1. 17A: Lecture 1

2. Peoples of Pre-Contact Americas: The First
Americans
• Migrants from Asia
• First migration: Land bridge between Siberia and Alaska during Ice Age
• Second migration: Bering Strait- water passage brought ancestors of Navajos
and Apaches
• Third migration: “Eskimos”—Aleut and Inuit peoples
• Migrations were followed by 300 generations in which the Western
Hemisphere was largely cut off from the rest of the world.

3. Map of Bering Land Bridge

4. Map of western Alaska and eastern Siberia
present-day

5. Pre-Columbian Indian Cultures of the
Americas
• 110-112 million people in western hemisphere, 10% in North
• The story of pre-Columbian Middle America is one of successive
people who built great empire and a monumental architecture,
supported by large-scale agriculture and far-flung commerce.
Olmecs, Mayas, Toltecs, Aztecs, Incas and others.
• These cultures passed through the different stages of development
• Lithic: Early cultural stage (lasted until 5000 BC)
• Archaic 8000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. (hunting/gathering)
• Formative Stage 1000 BC to AD 500 (farming/pottery)
• Classic Stage AD 500 to 1200: (craft specialization, metallurgy—aka craft of
metal working, urbanization)
• Post-Classic Stage (developed metallurgy, complex urban centers, militarism
and social stratification)

6. Mayas and Aztecs: Civilizations of
Mesoamerica
• Maya: Yucatan Peninsula of
Mexico and rain forest of
Guatemala
• Mexica/Aztec: Central and
Southern of present day
Mexico
• Inca : (Peru) South America

7. Indians of the North
• Indians of North less complex than those of the South
• Lacked occupational diversity, social hierarchy and strong state institutions
• Most lived in self-governing tribes made up of clans
• Most complex cultures of the North:
• Hopewell Indians (present-day Ohio)
• Pueblo people of Southwest
• Hohokam [ho-HO-kam]: present-day Arizona and New Mexico
• Mogollon [mo-ge-Yon]: eastern New Mexico
• Anasazi [ˌä-nə-ˈsä-zē ]: Northern New Mexico

8. Indians of the North
• Mississipian Indian Culture: used farming technology of
Mesoamericans in Mississippi River Valley
• At the time of European intrusion into North America, the strong
Indian city-states of the Southwest and Mississippi River Valley had
vanished

9. Indians of the North
• Tribes of the Pacific Northwest: fishing and gathering societies
(permanent settled communities)
• Great Plains: some nomadic tribes, but also many permanent
settlements who engaged in sedentary farming (corn and other
grains)
• East: Woodland Indians engaged in hunting, farming, gathering and
fishing
• Northeast: more nomadic, land less fertile and so tribes had to
combine farming (clearing land by burning) and hunting to survive

10. Tribal Culture
• Increasingly becoming stationary societies
• Result of increase in agricultural production
• Resulted in development of elaborate social customs and rituals
• Experiencing population growth in period prior to European contact
• Although there is some exceptions, most societies believed in many
gods and their religion was often closely tied to the natural world
(polytheistic-multiple gods)
• Social Structure:
-Societies tended to divide jobs by gender
-Matrilineal (meaning inheriting or determining descent
through the female line)

11. Europe: Leading up to the Age of Exploration
• What changed in Europe? What led to the growth of exploration?
• Centralization of state power and emergence of strong monarchies
• Growth of trade, commerce, and strong, centralized nation-states
• Trade grew with East
• Mercantilism

12. The Afroeurasian Trade World
Before Columbus
• Indian Ocean Trade
• Like Silk Roads…but on water!
• Not a single
route, but a network

13. Why does Europe Start to Explore?
• Who controls the
spice trade?
• Muslim Traders
• Italian City-
States
• Who were the
“Losers?”….
Or were they?

14. The European Voyages of Discovery
Causes of European Expansion
1. Luxury goods: such as spices
2. Royal Competition
3. Note: Europeans entering into
an established trade system!

15. The European Voyages of Discovery
Causes of European Expansion
3. Religious fervor
4. Inquisitive minds
Prester
John and his
mythical
Christian
Kingdom in the
East
King Mansa Musa; Map 1375
Commissioned by Charles V of Fran

16. The European Voyages of Discovery
• Why Portugal and
then Spain?
• Losers?
• Geography
• Unified
Government
Leadership
• Long traditions of
seafaring
• Wanted
wealth/power
FIRST
PORTUGAL
FOLLOWED
BY SPAIN

17. The European Voyages of Discovery
Technology and
the Rise of
Exploration
1. Ptolemy’s
Geography
Ptolemy’s
Map
2. Magnetic
compass
(Chinese
invention)
3. Astrolabe

18. Navigation Technology…
• Compass allows you to tell what direction you are going in
• But that isn't much use if you don't know where you are!
• astrolabe measures how high the north star is above the
horizon to determine latitude (you can try it at home)
• But they had no way to determine longitude
• More accurate maps were therefore very important
• sail north or south to the right latitude then sail east or west
until you hit land
• That plus knowing the wind patterns was the approach to
navigation on which early exploration was based

19. Portuguese Exploration
• Early 1400s
• Where do they explore?
• Africa! Why?
• Northern Africa well known
(even the Romans knew it!)
• Portuguese Empire??
• “empire” knitted together by
strategic ports
• Power not in land, but in trade
and wealth
• to

20. Portuguese Empire

21. The European Voyages of Discovery: Columbus
One small step for a man…one giant leap for
mankind?
Who was he?
• Genoese merchant, sailor
• Wanted to trading routes by sailing West
• Looking for sponsors…
• Portugal, NO!
• France, NO!
• England, NO!
• Spain, NO…then YES!
• Lesson: Pestering pays off!
• Columbus sets sail…with 3 ships and a
“shoestring” budget!
Darn
Naysayers!
Wait…were
they right?

22. The European Voyages of Discovery: Columbus
• New “Ideas” often
credited to Columbus
• The World is Round
(ok…actually slightly egg
shaped ;)
• He discovered the “New
World”?
Map of the world by German mapmaker
Henricus
Martellus Germanus 1489:
-influenced by Ptolemy
-represents what educated Europeans
understood the world to look like
-What’s missing?

23. The European Voyages of Discovery: Columbus
3,000 miles to
Asia?
Hmm…try 12,000
Spain Gambling on the 3rd Best (aka the “worst”)
option for a trade route!

25. Treaty of Tordesillas [tȯr-dā-ˈsē-yäs]

26. The European Voyages of Discovery
Later Explorers
• Magellan
• Cabot
• Cartier

28. The European Voyages of Discovery
Spanish Conquest in the New World
• The Mexica Empire
• Montezuma
• The Inca Empire
• Francisco Pizarro
• Cuzco

29. Cortés’s Conquest of the
Mexica (Aztecs)
Religious justification?

30. Francisco Pizarro
and the Inca
Empire
One of the main events in the conquest of the
Incan Empire was the death of Atahualpa,
the last Sapa Inca on 29 August 1533

31. Aztecs: Destruction of a Great Empire
• Inca Empire
• Francisco Pizarro
• 1532: gains permission from
Queen of Spain to conquer Peru
and become its Governor
• Inca Civil War
• Atahualpa v Huáscar
• Atahualpa victorious
• Atahualpa v Pizarro
• Meeting at Cajamarca
• Atahualpa taken prisoner
• Atahualpa promises Pizarro silver
and gold in return for his freedom
• Pizarro has Atahualpa killed
• Other factors?
Portrait of Atahualpa, 1533
Pizarro

32. The Impact of Conquest
Colonial Administration
1. Viceroyalties
2. New World court system
The Impact of European
Settlement on the Lives of
Indigenous Peoples
1. Encomienda system
2. Disease

33. The Impact of Conquest
The Columbian Exchange
1. Corn
2. Potatoes
Sugar and Early Transatlantic Slavery
1. Sugar cane
2. Plantation system
3. Exploitation of labor

35. The Impact of Conquest
The Birth of the Global Economy
1. Global sea routes
2. Commodities
3. Rise and fall of economic empires

37. The Conquering of the New World
• 1500s the Spanish conquered some parts of the New World
• By1580 the Spanish Empire included the Caribbean Islands, Mexico,
the southern part of North America, Chile, Argentina, and Peru.
• How were the Spanish able to conquer the great empire of the West?
• Ecological imperialism
• Playing various warring societies against one another
• Superior weapons (to a lesser degree)