Download Chapter 1: Worlds Apart

Chapter 2: When Worlds Collide
AP United States History
Logan Greene
West Blocton High School
Chapter Objectives
• What was life like for Native Americans before
1492?
• What benefits to European princes, merchants, and
traders did exploration provide?
• How did the French, English, and Spanish fare in
their early efforts in the New World?
• What were the consequences of contact between
the Old and New Worlds?
Native American Societies Before 1492
• Approximate population of 70 million in 1492, mostly in
South America and present day Mexico
• Extremely diverse populations across North America
– Different language
– Food
– Societies
• North and West: Hunter/Gatherers, mainly nomadic
• Northeast: Primarily fished and gathered
• South: Farmed, used mainly techniques and crops gathered
from Mesoamerica (Mexico)
Major Groups
• Olmecs: Mesoamerica, 1200 – 400 BC
– Large cities, pyramids, literate
• Mayan: Mesoamerica, 150 – 900 AD
– Advanced writing and calendar, concept of zero
• Toltecs: Mesoamerica, 900 – 1100 AD
• Aztecs: Mesoamerica, 1100 – 1521 AD
– Warrior race, built Tenochtitlan (200,000 people!)
• Hohokams: Arizone, 400 – 1450 AD
– Established villages and huge harvests
• Anasazi: Southwest US, 1 AD – 1300 AD
– Carved villages, farming, cliff dwelling
• Mississippian: Southeast US, 700 – 1400’s AD
– Built huge mounds, farmers
European and Native Fundamental Issues
• Europeans and Natives were completely different
• Religion to Europeans was simply Catholicism, to
Natives it was an oral tradition based around nature
and mysticism
• Europeans could not understand the almost equal
status of men and women in Native cultures
• The overall issue came with the idea of Europeans
wanting to “own” land while Natives simply used
the land with no concept of owning it
Western Europe circa 1492
• European societies were patriarchal, hierarchal, and
monarchical
• The Renaissance gave light to education and new
learning spurned from the Crusades
• Sense of political calm after the Hundreds Years
War and also Spain’s successful Reconquista that
expelled Muslims from Spain
• However, religious conflict occurred with the
Reformation attacking the Catholic Church in 1517
• Overall, Europe was in a position to begin exploring
Reasons to Explore
• The Crusades had given Europeans a reason to want
to explore by introducing them to new and exciting
items such as spices and silk
• The loss of the Holy Land also made travelling over
land to Asia impossible due to Muslim control
• A water route was the logical way to fix this issue
• 3 main reasons
– Gold
– God
– Glory
Early Explorers
• Marco Polo (Italian)
– Travelled overland to China, brought back fantastic
stories
• Prince Henry the Navigator (Portuguese)
– Sponsored early navigators and founded school
• Bartolomeu Dias (Portuguese)
– Reached Southern tip of Africa in 1488
• Vasco da Gama (Portuguese)
– Sailed around tip to India in 1499
Christopher Columbus
• COLUMBUS WAS NOT THE FIRST TO KNOW THE
WORLD WAS ROUND
• Convinced King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of
Spain to sponsor a voyage Westward to China
• Departed in 1492 with three ships
• Found the Caribbean 3 months later
• Died in 1506 convinced he had found Asia
• Opened the door to further exploration of the “New
World”
Spanish Conquest
• Spain began the conquest of the New World due to
religious fervor and an experienced corps of
warriors known as conquistadors:
– Hernan Cortez: Conquered the Aztecs in Mexico by 1521
– Francisco Pizarro: Conquered the Incas in Peru by 1532
– By 1550 Spain controlled a vast North American Empire
• Spain conquered vast empires quickly through fear,
superior weapons, but mostly through devastating
Old World diseases like Smallpox
The Columbian Exchange
• The most important aspect of early exploration and
colonization was the Columbian Exchange
• “The exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and
ideas between the old and new worlds”
• The most devastating aspect of this was the Old
World diseases that wrecked havoc upon the New
World inhabitants
Competition
• All of the European powers claimed providence
over the New World
• In 1494 the Pope issued the Treaty of Tordesillas
splitting the New World between Spain and
Portugal (this limited Portugal to basically Brazil)
• France and England were not in a position early on
to enter the race for the New World
• However, by the early 1600’s France and England
were prepared to enter the race
France
• France’s early voyages were entirely motivated by
reports of Spanish gold, and were mostly failures
• The only “success” came from Jacques Cartier’s
voyages to the Canadian wilderness where he
brought back what he thought were diamonds
(quartz) and gold (pyrite)
• By mid 1500’s France was dealing with Civil War and
gave up on exploration for the time being
• Later the French will establish colonies based
almost entirely on the fur trade with the Natives
England
• The earliest notable event of English
exploration/colonization was the Roanoke incident
• Led by Walter Raleigh in 1585 English settlers
attempted to establish a colony in present day
Roanoke island North Carolina
• Settlers were left to build the colony as ships were
needed to prepare for the Spanish Armada in 1588.
On return in 1590 the colonists disappeared and
only the word CROATAN remained
Chapter Objectives
• What was life like for Native Americans before
1492?
• What benefits to European princes, merchants, and
traders did exploration provide?
• How did the French, English, and Spanish fare in
their early efforts in the New World?
• What were the consequences of contact between
the Old and New Worlds?