the cold war beginsthe american indians section 1 ch1: many cultures meet pre history to 1550

The Cold War BeginsThe American Indians

Section 1

Ch1: Many Cultures Meet

Pre History to 1550


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How did the spread of civilization begin in the Americas?

The earliest inhabitants of the Americas found a land rich in resources and varied in geographic features.

As they settled across the land, they adapted to local environments and developed distinct ways of life.


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Paleo-Indians were the first humans to live in the Americas.

• Scholars believe the Paleo-Indians came from Siberia, a region in Asia.

• They disagree, however, about when and how the Paleo-Indians arrived.


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Migration to the Americas

Land Bridge Theory

• 15,000 years ago, during an ice age, hunters crossed a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska in search of mammoths and other animals.

Coastal Route Theory

• Hunters and gatherers arrived in small boats, eventually working their way down the west coasts of the Americas.


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The Paleo-Indians eventually migrated throughout the Americas.


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About 10,000 years ago, the climate warmed, melting the polar ice and raising the ocean level.

The warming climate and the skill of hunters killed off the mammoths and other large animals.

Paleo-Indians adapted by turning their attention to fishing, gathering, and hunting smaller mammals.


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In Mexico, some villages grew into great cities ruled by powerful chiefs.

The expanded food supply led to population growth and permanent villages.

About 3,500 years ago in central Mexico, Native Americans developed agriculture.


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From Mexico, agriculture slowly spread northward into North America.

In Mexico, the Mayas and the Aztecs built advanced civilizations.

However, in some places, people continued hunting, gathering, and fishing.


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Diverse cultures emerged in what would later become the United States. In

different regions, Indian tribes:

• had different kinds of homes and clothes. • ate different foods.• developed different traditions.• spoke hundreds of different languages.


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The arid Southwest climate forced Native Americans to build dams and irrigation

canals in order to grow crops.

Some Native Americans in this region lived in adobe houses while others lived in pueblos and cliff dwellings.


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The Mississippi River Valley

Climate• The region had a humid and

temperate climate and generally fertile soil.

Cultural Features

• The Native Americans in this region built towns with central plazas, pyramids, and temples.

• They traveled by river to trade with other groups.


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The Great Plains

Climate• The region was an immense, windy,

arid grassland that is hotter in the south and colder in the north.

Cultural Features

• Native Americans in this region lived in thatched houses, log lodges, or tepees.

• They farmed in small villages and hunted the plentiful bison.

• They traded and fought with western nomads.


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Due to the mild winters, warm summers, and ample rainfall of the Southeast, most Native Americans in this region were farmers.

But they also hunted in the forests and fished in the rivers and lakes of the region.


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Northeastern people developed into two major language groups:

the Algonquians and the Iroquoians.

The Algonquians lived in wigwams on the Atlantic seaboard, while the Iroquois lived in longhouses around Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

Five Iroquois peoples united to form the Iroquois League, which promoted peace among the member nations.


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Despite their cultural diversity, most Native American groups

shared several cultural features:

• decentralized political power. • spiritual beliefs and shamanism.• little private ownership of property.• equality among the various tribes and nations.• division of labor along gender lines.


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How did Europeans begin to explore more of the world?

New ideas swept through Europe during the 1400s, causing enormous cultural, economic, and technological changes.

Europeans began to look beyond their shores on a quest of exploration and discovery that would change Europe and much of the world.


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After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the early years of the Middle Ages

were marked by:

• the absence of an effective central government. • the constant threat of famine, disease, and

foreign invasion.


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But as new institutions and ideas slowly took hold, a new civilization emerged in Europe.

Europe was recovering from the effects of the bubonic plague, which had killed about a third of all Europeans during the 1340s.

Most of the surviving population lived in the countryside, and the economy was agricultural.


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But cities and towns were growing, especially in northern Italy and the Netherlands.

Artisans produced cloth, tools, and other goods in city workshops.

Cities also were centers of trade.


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A ruling elite of less than 5 percent of the population controlled almost all of the land.

Royalty and Aristocrats

• A monarch was at the top of the social pyramid in each kingdom.

• Aristocrats inherited social rank, title, and landed estates worked by peasants.

Church Leaders and Merchants

• The elite also included leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.

• Wealthy merchants shipped cargoes between cities for profit.


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Under the domination of this small elite class were the commoners.

Middle-Class Families

• These families owned enough property to employ themselves as farmers, artisans, and shopkeepers.

• They accounted for only a fifth of the population.

The Working Poor

• In good years, they farmed on rented land or worked for pay, and in bad years, many were beggars.

• They accounted for three-fifths of the population.


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The kingdoms were often at war over land and power.

Each was ruled by a monarch who depended on the elite class to do much of the governing.

The most important kingdoms in Western Europe were Spain, Portugal, France, and England.


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In the end, the Muslims defeated the Christian Crusaders.

During the latter half of the Middle Ages, European Christians and Muslims fought

one another in a series of religious wars known as the

Crusades.

Despite their rivalries, many Europeans united in the common cause of capturing

and controlling the Holy Land.


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But the Crusades had lasting effects that benefitted the people of Europe.

• Europeans became aware of distant lands and different ways of life.

• Soldiers returned home with exotic goods.• Demand for these products soared, and

European traders expanded their businesses into Asia.


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Trade Routes in Europe, 1000−1300


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By the mid-1400s, the European Renaissance had begun, and during this period:

• trade with and knowledge of other lands expanded.

• the wealth generated from trade fueled further exploration.

• the development of the printing press made books more widely available.

• literature promoted new ideas.


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In some places, violent conflicts continued between Christians and Muslims.

On the Iberian Peninsula, the kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and Portugal were waging the reconquista.

They hoped to drive out the Muslim Moors, who had ruled Iberia for centuries.


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Starting in 1419, Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator led early efforts at exploration and expansion of trade.

• He founded a school of navigation.

• He sponsored expeditions down the west coast of Africa.


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Technological innovations helped the Portuguese take the early lead in sailing

into the Atlantic Ocean.

• Sailors used the compass, the astrolabe, and the quadrant to determine their location and direction.

• Shipbuilders created the sturdy caravel, capable of sailing hundreds of miles.


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What was life like in West Africa before the age of European exploration?

The early civilizations of West Africa grew into great trading empires with rich and varied cultures. Trade between West Africans and Europeans—including trade in slaves—would shape the future of both peoples for years to come.


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West Africa is a land of varied geographic features.

• The Sahara Desert dominates the northern part. • To the south of the desert lies a broad savanna.• South of the savanna is a lush region watered

by the Niger and Senegal rivers.• Valuable natural resources such as gold and salt

are found in West Africa.


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A thriving trade network promoted the growth of trading towns.


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In time, the trading routes of these empires linked West Africa with North Africa,

the Mediterranean, and Asia.

Trading towns eventually grew into great and

powerful empires.

• Ghana• Mali• Songhai• Other, smaller

kingdoms


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West African Trade Routes, A.D. 800−A.D. 1600


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West African societies were diverse.

Spiritual Beliefs

• Islam had a strong influence, although many held traditional beliefs about the spirit world and the influence of ancestors.

Land

• Land belonged to extended kinship networks.

• People often farmed the land in common and divided the harvest.


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Slavery was common in West Africa, and slaves were often used as items of trade.

The slave trade was an important part of West Africa’s economy.

West African rulers sold about 1,000 slaves annually to Arab traders, who took them to the Mediterranean.


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West African slavery had developed as a system with unique characteristics.

• It was not based on racial superiority or inferiority.• Prisoners of war and criminals often became slaves.• Slaves were usually adopted by their owners, and

their children usually did not inherit slave status. • Slaves could become wealthy, important officials

and soldiers.


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Initially, they acted as pirates, seizing gold, pepper, and slaves.

But African resistance soon forced the Portuguese to shift to trading.

Throughout the 1400s, the Portuguese explored farther south along the West

African coast.


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In this way, Europeans first

became involved in the long-

standing slave trade of Africa.

The Portuguese exported peppers, ivory, copper, and

African slaves.

In time, the Portuguese established a profitable trade with the West Africans.


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The Portuguese greatly expanded the slave trade.

By 1500, Europeans purchased about 1,800 African slaves a year, nearly doubling the trade between the West Africans and the Arabs.

• Some slaves were shipped to Europe.

• Most worked on sugar plantations on islands in the East Atlantic.

• Growing numbers went to new plantations in the Americas.


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Thus began the brutal exploitation of West Africans enslaved by Europeans.

This fate would befall millions more African men and women in the centuries ahead.


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How did European exploration affect the Americas?

With the goal of reaching Asia, European sailors continued their journeys of exploration.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas, planning to conquer the land, exploit its wealth, and convert its people to Christianity– a pattern followed by later explorers.


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In the 1400s, the Portuguese sought a route to India, the East Indies, and China.

Bartolomeu Dias

• In 1487, Dias used the winds of the South Atlantic to get around the southern tip of Africa.

Vasco da Gama

• In 1498, da Gama exploited Dias’s discovery to reach India, opening an enormously profitable trade route.

The Portuguese dominated the trade routes south and east around Africa.


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By default, the Spanish looked westward into the open Atlantic.

• The Spanish hoped to find islands in the west that they could exploit.

• They also hoped that, by leaping from one set of islands to another, explorers could one day reach the coveted coast of China.


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Columbus was determined to make a westward voyage in search of China.

The Italian mariner Christopher Columbus had heard stories about mysterious lands to the west.

He hoped to convert the Chinese to Christianity and use their wealth to begin a new crusade against Islam.


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Funded by Spain, in 1492 Columbus reached the Bahamas, which he claimed for Spain.

In all, Columbus made four voyages to what he thought was the East Indies, near Asia. He used force to conquer Native Americans on the islands.

Columbus had not reached Asia, but he had found a land that would bring riches and power to Europe—at the expense of Native Americans and African slaves.


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Columbus’s Voyages, 1492-1504


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In 1494, Spain and Portugal negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas.

• The treaty drew a boundary line through the mid-Atlantic, giving the Spanish lands west of the line and the Portuguese lands east of the line.

• Other European kings refused to honor the treaty.• No one bothered to consult the Native Americans.


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Conquistadors extended Spain’s empire in the Americas, treating Native

Americans brutally in the process.

• The Spanish killed or enslaved thousands of Native Americans.

• Many were forced to convert to Christianity.• The Spanish destroyed their cities, stole their

gold, and exploited their natural resources.


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With steel-edged swords, guns, and horses, the conquistadors destroyed native civilizations.

Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs.

Francisco Pizarro defeated the Incas.


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Even more deadly than brutal attacks, however, was disease.

Europeans unknowingly transmitted new diseases to native populations.

With no natural defenses, huge numbers of Native Americans died.

As Native American populations fell, the Spanish turned to African slaves for the labor they needed to build their growing colonies.


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Europeans who came to the Americas in the 1400s began the Columbian Exchange.

• Colonists brought European plants and animals to the Americas.

• This affected Native Americans in both positive and negative ways, but they adapted.

• People in Europe increased their yields by growing plants from the Americas.


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The Columbian Exchange

the cold war beginsthe american indians section 1 ch1: many cultures meet pre history to 1550

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