Download Unit 1: Beginnings to 1861

UNIT 1: BEGINNINGS TO 1861
Chapter 1: Origins of a New Society, to 1754
Section 1: The Atlantic World
I. Setting the Scene
- The Native American World

descendants of the first people to live in the Americas

a migration, or movement of people for the purpose of settling in a new place

Bering Strait (land bridge)

Indiands and northeast Asians share a common and distinctive pattern in the
arrangement of the teeth

DNA – close genetic relationship
o Native Peoples Across North America

The North - Inuit and Aleut peoples, lived in the far north; hunting on ice and
snow

Koyukon and Ingalik, were nomads – they moved their homes regularly in
search of food

The Northwest Coast – rich ocean fishing grounds nearby

California

The Plateau
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The Great Basin

The Southwest – Hope and the Zuni developed farming methods to suit their dry
environment, Apache were nomadic
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The Plains – traveled great distances on foot, hunting vast herds of buffalo that
fulfilled many of their needs, from food to clothing to shelter

The Northeast – gathered wild plants and grew corn and other crops; hunted
game such as deer, bear, and moose

The Southeast – the Natchez, who settled the lower Mississippi River; several
thousands inhabitants; built magnificent temples on raised mounds of Earth
o Shared Customs and Beliefs

much in common

organized by kinship, or family relationships

relied on their kin

clan is made up of groups of families who share a common ancestor

similar regions beliefs

powerful forces in the world are spiritual, and they followed traditional
religious practices, or rituals

relied on oral history, or passing traditions from generation to generation by
word of mouth
o Trading Patterns

trading routes crisscrossed North America

barter – or trade
o Attitudes Toward the Land
-

never traded land

land could not be owned

had a right to use land or to allow others to use it

land deserved respect
The European Land
o Middle Ages - or medieval period
o The Early Middle Ages

Franks, Vikings, Muslims – invading other lands

to protect themselves from these threats, Europeans created a political and
economic system known as feudalism

the manor system produced everything a feudal society needed to survive
o The Power of the Church

governed the spiritual life and daily activities of medieval Christians, both rich
and poor

head of the Church = pope

clergy = Church officials

Muslims seized Jerusalem

the Church organized a series of military campaigns to retake the city

holy wars – called the Crusades
o Signs of Change

new farming methods increased food supplies which in turn led to population
growth

middle class of merchants, traders, and artisans who made and sold goods to
the manors

monarchs, or those who rule over territories or states

1066 – Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror

King John forced by nobles to sign a document granting them various legal
rights

Magna Carta or “Great Charter” (1215), shaped British government, but
also became the foundation for future American ideals of liberty and
justice
o The Renaissance Begins

French word meaning “rebirth”

time of enormous creativity and change

quest for knowledge in every field of study, including art, literature, science,
and philosophy

used reason and experimentation to explore the physical world and the
individual’s place in it

Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci (Ninja Turtles)
o The Renaissance Spreads North

William Shakespeare

invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg

printed Bibles in mass amounts led to a Reformation or protest of Church
authority (Martin Luther)
o The Rise of Nations



instruments developed by Renaissance scientists, long-range sea travel now
possible

compass - used to find direction (needle always points North)

astrolabe – turns to represent the skyline on the local horizon

quadrant – measures the angle of elevation of an object in the sky
Prince Henry of Portugal

school for mariners

developed the caravel, a ship that could sail against the wind as well as
with it

mariners discovered first sea routes to Asia
Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon

uniting two powerful Spanish kingdoms

wanted to surpass Portugal in the race to explore new sea routes, and to
bring Christianity to new land
Section 1: The Atlantic World
III.
The West African World

contact resumed during the Renaissance

traded salt for gold

desire to get around the middlemen in Africa and go straight to the source of gold

Portugal had already established trade ties
A. West African Geography and Cultures
a. adapted their culture to their geographic surroundings
b. organized according to kinship groups (same as Americas)
c. lineage – all residents of a town belonged to the same kinship group
d. worshipped a supreme being, as well as lesser gods and goddesses or spirits
B. Kingdoms and Trade
a. Benin – palm oil, ivory, and beautiful woods; sculpted heads
b. Songhai empire – capital Timbuktu a center of learning
C. Slavery in Africa
a. labor was often valued more than land
b. those enslaved in Africa were those who had been cut off from their lineage
c. became adopted members of the kinship group that enslaved them
d. Europeans began demanding more and more slaves
IV.
The Birth of the Atlantic World

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand authorized Christopher Columbus to make contact with the
people of “the lands of India”
A. The Voyages of Columbus
a. enrich his family and gain honor and fame
b. convert peoples to Christianity
c. economic motives – bypass Muslims and trade directly for eastern spices and herbs
d. gain an advantage in the rivalry with Portugal
e. Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria
f. Native Americans he called Indians, believing he had reached the Indies
B. The Impact of Columbus’s Voyages
a. Amerigo Vespucci – suggested that it might be a continent previously unknown, a “New
World”
i. “America” after Vespucci
b. Columbian Exchange – new era of transatlantic trade
i. Potato
ii. disease (smallpox, typhus, measles, and other diseases)
c. Treaty of Tordesillas – pope drew an imaginary line dividing the world (Line of
Demarcation), Spain had everything West, Portugal East (Brazil)
C. Slave Labor in the Americas
a. plantations – large farms
b. need for labor transformed
c. 9-11 million people enslaved
Section 2: European Colonization of the Americas
Setting the Scene
a. Menendez de Aviles (Spanish) – established St. Augustine in Florida
b. French – Fort Caroline
c. heretic – someone who holds religious beliefs opposed to those of the established church
or religion
d. St. Augustine – oldest continuously settled city in the United States
e. 1st – competition among European powers was sometimes violent
f. 2nd – motivated not only for wealth, but also for religion
I.
Building a Spanish Empire

spread the Christian religion, gain wealth, and win fame
o
“God, gold, and glory.”
A. Spain’s Major Explorers
a. Juan Ponce de Leon – “fountain of youth”, Florida
b. Vasco Nunez de Balboa – Pacific Ocean
c. Ferdinand Magellan – circumnavigated – or sailed around the world
d. Hernan Cortes – conquered the Aztecs
e. Francisco Pizarro – conquered the Incas
i. conquistadors – Spanish conqueror of the Americas
B. A Spanish Empire
a. colonies – areas settled by immigrants that are still controlled by the parent country
b. Native Americans – forced to become part of the colonial economy
c. encomienda system – forced to work for the profit of Spaniards
d. mestizos – mixed blood
II.
The Spanish Push North
A. Forts for Defense
a. bases – to encourage settlement in neglected areas
B. Missionaries
a. missionary – people who are sent out by their church to teach people their religion
b. mission – headquarters where they lived and worked
C. Resistance to the Spanish
a. Pueblo Revolt of 1680 – led by Pope, rose up and drove the Spanish out of Santa Fe
III.
English Colonization
A. English Explorers
a. John Cabot – first Englishman to cross Atlantic
b. Sir Martin Frobisher – searching for Northwest Passage
i. Northwest Passage – trade route to Asia that would go past or through the
continent of North America
c. privateers (“sea dogs”) – privately owned ship, or the captain, hired by a government to
attack foreign ships
B. The Roanoke Disaster
a. desire for American colonies
i. base in the Americas
ii. Northwest Passage
iii. new markets
iv. send those who could not find work or homes in England
b. Sir Walter Raleigh – Roanoke Island
i. Croatoan – early form of the name of a nearby Native American tribe on a doorpost
C. The Jamestown Settlement
a. charter – certificate of permission, from the king
b. joint-stock company – company funded and run by a group of investors who share the
company’s profits and losses
c. Jamestown – for King James I
i. not used to doing own work
ii. swamp with disease-bearing mosquitoes
iii. John Smith – quote
d. legislature – lawmaking assembly made up of representatives from the colony
i. House of Burgesses (Virginia) – first example of limited self-government in the
English colonies
D. Growing Tobacco
a. saved the Virginia colonists from failing completely
E. Labor for Plantations
a. each “head” or person had a right to fifty acres of land
b. indentured servant – could not pay for voyage; had to work for a master for about seven
years to pay the cost of voyage
F. Pushing West
a. Bacon’s Rebellion – frontier settlers were unhappy with a government that was not
concerned with their interests
IV.
The French in North America
A. French Explorers
a. Jacques Cartier – declared New France
b. Samuel de Champlain – first successful French colony, Quebec in Canada
B. The Fur Trade
a. fur – could be sold for great gain in Europe
b. water – vital for transporting goods
V.
English Colonies in New England
A. Plymouth Colony
a. Puritans – wanted a “purer kind of Church”
b. Separatists – started their own churches
c. Mayflower Compact – agreement made on ship to obey all of their government’s laws and
keep the group together
i. they expected to decide how they would be governed
d. William Bradford – helped create a form of government in which the people guided their
own affairs
i. concept of self-government would become one of the founding principles of the
United States
e. Squanto – taught how to plant corn; held a great feast of thanksgiving
B. The Massachusetts Bay Colony
a. Great Migration – flood of colonists to the Americas
b. religious tolerance – idea that people of different religions should live in peace together
i. not practiced by Puritans
C. Other New England Colonies
a. Thomas Hooker – Connecticut
b. Roger Williams – Rhode Island – religious tolerance to all settlers
D. War With the Indians
a. King Philip’s War (Metacom) – attempt to drive out the English
VI.
The Middle Colonies
A. New York
a. Dutch colony of New Netherland
i. capital – New Amsterdam
b. Charles II – proclaimed the entire region belonged to his brother the duke of York
i. became New York
B. The Other Middle Colonies
a. proprietary colony – colony granted by a king or queen to an individual or group who could
makes laws and rule as they wished
b. Delaware – began as a Swedish colony
c. Pennsylvania – founded by William Penn as a “Holy Experiment” with Quakers
i. all people should be treated as equals
VII.
The Southern Colonies
A. Maryland
a. haven for Roman Catholics
b. Maryland Toleration Act – protect Catholics from persecution in the colony
i. did not provide protection for non-Christians
B. The Carolinas
a. group of English noblemen
b. split into North and South
C. Georgia
a. trustees – someone entrusted to manage a business (James Oglethorpe)
b. haven for people who had been jailed in England because they could not pay their debts
Section 3: Growth of the American Colonies
Setting the Scene
a. England’s American colonies grew in wealth, power, and self-confidence
VIII.
England’s Colonial Policies
o
colonies supplied England with food and raw materials, and bought English goods
C. Mercantilism
a. mercantilism – country should try to get and keep as much buillon, or gold and silver, as
possible; wealthier and more powerful it would be
b. balance of trade – difference in value between imports and exports, should show more
more exports than imports
i. imports = coming in
ii. exports = going out
c. should now allow the colonies to sell to other countries, or engage in manufacturing; and
should use English ships for transporting raw materials
i. want maximum profit for England
D. Controlling Colonial Trade
a. Navigation Act – tightened control; sell certain goods only to England (sugar, tobacco,
cotton); use English ships and pay a tax (or duty) when selling to other countries
b. Dominion of New England – abolished colonial legislature; replaced them with a governor
and a council appointed by the king (act by James II)
c. blows to freedom from English influence and control over local religious matters
i. (changed with Glorious Revolution – William and Mary of Orange)
IX. Origins of Self-Government

royal, proprietary, and charter colonies

common system of government
o
governor appointed by the king
o
colonial legislature
o

defense and taxation

setting salaries
only male landowners could vote

strong local governments

England’s policy of “neglect” – leaving the colonies alone allowed the colonies to prosper
X. Diverse Colonial Economies

Atlantic Ocean - vital to travel
G. The Southern Colonies
a. economy based on staple crops – crops that are in constant demand
i. tobacco and rice
H. The Middle Colonies
a. farming and commerce
b. wheat, barley, rye
c. diverse population (English, Dutch, French, Scots, Irish, Scotch-Irish, Germans, Swedes,
Portuguese Jews, Welsh, Africans, Native Americans)
I. The New England Colonies
a. self-sufficient farms and towns
b. rum and firearms
c. triangular trade – trade between three points in the Atlantic World – the Americas,
Europe, and Africa
XI. Life in Colonial America

ate better, lived longer, had more children, opportunities to advance

apprentices – persons placed under a legal contract to work for another person in exchange for
learning a trade

Benjamin Franklin – Poor Richard’s Almanac
o
almanac – book containing information like calendars, weather predictions, proverbs, and
advice

women – cooking, gardening, washing, cleaning, weaving cloth, sewing

young girls not allowed to go to school
XII. African Americans in the Colonies
E. One Person’s Story
a. Middle Passage – leg of the triangular trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa;
also used to refer to the forced transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas
F. Slavery in the Colonies
a. South Carolina and Georgia
i. high temperatures and dangerous diseases
ii. indigo – need for many slaves
b. Virginia and Maryland
i. minority of slaves and greater integration with colonists
c. Southern Colonies – 400,000 slaves
d. New England and Middle Colonies – 50,000 slaves combined
i. smaller farms did not require as many slaves
ii. worked in cities
iii. contributed to the growth of the Atlantic economy
G. Slave Laws and Revolts
a. laws restricting the movement of slaves made organizing revolts difficult
b. Stono Rebellion – burned an armory and began marching to a runaway slave colony in
Spanish Florida (caught and killed)
c. indirect resistance - pretended to misunderstand orders and faked illness
H. Free Blacks
a. free African Americans did much the same work, but had poorer living conditions and
more severe discrimination
b. could not vote, testify in court against whites, or marry whites
XIII.
Emerging Tensions in the Colonies
C. Western Expansion
a. immigrants – people who enter a new country to settle
b. began moving into the interior of North America
D. Tensions with the French and Native Americans
a. Indians – moving west too
b. forced the local Indians to relocate into lands already occupied by other Native American
groups
c. Ohio River Valley – area worth fighting for
E. Religious Tensions
a. no single group of Protestants was more powerful than any other
b. Great Awakening – series of revivals designed to renew religious enthusiasm and
commitment
i. efforts to energize followers
F. Effects of the Great Awakening
a. revive people’s religious convictions
b. speak for themselves and rely less on traditional authority
c. preached that anyone could have a personal relationship with Jesus
d. indirectly attacking the idea that some people are better than others