I. Introduction
Conflict between European kingdoms led to an interest in colonies and trading posts that might strengthen the emerging nations. This expansionism introduced Europeans to African and American societies that had evolved over centuries, and the cultural interaction that followed initial contacts between these civilizations profoundly influenced western history.
II. American Societies
A. Paleo-Indians
Paleo-Indians arrived some 12,000 to 14,000 years ago and survived by hunting large game. As the prehistoric animals disappeared, however, people grew more dependent on agriculture, a change that allowed for the emergence of more sophisticated civilizations.
B. Importance of Agriculture
By 9,000 years ago, the inhabitants of Central and South America began cultivating various crops, and wherever agriculture dominated the economy, complex civilizations flourished.
C. Mesoamerican Civilizations
Early civilizations emerged in what is now Mexico as early as 3,000 years ago. A number of powerful and complex societies developed, including the Olmecs, the Mayas, and the Aztecs.
D. Mound Builders, Anasazi, and Mississippians
Besides the empires of Mesoamerica, great civilizations arose further north including the Moundbuilders of the Ohio River region, the Anasazi people of the modern states of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Mississippian culture of the Midwestern and southeastern United States.
E. Aztecs
The Aztecs moved into the Valley of Mexico in the twelfth century where they ultimately established an empire built on a warrior tradition that included human sacrifice and conquered people’s tribute.
III. North America in 1492
A. Sexual Division of Labor in North America
The nomadic tribes assigned the task of hunting to men, while women prepared the food, made clothing, and raised children. In the agricultural tribes of the West the men farmed, but in the East women performed that task.
B. Social Organization
The social organizations of the agricultural peoples of the southwest and east were similar, with extended families being defined matrilineally. The nomadic Indians of the Great Plains, by contrast, were usually related patrilineally.
C. War and Politics
The Indians of North America engaged in wars with each other long before the coming of Europeans. Indian leadership reflected a widespread democracy, but political structure, including the role of women, varied widely from tribe to tribe.
D. Religion
Generally polytheistic, Indian religion was more varied than their politics.
IV. African Societies
A. West Africa (Guinea)
Most of the enslaved Africans that came to America originated in West Africa, or Guinea. Upper Guinea had a culture that reflected contact with the Islamic Mediterranean region, while Lower Guinea remained less cosmopolitan.
B. Slavery in West Africa
Slavery existed in West Africa primarily as a means of accumulating lands and wealth, but after contact with Europeans and the establishment of slave-trading posts, the internal slave trade adapted readily to meet the new demands from abroad.
C. Sexual Division of Labor in West Africa
In West Africa men and women shared agricultural duties, with the men also hunting or herding while the women performed household tasks and managed local commerce. In Lower Guinea, society developed based on the “dual-sex principle.”
D. West African Religion
West African religious beliefs stressed complimentary male and female roles.
V. European Societies
A. Sexual Division of Labor in Europe
Males did most of the farming or herding; women concentrated on the household and children. Men dominated European society, relegating females to positions of inferiority.
B. Black Death
Bubonic Plague first struck Europe in 1346, then struck again in the 1360s and 1370s, killing a third of the continent’s population.
C. Political, Economic, and Technological Change
European leaders took advantage of the chaos resulting from the Black Plague and the Hundred Years’ War to engender nationalism as a means of consolidating power. Along with this political innovation, economic and technological changes shaped Europe in the fifteenth century.
D. Motives for Exploration
Developments in Europe made possible an era of exploration designed both to gain access to markets and to spread Christianity.
VI. Early European Explorations
A. Sailing in the Mediterranean Atlantic
European sailors learned much of navigation, winds, and currents by sailing in the Mediterranean Atlantic, a region bounded by the Canary Island, the Azores, and the Madeiras. The most important concept being sailing “around the wind” or picking up westerly breezes that allowed ships to return safely to port.
B. Islands of the Mediterranean Atlantic
In the fifteenth century Europeans, particularly Portuguese and Spanish, settled the Azores, Madeiras, and Canary islands, and began plantation economies.
C. Portuguese Trading Posts in Africa
The Portuguese established mutually beneficial trading posts in West Africa. Later on São Tomé, the Portuguese established sugar plantations dependent on slave labor from the African interior.
D. Lessons of Early Colonization
Europeans learned that they could transplant crops and livestock successfully to new lands, that the inhabitants of these new regions could be conquered, and slave-based plantations could be profitable.
VII. The Voyages of Columbus, Cabot, and their Successors
A. Columbus’s Voyage
Christopher Columbus sailed west in an effort to reach Asia, but he encountered the Bahamas instead a month after starting.
B. Columbus’s Observations
Columbus made obvious his intentions by asking the natives about gold, pearls, and spices. He also marveled at the new plants and animals he encountered, and described how they could be exploited.
C. The Taíno People
Columbus also reported that the human inhabitants he encountered would be useful as converts and as laborers.
D. Naming of America
Even though Columbus died believing he had found Asia, map makers named the new region America in honor of Florentine explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.
E. Northern Voyages
Because of the winds they confronted, mariners who sailed to the region that was to become the United States and Canada followed a route different from those who sailed to the south.
F. Norse Seafarers
Leif Ericsson had established a short-lived settlement in modern Newfoundland in the year 1001.
G. John Cabot’s Explorations
John Cabot deserves credit for the first formal exploration of the continent’s northern coast. Other mariners added to Europe’s knowledge of the Western Hemisphere.
VIII. Spanish Exploration and Conquest
A. Hernán Cortés and Malinche
Having first arrived in the West Indies in 1504, Cortés embarked for the mainland in 1519. Malinche, one of 20 slaves given to Cortés by the Mayas, became his mistress and translator. In 1521 the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán fell to the Spaniards.
B. Spanish Colonization
Spanish conquerors established a colonial system that stressed strict royal control, the predominance of male settlers, and exploitation of Americans and Africans.
C. Christianity in New Spain
Franciscan and Dominican friars established a number of missions to Christianize Native Americans and to Hispanicize their culture, in which they were very successful.
IX. The Columbian Exchange
A. Smallpox and Other Diseases
Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans died from European diseases, particularly smallpox, to which they had no immunity.
B. Syphilis
Syphilis apparently traveled from America to Europe, with the first recorded case occurring in 1493.
C. Sugar, Horses, and Tobacco
1. By the 1520s, sugar was being transported from the Greater Antilles to Spain. By the 1570s the Portuguese cultivated sugar in Brazil for sale in the European market, and after 1640 sugar was produced in the English and French colonies in the Caribbean.
2. The introduction of horses into the Americas by the Spanish in 1493 ultimately led to changes in the subsistence cultures of North American natives.
3. Europeans believed that tobacco had beneficial medicinal effects.
X. Europeans in North America
A. Trade Among Indians and Europeans
Rich fishing banks off the coast of North America attracted many Europeans to the New World. The English also developed a lucrative fur trade with the Indians. The Indians, in turn, desired European goods. This mutually beneficial trade arrangement not only affected Indian cultures but had serious ecological consequences as well.
B. Contest of Spain and England
Geopolitical conflict with Spain led England to desire colonies in North America.
C. Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Colony
Early efforts by the English to settle the region they called Virginia had disastrous results.
D. Thomas Harriot’s Briefe and True Report
Harriot, a noted scientist, publicized the benefits of Virginia, including its natural resources like copper, iron, furs, grapes, and people.
