HIST201 - Module 1 - The Americas and Early Globalization (Before 1492-1650) (2 Weeks)

Where did Christopher Columbus first land?

Bahamas

Which country established the first colonies in the Americas?

Spain

________ became wealthy trading with the East.

Venice

Which of the following does not describe a form of slavery traditionally practiced in Africa?

A system in which people are enslaved permanently on account of their race

Describe Portugeuse exploration of the Atlantic and Spanish exploration of the Americas, and the importance of these voyages to the developing Atlantic World

Although Norse explorers such as Leif Ericson, the son of Eric the Red who first settled Greenland, had reached and established a colony in northern Canada roughly five hundred years prior to Christopher Columbus's voyage, it was explorers sailing for Portugal and Spain who traversed the Atlantic throughout the fifteenth century and ushered in an unprecedented age of exploration and permanent contact with North America. Located on the extreme western edge of Europe, Portugal, with its port city of Lisbon, soon became the center for merchants desiring to undercut the Venetians' hold on trade. With a population of about one million and supported by its ruler Prince Henry, whom historians call "the Navigator," this independent kingdom fostered exploration of and trade with western Africa. Skilled shipbuilders and navigators who took advantage of maps from all over Europe, Portuguese sailors used triangular sails and built lighter vessels called caravels that could sail down the African coast. Just to the east of Portugal, King Ferdinand of Aragon married Queen Isabella of Castile in 1469, uniting two of the most powerful independent kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula and laying the foundation for the modern nation of Spain. Isabella, motivated by strong religious zeal, was instrumental in beginning the Inquisition in 1480, a brutal campaign to root out Jews and Muslims who had seemingly converted to Christianity but secretly continued to practice their faith, as well as other heretics. This powerful couple ruled for the next twenty-five years, centralizing authority and funding exploration and trade with the East. One of their daughters, Catherine of Aragon, became the first wife of King Henry VIII of England.Portugal, under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, attempted to send ships around the continent of Africa. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile hired Columbus to find a route to the East by going west. As strong supporters of the Catholic Church, they sought to bring Christianity to the East and any newly found lands, as well as hoping to find sources of wealth.Historians generally recognize three motives for European exploration—God, glory, and gold. Particularly in the strongly Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal, religious zeal motivated the rulers to make converts and retake land from the Muslims. Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal described his "great desire to make increase in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring him all the souls that should be saved."

What evidence most clearly indicates that the Aztec people migrated to Mexico from the American Southwest?

An active turquoise trade existed between the regions.

Which of the following Indian peoples built homes in cliff dwellings that still exist?

Anasazi

How could Spaniards obtain encomiendas?

By serving the spanish crown

What was the main goal of the French in colonizing the Americas?

Spreading Catholocism among native peoples

What was the location of the largest mound-building culture in early North America?

Cahokia

The Inca were able to control an empire that stretched from modern Colombia to southern Chile. Which of their various means for achieving such control do you think were most effective, and why? The Inca were able to control an empire that stretched from modern Colombia to southern Chile. Which of their various means for achieving such control do you think were most effective, and why? How did the Olmec, Aztec, Inca, Maya, and North American Indians differ in their ways of life and cultural achievements? How did their particular circumstances—geography, history, or the accomplishments of the societies that had preceded them, for example—serve to shape their particular traditions and cultures? What were the lasting effects of the Crusades? In what ways did they provide opportunities—both negative and positive—for cross-cultural encounters and exchanges? Was race identified with slavery before the era of European exploration? Why or why not? How did slavery's association with race change the institution's character? What are the differences between the types of slavery traditionally practiced in Africa and the slavery that developed in the New World? How did other types of servitude, such as European serfdom, compare to slavery?

Critical thinking questions

What were the consequences of the religious upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? What types of labor systems were used in the Americas? Did systems of unfree labor serve more than an economic function? What is meant by the Columbian Exchange? Who was affected the most by the exchange? What were the various goals of the colonial European powers in the expansion of their empires? To what extent were they able to achieve these goals? Where did they fail? On the whole, what was the impact of early European explorations on the New World? What was the impact of the New World on Europeans?

Critical thinking questions

Why didn't England make stronger attempts to colonize the New World before the late sixteenth to early seventeenth century?

English attention was turned to internal struggles and the encroaching catholic menace to Scotland and Ireland

Great civilizations had risen and fallen in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans. In North America, the complex Pueblo societies including the Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi as well as the city at Cahokia had peaked and were largely memories. The Eastern Woodland peoples were thriving, but they were soon overwhelmed as the number of English, French, and Dutch settlers increased. Mesoamerica and South America had also witnessed the rise and fall of cultures. The once-mighty Mayan population centers were largely empty. In 1492, however, the Aztecs in Mexico City were at their peak. Subjugating surrounding tribes and requiring tribute of both humans for sacrifice and goods for consumption, the island city of Tenochtitlán was the hub of an ever-widening commercial center and the equal of any large European city until Cortés destroyed it. Further south in Peru, the Inca linked one of the largest empires in history through the use of roads and disciplined armies. Without the use of the wheel, they cut and fashioned stone to build Machu Picchu high in the Andes before abandoning the city for unknown reasons. Thus, depending on what part of the New World they explored, the Europeans encountered peoples that diverged widely in their cultures, traditions, and numbers.

First section summary

Locate the major West African empires on a map

Following the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, Islam continued to spread quickly across North Africa, bringing not only a unifying faith but a political and legal structure as well. As lands fell under the control of Muslim armies, they instituted Islamic rule and legal structures as local chieftains converted, usually under penalty of death. Only those who had converted to Islam could rule or be engaged in trade. The first major empire to emerge in West Africa was the Ghana Empire. By 750, the Soninke farmers of the sub-Sahara had become wealthy by taxing the trade that passed through their area. For instance, the Niger River basin supplied gold to the Berber and Arab traders from west of the Nile Valley, who brought cloth, weapons, and manufactured goods into the interior. Huge Saharan salt mines supplied the life-sustaining mineral to the Mediterranean coast of Africa and inland areas. By 900, the monotheistic Muslims controlled most of this trade and had converted many of the African ruling elite. The majority of the population, however, maintained their tribal animistic practices, which gave living attributes to nonliving objects such as mountains, rivers, and wind. Because Ghana's king controlled the gold supply, he was able to maintain price controls and afford a strong military. Soon, however, a new kingdom emerged.By 1200 CE, under the leadership of Sundiata Keita, Mali had replaced Ghana as the leading state in West Africa. After Sundiata's rule, the court converted to Islam, and Muslim scribes played a large part in administration and government. Miners then discovered huge new deposits of gold east of the Niger River. By the fourteenth century, the empire was so wealthy that while on a hajj, or pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, Mali's ruler Mansu Musa gave away enough gold to create serious price inflation in the cities along his route. Timbuktu, the capital city, became a leading Islamic center for education, commerce and the slave trade. Meanwhile, in the east, the city of Gao became increasingly strong under the leadership of Sonni Ali and soon eclipsed Mali's power. Timbuktu sought Ali's assistance in repelling the Tuaregs from the north. By 1500, however, the Tuareg empire of Songhay had eclipsed Mali, where weak and ineffective leadership prevailed.

What happened as a result of climate change in North America at the beginning of the Archaic Era?

People turned from hunting and gathering to farming and herding for food.

Black Death two strains of the bubonic plague that simultaneously swept western Europe in the fourteenth century, causing the death of nearly half the population Crusades a series of military expeditions made by Christian Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries feudal society a social arrangement in which serfs and knights provided labor and military service to noble lords, receiving protection and land use in return Inquisition a campaign by the Catholic Church to root out heresy, especially among converted Jews and Muslims Koran the sacred book of Islam, written by the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century Reconquista Spain's nearly eight-hundred-year holy war against Islam, which ended in 1492 serf a peasant tied to the land and its lord

Glossary

Black Legend Spain's reputation as bloodthirsty conquistadors Columbian Exchange the movement of plants, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic due to European exploration of the Americas commodification the transformation of something—for example, an item of ritual significance—into a commodity with monetary value encomienda legal rights to native labor as granted by the Spanish crown mercantilism the protectionist economic principle that nations should control trade with their colonies to ensure a favorable balance of trade mourning wars raids or wars that tribes waged in eastern North America in order to replace members lost to smallpox and other diseases smallpox a disease that Europeans accidentally brought to the New World, killing millions of Indians, who had no immunity to the disease sugarcane one of the primary crops of the Americas, which required a tremendous amount of labor to cultivate

Glossary

Calvinism a branch of Protestantism started by John Calvin, emphasizing human powerlessness before an omniscient God and stressing the idea of predestination indulgences documents for purchase that absolved sinners of their errant behavior Protestant Reformatio the schism in Catholicism that began with Martin Luther and John Calvin in the early sixteenth century Puritans a group of religious reformers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who wanted to "purify" the Church of England by ridding it of practices associated with the Catholic Church and advocating greater purity of doctrine and worship

Glossary

How did European feudal society operate? How was this a mutually supportive system?

In feudal society, lords owned the land, which serfs worked and knights defended. Lords thus utilized the labor of serfs and the military service of knights, who in turn received the protection of the lord's castle or city walls and, sometimes, the ability to rent land on which to live and farm.

Which culture developed a road system rivaling that of the Romans?

Inca

Why did diseases like smallpox affect Indians so badly?

Indians had no immunity to European diseases

Why did Columbus believe he could get to the Far East by sailing west? What were the problems with this plan?

It was known that the Earth was round, so Columbus's plan seemed plausible. The distance he would need to travel was not known, however, and he greatly underestimated the Earth's circumference; therefore, he would have no way of recognizing when he had arrived at his destination.

In 1492, the Spanish forced these two religious groups to either convert or leave.

Jews and Muslims

What reforms to the Catholic Church did Martin Luther and John Calvin call for?

Luther was most concerned about indulgences, which allowed the wealthy to purchase their way to forgiveness, and protested the Church's taxation of ordinary Germans. Both wanted the liturgy to be given in churchgoers' own language, making scripture more accessible.

What were some of the main differences among the non-Spanish colonies?

Many English colonists in Virginia were aristocrats who had never worked and didn't expect to start. They hoped to find gold and silver and were unprepared for the realities of colonial life. Farther north, the English Puritan colonies were largely founded not for profit but for religious reasons. The French and Dutch colonies were primarily trading posts. Their colonists enjoyed good relationships with many native groups because they made alliances with and traded with them.

The Western European curiosity that led to the Columbian Exchange originated with which explorer's travels?

Marco Polo

Which culture developed the only writing system in the Western Hemisphere?

Maya

Which country initiated the era of Atlantic exploration?

Portugal

Why did European colonists choose to replace the slave labor of native peoples with that of West Africans?

Native Americans were not able to resist diseases carried by Europeans.

What were the major differences between the societies of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya and the Indians of North America?

North American Indians were fewer in number, more widely dispersed, and did not have the population size or organized social structures of the Maya, Aztec, or Inca societies. The Eastern Woodland peoples, in particular, lived in small clan groups and adapted to their singular environments. Some North American Indians lived by hunting and gathering rather than cultivating crops.

Where did the Protestant Reformation begin?

Northern Europe

What happened in the late 1600s that led to changes in the legal status of Africans in the United States?

Other forms of inexpensive labor were becoming scarce.

Why did the authors of probanzas de méritos choose to write in the way that they did? What should we consider when we interpret these documents today?

Probanzas de méritos featured glowing descriptions of lands of plenty. The Spanish explorers hoped to find cities of gold, so they made their discoveries sound as wonderful as possible in these letters to convince the Spanish crown to fund more voyages. When we read them now, we need to take the descriptions with a grain of salt. But we can also fact-check these descriptions, whereas the Spanish court could only take them at face value.

The Flushing Remonstrance was a petition for freedom of religion written by people from what religion?

Quakers

Although Portugal opened the door to exploration of the Atlantic World, Spanish explorers quickly made inroads into the Americas. Spurred by Christopher Columbus's glowing reports of the riches to be found in the New World, throngs of Spanish conquistadors set off to find and conquer new lands. They accomplished this through a combination of military strength and strategic alliances with native peoples. Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella promoted the acquisition of these new lands in order to strengthen and glorify their own empire. As Spain's empire expanded and riches flowed in from the Americas, the Spanish experienced a golden age of art and literature.

Section summary

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, Spain's rivals—England, France, and the Dutch Republic—had each established an Atlantic presence, with greater or lesser success, in the race for imperial power. None of the new colonies, all in the eastern part of North America, could match the Spanish possessions for gold and silver resources. Nonetheless, their presence in the New World helped these nations establish claims that they hoped could halt the runaway growth of Spain's Catholic empire. English colonists in Virginia suffered greatly, expecting riches to fall into their hands and finding reality a harsh blow. However, the colony at Jamestown survived, and the output of England's islands in the West Indies soon grew to be an important source of income for the country. New France and New Netherlands were modest colonial holdings in the northeast of the continent, but these colonies' thriving fur trade with native peoples, and their alliances with those peoples, helped to create the foundation for later shifts in the global balance of power.

Section summary

In the minds of European rulers, colonies existed to create wealth for imperial powers. Guided by mercantilist ideas, European rulers and investors hoped to enrich their own nations and themselves, in order to gain the greatest share of what was believed to be a limited amount of wealth. In their own individual quest for riches and preeminence, European colonizers who traveled to the Americas blazed new and disturbing paths, such as the encomienda system of forced labor and the use of tens of thousands of Africans as slaves. All native inhabitants of the Americas who came into contact with Europeans found their worlds turned upside down as the new arrivals introduced their religions and ideas about property and goods. Europeans gained new foods, plants, and animals in the Columbian Exchange, turning whatever they could into a commodity to be bought and sold, and Indians were introduced to diseases that nearly destroyed them. At every turn, however, Indians placed limits on European colonization and resisted the newcomers' ways.

Section summary

One effect of the Crusades was that a larger portion of western Europe became familiar with the goods of the East. A lively trade subsequently developed along a variety of routes known collectively as the Silk Road to supply the demand for these products. Brigands and greedy middlemen made the trip along this route expensive and dangerous. By 1492, Europe—recovered from the Black Death and in search of new products and new wealth—was anxious to improve trade and communications with the rest of the world. Venice and Genoa led the way in trading with the East. The lure of profit pushed explorers to seek new trade routes to the Spice Islands and eliminate Muslim middlemen. Portugal, under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, attempted to send ships around the continent of Africa. Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile hired Columbus to find a route to the East by going west. As strong supporters of the Catholic Church, they sought to bring Christianity to the East and any newly found lands, as well as hoping to find sources of wealth.

Section summary

The sixteenth century witnessed a new challenge to the powerful Catholic Church. The reformist doctrines of Martin Luther and John Calvin attracted many people dissatisfied with Catholicism, and Protestantism spread across northern Europe, spawning many subgroups with conflicting beliefs. Spain led the charge against Protestantism, leading to decades of undeclared religious wars between Spain and England, and religious intolerance and violence characterized much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Despite the efforts of the Catholic Church and Catholic nations, however, Protestantism had taken hold by 1600.

Section summary

From where did the first migrants to North America originate?

Siberia

The excavations of the Hopewell peoples' burial sites in the Midwestern United States and the objects discovered within have indicated which of the following?

The Hopewell had a wide trade network.

Why did the Spanish crown continue to finance the Florida colony even after the explorers failed to find a passage to Asia?

The colony had become an important base for missionaries.

Which of the following best describes the Columbian Exchange?

The exchange of plants, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic between Europe and the Americas

Why did slavery play a larger role in driving economic expansion in the southern colonies than those further north?

The southern colonies' economies depended more heavily on agriculture.

What gave Western Europe an advantage over other world powers when it came to exploration of the New World?

They had the greatest ambition and willingness to take risks.

What was a consequence of the fact that the early people of the Americas did not have horses or oxen?

They never developed wheeled vehicles.

Why was finding an oceanic route to Asia important to the Europeans?

They wanted to circumvent Arabic merchants.

How were the Quakers different from other Protestant groups?

They were pacifists who were against fighting wars.

The city of ________ became a leading center for Muslim scholarship and trade.

Timbuktu

What was the driving force behind the Europeans' desire to find an oceanic route to Asia?

being able to circumvent Arabic merchants

How did the first people to migrate to North America reach it?

by crossing the Bering Strait from the west

The Hohokam people of modern-day Arizona were best known for which of the following?

canal construction

Which of the following most drove the governments of European nation states in colonizing the Americas?

competition with each other

What posed the biggest threat to the early peoples of the American Southwest prior to the year 1300?

environmental changes

The Columbian Exchange between Western Europe and the native people of the New World thrived mainly due to which of the following?

established Native American trade routes

The 1657 petition known as the Flushing Remonstrance concerned which of the following?

freedom of religion

The first migrants to North America reached it from which direction?

from the west

Beringia an ancient land bridge linking Asia and North America chasquis Incan relay runners used to send messages over great distances chinampas floating Aztec gardens consisting of a large barge woven from reeds, filled with dirt and floating on the water, allowing for irrigation matriarchy a society in which women have political power mita the Incan labor tax, with each family donating time and work to communal projects quipu an ancient Incan device for recording information, consisting of variously colored threads knotted in different ways activation energy the amount of initial energy necessary for reactions to occur matriarchy a society in which women have political power chinampas floating Aztec gardens consisting of a large barge woven from reeds, filled with dirt and floating on the water, allowing for irrigation matriarchy a society in which women have political power

glossary

Hispaniola the island in the Caribbean, present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic, where Columbus first landed and established a Spanish colony probanza de mérito proof of merit: a letter written by a Spanish explorer to the crown to gain royal patronage

glossary

chattel slavery a system of servitude in which people are treated as personal property to be bought and sold polygyny the practice of taking more than one wife

glossary

joint stock company a business entity in which investors provide the capital and assume the risk in order to reap significant returns Pilgrims Separatists, led by William Bradford, who established the first English settlement in New England privateers sea captains to whom the British government had given permission to raid Spanish ships at will Roanoke the first English colony in Virginia, which mysteriously disappeared sometime between 1587 and 1590 Separatists a faction of Puritans who advocated complete separation from the Church of England

glossary

Which New World crop soon became a dietary staple for Europeans?

potatoes

Which crop did the Europeans first find in the New World?

potatoes

Slaves who were brought from West Africa to the southern plantations were the first in North America to cultivate which crop?

rice

Which crop became popular with Europeans after slaves brought it from Africa and began growing it on southern plantations?

rice

Before 1492, Africa, like the Americas, had experienced the rise and fall of many cultures, but the continent did not develop a centralized authority structure. African peoples practiced various forms of slavery, all of which differed significantly from the racial slavery that ultimately developed in the New World. After the arrival of Islam and before the Portuguese came to the coast of West Africa in 1444, Muslims controlled the slave trade out of Africa, which expanded as European powers began to colonize the New World. Driven by a demand for labor, slavery in the Americas developed a new form: It was based on race, and the status of slave was both permanent and inherited.

section summary

Which of the following characterized the post-Archaic phase in North America?

sedentary village life

Which law had the greatest impact on the legal status of Africans in North America in the 1600s?

the law making slavery a hereditary condition inherited through a child's mother

What belief did the Quakers hold that other Protestant groups did not?

that war and aggression were wrong under all circumstances

Which Southwestern tribe was first to build multi-room and -story dwellings from adobe?

the Anasazi

On which modern-day location did Christopher Columbus's fleet first land in the New World?

the Bahamas

To which colonies were the largest number of slaves transported from West Africa during the transatlantic slave trade?

the British and French West Indies

The series of attempts by Christian armies to retake the Holy Lands from Muslims was known as ________.

the Crusades

Which extensive tribe forged a political confederacy to strengthen their influence and resolve internal disputes?

the Iroquois

Evidence of a turquoise trade indicates that the Aztec people probably migrated to central Mexico from what area?

the Southwest

The law that caused the greatest change to the legal status of Africans in North America involved which of the following?

the declaration of slavery as a hereditary condition

What was the most significant change produced by human populations on the environment and biodiversity of North America during the Paleo-Indian Era?

the overhunting of large mammals

After explorers were unable to find a passage to Asia through Florida, what led the Spanish crown to continue financing the Florida colony?

the work of the Franciscan missionaries with the native peoples

What was the chief goal of the Puritans?

to eliminate any traces of Catholicism from the Church of England

Which crop did the Europeans bring to the New World?

wheat