A. Bering Land Bridge
1. As the Ice Age was ending and the sea level dropped, it
exposed a land bridge connecting Eurasia with North
America in the area of the present-day Bering Sea between
Siberia and Alaska
2. By 1492, as many as 54 million people lived in the Americas
3. Main crop was maize (corn)
4. Didn’t have horses, oxen, or even the wheel, but still
managed to build large cities
A. Corn began to transform nomadic hunting bands into settled
agricultural villagers
1. The Pueblo (means village) people in the Rio Grande valley
constructed intricate irrigation systems to water their cornfields
B. Population and the Complexity of Society
1. Throughout the continent to the north and east of the land of
the Pueblos, social life was less elaborately developed
2. No dense concentrations of population or complex nationstates comparable to the Aztec empire existed in North America
outside of Mexico
3. This was one reason for the relative ease with which the
European colonizers subdued the native Americans
C. Iroquois
1. Located in the northeastern woodlands
2. In the 16th century, inspired by the legendary leader
Hiawatha, they sustained the closest thing to the great
nation-states of Mexico and Peru
3. The Iroquois Confederacy developed the political
and organizational skills to sustain a military alliance
that menaced its neighbors, Native Americans, and
Europeans alike, for well over a century
D. Native American Settlements
1. Most native Americans in North America were living
in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements
2. By 1492, there were about 4 million Native
Americans in North America
A. Norse
1. Scandinavia seafarers landed in present-day
Newfoundland about AD 1000
2. The area had many wild grapes, so they called it
Vinland
3. Their venture failed because they weren’t supported
by a nation-state
B. Christian Crusaders
1. Foiled in their military assaults on the Muslims in the Holy
Land from the 11th to 14th centuries, the crusaders acquired a taste
for the exotic delights of Asia
2. Goods that had been virtually unknown in Europe now were
craved:
a. Silk
b. Drugs
c. Perfumes
d. Draperies
e. Spices
- Sugar, a rare luxury in Europe before the crusades,
was used to preserve and flavor food
C. Wanting a New Route
1. The above goods had to be transported enormous
distances from China and India in ships or on camel
2. By the time the goods reached Europe, they were so
costly that purchasers and profits alike were limited
3. European consumers and distributors were naturally
eager to find a less expensive route
A. Portuguese and Africa
1. With the development of better ships, the Portuguese
mariners could overcome obstacles of wind and current
2. As a result, the Portuguese began to creep down the
West African coast in the middle of the 15th century (Dark
Continent)
B. Slavery
1. They set up trading posts along the African shore for the
purchase of gold and slaves. Arabs and Africans had traded
slaves centuries before the Europeans had arrived
2. Portugal was the origin of the modern plantation system,
based on large-scale commercial agriculture and
exploitation of slave labor
C. Spain
1. In the late 15th century, Spain
became more powerful from:
a. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon &
Isabella of Castile
b. Expulsion of the “infidel” Muslim Moors after
centuries of Christian-Islamic warfare
c. As a result of their new strength, the
Spaniards were eager to outdo their Portuguese
rivals. Since Portugal controlled the waterways around
Africa, Spain looked west
A. The Stage Is Set
1. Europeans – Clamored for more and cheaper products from the lands
beyond the Mediterranean
2. Africa – Was established as a source of cheap slave labor for
plantation agriculture
3. Portuguese voyages – Demonstrated the feasibility of long-range
ocean navigation
4. Spain – Was taking shape, with unity, wealth, and power to shoulder
the formidable tasks of discovery, conquest, and colonization
5. Renaissance – In the 14th century, it nurtured an ambitious spirit of
optimism and adventure
6. Printing presses – Facilitated the spread of scientific knowledge
7. Mariner’s compass – Possibly borrowed from the
Arabs, eliminated some of the uncertainties of sea travel
B. Result of Columbus’ Discovery
1. He returned with gold, encouraging further
expeditions
2. An interdependent global economic system would
emerge
a. Europe – provided the markets, capital, and
technology
b. Africa – furnished the labor
c. New World – Offered its raw materials,
especially metals and soil for sugar cane,
tobacco, corn, and more
A. Positive Results of Columbus’ Discovery
1. New World plants, such as tobacco, maize, beans,
tomatoes, and potatoes eventually revolutionized:
a. The international economy
b. The European diet (3/5 of the crops cultivated
around the globe today originated in the Americas)
c. Fed the rapid population growth
2. Columbus returned to Hispaniola (Dominican
Republic today) with cattle, swine, and horses
a. The horses reached the North American
mainland through Mexico and in less than two
centuries had spread as far as Canada
b. North American Indian tribes like the
Apaches, Sioux, and Blackfoot swiftly adopted
the horse, transforming their cultures into
highly mobile, wide-ranging hunter societies
that roamed the grassy Great Plains in pursuit
of the shaggy buffalo
B. Negative Results of Columbus’ Discovery
1. The Europeans also brought the germs that caused
smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria
2. During the Indians’ millennia of isolation in the
Americas, most of the Old World diseases disappeared
from them and so their bodies didn’t need the protective
antibodies. These diseases would quickly devastate the
Native Americans. 90% of the Native Americans perished
3. Indians infected early explorers with syphilis, a sexually
transmitted disease that was transferred to Europe
C. Results of Spanish Discoveries
1. By 1600, Spain had a huge amount of silver. This resulted
in:
a. The foundation of the modern commercial banking
system
b. Increased consumer costs by as much as 500%
c. Could have led to the growth of capitalism
d. Spread commerce and manufacturing
e. Paid for trade with Asia
f. Islands of the Caribbean Sea (West Indies) served as
bases for the Spanish exploration of mainland
America (supplies could be stored and men/horses
could be rested)
3. The West Indies also served as a place to test
the encomienda system. It allowed the
government to give Indians to certain colonists in
return for the promise to try to Christianize
them. It was actually slavery. With the death of
Native American slaves, Spaniards began
importing African slaves
A. Protecting Their New World
1. To secure the northern periphery of their New
World domain and to convert more Indian souls
to Christianity, the Spanish began to fortify and
settle their North American borderlands
B. The Spanish erected a fort at St. Augustine, Florida in
1565. This founded the oldest continually inhabited
European settlement in the future U.S.
C. Catholicism in the New World
1. Found few furs and little gold, but they did discover a
wealth of Indians to be converted to the Christian religion
2. Pope’s Rebellion of 1680
a. The Indians were upset that missionaries were
suppressing their religious customs
b. Indian rebels destroyed every Catholic church in
the province and killed priests and hundreds of
settlers
c. It took nearly half a century for the Spanish fully
to reclaim New Mexico from the Indians
D. Effects of the Spanish in the New World
1. Misdeeds of the Spanish established the “Black Legend.” This
concept held that the conquerors merely:
a. Tortured and butchered the Indians
b. Stole their gold
c. Infected them with smallpox
d. Left little but misery behind
e. They also erected a large empire from Florida to
California
f. They input their culture, laws, religion, and language
g. Intermarried and incorporated native culture into their
own (rather than shun and eventually isolate the Indians as
the English did)
h. Laid the foundations for many Spanish-speaking nations