The American Pageant

Chapter 1:New World Beginnings

Cover Slide

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

The Shaping of North America• 6,000 years ago =

beginning of recorded history

• 500 years ago = Europeans set foot on the Americas to begin colonization

• Pangaea • Theory suggesting that the

continents were once nestled together into one mega-continent • They then spread out as drifting

islands.

The Shaping of North America• Geologic forces of

continental plates created the Appalachian & Rocky Mountains.

• The Great Ice Age thrust down over North America• scoured the present

day American Midwest.

Peopling the Americas• Land Bridge theory

• Great Ice Age diminishes & glaciers melt• Land Bridge emerges linking Asia & North

America • across the Bering Sea• People were said to have walked across the

"bridge" before the sealevel rose & sealed it off

• populating the Americas• said to have occurred an estimated 35,000

years ago.

Map 1.1 The Ice Age and the Settling of the Americas (p. 8)

• Some sixteen thousand years ago, a sheet of ice covered much of Europe & North America. Taking advantage of a broad bridge of land connecting Siberia and Alaska, hunting peoples from Asia Migrated into North America, searching for large game animals, such as woolly mammoths and ice-free habitats. By 10,000 B.C. the descendants of the migrant peoples had moved as far south of present-day Florida and central Mexico.

Peopling the Americas• Many peoples

• Those groups that traversed the bridge spread across North, Central, and South America.

• Countless tribes emerged with an estimated 2,000 languages. Notably:• Incas: Peru, with elaborate network of

roads and bridges linking their empire.• Mayas: Yucatan Peninsula, with their step

pyramids.• Aztecs: Mexico, with step pyramids and

huge sacrifices of conquered peoples.

Native American Worlds: Mayans

• Yucatan Peninsula & Guatemala • Built large

religious centers & urban communities.

• Stratified society

• ~A.D. 800, Mayan civilization declined

Native American Worlds: Aztecs• A.D. 1325: Aztecs build

Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) • Established a

hierarchical social order

• Subjugated most of central Mexico

• By A.D. 1500, • Tenochtitlán had

grown into a metropolis of over 200,000 inhabitants

• the Aztecs were unchallengeable

Gold Piece from Peru (p. 9) Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collections, Washington, DC.

• Skilled Inca artisans created gold jewelry and artifacts of striking beauty. Found in a tomb, this figurine may be a stylized image of the dead man, who was undoubtedly a noble of considerable status. Note the intricate detail in the man’s headdress and garment.

The Earliest Americans

• Development of corn or maize around 5,000 B.C. in Mexico = revolutionary:• people didn't have to be hunter-

gatherers• could settle down & be farmers.• gave rise to towns & then cities.• Corn arrived in the present day U.S.

around 1,200 B.C.

The Earliest Americans• Pueblo Indians

• = 1st American corn growers• lived in adobe houses (dried mud) &

pueblos • = villages of cubicle shaped adobe houses

• stacked one on top the other • often beneath cliffs.

• had elaborate irrigation systems to draw water away from rivers to grown corn.

The Earliest Americans• Mound Builders

• built huge ceremonial & burial mounds • located in the Ohio Valley.• Cahokia, near East St. Louis today = 40,000 people.

• Eastern Indians• grew corn, beans, & squash in three sister farming:

• Corn grew in a stalk = a trellis for beans• beans grew up the stalk• squash's broad leaves kept the sun off the ground

• kept the moisture in the soil.• had the best (most diverse) diet of all North American

Indians • Included the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw (South)

& Iroquois (North).

The Earliest Americans• Iroquois Confederation

• Hiawatha = legendary leader• The Iroquois Confederation = a group of 5 tribes

in New York state.• matrilineal

• authority & possessions passed down through the female line.

• Each tribe kept their independence• met occasionally to discuss matters of common

interest, like war/defense.• not the norm

• Usually, Indians were scattered & separated (and thus weak).

The Earliest Americans

• Native Americans different view of things as compared to Europeans.• felt no man owned the land, the tribe did.

• Europeans liked private property• felt nature was mixed with many spirits

• Europeans = Christian & monotheistic• felt nature was sacred

• Europeans felt nature & land wasgiven to man by God in Genesis to be subdued & put to use

• had little or no concept or interest in money• Europeans loved money or gold

Indirect Discoverers of the New World

• 1st Europeans to come to America = the Norse (Vikings from Norway).• Around 1000 AD, the Vikings landed• led by Erik the Red & Leif Erikson.• landed in Newfoundland or Vinland (because of all

the vines).• left America & left no written record

• therefore didn't get the credit.• only record is found in Viking sagas or songs.

• Christian Crusaders of Middle Ages fought in Palestine to regain the Holy Land from Muslims.

• mixing of East & West created a sweet-tooth • Europeans wanted the spices of the exotic East

Europeans Enter Africa• Marco Polo traveled to China

• stirred up European interest• an East to West (Asia to Europe) trade

flourished • Desire for spices• Route had to be overland, at least in part.

• initiated new exploration down around Africa in hopes of an easier (all water) route.

Europeans Enter Africa• Portugal started a sailing school

• Hopes to find better ways to get to the Spice Islands

• eventually rounded Africa's southern Cape of Good Hope.

• New developments:• caravel:

• ship with triangular sail that could better tack (zig-zag) ahead into the wind and thus return to Europe from Africa coast.

• compass: to determine direction.• astrolabe: device thatcould tell a ship's

latitude.

Europeans Enter Africa• Slave trade begins

• 1st slave trade = across Sahara Desert• Later, it was along the West African coast• Slave traders purposely busted up tribes &

families in order to prevent any possible uprising.

• Slaves wound up on sugar plantations• Portuguese established them in the tropical

islands off Africa's coast.• Spain watched Portugal's success with

exploration & slaving • wanted a piece of the pie.

Columbus Comes upon a New World

• Christopher Columbus: • convinced Isabella & Ferdinand to fund his

expedition (Spanish King/Queen)• goal = to reach the East (East Indies) by

sailing west• bypassing the around-Africa route that

Portugal monopolized.• misjudged the size of the Earth though

• Thought it = 1/3 the size of what it was.• After ~30 days at sea, struck land

• assumed he'd made it to the East Indies • mistook the people as "Indians."

When Worlds Collide• Economic system:

• Europe provides• market, capital, technology.

• Africa provides• the labor.

• The New World provides• raw materials (gold, soil, lumber).

• Biological exchange: • we traded life such as plants, foods,

animals, germs.

When Worlds Collide: Columbian Exchange

• From New World (America) to Old• corn, potatoes, tobacco, beans, peppers, manioc,

pumpkin, squash, tomato, wild rice, etc.• also, syphilis

• From Old World to New• cows, pigs, horses, wheat, sugar cane, apples,

cabbage, citrus, carrots, Kentucky bluegrass, etc.• devastating diseases (smallpox, yellow fever,

malaria)• Indians had no immunities built up over

generations.• estimated 90% of all pre-Columbus Indians died,

mostly due to disease.

Map 1.6 The

Columbian Exchange

(p. 28)

• As the European traders & adventurers traveled to Africa, the Americas & Asia between 1430 & 1600, they began what historian call the “Columbian Exchange,” a vast intercontinental movement of the plants, animals, & diseases that changed the course of historical development. As the nutritious, high-yielding American crops of corn & potatoes enriched the diets of Europeans & Africans, the Eurasian & African disease of smallpox, diphtheria, malaria, & yellow fever nearly wiped out the native inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere & virtually ensured that they would lose control of their lands.

The Spanish Conquistadores• Treaty Line of Tordesillas 1494:

Portugal & Spain feuded over land. • Pope drew this line

• he was respected by both• line ran North-South,& chopped off the

Brazilian coast of South America• Portugal got everything east of line

• Brazil & land around/under Africa• Spain got everything west of the line

• = much more, though they didn't know it at the time

Treaty of Torsedillas

The Spanish Conquistadores• Conquistadores = "conquerors" �

• Vasco Balboa: "discovered" the Pacific �Ocean across isthmus of Panama

• Ferdinand Magellan: circumnavigates the globe (1st to do so)

• Ponce de Leon: touches & names Florida looking for legendary Fountain of Youth

The Spanish Conquistadores• Hernando de Soto: enters Florida, travels

up into present day Southeastern U.S., dies & is "buried" in Mississippi River�

• Francisco Pizarro: conquers Incan Empire of Peru & begins shipping tons of gold/silver back to Spain. • huge influx of precious metals made

European prices skyrocket (inflation)• Francisco Coronado: ventured into current

Southwest U.S. looking for legendary El Dorado, city of gold. He found the Pueblo Indians.

Figure 1.2 The Great

Price Inflation &

Living Standards in Europe

(p. 34)

• As American gold & silver poured into Europe after 1520, there was more money in circulation & people used it to bid up the price of grain. Grain prices also rose because of increasing demand; the result of growth in Europe’s population. Because prices rose faster than wages living standards fell from a high point about 1430 to a low point about 1630. As “real wages” rose after 1630, people lived better.

The Conquest of Mexico• Hernando Cortez conquered the Aztecs

at Tenochtitlan.• went from Cuba to present day Vera

Cruz, then marched over mountains to the Aztec capital.

• Montezuma, Aztec king:• thought Cortez might be the

god Quetzalcoatl who was due to re-appear the very year

• welcomed Cortez into Tenochtitlan.

The Conquest of Mexico• Montezcuma attacks Spanish:

• Spanish lust for gold leads to attack • Night is called noche triste, sad night• Cortez & men fought their way out, • smallpox eventually beats the Indians.

• Spanish then destroyed Tenochtitlan• Build the Spanish capital (Mexico City) on top

of the Aztec city.• A new race of people emerged, mestizos

• = mix of Spanish & Indian blood.

 The Spread of Spanish America• Spanish society quickly spread through Peru &

Mexico• threats came from neighbors:

• English: • John Cabot (an Italian who sailed for

England) touched the coast of the current day U.S.

• France: • Giovanni de Verrazano touched on the

North American seaboard.• Jacques Cartier went into mouth of St.

Lawrence River (Canada).

 The Spread of Spanish America• To protect lands:

• Spain set up forts (presidios) all over the California coast

• Also cities, like St. Augustine in Florida.• Don Juan de Onate 

• followed Coronado's path into present day New Mexico

• conquered the Indians ruthlessly, • Maimed them by cutting off one foot of

survivors just so they'd remember.• Despite mission efforts

• Pueblo Indians revolted in Pope's Rebellion.

 The Spread of Spanish America• Robert de LaSalle 

• sailed down the MississippiRiver for France

• claiming the whole region for their King Louis• naming the area "Louisiana" after his king• started a slew of place-names for that area

• LaSalle, Illinois to "Louisville" �• New Orleans (the American counter of Joan

of Arc's famous victory at Orleans).

 The Spread of Spanish America• Black Legend:

• the notion that Spaniards only brought bad things (murder, disease, slavery)

• true• BUT they also brought good things:

• law systems, architecture,Christianity, language, civilization,

• Black Legend is partly, but not entirely, accurate.