Download Three Worlds Collide

Three Worlds Collide……
Native Americans, Europeans, and
West Africans
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN VERY DIFFERENT
SOCIETIES COLLIDE?
WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN ONE SOCIETY
IMPOSES ITS VALUES ON ANOTHER?
3 worlds collide
Native Americans
 The first Americans
likely arrived as early as
22,000 years ago Bering Sea land bridge
during the Ice Age.
 Most of these early
inhabitants
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Came by foot
Were hunter/gatherers
Diffused across N., S., and
central America
Agriculture Develops
 Between 10,000-5,000
years ago an AG
revolution took place in
central MX
 Domestication –
corn/maize
 Tremendous change
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Sedentary societies
Economic specialization
Larger organizational units
Building of complex
material culture
Native American Societies – Diverse and Complex
 Great empires of Central and South America
 Olmec – southern MX beside Gulf of MX - 1200 BC
 Maya – Guatemala and Yucatan – 250-900 AD
 Aztec – central MX – 1200-1500
 Inca – Peru – 1200 AD
These empires rivaled those of ancient
cultures in other parts of the world.
Included – great cities, palaces, temples,
pyramids, plazas
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 Environmental Determinism
N. American
Native
Societies 1492
Environmental
Determinism –
varied geographic
landscapes of N.
America encouraged
vast diversity of
Native American
cultures
– varied geographic landscapes of
N. America encouraged vast
diversity of Native American
cultures
Northwest Natives
 Avid traders
 Acquisition of material goods resulted in higher
status
 Gift-giving ceremonies called potlatches marked
public displays of wealth
 Abundance of fish and mild climate made many
tribes relatively prosperous
 Carved elaborate and intricate totem poles
(represented ancestral heritage)
Southwest Natives
 Pueblo and Hopi
 Arid conditions made life tougher – developed
irrigation systems
 Tribes such as the Apache were foragers –
scrounging for everything from bison to
grasshoppers
 Living in villages and lived off the land as hunters
and gatherers
 Adobe houses
Great Plains Natives
 Cheyenne, Sioux (Dakota), Crow, Comanche,
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Blackfoot
Game, especially bison, was plentiful
Few hunted because of no horses until the mid
1500s
Tribes stalked, ambushes, and occasionally
stampeded a herd of bison over a cliff
Semi-nomadic – packed up their teepees and
moved on when the local food got scarce
Northeast Natives
 Two large groups: Iroquois and Algonquin
 Fought a lot
 Tools and weapons made of copper and slate
 Heavily wooded areas - invented a canoe made
out of birch bark
 Around 1450 five tribes formed the Iroquois
League
 Purpose: form an alliance against the Algonquin
and settle disputes amongst themselves
Southeast Natives
 A mix of hunting, gathering, and farming
 Developed codes of law and judicial systems
 Readily adopted European customs of running
plantations, slaveholding, and raising cattle
 Intermarried with Europeans
 Referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes by the
Europeans (Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks,
& the Seminoles)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E9WU9TGrec&l
ist=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s&inde
x=1
Commonalities among Native Americans
 1.) Elaborate trade networks
 2.) Respect for land – sacred, not to be owned or sold
as private property
 3.) Religion – natural world filled with spirits
(animism). Revere and respect past generations –
their spirits guide the living
 4.) Bonds of kinship – strong ties among family.
Family = basic unit of organization
 5.) Division of labor – based on gender, age, and
status
View of land…..
 “When we dig roots we make little holes. When we
build houses we make little holes….we shake down
acorns and pinenuts. We don’t chop down the trees.
We use only dead wood for fires….But the white
people plow up the ground, pull down the trees,
…..and the tree says, ‘Don’t. I am sore. Don’t hurt
me.’”
West African Societies
 In the late 1400s W Africa had thriving trade, diverse
cultures, and well ordered states
 Songhai Empire – gained power and wealth in
mid 1400s – spans the dry Savanna grasslands
Controlled trans-Sahara trade – rulers got rich taxing goods
that passed
through their realm
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Songhai Empire does
Not stretch South into
Forest kingdoms –
Ibo, Oyo, Edo peoples
West African Culture
 Strong kinship ties. Within family age = rank
 Religion – animism – nature filled with spirits and see
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spiritual forces in both living and non-living objects
Worship variety of ancestral spirits and lesser gods but
most believe in single creator
Collective land ownership in villages
Slavery – existed but NOT an inherited status one is born
into based on race. Also usually not for life.
Compare and Contrast – W. African slavery with the
slave system that will develop in the Americas??
European Culture
 Nuclear family more important than extended
 Social hierarchy – monarchs, nobles, merchants,
peasants – little to no mobility
 Division of labor based on gender and social class
 Religion – Christian nations
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Reformation in 1500s
Catholic – Protestant divide
Many European nations will look to
spread their religion on the backs of
their colonies
Many early colonists pushed out by
relig persecution
Luther and his 95 Theses
EUROPEAN EXPLORATION
►The countries of
Portugal, Spain,
France and
England explored in
the late 1400s for God,
Gold, and Glory
►Improved mapmaking,
better sailboats,
compasses, astrolabes
– all led to better
exploration
European Claims in the New World
Portugal takes the lead!
 Prince Henry the
Navigator – established an
up to date sailing school,
developed and employed early
technological innovations,
and sponsored the earliest
voyages
 For 40 years Portugese
camptains sail further and
further south along the W.
coast of Africa
 1488 Bartholomeu Dias
first to round S. tip of Africa
Portugal arrives in India – da Gama
 Vasco da Gama – first
Portugese explorer to reach
India. (1497/98)
 Enables Portugal to expedite
trade with Asia and cut their
costs
Columbus Goes West
 Christopher Columbus
convinced Spain that he
would find a route to Asia
by sailing west across the
Atlantic
 Aug 3, 1492 Columbus
leaves Spain in Nina, Pinta,
and Santa Maria
 No soldiers, priests or
ambassadors – just sailors
 Oct 12, 1492 – Columbus
comes ashore - Hispanola
Columbus Returns to Build an Empire
 What activities preoccupied Columbus as he
explored the America’s?
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“I have been very attentive and have tried very hard to find out
if there is any gold here.”
“It is my wish to bypass no island without taking possession.”
“In every place I have entered, islands and lands, I have always
planted a cross.” “Your Highness will order a city …..built in
these regions for these countries will be easily converted.”
“these people are so simple in deeds of arms…if your Highness
order either to bring all of them to Castile or to hold them as
captivos (slaves) on their own island it could easily be done,
because with about 50 men you could subjugate them all,
making them do whatever you want.”
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Biological
Exchange
Animals:
Old World to New
World:
Horses
Cattle
Pigs
Sheep
Goats
Chickens
New World to Old World:
Turkeys
Llamas
Alpacas
Guinea Pigs
The Columbian Biological Exchange
Old World to New
World:
Diseases: Smallpox
Measles
Chicken Pox
Malaria
Yellow Fever
Influenza
The Common Cold
New World to Old World:
Syphilis
The Columbian Biological Exchange
Old World to New
World:
Plants:
Rice
Wheat
Barley
Oats
Coffee
Sugarcane
Bananas
Melons
Olives
Dandelions
Daisies
Clover
Ragweed
Kentucky Bluegrass
New World to Old World:
Corn (Maize)
Potatoes (White & Sweet Varieties)
Beans (Snap, Kidney, & Lima
Varieties)
Tobacco
Peanuts
Squash
Peppers
Tomatoes
Pumpkins
Pineapples
Cacao (Source of Chocolate)
Chicle (Source of Chewing Gum)
Papayas
Manioc (Tapioca)
Guavas
Avocados
European Disease
 European diseases
decimated Native
populations
 Death tolls reached 80-
90% in the first couple
generations
 New diseases with no
immunity - Small pox,
typhus, cholera, measles
Columbian Exchange
 What surprises you? Why?
 Examples of syncretism?
 Impacts….?
Columbus’ Legacy? One of……
Achievement, heroism,
exploration, destiny
Cruelty, genocide, slavery