Chapter 1: Making a "New" World, to 1558

1. American Origins
   1. Environment, Change, and Human History
      1. Human evolution has proceeded against a backdrop of great Ice Ages.
         1. Human settlement in the Americas began during the Wisconsin glaciation with migrations across Beringia from Asia to North America.
         2. A warming trend nine thousand years ago led American Indians to shift from game hunting to other forms of survival.
         3. The majority of North America’s original inhabitants descended from three separate migrating groups: the Paleo-Indians, the Na-Dene people, and the Inuits or Eskimo.
   2. Seedtime for Native Cultures in North America
      1. During the Archaic phase, American Indians developed a new way of life.
         1. Permanent settlement appeared.
         2. Greater reliance on vegetables and on small game and fish emerged.
         3. Finer stone tools were developed.
         4. Dogs were domesticated, making possible easier transport of goods.
      2. Permanent settlement led to population growth, more free time, and to the emergence of art.
      3. Farming in permanent settlements also appeared during the Archaic phase.
         1. Forests were cleared to plant crops.
         2. The inhabitants of north-central Mexico developed maize, from where it spread.
         3. Crop cultivation eventually spread as far as the woodland Indians of North America.
   3. The Complex World of Indian America
      1. American Indian communities differed widely.
         1. The inhabitants of the Arctic region diverged racially and culturally from all other American Indian groups.
         2. American Indians in eastern North America practiced agriculture, hunting, and fishing.
         3. On the Western Plains, migration from site to site persisted.
      2. American Indians traded widely with each other.
      3. North America’s inhabitants constructed large earthen mounds that served as cere-monial and trading centers.
         1. Hopewell culture remains at Cahokia indicate it was a center for the exchange of ideas and produce from all over the Western Hemisphere.
         2. The Mississippian culture built ceremonial and trading centers that had contact with Mexico’s Mayas.
      4. In the Eastern Woodlands, people lived in smaller villages where they combined agriculture with hunting and gathering.
         1. A dominant matriarch supervised the daily tasks of running the household.
      5. Indians in the Southwest were closely tied to Mexico but continued to engage in hunting and gathering longer than their counterparts south of the border.
2. European Outreach and the Age of Exploration
   1. Change and Restlessness in the Atlantic World
      1. European interest in global exploration and trade developed long before Columbus’s voyage in 1492.
         1. The Vikings explored Europe’s eastern and western regions, established colonies in Iceland, Greenland, and North America, and supplied Europe with goods from Africa, China, and India.
         2. The Crusades gave Europeans knowledge of international conditions and greater commercial skills as they attempted to wrest control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.
      2. The emergence of unified nation-states contributed to European expansion.
         1. In Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella achieved national unification by marrying in 1469 and by continuing the struggle against the Muslim presence until their com-plete expulsion in 1492.
         2. France achieved unification under Louis XI around 1480.
         3. England achieved unification under Henry Tudor in the 1480s after defeating his rivals in the War of the Roses.
   2. Portuguese Exploration, Africa, and the Quest for Asia
      1. Portugal was the first unified European nation to undertake exploration in search of new commercial opportunities.
         1. Prince Henry the Navigator encouraged exploration by establishing a school for navigation.
         2. By the middle of the 1400s, Portugal controlled the Azores, the Canaries, and Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean.
      2. Exploration southward brought the Portuguese into contact with the Songhay Empire of West Africa.
         1. From there, the Portuguese shipped African goods to Europe.
         2. The Songhay introduced the Portuguese to the commercial possibilities of slavery; Portuguese merchants began to deal in African slaves.
   3. Columbus’s Folly and Exploration Fever
      1. Christopher Columbus proposed to reach the markets of Asia by sailing west from Europe.
         1. At first he sought government backing in Portugal and several other nations; in 1492, Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to finance his expedition.
         2. Sailing westward a total of four times, Columbus discovered the Western Hemisphere but always believed that he had reached Asia.
         3. Other European governments sent out new expeditions to the west in order to reach Asia, but these instead resulted in further discoveries in the New World.
   4. A New Transatlantic World
      1. The English, represented by John Cabot were the first to investigate an alternate route to India.
      2. Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for the Spanish, explored the northeastern coast of South America and the Caribbean.
      3. Historians continue to debate when the English, French, and Basque fisherman first took advantage of the prolific fishing grounds off the North American coast.
      4. This European contact widely affected Indian populations.
3. The Challenges of Mutual Discovery
   1. A Meeting of Minds in America
      1. Columbus’s discovery of the Western Hemisphere and the people there challenged Europeans to find a place for them in their conception of the world.
         1. To some, the American Indians were simple, pure, and free of civilization’s corruptions.
         2. To others, they were barbaric, savage, and immoral.
         3. All agreed that they could be improved by introducing them to Christianity and to European trade.
      2. American Indians had little difficulty in fitting Europeans into their view of the world.
   2. The Columbian Exchange
      1. The interactions among American Indians, Europeans, and Africans in the aftermath of Columbus’s discovery are referred to as the Columbian Exchange.
         1. Each continent introduced new diseases and new plants to the other; the Euro-peans introduced new domesticated animals to the Western Hemisphere.
      2. The result of these exchanges was profound change in all three continents.
         1. Diseases wiped out a huge proportion of the American Indian population.
         2. New cash crops stimulated economic development.
         3. New foods from the Western Hemisphere contributed to population increases in Africa and Europe, which in turn led to further immigration to the New World.
         4. New plants and animals in the Western Hemisphere altered the environment.
   3. New Worlds in Africa and America
      1. The Columbian Exchange proved highly disruptive to American Indian life and society.
         1. Disease reduced the labor force and killed many of the traditional teachers of cultural and practical knowledge.
      2. Epidemics enabled Europeans to make quicker inroads in the Western Hemisphere.
         1. American Indians entered alliances with Europeans.
         2. Many incorporated elements of Christianity into their own religions.
      3. The Columbian Exchange also disrupted West African societies.
         1. Europeans organized an even larger business in slaves than had Muslim traders.
         2. African peoples captured millions in the interior for sale as slaves to European traders on the coasts.
   4. A New World in Europe
      1. The Columbian Exchange affected life and society in Europe.
         1. New food crops from the Western Hemisphere contributed to a marked increase in population.
      2. Simultaneous with the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, Europe went through a century of religious crisis.
         1. Martin Luther began the assault on the Catholic church; other theological reform-ers, like John Calvin, joined the attack on Catholicism.
         2. Many members of the middle and the ruling classes broke away from Catholicism.