Transcript Chapter 1
Collision of Cultures – Chapter 1 Americas Before 1500s • Prehistory – before written records • Nomadic people traveled across Bering Land Bridge about 30,000 years ago – one possible theory • Americas became diverse and well-populated • Farming = more settled life and time to cultivate other interests Pre-Columbian Indian Civilizations • Mayas • Incas • Aztecs North American Native Civilizations • Hopewell – Ohio Valley (800 B.C. 600 A.D.) • Anasazis – Southwest – Lacked class structure – Warfare only selfdefense Why were the Native tribes vulnerable to conquest? • Large and fatal gaps in knowledge and technology • Disunity Early European Contact • Vikings –Leif Erickson and Erik the Red • Greenland • Newfoundland Europe Before 1500s Middle Ages – Medieval Period – Dark Ages 5th-14th Centuries – Fall of the Roman Empire – Unstable – Feudalism – Crusades -military expeditions to recover Palestine from Muslims exposed Europe to silks and spices, ancient Greek and Roman texts, technical innovations (movable type) – Black Death – 1/3 of Europeans died Europe Before 1500s Late Middle Ages – Growing commerce stimulated growth of new towns and markets Renaissance – “rebirth” 14th-17th Centuries – Time of inquiry – Reformation – Martin Luther posted Ninety-Five Theses 1517 Portuguese Exploration • Established themselves as the leaders in seafaring technology • Prince Henry the Navigator – established an academy for exploration Portuguese Exploration • Bartolomeu Dias rounded the tip of Africa • Vasco de Gama – reached India Portuguese Exploration • Bartolomeu Dias rounded the tip of Africa • Vasco de Gama – reached India Columbus • Italian • Won support from King and Queen of Spain • 87 men – 3 ships (Santa Maria, Pinta, Nina) • Oct. 12, 1492 – reached San Salvador (Bahamas) • Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic • Returned home with natives as gifts to monarchs • Irony – New World named after Amerigo Vespucci Impact of Columbus The Columbian Exchange – transatlantic trade brought on by Columbus’s journeys. Native Americans – devastated by disease (smallpox, typhus, measles, chicken pox, whooping cough) Europeans – wealth (gold, silver, cash crops) Africans – enslaved (9 to 11 million West Africans taken to North and South America) Conquistadors • Cortes – Conquered the Aztecs Empire – smallpox and uniting Aztec enemies – “We Spaniards have a disease of the heart that only gold can cure.” • Pizarro – Subdued Incan Empire Spanish America • First to dominate • Stumbled into regions that proved most immediately profitable • Encomienda – landowners controlled native population • Native population drop -> slaves imported from Africa • Christian Empire Why is religion important to understanding colonial America? • By the time the English will colonize North America, Protestantism had further divided into many different sects and churches. • Europe was religious chaos. • Amongst early colonists were: – Puritans escaping what they saw as Anglican persecution – – – – – Anglicans settling for the glory of God and country German pietists Dutch reformers Quakers Catholics • Treaty of Tordesillas – divided areas between Portugal and Spain for exploration and settlement orchestrated by Catholic Pope.