Topic 1

New World Encounters

A. The Native Americans – The First Discoverers of America

1. The first discoverers of America – 15,000-20,000 or so years ago Bering Strait, perhaps using a now submerged land bridge that archeologists call Beringia.

2. As they came and multiplied two important things happened:

– Did not bring measles and smallpox with them

– Many of the large mammals they once hunted died out; hunted smaller game, fished, and about 5,000 years ago many learned how to grow crops, such as corn, beans, squash etc.

B. Early European Contacts – Another question mark….

1. Mystery Hill – (North Salem, NH) Celtic people, perhaps 2,000 years before the birth of Christ?

2. 900-1000 Scandinavian Norsemen gradually crossed the Atlantic: Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland – Why they stopped we do not know, and their crossing had no effect on Europe. Europe was not ready to explore and colonize.

C. Changes in Europe – Over the course of several centuries, four revolutions occurred that prepared Europe for the age of exploration and colonization.

1. Intellectual Revolution – Renaissance – 1300s and 1400s – Europe was stirring with new ideas.

– Middle Ages – most scratched out a bare living and prepared for the life to come after the grave.

– Now people became more interested in the world around them – knowing more and living better.

– One of the things that contributed to this new outlook on the world was The Crusades – 1096-1272. Many died, but those who returned brought back new ideas and new ways to do things: compass and the astrolabe.

– Printing press was developed

– Scholars began studying the writings of the ancient Greeks and rediscovered the idea that the world was a sphere. You could reach the East by sailing West! Columbus the first to try this.

2. Commercial Revolution

– Again the Crusades were of great importance. Brought back Eastern goods and Europeans developed a taste for them:

§ Damascus and Baghdad – steel and glass

§ Persia fine rugs

§ India – “black gold”

§ East Indies – cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

§ China – silk and fine porcelain

§ Europeans bought Eastern goods with woolen goods, gold and silver

– Much of the trade controlled by Italian merchants in Genoa and Venice

– Eventually Europeans grew tired of this Italian control and began looking for new trade routes to the East. This would lead them to find a new world that they did not know existed!

3. The Religious Revolution – Scholars such as Martin Luther began preaching against certain practices of the Roman Catholic. Their attacks led to the Protestant Reformation which divided Europe into opposing religious camps, north and south. Southern Europe remained Catholic, northern Europe tended to become Protestant.

4. The Political Revolution – Gradually in the 1400s and 1500s the map of Europe was transformed; hundreds of small kingdoms were absorbed into and became part of the modern nations of Portugal, Spain, France, and England among others. Though poor by modern standards, they sometimes had the military and financial resources needed to explore and colonize. If political centralization had not occurred, the major European countries could not possibly have generated the financial and military resources necessary for worldwide exploration.

D. Portugal, Spain and France – A Brief Summary

Nation	Where explored	Colonies
Portugal	Eastern coast of Africa, then western coast and present-day India	§ Prince Henry began sending out explorers in the 1420 – slaves and gold § Eventually,1460s, Portuguese began looking for all water route around Africa § Vasco da Gama sailed around southern tip of Africa and reached India - 1498
Spain	The Caribbean area, Central and South America, southern portion of North America	§ Explorations began with voyages of Columbus: 1492, 1494, 1499, 1502 § Others followed and through their conquests and explorations established a huge empire in the Western Hemisphere § Conquest of the Aztec and Inca Indians brought huge quantities of gold and silver to Spain.
France	St. Lawrence River Valley, Great Lakes region, Mississippi River Valley	§ Samuel Champlain founded Quebec in 1608 – Father of New France § Gradually pushed into the interior and eventually claimed all the territory from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi – New France
the Dutch	Hudson River Valley to northern end of the Chesapeake Bay	§ Called the area they colonized New Netherland – New Amsterdam the capital § Communities all very small § Conquered by the English in 1664

G. The English

1. The English were at first drawn across the Atlantic by the hopes of finding a Northwest Passage: John Rut – 1528. Did not find it, but …..

2. 50 years of neglect that included the reigns of several monarchs:

– Henry VIII, 1509-1547 - He broke England’s ties with the Roman Catholic Church and created the Church of England. Militarily, the English Navy began experimenting with the use of naval artillery.

– Edward VI, 1547-1553 (Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife) – Moved England in the direction of the Protestant movement

– Mary, 1553-1558 (Catherine, Henry’s first wife) – Strong Roman Catholic and England moved back toward the Roman Catholic Church.

– Elizabeth, 1558-1603 – Brought an end to the years of religious turmoil by working out the Elizabethan Settlement under which the Church of England was kind of Roman Catholic and kind of Protestant. The Church of England occupied a middle ground between the two.

3. New efforts under Elizabeth

– Sir Humphrey Gilbert – 1578 – carried the seeds of limited government (and the seeds of the American Revolution)

– Sir Walter Raleigh and Roanoke Island: 1585, 1587 (the lost colony)

– Philip II and the Spanish Armada – July 1588

– His objectives:

– A turning point in history – Showed that the English could hold their own against the Spanish, despite Spanish wealth and power, and knowing this would give the English the courage to establish their own colonies and their own empire.

– But it took a few more years before the English came back. The war with Spain continued, off and on, and the English had trouble subduing the Irish and getting them to accept English rule.