1.1 & 1.2: The Americas, West Africa and Europe

JachimiecU.S. History2015-16

Ancient Cultures in the Americas• First hunters arrived 22,000 years ago (Ice Age) via Beringia

land bridge• Agricultural Revolution 8000-3000 B.C.• Mix of nomadic and farming tribes

Great Empires of Middle and South America

• Olmecs (1200-400 B.C.) in southern Mexico• Maya (250-900 A.D.) in southern Mexico and

Guatemala• Aztecs (1200s-1500s A.D.) in south-central

Mexico• Incas (peak around 1400 A.D.) in Andean

highlands of Ecuador, Peru and Chile

Olmec “Colossal Head”

Chichen Itza

Tenochtitlan, Valley of Mexico

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Machu Picchu, Peru

North American Tribes• Diverse climates=diverse peoples and ways of

life• Sophisticated trade patterns, roads

Cahokia, Illinois

Mississippian Mound Cultures

Common Traits

• Highly religious and ritualistic• Extensive trade• Land not treated as a commodity (source of

life)• Animistic beliefs• Kin-based relationships organize clans and

tribes

West Africa

• Large, powerful kingdoms and sophisticated societies• Connected by trade to Europe, Middle East and Far East

– Gold– Salt

• Kinship bonds highly important• Polytheistic religions that favor a single creator• Collective ownership of lands according to family, village

and/or tribe• Trade (including slave trade) begins with Portuguese

arrival in 1440s

Caravan to Timbuktu

Europe

• Social class dictates position in life.• Low social mobility• Renaissance (1400-1600): rediscovery of classical

learning and artistic/cultural reawakening• Christianity dominate religion– Split within the Church in 1500s between Roman

Catholicism and Protestantism (Reformation)• 1400s- emergence of strong nations: England,

France, Spain and Portugal

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Age of Exploration: Why?

• Interest in Far East (Marco Polo, Crusades)• Desire for more efficient trade routes to get

exotic goods (spices)– Want to bypass Muslim overland routes

• Monarchs see expansion as a way to increase their wealth and prestige.– 3 G’s: Gold, God & Glory

Age of Exploration: How?

• Improvements in cartography (map-making)• Technological improvements– Astrolabe– Magnetic compass– Caravel/Lateen sails