EARLY AMERICAS Ice age and the Olmec
LAND BRIDGE
• Beringia- Land bridge that connects
Asia and America.
• Large glaciers during the Ice Age
locked up water so that it
was possible to walk across on land
• Animals and humans crossed the
bridge between 40,000-10,000 B.C.
HUNTERS AND GATHERERS
• Early American inhabitants hunted for their food and gathered resources to survive. • Food, Clothing, Tools, Shelter
• This made them nomads
• never permanently settled in one location
• Many animals were hunted to extinction
AGRICULTURE CREATESNEW LIFE
• People began to experiment with farming in Central Mexico• Grew maize – corn (STAPLE FOOD)
• People had a steady supply of food and began to settle in more large permanent locations.
THE OLMEC
• First known Mesoamerican civilization-flourished around 1200 BC
• Resources along the Gulf Coast allowed the Olmec to thrive.
• Salt, tar, wood and rubber
• Created large sculpted heads that represent rulers
• Had a trade network that spread from Mexico City to Honduras
• Not fully understood what caused their decline • Outside invasion or self destruction
MAYAN, AZTEC AND INCA Rise , Fall and a little in between
MAYA EMPIRE
• Mesoamerican civilization located on the Yucatan Peninsula
• Influenced by the Olmec
• Built large urban centers with large pyramids, temples and ball court • Ruled by a god-king
• Cities thrived because of agriculture and trade
• Decline due to civil war, outside invasion and over-farming.
• Mysteriously disappeared in 800s.
• Developed concept of zero
MAYAN RELIGION
• Polytheistic
• Pierced and cut their bodies to offer their blood to the gods • Human sacrifices thrown into sinkhole lake
• Created 365 day calendar that was used for
planting crops • Time was on the backs of gods
• Written language in glyphs kept in Codex
AZTEC EMPIRE
• Mesoamericans that established homeland on Lake Texcoco
• Tenochtitlan- Capital of Aztec Empire
• Place where eagle is perched on a cactus
• Based power on military conquest• Let local rulers govern own region
• Emperor had absolute power
AZTEC RELIGION
• Polytheistic• over 1000
• Human Sacrifices to the Sun God • Carved out thousands of hearts
• Aztec decline under Montezuma II• War within Aztec empire
• Spanish conquistadors
INCA EMPIRE
• Civilization in the Andean highlands of Peru and beyond
• Conquered 2,500 miles of land on the west coast of South America
• Government controlled everything-similar to modern socialism• No private business
• Demanded tribute
• Decline:
• Civil war
• Spanish conquistadors
INCAN RELIGION
• Polytheistic• Main god was the sun god
• Sacrificed llamas
• Sun temples covered in gold
• Machu Picchu-rediscovered in 1911• http://explorer360.org/peru/cusco/machu-picchu.html
AGE OF DISCOVERYExplorers and Conquistadors
EXPLORATION EAST
• Europeans explored for “ God, Gold and Glory”• New trade routes established to collect exotic resources from Asia
• Wanted to spread Christianity
• Countries wanted to expand their empires
• Improved technology helped Europeans travel farther • Caravel
• Astrolabe
• Compass
PORTUGAL KNOWS HOW TO EXPLORE
• First to establish trade on the west coast of Africa • Gold, Ivory and Slaves
• Strong support of Exploration• Prince Henry “ the Navigator” – funded voyages and founded navigation
school
• Vasco de Gama- established trade around
tip of Africa to India
SPAIN WANTS IN
• Spain competes with Portugal over new trade
• Christopher Columbus- Italian explorer financed by Spain to find a trade route to Asia.
• Increased tension with Portuguese causing the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas • Created a vertical divide of new land.
• East- Portugal
• West- Spain
SPAIN EXPANDS INTO AMERICA • Christopher Columbus begins to colonize the
Caribbean Islands
• Hernando Cortes lands in Mexico and destroys the Aztecs• Wanted gold
• Had better guns, allied with local tribes and spread disease
• Francisco Pizarro- easily conquered the Inca Empire
• 200 vs 30,000
• Gained Gold
• Both men are considered
Conquistadors and not explorers
SPANISH INFLUENCE
• Relationships between Spanish menand native woman were common
• Created a large mestizo- mixed population
• Spanish leaders forced native population to farm, ranch and mine to gainvaluable resources
• Encomienda system was harsh and
many natives died
GREAT EXPLORERS Spain and Portugal weren't the only ones
ZHENG HE
• Chinese Muslim Admiral
• 7 voyages from Southeast Asia to East Africa
• Distributed silver and silk everywhere he went
to show Chinese superiority • Countries then started to pay tribute to
the Ming dynasty
• Ships were 400 ft. long
JAMES COOK
• British sea captain
• Claimed New Zealand and Australia for the British Empire
• British used the new land to place convicts from their overcrowded prisons
SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN
• French explorer
• Sailed up the St. Lawrence river with 32 colonists
• Founded Quebec in New France (Canada)
FERDINAND MAGELLAN
• Portuguese explorer
• Sailed around the world
• Died during a war in the Philippines
• Only 18 men out of 250 survived the voyage
THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF EXPLORATION The Columbian Exchange
COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
• Global transfer of food, plants and animals from the Americas to Europe • Corn, Potatoes, Livestock and Disease
VARIOUS FORMS OF TRADE • Growth of European empires createsnew systems of trade
• Capitalism- private business controlled the way that they make a profit. • Caused inflation in Europe
• Joint-Stock Company – investors combine money for a common purpose and then split the profits • risky because some ships wouldn’t make it
to the new world
• Mercantilism- power was based on wealth. • Countries wanted to be self sufficient
SETTLING OF THE NEW WORLD &
AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE
New World and new racial structure
EUROPE CLAIMS NORTH AMERICA • New France- covered the Midwestern United
States and Canada.
• Fur trade was the main economic money maker
• Jamestown – England’s first permeant settlement in North America.• Rough start to the colony but eventually made
tobacco a cash crop
• New Netherlands- Dutch controlled North America in modern day New York• To encourage settlement the colony allowed
other Europeans to settle
THE NEED FOR LABOR • Settlements in North America and the
• Caribbean needed large amounts of labor. • Cotton and Sugar Plantations became profitable for
Europeans
• BRAZIL was to first destination for many slaves.
• HUGE Sugar Plantations
• Africans were needed after the native populations of America died by the millions
• Reasons why• Africans had been exposed to Europeans disease
• Africans had experience farming
• Less likely to escape
• Skin color
ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
• The buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas • From 1500-1600 300,000 slaves were transported to
America
• 1600-1700 1.3 million slaves had been brought to America
• By the end of the slave trade in 1870 9.5 million slaves
• Spain and Portugal were early leaders in importing slaves• 40% of slaves coming to America went to Brazil
• WHY WERE THEY GOING TO BRAZIL???
• Some African merchants and local rulers
participated in the trade for profit
FORCED JOURNEY • Triangular Trade – transatlantic trade
route between Europe Africa and the Americas. • Raw Resources to England, Manufactured
goods to Africa, Slaves to America
• Middle Passage- middle leg of the triangular trade that brought Africans to the Americas
• Brutal and harsh conditions on ships.
• 20% of Africans died during the trip
IMPACT OF THE SLAVE TRADE
• African families torn apart
• Introduction of guns to Africa
• Work of slaves helped many colonies survive
• Art, music, religion and music influence America
• Mixed population found all over the Western Hemisphere