Native americans descendants of asians (asiatic people) who were nomadic hunters 30,000 years ago
5500 BCE or 8000 years ago around central mexico people learned agriculture (how to grow food) Agriculture is the basis of civilization because people no longer have to travel with packs of animals since they now had a permanent source of food. They grew corn, various types of beans, squash and different types of pumpkins, sunflowers, tomatoes, potatoes, and various herbal grasses.
Central woodlands/ Mississippian culture people- along the Mississippi river livedAdena, Hopewell, and Cahokia were some tribes. They would typically bury their people in burial mounds and buried them with their possessions. These people big traders and traded far and wide across america
Cahokians- were the people who lived around the city of Cahokia and the population had around 40,000 residents. Religious and political leaders were the same and lived in the center temple. Religious ceremonies were performed there along with sacrifices and leaders would decree law from the top. The city collapsed around the 1400s. One theory is disease or that resources in the area were overused and had to move to different tribes. The great sun was the nickname of the king of kings and his only job was to howl a greeting to his brothers the sun at sunrise everyday and they believed that if he didn't the sun wouldn't return
Southwestern people- more of the southwest.3 main cultures.
Hohokan- developed canals and irrigation systems.were able to grow 2 crops of grain a year in the middle of the desert. Also grew 2 crops of cotton and developed their own loom for clothes. made their own clothes and pottery.
Anasazi-lived in portions of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Known for building apartments and religious structures out of adobe (stone and mud packed together) Some of these structures still stand today. Around the 1200s they were wiped out because of some of the worst drought in history. It wouldn't rain for years, drought caused famine and inability to grow food. Enemies realized they had food and began attacking. Because anasazi lived close together they were easily wiped out
Pueblo- learned crops from hohokan and building from anasazi. However they would build in open space learning from mistakes. Pueblo people encountered European people. When Spanish came upon them pueblo had 50 towns and they spoke many languages.towns were connected by stone walkways.pueblo had matrilineal family (power and property controlled by women) most important person was oldest women in household.
Eastern woodlands culture- lived along the east coast.
Algonquian people- 1300-1500 peak of their civilization near chesapeake region- north carolina virginia and maryland.never had more than around 20,000 people. Lived in loosely scattered tribes based on kinship. The village would be all extended family. The most powerful person was Powhatan. He was a chief and at a time was head chief/king of 30 tribes. Pocahontas was his daughter. Had a dozen wives and 96 children; Pocahontas was his favorite. Powhatan confederacy was the group of his tribes. These algonquian people were the first that English people encountered. English people wanted to know how they planted their crops since these people were so healthy. They go to the middle of woods, pull out a torch and start a fire on purpose known as slash and burn agriculture. The land would be barren and the ashes would be rich in nutrients. They would throw seeds out at random and grow everything together
Iroquois- They lived in the area we know as New York. Possibly the most powerful tribe. The population took off around the year 1000. Started to big long houses since the population was growing so fast. Would tie crops to the ceiling. One person always kept the fire going. 5 tribes all united together and agreed to never fight. Due to this their size grew and they became powerful and always had people to trade with. Language and religion was strengthened. League of iroquois/ iroquois confederation. Iroquois women were looked at as models for feminist movements. One woman for Iroquois in each house was the leader (usually the oldest). Iroquois created a gov called council of chiefs kind of like our congress. Women would select who sat on this council. However women couldn't sit on the council. The goal during the war was to kidnap as many as possible. The method of war was called mourning war because they replaced dead members of the family with captives. Captives would “run the gauntlet” as they ran through 2 lines of iroquois that were beating them. Survivors were tied to a post for days and people would taunt them. The new family would watch all of this and see how they perform. If the family wanted to “adopt” you the chief would cut you down and you would be treated fairly.
West african empires- 3 empires: Ghana 6th-11 century Mali1200s-1500s Songhai 1500s.
Ghana- rich in gold, ivory and salt. Wealthy due to trade.
Mali- empire rose when Ghana fell. The king was named Mansa Musa who was believed to be the richest man on earth. Invasions caused it to fall
Songhai- overpowered and swallowed the Mali empire.
The average person in west africa grew rice and raised goats for milk and meat.
Europe in the middle ages (5th-15th centuries)- The great famine (1315-1322) was an extremely wet spring and summer leading to abnormally cool temps and grain could not grow properly leading to food shortage. This caused livestock to also starve to death. Millions died of starvation. Some believe as many as 1/10th of Europeans died. Bubonic plague ravaged the population. Fleas bite rats to carry disease then would transfer to humans. 75-200 million people died or 30-60% of the population. The area where you were bitten would turn black.
85-90% of people lived as peasants in poverty and were often malnourished. Life expectancy was around 30 and most babies died in infancy. Europe had a very hierarchical society. Vikings terrorized Europe. They rowed ships to coastal areas and attacked towns. They would kill, rape, steal, burn, take women, steal items. Vikings controlled all sea routes so European people couldn't trade. People would put valuables in chests and when the vikings came they would give the vikings the chest so they wouldn't disturb the village. The chests were called dangled.
Europe's transformation- became better farmers and were able to grow more crops and people became healthier. This caused people to fight off diseases and birth healthier babies and life expectancy began to rise. Farming caused an interest in trade. Farmers meeting and trading caused more towns and cities. Wool became popular and became the product that led England to becoming a world power. The enclosure movement was when the lords pushed peasants off of shared property in order to claim land; however they had to push thousands off of land. The lords then built a fence around the property. However because this led to more sheep England became a very rich country.
The renaissance 14th-17th centuries- a time where people became interested in things that were never thought before. Explosion of cultural curiosity, people were thinking about art and science. Great age of map and ship making.
Protestant reformation- for over 1000 there was only the catholic church and it wasn't disputed. However when the church became wealthy it became very corrupt because people would donate to their church and they were the only one. People would buy and indulge where they would pay for sins they have yet to commit.
Protestant reformation- protest of the abuses of the catholic church. In 1517 Martin Luther, a German monk and true catholic, became a loud critic of the abuses of the church. In 1534 England left the catholic church.
Portuguese- “for god, land, and country" They found fields and fields of sugar during exploration in the Atlantic. The Portuguese began trading in west africa and learned of the slave trade. West African slavery was based on conflict and it was not for life. These slaves were allowed to work for wealth and could buy their freedom. This slavery would also not pass on to the children of slaves. If a child was born from a slave mother it doesn't mean the child would become a slave so the slavery stopped in the next generation. When the portuguese traded with africans slaves this is where the concept of people with different skin color are slaves came from and this slavery was for life and it would pass on to the children.
Christopher Columbus- born in italy as we know today yet did all his work for spain and was loyal to spain his entire life. Columbus thought that if the world was indeed round then he sailed west he would arrive in Asia. Columbus was given 3 ships and 90 sailors by Spain. He set off with a ship full of convicts in 1492. He came upon the place we know as the Bahamas and believed he was in India. He would visit what we know as Cuba and thought it was China and when he went to Haiti he thought it was Japan. Columbus took advantage of the nature of the natives as they believed him to be some kind of god. Columbus begins to seize the native lands and has them search for gold and silver as slaves. If quotas weren't met for gold their hands would be cut off. Columbus would take 4 voyages in his lifetime all backed by the king of Spain. Even when natives would fight back and had numbers advantage the native weapons could not damage the armor of the Spanish people. Also the Spanish would bring horses to battle and the natives have never seen something like that. The Spanish's number one motive for conquering the new world was gold and wealth and their second mission was to convert people to catholicism. It was converted or else for the native people. Once they had conquered the Caribbean the Spanish began bringing slaves from west Africa. They also turned towards Mexico and South America. Columbus went to his de...
