1-1 - Americas West Africa Europe
1-1 - Americas West Africa Europe
1-1 - Americas West Africa Europe
MAIN IDEA
On the eve of their
interaction, Native American,
West African, and European
peoples lived in complex
societies.
nomadic
Aztec
Anasazi
Pueblo
Iroquois
Benin
Kongo
Islam
Christianity
Reformation
Renaissance
In this chapter, you will learn about three complex societies that
met in North America in the late 1400s: the European, the West African,
and the Native American. However, it is with the ancient peoples of the
Americas that American history actually begins.
vast quantities of the earths water, lowering sea levels and possibly creating a land bridge between Asia and Alaska across what is now the Bering
Strait. Ancient hunters may have trekked across the frozen land, known as
Beringia, into North America.
Analyzing
Effects
A What were
the effects of
agriculture on
the hunting and
gathering people
of the Americas?
MAIN IDEA
Hunters roaming
over 10,000
years ago in what
is now southern
Arizona may have
used this spear
point to kill
large prey.
MAYA, AZTEC, AND INCA SOCIETIES FLOURISH The rst empire of the
Americas emerged as early as 1200 B.C. in what is now southern Mexico, where
the Olmec people created a thriving civilization. In the wake of the Olmecs mysterious collapse, around 400 B.C., the Maya built a dynamic culture in Guatemala
and the Yucatn Peninsula between A.D. 250 and 900. Later, the Aztec settled the
Valley of Mexico in the 1200s and developed a sophisticated civilization.
In South America, the most prominent empire builders were the Inca.
Around A.D. 1400, the Inca created a glittering empire that stretched nearly 2,500
miles along the mountainous western coast of South America.
COMPLEX SOCIETIES ARISE IN NORTH AMERICA In time, several North
American groups, including the Hohokam and the Anasazi (QnE-sPzC), introduced crops into the arid deserts of the Southwest. Later, between 300 B.C. and
A.D. 1400, each group had established its own culture.
Artists rendering
of Tenochtitln,
the Aztec capital
in the middle of
Lake Texcoco.
REVIEW UNIT 5
To the east and west of the Mississippi River, another series of complex societies developedthe Adena, the Hopewell, and the Mississippian. These societies
excelled at trade and at building massive earthen mounds as tombs and as platforms for temples and other buildings. B
These early peoples were the ancestors of the many Native American groups
that inhabited North America on the eve of its encounter with the European world.
A Northwest
powwow, or
multitribal
gathering,
in Cashmere,
Washington
state, 1989.
Gatherings like
these preserve a
500-year cultural
tradition.
MAIN IDEA
Summarizing
B In what ways
did early Native
American societies
leave their mark
upon the
landscape?
KWAKIUTL
NOOTKA
CREE
OJIBWA
(CHIPPEWA)
BLACKFOOT
NEZ PERCE
ARIKARA
CHINOOK
CROW
OTTAWA
ALGONQUIN
MANDAN
SAUK
SHOSHONE
DAKOTA
(Sioux)
KATO
40N
WAMPANOAG
PEQUOT
NARRAGANSETT
HURON
POTAWATOMI
CHEYENNE
KASHAYA
POMO
IOWA
ARAPAHO
PAWNEE
UTE
PAIUTE
KIOWAAPACHE
OSAGE
MONACAN
TUSCARORA
PUEBLO
MESCALERO
APACHE
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
POWHATAN
KIOWA
NAVAJO
ZUNI
PIMA
30N
SHAWNEE
ILLINOIS
KANSA
CHUMASH
HOPI
DELAWARE
SUSQUEHANNOCK
MIAMI
CHICKASAW
CHEROKEE
CHOCTAW
COMANCHE
HITCHITI
JUMANO
SEMINOLE
G ulf of
Mex ic o
N
HUICHOL
20N
a
Tropic of C
ncer
PACIFIC OCEAN
Subarctic
Southeastern
Northwest Coast
Southwest
California
Great Basin
Plateau
Mesoamerican
Plains
Caribbean
Eastern Woodlands
0
0
250
250
TAINO
MAYA
500 miles
500 kilometers
Goods Traded
colored feathers, copper
meat, hides, salt
pottery, blankets, crops
sh oil
hides, buffalo robes
deerskins, bear oil
GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER
1. Region What does this map reveal about North America
in the 1400s?
REVIEW UNIT 7
A desert caravan
approaches the
fabled Songhai
city of Timbuktu.
Like North America, West Africa in the 1400s was home to a variety of long-established, sophisticated societies. From this region, especially from the coasts, originated most of the people who were enslaved and brought to the Americas in the
centuries that followed. Their African traditions and beliefs played a major role in
forming American history and culture. Notable among West African societies in
the late 1400s were three powerful kingdoms: Songhai, Benin, and Kongo.
MAIN IDEA
Making
Inferences
C Why would
Native American
attitudes toward
land ownership
lead to conict
with Europeans?
goods that passed through their realms. In 1067 an Arab geographer in Spain,
named Al Bakri, described the duties (import and export taxes) levied in Ghana.
With such wealth, the rulers who controlled the north-south trade routes
could raise large armies and conquer new territory. They could also build cities,
administer laws, and support the arts and education.
KINGDOMS OF BENIN AND KONGO At its height in the 1500s, Songhais power
extended across much of West Africa. However, it did not control the forest kingdoms along the southern coast. In the 1400s, one of these kingdoms, Benin,
dominated a large region around the Niger Delta. Leading the expansion was a
powerful oba, or ruler, named Ewuare, who developed Benin City.
Within another stretch of rain forest, in West Central Africa, the powerful
kingdom of Kongo arose on the lower Congo (Zaire) River. In the late 1400s,
Kongo consisted of a series of small kingdoms ruled by a single leader called the
manikongo, who lived in what is today Angola.
MAIN IDEA
Comparing
D What did the
kingdoms of West
Africa have in
common?
HISTORICAL
S P O TLIG H T
ISLAM
Islam was founded by the
prophet Muhammad (about A.D.
570632), who worked as a merchant in Mecca, a trading city on
the Arabian peninsula. When he
was about 40, he believed the
angel Gabriel appeared to him
and told him to preach a new
religion to the Arabs. This religion
became known as Islam, which
in Arabic means surrender [to
Allah]. (Allah is the Arabic word
for God.) The followers of Islam
are called Muslims, those who
submit to Gods will.
The words that Muhammad
received from the angel were
recorded by his followers in the
Quran, the holy book of Islam.
The Quran teaches that there is
no God but Allah, and Muhammad
is His Prophet. The Quran also
sets forth certain duties for righteous Muslims, including a series
of daily prayers, the giving of charity, and a pilgrimage to the holy
city of Mecca.
REVIEW UNIT 9
THE PORTUGUESE Mariners from Portugal made trading contacts along the
West African coast starting in the 1440s. These early contacts with Portuguese
traders had two signicant consequences for West Africa and the Americas. First,
direct trade between the Portuguese and the coastal people of West Africa
bypassed the routes across the Sahara and pulled the coastal region into a closer
relationship with Europe. Second, the Portuguese began the European trade in
enslaved West Africans.
THE SOCIAL HIERARCHY European communities were based on social hierarchy, that is, they were organized according to rank. At the top of the hierarchy
were monarchs and the aristocracy, the landowning elite, who held most of the
wealth and power. Members of the clergy also ranked high
in the social order. At the bottom were agricultural laborers,
or peasants.
Few individuals rose above the social position of their
birth. One group that did achieve mobility was the growing
number of artisans and merchants, the people who created
and traded goods for money. There were relatively few
members of this group in the 1400s. However, the prot
they earned from trade would eventually make them a valuable source of tax revenue to monarchs seeking to nance
costly overseas exploration and expansion. E
KEY PLAYER
KING ISABELLA
14511504
Queen Isabella, who played a
central role in European exploration by sponsoring Christopher
Columbuss voyages to the
Americas, made her mark on the
Old World as well. As co-ruler of
Spain, Isabella actively participated in her countrys religious and
military affairs.
In championing Spains
Catholicism, the queen often
fought openly with the pope to
make sure that her candidates
were appointed to positions in
the Spanish church. In addition,
Isabella had tasted battle far
more than most rulers, either
male or female. The queen rode
among her troops in full armor,
personally commanding them in
Ferdinands absence. Whenever
Isabella appeared on a horse,
her troops shouted, Castile,
Castile, for our King Isabella!
10
MAIN IDEA
Making
Inferences
E Why were
merchants able
to achieve social
mobility?
Background
Spices were
important in the
Middle Ages when
European farmers
preserved meat by
packing it between
layers of salt.
Spices helped
disguise the bad
taste of the meat.
History Through
JUNE, FROM LES TRS RICHES HEURES
DU DUC DE BERRY
This miniature painting, representing the month of
June, is a page from a prayer book calendar begun by
the Limbourg brothers around the year 1412. The book
was made for a younger son of the French king, and
tells us a great deal about the aristocratic view of the
European social order.
In the background, the walls of the city of Paris protect
a palace and the royal chapel, buildings that represent
the two most powerful institutions in medieval European
society: church and aristocracy.
In the foreground, peasants mow the elds, in an orderly world of peace and tranquility. However, the image is a
fantasy, an idealized vision painted to please the aristocracy. There is no hint of the peasants grinding poverty
or of the violence of the Hundred Years War that was at
that moment devastating northern France.
MAIN IDEA
Analyzing
Causes
F How did
religious events in
Europe help spur
exploration and
settlement of new
lands?
Vocabulary
medieval: of or
during the Middle
Ages, often dated
from A.D. 476 to
1453
The Reformation led to a religious schism, or split, throughout Europe: those who
supported the Reformation became known as Protestants because of their opposition to the established Catholic church. This split deepened the rivalries among
European nations during the period of North American colonization a century
later and sent some Protestants and some Catholics across the Atlantic to seek
religious freedom. F
EUROPEAN NATIONS TAKE SHAPE During the 1400s, four major nations were
taking shape in Europe: Portugal, Spain, France, and England. Ambitious monarchs extended their reach by collecting new taxes, raising professional armies,
and forming stronger governments. Among their new allies were the merchants,
who paid taxes in exchange for the protection and expansion of trade.
THE RENAISSANCE The 1400s also saw a cultural awakening in Europe, known
as the Renaissance (rDnQG-snsP)a term meaning rebirth of the kind of interest in the physical world that had characterized ancient Greece and Rome. In the
arts, this meant rejecting the at, two-dimensional images of medieval painting
in favor of the deep perspectives and fully rounded forms of ancient sculpture and
painting. Starting in Italy, a region stimulated by commercial contact with Asia
and Africa, the Renaissance soon spread throughout Europe. Renaissance artists
created works of lasting inuence, while European scholars reexamined the texts
of ancient philosophers, mathematicians, geographers, and scientists.
Although their themes were still often religious in nature, Renaissance artists
portrayed their subjects more realistically than had medieval artists, using new
REVIEW UNIT 11
Science
THE CARAVEL
The caravel, the ship used by most early Portuguese and
Spanish explorers, had many advantages over earlier vessels.
It was lighter, swifter, and more maneuverable than other ships.
12
MAIN IDEA
Developing
Historical
Perspective
G How did
Renaissance
attitudes
encourage the
European age of
exploration?
Vocabulary
bureaucracies:
government
departments
staffed with
nonelected
ofcials
MAIN IDEA
Summarizing
H What military
advantages did
Europeans have
over Africans and
Native Americans?
Jewish scholars, to revive the art of cartography, or mapmaking. Although imperfect, the new maps inspired Europeans to start exploring for water routes to Asia.
European monarchs had powerful motives to nance the search for new
lands and trading routes: they needed money to maintain their growing armies
and administrative bureaucracies. By the mid-1400s, Europes gold and silver
mines were running low. So the monarchs of Portugal, Spain, France, and England
began looking overseas for wealth.
Beginning in the 1300s, monarchs invested some of their tax revenues in new
weaponssuch as longbows and cannonswhich they used to limit the power of
the independent nobles. These new weapons, along with the hand-held rearms
that were developed in the 1400s, also gave them military advantages over the
Africans and Native Americans whom they later encountered. H
1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its signicance.
nomadic
Aztec
Anasazi
Pueblo
Iroquois
Benin
Kongo
Islam
Christianity
MAIN IDEA
CRITICAL THINKING
2. TAKING NOTES
For each region and time period
shown, write two or three sentences
to describe how it was affected by
trade and commerce.
3. MAKING INFERENCES
Why do you think other European
nations lagged behind Portugal in
overseas exploration? Support your
reasons with details from the text.
Think About:
the geography of Portugal
the power of monarchs
in the 1400s
the economic and political
situation of European nations
during this time
West
Africa Before the
Portuguese
Trade and
Commerce
Europe After
the Crusades
Reformation
Renaissance
4. ANALYZING CAUSES
What factors do you think
contributed to the thriving trade
system that ourished in West
Africa? Use evidence from the
text to support your response.
5. ANALYZING EFFECTS
What effects did Portuguese trade
have on West Africa?
America
Before Columbus
REVIEW UNIT 13