American History I

1. American History I Unit One European Exploration and Expansion

3. EQ: Who were the first inhabitants of the Americas? • Nomadic hunters from northeast Asia • Crossed the land bridge (Beringia) during the Ice Age (15,000 to 30,000 years ago) • Land bridge connected Asia and present day Alaska • Descendants of early settlers moved south and east across the Americas • Agricultural revolution in Mesoamerica (southern Mexico and Central America) 9,000-10,000 years ago • Learned to cultivate crops

5. Olmec • Believed to be the first to create a civilization in Mesoamerica, 1500 to 1200 B.C. • Located in the area of present day Vera Cruz, Mexico • Olmec society had large villages, temple complexes, pyramids, large sculpted monuments, standing 8 feet high, weighing 20 tons • Olmecculture lasted until 300 B.C. • Olmec ideas spread across Mesoamerica • Peoples influenced by the Olmec constructed the city of Teotihuacan just northeast of present day Mexico City, near a volcano • Large deposits of obsidian, volcanic glass- valuable material, sharp strong edges used to make tools and weapons • Peoples of Teotihuacan established large network of trade based on obsidian • City lasted from 300 B.C. to A.D. 650- influenced the development of Mesoamerica

6. Maya • A.D. 200 Yucatan Peninsula • Maya civilization expanded into Central America and southern Mexico • Skilled in engineering and mathematics • Complex and accurate calendars based on stellar positions • Temple pyramids- center of Maya cities (Tikal and Chichen Itza) • Some pyramids 200 feet tall • At the top of each pyramid was a temple, used by priests to perform ceremonies to the Maya gods (polytheism) • Maya linked by common culture and trade, not truly united • City-states controlled own territory • Different city-states often went to war

7. A.D. 900 Maya left cities in the Yucatan- believed that the exodus occurred due to lack of food from overuse of the land- led to famine, riots and collapse of cities or they Maya fell victim to invaders from the north • Maya cities in Guatemala lasted for several hundred years, by the 1500s in a state of decline

8. Toltec and Aztec • Toltec people constructed the city of Tula north of the Maya civilization • master architects; large pyramids, palaces with pillared halls • First Americans to use gold and copper in art and jewelry • A.D. 1200 fell to northern invaders (Chichimec) • Mexica (Chichimec peoples), constructed the city of Tenochititlan 1325 where Mexico City sits today • Mexica took the name Aztec, created an empire • Conquered neighboring cities- used military to control trade and force the payment of tribute from the conquered cities • Used conquered people in religious ceremonies as human sacrifices • 1500s estimated 5 million people under Aztec rule

9. Inca • Andes Mountains, Peru in South America • Civilization lasted 300 years • Oral tradition, no written language • Polytheistic • gods attached to natural objects; sun, moon, and earth • Believed emperors were descended from the Sun god Inti- similar to the Egyptian Pharaohs • Greatest achievement was architecture • 1438, Emperor Pachacutec engaged in aggressive military expansion- created the most powerful nation in South America • Empire split into two factions after the death of Pachacutec, each faction led by one of his sons • Division led to civil war, ended 1532, same year that the Spanish conquistadors arrived, defeated the Inca, melted down gold and silver Inca metalwork

11. Hohokam • North of Mesoamerica agricultural technology spread into the American southwest and up the Mississippi River • A.D. 300 south central Arizona the Hohokam constructed irrigation canals using the Gila and Salt Rivers as a water supply • Irrigation canals moved water hundreds of miles to Hohokam farms • Grew corn, cotton, beans, and squash • Made pottery decorated with turquoise, used cactus juices to etch shells • Hohokam culture lasted for over 1,000 years • 1300s began to abandon irrigation systems, most likely due to floods and more competition for farmland • Hohokam had left the region by 1500

12. Anasazi • A.D. 700-900 people living in the Four Corners (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet) developed a culture • Navajo called them the Anasazi or ancient ones- called “ancestral Puebloan” today • Dry desert area, gathered water by constructing a series of basins and ditches to channel rain into stone-lined depressions • A.D. 850 – 1100 Anasazi lived in Chaco Canyon in present day northwestern New Mexico- built multistory structures of adobe and cut stone • The buildings had connecting passageways and circular ceremonial rooms- kivas • Spanish explorers called the structures pueblos- Spanish for village • People who built them called Pueblo people • Anasazi built pueblos where streams and rainwater ran together • Pueblo Bonito had 600 rooms- housed a minimum of 1,000 people

13. At Mesa Verde the Anasazi built cliff dwellings • A.D. 1130 Chaco Canyon endured a 50+ year drought • Drought most likely made the Anasazi leave the pueblos • Mesa Verde pueblos lasted another 200 years, abandoned in 1270s due to drought

14. Peoples of the American Southwest • European contact with the Americas, 50 + groups resided in the arid Southwest • Zuni, Hopi, and other Pueblo peoples • Corn vital to survival in arid climate- long taproot, corn could reach moisture deeper in the soil • Squash and beans also staple crops • Division of labor by gender, men: farmed, ceremonies, moccasins, wove clothing and blankets, women: meals, pottery and baskets, carried water • Men and women shared the task of harvesting crops and building housing • A.D. 1200-1500 Apache and Navajo arrived in the area from the northwest

15. Arrival may have led to the migration of the Chichimec into Mexico where they formed the Aztec empire • Apache remained nomadic hunters • Navajo learned agricultural skills from the Pueblo and lived in dispersed settlements

16. Mississippian Culture • A.D. 700-900, agricultural advancement: technology and new strains of maize and beans spread north from Mexico up the Mississippi River • Led to emergence of the Mississippian culture • Mississippi River Valley- floodplain contained rich soil suited to intensive cultivation of maize and beans • Skilled builders, city of Cahokia (near St. Louis, Missouri) at its peak A.D. 1050-1250 covered 5 square miles, 100 flat topped pyramids and mounds- estimated 16,000 people • Pole and thatch houses spread over 2,000 acres • Monks Mound, largest pyramid 100 feet high, four levels, covered 16 acres, more than any pyramid in Egypt or Mexico • Wall of logs, watchtowers, gates surrounded central plaza and larger pyramids

17. Mississippian culture spread across the American South- gave rise to at least three flat-topped mounds: Spiro, Oklahoma, Moundville, Alabama, Etowah, Georgia • Mississippian culture spread north and west along the Ohio, Missouri, Red, and Arkansas Rivers

18. Southeast Peoples • A.D. 1300 the population of Cahokia declined • Reasons: • -attack by other Native Americans • -population too large to support, famine and emigration • -city hit by epidemic • Mississippian Culture survived in the Southeast until the arrival of the Europeans • Southeast peoples lived in towns, buildings around a central plaza, stockades surrounded towns, moats and earthen walls also used • Houses made of poles covered with grass, mud, thatch • Women farmed, men hunted • Cherokee largest group, located western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee , 20,000 lived in 60 towns at the time of European arrival • Other Southeastern peoples: Choctaw, Chickasaw, Natchez, Creek (largestgroup in 50 villages spread across Georgia and Alabama)

19. Great Plains • European arrival Great Plains peoples nomadic • Recently gave up farming • Until 1500s Great Plains influenced by Mississippian Culture- lived near rivers, planted corn, found wood to build homes • Around 1500 western Plains peoples left homes, became nomads • Reasons: • -war, drought, • Eastern Plains peoples, Pawnee, Kansas, Iowa continued to farm and hunt • Nomadic western Plains Sioux hunted migrating herds of buffalo on foot, lived in conical tents- tepees • Great Plains life changed with the domestication of horses • Horses brought to Americas by the Spanish in 1500s, horses escaped or were stolen, spread northward, reached Great Plains • Sioux mastered the horses, became the great mounted hunters and warriors

20. Algonquian Peoples • 1500s, one million square miles of woodlands east of the Mississippi River and south of the Great Lakes • Supported a large diverse plant and animal population • Woodlands peoples hunted, fished, farmed • Deer in large numbers = regular supply of meat in addition to corn, beans, and squash, deer hides used for clothing • Most peoples of the Northeast belonged to either the people of the Algonquian language or the Iroquois language • Algonquian lived in New England: Wampanoag in Massachusetts, Narragansett in Rhode Island, Pequot in Connecticut, Powhatten Confederacy of Viriginia • New England Native Americans among the first to encounter English settlers • Delaware lived near the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey

21. Shawnee of the Ohio River Valley • Algonquian words in use today: succotash, hominy, moccasin, papoose • Peoples of the Northeast practiced slash and • burn agriculture- cut forest, burned wood, left • nitrogen rich ashes- ashes worked into soil, soil farmed, exhausted the soil, moved to new area • Housing consisted of rectangular longhouses, barrel roofs made of bark or wigwams (conical shaped or dome-shaped) formed by using bent poles covered with hides or bark

22. Iroquois Confederacy • New York, southern Ontario, north to Georgian Bay- Iroquois speaking peoples • Huron, Neutral Erie, Wenro, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk • Similar cultures, longhouses in large towns, stockades for protection • Women: planted and harvested crops • Men: hunted • Lived in large kinship groups, extended families, headed by elder female of each kinship group • As many as 10 related families lived in one longhouse • Women held positions of power and importance • All 50 chiefs of the Iroquois ruling council were men, women who headed kinship groups selected the council members, appointed for life, could be removed by women if they disagreed with actions

23. Women had political influence • War occurred often among Iroquois • Late 1500s five nations in western New York, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk formed an alliance to keep peace and oppose common enemy the Huron living across the Niagara River • Alliance known as the Iroquois Confederacy-Europeans called five nations the Iroquois • Iroquois tradition Dekanawidah (shaman or tribal elder) and Hiawatha, chief of the Mohawk founded the confederacy , feared war was destroying the five nations when the Huron threatened all five nations Five nations agreed to Great Binding Law- oral constitution that outlined how the confederacy would work

24. The Spice Trade And The Age of Exploration • Video clip

25. EQ: Why did many of the nations of Europe engage in exploration? • Europe controlled and unified socially and politically by the Roman Empire • A.D. 500 Roman political and economic system collapsed • Western Europe no longer connected to the rest of the world • Western Europe saw a decline in trade • No unifying political system in place, people lived in manors/villages ruled by local lords • Lords kept the peace on lands they controlled • A.D. 500-1500 = the Middle Ages

26. Religious Factors • Europe was politically fragmented but religiously unified under the Roman Catholic Church, led by the Pope in Rome, Italy • The Church persecuted heretics, nonbelievers, and followers of older “pagan” religions • 1095, Pope Urban II called for the freeing of Christian Holy sites in the Middle East from Muslim control = the Crusades • Crusades brought Europeans into contact with Arabs in the Middle East

27. Social Factors • Most Europeans lived under harsh conditions • Rural people survived on bread and porridge, seasonal vegetables, and on occasion meat or fish • Disease was a problem, 1/3rd of all children died before their fifth birthday, about 50% of the population reached adulthood • Famines hit the countryside • Bubonic plague = The Black Death arrived from Asia 1347-1353 wiped out a third of the European population • Disease led to famine and violence, groups fought for shares of a shrinking economy

28. Economic Factors • Labor costs, interest rates, government policy, taxes, and management • Europeans began to trade with Middle Eastern Arabs • Europeans bought luxury goods; spices, melons, sugar, tapestries, and silk • Demand for East Asian goods increased • The Italian city states of Venice, Pisa, and Genoa became wealthy moving goods from the Middle East to Western Europe

29. 1400s; rise of towns, merchant classes provided monarchs a new source of wealth they could tax • Monarchs used militaries to open up and protect trade routes, enforce uniform trade laws, and created a common currency for kingdoms • Trade revenue allowed monarchs to escape dependency on nobles • Monarchs unified kingdoms, creation of strong central governments • Middle 1400s; Portugal, Spain, England, and France were strong states • The Arab traders had a monopoly on the spice trade with India • Starting with Portugal in early 1400s, all four states financed exploration, goal was to expand trade, find new route to Asia

30. Scientific Factors • Political and economic changes prompted exploration- needed technology to launch successful expeditions • To find water route to Asia, needed: • Navigational instruments • Ships able to travel long distances

31. As monarchs were unifying kingdoms in Western Europe an intellectual movement (The Renaissance 1350-1600) began • Renaissance led to new scientific and technological advances, artistic flowering, rebirth of interest in ancient Greece and Rome • European scholars rediscovered the works of ancient poets, philosophers, geographers, and mathematicians- also read the teachings of Arab scholars • Renewed interest in the past- led to renewed commitment to reason which led to a scientific revolution • Study of Arab texts led to knowledge of the astrolabe, invented by ancient Greeks, improved by the Arab navigators- used the position of the sun to determine direction, latitude, and local time • Europeans also acquired the compass from the Arab traders, invented in China- compass reliably shows the direction of magnetic north

32. Navigational tools critical to exploration • Most important requirement = a ship able to travel long distances • Late 1400s, European shipwrights outfitted ships with triangular-shaped lateen sails, perfected by the Arab traders • These new sails made it possible for ships to sail against the wind • Shipwrights used multiple masts with smaller sails mounted one above the other = faster ships, moved the rudder from the side of the ship to the stern, ships easier to steer

33. 1400s, Portuguese ship the caravel used all of the improvements in ship construction • Small ship able to carry 130 tons of cargo • Needed little water in order sail, allowed exploration into shallow inlets and to beach the vessel to make repairs

34. Portuguese • Portuguese first to explore sea route to Asia • 1419- Prince Henry the Navigator established a center for astronomical and geographical studies at Sagres, Portugal • Had mapmakers, astronomers, shipbuilders from the Mediterranean region come to study and plan expeditions • 1420, Portuguese mapped Africa’s west coast • 1488, Bartholomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa • 1498 Vasco da Gama led an expedition of four ships from Portugal and reached the southwest coast of India- sea route to India established

36. Slaves and Sugar • The institution of slavery existed in Africa as well as other areas worldwide • African slaves captured in war, ransomed back or absorbed into captors societies • West African slavery changed with the arrival of Arab traders, exchanged horses, cotton, other goods for slaves • 1400s Portuguese and Spanish sugar plantations on the Canary and Madeira Islands needed labor source for the labor intensive production of sugarcane

37. EQ: Why did Europeans come to the Americas ? • The mapped world in the 1400s consisted of Europe, the Mediterranean, Middle East, and the north coast of Africa • Did believe the world was round • The work of Claudius Ptolemy (Geography, A.D. 100s) influenced European geographers, his system of latitude and longitude still in use today • Arab geographer al-Idrisi, 1154 published a geographical survey of the world known to Europeans and Arabs at that time • Studying maps of Ptolemy and al-Idrisi gave western European explorers an idea of the geography of eastern African coast and the Indian Ocean

38. Columbus • Ptolemy did underestimate the size of the circumference of the earth • Italian mariner, Christopher Columbus based his calculations on those of Ptolemy and felt Spain and India were not far apart • Columbus needed financing for his expedition across the Atlantic to Asia- searched for six unsuccessful years for financial backing • 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain backed his venture

39. Columbus set sail west for Asia with the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria August, 1492 • Reached the Bahamas in October- probable around present day San Salvador Island • Columbus encountered the Taino peoples • Called them “Indians” thought he had reached the Indies • Moved into the Caribbean searching for gold • Discovered the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola • Returned to Spain March, 1493 • Carried gold, parrots, spices, and Native Americans • Ferdinand and Isabella pleased with Columbus’ success and ready to finance additional expeditions

40. Spain involved in a competition with Portugal which had claimed control over the Atlantic route to Asia • Both nations appealed to Pope Alexander VI to settle the dispute • 1493 the Pope devised a line of demarcation to divide control of the Atlantic, Spain control west of the line, Portugal control east of the line • 1494 the Treaty of Tordesillas approved by both nations- Portugal controlled route around Africa to India- upheld Spain’s claim to most of the Americas • Columbus headed back to the Americas with 17 ships and 1,200 Spanish colonists- had been promised gold

41. Columbus explored Hispaniola, found loose gold to make mining viable • Enslaved local Taino people, forced them to mine gold and plant crops • 1496, Columbus returned to Spain, his brother founded the town of Santo Domingo on the south coast of Hispaniola, close to gold mines • Santo Domingo, first capital of the Spanish American empire • Columbus made two more trips, mapped coastline of Central and South America- died without the riches he had hoped to find

42. Vespucci • 1499, Italian, Amerigo Vespucci sailed under the Spanish flag, repeated the western voyage of Columbus looking for Asia • Explored coast of South America- thought he had reached the outer edge of Asia • 1501, sailed for Portugal along the coast of South America, realized the land was not part of Asia • 1507, German mapmaker proposed the continent be named America after Amerigo the discoverer

43. Ponce de Leon • 1513, Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon sailed north • Legend was he searched for the fountain of youth, never found the fountain of youth, did find land of wildflowers and plants • Claimed land for Spain, named it Florida = land of flowers

44. Balboa • 1510 Vasco de Balboa, Hispaniola planter founded a colony on the Isthmus of Panama • Heard that the “south sea” led to an empire of gold • Mounted an overland expedition through jungle and swamp until he reached the Pacific coast in 1513- first European to reach the Pacific coast of America

45. Magellan • Ferdinand Magellan- Portuguese mariner sailing for Spain discovered the strait at the southern tip of South America (named after him) • Navigated the stormy narrow Strait of Magellan • Found calm seas, named the waters Mare Pacificum = “peaceful seas” • Magellan killed in the Philippine Islands- his crew continued west, arrived in Spain in 1522, first to successfully circumnavigate the world

46. EQ: What role did religion play in exploration and colonization? • New Spain • 1519, Hernan Cortes sailed from Cuba to explore the Yucatan Peninsula, 11 ships, 550 men, 16 horses • Cortes attacked when landing in the Yucatan • Spanish outnumbered, had superior military power; swords and crossbows, guns, and cannons- easily killed over 200 native warriors • Peace offering; natives gave Cortes 20 women, among them Malinche, helped Cortes with translation, Cortes had her baptized; called her Dona Maria

47. Cortes heard how the Aztecs had conquered many peoples and were at war with other peoples including the Tlaxcalan • Cortes proposed an alliance with the Tlaxcalan against the Aztecs • His military helped Cortes gain the support of the Tlaxcalan, who had never seen horses, nor Spanish cannon • Aztec emperor Montezuma believed in the prophecy that Quetzalcoatl a fair skinned bearded deity would return to conquer the Aztec • Montezuma did not know if Cortes was Quetzalcoatl, did send representatives promising a yearly payment to the Spanish if Cortes stopped his advance

48. Cortes refused, the Spanish and Tlaxaclan advanced- Montezuma attempted an ambush at the city of Cholula • Cortes had advance warning, struck first, killed over 6,000 Cholulans • Montezuma saw Cortes as unstoppable, allowed Spanish troops to enter Tenochtitlan peacefully • City sat on an island in the middle of the lake • Larger than most cities in Europe, over 200,000 residents, systems of canals, center of city a large double pyramid and a rack displaying thousands of human skulls

49. Cortes surrounded by thousands of Aztec, took Montezuma hostage • Upon Cortes’ orders human sacrifices halted and the statues of Aztec gods replaced with Christian crosses and images of the Virgin Mary • Aztec priests angry, organized a rebellion in 1520, battle lasted days; Spanish retreated to Tlaxcala- over 450 Spaniards and over 4,000 Aztec died- including Montezuma • Smallpox outbreak occurred, disease ran rampant in Tenochtitlan • Cortes returned in 1521, destroyed the city, upon the ruins the Spanish built Mexico City the capital of the colony of New Spain

50. Three “Gs” • Cortes sent out several expeditions to conquer the rest of Central America • Leaders of the expeditions were conquistadors • Looked for Gold • Converted natives to God • Sought Glory • 1526, Francisco Pizarro reached Peru • 1532, Pizarro returned to Peru with small group of infantry- superior weapons- plundered the Inca Empire • 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado looked north of New Spain for the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola • Explored the region between the Colorado River and the Great Plains- no cities of gold, found windswept plains and “shaggy cows” (buffalo)