M. CARTERAMERICAN PAGEANT CH.1

Worlds Collide

Pre-Columbian Americas

What were the Americas like prior to Spanish exploration?

What did the land look like?

What was life like?

Advanced agricultural communities based upon maize Aztecs and Incas of Central and South America Complex and Sophisticated societies

Fed tens of millionsCorn plantings spread into North America

Supported populations that has previously relied upon hunting and gathering

Three Sister Farming- combines planting of corn with squash and beans Southeastern US Increased population density

“Unlike the Europeans who would soon arrive with the presumption that humans had dominion over the earth and with the technologies to the very face of the land, the Native Americans had neither the desire nor the means to manipulate nature aggressively. They revered the physical world and endowed nature with spiritual properties” (Kennedy 10).

What does this tell us about the differences between Native American and European farming practices?

Need for a new route to the West…. Desire to be the 1st

Competition to travel more quickly and efficiently Expense of the “middlemen” who charged tolls and

taxes on goods

Christopher Columbus

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue…….

Seeking a trade route to the IndiesLanded in the BahamasMisnamed the people IndiansExchange of goods between the “old world”

and “new world” Food, animals, plants, germs Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange

Impact?

“Perhaps three-fifths of the crops cultivated around the world today originated in the Americas” (Kennedy 15).

Spanish Conquistadores

Why were these men so successful?

God, Gold, Glory!

Balboa- Pacific OceanMagellan- strait around southern point of S.

AmericaPonce de Leon- Florida- gold- “fountain of

youth”Coronado- SW- Seven Cities of GoldDe Soto- goldPizarro- conquest & destruction of IncasCortes- conquest & destruction of Aztecs

Portuguese impact

Institution of the plantation systemSugar plantations

Off the coast of Africa Caribbean Islands

Usage of slave laborEstablishment of Africa as a source of cheap

labor

Encomienda system

An attempt to Christianize and “civilize” Indians

Bartolome de Las Casas

Read pages 4-6 in The American Spirit“Bartolome de Las Casas Defends the

Indians” (1552)

Were the natives exploited? What reaction do you have to this reading? Is this similar to Kennedy’s depiction or that

of Zinn? What is the “Black Legend” ?

Test tomorrow on all things related to CHAPTER 1 in Pageant.