Chapter 1

New World Encounters

The Arrival

People arrived on North American continent 35,000 years ago via land bridge called Beringia -- p.5 mapBeringia later covered by water as polar ice cap meltedThose who came were hunters looking for mammoths, mastadons, bison, and caribouFirst peoples were of Clovis Culture

Beringia

Clovis Culture

They later became known as Native AmericansWithin 1,000 years they had spread throughout the Western HemisphereLanguage changed as they encountered new objects and animalsEventually 2,000 distinct languages developed belonging to 12 language groups or families

Cultures changed as well as languages

Arawaks Encountered ColumbusPeaceful, gentle peopleRefined basketweaver

Mayans-Found in southern Mexico and in

Guatemala-Created cities-Were religious-Created solar calendar of 365 days-Had system of writing-Had stadiums and sports- Had astronomers

Mayan

Mayan Calendar

Aztecs- Highly structured society

- division of labor-farmers-artisans-construction workers

Aztec Calendar

Aztec Empire

Aztecs

Conquered Mayans around 1500 CEThey adopted and adapted Mayan culture

had religious ceremonies and sacrificeshad gold and silver mineshad laws and rulers

Others

Nomadic hunters and gatherersruled by a central authoritywomen had respect and power

Grew the food and raised the children - -fertility

Misconceptions

Western Europeans were not the first to encounter Native Americans

contact with Japanese and Chinese fishermen around 200 BCEcontact with West Africans around 1,000-500 BCEContact with Europeans around the 1480s, if not earlier

Europeans settled a sparsely inhabited land.

now believed that there were 4 – 10 million Native Americans in the AmericasInitial contact with Europeans occurred before anyone estimated the size of population; estimates came laterEuropeans were carriers of diseases for which Native Americans had no immunities; millions died as a result

FoodNative Americans were only hunters and gatherers

many practiced agricultureused slash and burn methodthey altered the landthey grew squash, beans, tomatoes, maize, peppers, potatoes, etc.they set up fish traps called weirs

Villages

Some were walled for protection; some were openSome were patriarchal; some had female leadersSachem or Werowance (leader) only carried out wishes of the groupLeaders chosen for their wisdomLeader could be removed for cause

Religion

Practiced animismbelieved there were spirits in the things of naturepolytheistic with a main god

Concept of Ownership

Was a foreign concept to Native AmericansShared what they had – crops, land

Often Europeans who were used to the concept of ownership would just take the land and establish ownership; the Native Americans did not understand this

Hostile Tribes?

On the whole, tribal villages coexisted peacefullyThey forged alliances

Iroquois ConfederacyMohawkOneidaOnondagaCayugaSenacaTuscarora

Villages traded with one anotherEuropeans helped de-stabilize the harmony that once existed among tribes

they pitted one tribe against another to get the goods they wantedthey paid tribes with firearms altering warfare

European Exploration

Irish monk, St. Brendan is said to have come to North America in 5th centuryVikings came in 10th century to establish settlements, p. 16 photo

Eric the RedLeif, his son

European exploration began in earnest in 15th century

Spain: began colonizing by taking Canary Islands where they set up a harsh labor system they would later use in the Americas

Christopher Columbus – 4 trips, the first in 1492 landing in the BahamasConquistadors: Hernan Cortes in Mexico and Francisco Pizarro in the Andes in South America were quite successful

Columbus and Cortes

Pizarro

Samuel de Champlain settled Quebec for France1497, an Italian, John Cabot, working for Henry VII of England, claimed Newfoundland for EnglandSir Walter Raleigh was the first English adventurer to found a New World colony, Virginia

His colonists, however, landed on Roanoke Island in North Carolina; this colony failed twice – the Lost Colony

Roanoke Colony

In 1607, the London Virginia Company established Jamestown, the first permanent British settlement in the New World

Became successful by following the plantation model of settlement and because Native Americans helped them

Jamestown Colony

Reasons for Colonization

Wished to be self-sufficientusing products found in New World, countries could reduce their dependence on one another

Wanted to reduce populations by sending people to New World coloniesGod, Gold, and Glory

Labor

English tried to enslave Native Americans like the Spanish, Natives knew the land and kept running awaySo like the Spanish and the Portuguese before them , the English became involved in the African slave tradeAfrican slave trade began for Europeans in the 15th century and didn’t end until 1925; the Portuguese were the first ones in and the last to abandon it