The 1st Americans Prehistory - 1600

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The 1st AmericansPrehistory - 1600
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So, how did they get here?

• Most likely on a landbridge, or area where two
  continents were connected together
• Two Major Landbridge Theories
• Trans-Atlantic Landbridge
• Bering Strait Landbridge

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Trans-Atlantic Landbridge
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Bering Strait Landbridge

• More commonly accepted theory
• Only 18 miles apart from Russia Alaska
• Rough climate, many rough storms (any Deadliest
  Catch fans?)
• Most likely terrestrial, not oceanic, route

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Bering Strait Landbridge

• Most water trapped in glaciers
• Less water more land
• The landbridge, known as Beringia, was an ideal
  climate for vegetation, hunting, herding
• Some stayed in Alaska most migrated South

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Migration Theories

• Bird patterns
• Sailed Pacific coastline
• Followed herds east, then south via waterways

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Life Flourishes in the 'New' World

• Animals in completely 'natural' habitat
• Abundance of animals hunting flourishes
• More food More babies
• Population increases

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The Bridge is Closed

• After 10,000 years, landbridge covered by water
  due to climate change
• Americas isolated for 11,000 years
• Next confirmed contact Vikings c. 900

Land Bridge Changes - 20,000 BC to Present
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Pre-Columbian Contact?

• Some scholars theorize that there was constant
  contact with Natives
• Cultural diffusion
• Similar religions, agriculture, forms of
  government
• Examples Republicanism Greeks,
  Romans Confederacy Iroquois, Mayans, Aztec

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Sweet Potato!

• Sweet potatoes, native to the Americas, begin to
  be cultivated in Polynesia c.700
• How did they get there?
• Polynesian Trade Triangle

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More in common

• Sweet potatoes first appear in Polynesia around
  700 - 1000 AD
• Unlikely that the plant could successfully travel
  across ocean by natural means
• Chickens also introduced to S. America circa
  1300 - 1400 AD, about 100 years before
  firstEuropeans first arrive
• Chickens closely resemble Asian species in
  American Somoa, unlike European chickens
• For any account, it's not until post-Columbus
  that Europeans and others begin to settle in
  Americas

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So, who are these Native Americans?

• What do they call themselves? -Indians?
  -Natives? -1st Americans?
• Most simply refer to themselves as the name of
  their tribe -Passamaquoddy - Cherokee
  Mohawk
• Inuit (in-yoo-it) - the people
• Heterogenuos
• Roughly 100 million natives before arrivalof
  Euros.

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Diversity??

• Extremely diverse, both in culture
  environment -Newfoundland, Mexico, Brazil,
  Maine, Alaska, New Jersey, Colorado, Florida
• Various forms of govt.- Theocracy, Oligarchy,
  Republic, Confederacy

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Diversity??

• Advanced in science, math, astrology, and
  medicine -over 40 of modern pharmaceutical
  ingredients used in America before 1492!!
• Why is this diversity so important?
• Because America was so large diverse, it
  threatened every medieval teaching assumption
  about human nature, origin, and destiny
• Shockwaves sent through European ethnocentrism

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European Contact A Clash of Cultures

• Europeans (Columbus) arrive on Hispaniola in 1492
• 3 month journey at sea tired, delusional, smelly
• This island does NOT remind them of the India
  from Marco Polo's stories

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Impressions of Each Other

• Europeans?
• Native Arawaks?
• Can not speak each other's language

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A Picture is worth a 1,000 Words
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Montezuma
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Quick Write

• What does this quote mean to you? What does it
  say about the different values of the Europeans
  and the Native Americans?
• Montezuma, Aztec Ruler - What do you do with
  gold? Do you eat it?
• Cortes, Spanish Explorer - No, we have an
  illness only gold can cure.

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North American Tribes

• No standing army
• Small groups
• No official boundaries for property, territory
• Most did not engage in conquest
• Placed freedom of community above the freedom of
  the individual

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Difference in Property Ownership

• Communal property
• Land was a necessity for survival, and thus could
  not be owned by an individual, only a tribe
• Leased land

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European Views of Property

• Life, Liberty, and Property
• Private property part of European culture
• The end of Feudalism marked beginning of private
  property

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KING
NOBLES
LORDS
Peasants / Commoners
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Feudal Contract
LORDS
GIVE SERVICE TO
GIVE PROTECTION TO
Common Folk
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Ask the Class....

• Native Americans and Europeans had vastly
  different views, beliefs, and practices when it
  came to property use and ownership.
• What problems/conflictsmight happen because
  oftheir different beliefs in property ownership?

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Mercantilism

• Europeans believe in mercantilism, this is their
  main reason for wanting to acquire property
• Mercantilism More land More More power

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Make Me a Map

• In order to claim property, Europeans first
  needed to explore and map their discoveries

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Land Conflicts

• Native Americans already inhabit areas being
  claimed
• Europeans claim they have no rights to property
  (no maps, contracts, treaties, etc.) -No proof
  of ownership
• Natives sign contracts, thinking they are
  allowing Europeans to use their land, when they
  actually are selling it to the Europeans

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Key Events in Early Exploration

• Conquistadors (c. 1500)
• Protestant Reformation (1517)
• Spanish Armada (1588)
• Pueblo Revolt (1680)

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