Alan Brinkley,
AMERICAN HISTORY 12/e
Chapter One:
The Meeting of Cultures
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
America Before Columbus

The Civilizations of the South
– Incas: Cuzco, Machu Picchu
 Modern day Peru
– Mayans: Mayapan
 Central America,
Yucatan Peninsula
– Aztecs: Tenochtitlan
 Mexico
The Mayan Pyramid
of Kukulkan
(Royalty-Free/CORBIS)
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America Before Columbus

The Civilizations of the North
– Complex and Varied Civilizations
– Mobile Societies
– No large empires or political systems
like Incas, Mayas,
or Aztecs
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Europe Looks Westward

Commerce and Nationalism
– A Reawakening of Commerce
 Century following Bubonic plague provided
population rebound, with such growth came a rise in
land values.
Marco Polo leaves
for the Far East
(Bibliothèque
Nationale de France)
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Chapter One:
The Meeting of Cultures

Commerce and Nationalism
– A Reawakening of Commerce
 Century following Bubonic plague provided
population rebound, with such growth came a rise in
land values.
– Centralized Nation-States
 New nations began to rise that were more powerful
than the weak feudal lords of the past.
 Strong monarch emerged with centralized nations,
courts, armies, and tax systems.
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Prince Henry the Navigator
Portuguese monarch
 Actually sought to explore African coast
and develop a Christian empire
 After his death, his crew continued further
past the Cape of Good Hope and opened
routes to India.

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Europe Looks Westward

Christopher Columbus
– Columbus’s First Voyage
– Italian by birth, trained
by Portuguese mariners,
but didn’t receive funding
– Eventually convinced
Ferdinand and Isabella of
Spain to sponsor his trip
Christopher Columbus
(Library of Congress)
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Europe Looks Westward

Amerigo Vespucci
– First explorer to record trip to new world and
recognize it as a new place.
– Also sailed for Portugal

Ferdinand Magellan
– Sailed south around the Straits of Magellan
– First to discover the Pacific Ocean
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Europe Looks Westward

The Conquistadores
– Cortés Conquers the Aztecs
 First conquest of the capital was a failure, but they
unknowingly exposed them to smallpox
 Viewing this as an act of god, they brutally ruled them

Francisco Pizarro
– Conquered the Incas and revealed the wealth of
Gold that could be found in the new world.

Hernando de Soto
– Deputy of Pizarro, explored what is today
Florida. The first European east of the
Mississippi River.
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Spanish America

Ordinances of Discovery
– Military conquest of the Americas,
conquistadores sought Gold and wealth
 For 300 years the
Spanish settlements
yielded more than 10
times the gold of than
the rest of the world
combined.
Spanish
America
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Spanish America

Second Phase of Spanish Development
– Once gold refinery dwindled the new wave of conquest
turned to agricultural development.
– Developed European elements of civilization
– Permanently altered the landscape and social structure
of the Americas.

Catholic Missions
– Adhering to the church, Ferdinand and Isabella
required Catholicism as only religion of new
establishments
– Most established missions were connected with military
garrisons called Presidios where they combined
economic and military power.
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Northern Outposts

St. Augustine
– 1565: First settlement in present day U.S.
– Military outpost and administrative center for
Franciscan Monks.

Onate in New Mexico
– Established settlement with Pueblos and built
agricultural wealth through cattle trade on
ranchos.
– Peaceful cohabitation with natives until Catholic
priests forced complete native conversion.
– Led to Revolt of 1680
The Empire at High Tide

Vast lands
– By end of the 16th Century Spanish lands would
stretch from California through Central America,
Florida, and eventually
Brazil

Little ability of Spanish
lords to form political
groups apart from the
Crown, unlike later
British Colonies.
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The Meeting of Cultures

Biological and Cultural Exchanges
– Increasing Levels of Exchange
– Demographic Catastrophe
– Deliberate Subjugation and Extermination
 Since native societies were actually highly advanced,
the Europeans used brutal tactics to put down the
threat.
– New Crops and Agricultural Techniques
– A Complex Racial Hierarchy
– Reasons for Intermarriage
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Africa and America

Between 1500 and 1800
over half of the new
arrivals in the Americas
were from Africa.
Inset from Map of
Africa and Americas
(Library of Congress)
1633 Map of Atlantic
(Royalty-Free/CORBIS)
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Africa and America

African Society
– Highly sophisticated, especially in places like Ghana and
Mali, centers of trade
– Matrilineal societies with significant sexual equality
– Elaborate social hierarchy
 Priests and nobles, farmers, traders, craftsmen, slaves

African Slavery
– Not permanent, still had rights, not inherited
– Much different than in America

Need for laborers on sugar cane plantations created
initial African slave trade.
– By 1700 it was a thriving business.
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
The Arrival of the English

Search for a Northwest Passage
– John Cabot arrived roughly 5 years
after Columbus
 The Commercial Incentive
– Increased demand for wool
caused many landlords to
pasture their fields rather than
grow crops.
– No more jobs for tenant
Wasdale Head,
Farmers.
Cumbria, England
(Royalty-Free / CORBIS)
The Commercial Incentive

Surplus population
– Unemployed beggars caused problems, and since
fewer crops were grown England did not have
enough food to feed the people.

Chartered Companies
– Groups of merchants acquired charters from the
monarch allowing them to finance trips to new
world and in turn reap benefits of such colonies.

Mercantilism
– Belief that a nation always builds wealth at the
expense of other nations.
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The Religious Incentive

Protestant Reformation
– 1517 Martin Luther challenge
basic beliefs and practices of
the Catholic Church.

English Reformation
– Began as a dispute between
Henry VIII and the Pope.
– Long struggle between
Catholics and Protestants for
control of England
“Bloody Mary” & Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth I
(Portrait Gallery)
Religious Incentive

Puritan Separatists
– Religious radicals that believed they should break
from the Catholic Church completely and free to
worship as they wished.
– Against the law

Puritan Discontent
– James I became the first Stuart to obtain the
throne and refused to compromise with Puritans
in any way, favoring the Catholics.
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English roots in Ruling others

The English in Ireland
– Irish use of Gaelic/Catholic culture caused the
English to view them as wild and ignorant
“savages”.
– The English refused to believe the Irish could be
included in civilized culture, and learned their role
as colonizers from their treatment of the Irish.

Plantation Model
– English gov’t sought to create plantations of
English society in new lands, and remain separate
from any natives they controlled.
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French and Dutch in America

Quebec – First French settlement
– Few French Catholics felt the need to come, and
Protestants were forbidden

Coureurs de Bois:
– French fur traders developed a close relationship with
natives
– Aspect of colonization unique to the French
New Amsterdam preacher
(Library of Congress)
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Dutch in America

Henry Hudson:
– Englishman employed by the Dutch, sailed up
the Hudson River
– Because it was so wide, he thought he had
finally found the Nothwest passage to the
Pacific
 He was wrong, and his crew’s mutiny near Hudson
Bay left him for dead.

New Amsterdam
– Dutch settlement in the America’s on what is
today New York.
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The First English Colonies

Gilbert’s Expedition to Newfoundland
– Humphrey Gilbert, friend of Queen Elizabeth, received
permission to build in the unclaimed territories.
– Upon looking for a place to build his military outpost, his
ship was lost at sea.

Roanoke
– Sir Walter Raleigh, Gilbert’s half brother, organized an
expedition a year later.
– They settled on a small island off the coast of Virginia
– In 1590 the group’s leader, John White, returned to
England for supplies
 Conflicts with Spain delayed his return for 3 years.
 When he finally returned the colony had been abandoned.
Copyright ©2007 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc