Slideshow 1 Unit 1

1. American History: Unit 1 Lecture
1
The Earliest Americans
and European Contact

2. Arrival of Human Population
• ~ 15,000 – 12,000 years
ago – Stone Age Hunters
• Ice Age reveals land
bridge connecting Asia
and North America
• Known as BERINGIA
• ~ 8000 BCE people
dispersed throughout the
Americas
HOW DO WE KNOW?
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3. Native American Societies
• Over time, various
complex cultures form in
America
• Culture –
Beliefs, norms, traditions,
and values of a group of
people.
• No private land
ownership, close
dependence on
environment

4. Early European Exploration: Why
Now?
• Growth of centralized nations after the Middle
Ages
• Crusades create a thirst for Eastern Goods
(spices, rice, coffee, lemons, mirrors, cotton
clothes, writing paper, etc., etc.)
• Renaissance ideas/discoveries lead to
inventions that make long distance sailing
possible (Astrolabe, Caravel, cartography
improvements, etc.)

5. Early European Exploration
Motives for
Exploration
“The Three G’s”
• Gold
• God
• Glory
Early Explorers
• Vasco de Gama – sails
around Horn of Africa
to India
• Columbus – looking
for a shorter route
sails WEST – stumbles
onto the Americas 1492

6. Early European Exploration
Columbus:
• Claims new lands for
Spain
• Enslaves native
population of San
Salvador
• Opens the door for
Columbian
Exchange
Columbian Exchange:
The exchange of
people, ideas, plants,
animals, and diseases
between the Old World
and the New World.
• Disease devastated
Native Populations

7. Effects of Disease
Columbus remains a
controversial figure
today…click here to see
why.
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8. The Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange
had not only a great effect
on history, but still effects
our lives today.
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9. Colonization
Spain becomes the first
European nation to
COLONIZE in the
Americas.
COLONIZE –
Take control of the people
and resources of another
land
TREATY OF TORDESILLAS –
Divides Latin American
between Spain and
Portugal
Spanish
holdings
as of 1615
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10. Colonization
• Britain and France are eager to establish
colonies in the New World as well.
• These nations soon begin establishing colonies
of their own in North America!

11. Non-Wiki Images
1. From http://www.learnnc.org
2. From regentsprep.org
3. From http://northspringsapwh.blogspot.com
4. From http://mapas.owje.com