Americas before 1492
How, and how long ago, did the first humans arrive on the American continent? What motivated them to travel this route?
The first humans walked across the Beringia land bridge from modern-day Siberia to Alaska, as early as 22,000 years ago. They were big-game hunters stalking herds of mammoth and other large mammals.
Prior to the 1400s, West Africa was geographically isolated from Europe and Asia. What key city served as a trading hub linking West Africa to the coastal ports of North Africa, and the wider world?
Timbuktu
Led by Prince Henry the Navigator, which European nation was the first to conduct widespread exploration of coastal West Africa by sea?
Portugal
Where was Columbus from, and who did he represent in his voyage to America?
Columbus was from Genoa (Italy), and represented Spain.
What term refers to the Spanish explorers who first arrived in the Americas, overran native populations, and established new colonies for Spain?
Conquistadors
What technological and lifestyle development resulted in the earliest Americans establishing permanent settlements, first in modern-day Mexico?
Between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago, early Americans began to develop agriculture including maize, gourds, pumpkins, and beans. Agricultural allowed for a reliable source of calories which could be stored in one place, enabling permanent settlements and more complex societies.
Other than products from North Africa and the Middle East, what key idea was spread along the "Sahara Highway" to reach and deeply influence West African society by the 1200s?
Islam, which became the official religion of the Songhai empire.
How did the campaigns of the Crusades during the 11th-13th centuries impact the power and influence of the pope and the Catholic church?
The ultimate failure of the Crusades weakened the prestige of the pope, who had led the initiative, and gradually rebalanced influence away from the Church and towards European monarchies. This contributed in part to the Reformation movements against the Church.
What territories did Columbus explore on his first voyage to America?
Columbus first landed in the Bahamas, explored the coastline of Cuba, and established the first Spanish colony in the Americas at Hispaniola (modern-day Dominican Republic and Haiti).
Describe the encomienda system in Spanish America.
The encomienda system was an economic system of forced labor in which native Americans farmed, ranched, mined, or performed other labor for Spanish landlords, who received official rights to the native labor from Spanish authorities. Many Spaniards, including priests, objected to the harsh treatment and the encomienda system was abolished in 1542 and largely replaced by importation of African slaves.
Name three key early American empires.
Olmec (1200-400 BC, Mexico)
Maya (250-900 AD, Yucatan peninsula)
Aztec (1200-1500 AD, Mexico)
Inca (1400-1550 AD, western South America)
What two products were early Portuguese explorers of the West African coast most interested in extracting?
Gold from large goldfields, and sugarcane from newly established plantations on the islands of Principe and Sao Tome, which were worked by West African slaves.
Why were powerful monarchs and unified nations necessary to make the age of exploration possible?
Only strong monarchies ruling large national territories had enough power to gather the resources needed to build armies and navies and finance large overseas expeditions. Smaller, disconnected territories in Germany and Italy were not able to compete with the major nations of England, France, Spain, Portugal, and later the Dutch Republic.
What was the most significant factor in European explorers' ability to quickly overrun many Native American societies?
Describe the furthest extent of Spanish exploration of North America by 1550.
The Spanish explored modern-day Florida (Ponce de Leon), the American "Deep South" (De Soto), New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas (Coronado), and the California coast (Cabrillo), and established many religious missions along the way, particularly in the American Southwest and California.
Sophisticated trade networks were one of the leading mechanisms for contact between diverse native American tribes before European contact. Describe at least two products that were traded between tribes in pre-contact North America.
Whale products -- Pacific Northwest coast
Wild rice -- upper Great Lakes region
Pottery -- Southwest tribes
Which West African empire gained great power and wealth in the 1400-1500s by controlling the trans-Sahara trade and using tax revenue to fund large armies and conquer new territory?
The Songhai empire
What were the primary economic factors motivating the age of exploration?
Europeans wanted easier access to Asian trade routes, as the overland routes had become dominated by Muslim empires across the Middle East. In part as a result of the Crusades, more Europeans had exposure to and desire to obtain luxury products from Asia. Monarchs were motivated to gain wealth to sustain the large armies and navies they had established.
What was the main demand for African slave labor in the Americas?
Plantations, particularly sugarcane plantations, demanded large volumes of labor in brutal conditions. As Native American populations shrunk in the face of European conquest, Europeans increased demand for African slave labor, which increased the price of slaves, which led to more Europeans joining the slave trade for profit.
This term refers to people with mixed Spanish and Native American heritage, common in Spanish colonies as Spanish settlers married and had children with native women.
Mestizo
What entity represented the most important unit of social organization in native American societies, and ensured the continuation of tribal customs?
Extended family and clan networks based on bonds of kinship and respect for ancestral traditions.
What term refers to a social system, common in West Africa, in which people trace their lineage, or line of common descent, through their mother's family?
Matrilineal
Prior to Columbus' voyage, what did Europeans consider the "cutting edge" method of reaching Asia, rather than the overland route?
During the late 1400s, Portuguese sailors had explored the west coast of Africa, rounded the southern tip of Africa, and reach India and East Asia. This was a much quicker and cheaper way to trade with Asia than the overland route.
American products -- Squash, corn, potato, sweet potato, tomato, vanilla, pineapple, peanut, turkey, tobacco
Afro-Eurasian products -- Coffee, onion, olives, citrus fruits, banana, grapes, sugarcane, honey, wheat, rice, livestock
What major geopolitical event in 1588 permanently shifted the balance of power between England and Spain, in Europe and in the Americas?
Philip II of Spain assembled an enormous armada intending to invade England and restore Catholicism to England. The English, benefitting from major storms which damaged the Spanish fleet, won a major battle and gained military advantage over the Spanish, leading to increased British exploration of the Americas over the following century. Spain gradually weakened in both Europe and the Americas.