America's Origin & Ancient Civilizations: A Journey Through Time

1. Chapter 1 New World Beginnings

2. Planetary Perspectives

3. The Beginnings • 6,000 years ago recorded history of the western world began • 500 years ago the American Continent was discovered • America started from scratch on a vast and virgin continent, a rare opportunity for a great social and political experiment

4. The Shaping of North America

5. Formation of America • Pangea broke apart to become Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the Americas some 225 million years ago • Appalachians - 350 million years old Rockies - between 135 and 25 million • The Great Ice age - 2 million years ago • Lake Boneville - Utah, Nevada, and Idaho

6. Pangea

7. The First Discoverers of America

8. The Bering Straight • Low sea levels uncovered land bridge between Eurasia and North America • First inhabitants, probably following migrating herds of game, ventured across for some 250 centuries • Ice Age ended 10,000 years ago, covering the straight

9. Original Americans Spread Out • As the ice melted, new valleys were opened, and the people moved Southward and Eastward • They eventually reached the Southern tip of South America, 15,000 miles from Siberia • Around 72 million inhabitants when Columbus arrived in 1492

10. Culture • Countless tribes, over 2000 languages, diverse religions, cultures, and ways of life. • Incas in Peru, Mayans in Central America, and Aztecs in Mexico shaped sophisticated civilizations. • Advanced agricultural practices based on maize, fed large populations • Elaborate cites and far-flung commerce • Astronomical observations • Aztecs used human sacrifices

11. Aztec Monument and Calendar

12. The Earliest Americans

13. Agriculture and corn • Corn growing accounted for size and sophistication of Native American civilizations • As corn cultivation spread, it slowly transformed nomadic tribes into agricultural villages • Pueblos built intricate irrigation systems • Three-sister farming using beans, cornstalks, and squash produced highest population densities

14. Societal Organizations • Iroquois Confederacy most effective in political and organizational skills • Sustained a robust military alliance • Most lived in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements • Women tended crops while men hunted, fished, gathered fuel, and cleared fields for planting • Gave substantial authority to women • Many developed matrilinear cultures

15. Attitudes • Native Americans did not manipulate nature aggressively • Revered the physical world and endowed nature with spiritual properties • Only about 4 million in North America in 1492

16. Indirect Discoverers of the New World

17. The trail to discovery • Norse seafarers from Scandinavia had landed in or near New Foundland in 1000 A.D. • Called it Vinland • Forced to leave without support of a strong nation state • Restless Europeans sought contact with a wider world, whether for conquest or trade

18. Christian Crusaders • Crusaders acquired a taste for the exotic delights of Asia while trying to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control • Europe now cried for less expensive silk, drugs, perfumes, colorful draperies, spices, and especially sugar • Luxuries came across the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea or over Asia or the Arabian peninsula • Muslim middlemen exacted heavy tolls en route

19. Europeans Enter Africa

20. Europeans growing desire • Marco Polo ignited European desires for a cheaper route to the the East with his tales of a 20 year sojourn in China • Portuguese mariners developed the caravel, allowing Europeans to sail along the West coast of Africa • Set up trading posts along the shore for gold and slaves • Arab traders deliberately separated tribes, fostering the extinction of cultures and tribal identities

21. Middle East

22. The Portuguese and slavery • Portuguese adopted Arab slave practices • Built a systematic traffic in slaves to work the sugar plantations on coastal islands • Slave trading became a big business • 40,000 Africans sent to the Atlantic sugar islands • The modern plantation system finds its origins in the Portuguese in Africa

23. The Portuguese Press on • Bartholomeu Dias rounded the tip of the “Dark Continent” in 1488 • Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 • Meanwhile, Spain became united in the late 15th century • Resulted from the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, and from the expulsion of the Muslim Moors • Spaniards eager to outstrip their Portuguese rivals in the Indies • Couldn’t go South, so looked West

24. Bartholomeu Dias

25. Vasco da Gama

26. Columbus Comes upon a New World

27. Christopher Columbus • Printing press and mariner’s compass helped make knowledge and exploration more appealing • October 12, 1492 • Successful failure • Indian misnomer

28. When Worlds Collide

29. Contrasting Ecosystems • Tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes revolutionized the international economy and the European diet • European brought new crops (sugar cane) and animals, transforming the Native American way of life

30. The Spanish Conquistadores

31. New World Prizes • Gold and silver from Indian civilizations attracted Europeans • The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) • Spain received most, but Portugal got Brazil • Spain became the dominant exploring and colonizing power in the 1500’s

32. The Conquistadores • In the service of God, as well as for gold and glory, they came to the Caribbeans and to the mainland • Vasco Nunez Balboa • Discoverer of the Pacific Ocean • Ferdinand Magellan • Headed first circumnavigation of the globe, around the Southern tip of South America

33. Vasco Nunez Balboa

34. Ferdinand Magellan

35. Other Conquistadores • Juan Ponce de Leonexplored Florida • Francisco Coronadowandered through Arizona and New Mexico, even to Kansas • Discovered the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River and huge buffalo herds • Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River • Francisco Pizarro crushed the Incas in Peru

36. Ponce de Leon’s path

37. Francisco Coranado

38. Hernando De Soto’s Route

39. Franciso Pizarro’s Route

40. Effects of Exploration • Gold and silver changed world economy, and perhaps gave birth to capitalism • Stimulated commerce and manufacturing • Laid foundations of modern commercial banking • Encomienda allowed the government to “commend,” or give, Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to try to Christianize them - slavery

41. The Conquest of Mexico

42. Hernan Cortes • Malinche, a female Indian slave, picked up by Cortes as an interpreter • He gathered 20,000 Indian allies and marched on Tenochtitlan for gold • Mistaken for the god Quetzalcoatl, he was allowed to approach the city unopposed

43. Hernan Cortez

44. The Fall of the Aztecs • Welcomed at first, Cortes thirsted for gold and power • Noche triste - the Aztecs attacked the Spaniard • August 13, 1521 - Tenochtitlan fell • The Spaniards built over the old capital and used their new crops, animals, language, and laws • Aztecs died of disease and conquest

45. The Spread of Spanish America

46. Spanish Spread • Hundreds of Spanish cities and towns, cathedrals • Universities at Mexico City and Lima • Threatened by other powers • English John Cabot in 1497-98 • Italian Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 • French Jacques Cartier in 1534 • Fortress at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 to block the French

47. Continued Expansion • Don Juan do Onate traveled North and cruelly abused the Pueblo peoples. • Battle of Acoma in 1599 very cruel • Proclaimed the area to be the province of New Mexico in 1609 and founded Santa Fe as its capital • Roman Catholic mission became central in New Mexico until Pope’s Rebellion in 1680 • Pueblos killed hundreds and rebuilt a kiva at Santa Fe

48. Spanish Power • Some refugees from New Mexico moved to Texas and established missions there, including the Alamo • In California, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo had explored the coast in 1542 • In 1769, Father Junipero Serra founded San Diego s the first of 21 missions • Converted thousands of Indians • Black Legend somewhat true, but not completely