American History: Unit 1 Lecture 1 The Earliest Americans and European Contact
American History: Unit 1 Lecture 1
The Earliest Americans and European Contact
Arrival of Human Population
• ~ 15,000 – 12,000 years ago – Stone Age Hunters
• Ice Age reveals land bridge connecting Asia and North America
• Known as BERINGIA• ~ 8000 BCE people
dispersed throughout the Americas
HOW DO WE KNOW?
1
Native American Societies
• Over time, various complex cultures form in America
• Culture – Beliefs, norms, traditions, and values of a group of people. • No private land
ownership, close dependence on environment
Early European Exploration: Why Now?
• Growth of centralized nations after the Middle Ages
• Crusades create a thirst for Eastern Goods (spices, rice, coffee, lemons, mirrors, cotton clothes, writing paper, etc., etc.)
• Renaissance ideas/discoveries lead to inventions that make long distance sailing possible (Astrolabe, Caravel, cartography improvements, etc.)
Early European Exploration
Motives for Exploration
“The Three G’s”• Gold• God• Glory
Early Explorers• Vasco de Gama – sails
around Horn of Africa to India
• Columbus – looking for a shorter route sails WEST – stumbles onto the Americas - 1492
Early European Exploration
Columbus:• Claims new lands for
Spain• Enslaves native
population of San Salvador
• Opens the door for Columbian
Exchange
Columbian Exchange:The exchange of people, ideas, plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the New World.
• Disease devastated Native Populations
Effects of Disease
Columbus remains a controversial figure today…click here to see why.
2
The Columbian ExchangeThe Columbian Exchange had not only a great effect on history, but still effects our lives today.
3
Colonization
Spain becomes the first European nation to COLONIZE in the Americas.
COLONIZE – Take control of the people and resources of another land
TREATY OF TORDESILLAS – Divides Latin American between Spain and Portugal
Spanish holdings as of 1615
4
Colonization
• Britain and France are eager to establish colonies in the New World as well.
• These nations soon begin establishing colonies of their own in North America!
Non-Wiki Images1. From http://www.learnnc.org2. From regentsprep.org3. From http://northspringsapwh.blogspot.com4. From http://mapas.owje.com