The Shaping of North America
Know: Appalachian Mountains, Tidewater Region, Rocky Mountains, Great Basin, Great Lakes, Missouri-Mississippi-Ohio River System
2. Speculate how at least one geographic feature affected the development of the United States.
The Appalachian mountains most likely kept the colonists towards the East America to begin with. The steep rocky terrain would be a deterrent for the settlers. This leaves some room for the Natives and slows the settlers movement towards the West.
Peopling the Americas
Know: Land Bridge
3. "Before the arrival of Europeans, the settlement of the Americas was insignificant." Assess this statement.
This statement is false before Europeans the Americas were less densely populated, but they also have thousands of unique cultures and languages.
The Earliest Americans
Know: Maize, Aztecs, Incas, Pueblo, Mound Builders, Three-sister Farming, Cherokee, Iroquois
4. Describe some of the common features of North American Indian culture.
They relied mostly upon hunting and gathering for their food source. Men went hunting and women were regarded with a higher standard. Lineage was often passed down along the mother's line. They respected nature and lived in small settlements.
Indirect Discoverers of the New World
Know: Finland, Crusaders, Venice, Genoa
5. What caused Europeans to begin exploring?
The Crusades brought home spices from their travels- this ignited the Europeans sweet tooth. The trade routes were all blocked and too expensive to use so Spain sent Christopher Columbus to go try and find a new trade route.
Europeans Enter Africa
Know: Marco Polo, Caravel, Bartholomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand and Isabella, Moors
6. What were the results of the Portuguese explorations of Africa?
Because the Portuguese developed trading posts along the African route they were able to control who went through and for what price. This caused Spain to search for new routes to the spices- which is why they hired Columbus. This inadvertently found the Americas.
Columbus Comes upon a New World
Know: Columbus
7. What developments set the stage for “a cataclysmic shift in the course of history?”
The Europeans taste for spices increased after the Crusades and Marco Polo brought back wonderful stories of China. The Renaissance in the 14th century gave everyone a sense of adventure and optimism. Printing presses were able to circulate press and create hype for adventure. The Mariner's compass eliminated uncertainties for travelers.
When Worlds Collide
Know: Corn, Potatoes, Sugar, Horses, Smallpox
8. Explain the positive and negative effects of the Atlantic Exchange (also known at the Columbian Exchange).
The natives got horses, new culture, small pox and sugar.
The Europeans received tobacco, potatoes, chocolate, and possibly syphilis.
Both of these groups received a positive element in their exchange. The natives had more of a cultural change whereas the Europeans had a monetary gain. Horses changed the natives ability for movement. For some tribes it allowed them to hunt buffalo and bison better. The Europeans were able to sell tobacco for large amounts of money, and potatoes became a staple food and saved many from starvation.
However, the Europeans also brought over small pox. This wiped out much of the native population because they did not have the same defenses in their immune system. The natives, disputably, gave the Europeans syphilis.
The Spanish Conquistadors
Know: Treaty of Tordesillas, Vasco Nunez Balboa, Ferdinand Magellan, Juan Ponce de Leon, Francisco Coronado, Hernando de Soto, Francisco Pizarro, Encomienda
9. Were the conquistadors great men? Explain.
The Conquistadors arrived in America as great men. They were there to explore, bring back riches to their own country, and convert others to Catholicism. However, greed and power got to their head and they began to think more of the money than religion or peaceful negotiations. They wiped out the Aztec and Inca civilizations and plundered towns to elevate their rank.
Makers of America: The Spanish Conquistadors
Know: Granada, Moors, "Reconquista"
10. Were the conquistadors' motives successfully fulfilled? Explain.
Yes. Their goal was to gain land and riches for Spain. they did both of those. They did not, however, gain many personal riches.
The Conquest of Mexico
Know: Hernan Cortes, Tenochtitlan, Montezuma, Mestizos
11. Why was Cortes able to defeat the powerful Aztecs?
Cortes rescued a Spanish castaway who had learned Mayan during his captivity as a slave with the Indians and a female Indian slave (Malinche). This gave him the ability to translate the Native languages. It also got his troops encouraged that there were actually riches in these hills. The interpreters also told him of the unrest in the Aztec Empire giving Cortes perfect motive and timing to strike out at the Aztecs. When Cortes approached the Aztecs Moctezuma (the Aztec chieftain) believed that Cortes was the god Quetzalcoatl. Who was supposed to return according to the legends. This allowed the conquistadores to arrive at the capitol, Tenochtitlán, uncontested. Once the Aztecs realized that they made a mistake in inviting the conquistadors in they turned them out in a bloody battle. Cortes regrouped and laid siege for a year. By then the Native population had diminished from a smallpox epidemic. This made them weak allowing Cortes and his men to take over for three centuries of Spanish control.
The Spread of Spanish America
Know: John Cabot, Giovanni da Verazano, Jacques Cartier, St. Augustine, New Mexico, Pope's Rebellion, Mission Indians, Black Legend
12. What is the “Black Legend,” and to what extent does our text agree with it? (Page 22)
The Black Legend is the belief that the Spanish brought nothing good to the New World, and they only tortured , and butchered the Indians, they stole their gold, infected the Native Americans with smallpox, and left little but misery behind. Our text agrees with it to an extent. Although the Spanish did plunder, kill, and infect the natives they also left a diverse new culture.
Questions you have to know:
Identity – How did the identities of colonizing and indigenous American societies change as a result of contact in the Americas?
Work, Exchange, and Technology – How did the Columbian Exchange – the mutual transfer of material goods, commodities, animals, and diseases – affect interaction between Europeans and natives and among indigenous peoples in North America?
Peopling – Where did different groups settle in the Americas (before contact) and how and why did they move to and within the Americas (after contact)?
The three main reasons for coming to America are the three G's (God Glory and Gold). Jamestown was settled for gold.
Politics and Power – How did Spain’s early entry into colonization in the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America shape European and American developments in this period?
America in the World – How did European attempts to dominate the Americas shape relations between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans?
Environment and Geography – How did pre-contact populations of North America relate to their environments? How did contact with Europeans and Africans change these relations in North America?
Ideas, Beliefs, and Cultures – How did cultural contact challenge the religious and other values systems of peoples from the Americas, Africa, and Europe?
