The First Americans

The first people came to the Americas from Asia by walking across the Bering Strait (which was a bridge during the Ice Age). New evidence shows this might have happened as early as 40,000 years ago. When ocean levels dropped, it created land between Russia and Alaska that people could cross.

Life Before Columbus

Before Europeans came, many different societies lived in the Americas:

• They hunted, gathered, and farmed for food

  • They lived in many different ways, some in longhouses, some in igloos, some in tipis, etc.

• They built advanced civilizations like the Maya, Aztec, and Inca

  Fun Facts

  • Aztecs invented public school.
  • Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire

• They had large trade networks

• Between 50-100 million people lived across North and South America

The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was the exchange of goods, people, and diseases between the “Old World” (Eurasia and Africa) and “New World” (the Americas) after 1492:

From the Americas to Old World: Potatoes, tomatoes, corn, chocolate, tobacco

From the Old World to the Americas: Wheat, sugar, horses, cattle, pigs, and diseases

The Great Dying

The worst part of the Columbian Exchange was disease. Native Americans had no immunity to Old World diseases like smallpox. Historians estimate that 50-90% of the native population died within 100 years of contact. Many historians think it was closer to 90-95%. This was one of the biggest population disasters in human history.

Columbus’s Arrival

Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492. He landed in the Bahamas on October 12th. We read his journal where he described meeting the Guanahani. He talked about how their weapons were simple and they were good at repeating what he said, so he concluded that they would make good slaves.

Who Paid for Columbus’s Voyage?

Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sponsored Columbus’s voyage. Portugal refused to pay for his trip because:

• Their experts thought Columbus was wrong about the distance to Asia. Their experts were correct. Columbus would have starved to death on the ocean. That’s why some people believe he knew he was not going to Asia, but he did not want others to know.
• They were already getting rich sailing around Africa
• Spain had just finished pushing Muslims and Jews out of their country and wanted to compete for wealth

Africa Was Rich, Europe Was Poor

I surprised you when I told you about how Africa was rich and Europe was poor before the Columbian Exchange. African kingdoms like Mali had huge amounts of gold. When Mali’s ruler Mansa Musa converted to Islam (i.e., he became a Muslim) and went to Mecca in the 1320s, he brought so much gold that he affected the economies in the cities he visited. European maps from that time often show African kings sitting on golden thrones.

Religion Was Everything

You can’t understand this time period without understanding how important religion was. Europeans believed God wanted them to spread Christianity to other parts of the world. This religious motivation was a big reason for exploration and colonization.

SCOAPS

Use SCOAPS to analyze sources:

• Subject: What is the source about?
• Critique: Who might disagree with this source?
• Occasion: What was happening when this was made?
• Audience: Who was this made for?
• Purpose: Why was this created?
• Speaker: Who made this? What do we know about them?

This helps us think critically about historical evidence.