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CHAPTER 1
NEW WORLD ENCOUNTERS
CHAPTER OUTLINE
CLASH OF CULTURES: INTERPRETING MURDER IN EARLY MARYLAND
NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORIES BEFORE THE CONQUEST
• The Environmental Challenge: Food, Climate, and Culture
• Mysterious Disappearances
• Aztec Dominance
• Eastern Woodland Cultures
A WORLD TRANSFORMED
• Cultural Negotiations
• Threats to Survival: Trade and Disease
WEST AFRICA: ANCIENT AND COMPLEX SOCIETIES
EUROPE ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST
• Building New Nation-States
IMAGINING A NEW WORLD
• Myths and Reality
• The Conquistadores: Faith and Greed
• From Plunder to Settlement
THE FRENCH CLAIM CANADA
THE ENGLISH ENTER THE COMPETITION
• Birth of English Protestantism
• Militant Protestantism
• Woman in Power
• Religion, War, and Nationalism
AN UNPROMISING BEGINNING: MYSTERY AT ROANOKE
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CONCLUSION: CAMPAIGN TO SELL AMERICA
FEATURE ESSAY: THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE AND THE GLOBAL
ENVIRONMENT
OPENING THEME
THE “OTHER”
Your students will understand Chapter 1 more fully if they at least dip their toes into the murky waters
of modern literary theory. It is argued that we make sense of important experiences by constructing
stories that give them coherence and meaning. As the author points out, the unexpected meeting of
Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in the Western Hemisphere after 1492 was interpreted
differently by each of the parties involved. The Europeans explained it as the triumph of Christianity
and progress over ignorance and idolatry. But the European interpretation was only one of the ways in
which the events of 1492 were understood. Native Americans and Africans constructed very different
stories.
Literary critics have recently turned their attention to the vast literature that accompanied the first
contacts between Europeans and Native Americans in America. Two aspects of the stories told by both
sides seem especially interesting. The first is the conscious construction of histories by the Spanish
explorers and conquistadores to explain or justify actions that might not have been premeditated.
Columbus, for example, was probably not as visionary before 1492 as he later believed himself to be.
In the contract he made with Queen Isabella before starting out on his famous voyage, he seems to
have expected that he would most likely find islands like the Canaries and Azores rather than Asia. He
might have expected to sail into the Ocean Sea, not across it. Similarly, the Spanish tale of the
conquest of Mexico as a great Christian crusade probably disguises an original intention to establish
peaceful trade. Ironically, the conquest narratives might make the Spanish seem more bloodthirsty in
intention than they really were.
The second interesting aspect of contact literature is how the Europeans, Native Americans, and
Africans reacted to the “Other.” The concept of the “Other” derives mainly from structuralist theory,
which argues that we shape the world through language by use of such polar opposites as “high and
low,” “sacred and profane,” “raw and cooked,” and “male and female.” One of the most potent of these
pairs is “self and other.” This theory argues that we construct a sense of self by differentiating
ourselves from others, and that we construct a sense of otherness by differentiating others from
ourselves. Because we usually impart values to the distinctions we make, the “Other” is never an equal.
The “Other” is either vastly superior or grossly inferior.
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Scholars working with such theories have produced interesting analyses of the First Contact period.
Tzvetan Todorov, for example, argues that the Spanish victory over the Aztecs was more a triumph of
language than of military technology. The Aztecs, in his opinion, used language primarily to
communicate with the gods, with the result that their language, and the mental universe formed by their
language, was highly ritualistic, repetitive, and predictable. Europeans, on the other hand, used
language in a more practical way to persuade and manipulate other humans.
In the mental universe of these Europeans, the “Other” was unpredictable but manageable. Upon First
Contact, the Aztecs were dumbfounded by an “Other” they found impossible to explain. Montezuma
begged the gods to tell him what to do as the Spanish approached, but the gods fell silent. Cortès,
however, was able to make false promises, to disguise his intentions, to distort the truth, and even to
make seemingly supernatural omens conform to his own intentions. The Spanish defeated the Aztecs
because they were more adept at manipulating the signs and symbols that make up a system of
communication.
The subject of the “Other” is especially interesting at a time when the possibility of contact with life
beyond our planet is the subject of so much speculation. Students should be encouraged to make
comparisons between 1492 and that unknowable time when we first encounter extraterrestrials. Much
will depend on whether we first meet a big-eyed, sad-faced ET, or a slimy creature baring a full set of
razor-sharp teeth, because we, too, like the Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans of 1492, have
already met our “Other.”
CLASH OF CULTURES: INTERPRETING MURDER IN EARLY MARYLAND
The author uses a murder case in Maryland in 1635 to illustrate the difficulty that European colonists
and Native Americans had in understanding one another. Each side brought preconceptions molded by
their long histories into their contacts with other peoples, and each side was molded by contact with the
other.
NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORIES BEFORE THE CONQUEST
America first became inhabited some twenty thousand years ago when small bands of nomadic
Siberian hunters chased large mammals across the land bridge between Asia and America. During this
long migration, the people who became known as the Indians or Native Americans escaped some of the
most common diseases of humankind, such as smallpox and measles, but their children and
grandchildren also lost the immunities that would have protected them against such diseases.
A. The Environmental Challenge: Food, Climate, and Culture
During the thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans, the continents of
North and South America experienced tremendous geologic and climate changes. As
the weather warmed, the great mammals died off, and the Native Americans who
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hunted them turned increasingly to growing crops, bringing about the Agricultural
Revolution.
B. Mysterious Disappearances
Agriculture allowed Native Americans to concentrate in large numbers in urban
complexes, such as Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Cahokia in Illinois. By the time
Europeans reached these areas, the great urban centers had disappeared, either because
of climate changes or overcrowding.
C. Aztec Dominance
In Central America, the Aztecs settled in the fertile valley of Mexico and conquered a
large and powerful empire, which they ruled through fear and force.
D. Eastern Woodland Cultures
Elsewhere, along the Atlantic coast of North America for example, Native Americans
lived in smaller bands and supplemented agriculture with hunting and gathering. In
some cases, women owned the farming fields, and men the hunting grounds.
A WORLD TRANSFORMED
The arrival of Europeans profoundly affected Native Americans, who could be said to have entered a
new world.
A. Cultural Negotiations
Native Americans were not passive in their dealings with the Europeans. They eagerly
traded for products that made life easier, but they did not accept the notion that
Europeans were in any way culturally superior, and most efforts by the Europeans to
convert or “civilize” the Native Americans failed.
B. Threats to Survival: Trade and Disease
Wherever Native Americans and Europeans came into contact, they exchanged ideas,
goods, crops, technologies, and so on. Part of this “Columbian Exchange” included the
transmission of diseases, like smallpox and measles. As a result, the Native American
population declined rapidly. For example, the Arawak population in Santo Domingo
fell from almost 4 million before the arrival of Columbus to just 125 in 1570. An entire
way of life disappeared.
This topic is discussed in the Feature Essay; see below.
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WEST AFRICA: ANCIENT AND COMPLEX SOCIETIES
Contrary to ill-informed opinion, sub-Saharan West Africa was never an isolated part of the world
where only simple societies developed. Just like regions on other continents, West Africa had seen the
rise and fall of empires such as Ghana and Dahomey. West Africa had also been heavily influenced by
the coming of Islam. The arrival of Europeans was just the latest of many foreign influences that
helped shape African culture.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to come to this area, pioneering the sea lanes from Europe to
sub-Saharan Africa in the fifteenth century. They found profit in gold and slaves, which were supplied
willingly by native rulers who sold their prisoners of war. The Atlantic slave trade began taking about
1,000 persons each year from Africa, but the volume steadily increased. In the eighteenth century, an
estimated 5.5 million were taken away. Altogether, Africa lost almost 11 million of her children to the
Atlantic slave trade. Before 1831, more Africans than Europeans came to the Americas.
EUROPE ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST
The Vikings discovered America before Columbus, but European colonization of the New World
began only after 1492 because only then were the preconditions for successful overseas settlement
attained. These conditions were the rise of nation-states and the spread of both new technologies and
old knowledge.
A. Building New Nation-States
During the fifteenth century, powerful monarchs in western Europe began to forge
nations from what had been loosely associated provinces and regions. The “new
monarchs” of Spain, France, and England tapped new sources of revenue from the
growing middle class and deployed powerful military forces, both necessary actions
for establishing outposts across the Atlantic.
Just as necessary to colonization were the advances in technology, especially in the art
of naval construction. The lateen sail allowed ships to sail into the wind, better
techniques were devised for calculating position at sea, ancient scientific works were
examined, and the printing press disseminated new knowledge rapidly.
IMAGINING A NEW WORLD
Spain was the first European nation to meet all of the preconditions for successful colonization. After
hundreds of years fighting Moorish rule, she had become a unified nation-state under Ferdinand and
Isabella. In 1492, the year made famous by Columbus’s discovery of America, Spain expelled her Jews
and Muslims in a crusade to obliterate all non-Christian elements in Spanish culture. Spain had also
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experienced the difficulties of colonization in her conquest of the Canary Islands before turning her
attention to America.
A. Myths and Reality
Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo), born in Genoa in 1451, typified the
questing dreamers of the fifteenth century. He believed it was possible to reach the
Orient, the goal of all adventurers, by sailing westward from Europe. Undeterred by
those who told him the voyage would be so long that the crews would perish from lack
of food and water, Columbus finally persuaded Queen Isabella to finance his
exploration. Although Columbus found in America a vast treasure-house of gold and
silver, he had expected to find the great cities of China, and even after four separate
expeditions to America, he refused to believe he had not reached the Orient. He died in
poverty and disgrace after having lived to see his discovery claimed by another,
Amerigo Vespucci, for whom America is named. As a further cruel irony, the all-water
route to the East Indies that Columbus hoped to find was actually discovered by Vasco
da Gama, who sailed from Portugal around the southern tip of Africa. The net result of
his efforts had been frustration and ignominy for Columbus; however, he paved the
way to world power for Spain, which claimed all of the New World except for Brazil,
conceded to Portugal by treaty in 1494.
B. The Conquistadores: Faith and Greed
To expand Spain’s territories in the New World, the Crown commissioned independent
adventurers (conquistadores) to subdue new lands. For God, glory, and gold they
came. Within two decades they had decimated the major Caribbean islands, where
most of the native population died from exploitation and disease. The Spaniards then
moved onto the mainland and continued the work of conquest. Hernán Cortés
destroyed the Aztec Empire in 1521 and the conquest of South America followed in
the next two decades.
C. From Plunder to Settlement
The Spanish crown kept her unruly subjects in America loyal by rewarding the
conquistadores with large land grants that contained entire villages of native people
(the encomienda system). As pacification of the natives progressed, the Spanish crown
limited the autonomy of the conquistadores by adding layer upon layer of bureaucrats,
whose livelihoods derived directly from the crown and whose loyalty was therefore to
the officials who ruled America from Spain. The Catholic Church also became an
integral part of the administrative system and brought order to the empire by protecting
the native population’s rights and by performing mass conversions. By 1650, about
half a million Spaniards immigrated to the New World. Because most were unmarried
males, they mated with Indian or African women and produced a mixed-blood
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population that was much less racist than the English colonists who settled North
America.
Spain’s empire proved to be a mixed blessing. The great influx of gold and silver made
Spain rich and powerful, but set off massive inflation and encouraged the Spanish
crown to launch a series of costly wars in Europe.
THE FRENCH CLAIM CANADA
France lacked the most important precondition for successful colonization: the interest of its rulers.
French kings sent several expeditions to America, most notably that of Samuel de Champlain, who
founded Quebec in 1608, and even established an empire in America that stretched along the St.
Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi, but the French crown made little
effort to foster settlement.
THE ENGLISH ENTER THE COMPETITION
England had as valid a claim to America as Spain, but did not push colonization until the late sixteenth
century, when it, too, achieved the necessary preconditions for transatlantic settlement.
A. Birth of English Protestantism
England began to achieve political unity under the Tudor monarchs who suppressed
the powerful barons. Henry VIII strengthened the crown even further by leading the
English Reformation, an immensely popular event for the average men and women
who hated the corrupt clergy. Henry’s reason for breaking with the Pope was to obtain
a divorce, but he began a liberating movement that outlived him. During the reign of
Queen Mary, Protestants were severely persecuted, but the Reformation could not be
undone.
B. Militant Protestantism
The Protestant Reformation had begun in 1517 in Germany when Martin Luther
preached that humans were saved by faith alone, as a gift from God, and not through
the sacraments and rituals of the Church. Other Reformers followed, most notably
John Calvin, who stressed the doctrine of predestination, the belief that humans could
do nothing to change their fate in the afterlife. The Reformers shattered the unity of the
Christian world and religious wars broke out all over Europe.
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C. Woman in Power
Elizabeth II, the second daughter of Henry VIII, inherited the crown in 1558 and ruled
England successfully for nearly fifty years. She avoided a religious civil war by
reconciling her subjects to an established church that was Protestant in doctrine, but
still Catholic in many of its ceremonies. When the Pope excommunicated her in 1570,
she became more firmly attached to the Protestant cause.
D. Religion, War, and Nationalism
Spain, the most powerful European nation at the time, was determined to crush
Protestantism in Europe. In retaliation, English “seadogs” attacked the Spanish in the
Caribbean. By 1588, the king of Spain decided to invade England and launched the
famous Armada. England’s providential victory over the great fleet convinced the
English people that they had a special commission from God to preserve the Protestant
religion.
AN UNPROMISING BEGINNING: MYSTERY AT ROANOKE
Although England had the capacity for transatlantic colonization by the late sixteenth century, its first
efforts were failures. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent a fleet to colonize Roanoke in what is now North
Carolina. The effort failed, despite Raleigh’s continued attempts to reinforce it. Sometime between
1587 and 1590, the colonists disappeared. To this day, it is uncertain whether they were killed or
absorbed into the native populations in the area. By 1600 there were no English settlements in the
Western Hemisphere.
CONCLUSION: CAMPAIGN TO SELL AMERICA
Despite Raleigh’s failure, Richard Hakluyt kept English interest in America alive by tirelessly
advertising the benefits of colonization. He did not mention, however, that those English people who
went to America would encounter other peoples with different dreams about what America should be.
FEATURE ESSAY: THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE AND THE GLOBAL
ENVIRONMENT
Changes in the global environment brought about by human actions are not only a recent phenomenon.
The Columbian Exchange is a term for the era of New World exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Explorers from Europe brought new animals, new crops, and, most devastatingly, new
diseases to which the native populations were not immune. All these imports from Europe changed the
societies and environment in the New World. Native Americans began to structure their societies
around previously unknown plants such as corn and potatoes, and new animals like the horse.
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LECTURE TOPICS
Discuss pre-Columbian Native American culture, stressing the diversity and complexity of indigenous
societies in the New World. Point out differences in population dispersal and density and the variety of
religions, architecture, art, and political and economic organization in these cultures. Discuss the
meaning of the term “civilization” and what modern-day Americans mean when they describe a society
or culture as “civilized.” Have students question the traditional historical assertion that American
history began with the arrival of Europeans and suggest that European settlement simply initiated
another phase of American history.
Present a discussion of the factors contributing to the development of European interest in exploration
and settlement of the New World. A complete treatment of the issue would examine both political and
individual reasons for movement into the New World. Include in the political discussion such issues as
the national pursuit of a mercantile economic policy, the political power associated with the acquisition
of empire, the expansion of military power, and the missionary motive. How did religion, economic
hardship, and the lure of adventure impact many people’s decisions to go to the New World?
DISCUSSION TOPICS (Broad Based/Theory)
Compare and contrast Native American, European, and West African society on the eve of contact.
How did beliefs regarding land ownership, family, religion, and law and justice impact relations among
these groups? How did each group regard the others, and why?
Compare and contrast European perception and treatment of Native Americans and Africans during the
sixteenth century. What negative impressions did Europeans hold about each society? Did they see
anything positive or worthy in either culture? Discuss the distinction between race and culture. To what
extent did race and culture define the European perception and treatment of each group? Which of
these factors—race or culture—contributed most to the European perception of Native Americans?
Which contributed most to the European perception of Africans?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (Specific)
1
Discuss ecological change in the Americas. Topics could include changes among animal
species, ecological damage caused by humans, and the introduction of new flora and fauna into
the Americas. Address the biological and cultural exchange between Europeans and the Native
Americans.
2
What is Africa? Discuss the importance of religion in Africa. What were the major religions of
Africa? How did they influence culture and events?
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CONNECTING TO THE PAST
Columbus recorded his first encounter with the Taíno people on the island they called Guanahani when
he first made landfall in the Western Hemisphere. This meeting of two worlds and two cultures
proceeded rather peacefully, with the exception of a strange incident. Columbus took out his sword to
show it to one of the natives, who apparently thought he was being offered a gift. He took it and cut his
hand. What did a Stone Age people think when they first saw the power of metal? And why had
Columbus unsheathed his sword? See the translation of The Log of Christopher Columbus by Robert
Fuson (Camden, ME: International Marine Publishing Company, 1987).
The log itself is fascinating, and Fuson fully discusses the controversy over which island in the
Bahamas was the one the native inhabitants called Guanahani and Columbus called San Salvador.
One of the most dramatic encounters in American history was the meeting between Hernán Cortés and
Montezuma. Both men behaved with solemn courtesy until Cortés attempted to embrace the emperor in
the friendly Spanish abrazo. Montezuma’s bodyguards grabbed Cortés by the arm and stopped him,
explaining that an embrace would greatly insult the emperor. That small episode epitomizes the
difficulties Europeans and native peoples had in cross-cultural communication. For more on this topic,
see Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain (New York: Penguin Paperback, 1967).
POINTS OF MASTERY
1
Identify the role of geography and environment in African history and development.
2
Understand the basic outlines of West African geography and culture.
3
Understand the developments of various West African civilizations.
4
Define the term “Paleo-Indians.”
5
Explain the impact of the development of agriculture on Native American society.
6
Define the term “culture area” and apply it to the development of Native American societies in
the New World.
7
List the Native American societies that emerged north of Mexico and describe their distinctive
cultural characteristics.
8
Distinguish between Catholic and Protestant Christianity and identify and chronologically
place the Protestant Reformation.
9
List the factors contributing to the development of western European interest in exploration
and discovery.
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10
Identify Christopher Columbus and discuss his role in the European discovery and exploration
of the New World.
11
Explain the factors that contributed to Hernán Cortés’s conquest of the Aztecs in Mexico.
12
Define the term “Columbian Exchange” and discuss its impact on European and Native
American culture.
13
Identify the reasons for French exploration in the sixteenth century and describe the creation of
a French empire in the New World.
14
Identify the major English explorers of the sixteenth century and describe their contributions to
creating a British empire in the New World.
15
Discuss the mystery of Roanoke Island and the possible explanations offered by historians as
to the fate of the settlement.
SAMPLE RESPONSES TO CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS
1.
How did Native American societies experience substantial change prior to European conquest?
Before any Europeans came to America, Native American societies developed and changed
just like European societies had. When people first arrived in America across the land bridge
that spanned what is now the Bering Strait during the Ice Age, they were nomadic hunters.
Interestingly, these bands of hunters lost inherited immunities to diseases such as smallpox,
which would later prove disastrous when they came into contact with Europeans.
At the end of the Ice Age, the native population spread across the continent and shifted from
hunting to cultivating basic crops, a development called the Agricultural Revolution. This led
to the development of large urban centers and sophisticated technological advances like
irrigation canals and highways. However, these urban centers and the civilizations that created
them disappeared shortly before the arrival of the Europeans.
In sum, Native American societies had their own complex, divergent developments,
independent of but often similar to developments in Europe.
2.
How would you compare the relationships Europeans formed with West Africans to the ones
they formed with Native Americans?
The relationships between Europeans and West Africans were based on trade, primarily the
slave trade. Because of the high mortality rate for Europeans who remained in West Africa (six
out of ten died within their first year on the continent), European explorers did not attempt to
establish colonies. Instead, they relied on Africans to capture slaves and supply them for trade.
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European relationships with Native Americans were more complex. In many cases, these
relationships were also based on trade, but not on human trade. Because they did not face the
same diseases that they did in West Africa, European explorers ventured farther into North and
South America, sometimes trading with the people they met, sometimes plundering them or
wiping them out with diseases. These explorations eventually led to settlements, which would
later necessitate the assimilation, expulsion, or destruction of Native American societies.
3.
How would you contrast the role of religion and economics in the development of the Spanish,
French, and English empires?
During this period, Spain was a Catholic nation and England, after the Reformation, was an
increasingly militant Protestant nation. One of the major goals of Spanish exploration and
colonization was the conversion of native peoples to Catholicism. Despite establishing
missions, and the calls of some Spanish clergy demanding better treatment of the Native
Americans, the Spanish ruled through force and acted primarily out of greed.
In contrast, France, which was also a Catholic nation and also sought to convert native peoples
to Christianity, approached these natives as important trading partners. French traders lived
among the Native Americans and were reliant on and grateful to them for their aid in the fur
export trade.
England also hoped to convert Native Americans to Christianity, but, in practice, treated them
as obstacles to their goals of settlement and colonization. As the Protestant Reformation took
hold and further distinguished England from her European neighbors, nationalism drove the
English to not only trade with the Americas, but also to establish permanent settlements. This
approach stood in contrast to the approaches of the French and Spanish, who primarily sought
wealth through trade.
4.
How did a relatively small European nation like England rise to a position of world power?
After the Protestant Reformation and under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth, England
became increasingly nationalistic. This nationalism and militant Protestantism led to English
conflicts with Spain and Portugal, which ended with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
This demonstration of English military superiority exemplified the powerful ideological forces
that drove the English people during this period. England was determined to become a world
power, and North America was ready to be taken. English colonists, encouraged by Hakluyt’s
book, The Principall Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589),
flocked to the New World to find opportunity and expand the English empire.
AUDIO/VISUAL RESOURCES
Suggested Documentaries and Films:
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500 Nations, Warner Brothers Home Video, 1995.
This eight-part video series explores the Native American populations of North and Central America
from pre-Columbian times until the turn of the twentieth century.
American Indian Artists, KAET-TV, 1975.
This three-part video allows students to investigate Native American culture through the art of six
artists from the Pueblo, Navajo, and Hopi cultures.
In Search of History: The First Americans, A&E Video, 50 minutes.
This video examines the origins of the first human population in North America.
Roanoke, South Carolina Educational Television, 1986, 180 minutes.
This series chronicles the mysterious history behind “The Lost Colony.”
The West: The People, Insignia Films/WETA/Florentine Films/Time-Life Video, 1991.
The first episode of the nine-part Ken Burns series on the West, this film chronicles the early Native
American populations of North America and the impact of Spanish conquistadores on these native
cultures.
CLASS EXERCISES
1
Create an interactive exercise that centers on the encounter between Spanish explorers and
missionaries and the native peoples of North America by having students read letters and other
pertinent accounts from Columbus, Hernán Cortés, and Las Casas, determining what was fact,
opinion, and inference, and discussing the impact of the Spanish presence in the New World.
2
Assume that you are an archaeologist or anthropologist who wants to understand and
reconstruct in your region as much of the original Native American culture and typical daily
life as possible from relics and other remains. Present your findings to others in various forms:
oral report, written paper, table display showing artifacts and a model of Native American life,
or artistic drawings or skits illustrating Native American culture. Find out which Native
American tribes and nations lived in your part of the country and whether there are any
archaeological working sites or remains, like Cahokia, to visit. Also, visit any museums or
historical parks that feature local Native American history.
3
Research the primary historical resources left by western Europeans in which they recorded the
events of their initial contact with Native Americans in the New World. These resources could
include written records, such as journals or diaries from explorers and early colonists, or
European art, particularly paintings and sketches based on a Native American theme. Discuss
how these primary resources teach us about the European response and reaction to Native
American culture.
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4
Organize a group classroom activity in which students develop an understanding of Native
American, West African, and European culture. Organize students in the classroom into groups
so that one third of the class is working on Native American culture, one third on West African
culture, and one third on European culture. For example, in a class of thirty, set up six groups
of five, with two groups working on each culture. Have them examine the religion, family,
politics, and the economy of their assigned society. After the groups have finished this
assignment, reorganize the class into groups of three. Each group will include one member
who has studied each of the three groups. Have each student teach the other two about the
culture he or she has studied. You can test the material by giving a take-home essay in which
the students are asked to compare and contrast the Native American, West African, and
European cultures.
MYHISTORYLAB MEDIA ASSIGNMENTS
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View the Closer Look: An Early European Image of Native Americans
View the Map: Native American Population Loss, 1500–1700
Complete the Assignment: The Columbian Exchange and the Global Environment: Ecological
Revolution
View the Closer Look: Columbian Exchange
View the Map: African Slave Trade, 1500–1870
Watch the Video: How Should We Think of Columbus?
Read the Document: Bartolomé de las Casas, “Of the Island of Hispaniola”
Read the Document: Jacques Cartier: First Contact with the Indians (1534)
Read the Document: Henry VII, Letters of Patent Granted to John Cabot
Read the Document: John White, Letter to Richard Hakluyt and Description of Voyage to the
Lost Colony (1590)
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