Transcript Unit One: Pre-Columbian America

Unit One: Pre-Columbian
America
The Entrada of the Conquistadors
First Discovers?
• The first people to discover the Americas were
the ancestors of the Native Americans.
• The first Europeans to discover the
Americas were the Vikings led by
Leif Erickson the son of Eric the Red
who landed in Vineland (Newfoundland) around
1000 A.D..
• In 1421it is proposed that the Chinese led by
Zheng He landed off the coast of California.
• It is also thought that Africans, Egyptians, Irish,
and Romans had contact with the Americas,
including connected trade routes.
Christopher Columbus
• In 1492 Christopher Columbus an Italian
got the monarchs of Spain (King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella) to finance
a voyage of three small ships (the Nina,
Piñata, and the Santa Maria) to reach Asia
by sailing West.
• The first island Columbus landed on in the
Caribbean Sea was Guanahani which he
renamed San Salvador.
Queen Isabella
King Ferdinand
Christopher Columbus
Recreation
of the
Santa
Maria
Taino Indians
Columbus’s First Voyage
• Columbus sailed to the
south discovering Cuba
and explored its coastline.
• Columbus then sailed to a larger island
named Ayiti (Haiti) which he renamed
Hispaniola.
• The islands of the Caribbean Sea were
occupied by the Taino and Arawak
tribes, Columbus called these people
Indians because he thought he had
landed on islands off the coast of Asia.
Columbus’s First Voyage
• On the island of Hispaniola, Columbus
set up Fort La Navidad to be a waystation and first attempt at settling the
new lands.
• Columbus then sailed back to Spain
carrying with him Natives, plants, and
animals to show the monarchs.
• For his discovery, Queen Isabella and
King Ferdinand gave Columbus the title
“Admiral of the Ocean Sea”.
Other Voyages of Columbus
• In 1493 Columbus made his second voyage
to colonize the new territories for Spain. He
explored the islands of the Antilles including
Puerto Rico and Jamaica.
• I498 Columbus made
his third voyage exploring
the northern coast of South
America.
• In 1502 Columbus made
his fourth (final) voyage
mapping the coast of Central America.
Occupation of Columbus
• The city of La Isabella (Santo Domingo)
was established by Bartholomew
Columbus in 1498 as the first use of the
encomienda system (forced slavery of
natives to farm, ranch, or mine on
plantations) in the New World (the
Americas).
• To be able to enslave the Natives the
Spanish first had to read the
Requerimento (Notification) stating that
the Natives were now the subjects of
Spain.
The Age of Exploration
• Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World
sparked a time in world history known as the
Age of Exploration.
Columbian Exchange
• After the “discovery” of the New World a
clash of two worlds began known as the
Columbian exchange.
• The Columbian exchange was the
exchange of foods, plants, animals,
cultures, people, and diseases between
the Old World and the New World.
• This led to massive numbers of Native
Americans dying from European diseases.
The Race for the “New World”
• The Spanish were mesmerized
(fascinated) by the voyages of Columbus,
by the accounts written, slaves ,and
animals brought back, but most
importantly the gold they “found”.
• Columbus’s voyage began a race to
conquer the New World for : 1. God, 2.
Glory, and 3. Gold.
• Columbus’s voyage sparked a time in
Spainish history known as Siglo de Oro
(Golden Age of Spain)
William H. Powell, Discovery of the Mississippi.
Commissioned 1847
God
Gold
Glory
America’s Name
• In 1501 Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian
sailing for Portugal, traveled to South
America and wrote of his accounts
claiming that the New World was a
continent and not a part of Asia.
• The German map maker Martin
Waldseemuller made a map from Amerigo
Vespucci’s accounts of the New World
and named it America after him.
Conquistadors
• The Spaniards who came to the New World
to conquer it were called conquistadors and
started an event known as the Entrada
(invasion).
• The conquistadors mostly came from a
region in Spain known as the Extremadura.
• Most conquistadors were second or third
born sons of noble families who had fought in
the reconquista of Spain and only hope for
land was to go to the New World.
Finding the Pacific Ocean
• In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa led an
expedition across the Isthmus of Panama
becoming the first European to reach the
Pacific Ocean from the New World.
• In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese
explorer sailing for the Spanish, with five
ships sailed around the southern tip of
South America becoming the first persons
to circumnavigate (sail around) the world.
Juan Ponce de Leon
• The Governor of Puerto Rico
Juan Ponce de Leon led an
expedition to the north of Hispaniola
to find the “islands of Benimy” in 1513
where he found the Peninsula of la Florida
(flowers) landing in what is St. Augustine today.
• Ponce de Leon was looking for the mythical
waters of the Fountain of Youth, which would
bring back youth to those who drank it.
• Ponce de Leon also found the Gulf Stream
(powerful underwater current) which became the
main route for ships back to Europe from the
East Indies or Spanish Maine.
Hernan Cortes
• In 1519 the Spanish explorer
Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico
to conquer the Aztec empire for its gold.
• Cortes then decided to wipe out the Aztec and
was able to because of four factors:
1. Superior weapons – muskets, cannons and
gunpowder.
2. Native American allies who hated the Aztec.
3. Malinche (Dona Maria) a native women used as a
translator.
4. Germ warfare – European diseases that the
Natives had no immunity (resistance) to like
smallpox.
Francisco Pizarro
• In 1530 inspired by Cortes the Spanish
explorer Francisco Pizarro decided to
take over the Incan empire.
• Pizarro invited Atahualpa the leader of the
Incans to a meeting where Pizarro ambushed
the Incans and kidnapped Atahualpa.
• Atahualpa tried to buy his freedom by filling a
prison cell full of gold, only to have Pizarro put
him to death and replace him with a puppet
emperor.
• After the defeat of the Aztec and Incans the
Spanish were able to dominate most of the New
World creating a massive empire.
Narvaez’s Expedition
• In 1527 Panfilo Narvaez was made governor of
Florida, which he sailed to with an expedition of
men to subjugate the natives and establish a
colony.
• The expedition was attacked by the Apalachee
Indians, where Narvaez was killed.
• Only four survivors including Alavar Nunez
Cabeza d Vaca who wrote a detailed account
called La Relación (The Report), and an African
slave Estaban made it back to Mexico traveling
overland across the Southeast of America.
Hernando de Soto
• In 1539 Hernando de Soto made
his entrada in la Florida (Florida).
• De Soto was the first European to explore
most of the Southeastern region of North
America and discovered the Mississippi
River.
• De Soto was supposedly looking for the
legendary El Dorado (the city of gold)
which he had heard about from a black
slave named Estaban who had survived
the Narvaez’s expedition.
Hernando de Soto
• As de Soto traveled through what is Alabama
today he came into conflict with the Mabila
Indians and chief Tuskeloosa ending with the
Battle of Mabila.
• De Soto died on the expedition but his men
made it back to Mexico.
Francisco Vasquez Coronado
• In 1539 Francisco Vasquez Coronado, a
Spanish explorer, led an expedition into the
Southwest North America.
• Unlike other Conquistadors Coronado treated
the Native Americans fairly and led directly to
the introduction of the horse culture of the
Southwest and Plains Indians.
Bartholome de las Casas
• One of the first people
to speak out against
the Spanish
Conquistadors
treatment of the
Natives and the
Encomienda system
was a Dominican
monk named
Bartolome de las
Casas in his book A
Short Account of the
Destruction of the
Indies.
St. Augustine
• The first attempt to settle the area of Florida
was made by the French explorer Jean
Ribault with the founding of Fort Caroline in
present day Jacksonville.
• All the French settlers were killed by the
Spanish Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
• To protect Spanish interests Aviles
established the city of St. Augustine in
1565 making it the first permanent
European settlement in the
continental U.S.