New World Beginnings

New World Beginnings

The Shaping of North America
Continents Form
225 million years ago, a single supercontinent contained all the world’s dry land
Enormous chunks of terrain began to drift away from this supercontinent. This had the following results:
Opened the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
Narrowed the Pacific Ocean
Formed the landmasses of Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the Americas
The existence of a single original continent has been proved in part by the discovery of nearly identical species of fish that swim today in the long-separated freshwater lakes of the various continents
Mountain Ranges
Shifting and folding of the earth’s crust thrust up mountain ranges
350 million years ago – Appalachians
135-25 million years ago – Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades
Ice Age
Occurred 2 million years ago
Ice sheets crept from the polar regions to blanket parts of Europe, Asia, and the Americas
In North America, the glaciers covered most of present-day Canada and the U.S. as far southward as Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Dakotas, and the Pacific Northwest
When the glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago, they left the North American landscape much as we know it today
Melting glaciers formed the Great Lakes
They drained southward through the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico
Melting glaciers left the Great Salt Lake
Peopling the Americas
Bering Land Bridge
As the Ice Age was ending and the sea level dropped, it exposed a land bridge connecting Eurasia with North America in the area of the present-day Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska
Across that bridge, probably following migratory herds of game, ventured small bands of nomadic Asian hunters
Spreading Out and Surviving
The original Americans eventually reached the far tip of South America
By 1492, as many as 54 million people lived in the Americas
Over 2,000 separate cultures arose
Peru – Incas
Central America – Mayans
Mexico – Aztecs
Main crop was maize (corn)
Didn’t have horses, oxen, or even the wheel, but still managed to build large cities
The Earliest Americans
Corn
Corn spread across the Americas from Mexico
Corn began to transform nomadic hunting bands into settled agricultural villagers
The Pueblo (means village) people in the Rio Grande valley constructed intricate irrigation systems to water their cornfields
Population and the Complexity of Society
Throughout the continent to the north and east of the land of the Pueblos, social life was less elaborately developed
No dense concentrations of population or complex nation-states comparable to the Aztec empire existed in North America outside of Mexico
This was one reason for the relative ease with which the European colonizers subdued the native Americans
The Mound Builders of the Ohio River valley, the Mississippian culture of the lower Midwest, and the desert-dwelling Anasazi peoples of the Southwest did sustain some large settlements after the incorporation of corn planting around 1,000 AD. However, all fell (possibly due to drought) by 1,300 AD
The cultivation of maize, beans, and squash reached the southeastern Atlantic seaboard region of North America about 1,000 AD. This allowed some of the highest population densities on the continent, among them the Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee peoples
Iroquois
Located in the northeastern woodlands
In the 16th century, inspired by the legendary leader Hiawatha, they sustained the closest thing to the great nation-states of Mexico and Peru
The Iroquois Confederacy developed the political and organizational skills to sustain a military alliance that menaced its neighbors, Native Americans, and Europeans alike, for well over a century
Native American Settlements
Most native Americans in North America were living in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements
Women tended the crops
Men hunted, fished, and cleared fields for planting
This pattern of life frequently conferred substantial authority on women (power and possessions passed down the female side of the family line in many Indian cultures)
Native Americans revered the physical world and endowed nature with spiritual properties. However, they did sometimes ignite massive forest fires to down trees for better hunting habitats, especially for deer
They were so thinly spread across the continent that vast areas were virtually untouched by a human presence
By 1492, there were about 4 million Native Americans in North America
Indirect Discoverers of the New World
Norse
Scandinavia seafarers landed in present-day Newfoundland about AD 1000
The area had many wild grapes, so they called it Vinland
Their venture failed because they weren’t supported by a nation-state
Christian Crusaders
Foiled in their military assaults on the Muslims in the Holy Land from the 11th to 14th centuries, the crusaders acquired a taste for the exotic delights of Asia
Goods that had been virtually unknown in Europe now were craved:
Silk
Drugs
Perfumes
Draperies
Spices
Sugar, a rare luxury in Europe before the crusades, was used to preserve and flavor food
Wanting a New Route
The above goods had to be transported enormous distances from China and India in ships or on camel
By the time the goods reached Europe, they were so costly that purchasers and profits alike were limited
European consumers and distributors were naturally eager to find a less expensive route
Europeans Enter Africa
Marco Polo
An Italian adventurer returned to Europe in 1295 and began telling tales of his nearly 20-year stay in China
Though he may in fact never have seen China, he must be regarded as an indirect discoverer of the New World. His book, with its descriptions of rose-tinted pearls and golden pagodas, stimulated European desires for a cheaper route to the treasures of the East
Portuguese and Africa
With the development of better ships, the Portuguese mariners could overcome obstacles of wind and current
As a result, the Portuguese began to creep down the West African coast in the middle of the 15th century (Dark Continent)
Slavery
They set up trading posts along the African shore for the purchase of gold and slaves. Arabs and Africans had traded slaves centuries before the Europeans had arrived
Especially expensive were slaves from distant places, who could not easily flee to their native villages. Slave traders also mixed tribes purposely so that it would be difficult to mount organized resistance
Portugal built up their own slave trade to work the sugar plantations there and on their islands
Slave trading became a big business. 40,000 Africans were carried away to the Atlantic sugar islands in the last half of the 15th century
Portugal was the origin of the modern plantation system, based on large-scale commercial agriculture and exploitation of slave labor
Bartholomeu Dias (1488)
Wanting to find a water route to Asia, Dias rounded the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488
Vasco da Gama (1498)
Rounded the tip of Africa and reached India (hence Indies refers to Asia – East Indies – Indonesia; West Indies – Caribbean Sea Islands)
Spain
In the late 15th century, Spain became more powerful from:
The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon & Isabella of Castile
Expulsion of the “infidel” Muslim Moors after centuries of Christian-Islamic warfare
As a result of their new strength, the Spaniards were eager to outdo their Portuguese rivals. Since Portugal controlled the waterways around Africa, Spain looked west
Columbus Comes Upon a New World
The Stage Is Set
Europeans – Clamored for more and cheaper products from the lands beyond the Mediterranean
Africa – Was established as a source of cheap slave labor for plantation agriculture
Portuguese voyages – Demonstrated the feasibility of long-range ocean navigation
Spain – Was taking shape, with unity, wealth, and power to shoulder the formidable tasks of discovery, conquest, and colonization
Renaissance – In the 14th century, it nurtured an ambitious spirit of optimism and adventure
Printing presses – Facilitated the spread of scientific knowledge
Mariner’s compass – Possibly borrowed from the Arabs, eliminated some of the uncertainties of sea travel
Christopher Columbus
Italian seafarer who persuaded the Spanish monarchs to outfit him with three tiny ships (Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria). He intended to find a water route to Asia
His crew was people from a mix of backgrounds (motley crew)
Fearful of venturing into the oceanic unknown, the crew increasingly became mutinous
On October 12, 1492, the crew sighted an island in the Bahamas
He intended to find a new water route to India, but he bumped into an enormous land barrier. He felt for sure that he had skirted the rim of the “Indies” – (Asia or China) so he called the native peoples Indians
Result of Columbus’ Discovery
He returned with gold, encouraging further expeditions
An interdependent global economic system would emerge
Europe – provided the markets, capital, and technology
Africa – furnished the labor
New World – Offered its raw materials, especially metals and soil for sugar cane, tobacco, corn, and more
When Worlds Collide
Positive Results of Columbus’ Discovery
New World plants, such as tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes eventually revolutionized:
The international economy
The European diet (3/5 of the crops cultivated around the globe today originated in the Americas)
Fed the rapid population growth
Columbus returned to Hispaniola (Dominican Republic today) with cattle, swine, and horses
The horses reached the North American mainland through Mexico and in less than two centuries had spread as far as Canada
North American Indian tribes like the Apaches, Sioux, and Blackfoot swiftly adopted the horse, transforming their cultures into highly mobile, wide-ranging hunter societies that roamed the grassy Great Plains in pursuit of the shaggy buffalo
Negative Results of Columbus’ Discovery
The Europeans also brought the germs that caused smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria
During the Indians’ millennia of isolation in the Americas, most of the Old World diseases disappeared from them and so their bodies didn’t need the protective antibodies. These diseases would quickly devastate the Native Americans. 90% of the Native Americans perished
Indians infected early explorers with syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that was transferred to Europe
Amerigo Vespucci (1497)
Italian member of a Portuguese expedition
Explored South America
A cartographer mistakenly thought that Vespucci had an expedition to the New World before Columbus, so he named the continent America
The Spanish Conquistadores
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)
Spain secured its claim to Columbus’s discovery in this treaty
It created a Papal Line of Demarcation, which divided with Portugal the lands of the New World – east for Portugal and west for Spain. Most went to Spain, but Portugal received compensating territory in Africa, Asia, and what would become Brazil
Spain
Became the dominant exploring and colonizing power in the 1500s
Spanish conquistadores (conquerors) fanned out across the Caribbean and eventually onto the mainland of the American continents
Spanish Explorers
Vasco Nunez Balboa (1513)
Discovered the Pacific Ocean and crossed Panama
Ferdinand Magellan (1519-1522)
Set out to sail around the world
Started with five vessels
Was killed in the Philippines
One ship made it home in 1522 (first circumnavigation of the globe)
Juan Ponce de Leon (1513 & 1521)
Explored Florida for gold and the fountain of youth
Francisco Pizarro (1532)
In South America, Pizarro crushed the Incas of Peru and added a huge booty to Spanish coffers (a strongbox for holding money)
Hernando de Soto (1539-1542)
He discovered and crossed the Mississippi River
Francisco Coronado (1540-1542)
Wandered through Arizona and New Mexico in search of golden cities that turned out to be adobe pueblos
Discovered the Grand Canyon and enormous herds of bison
Results of Spanish Discoveries
By 1600, Spain had a huge amount of silver. This resulted in:
The foundation of the modern commercial banking system
Increased consumer costs by as much as 500%
Could have led to the growth of capitalism
Spread commerce and manufacturing
Paid for trade with Asia
Islands of the Caribbean Sea (West Indies) served as bases for the Spanish exploration of mainland America (supplies could be stored and men/horses could be rested)
The West Indies also served as a place to test the encomienda system. It allowed the government to give Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to try to Christianize them. It was actually slavery. With the death of Native American slaves, Spaniards began importing African slaves
The Conquest of Mexico
Hernan Cortes (1519)
Set sail from Cuba to Mexico with:
16 horses
Many guns
Several hundred men
11 ships
Along the way, he managed to pick up two interpreters
He heard from the interpreters about gold and other wealth stored up in the legendary Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan
He also learned of problems the Aztec empire was having with peoples who were failing to pay tribute to them
The Aztec chieftain Moctezuma sent ambassadors bearing fabulous gifts to welcome the Spaniards. They only wetted the conquistadors’ appetites
Superstitious Moctezuma believed that Cortes was the god Quetzalcoatl, whose return from the eastern sea was predicted in Aztec legends. As a result, he allowed the conquistadors to approach his capital unopposed
The size (10 square miles) and number of inhabitants (300,000) surprised the Spaniards. It rivaled the size of any city in Europe and rose from an island in the center of a lake, surrounded by floating gardens of extraordinary beauty
At first welcomed, eventually, the Spanish thirsted too much for gold and attacked in June 1520
Cortes then laid siege to the city and it fell in August 1521, the same year a smallpox epidemic swept through the area
The population of Mexico shrank from 20 million to 2 million in less than a century
Other Results of Spanish in the Mexico
Spanish brought:
Crops
Animals
Language
Laws
Customs
Religion
Intermarried with the surviving Indians, creating a distinctive culture of mestizos, people of mixed Indian and European heritage
The Spread of Spanish America
Spain’s Colonial Empire
Half a century after Columbus’s landfall, hundreds of Spanish cities and towns flourished in the Americas
They established cathedrals, printing presses, and universities, including two founded in Mexico in 1551, 85 years before Harvard
Other Powers Send Explorers
Other powers were already exploring the area
John Cabot (in 1497-98 from England)
Explored the northeastern coast of North America
Giovanni da Verrazano (in 1524 from France)
Probed the eastern seaboard
Jacques Cartier (in 1534 from France)
Journeyed hundreds of miles up the St.