Chapter 1
New World Beginnings
33,000 B.C. - A.D. 1769
225 Million Years Ago - Pangaea started to break apart.
10 Million Years Ago - North America was shaped by nature - Canadian Shield
2 Million Years Ago- Great Ice Age
35,000 Years Ago - The oceans were glaciers and the sea level dropped, leaving an
isthmus connecting Asia and North America. The Bering Isthmus was crossed by
people going into North America.
10,000 Years Ago - Ice started to retreat and melt, raising the sea levels and covering
up the Bering Isthmus.
Peopling the Americas
Evidence suggests that early people may have come to the Americas in crude boats, or
across the Bering Isthmus.
By the time Columbus arrived in America in 1492, over 54 million people may have
been living in North & South America.
The Earliest Americans
Unlike in Mexico with the Aztecs, dense populations did not exist in North America. This
may have made it easier for the Europeans to colonize the continent.
Europeans Enter Africa
People of Europe were able to reach sub-Saharan Africa around 1450 when the
Portuguese invented the caravel, a ship that could sail into the wind. This ship allowed
sailors to sail back up the western coast of Africa and back to Europe.
The Portuguese set up trading posts along the African beaches trading with slaves and
gold, trading habits that were originally done by the Arabs and Africans. The
Portuguese shipped the slaves back to Spain and Portugal where they worked on the
sugar plantations.
Columbus Comes upon a New World
Columbus was actually looking for a new trading route with the Indies when he
stumbled upon the Americas.
When Worlds Collide
Possibly 3/5 of the crops cultivated around the world today originated in the Americas.
The Columbian Exchange refers to the increase of global commerce (globalization).
Within 50 years of the Spanish arrival in Hispaniola, the Taino natives decreased from
1 million people to 200 people due to diseases brought by the Spanish.
In centuries following Columbus's landing in the Americas, as much as 90% of the
Indians had died due to the diseases.
The Conquest of Mexico and Peru
In the 1500's, Spain became the dominant exploring and colonizing power. The Treaty
of Tordesillas divided the Americas between the Spanish and the Portuguese.
The Spanish conquerors came to the Americas in the service of God as well as in
search of gold and glory.
Encomienda: The process by which the Spanish government allowed Indians to be
enslaved by colonists as long as the colonists promised to Christianize them.
The islands of the Caribbean Sea served as offshore bases for the staging of the
Spanish invasion of the mainland Americas.
By the 1530s in Mexico and the 1550s in Peru, colorless colonial administrators had
replaced the conquistadores.
The Spanish arrived in Tenochtitlan, the Azetec capital, with the intention of stealing all
of the gold and other riches.
On June 30, 1520, the Aztecs attacked the Spanish because of the Spaniards' lust for
riches. The Spanish countered, though, and took over the capital and the rest of the
Aztec empire on August 13, 1521.
Due to the rule of the Spanish, the Indian population in Mexico went from 20 million to 2
million in less than a century.
The influx of precious metal from South America helped grow the European economy.
Some of the conquistadores wed Indian women and had children. These offspring were
known as mestizos and formed a cultural and biological bridge between Latin
America's European and Indian races.
Exploration and Imperial Rivalry
In 1565, the Spanish built a fortress at St. Augustine, Florida to protect the sea-lanes to
the Caribbean.
In 1680, after the Spanish captured an area known today as New Mexico in 1609, the
natives launched a rebellion known as Pope's Rebellion. The natives burned down
churches and killed priests. They rebuilt a kiva, or ceremonial religious chamber, on
the ruins of the Spanish plaza at Santa Fe.
The misdeeds of the Spanish in the New World led to the birth of the "Black
Legend." This false concept stated that the conquerors just tortured and killed the
Indians, stole their gold, infected them with smallpox, and left little but misery behind.
Chronology
33,000-8,000
First humans cross into Americas from Asia.
B.C.
5,000 B.C. Corn is developed as a stable crop in highland Mexico.
4,000 B.C. First civilized societies develop in the Middle East.
1,200 B.C. Corn planting reaches present-day American Southwest.
1,000 A.D. Norse voyagers discover and briefly settle in northeastern North America.
Corn cultivation reaches Midwest and southeastern Atlantic seaboard.
1,100 A.D. Height of Mississippian settlement at Cahokia.
1,100-1,300
Christian crusades arouse European interest in the East.
A.D.
1295 Marco Polo returns to Europe.
Late 1400s Spain becomes united.
1488 Diaz rounds southern tip of Africa.
1492 Columbus lands in the Bahamas.
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal.
Da Gama reaches India. Cabot explores northeastern coast of North America
1498
for England.
1513 Balboa claims all lands touched by the Pacific Ocean for Spain.
1513, 1521 Ponce de Leon explores Florida.
1519-1521 Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain.
1522 Magellan's vessel completes circumnavigation of the world.
1524 Verrazano explores eastern seaboard of North America for France.
1532 Pizarro crushes Incas.
1534 Cartier journeys up the St. Lawrence River.
1539-1542 De Soto explores the Southeast and discovers the Mississippi River.
1540-1542 Cabrillo explores present-day Southwest.
1542 Cabrillo explores California coast for Spain.
1565 Spanish build fortress at St. Augustine.
Late 1500s Iroquois Confederacy founded, according to Iroquois legend.
1598-1609 Spanish under Onate conquer pueblo peoples of Rio Grande valley.
1609 Spanish found New Mexico.
1680s French exploration down Mississippi River under La Salle.
1769 Serra founds first California mission, at San Diego.
