases ravished Native
Brainstorm your Americans
answers
• All had a ruling class and
subjugated people
• Africans taken mostly from
Western Africa, fueled warfare
along the coast
•Europe benefited most from
Columbus’ discovery