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Chapter 1 (The New World)

Terms in this set (89)

How did the first people get to North America?
- Migrants from Asia crossed a land bridge that connected Siberia and Alaska (now under the Bering Sea)
- Generations migrated southward from the Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America
- Adapted to various environments and formed hundreds of tribes, spoke different languages, and practiced different cultures
What was the Native population of the Americas in the 1490s?
50 to 100 million
Where and when did the Mayas live?
- Built cities in the rainforests
- Yucatán Peninsula Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico
- 300 and 800 CE
Where and when did the Aztecs live?
- Dominated Mexico and Central America several centuries after Mayas
- Capital Tenochtitlán had population of 200,000 (equivalent to largest cities of Europe)
Where and when did the Incas live?
Lived the same time as Aztecs and based in Peru, developed a vast empire in South America
What did the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas have in common?
- Developed highly organized societies
- Carried on an extensive trade
- Created calendars based on accurate scientific observations,
- Cultivated crops that provided a stable food supply (corn for the Mayas and Aztecs and potatoes for the Incas)
Why were native societies in North America generally smaller and less sophisticated than those of Central and South America?
Northward spread of corn cultivation from Mexico was slow
How did native societies in North America live in the time of Columbus?
Lived in semipermanent settlements not over 300 people
- Men made tools and hunted
- Women gathered plants/nuts and grew crops
How many languages and language families did the American Indian languages consist of?
400 languages from over 20 families
What were the largest native language families and what regions did they belong to?
- Algonquian in the Northeast
- Siouan on the Great Plains
- Athabaskan in the Southwest
Where were the Southwest Native American settlements?
- New Mexico
- Arizona
Name some southwestern Native American societies and describe their way of life.
- Hokokam, Anasazi, and Pueblos
- Societies supported by farming with irrigation systems
- Lived in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings
- Drought and other Natives had taken their toll by the time Europeans arrived
- Way of life preserved in the arid land and their stone masonry dwellings
Where were the Northwest Native American settlements?
along the Pacific coast from Alaska to northern California
How did the northwestern Native Americans live?
- Lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses
- Had a rich diet based on hunting, fishing, and gathering
- Saved stories, legends, and myths by carving large totem pole
- High mountain ranges isolated tribes and created barriers to development
How did the nomadic tribes of the Great Plains live?
Survived on hunting buffalo which provided food, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing
- Lived in tepees
How did the sedentary tribes of the Great Plains live?
- Hunted buffalo
- Raised corn, beans, and squash
- Traded with other tribes
- Lived permanently in earthen lodges often along rivers
When and how did the American Indians of the Great Plains get horses?
Traded or stole from Spanish settlers in the 17th century
Who were the Lakota Sioux?
Great Plains tribe that moved away from farming to hunting and easily following buffalo across the plains with horses
What were shared characteristics of the Great Plains tribes?
- Tribes merged and split apart
- Migration was common
Where were the Midwest settlements?
Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys
How did the Woodland American Indians survive?
Had rich food supply supported by the hunting, fishing, and agriculture east of the Mississippi River
Who were the Adena-Hopewell?
Native culture centered in Ohio
- Famous for the large earthen mounds they created. Some as large as 300 feet long
- Cahokia (near St. Louis) was one of the largest settlements and had up to 30,000 inhabitants
- Some descendants migrated into New York and the Atlantic Seaboard
Describe the descendants of the Adena-Hopewell in the Northeast.
- Combined hunting and farming
- Farming techniques exhausted soil quickly so they had to move to fresh land frequently
What was the Iroquois Confederation?
Political union of five independent tribes who lived in the Mohawk Valley in New York
- Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk
- Multiple families related through a mother lived in longhouses up to 200 feet long
- Battled rival tribes as well as Europeans
Where was the Atlantic Seaboard?
- New Jersey south to Florida
- Coastal plains
How did Atlantic Seaboard tribes live?
- Built timber and bark lodgings along rivers
- Descended from Woodland mound builders
- Rivers and Atlantic Ocean provided food
What was significant about Columbus's voyages?
Brought people into contact across the Atlantic
What was the Renaissance?
Outburst of artistic and scientific activity in the 15th and 16th century
What did many technological advancements result from?
Improvements in the inventions of others
What were some inventions of the Renaissance?
- Gunpowder (adapted from Chinese)
- Sailing compass (adapted from Arab merchants who learned from Chinese)
- Printing press
- Improvements in shipbuilding and mapmaking
How was the Church threatened during the Renaissance?
From outside by Ottoman Turks and from within by a revolt against the pope's authority
How were two of the largest Spanish kingdoms joined?
Marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469
What significant things did Ferdinand and Isabella achieve as king and queen of Spain?
- Conquered Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain (Islamic invaders from North Africa who conquered Spain)
- Funded Christopher Columbus
What was the Protestant Reformation?
- Christians in Germany, England, France, Holland, and other northern European countries revolted against the authority of the pope
- Conflict between Protestants and Catholics led to religious wars
What were the effects of the Protestant Reformation?
Catholics of Spain & Portugal and Protestants of England & Holland wanted to spread their own versions of Christianity
Why did Europeans want to find a new route to Asia?
Land route was blocked in 1453 by Ottoman Turks that seized control of Constantinople
What were two possible routes to Asia?
- South along West African coast east to China
- West across the Atlantic Ocean
Who was Prince Henry the Navigator?
Portuguese prince who sponsored voyages of exploration that opened up a long sea route along South Africa's Cape of Good Hope
Who was Vasco da Gama?
First European to reach India by sailing along the Cape of Good Hope
Why did the Portuguese began trading for slaves in West Africa in the 15th century?
- Used slaves to work new sugar plantations on the Madeira and Azores islands off the African coast
- So profitable that Europeans used slaves when they got to the colonies as well
How did enslaved Africans resist slavery?
Ran away, sabotaged work, revolted, and maintained aspects of their African culture
What were nation-states?
Countries where the majority of people shared both a common culture and common loyalty toward a central government
What did monarchs of nation-states depend on and why?
Trade to bring in needed revenues and the church to justify their right to rule
What did monarchs of nation-states use their powers for?
To search for riches abroad and to spread the influence of their version of Christianity
What did Isabella and Ferdinand agree to do for Columbus?
- Outfit three ships
- Make Columbus governor, admiral, and viceroy of all the lands that he would claim for Spain
Why did some Spaniards view Columbus as a failure?
- Had not found a valuable trade route
- Little gold, few spices, and no easy path to China and India
Where did Columbus land on his first voyage?
An island in the Bahamas
Who was America named for?
Amerigo Vespucci
What was the Columbian exchange?
A transfer of plants, animals, and germs from one side of the Atlantic to the other for the first time
Why was the Columbian exchange deadly to Native Americans?
Diseases (smallpox and measles) were transferred and they had no immunity
Why was there a conflict between Spain and Portugal that led to the pope getting involved?
They were the first European kingdoms to claim territories in the Americas
Their claims overlapped and led to disputes
What was the line of demarcation?
A vertical north-south line on a world map drawn by the pope to resolve the territorial dispute between Spain and Portugal
Spain got all lands to the west and Portugal got all lands to the east
What was the Treaty of Tordesillas?
Spain and Portugal moved the line of demarcation a few degrees west so that it passed through Brazil
Established Portugal's claim to Peru
What did Spain owe its expanding power to?
Explorers and conquistadores
What did Vasco Nunez de Balboa do?
Journeyed across the Isthmus of Panama
What did Ferdinand Magellan's ship do?
Circumnavigated the world
Who conquered the Aztecs?
Hernan Cortés
Who conquered the Incas?
Francisco Pizzarro
How did the conquistadores expand Spanish wealth?
- Sent ships loaded with gold and silver back to Spain
- Increased gold supply by more than 500%
- Made Spain the richest and most powerful nation in Europe
- Other countries saw Spanish success and were motivated to explore America
What was the encomienda system?
System where the king of Spain gave grants of land and natives to individual Spaniards
Had to farm/work in the mines and the fruits of their labor went to Spanish masters who had to care for them
What was the asiento system?
System that required the Spanish to pay a tax to their king on each slave they imported to the Americas
Why was the asiento system implemented?
European diseases and brutality reduced the Native population so Europeans turned to West Africans for labor
Who was John Cabot?
- Italian sea captain who sailed under contract to England's King Henry VII and explored the coast of Newfoundland in 1497
- Established England's claims to American territory
Why didn't England follow up on Cabot's discoveries in the 1500s?
Preoccupied with other conflicts:
- Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church
- England challenged Spanish shipping in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans under Elizabeth I
What did Sir Francis Drake do?
- Attacked Spanish ships and stole their gold and silver
- Attacked Spanish settlements on the coast of Peru
Who was Sir Walter Raleigh?
-English adventurer who tried to establish a settlement at Roanoke Island off the North Carolina coast in 1587 but failed
- First English settlement in America
Which event marked the beginning in French interest in exploration?
Sponsored a voyage by Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazano
What did Giovanni da Verrazano do?
Explored part of North America's eastern coast (including New York) hoping to find a northwest passage leading through the Americas to Asia
What were French claims to American territory based on?
Voyages of Jacques Cartier, who explored the St. Lawrence River extensively
Why were the French slow to develop colonies across the Atlantic?
French monarchy was preoccupied with European wars as well as with internal religious conflict between Roman Catholics and French Protestants (Huguenots) in the 1500s
What did Samuel de Champlain do?
- Established the first permanent French settlement in Quebec in 1608
- A fortified village on the St. Lawrence River
- Nicknamed "Father of New France"
What did Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette do?
Explored the upper Mississippi River in 1673
What did Robert de La Salle do?
Explored the Mississippi basin in 1682 and named it Louisiana after King Louis XIV
Who was Henry Hudson?
An experienced English sailor sponsored by the Dutch government to seek westward passage to Asia through northern America
- Sailed up a broad river that was later named for him
- Established Dutch claims to the surrounding area that would become New Amsterdam
What was the Dutch West India Company?
Private company the Dutch government allowed to control the region of New Amsterdam for economic gain
Why did Spanish settlements in North America develop slowly?
Limited mineral resources and strong opposition from American Indians
What did the Spanish accomplish in Florida?
Established a permanent settlement at St. Augustine in 1565
- Oldest city in North America founded by Europeans
What happened to the Spanish in New Mexico?
- Harsh efforts to Christianize the American Indians caused the Pueblo people to revolt in 1680
- Spanish were driven from the area until 1692
What did the Spanish do in Texas?
- Established settlements between Florida and New Mexico
- Communities grew in the early 1700s as they tried to resist French efforts to explore the lower Mississippi River
What did the Spanish do in California?
- Established permanent settlements at San Diego and San Francisco in response to Russian exploration from Alaska
- By 1784 a series of missions or settlements had been established along the California coast by members of the Franciscan order: Father Junipero Serra founded nine of these
What did many Europeans view Native Americans as?
Inferior people who could be exploited for economic gain, converted to Christianity, and used as military allies
Why did a class system develop in Spanish settlements?
- Natives who did not die from disease died from forced labor
- Captured Africans to provide slave labor
- Few families came from Spain so soldiers intermarried
Who was Bartolome de Las Casas?
- Spanish priest who dissented from European views of Native Americans
- Had owned land and slaves and had fought wars against the Indians but became an advocate for better treatment for Indians
- Persuaded the king to institute the New Laws of 1542: established basic arguments on behalf of justice for Indians
What did the New Laws of 1542 do?
Ended Indian slavery, halted their forced labor, and began to end the encomienda system
- Conservative Spaniards successfully pushed the king to repeal parts of the New Laws
What was the Valladolid Debate?
Formal debate in 1550-1551 over the role for Indians in the Spanish colonies
- Las Casas argued that the Indians were human and morally equal to Europeans so enslaving them was not justified
- Father Juan Gines de Sepulveda argued that the Indians were less than human so they benefited from serving the Spaniards in the encomienda system
- Neither side clearly won the debate
What was the relationship between the English and the Native Americans?
- Initially coexisted, traded, and shared ideas
- Peaceful relations led to conflict and open warfare
- English had no respect for Indian cultures and viewed them as savage
- Natives saw their way of life threatened as the English took more land to serve their increasing population
- English forced the tribes to move away to inland territories
What was the relationship between the French and the Native Americans?
- Viewed as potential economic allies
- Maintained good relations
- Built trading posts and exchanged French goods for furs
- Posed less threat to Natives because had few colonists, farms, or towns
- Soldiers assisted the Huron people in fighting the Iroquois
Why didn't Europeans have to be concerned with a unified response from the Natives?
Tribes saw themselves as groups distinct from one another
How did the Native Americans survive after their decimation by the Europeans?
Some allied themselves with cultures to get support to survive, some migrated to new lands
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