Period 1

• • Mayan, Incan, Aztec empires had highly organized societies, carried on extensive trade, and created calendars that were based on scientific observations
• • Mayans and Aztecs - corn
• • Incas - potatoes
• • Slower spread of cultivation of corn northward from Mexico
• Complex and populous societies had disappeared by the 15th century
• Southwest Settlements

  • Present day New Mexico and Arizona - Hokokam, Anasanzi, and Pueblos developed supported by farming using irrigation
  • Lived in large numbers in caves, under cliffs, and in multistoried buildings
  • Extreme drought and conflict with hostile natives weakened these groups by the time Europeans arrived
• Northwest Settlements

  • Pacific Coast - people lived in permanent longhouses or plank houses
  • Rich diet based on hunting, fishing, and gathering nets, barries, and roots
  • Saved stories using totem poles
  • Mountain ranges created barriers to development and isolated tribes
• Great Plains

  • Nomadic hunters or sedentary people who farmed and traded lived in this region
  • Survived on hunting the buffalo
  • Lived in tepees (easy to disassemble and transport)
  • Farming tribes hunted buffalo, lived permanently in earthen lodges alongside rivers
  • Raised corn, beans, squash - traded with other tribes
  • After trading for horses in the 17th century, tribes such as the Lakota Sioux moved away from farming to hunting and could follow the buffalo easily
  • The plains tribes would merge or split apart as conditions changed - Apaches gradually migrated southward from Canada to Texas
• Midwest Settlements

  • Woodland American Indians prospered with a rich food supply supported by hunting, fishing, and agriculture
  • Permanent settlements developed in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys
  • Adena-Hopewell culture famously known for the large earthen mounds
  • Cahokia (largest settlement in the Midwest) - near present-day St. Louis, Illinois
• Northeast Settlements

  • Hunting and farming techniques from Adena-Hopewell culture exhausted the soil - people had to move to fresh land
  • Iroquois Confederation - political union of five independent tribes who lived in Mohawk Valley, New York
  • 16th century through the American Revolution - the Iroquois were a powerful force
• Atlantic Seaboard Settlements

  • Southern New Jersey to Florida 
  • Descendants of the Woodland mound builders - built timber and bark lodgings along rivers
  • River and the Atlantic Ocean provided a rich source of food
• European Exploration Was influenced by technology advancements and religious conflict.
• Americas were introduced to sugarcane, bluegrass, pigs, and horses / wheel, iron implements, and guns / smallpox and measles - 90 percent of the native population died
• Europeans learned about beans, corn, sweet and white potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco. Contracted syphilis disease
• In 1493, the pope created the line of demarcation - Treaty of Tordesillas - established Portugal’s claim to Brazil - Spain claimed the rest of the Americas
• Implemented the encomienda system - the king of Spain grants land and natives to individual Spaniards
• Brought enslaved people from West Africa under the Asiento system - required Spanish to pay a tax to their king on each slave they imported to the Americas
• Export of gold and silver back to Spain increased the gold supply by 500 percent - made Spain the most rich and powerful European nation
• French Claims

  • Slow to develop in the Americas - internal conflicts between Roman Catholics and Protestants
  • First permanent French settlement in America was established by Samuel de Champlain - led to exploration of the Mississippi River Valley
• Dutch Claims

  • Claimed surrounding areas of the Hudson River
  • Dutch government granted Dutch West India Company the right to control this area for economic gain
• • Many natives died from forced Spanish labor
• Caste System

  Rigid class system developed dominated by pure-blooded Spaniards.
• Las Casas became an advocate for better treatment of Native Americans
• Valladolid Debate - debate over the role for Indians in the Spanish colonies 1550-1551
• De Sepulveda argued against Las Casas that Native Americans were less than human
• English Policy

  • Initially - Massachusetts - English and Native Americans coexisted, traded, and shared ideas (how to grow corn, hunt in the forests, traded furs, iron tools, and weapons)
  • Native Americans saw their way of life threatened as the English began to take more land and forced tribes to move away from the coast
• French Policy

  • Viewed Native Americans as potential economic and military allies - looking for furs and converts to Catholicism
  • Maintained good relations
  • Built trading posts throughout the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes region, and along the Mississippi River
  • Exchanged french goods for furs to control the fur trade
  • Posed as less of a threat to the native population than other Europeans
• Native American Reaction

  • Tribes saw themselves as groups distinct from each other - Europeans did not have to be worried about a unified response
  • Initial interactions and trades motivated the natives to interact with Europeans - after decimation, violence, and disease, Native Americans adopted new ways to survive
  • Some tribes allied with one Europeans power or migrated to get away from settlers
• New Laws of 1542 - ends Native American slavery
• SOCIAL causes

  • Spreading Christianity and Catholicism
  • Discrimination of Native Americans
  • Atlantic slave trade

  EFFECTS

  • Converting Native Americans to European religions
  • Conquering or discriminating against Native Americans because of cultural differences and their disparities in language, writing, etc.
  • Social hierarchies related to race
  • Slaves on sugar plantations
• POLITICAL causes

  • English expansion
  • Spanish expansion

  EFFECTS

  • Native Americans were pushed to interior regions
  • Gained knowledge and traded with Native Americans
  • Smallpox and measles spread and wiped out 90% of the Native American population
  • Incas and Aztecs were wiped out - remaining were used as indentured servants
  • English excused their expansion as - helping prevent brutality of the Spanish rule
  • Establishment of social hierarchies - pure-blooded Spaniards at the top
  • Treaty of Tordesillas split Spanish and Portugal’s land
• ECONOMIC causes

  • French expansion
  • Spanish colonies and mining
  • Dutch colonies

  EFFECTS

  • Controlled fur trade by developing civil relationships with Native Americans
  • Owned trading ports along the Mississippi
  • Need for more indentured servants and slaves after Native populations died
  • Silver and gold sent back to Spain led to Spain being the most rich and powerful European country
  • Motivation for more European countries to explore the Americas
  • Dutch West India Trading Company controlled colonies for economic gains
• Period 1 - 1491-1607
• 1491 is pre-columbian era. Columbus came in 1492.
• Skill: Causation
• Southwest: Pueblos, traded frequently

  Northwest: fished and hunted frequently

  Great Plains: nomatic and travelled by horse. Some farmed.

  Mississippi River Valley(Midwest): Cahokia, farmed, sedentary

  Atlantic Seaboard(northeast): Iroquois, some hunted, some farmed. Variety of lives.
• Mercantilism: Export more than import. Heavily impacted by government. Later changed to joint-stock companies that were private owned.
• Changed European society from feudalism (peasants lived on noble land and worked to get protection) to capitalism (trade and ownership of goods).
• Pueblo Revolt: the forced conversion of religion led to many Pueblos to revolt and kill the Spanish. Small victory. Spanish came back and conquered the land.