The Americas: Pre History to 1550

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The Americas Pre History to 1550

• Chapter 1

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The American Indians

• People migrated from Siberia via the Bering
  Strait Land Bridge
• Arrived during ice age about 15,000 years ago
• People were hunters pursuing large game
• 5,000 years later, ice melts, sea levels rise to
  present day, covering land bridge

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American Indians

• Paleo-Indian hunters adapt to climate change
• Warm temperatures kill large game, rely on
  gathering and fishing
• Population grows and expands across North and
  South America
• Indian diversity forms tribes

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Rise of Permanent Cities

• Growth of corn, squash, and beans leads to large,
  permanent villages
• Mexico forms large cities
• Pyramids, chiefs, calendars
• Aztecs grow in Central Mexico
• Mayas grow along the Gulf of Mexico

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Early American Indian Cultures
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Early American Indian Regions

• Southwest
• Hohokams built irrigation systems in Gila Salt
  River Valleys
• Built houses and towns from adobe-sun dried
  bricks
• Mississippi River Valley
• Area had temperate climate with many rivers to
  provide water for agriculture and transportation
• Built large towns around plazas, pyramids of
  earth like groups in Mexico
• Largest, wealthiest group at Cahokia, SW Illinois
  near St. Louis
• In 1100 AD Cahokia had at least 10,000 people
• In 1100s people abandoned Cahokia but culture
  thrived-Etowah, Ga

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Early American Indian Regions

• The Great Plains
• In 800s (9th century) some Mississippian groups
  moved up river valleys onto Great Plains
• Located between the Rocky Mountains and Miss
  River
• Received 12 to 20 inches of rain a year
• Grazing animals key to Great Plain inhabitants
• 20 million bison roamed grasslands
• Houses made from wood frames, grass thatch
  (south), logs mud (north)
• In summer villagers went onto plains to hunt
  bison for meat and hides

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Early American Indian Regions

• Eastern Woodlands
• Southeast-mild winters, warm summers, lots of
  rain
• Cherokees largest group-primarily farmers but
  also hunted and fished
• Northeast-Algonquins (coast) Iroquois (inland)
  also farmed but more hunting fishing
• Five Iroquois groups formed loose confederation
  Iroquois League
• Not European style nation but looser for
  promoting peaceful cooperation among members
• Great Binding Law was a constitution passed
  down orally

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Europe in the 1400s

• Middle Ages began with collapse of Roman Empire
• Absence of effective central government
• Constant threat of famine, disease, foreign
  invasion

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Europe in the 1400s

• An economy based on agriculture
• Black death during 1340 killed 1/3 of population
• Most people lived in the countryside
• Small cities begin small scale manufacturing
• A society of unequal classes
• 5 of population controls all the land
• warring kingdoms rule Western Europe
• Castile (Spain), Portugal, France, England
• (all monarchs)

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Europe looks beyond its borders

• The Crusades expands trade
• The Renaissance brings new ideas
• Growth of arts and science
• Printing Press spreads ideas
• Marco Polo travels across Asia
• The need for new trade routes
• Ottoman Turks have more technology, need to catch
  up

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Portugal begins to Explore

• Reconquista drives out Muslim Moors from Iberian
  peninsula
• Spanish Portuguese sought new trade routes west
  across Atlantic south along Africa
• New navigation devices-compass, astrolabe,
  quadrant
• New ship type-Caravel-sturdier, able to sail up
  wind
• Starting in 1419 Prince Henry the Navigator
  directed Portuguese exploration
• Tried to spread Christianity, outflank Muslim
  domination of trade
• Founded school of navigation
• Sponsored expedition down west coast of Africa
• Hoped to find gold, ivory, slaves

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The West Africans

• 300-1500, 3 major kingdoms
• Ghana, Mali, Songhai
• Slavery in Africa
• Common in West Africa
• Not based on race
• Portuguese exploit slave trade (mid 1400s)
• 1500, Europe purchases 1,800 slaves
• Some shipped to Europe, others to sugar
  plantations in the Americas

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First encounters

• Portugal moves down the coast of Africa, Spain
  looks west for trade routes
• Europeans did NOT think the world was flat
• But did not know of the large landmass between
  Europe and China

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Christopher Columbus

• Heard stories from Vikings about land in the west
• 1492, 3 ships and 90 men reach the Bahamas
• He believed he had the right and duty to dominate
  the people he found

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Other European explorers

• John Cabot (Spain)
• Discovered Newfoundland
• Pedro Alvarez Cabral (Portuguese)
• discovered the coast of Brazil
• Amerigo Vespucci
• Explored enough of South America to deem it a new
  continent
• Ferdinand Magellan
• Circled the entire globe from 1519 to 1522

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Europe and Natives Quarrel

• 1494, Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of
  Tordesillas
• Spain claims Columbus western lands
• Portugal claims Africa and the Indian Ocean
  (Brazil)
• Columbus settlement of Hispaniola killed off by
  natives
• Hernan Cortes and the conquistadors from Spain
  conquer the Aztecs
• European diseases reduce Native populations to
  1/5 of its pre 1492 numbers

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Transatlantic Exchange

• European brought plants and animals new to
  America-found crops in America new to Europe
• Never in history had so many of the worlds
  plants animals been so thoroughly and abruptly
  intermixed
• American crops fuel European population growth
• Surplus European population moved west to and
  across America
• Europeans brought millions of Africans as slaves