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Introduction to the Arctic

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From origins in Africa, the new 'breed' of Homo Sapien emerged ... 1602: Yenisey River. 1607: Turukhansk. 1628: Lena River; Annexation of Yakutia (1632) ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Introduction to the Arctic


1
Introduction to the Arctic
  • Brief History of the Circumpolar North

2
Expansion of Homo-Sapiens
  • From origins in Africa, the new breed of Homo
    Sapien emerged predominantly in Europe where
    Cro-Magnon humans quickly usurped the previously
    dominant Neanderthals
  • Human population expansion began rapidly around
    50,000-40,000 BCE ago
  • Humans were already in Australia by 50,000 BCE,
    but did not begin full-scale migration into the
    Eurasian North until 30,000-BCE
  • This expansion coincided with the decline of a
    major glaciation period 40,000-70,000 BCE
    (Wisconsin Glaciation 75,000-14,000 years ago)
  • Population expansion followed the retreating ice,
    likely pursuing better hunting grounds in the
    North

3
Archaeological Evidence of First Siberians
  • First Siberians can be traced archaeologically to
    populations around Lake Baikal, Altai and Sayan
    Mountains, and the Amur Region
  • Most sites are found along major Siberian river
    systems, such as Ob' and the Yenisei and their
    tributaries, expanding from river systems that
    feed into Lake Baikal, suggesting migrations
    along major river systems, though there is no
    evidence of the use of water craft
  • Oldest tools found are not similar to those found
    in Europe in the same period, suggesting a
    separate population/culture, but later sites do
    show connections with European material culture
  • Finds show a hunting culture based on large
    megafauna such as the mammoth, wooly
    rhinoceros, reindeer, and antelope.
  • Lived in semi-subterranean dwellings often ringed
    with mammoth bones and roofed with reindeer
    antlers that supported a hide covering
  • No evidence of needles for sewing before 25,000
    BCE, but must have had some means for working
    with hides/furs for clothing
  • Evidence of cultural artefacts such as carved
    figures, jewellery, and human burial sites
  • Little evidence of population expansion in what
    is today northern European Russia in this period,
    though recent archaeological finds possibly
    indicate earlier settlement in this region than
    previously believed.
  • By 25,000 BCE we see the first sites north of the
    Arctic Circle

4
Siberian Expansion from Central Asia
5
Siberian Ice Age Culture
6
Early Peopling of Northern Eurasia
7
Last Glacial Maximum
8
Circumpolarice cover
9
Possible Migration Routes to the Americas
10
Retreat of the Last Ice Age
  • By 15,000 BCE, most of Siberia is populated even
    some evidence of temporary settlements along the
    Arctic coast, and deglaciation begins to
    accelerate across the globe
  • It is also likely that by this time people had
    moved into North America
  • Due to the amount of water trapped in glaciers,
    sea levels at that time were about 100m lower
    than today, creating a land bridge up to 2000km
    wide between the Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska
  • Most archaeological and genetic/biological
    evidence points to Siberian origins of first
    North American peoples
  • Common explanations that the migrations occurred
    in a series of three or four migration waves
  • First wave expanded into Eastern Canada and down
    into South America, either by moving along the
    Pacific coast, or inland through a gap between
    the major ice sheets (Alberta corridor).
  • According to theories, a second wave brought
    mammal hunting groups into northern Canada,
    perhaps the ancestors of the Athapaskan peoples,
    while a third or fourth wave brought coastal
    marine mammal hunting groups across the Arctic
    coastline as far as baffin and Greenland, known
    as Thule culture, the forbearers of Inuit
  • Following the arrival of humans in the Americas,
    the continent experienced a massive depletion of
    its fauna, particularly major mammal species. The
    population explosion that occurred in the
    Americas supports theories that early peoples
    overhunted existing fauna to the point of
    extinction, before settling into more stable
    modes of settlement, and early agriculture.
    Climate changes in this period also likely played
    some role in these massive extinctions.

11
Beringia
12
Peopling of Americas and Megafauna Extinction
  • Correlations of retreating glaciation, expansion
    of human settlement, and extinct fauna in North
    America

13
Competing Theories to Beringia
  • Belief that first humans came to the Americas
    through a land bridge across the Bering Strait,
    25,000 to 40,000 years ago
  • Beringia Theory is the most widely accepted
    explanation of how North America was populated
  • Scientific explanations disagree with First
    Nations views that they had originated in the
    Americas and always lived there. No oral history
    of migrations.
  • Difficult to explain the rapid expansion of human
    population from Alaska to South America,
    compounded by the fact that some South American
    sites seem to be contemporary or even older than
    sites further north
  • Earliest reliably dated evidence of human
    settlement in the Americas is from Clovis, New
    Mexico, approx. 11,500 years ago, supporting an
    interior route or Clovis First theory
  • Recent evidence from Chile shows human habitation
    1000 years before Clovis
  • In 1995, Deloria disputed the fact that ocean
    levels could have dropped by such an amount, and
    that the resulting landscape would have been
    barren in any case. Demanded an alternative
    explanation.
  • While prehistoric oversea voyages are hotly
    disputed, there is some room for a compromise
    explanation that early migrations used both land
    and sea, as evidenced by the mix of land and sea
    animals that formed their diet. New evidence
    suggests that instead of a straight-line coast,
    the southern coastline of Beringia was comprised
    of hundreds of islands, shallow bays, and inlets.
    Such coastal topography would have facilitated
    coastal living and migration.
  • Sea-based voyages could have continued after
    Beringia was submerged, and the currents in the
    North Pacific are favourable for West-East
    crossings
  • The first settlers to Australia must have arrived
    by boat, and did so as long ago as 50,000 years
    ago, which would support views that maritime
    travel was more possible than we may imagine
  • Lack of archaeological evidence of first arrivals
    by sea may be because those sites are all
    underwater thanks to rising sea levels.
  • Most likely that there were many different waves
    of migration over both land and sea.

14
Expansion of Settlement and Culture
  • 11,000-8500 BCE
  • Gradual warming of the climate, seeing the return
    of forests in the Russian/Siberian plains. Growth
    of forests saw decline in the hunting of large
    plain/steppes-dwelling mammals. Moose/elk hunting
    became dominant until about 5000 BCE
  • Real northern habitation and settlement begins to
    emerge all across the circumpolar world
  • Early agriculture and fishing communities in the
    south coast of Sweden, and around Gulf of Finland
  • Expansion of American Plains Indians into
    Alberta, and further north and east
  • Settlements across Siberia, Kamchatka, and inland
    and coastal Alaska
  • Beginnings of cultural differentiation among
    Siberian and coastal peoples Chukchi, Eskimo,
    Koryak and Yukagir, etc
  • 8000-5000 BCE
  • Early settlements around great northern lakes
    Slave, Bear, likely from Alaska
  • Gradual retreat of glaciers from NE Canada and
    Fennoscandia sees settlement of Torne Valley,
    Barren Grounds of northern Canada, and further
    expansion into Siberia, Small-tool culture
    present in Kluane region
  • Sea levels are nearing modern levels, settled
    marine cultures have become established in
    Aleutian Is, and coastal Alaska, and increasingly
    in NW Pacific Coast
  • Glacial Lake Agaziz, west of the Great Lakes
    retreats and settlement moves into northern
    regions west of Hudsons Bay
  • 5000-2000 BCE
  • Finno-Ugric peoples in the Kola region and
    Karelia, coming into contact with expanding
    Germanic and Baltic peoples
  • People have reached Greenland, suggesting
    migration from Baffin region and northern Canada

15
Expansion of Settlement and Culture
16
Other Major Milestones in Arctic Settlement
  • Dorset peoples move from northern Canada into
    Greenland and Labrador, perhaps overtaking
    earlier Independence culture, by about 500 BCE
  • Finnish ancestors are pushing Sami further
    north into present home area
  • Around 500-300 BCE major Yakut migration from
    area around Lake Baikal towards the Lena river
  • Athabaskan peoples are consolidating in the taiga
    region from Yukon basin to Hudson Bay,
    reoccupying territories abandoned by Dorset
    paleo-Eskimo
  • By 100 BCE, Germanic peoples predominate in
    northern Europe, including Scandinavia

17
Early Modern Age
  • 0-500 AD although the known world in Western
    imagination consisted only of the Roman Empire,
    although there was considerable trade in
    minerals, furs, timber, and other goods between
    the North and the civilized world through
    mostly Germanic tribes between them
  • By 500 AD, cultural landscape of modern began to
    emerge, with early central European kingdoms

18
Viking Age 800-1000 AD
  • Despite being a relatively short historic period,
    and occurred only on the periphery of Europe the
    Viking Age occupies a considerable place in the
    popular imagination of the history of the North
  • It is important to see the Vikings as not a new
    vicious race of marauders, but a continuation of
    this earlier trade culture
  • The Vikings were not a united culture, but
    included predecessors of what are now Danish and
    Norwegian cultures, as well as an eastern group
    known as Svear (Swedish) that had extensive trade
    routes as far as the Black and Caspian seas
  • Viking exploration brought the first settlement
    to Iceland, the first European settlement to
    Greenland, and were the first Europeans to visit
    North America (vinland, Lanse-aux-Meadows)
  • Vikings also established permanent settlements in
    Novgorod, Britain, and northern France (Normandy)
    that laid the basis for the modern Russian,
    British, and French empires and states
  • Viking Age declines around 1066 with the
    expansion of Christianity and the Norman invasion
    of Britain. Norse kingdom emerges and
    incorporates Finland.
  • Major power rivalries between Sweden (Uppsala),
    Denmark (Jutland) and Russia (Novgorod) in the
    following centuries for control of the region

19
Iron and Viking Ages
20
Russian Settlement of Siberia
  • By the 14th C, the power of Novgorod in this
    period was soon eclipsed by Moscow, which began
    to consolidate Russian control in region from the
    Kola peninsula to the Caucuses
  • By the 15th C, Russia and indeed much of Europe
    was threatened by continued Mongol expansion,
    which peaked in the 13th C, under Ghengis Khan
    and Kublai Khan
  • The siege mentality of Russia and Europe in this
    time dominated political thought, and by the 16th
    C, Russia under Czar Ivan IV (the Terrible) was
    ready to mount an offensive to crush the remnants
    of the Mongol empire
  • Indeed, the political, social, and military
    modernization and organization undertaken by
    Muscovy in order to repel Mongol invasion has
    been linked to its ability to consolidate power
    over Novgorod and Kiev

21
Mongol Dominions
22
Russian Settlement of Siberia
  • The defeat of the last Mongol khanate left Moscow
    in control of rich trade routes to the east and
    south
  • Much of this trade was in private hands, under
    the blessing of the Tsar, and defence and
    expansion of those trade routes, and primarily
    the fur trade, was conducted by private armies of
    Cossacks, and later imperial troops
  • In 1585 a Cossack army defeated the Khanate of
    Sibir, and established its first outpost across
    the Urals. From this point on the Russian
    conquest of Siberia took place with astonishing
    speed.
  • 1595 Obdorsk (now Salekhard)
  • 1602 Yenisey River
  • 1607 Turukhansk
  • 1628 Lena River Annexation of Yakutia (1632)
  • 1639 Podshiversk, on Indirgirka R., north of
    Arctic Circle
  • 1648 Okhotsk and Chukchi Peninsula
  • 1697 Kamchatka Peninsula
  • 1741/1766 Alaska
  • In this sense, the Russian expansion into Alaska
    should be seen as a natural extension of its
    eastward conquest of Siberia, rather than any
    separate policy to forestall British/American
    expansion into the region, which was not evident
    at the time

23
Russian Conquest and Expansion
24
European Exploration of America and the North Seas
  • While the Spanish and Portuguese began the
    European discovery of the Americas, British,
    French as well as Dutch, Danish/Norwegian
    explorers began the exploration of the north seas
    seeking other routes to Asia fabled northwest
    and northeast passages
  • In 1497, John Cabot claims Newfoundland for
    England
  • 1530, Jacques Cartier explores the Gulf of St.
    Lawrence while looking for the NW Passage
  • A private British company called the Muscovy
    Company, seek the NE Passage, and begin sea trade
    routes in northern Russia (Arkhangelsk) and
    whaling around Spitzbergen
  • 1576-1587, English expeditions under Martin
    Frobisher and John Davis seek the NW passage and
    encounter Inuit in Baffin and Hudsons Bay region
  • 1594-96, Willem Barents (Dutch) seeking NE
    Passage sights Novaya Zemlya, Jan Mayen, Bear
    Island, and Spitzbergen

25
European Exploration of America and the North Seas
26
Exploration Timetable
  • 330 B.C. Greek navigator Pytheas sails near
    vicinity of Iceland.
  • 850 A.D. Norse people settle in Iceland
  • 981 A.D. Eric the Red visits Northwest coast of
    Greenland
  • 1490 John Cabot first proposes existence of a
    Northwest Passage
  • 1500's Whalers explore from Baffin Island to
    Novaya Zemlya
  • 1534 Jacques Courtier explores St. Lawrence for
    NW Passage
  • 1576 Martin Frobisher discovers Frobisher Bay
  • 1586 John Davis explores western shores of
    Greenland
  • 1596 William Barents discovers Spitsbergen and
    seeks NE Passage
  • 1610-11 Henry Hudson expedition survives Arctic
    winter
  • 1612 William Baffin explores Hudson Baffin Bays
  • 1648 Semyon Dezhnev finds Northeast Passage
  • 1728 Vitus Bering discovers Bering Strait while
    seeking NE Passage
  • Semyon Chelyuskin reaches most northern point in
    Asia
  • 1770 Ivan Lyakhov explores Novosibersky Ostrova
    in Siberia
  • 1822 William Parry sails through Hudson Hecla
    Straits
  • 1831 John Ross reaches magnetic North Pole
  • 1845 John Franklin's lost expedition proves
    existence of NW Passage
  • 1854 Robert McClure makes 1st successful transit
    of NW Passage
  • 1878-79 Nils Nordenskjold completes NE Passage
    from west to east
  • 1888 Fridtjof Nansen makes overland crossing of
    Greenland
  • 1893 Nansen's ship 'The Fram' proves the
    existence of Arctic current
  • 1903-06 Roald Amundsen successfully navigates NW
    Passage by ship
  • 1909 Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach North
    Pole
  • 1912 Knud Rasmussen completes NW Passage by
    dogsled
  • 1913-18 Vilhjalmur Stefansson lives among Inuit
    of Northern Canada
  • 1926 Richard Byrd Floyd Bennet fly 1st Airplane
    to North Pole
  • 1968-69 Wally Herbert completes first surface
    crossing of Arctic Ocean
  • 1958 U.S. Nuclear submarine Nautilus passes under
    Arctic Ice cap
  • 1977 Icebreaker Arktika reaches North Pole
  • 1978 Naomi Uemura completes 1st one man
    expedition to North Pole
  • 1986 Will Steger completes 1st dogsled expedition
    to North Pole

27
The Fur Trade European Expansion in North America
  • 1670 Hudsons Bay Co. est. in Canada, given
    royal charter to conduct trade and settlement (as
    well as seeking NW Passage)
  • Charter gave HBC exclusive trading rights, as
    well as sovereignty over the territories that
    covered the region specified as that drained by
    rivers flowing into Hudson Bay
  • By 1840, HBC traders had reached Yukon River in
    Alaska
  • HBCs claim was disputed by French traders, which
    created not only rivalry, but open warfare
    between French and English. This warfare occurred
    both independently, and as a consequence of
    French-English imperial wars throughout the
    17th-19th centuries.
  • Each side had Indian allies, through which both
    trade and warfare were conducted
  • The Beaver was by far the most lucrative product,
    and in the 18th century had an economic status
    that could be compared to oil today
  • HBC spent little time exploring NW passage, and
    little effort exploring inland beyond its posts
    in Hudson Bay
  • 1763 peace between France and English gave
    sovereignty over Canada to England, but new
    rivalry created through the establishment of the
    Northwest Company, by Montreal traders and
    businessmen, many of Scottish origin.
  • The trading posts established by both companies
    became centres of settlement for both natives and
    European settlers.
  • The HBC declined, and the two companies
    eventually amalgamated in 1821, but retained the
    HBC name.
  • At that time all of Canada, beyond the settled
    eastern provinces, were under the domain of the
    company
  • After Canadian confederation (1867-1869), all
    company territory was annexed to the Dominion of
    Canada
  • Coinciding with Canadian Confederation was the
    Alaska purchase in 1868, by which it was
    incorporated into the United States from Russia

28
Hudsons Bay Company
29
(No Transcript)
30
Colonization 1800-200
  • By 1800s governments had established sovereignty
    over all of the territories of the circumpolar
    North, and began imposing administrative control,
    accelerating resource exploitation, and
    initiating settlement of European-based settlers
    from the South
  • The discovery of large quantities of gold in the
    Yukon River basin in 1896, sparking the world
    famous Klondike Gold Rush, hastened the
    development of the Canadian North and
    neighbouring Alaska
  • As 19th C whaling exhausted southern stocks,
    whalers continued to press north in the Arctic,
    Canadian Archipelago, and North Atlantic
  • The new resource opportunities discovered in the
    North began to change southern perceptions of the
    region as an inhospitable, isolated, frozen
    wasteland, to a vast resource frontier of nearly
    unlimited potential
  • The economic potential of the North, spurred
    governments to establish their administrative
    control over the regions, bringing the usual
    forms of state control such as surveyors, tax
    collectors, teachers, doctors, police and
    military, etc.
  • The North continued to be treated as a resource
    frontier for southern industrial and population
    centres. Nearly all of the current eight Arctic
    states (with the possible exception of the US)
    established themselves as modern industrialized
    countries through the exploitation of northern
    resources

31
Indigenous Reactions to Colonization
  • Unlike other colonial encounters, such as the
    warfare that marked Spanish, Portuguese, and
    later American contact in the Americas, the
    expansion of southern settlers and political
    control in the North was relatively peaceful
  • Although the relationship between indigenous
    peoples and southern settlers had harmful, but
    perhaps unforseen consequences, on indigenous
    culture and livelihoods, the impacts were not
    entirely negative.
  • Settlers and their new goods and technologies
    were often welcomed by indigenous peoples, who
    quickly adapted to their use. The adoption of the
    horse and rifle in North America by plains
    Indians is one such example, while the role of
    Canadian natives in the fur trade shows the
    degree of cooperation
  • The Inuit, in particular were notably cooperative
    with European explorers, traders, and settlers,
    enthusiastically learning the new technologies
    introduced to them and helping the newcomers
    explore their lands, teaching them how to hunt
    local wildlife and survival skills.
  • The assumption that indigenous peoples were
    outsmarted by cunning European traders does
    simply not stand up to examination. Indigenous
    peoples actively engaged in trade with the
    Europeans to gain access to new technologies, and
    goods that were simply not available in their
    home areas, and demanded fair value for in return
  • Indigenous peoples also adapted creatively to the
    introduction of Christianity, mixing it with
    traditional beliefs and values, adopting portions
    that fit with their cultures, and adapting it to
    make it relevant to their societies
  • European settlers, particularly in the Americas,
    however also brought endemic diseases, which
    killed up to 90 of the indigenous population of
    the Americas after European contact, and spread
    as settlement expanded northwards
  • The introduction of alcohol as a trading good had
    a particularly destructive effect on indigenous
    populations who had no previous tolerance
  • The economic changes that occurred with the
    commodification and accelerated harvest of
    natural resources as trading goods also had
    significant negative impacts through
    over-harvesting, and the transformation of
    traditional systems of resource management, and
    community economic practices of sharing and
    support

32
20th Century
  • The 20th century accelerated the colonization of
    northern areas, whereby social, political, and
    military interests joined increasing economic
    interests to drive government and other southern
    activity
  • The social mission, particularly in Scandinavia
    and North America brought schooling to indigenous
    peoples in order to civilize them and nationalize
    them
  • Major infrastructure projects such as roads
    supported increased industrial activity, as well
    as bringing the north closer to southern
    administration, and facilitating military
    surveillance and control
  • In nearly all of the Arctic countries, northern
    regions were directly administered by the
    capitals and had little or no regional
    decision-making Alaskan Statehood (1959)
    Greenland Home Rule (1979) Territorial
    Devolution and Nunavut (1999), continued
    autonomic status of certain subjects of Russian
    Federation

33
What drove southern exploration of the North?
  • Resources Furs, fish, whales, forests, gold
  • Myths, adventure, romance Images of the north is
    mythology and literature, rumours of exotic
    peoples, places (Ultima Thule), and wealth
  • Navigation Routes NW and NE passages offered
    possibilities of reaching the Asia from Europe
  • Civilizing Mission Colonial motivation to bring
    European civilization to the northern savages
    encountered
  • Sovereignty National rivalries Increases in
    European naval power brought competition for new
    claims to land and demonstrations of naval
    supremacy
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