Unit 1: Chapters 1-4
Collision of Cultures
Mountains & Plateaus
^ Mt. Whitney
^ Pike’s Peak
^ Mt. McKinley
Alaskan Range
Rivers
Columbia R.
Potomac R.
Ohio R.
Yukon R.
Plains
Great
Basin
Bodies of Water
Great
Salt Lake
Chesapeake
Bay
Lake
Okeechobee
Deserts
Death
Valley
Mohave
Desert
The Contour of the US
The Peopling of the Americas
35k – 10k yrs. ago:
• Asian nomads cross
Bering Strait move south.
1492: Possibly 54 million
people in Americas.
• New cultures, religions,
200+ languages.
Tenochtitlan, Present Day Mexico City
The Great Temple at Tenochtitlán
At the height of Aztec-Toltec civilization in central Mexico, which coincided with the arrival of
Cortés and his Spanish soldiers in 1519, this capital city had a dense population of over
300,000, more than any European city. Built on marshy lowlands and linked to the mainland by
broad causeways, it had great public works and pyramids to the sun and moon that were
connected by an elaborate irrigation system. From this metropolis, priests, warriors, and rulers
held absolute authority over hundreds of thousands of people in the countryside. (American
Museum of Natural History #32659)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Inca Ruins,
Peru
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Early Americans: Olmec, Aztec, Incas, Mayans
• Highly organized societies with advanced knowledge of trade, gov’t, arts,
math, astronomy & written language.
• Elaborate cities bigger than European cities of same period.
• No wheel, oxen, or horses.
• Human sacrifices
Native North Americans Americans by 1400’s
Agriculture – maize – settled nomads into villages but moved north slowly
SO, development occurred at different rates. Ex. Anasazi, Pueblo, Mound
Builders, etc.
3 Sisters Farming – corn, beans, squash – allowed for higher populations
in N. America – Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee
• Iroquois – created closest nation-state system to Mexico & Peru.
1492: 4 million N.A. in North America
Land - a “source of life” – not for ownership to be bought and sold.
Religion – everything has a “spirit” & some worshipped “the Great Spirit”
Tribes – small, scattered, matrilineal – power & possessions passed
through females.
Cahokia Mounds
This contemporary painting conveys
Cahokia's grand scale. Not until the
late eighteenth century did another
North American city (Philadelphia)
surpass the population of Cahokia, c.
1200. (Cahokia Mounds Historic Site,
painting by William R. Iseminger)
Hopewell mounds
Many Hopewell earthworks that served as
temples remain visible today in the Ohio
valley. ((c) David Muench )
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Indirect Discover’s of the New World
Scandinavian/Norse landed in New Foundland (Canada):
• Abandoned & forgotten – no national economic support.
Christian Crusaders:1100 –1200’s
• Created need for silk, spices & SUGAR!!!
• Land trade routes from Asia were very expensive.
Marco Polo – 1295, traveled to China & wrote a book that stimulated
Europeans’ desire to find a cheaper route to Asia – “Indies”
Solution: Ocean route to Asia
Portuguese around Africa:
1. Caravel – allowed closer
sailing into the wind.
2. Sail north west to catch
easterly winds to Europe.
Result:
• Direct access to subSaharan trade routes –
bankrupted African powers
• Set up trading posts for
gold & SLAVES for Atlantic
sugar plantations.
African Trade
Routes
Asian Trade Routes
Spain goes West:
- Renaissance, Mariner’s
compass, printing press.
- Christopher Columbus,
Oct.1492, lands in
Bahamas & brings the
Americas to the attention of
Europe.
• Result: Columbian Exchange – interdependent
global economic system.
Columbian Exchange
Two Worlds Collide
Columbian Exchange • New World - 3/5 of cultivated crops today from Americas;
tobacco, corn, potato, tomato
• Old World – brought horses, oxen, wheel, SUGAR, DISEASE.
• Disease – small pox, yellow fever, malaria
– Taino went from 1 million to only 200 in 50 years.
– Native populations decreased by 90% in the next 400 years.
3 Factors of Production:
1. Europe: provided markets, capital, technology
2. Africa: Labor
3. New World: raw materials
Spanish Conquistadores
Treaty of Tordesillas – split Americas between Portugal & Spain.
• Spanish Conquistadores:
– Men in 20’s –30’s, professional soldiers & sailors.
– Motives: royal titles, spread Christianity, escape past, adventure, gold &
fortune
– Mestizos – Spanish intermarried w/ N.A. new race created.
– Ponce de Leon explored Florida
– Coronado explored AZ, NM & KS; Grand Canyon & buffalo
– Pizzaro crushed Incas in Peru.
– Cortes topples the Aztecs
• New World bullion increased money supply (inflation) by 500%
– Capitalism - private ownership of means of production to make a profit
– Mercantilism – gaining wealth through favorable trade.
• Encomienda System - slavery for plantations, in the name of
conversion to Christianity.
Spain Protects its
Northern Territories
Forts & missions set up form FL to CA
• St. Augustine, FL
• Santa Fe, NM
• 1680, N.M. Pope’s Rebellion.
• 1769, CA - Father Serra begins missions.
Spanish Legacy
1. Black Legend – false concept that they only
tortured & butchered Natives, stole their
gold, infected them with diseases & left
behind only misery.
2. Colossal empire built.
3. Laid foundation of future Spanish-speaking
nations.
4. Mestizos – fusion of Spanish & Native
Americans to form a new race of people.
Ch. 2: The Planting of English America
1500-1733
• Settlements in North America:
– 1585, English @ Roanoke Island, VA
• Sir Walter Raleigh, settlers vanished.
– 1607, England @ Jamestown, VA
– 1608, French @ Quebec, Canada
– 1610, Spanish @ Santa Fe, NM
English Slow to Colonize
Religious Conflict: Protestants vs. Catholics
• English Protestant Reformation - Henry VIII broke from Catholic Church &
created the Anglican Church
• Created rivalry with Catholic Spain & Catholic Ireland
Energizing the English:
• 1558, Protestant Queen Elizabeth unified England but intensified rivalry
with Spain.
– Secretly financed plundering of Spanish ships – Sir Francis Drake
• 1588 – English defeat of Spanish Armada & Invading Force
– Set up English dominance of seas
– Beginning of end for Spanish Empire
England Now Ready to Colonize:
1. Strong, unified nation-state under popular monarch.
2. More religious unity
3. Vibrant sense of nationalism & national destiny.
England’s Status on Eve of Empire
• Population increasing – 1550 = 3 Million to 1600 = 4 million
• Agricultural Revolution – “Enclosures”
Result:
– Small farmers forced to be tenants or off land completely.
– Woolen Districts adversely effected, where Puritanism took root &
supplied many early immigrants to America
• Law of primogeniture - only eldest could inherit land & younger
sons forced to find their own fortunes – Drake, Raleigh
• Joint-Stock Companies – allowed investors to pool money for
profit making ventures.
Motives for Immigrating to Americas
•
Jobs, Markets, Religious Freedom
Jamestown
• Virginia Company of London received a charter from James I.
– Colony temporary, for profit, great pressure to find riches quickly.
– Find gold & route to Indies
– Charter of Virginia Company - guaranteed settlers same rights of
Englishmen in England.
– Landed on river up the Chesapeake Bay in May 1607
• Nightmare of Jamestown
– Settlers spent time looking for gold instead of food.
– 60 of 400 survived by 1609
– People suffered & died from starvation, disease, Indians
Culture Interactions in Virginia
Strained relations:
First Anglo-Powhatan War - 1614
1.
2.
3.
Colonists raided Indian food supplies
Lord De La Warr used “Irish Tactics” against Indians
Pocahontas marries John Rolfe to ease tensions
Second Anglo-Powhatan War - 1644
1. No hope of assimilating or coexisting w/ Native Americans
2. Banished N. Americans from their land westward.
3. Led 90% loss by 1669 and extinction by 1685
Powhatans victims of the 3D’s:
Disease, Disorganization, & Disposibility
Introduction of animals, disease, new trading practices
changed N. Americans’ cultural & traditions.
Changing Virginia Economy
• John Rolfe – father of Tobacco industry
–
–
–
–
Tobacco saved Virginia colony
Increased demand for land, push westward
Virginia became a single crop plantation economy
Increased demand for African slaves, 14% pop. in 1650
• Representative Self-Government
– House of Burgesses – first mini parliament in colonies
– King James I revoked charter of VA. Co. took direct
control of VA, distrusted House of Burgesses.
Maryland
• Md. 2nd plantation colony by Lord Baltimore, 1634
–
–
–
–
Wanted to make $ & refuge for Catholics
Model of England: large estates (land) w/ large manors
Problems between Catholics & Protestants
Economy centered on tobacco, indentured servants &
slaves.
– Act of Toleration 1649
• forced toleration of Catholics but less for Jews & non-christian
• Maryland becomes refuge for Catholics.
West Indies
• Sugar, “rich man’s crop” foundation of West Indies
• Required huge plantations & large labor force (African
Slaves)
• Large population of slaves controlled by slave codes
(Barbados)
– Gave owners complete control over slaves.
– Model used in southern colonies
• Depended on food from mainland
The Carolinas
• 1670 – Lord Proprietors given land by King
• Decided to create close economic ties with
Barbados w/ food.
• immigrants from Barbados brought slave system
& trade, used Indians to get Indians for slaves.
• 1696 – adopted a similar slave code to Barbados
• Rice became main crop & increased need for
African slaves.
Chapter 3: Northern Colonies
Puritans to Plymouth – wanted to purify Anglican Church
• Influenced by Calvanism: God is all-knowing &
predestination, signs of conversion.
• Popular w/ economically disadvantaged, reassured by
focus on divine plan.
• 1608, Separatists threatened by King, fled to Holland
• Pilgrams (Separatists) made deal w/ V.A. Co. to settle
land.
• 1620, Landed in N.E., created Mayflower Compact
– Formed gov’t based on majority rule, assembled in open town
meetings
– Led by William Bradford, feared non-puritans would corrupt
• Economy: fur, fish, lumber
Massachusetts Bay Colony
• 1629, non-separatist Puritans given royal charter
• 1630’s Great Migration led more Puritans to MBC
& West Indies
• John Winthrop led colony as “calling from God”
• Economy: fur, fishing, shipbuilding; became
biggest & most important in N.E.
• Shared sense of purpose, “We shall be as a city
upon a hill,” build holy city as model to humanity.
MBC “ Bible Commonwealth”(con’t)
• Government: to enforce God’s laws
– “Freemen” = “visible saints,” male members of Puritan
church had voting rights: Governor, Assistants and
General Court
– General Court – representative assembly
– Town gov’ts all male property holders took part in
majority voting on local issues.
– Blue Laws – restricted personal behavior
• Limited Separation of Church and State
– Government supported church w/ taxes
– Congregation: hire & fire minister
– Minister barred from holding a formal political office.
Trouble and Expansion
• Dissenters – fined, flogged, exiled or killed
– Quakers
– Anne Hutchinson
– Roger Williams –extreme Separatist
• Dissenters fled to surrounding areas, NY & RI
• Rhode Island haven for dissenters & exiles
– Religious freedom for all
– Separation of church & state
• Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire
– Settled for farming, fishing, fur, & trading
Colonists and Native Americans
• Conflict w/ Indians
– Initially peaceful due to weakened numbers;
“Thanksgiving”
– Settling of interior land led to Pequot War, uneasy peace
– Puritans not big into converting Indians
– 1675, Metacom (King Philip) created an alliance and
attacked 52 Puritan towns
• RESULT: English settlement west slowed & reduced numbers
of Indians to point of little further resistance.
Intercolonial Unity
New England Confederation – set stage for later unity
• 1643, 4 colonies unified
– King allowed colonies to become semiautonomous,
prolonged by civil war
– Defend themselves from Indians, French, Dutch
– Confederation a Puritan group; blackballed RI, ME
– 1660 Charles II & Church of England back in power,
Puritans devastated
– Charles II & James II want to control colonies, grants
CT, RI charters and revokes MBC charter in 1684.
– 1686 Dominion of New England created by King.
Dominion of NE and Glorious
Revolution
• Sir Edmund Andros nearly insights revolt
– Curbs town meetings, courts, press, schools & revoked
all land titles.
– Taxed w/out consent
– Enforce Navigation Laws
• Glorious Revolution
–
–
–
–
Colonies didn’t get back all they had lost.
1691 Massachusetts made a royal colony, voting for all
Other colonies revolted against royal authority
More English officials in colonies who blocked colonial
leaders rise to local power
New Netherlands = New York
• Founded 1623 -1624 by Dutch West India Company, 2nd to
Brazil colony.
• Being a seaport became cosmopolitan – mixed population
• Company wanted profits to detriment of colony
• Bad relations w/ Indians Dutch built protective wall(Wall
Street)
• New Englanders were hostile & Swedes try colonizing
Delaware, Dutch resist
• England (Duke of York) takes New Netherlands w/ little
resistance
• Autocratic, aristocratic traditions remained & discouraged
settlement
Pennsylvania
• 1681,William Penn founded colony as Quaker
refuge, try new gov’t ideas, & make a profit.
• Attracted industrious people & immigrants
• Religious tolerance, civil liberties, no military, no
limit on immigration, good relations w/ Indians;
ruined by non-Quakers.
• Exported grain & other food
Middle Colonies
• “bread colonies”- NY, PA, NJ
• Fur trade, industry started, lumber, shipbuilding,
commerce and seaports
• Landholdings medium in size
• More ethnically mixed, religiously tolerant &
democratically inclined.