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Chapter 1 The World before 1600

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Title: Chapter 1 The World before 1600


1
Chapter 1 The World before 1600
Section Notes
Video
The Early Americas North American Cultures in the
1400s African Cultures before 1500 Europe and
Exploration Cultures Make Contact
The World Before 1600
Maps
The Bering Land Bridge Native American Culture
Areas West and Central Africa, 11001500 European
Routes Columbian Exchange
History Close-up
Caravel
Quick Facts
Images
Artifacts Differences in Geography, Differences
in Dwellings Bartolomé De Las Casas Mosque
Visual Summary The World Before 1600
2
The Early Americas
  • The Main Idea
  • People arrived on the American continents
    thousands of years ago and developed flourishing
    societies.
  • Reading Focus
  • According to scientists and historians, how and
    when did the first migration to the Americas
    occur?
  • What kind of cultures developed in Central and
    South America?
  • What characterized the earliest cultures of North
    America?

3
Migration to the Americas
  • 10,000 years ago ice covered many parts of the
    world (land and water), causing lower sea levels.
  • Land was exposed along coasts.

Ice Age
  • Today the Bering Strait lies between Alaska and
    Siberia, but during the Ice Age a land bridge
    connected them.
  • Historians call the ancient land area Beringia.

Beringia
  • Hunters from Siberia crossed the land bridge.
  • They arrived in North America between 12,000 and
    40,000 years ago.
  • These hunters crossed in small groups at
    different times.

HuntersCrossed
4
Migration to the AmericasHunters and Gatherers
  • They were nomads who moved from place to place.
  • Followed hunter-gatherer way of life
  • Women and girls collected nuts, berries, wild
    plants, and birds eggs.
  • Men and boys went on extended hunts, followed the
    animal herds.
  • When the animals moved, so did the
    hunter-gatherers.
  • Hunter-gatherers never stayed in one place for
    long.
  • Hunting was good along edges of ice sheets.
  • Giant sloths
  • Saber-toothed cats
  • Woolly mammoths
  • Wolves
  • Camels
  • Animals were not accustomed to humans, making
    them easy prey.
  • Hunters drove animals off cliffs or killed them
    with stone-tipped spears.

5
Migration to the Americas
  • End of the Ice Age
  • The climate grew warmer glaciers melted.
  • Large lakes and layers of rich soil were left.
  • Thick forests grew in eastern North America.

Effects
  • Climate change and skillful hunters killed off
    Ice Age animals.
  • Bands of hunters moved south in search of new
    food supplies.
  • By at least 11,000 years ago, people were living
    in North and South America.

FoodSupply
6
Migration to the Americas
The Agricultural Revolution
  • Farming
  • Native Americans began farming.
  • Farming led them to live in villages instead of
    moving from place to place.
  • This dramatic change was called the Agricultural
    Revolution.
  • This change began at least 7,000 years ago in
    parts of the Americas.
  • Basic Crops
  • By about 2,000 years ago, ancient American
    farming was based on
  • Corn (maize)
  • Beans
  • Squash
  • Meat
  • Men hunted seasonally for meat, but began raising
    animals.
  • More Changes
  • The food supply was dependable.
  • Populations grew.
  • People began crafting (pottery weaving).
  • They developed ways to govern villages and to
    distribute wealth.

7
Cultures of Central America and South America
Central and South America have archaeological
sites from many different cultures.
  • Three major cultures flourished in Mesoamerica.
  • Mesoamerica is the area from present-day central
    Mexico into Central America.

CentralAmerica
SouthAmerica
  • A fourth important culture arose in South America.

8
Cultures of Central America and South America
  • The Olmec
  • The Olmec were the first major Mesoamerican
    society.
  • They lived along the Gulf of Mexico around 1200
    BC.
  • The Olmec culture is known as the mother culture
    of Mesoamerica because their religion, art,
    agriculture, and social organization influenced
    later peoples.
  • Farmers
  • The Olmec used a slash-and-burn farming
    technique.
  • Slash-and-Burn
  • Trees were cut down and burned on a plot of land.
  • Ashes made the land fertile for a few years.
  • The farmers then moved to a new plot, allowing
    the old plots to become fertile again.
  • Over time, the farmers cleared large areas of
    land.
  • Engineers and Artists
  • First Mesoamericans to develop a writing system
  • Created sculptures made of basalt that weigh as
    much as 40 tons and stand 10 feet high

9
Cultures of Central America and South America
  • The Maya
  • Mayan society began to rise around 400 BC.
  • Their cities were religious centers with stone
    pyramids, palaces, temples, sacred ball courts.
  • Religious centers grew into city-states populated
    by thousands of people.
  • Mayan Accomplishments
  • Priests studied stars and created calendars.
  • The Mayan developed a writing system and a number
    system.
  • The Toltec
  • The Toltec dominated central Mexico as the Maya
    began to decline.
  • They were skilled warriors, artisans, and
    builders.
  • Toltec influence is seen in the architecture of
    late Mayan cities such as Chichén Itzá.
  • Mayan Decline
  • The civilization declined by about 1500, but the
    culture lives today. Mayan-speaking people still
    live in Mexico and Guatemala.

10
Cultures of Central America and South America
  • The Aztec
  • Came to power in 1400s
  • These were the warlike Mexica, better known as
    the Aztec.
  • Aztec capital was Tenochtitlán.
  • Built on an island in a shallow lake
  • Featured canals, plazas, and marketplaces
  • Food supplied by floating gardens called
    chinampas, in the lake.
  • A conquering people, their slaves and captives
    were used for human sacrifice to their many gods.
  • The Inca
  • While the Aztec conquered Mesoamerica, the Inca
    rose to power in the Andes Mountains of South
    America.
  • Inca conquered along the coast.
  • Their vast empire was connected by roads and
    bridges.
  • Inca empire was largest in America with perhaps
    12 million people.

11
The Earliest Cultures of North America
  • Southwest Peoples
  • Grew corn, beans, squash and women made pottery
  • The Hohokam dug irrigation ditches for farming.
    Had simple temple mounds and ball courts
  • The Anasazi lived in multistory adobe buildings
    (pueblos) built on flat mesas and on steep
    cliffs.
  • The Anasazi had a road system.
  • Mound Builders
  • Lived in eastern North America in small farming
    villages run by clan leaders
  • Complex villages developed.
  • Called mound builders because they buried their
    leaders in large earth mounds
  • Adena people had a trade network to bring them
    goods from far away.
  • Hopewell people were skilled artists.
  • Mississippian Culture
  • Last major mound-builders
  • Most advanced farming society north of Mexico
  • Grew maize and beans, invented the hoe
  • Towns had large temple-mounds.
  • Their greatest cities were Cahokia, near St.
    Louis, and Moundville, in Alabama.

12
North American Cultures in the 1400s
  • The Main Idea
  • A variety of complex societies existed in
    different regions of North America before
    European explorers arrived in the early 1500s.
  • Reading Focus
  • How did regional differences among Native
    Americans shape their diverse cultures?
  • What Native American customs were shared among
    several groups?
  • How did trading networks link Native American
    societies?

13
Regional Differences among Native Americans
  • Diverse environments of North America influenced
    the Native American cultures across the continent.
  • The Southwest
  • Pueblo peoples inherited many Anasazi customs.
  • The Zuni, Hopi, and Acoma lived in pueblos.
  • They grew corn, beans, squash, and cotton in
    river and creek bottoms.
  • They made distinctive pottery and baskets.
  • Later the Apache and the Navajo arrived.
  • Originally nomadic hunters, gradually took up
    farming like the other Pueblo peoples
  • Became skilled weavers

14
Regional Differences among Native Americans
  • The Northwest Coast
  • Climate was cool and rainy. Tall trees, wild
    plants, game, and fish were abundant.
  • Hunters went to sea to hunt whales.
  • The Kwakiutl and the Haida were skilled
    woodworkers.
  • The rich resources made them wealthy.
  • California
  • This region was located south of the Northwest
    Coast.
  • Home to the Pomo, Hupa, and Yuro, among others
  • These peoples lived in small communities of 50 to
    300. There were over 100 languages spoken in the
    region.
  • The people fished and hunted because food was
    available year-round. They did not have to farm.

15
Regional Differences among Native Americans
  • The Far North
  • Region also known as Arctic and Subarctic
  • The peoples are the most recent migrants from
    Asia.
  • These ancestors of modern Inuit came by boat
    about 1,500 years ago.
  • Aleuts came earlier and settle on Aleutian
    Islands.
  • Land and Vegetation
  • Much of the land is tundra.
  • Animals were abundant despite the lack of
    vegetation.
  • The Inuit and Aleuts mainly hunted.
  • On the coast, people hunted seals, seabirds, and
    whales
  • Inland, they hunted caribou, beaver, and bear.
  • Archaeological evidence of their sites is rare.
    Perhaps rising sea levels after the Ice Age
    covered the coastal settlements.

16
Regional Differences among Native Americans
  • The Great Basin and the Plateau
  • These are two dryland regions located east of the
    mountain ranges of the Pacific coast.
  • The Great Basin
  • Native Americans such as the Ute and Shoshone
    were challenged by the weather and environment.
  • There was little rain, few trees, no large
    rivers, and few wild game.
  • They were hunter-gatherers dug roots, gathered
    acorns and piñon nuts, and hunted rabbits.
  • Their populations were small.
  • The Plateau
  • Located north of Great Basin
  • More rainfall than Great Basin
  • More forests than Great Basin
  • Crossed by rivers brimming with salmon and other
    fish
  • Groups such as the Nez Percé lived in villages
    along the rivers.

17
Regional Differences among Native Americans
  • The Great Plains
  • Home to the Sioux, Pawnee, and Cheyenne
  • Flat land with prairie grasses and tree-lined
    rivers
  • Herds such as elk and bison grazed there.
  • Had to hunt buffalofarming was difficult with
    tough grass roots
  • The Caddo and Wichita lived in fertile farm
    valleys.
  • The Eastern Woodlands
  • Thick forests
  • Because travel was difficult, groups developed
    their own traditions, tools, and (often)
    languages.
  • The Iroquois included several groups who shared a
    culture and language. They lived in longhouses.
  • The Chippewa, Fox, and Sauk also lived in the
    region. They spoke Algonquian languages.
  • Plenty of meat, furs, and fish
  • The Southeast
  • Most lived in settled farming villages.
  • They had a warm climate with plenty of rain this
    allowed them to grow several crops a year.
  • Many groups lived here, including the Choctaw.
  • They lived in thatched-roof log cabins plastered
    with mud.

18
Native American Customs
  • Family relations
  • Most villages and nations organized into clans by
    kinship
  • Kinship determined inheritance, status, and
    marriage eligibility
  • Housing arrangements and social engagements
    depended on the position of women.
  • Iroquois society was matrilineal.
  • In Hopi culture, a man went to live with his
    wifes family when he married, bringing seeds
    from his mothers crops.
  • Social and political structures
  • Social organization varied greatly from group to
    group.
  • Most clans or nations were headed by a chief.
    Villages were run by a council of elders.

19
Native American Customs
  • Land use
  • They did not believe that land should be bought
    and sold.
  • Some societies viewed land as a gift from the
    Great Spirit to be shared by the village or group
    for farming or hunting.
  • Still, some groups warred over territory.
  • Division of labor
  • Ancient hunter-gatherers men and boys hunted and
    women and girls gathered plants, nuts, and
    berries
  • Agricultural Revolution saw women take over
    planting and cultivating crops
  • Southwest division of labor women and men
    farmed women cared for children, cooked, wove
    cloth, and made pottery and baskets men were
    woodcarvers and probably metalworkers

20
Native American Customs
  • Religious beliefs
  • Native Americans shared spiritual and religious
    ideas.
  • Belief that there was a spiritual connection to
    the natural world
  • In many belief systems, a tree stood at the
    center of the earth.
  • Animals were thought to be powerful spirits.
  • Native Americans told many stories.
  • Some explained the creation of the world or the
    origin of their peoples.
  • Other stories were about spirits and crops,
    rivers or other aspects of nature.

21
Trading Networks Link Native American Societies
  • Trading Networks
  • Hopewell trade network covered two-thirds of the
    United States.
  • It could take years to bring items back to Ohio
    (long distances and travel difficulty).
  • The Hopewell people obtained bears teeth,
    obsidian, cooper, mica, and shells through trade.
  • Travel made by canoe and on foot
  • Exchange of Ideas
  • The trade networks carried ideas from place to
    place.
  • Mississippians may have borrowed temple mounds
    and pyramids from Mesoamericans.
  • Pueblo peoples religious ideas and ritual
    costumes came from Mexico.

Native Americans usually traded by a barter
system.
  • Reasons for trade
  • Specialization began.
  • Farmers could grow extra crops.
  • Others could access needed minerals.
  • People living near water traded shells or pearls.
  • Artisans traded their creations.

22
African Cultures before 1500
  • The Main Idea
  • Trade was a major factor in the development of
    African societies south of the Sahara.
  • Reading Focus
  • What powerful West African trading kingdoms arose
    between 300 and 1500?
  • How did trade shape kingdoms in East Africa?
  • How did African society change as a result of the
    slave trade?

23
West African Trading Kingdoms
  • Trans-Sahara trade
  • Despite the danger, trading caravans have crossed
    Sahara since ancient times.
  • African interior had gold and ivory Arabs from
    North Africa traded salt from mines.
  • Great trading empires thrived in the grasslands
    near the Niger River.
  • Desert traders also brought Islam to West Africa.

24
West African Trading Kingdoms
  • Ghana
  • Earliest West African trading state (arose around
    AD 300)
  • Located on a gold and salt route
  • Grew wealthy and powerful
  • History passed down through oral tradition
  • Did not convert to Islam
  • Mali
  • Mansa Musa most famous ruler
  • People of Mali were Muslims.
  • When Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca, the
    outside world knew of Malis wealth.
  • Songhai
  • This kingdom became larger than Ghana or Mali.
  • Askia Muhammad, most famous Songhai ruler,
    encouraged Muslim learning.

25
West African Trading Kingdoms
  • Coastal kingdoms
  • By 1300, the settlement of Benin became a
    powerful state.
  • Grew rich from foreign trade
  • Famous for its brilliant artists
  • Farther south, the kingdom of Kongo was growing.
  • Thrived by trading salt and palm oil

26
Kingdoms of East Africa
Trade Important to Growth
  • East Africans traded with Egypt, India, and the
    Middle East.
  • East African trading ships sailed the Red Sea and
    Indian Ocean.
  • East Africa had gold, cinnamon, rhinoceros horn
    and tortoise shell. They also shipped enslaved
    Africans.
  • They bought porcelain, silk, and jewels from
    India and China.

Arabian Influence
  • Arabia was a strong influence along East African
    coast.
  • Arab merchants settled in coastal cities and
    brought their customs and Islam.
  • New culture and new language (Swahili) developed
    in East Africa.

27
African Society and the Slave Trade
  • African rulers were wealthy and had lavish
    lifestyles.
  • Strong families were central to African society.
  • People were loyal to those with the same lineage.
  • Men and women could be enslaved if they were
    captured in war, found guilty of a crime, or were
    in debt.
  • Slaves could work their way to freedom in most
    African societies.

The Portuguese in West Africa
  • Nature of slavery changed when Europeans arrived
    in Africa.
  • Portuguese established large-scale farms, or
    plantations, first in Africa, then in Caribbean
    islands and in the Americas later the Spanish,
    British, French, and Dutch did the same.
  • Plantations were labor-intensive. First Native
    Americans were used for labor, but diseases and
    working conditions took a heavy toll.

28
African Society and the Slave Trade
The Atlantic Slave Trade Begins
  • Atlantic slave trade began in the sixteenth
    century as a response for the demand for cheap
    labor. Europeans viewed the black Africans as
    inferior.
  • Planters demanded more laborers for their
    plantations.
  • African merchants helped supply slaves to traders
    in exchange for the traders business. African
    rulers supplied slaves in exchange for European
    firearms.
  • Others who supplied slaves wanted to help weaken
    rival African leaders.
  • Europeans captured people during conflicts with
    North African Muslims.
  • European traders conducted slave raids and
    kidnappings.
  • The Portuguese began the slave trade, but by the
    1600s the English, French, and Dutch were heavily
    involved, too.

29
African Society and the Slave Trade
The Impact on African Society
  • Atlantic slave trade continued for 400 years.
  • Historians estimate that 20 million Africans were
    sent to the Americas.
  • Many others were sent to other parts of the
    world. Many died en route.
  • The strongest young people were taken, the future
    leaders.
  • Slave raids discouraged people from planning for
    the future.
  • The slave trade interrupted normal political and
    economic development because of the loss of
    population.
  • The slave trade divided Africans from one
    another.
  • Young African men were hired by slave traders as
    kidnappers.
  • Rulers warred against their own people and
    neighbors in order to gain captives for the trade.

30
Europe and Exploration
  • The Main Idea
  • Renaissance ideas changed Europeans medieval
    outlook and inspired them to explore the world.
  • Reading Focus
  • What changes took place in Europe during the
    Middle Ages?
  • What happened during the Renaissance and the
    Protestant Reformation?
  • What did Europeans hope to find during the Age of
    Exploration?

31
The Middle Ages
  • The Middle Ages (AD 500 to 1500) began when the
    Roman Empire collapsed and created widespread
    lawlessness.
  • Feudalism and the manorial system
  • Invaders occupied Spain and attacked other
    nations in central Europe. Vikings raided the
    northern coasts of Europe.
  • Feudal system developed when local nobles gave
    parcels of land from their large estates to
    vassals, or nobles of lower rank. The vassals
    pledged their loyalty and military service to the
    lords.

32
The Middle Ages
  • The Crusades
  • Roman Catholic Pope Urban called on Christian
    kings and knights to recapture the Holy Land from
    Muslim Turks. Thousands answered his call to the
    holy wars, known as the Crusades.
  • The Muslims kept their lands, but the wars
    allowed Europeans to experience new lands and
    people and boosted trade between Europe and the
    Middle East.
  • Wealthy European merchants and artisans made up a
    growing middle class.

33
The Middle Ages
  • New nation-states
  • Many nobles lost their fortunes in the Crusades
    the new middle-class townspeople did not owe
    loyalty to a feudal lord.
  • Kings gave towns charters and collected taxes.
    England, France, and Spain began creating
    nation-states with strong central governments and
    homogeneous populations.
  • King John of England was forced to sign the Magna
    Carta, a document that established several
    principles of government
  • No taxation without representation
  • The right to trial by a jury of ones peers
  • These rights were gradually extended to ordinary
    people.

34
The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation
  • The Renaissance (rebirth)
  • In the 1300s, a new era of learning began in the
    wealthy city-states of Italy.
  • Classics of Greece and Rome were studied,
    inspiring an intense creativity in the arts.
  • In the medieval period, many people accepted
    misery in their lives and hoped for rewards in
    heaven.
  • During the Renaissance people showed an interest
    in a meaningful life on earth.
  • Scientists began to question teachings of
    Catholic Church.

35
The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation
  • The Protestant Reformation
  • Many thought the Catholic clergy had become lazy
    and corrupt. They felt the church failed to
    provide proper spiritual guidance.
  • In 1517 a German monk, Martin Luther, nailed a
    list of arguments to a church door. This critique
    of the Catholic Church led to the Reformation
    movement.
  • Protestants those who joined protests against
    the church
  • Christianity in Spain
  • Islam was widespread in Iberian Peninsula. By
    1100s, Christian rulers wanted to take it back.
    Movement known as Reconquista.
  • Spanish Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand wanted
    Spain to be a Catholic kingdom. Ordered all Jews
    and Muslims to convert or leave Spain. Even
    Christians could be punished if they were
    suspected of defying the church.

36
The Age of Exploration
  • Marco Polo
  • Polo went to China and stayed for 17 years and
    worked for Kublai Khan.
  • On the return trip, he went through Southeast
    Asia and India.
  • Marco took note of the people, places, and
    customs.
  • His book about his travels was very popular it
    influenced later explorers.
  • Prince Henry the Navigator
  • Set up a school and naval observatory to
    encourage exploration
  • He sponsored many expeditions.
  • Hoped to find a sea route to India to allow
    Portugal and other countries to trade directly
    with the East instead of going through Italian
    merchants

37
The Age of Exploration
  • Better sailing technology
  • Prince Henrys school developed the caravel, a
    sturdy and fast ship.
  • Improved navigational instruments astrolabe and
    magnetic compass
  • Looking for a sea route to Asia
  • Overland trip to Asia was long, difficult, and
    dangerous
  • Portuguese explorers led the way Dias, da Gama,
    Cabral
  • Bartolomeu Dias was first to round the southern
    tip of Africa.
  • Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India. The
    new trade route helped Portugal become a world
    power.
  • The sea route discovery led to the decline of
    trans-Sahara trade and the African trading
    empires.
  • Pedro Álvars Cabral spotted the South American
    coast.

38
Cultures Make Contact
  • The Main Idea
  • Columbuss voyages to the Americas established
    contact with Native Americans and led to European
    colonies and an exchange of goods and ideas.
  • Reading Focus
  • When did Vikings visit North America, and why was
    their stay brief?
  • Why were Columbuss voyages to the Caribbean
    significant?
  • What impact did European exploration have on
    Native Americans?
  • What was the Columbian Exchange, and how did it
    affect both Europe and America?

39
Vikings Visit North America
  • Vikings were sea raiders who terrorized the
    coasts of western Europe.
  • In late 900s, Vikings from Norway reached
    Greenland in North America. Erik the Red began
    settlements there in 986.
  • Eriks son, Leif Eriksson, was heading to
    Greenland, but landed on eastern Canadian coast.
    He named it Vinland.
  • Leif tried to establish a colony in Vinland, but
    was not welcomed by the Native Americans. The
    Vikings left Canada three years later after
    warfare with the natives.
  • The Vikings never settled in Vinland again, but
    they continued to return for timber.

40
Columbuss Voyages to the Caribbean
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Believed that he could reach India by sailing
    west (did not know about American continents)
  • Convinced Queen Isabella to back his voyage
    (after several years)
  • Studied sailing and navigation techniques and
    read books about travel and geography
  • The first voyage
  • Set sail on August 3, 1492
  • Crew of 90 men, two caravels (the Niña and the
    Pinta) and his flagship, the Santa Maria
  • Reached land after 3 weeks (San Salvador in the
    Caribbean)
  • Called the local people los Indios. They were
    Tainos.
  • Always thought he had explored part of Asia

41
Impact on Native Americans
  • Colonies in Hispaniola
  • Christmas Town The men Columbus had left to
    establish a town in Hispaniola behaved so wildly
    in his absence that they angered the Tainos. The
    Tainos killed all of them.
  • Isabela The site had no fresh water and
    malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
  • While Columbus explored other islands, his
    brothers ran Isabela. Some Spanish officers
    rebelled against them.
  • Columbus and his brothers captured Indians to
    sell as slaves. Colonization turned into
    conquest.
  • He eventually lost his post as governor of
    Hispaniola in 1500.

42
Impact on Native Americans
  • Native American Labor
  • Spaniards wanted to find gold and needed the
    labor to mine it.
  • In 1494 Columbus sent 26 Indians back to Spain,
    wanting them to be trained as interpreters.
  • He suggested starting a trade in Indian slaves.
    Also wanted to convert them to Christianity
  • Trade in Indian Slaves
  • Queen Isabella didnt want to enslave Indians.
  • Many Indians were then sent to Portuguese
    plantations instead.
  • Later the Portuguese, French, and Dutch ran
    Caribbean plantations and kept enslaved Indians
    as local labor.
  • Father Bartolomé de Las Casas dedicated his life
    to protecting the Indians from mistreatment.

43
The Columbian Exchange
  • Interaction between Europeans and Native
    Americansand eventually Africansled to
    exchanges
  • plants
  • animals
  • languages
  • technology
  • deadly germs, brought epidemics to the Americas
  • Native American crops
  • Corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, chocolate, peanuts
  • European contributions
  • Certain foods
  • Domestic animals, including horses
  • New technology, including guns
  • Smallpox and measles

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