1. America’s History Sixth Edition
Henretta • Brody • Dumenil
America’s History Sixth Edition
CHAPTER 1
Worlds Collide:
Europe, Africa, and America
1450–1620
Copyright © 2008 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. Pre-Columbian Native American Societies
The First Americans
Ice and glaciers caused the sea level to drop (exposing a land bridge, Asian Siberia connects to American Alaska)
The Mayas and the Aztecs
Early Empires
The ‘Indians’ to the North of Meso-America were a diverse group, for example:
Southwestern Pueblo were known for environmental transformation practices such as irrigation and water conservation for the production of maize
The mobile Great Basin & Western Plains were hunters and gatherers

3. Pre-Columbian Native American Societies
The Northeastern Iroquoian tribes of Pennsylvania, upstate NY, the upland areas of the Carolinas and Georgia built permanent settlements such as longhouses housing five to ten families

4. Europe Encounters Africa and the Americas, 1450–1550
Bring rigid system of Hierarchy and Authority
Diseases
Especially Smallpox, Spanish transition to African Slaves for labor
The Power of Religion
The Renaissance Changes Europe
West African Society and Slavery
15th Century first dominated by the Portuguese
Europeans Explore America
The sextant revolutionizes the navigation of the seas
American tobacco stimulates trade in Europe, non-American rice also became an important component of trade between the English colonies and Europe

5. Europe Encounters Africa and the Americas, 1450–1550
The Spanish Conquest
Created a racially mixed culture known as mestizo
Introduced horses, encomienda, and sugar
Juan de Onate (1598) puts down a revolt by the Acoma pueblo by killing 800 men, women, & children
Brutality offset by Spain’s ‘mission system’ (missionary efforts) (to assimilate / ’civilize’ natives)

6. The Spanish Conquest (continued)
Some call for change and reforms
e.g.de Las Casas
The Comprehensive Orders for New Discoveries (1573) put the pacification of the native population into the hands of missionaries
Spain’s accumulation of mineral wealth caused a shift towards capitalism.
Large capital investment and large groups of laborers needed for mining
Huge profits were to be had for some

7. The Protestant Reformation and the Rise of England
The Protestant Movement
The Dutch and English
Very slow to colonize America at first. No significant presence in the ‘New World’ until Jamestown (1607)
Challenge Spain’s Christianity
Spain’s 15th /16th c. legacy has endured in the America’s
Although their number one goal of conquest and exploration as revealed by conquistadores was to acquire wealth
The Social Causes of English Colonization

8. 16th – 19th Centuries Native Resistance
Strongly against the European idea of individual land ownership
They continued to assert their right to lands to which Europeans began to claim
Some Caribbean African slaves were able to preserve autonomy and linguistic traditions through the formation of maroon communities
Started by self-liberated slaves
Sized bands of people to states

9. Chapter 1 Worlds Collide: Europe, Africa, and America
Map 1.1 The Ice Age and the Settling of the Americas (p. 7)
Map 1.2 Native American Peoples, 1492 (p. 8)
Map 1.3 The Eurasian Trade System and European Maritime Ventures, 1500 (p. 18)
Map 1.4 West Africa and the Mediterranean in the Fifteenth Century
Map 1.5 The Spanish Conquest of the Great Indian Civilizations (p. 28)
Map 1.6 Religious Diversity in Europe, (p. 30)
Figure 1.1 The Rhythm of Rural Life (p. 15)
Figure 1.2 Inflation and Living Standards in Europe, (p. 33 )
Figure 1.3 The Structure of English Society, 1688 (p. 33)
Orbis Typus Universalis (p. 4)
Tom Lovell, Trade Among Indian Peoples (p. 10)
Iroquois Women at Work, 1724 (p. 12)
Malinche and Cortés (p. 24)