Worlds Collide
M. CARTER
AMERICAN PAGEANT CH.1
Pre-Columbian Americas
What were the Americas like prior to Spanish
exploration?
What did the land look like?
What was life like?
 Advanced agricultural communities based upon
maize
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
Aztecs and Incas of Central and South America
Complex and Sophisticated societies
 Fed tens of millions
 Corn plantings spread into North America
 Supported populations that has previously relied upon hunting
and gathering
 Three Sister Farming- combines planting of corn
with squash and beans


Southeastern US
Increased population density
“Unlike the Europeans who would soon arrive with the
presumption that humans had dominion over the
earth and with the technologies to the very face of
the land, the Native Americans had neither the
desire nor the means to manipulate nature
aggressively. They revered the physical world and
endowed nature with spiritual properties” (Kennedy
10).
What does this tell us about the differences between
Native American and European farming practices?
 Need for a new route to the West….
 Desire to be the 1st
 Competition to travel more quickly and efficiently
 Expense of the “middlemen” who charged tolls and taxes on
goods
Christopher Columbus
 In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean




blue…….
Seeking a trade route to the Indies
Landed in the Bahamas
Misnamed the people Indians
Exchange of goods between the “old world” and “new
world”


Food, animals, plants, germs
Columbian Exchange
Columbian Exchange
Impact?
 “Perhaps three-fifths of the crops cultivated around
the world today originated in the Americas”
(Kennedy 15).
Spanish Conquistadores
 Why were these men so successful?
God, Gold, Glory!
 Balboa- Pacific Ocean
 Magellan- strait around southern point of S. America
 Ponce de Leon- Florida- gold- “fountain of youth”
 Coronado- SW- Seven Cities of Gold
 De Soto- gold
 Pizarro- conquest & destruction of Incas
 Cortes- conquest & destruction of Aztecs
Portuguese impact
 Institution of the plantation system
 Sugar plantations
 Off the coast of Africa
 Caribbean Islands
 Usage of slave labor
 Establishment of Africa as a source of cheap labor
Encomienda system
 An attempt to Christianize and “civilize” Indians
Bartolome de Las Casas
 Read pages 4-6 in The American Spirit
 “Bartolome de Las Casas Defends the Indians”
(1552)
 Were the natives exploited?
 What reaction do you have to this reading?
 Is this similar to Kennedy’s depiction or that of Zinn?
 What is the “Black Legend” ?
Test tomorrow on all things related to CHAPTER 1 in
Pageant.