Beginnings of America
Chapter 1
The World before 1600
• The Big Idea
– Diverse cultures existed in the
Americas, Europe, and Africa
before 1600.
• Main Ideas
– Who were the first people in the
early Americas?
– In what ways were North
American cultures before 1500
different, and in what ways
were they similar?
– What characterized African
cultures before 1500?
– How did European exploration
begin?
Nomads
• Nomadic Siberian hunter-gatherers
crossed into the Americas, began
farming, and settled in villages.
• During the Ice Age, a land bridge
called Beringia connected Asia
and North America.
• Between 12,000 and 40,000 years
ago, Siberians crossed this land
bridge into North America.
• These early Americans were
nomads. They moved from place
to place and followed a huntergatherer way of life.
Villagers
• About 10,000 years ago many of
the large North American animals
died off.
• Early Americans began to hunt
smaller prey and gather more
plants.
• About 7,000 years ago, some
groups started planting seeds.
Farming allowed them to settle into
villages.
• This change is called the
Agricultural Revolution.
Empires of Mesoamerica
• Empires rose up in Mesoamerica, a
region that is today Mexico and
Central America.
• Olmec
– Olmec culture first began around
1200 BC.
– The Olmec people had a
tremendous influence on later
cultures.
• Maya
• The Maya began their rise around 400
BC.
– They built pyramids and developed
writing and number systems.
• Aztec
• In the 1400s the militaristic
Aztec formed a large empire in
present-day Mexico. The Aztec
capital was Tenochtitlán, today’s
Mexico City.
Early Cultures of North America
• Early Native Americans
encountered varied environments,
including forests, deserts, and
fertile land.
• In each region, different kinds of
societies developed. For example:
• The Hohokam people
farmed with irrigation
systems in the Southwest.
• The Anasazi, ancestors of
today’s Pueblo Indians, built
adobe dwellings called
pueblos in the Southwest.
• The Adena and Hopewell,
known as the Mound
Builders, buried their dead
in large earth mounds.
• The Mississippians were
the most advanced farmers
north of Mexico. They built
towns across the Southeast
and southern Midwest.
Native American Geography
• Native Americans in North America
before the 1500s established
diverse cultures based on
geography and resources.
• Southwest:
– Lived in pueblos governed by
council of religious elders
• Northwest Coast:
– Had an abundance of natural
resources
• California:
– Many animals and plants were
available year-round.
• Far North:
– Lived in the freezing tundra and
hunted wildlife
• Great Basin and Plateau:
– Lived in dry areas behind the
Pacific Coast mountain
ranges.
Geography Continued
• Great Plains:
– Plains Indians lived west of the
Mississippi River and hunted
buffalo.
• Eastern Woodlands:
– Groups in this dense forest
region used forest resources to
build homes.
• Southeast:
– Most Native Americans lived in
settled farming villages for
hundreds of years.
Native American Culture
Shared Customs and Traditions
• Native North Americans had
diverse social systems and
traditions, but shared a number of
customs, practices, and religious
ideas.
– Most villages and nations
organized into clans by kinship,
or blood relations
– Many shared the concept of a
spiritual connection to the
natural world.
• Trade brought Native Americans
together. By the 1400s thousands
of miles of trade networks crossed
North America.
– From their earliest days in
North America, bands of
hunters exchanged gifts and
spear points
– Later, people traveled to
exchange food, raw materials,
and luxury goods.
Trade with The East
• North Americans and Europeans
traded goods, and eventually
slaves, with African trading
kingdoms.
• Africa’s Sahara Desert was a
fearsome barrier to travel. Despite
the dangers, many trading
caravans have crossed it since
ancient times.
• Besides goods, desert traders
brought the religious teachings of
Islam to Africa, which some
accepted.
• Several African trading kingdoms
developed in West Africa starting
around AD 300, including:
– Ghana and Mali - grew
wealthy by taxing traders
– Songhai - A large capital of
Islamic learning
– Benin and Kongo - Coastal
kingdoms; many European
traders
Trade with the East
Triangular Trade
Demand for Slave Labor
• Gold and trade first attracted
European sailors to Africa, but it
was the demand for labor that
caused Europeans to join in the
African slave trade.
– The Portuguese, Spanish, and
other Europeans built
plantations off the African coast
and in the Caribbean, Brazil,
and North America.
– European planters began
importing slaves to work the
large plantations.
– The slave trade expanded as
American planters began
importing slaves to the
Americas.
– The slave trade devastated
society in West Africa for 400
years. During this time an
estimated 20 million enslaved
Africans landed in the
Americas.
Changes in New Lands
• Europeans made political,
cultural, and religious changes
and explored new lands.
• The Middle Ages
– 1096: The Crusades
began in Palestine,
opening European eyes to
new lands.
– 1400s: European
countries began to
consolidate under
monarchs, forming
nation-states.
– The Magna Carta was
signed, placing limits on
royal powers.
• The Renaissance and
Reformation
– 1300s: Prosperity led to
better education and
cultural and scientific
advances.
– Discontent grew in the
Roman Catholic church.
– Martin Luther’s challenges
began the Reformation
and the birth of
Protestantism.
Changes Continued
• The Age of Exploration
– Scientific advances led
European nation- states to
find new lands and trade
sources.
– Marco Polo traveled to
China.
– Prince Henry of Portugal
sought a sea route to Asia.
Vasco de Gama found one
in 1498.
Columbus and America
• Christopher Columbus
– Born in 1451 in the trading city
of Genoa, Italy
– While visiting Portugal, decided
to attempt sailing west to reach
Asia
– Called this mission “Enterprise
of the Indies”
• Enterprise of the Indies
– Finally won support from
Spanish monarchs Isabella and
Ferdinand
– Began on August 3, 1492, with
three ships: Niña, Pinta, and
Santa Maria – Columbus’s
flagship
– Landed at dawn on October
12, 1492, on a small island in
the Bahamas, which Columbus
mistook for the Indies in Asia
• Voyage Impacts
– European colonization
in America and the
downfall of the Native
American people
– New plants and animals
exchanged between
continents, known as
the Columbian
Exchange
– This exchange brought
European diseases to
the Americas.
Claims on America
• The Spanish and Portuguese
claimed the Americas, but
other European powers
challenged those claims.
• After Columbus returned from
the Americas, the Spanish and
the Portuguese debated claims
to newly discovered lands. The
Treaty of Tordesillas settled
the dispute, granting Spain a
much bigger land claim.
• A wave of exploration followed the
Treaty of Tordesillas, and the
Spanish conquistadors, or
conquerors, led the way in the
1500s.Their goals were “God, gold,
and glory.”
– Juan Ponce de Léon
claimed Florida for Spain.
– Hernán Cortés conquered
the wealthy Aztec Empire
in 1521
– Francisco Vásquez de
Coronado discovered the
Grand Canyon.
– Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo:
explored the coast of
California
Juan Ponce de Leon
Claims in the New World
Spain’s Empire in the Americas
• Politics
– Aspects of colonial government
• Viceroyalties, provinces
ruled by viceroys
representing monarchs
• The ecomienda system,
which granted landowners
the right to control people of
a certain area
• Social hierarchy based on
ancestry
– Peninsulares, people from
Spain
– Creoles, people born in
Americas of European
descent
– Mestizos, people of
Spanish and Native
American descent
– People of mixed Spanish
and African descent,
Africans, and Indians
Spain’s Empire Continued
• Religion
– In addition to finding gold, the
Spanish wanted to spread
Christianity.
– Spain sent missionaries,
people who convert others to a
religion.
– Missionaries converted Native
Americans to Christianity. Their
work continued for centuries in
the West and Southwest.
– In 1769 Fray Junípero Serra,
a Franciscan friar known for his
self-discipline, started the first
California mission in San Diego
and later headed eight more
missions in California.
Spanish Conquest
Other Nations Explore the Americas
• During the late 1400s and 1500s,
explorers from England, France
and the Netherlands began to
explore America.
• English explorers Francis Drake
and John Cabot challenged
Spain’s claim to the Americas.
• Queen Elizabeth I built England
into a sea power, which began a
key chain of events:
– Religious issues caused Spain
and England to go to war.
– In 1588 the Spanish king sent a
fleet of 130 ships, called the
Spanish Armada, to invade
England.
– England’s superior navy
defeated the Spanish Armada,
leaving England free to build
American colonies.
Francis Drake
American Explorations
England Defeats Spain
• The English defeated the Spanish
Armada and established several
North American colonies
• After the defeat of the Spanish
Armada, English colonists
came to America for many
reasons, including economic
opportunity and adventure.
• King James I issued a charter
dividing North America
between two groups of
investors, the London
Company and the Plymouth
Company.
King James I
• These companies were
joint-stock ventures in
which investors pooled
their money, hoping to
make a profit.
• The companies governed
and maintained the
colonies and received
most of the profit.
Joint Stock Companies
The English in Virginia
• Roanoke
– In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh
sent a group to America.
They claimed land along
the Atlantic seaboard and
named it Virginia. In 1587
they founded the colony of
Roanoke.
– In 1590 when the colony’s
leader returned from
England, he found the
colony mysteriously empty
of people.
• Jamestown
– Settled in 1607, this was
the first English colony to
survive, despite disease,
contaminated water and
lack of food.
– John Smith, who imposed
military discipline on the
colonists, helped them
survive hardships.
– John Rolfe, who discovered
tobacco and learned to cure
it from his wife Pocahontas,
made the colony profitable.
Virginia Continued
• Key Events in Virginia
History
– Formation of the House of
Burgess, which was
America’s first legislature,
or law-making body
– Use of indentured
servants, who worked for
a number of years in
exchange for food, shelter
and paid passage to
America
– Transition to slave labor by
the late 1600s
Puritans
• The Puritans, seeking religious
freedom, founded the Northern
Colonies (New England).
• English Protestants who thought
the Reformation did not go far
enough were known as Puritans.
• Some Puritans, known as
Separatists, wanted total
separation from the established
church.
• Separatists who left for America
were known as the Pilgrims.
• In 1620 a group of Separatists
sailed to America on a ship called
the Mayflower. Two months later,
they reached present-day
Massachusetts.
• The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower
Compact, a legal contract
agreeing to make laws to protect
the people. It was one of the first
attempts at self-government in the
English colonies.
Northern Colonies
• Plymouth Colony
– The pilgrims who signed
the Mayflower Compact
established this colony.
They grew their own food
and built their own houses.
– Harsh conditions, which
killed many of the
colonists, included cold,
hunger, and sickness.
– Those who survived had
help from the friendly local
Indians.
• Massachusetts Bay Colony
– This colony was established
as both a religious haven
and the headquarters of
the Massachusetts Bay
Company.
– The colony’s success
inspired the Great
Migration, when 16,000
English settlers crossed the
Atlantic Ocean and settled
in New England.
The Plymouth Colony
Northern Colonies Continued
• Other Northern Colonies
– In time, the strict rules of
the Puritan colonies caused
dissenters to leave and
settle new towns in other
parts of New England.
– These new colonies
included: Connecticut,
Rhode Island, and New
Hampshire.
Jamestown
King Charles II
• King Charles II granted friends
and family land to rule, and they
formed the Middle and Southern
Colonies
• In the late 1600s, a new and
different phase of colonization
began in the middle and southern
regions.
• A new king, Charles II, owed
money and favors to many people.
He repaid them with American land
grants.
• The colonies created
– New York
– New Jersey
– Pennsylvania
– Carolina
• Unlike joint-stock colonies, these
were not ruled by investors or
colonial legislatures, but by their
owners.
New York Colony
The Thirteen Colonies
The Southern and Middle Colonies
• New York
– Granted to James, duke of
York
– Already belonged to the Dutch
– Conquered by the English in
1674 and renamed New York
– Later, a large tract James gave
to two proprietors became New
Jersey.
• The Carolinas and Georgia
– Carolina co-owned by eight
men
– Split into North and South due
to tensions over farm size and
slavery
– Georgia was formed as a
military buffer between English
and Spanish colonies.
New York Colony
Southern & Middle Colonies Cont’d
• Pennsylvania
– Given to William Penn
– Founded as a haven for
Quakers and called a “Holy
Experiment”
– Decreased in size when Penn
agreed to give Native
Americans present-day
Delaware
• Maryland
– Founded by George Calvert,
the first Lord Baltimore
– Was a haven for Catholics after
Church of England became
England’s official church
– Was a source of personal
wealth for Lord Baltimore
William Penn
Colonial Artifacts
England Loses Control
• Colonists began smuggling goods
because they felt Great Britain
taxed them unfairly.
• Britain, however, had established
the colonies to obtain wealth.
• Great Britain and the American
colonies were divided on several
issues, including
 Economic principles called
mercantilism held that a
nation’s
power was
directly related to its
wealth. But colonial
merchants wanted to make
money for themselves, not
for Britain.
– Britain passed the
Navigation Acts, laws
that restricted colonial
trade, to ensure that the
colonies stayed profitable.
– For greater control, the
king merged colonies and
sent a royal governor,
Edmund Andros. Colonists
arrested and banished him.
Colonists Begin to Self-Govern
• Local rebellions helped some
colonies regain elected
assemblies. Others were ruled
more strictly as a result.
• Several colonies formed the United
Colonies of New England, or the
New England Confederation in
1643.
• Salutary neglect, which was the
British officials’ tendency to rule
the colonies leniently, benefited the
colonies.
• Local governments (town
meetings, counties, parishes and
local governors) ruled daily life for
colonists.
• Colonists elected assemblies that
were based on the British
Parliament’s bicameral (two house)
system, with
– A governor's council with
executive and legislative
powers
– An elected assembly like the
Parliament’s House of
Commons
• When the House of Commons in
England gained more power, so
did the colonial assemblies,
winning rights such as freedom of
speech in debate and the right to
pass money bills.
Regional Economics
• Northern Colonial Economies
– Commerce-based economy
– Crops did not grow well, so
farmers only grew enough for
themselves.
– The most valuable Northern
resources were dense forests
• Timber exports
• Wood for shipbuilding
• Northerners produced rum,
textiles, ironworks, and other
goods.
• Good harbors and inexpensive
ships encouraged commerce in
the North; it was concentrated
in the port cities.
• These cities became part of
trade routes that linked the
world.
Regional Economics Cont’d
• Southern Colonial Economies
– Agricultural-based economy
– Produced valuable cash crops such
as tobacco, rice, tar, and indigo.
– Two agricultural systems
developed:
• Plantations were large, warmclimate farms that grew one
cash crop and depending
largely on slave labor.
• Small independent farms raised
livestock and exported beef and
pork. They grew corn, wheat,
fruit and vegetables for the
home market.
The Impact of Slavery
• Plantation owners needed more
and more workers.
• Settlers gradually stopped using
Native American workers and
indentured servants in favor of
enslaved Africans.
• The slave trade caused massive
human suffering.
– The difficult trip across the
Atlantic from Africa was called
the Middle Passage.
– Kidnapped Africans were
chained together in dark, filthy
quarters below the decks and
many died.
– The African population in
America grew quickly.
• Slavery existed in both the North
and South, but the South’s
agricultural economy depended
more on slave labor.
• Slaves developed strong cultural
and religious communities.
America’s Emerging Culture
• The Enlightenment
– A period in Europe that was
known for its use of logic
and reason to improve
government, law, and
society
– The ideas of the
Enlightenment began in the
European upper classes but
soon traveled to the
American colonies.
– John Locke believed the
government should protect
citizens’ “natural rights.”
His ideas influenced
Americans such as
Jefferson and Franklin.
John Locke
– Locke’s ideas are found in
the Declaration of
Independence and the
Constitution, including
limited government and
divided powers.
Religion in the Colonies
Emerging Culture Cont’d
• The Great Awakening
– The Enlightenment led
some colonists to question
religious beliefs.
– In 1730, the clergy, trying
to bring people back to
church, began the Great
Awakening, a major
religious revival in the
colonies.
– Jonathan Edwards was
an influential religious
leader of this period.
– The Great Awakening made
religion accessible to the
people and church
membership grew. It’s new
ideas influenced the
growing colonies.
Jonathan Edwards
Life in the Colonies
• The colonies came of age
culturally in the 1700s.
• Non-British colonists, including
Scots, Scots-Irish, Germans,
French and Jewish people began
to arrive.
• The newcomers, along with British
settlers, created a new American
culture.
• Colonial cities were lively: paved
streets lit by oil lamps, anchored
ships from foreign ports, libraries,
bookshops, and impressive public
buildings added to colony life.
• Colonial printers printed and
distributed newspapers, books,
ads, and political announcements.
– Influential newspapers were
published in Boston, New York,
and Philadelphia.
Benjamin Franklin was influential
in writing colonial newspapers
The French and Indian War
• The Cause
– In the 1700s Britain and
France struggled for
territory.
– The French built forts and
allied with Native
Americans to protect their
fur trade.
– The British built forts and
alliances of their own,
which led to many frontier
battles.
– In 1754 the French joined
with the Native Americans
to attack the English, which
is why it is called the
French and Indian War.
French-Indian War Cont’d
• The Course
– The British army, new to
the territory, made easy
targets.
– Britain’s William Pitt took
over and forced colonists
into the army.
– The British took the French
city of Quebec in 1759.
– The French surrendered the
following year and the
Treaty of Paris ended the
war in 1763.
William Pitt
Impacts of the French and Indian War
• To avoid more conflict with the
Native Americans, British officials
tried to stop colonists from moving
west of the Appalachian
Mountains. The Proclamation of
1763 reserved the land for the
Native Americans, but colonists
ignored it.
• Some say this war led to the
American Revolution. Its effects
include
– Colonial unity: Ben
Franklin proposed the
Albany Plan of Union, which
was the first plan to unify
the colonies. It was never
adopted.
– New boundaries: Britain
gained lands east of the
Mississippi and much of
Canada from the French,
and Florida from the
Spanish. Spain gained the
Louisiana Territory from
France for joining the war.
– War Debts: The war cost
England a lot of money.
King George III thought
colonists should pay some
of the costs of the war.
These policies drove Britain
and the colonies further
apart.
– Effects on Native
Americans: Chief Pontiac
allied the Midwestern
Native Americans and
started a bloody rebellion.
Pontiac’s Rebellion