Download American Civilizations

• Read and answer the Map Analysis on p. 468 and the questions on
the bottom of p. 470-471 regarding exploration and the diffusion
of ideas.
Objective:
• TLW examine the causes of European
exploration and the effects on the native
people through notes, activity, and
discussion.
John Green says……
• Watch John Green World History Crash
Course #25, The Spanish Empire, Silver,
and Runaway Inflation.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjhIzem
Ldos
Exploration
• Throughout high Middle Ages and Renaissance,
Europeans more wealthy b/c of trade
– fascinated by Far East (Marco Polo)
– most countries settled down, kings had consolidated
power
– new inventions/ideas from East: astrolabe, compass,
deep-draft ships, caravel
• 3 main reasons for European expansion
(the 3 G’s): God, glory, gold, conversion of
heathen for God, glory for nation/monarch, gold
for merchant/ adventurer
American Civilizations
Maya
Maya c. 300-900 AD
• Central America
– had large cities centered around pyramid w/ shrine to
gods
– city-states w/ hereditary rulers, nobles,
artisans/merchants, peasants, slaves
– polytheistic, used human sacrifice to appease gods
and celebrate events
• Sophisticated calendar used both solar
calendar (365 days) and sacred calendar
– don’t know why it declined
Aztec
Aztec c. 1100s-1500s AD
• Mexico, capital at Tenochtitlan
–
–
–
–
powerful warriors
believed in human sacrifice
scientific, calculated movement of some planets
believed sign of arrow through a tree meant gods
returning (Spanish cross)
• Conquistador – Spanish military leader who
fought against Native Americans
– Hernan Cortes- landed 1519 AD, welcomed by
Montezuma (king) but soon took him hostage and
destroyed Aztec civilization
– Aztecs defeated by disease (smallpox) as much as by
weapons
Inca
Inca c.1400-1535 AD
• Peru/Chile area
– used llamas to transport goods
• great builders: roads and bridges, monuments
w/o mortar (Machu Picchu)
– no written language, kept records w/ knotted rope
(quipu)
• Francisco Pizarro- landed 1531 and defeated
Incas after leader Atahualpa wouldn’t convert
– Incas and Aztecs defeated by disease (smallpox) as
much as by weapons
Portuguese
• Prince Henry the Navigator led/financed
expeditions down west coast of Africa
discovered gold/slaves
– 1488 Bartholomeu Dias• rounded tip of Africa, called Cape of Good Hope
– 1498 Vasco da Gama• went around the Cape to India and back
• set up trading posts throughout South and Southeast Asia,
controlled spice trade
– 1519-1522 Magellan• circumnavigated world
Portuguese
Spanish
• Christopher Columbus was convinced earth not very
big, reach Asia by sailing West from Europe (Columbus
was Italian)
– reached Cuba- October 1492
• Spain and Portugal first main explorers
– Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) - line of demarcation,
east controlled by Portugal, west by Spain
Portuguese and Spanish
England and France
• Cabot explored coast of Canada; Drake- Pacific NW;
Hudson- New England for England
• Amerigo Vespucci – Italian explorer/mapmaker
– Cartographer
– journals of New World (Americas b/c him)
• French explored St. Lawrence Seaway
– more traders than settlers, worked w/ Natives
• English settled into colonies
– (Jamestown, Plymouth)
– distrusted Natives
– expanded, came into conflict w/ French as well as Natives