I have come to believe that this is a might continent which was hitherto unknown… Your Highnesses have an Other World here.

- Christopher Columbus

Read the quote and answer the following question on notebook paper. Who was Columbus’s intended audience and what was the purpose of the message he was giving? Turn in your signed parent letters.

New World New World BeginningsBeginnings

33,000 b.c.e.–1769 33,000 b.c.e.–1769 c.e.c.e.

Planet earth took on its present form slowly. Over time the great continents of Eurasia,

Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the Americas were formed.

The majestic ranges of western North America—the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, and the Coast Ranges―formed.

The Canadian Shield—a zone undergirded by rocks―became part of the North American landmass.

Other mountain ranges were formed, along with rivers and valleys.

After the glaciers retreated, the North American landscape was transformed.

Figure 1.1 p5

Why did people migrated to, from, and within North America?

The North American continent's human history was beginning to be formed, perhaps by people crossing over land.

Low sea levels exposed a land bridge connecting Eurasia with North America where the Bering Sea now lies between Siberia and Alaska.

This brought the “immigrant” ancestors of Native America. See Map 1.1.

Map 1.1 p6

The Incas in Peru, the Mayans in Central America, and the Aztecs in Mexico shaped complex civilizations:◦ These people built elaborate cities and carried on

far-flung commerce.◦ They were talented mathematicians.◦ They offered human sacrifices to their gods.

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What further clues to the European mentality of the time does this map offer?

In what ways might misconceptions about the geography of the Americas have influenced further exploration and settlement patterns?

How did interactions with the natural environment shape the institutions and values of various groups living on the North American continent?

Agriculture, especially corn growing, became part of Native American civilizations in Mexico and South America.

Large irrigation systems were created. Villages of multistoried, terraced buildings

began to appear (Pueblo means “village” in Spanish).

Map 1.2 –Native American Indian peoples.

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Social life was less elaborately developed. Nation-states did not exist, except the

Aztec empire. The Mound Builders were in the Ohio River

valley. The Mississippian settlement was at

Cahokia.

Three-sister farming—maize, beans, and squash—supported dense populations.

The Iroquois Confederacy developed political and organizational skills.

The natives had neither the desire nor the means to manipulate nature aggressively.

Map 1.2 p9

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Create a T-chart you could use to answer the following prompt.

American Indian cultures were more similar than different in the period prior to 1491. Support, modify, or refute this statement using specific evidence.

What were some of the reasons for Europeans’ continued forays into the Western Hemisphere?

Norse seafarers from Scandinavia came to the northeastern shore of North America, near present-day Newfoundland, to a spot they called Vinland.

Ambitious Europeans started a chain of events that led to a drive toward Asia, the penetration of Africa, and the completely accidental discovery of the New World.

The Christian crusaders rank high among America’s indirect discoverers.

The crusaders aroused desire for the luxuries of the East from the Spice Islands (Indonesia), China, and India; Muslim middlemen exacted a heavy toll en route.

See Map 1.3—Major Trade Routes with Asia, 1492.

Map 1.3 p11

What role did Africa play in the development of slavery in the New World?

Marco Polo’s tales also stimulated European desire for a cheaper route to the treasures of the East.

Spurred by the development of the caravel, Portuguese mariners began to explore sub-Saharan Africa.

They founded the modern plantation system.

They pushed further southward.

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Spain was united by the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and by the expulsion of the “infidel” Muslim Moors.

The Spanish were ready to explore the wealth of India.

Portugal controlled the southern and eastern African coast, thus forcing Spain to look westward.

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Work with someone near you to create a chart that could be used to answer the following prompt.

What were the fundamental factors that caused Europeans to explore, conquer, and settle in the New World? Consider social, economic, political, and religious reasons.

Read pages 14-15 Stop @ The Conquest of Mexico and Peru◦ Be able to describe the importance of the

Columbian Exchange. Prepare for the “Columbian Exchange

Game”◦ Come to class tomorrow with a list of everything

you can think of that your “side” of the Atlantic “gave” or “sent” to the other “side.” There may be prizes for the winner. ;-)

Why was the Columbian Exchange so important to the development of societies on both sides of the Atlantic?

Answer COMPLETELY on notebook paper.

Listen for instructions.

Christopher Columbus persuaded the Spanish to support his expedition on their behalf.

On October 12, 1492, he and his crew landed on an island in the Bahamas.

A new world was within the vision of Europeans.

Columbus called the native peoples “Indians.”

Columbus’s discovery convulsed four continents—Europe, Africa, and the two Americas.

An independent global economic system emerged.

The world after 1492 would never be the same.

The clash reverberated in the historic Columbian exchange (see Figure 1.2).

While the European explorers marveled at what they saw, they introduced Old World crops and animals to the Americas.

Columbus returned in 1493 to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

The Introduction of horses changed many Native American societies.

A “sugar revolution” took place in the European diet, fueled by the forced migration of millions of Africans to work the canefields and sugar mills of the New World.

An exchange of diseases between the explorers and the natives took place.

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Practice prewriting skills by creating a T-chart that you could use to answer the following prompt. (You can use the Columbian Exchange chart for reference.)

The Columbian Exchange was more beneficial for the Old World than detrimental. Support, refute, or modify this statement using specific factual evidence to support your argument.

Figure 1.2 p15

Read pages 15-22 (Finish) Be prepared to discuss:

◦ How did the economies of the Spanish colonies depend on Indian labor?

◦ What effect did the spread of disease have on Spanish conquest of the New World?

◦ In what ways conceptions of group identity and autonomy emerged out of cultural interactions between colonizing groups, Africans, and American Indians in the colonial era.

◦ In what ways are the early (pre-1600) histories of Mexico and the present-day American Southwest understood differently now that the U.S. is being so substantially affected by Mexican and Latin American immigration and culture? To what extent should this now be regarded as part of our American history?

◦ ****Hint**** Read and be able to answer the question in the Contending Voices box on page 16

◦How did the economies of the Spanish colonies depend on Indian labor?

Spain secured its claim to Columbus’s discovery in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which divided the New World with Portugal.

See Map 1.4. The West Indies served as offshore bases

for staging the Spanish invasion of the mainland.

Map 1.4 p17

The encomienda allowed the government to “commend” Indians to certain colonists in return for promise to try to Christianize them.

Spanish missionary Bartolomé de Las Casas called it “a moral pestilence invented by Satan.”

In service of God, in search of gold and glory, Spanish conquistadores (conquerors) came to the New World.

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In 1519 Hernan Cortés set sail with eleven ships for Mexico and her destiny.

Along the way he rescued several people who would be important for his success.

Near present-day Veracruz, Cortés made his final landfall.

He determined to capture the coffers of the Aztec capital at Tenochtitlán.

◦ What effect did the spread of disease have on Spanish conquest of the New World?

Aztec chieftain Moctezuma sent ambassadors to greet Cortés and invite Cortés and his men to the capital city.

On June 30, 1520, noche triste (sad night), the Aztecs attacked Cortés.

On August 13, 1521, Cortés laid siege to the city and the Aztecs capitulated. The combination of conquest and disease took its toll.

What is the long-term significance for Latin America of the conquistadores’ intermarriage with Indian women?

Invaders brought more than conquest. They intermarried with surviving Indians,

creating culture of mestizos, people of mixed Indian and European heritage.

Mexico blends Old and New Worlds. 1532: Francisco Pizarro crushed Incas

(Peru). Booty and silver may have led to

capitalism; certainly transformed the world economy.

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In what ways are the early (pre-1600) histories of Mexico and the present-day American Southwest understood differently now that the U.S. is being so substantially affected by Mexican and Latin American immigration and culture? To what extent should this now be regarded as part of our American history?

Other explorers came to the New World:– 1513: Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean.– 1519: Magellan rounded tip of South America.– 1513 and 1521: Ponce de León explored Florida.– 1540–1542: Coronado explored Arizona and New

Mexico. – 1539–1542: Hernando de Soto discovered the

Mississippi River.

Map 1.5 p21

Spain’s colonial empire grew swiftly and impressively. Other explorers began to come.

1497–1498―Giovanni Caboto (known as John Cabot) explored the northeastern coast of North America.

1524―Giovanni da Verrazano probed the eastern seaboard.

1534―Jacques Cartier journeyed up the St. Lawrence River.

The Spanish began to build forts to protect their territories.

The Spanish cruelly abused the Pueblo peoples in the Battle of Acoma (1599).

They founded the province of New Mexico in 1609 and its capital in 1610 (see Map 1.6).

The Roman Catholic mission became the central institution in colonial New Mexico.

Map 1.6 p22

The native Indians rose up against the missionaries in Popé’s Rebellion (1680).

In the 1680s the French sent Robert de La Salle down the Mississippi River.

In 1716 the Spanish settled in Texas. In 1769 Spanish missionaries led by Father

Junipero Serra founded San Diego and 21 mission stations.

The Black Legend is a false record of the misdeeds of the Spanish in the New World.

While there were Spanish misdeeds, the Spanish invaders laid the foundations for a score of Spanish-speaking nations.

Spaniards were genuine empire builders and cultural innovators in the New World.

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◦ Should the Spanish conquistadores be especially blamed for the cruelties and deaths (including those by disease) inflicted on the original Indian populations of the Americas? Is it possible to make such criticisms without falling into the traditional English fallacies of the Black Legend?