Download New World Beginnings

New World Beginnings
AP History
Main Theme #1
The first discovers of America
• Beringia Theory: crossed a temporary land bridge from Siberia and spread across both North
and South America.
• The ancestors of the American Indians, small bands of hunters.
• They evolved into a variety of cultures, most notably the sophisticated civilizations in Mexico
and South America to the largely semi-nomadic societies of North America.
Main Theme #2
•
•
•
Portuguese and Spanish explorers encounter and then conquered these societies, motivated by
economic and technological advancement.
Effect on the Atlantic Societies (Europe, the Americas, and Africa): Disease, conquest,
slavery, and intermarriage.
Creates a “New World” in Latin America, Florida, New Mexico, and California
Additional Notes:
Cultures of North America circa 1490
 Population estimates vary greatly in the region that is now the U.S. and Canada; from one
million to over 10 million may have been spread.
 Most lived in semi-permanent settlements, each with a small population seldom
exceeding 300.
 Men spent time hunting and making tools, while women grew crops (corn, beans, and
tobacco). Some on the Great Plains (Sioux and Pawnee) were more nomadic.
 A few developed more complex cultures and societies numbering in the Thousands
(Pueblos in Southwest, Iroquois in Northwest)
Cultures of Central and South America circa 1490
 Though population estimates vary, this area’s numbers were greater than North America
(as many as 25 million).
 Three peoples developed complex civilizations
 Between 300 and 800 AD, the Mayas in the Yucatan Peninsula (present day Guatemala,
Belize, and southern Mexico)
 Centuries later, the Aztecs in central Mexico and the Incas in Peru ruled over vast
empires.
 The Aztecs’ capital of Tenochtitlan was equivalent in size and population to the largest
cities in Europe.
European Happenings prior to exploration
 Improvements in technology: use of gunpowder (Chinese), sailing compass (adopted
from the Chinese and Arab traders), shipbuilding (the Caravel from African sailors), and
the printing press.
 Religious conflict: Roman Catholic Church threatened from without (Ottoman Turks –
followers of Islam) and from within (Protestant revolt)


Expansion of trade: Competition between European nation-states = increased trade with
Africa, India, and China.
Developing of Nation States: Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands. (A
nation-state is a country in which the majority of the people share both a common culture
and common political loyalties toward a central government.) Monarchs depended on
trade to bring in needed revenues and the Church justified their right to rule.
Dividing of the New World
Spain and Portugal were the first kingdoms to lay claim to New World territory. The
Catholic monarchs of both countries saw it as their Christian duty and right to claim any land
occupied by “heathens” (non-Christians). They turned to the pope in Rome to help settle their
dispute over which the newly explored lands should belong to which nation. In 1493, the pope
drew a line down the map of the world. Spain was to have all lands west of this line of
demarcation, while Portugal was to have the lands east of the line.
In 1493, the two disputing kingdoms signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which gave Portugal
all of Brazil. Spain was to receive the rest.
Spanish Exploration and Conquest
Spanish dominance in the Americas was based on more than a treaty and a papal line of
demarcation. Spain owed its power in the New World to the efforts of a number of explorers and
conquerors (or conquistadors)…
 Balboa – Panama, finding the Pacific Ocean (1513)
 De Leon – Florida (1513) and the “fountain of youth”
 Magellan – around the tip of South America (1520) and crossed the Pacific Ocean, one
ship was first to circumnavigate the globe.
 Cortes – conquered the Aztecs in Mexico (1521)
 Pizarro – conquered the Incas in Peru (1532)
 De Soto – from Florida to present-day Mississippi River (1539-1542)
 Coronado – from present-day New Mexico to Kansas (1540-1542)
The conquistadors sent ships loaded with gold and silver back to Spain. They increased the
gold supply by over 500 percent, making Spain the richest and most powerful nation in Europe.
Other nations were encouraged to turn to the Americas in search of the same. After seizing the
wealth of the Indian empires, the Spanish turned to the encomienda system, with the king of
Spain giving grants of land and Indians (Native Americans) to Spaniards. These Indians had to
farm or work in the mines. The fruits of their labors went to their Spanish masters, who in turn
had to “care” for them. When Europeans’ brutality and diseases reduced the Native American
population, the Spanish brought slaves from West Africa under the asiento system. This required
the Spanish to pay a tax to their king on each slave they imported to the Americas.
Checklist for objectives (you should be able to…)
• describe the geological and geographical conditions that set the stage for North American
history.
• describe the origin and development of the major Indian cultures in America.
• explain the developments in Europe and Africa that led up to Columbus’s voyage to America.
• explain the changes and conflicts that occurred when the diverse worlds of Europe, Africa,
and the Americas “collided” after 1492.
• describe the Spanish conquest of Mexico and South America and identify the major features
of Spanish colonization and expansion in North America.