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8

Beginnings to 1763

Cherokee Settlement by Felix Marie Ferdinand Storelli

Pre-Cherokeenecklace, c. 1300

ThreeWorlds Meet

The interactions among Native Americans,Europeans, and Africans shaped the

history of the Americas. Native Americansstruggled to live alongside Europeans

and their ever-growing settlements andcolonies. Africans tried to adapt to the

new continent to which they were broughtinvoluntarily. Studying these early cultural

interactions will help you understand thecenturies of history that followed. The fol-

lowing resources offer more informationabout this period in American history.

Primary Sources LibrarySee pages 1048–1049 for primary source

readings to accompany Unit 1.

Use the American HistoryPrimary Source Document Library

CD-ROM to find additional primarysources about the meeting of NativeAmericans, Europeans, and Africans.

Why It Matters

“Long before they had heard the wordSpaniard, they [Native Americans] hadproperly organized states, wisely orderedby excellent laws, religion, and custom.”

—Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1550

A.D. 300• Hohokam culture arises

in North America

▲

c. A.D. 200• Mayan culture

arises in CentralAmerica

▲

10

ConvergingCultures

Prehistory to 1520

c. 3000 B.C.• Sumerians create

cuneiform writing

Why It MattersBefore 1492, the cultures that arose in the Americas had almost no contact with the rest

of the world. Then, in the late 1300s, momentous events began taking place that would bring the cultures of Europe and Africa into direct contact with the Americas. This contact

had profound effects on the future of the world’s civilizations.

The Impact TodayThe convergence of the world’s cultures in the 1400s launched an era of change that still affects

our lives today.• Many of our foods, customs, and traditions were originally introduced in the Americas as a

result of this cultural contact.• Contact among the cultures of the three continents profoundly changed the society of each.

• American society today includes elements of Native American, European, and African cultures.

The American Vision Video The Chapter 1 video, “America Before the Americans,” examines the early Americas.

c. 1200 B.C.• Early Mesoamerican

civilizations arise

▲

c. 28,000–13,000 B.C.• First humans migrate

to North America fromAsia▲

1750 B.C.• Death of Hammurabi

in the Middle East

▼A.D. 400• Ghana civilization

develops in WestAfrica

▼▼

28,000 B.C. A.D. 250 5001200 B.C.

11

1500s• Navajo arrive in Southwest

of North America

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the American VisionWeb site at tav.glencoe.comand click on ChapterOverviews—Chapter 1 topreview chapter information.

The Landing of Columbus in San Salvador by Albert Bierstadt, 1893

▲

1492• Christopher Columbus

lands in America

▲

c. 1300• Cahokia civilization

collapses

▲▲

c. 610• Muhammed

beginsteachingideas ofIslam

▼1240• Mali empire

expands inWest Africa

1420s• Portugal begins exploring

African coast

▼▼

c. 1130• Drought strikes Native

American cliff dwellingsat Chaco Canyon

c. 1450• Songhai empire

expands inWest Africa

▼

1100 1300 14001200 1500

http://tav.glencoe.com

In 1925 an African American cowboy named George McJunkin was riding along a gullynear the town of Folsom, New Mexico, when he noticed something gleaming in the dirt. Hebegan digging and found a bone and a flint arrowhead. J.D. Figgins of the Colorado Museumof Natural History knew the bone belonged to a type of bison that had been extinct for10,000 years. The arrowhead’s proximity to the bones implied that human beings had beenin America at least 10,000 years, which no one had believed at that time.

The following year, Figgins found another arrowhead embedded in similar bones. In 1927he led a group of scientists to the find. Anthropologist Frank H.H. Roberts, Jr., wrote, “There wasno question but that here was the evidence. . . . The point was still embedded . . . between twoof the ribs of the animal skeleton.” Further digs turned up more arrowheads, now calledFolsom points. Roberts later noted: “The Folsom find was accepted as a reliable indication thatman was present in the Southwest at an earlier period than was previously supposed.”

—adapted from The First American: A Story of North American Archaeology

c. 28,000–13,000 B.C. First humans migrate toNorth America

12 CHAPTER 1 Converging Cultures

✦ 15,000 B.C. ✦ A.D. 1500

The Migration to America

Main IdeaNative Americans are descended fromAsians who probably began migrating toNorth America approximately 15,000 to30,000 years ago.

Key Terms and Namesradiocarbon dating, Ice Age, glacier,Beringia, nomad, agricultural revolution,maize, civilization, obsidian, Aztec, ChacoCanyon, kiva, pueblo, Cahokia

Reading StrategyCategorizing As you read about the firstpeople to live in North America, completea graphic organizer similar to the onebelow by filling in the names of NativeAmerican groups who settled in variousregions.

Reading Objectives• Explain why scientists believe that the

earliest Americans migrated from Asia.• Describe the early civilizations of

Mesoamerica and the early cultures ofNorth America.

Section ThemeGeography and History Scientists theo-rize that Asian hunters migrated to NorthAmerica across a land bridge exposedduring the last Ice Age.

✦ 0

c. 8000–7000 B.C. Agriculture begins

c. 1200 B.C. Early Mesoamericancivilizations arise

c. A.D. 200Maya culturearises

The Asian Migration to AmericaNo one can say for certain when the first people arrived in America. The Folsom dis-

coveries proved that people were here at least 10,000 years ago, but more recent researchsuggests that humans arrived much earlier. Presently, scientific speculation points to a

c. A.D. 1300Cahokia collapses

Region Native American Groups

Mesoamerica

North American Southwest

North American Midwest

Folsom point, lying between animal bones

✦ 30,000 B.C.

period between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago—muchearlier than what scientists believed at the time ofGeorge McJunkin’s discovery.

How long ago the first Americans appearedremains a hotly debated question. Scientists can statemuch more confidently, however, who these earliestpeople were, how they arrived in America, and whattheir lives were like.

To learn the origins of ancient peoples, scientistsstudy their skulls, bones, and teeth. In recent yearsthey have been able to examine DNA—which standsfor deoxyribonucleic acid—a molecule described asthe basic building material of all life on Earth. DNArecovered from the bones of people who died manythousands of years ago enables scientists to trace theirethnic, and thus their geographic, origins. From DNAand other evidence, researchers have concluded thatthe earliest Americans probably came from Asia.

To determine how old objects are, scientists relyon radiocarbon dating. With this method, theymeasure the radioactivity left in a special type of car-bon called carbon 14, which can be taken from frag-ments of wood and bone. Radiocarbon dating worksbecause all living things absorb carbon. Knowing therate at which carbon 14 loses its radioactivity,experts can calculate the age of the objects the car-bon came from.

Studies of the earth’s history offer other importantclues. About 100,000 years ago, the earth began tocool gradually, entering what scientists call a periodof glaciation. Such periods are often called Ice Ages.Much of the earth’s water froze into huge ice sheets,or glaciers. As ocean levels dropped, they eventuallyexposed an area of dry land that connected Asia withthe part of North America that is now Alaska. Theland was named Beringia, after Vitus Bering, a laterexplorer of the region. Scientists think that about15,000 years ago, people from Asia began trekkingeastward across this new land bridge to America insearch of food. Others may also have come by boateven earlier, hugging the shoreline of Beringia.

These early arrivals were probably nomads,people who continually moved from place to place.In this case, the people were hunters who stalkedherds of animals across Beringia. They hunted suchmassive prey as the wooly mammoth, as well as ante-lope, caribou, bison, musk ox, and wild sheep. Wildplants, birds, and fish probably made up an impor-tant part of their diet, too. These early peoples didnot come all at once. Their migrations probably con-tinued until rising seawater once again submergedthe land bridge about 10,000 years ago, creating awaterway that today is called the Bering Strait.

Scientists believe that as the last Ice Age ended, thenomads’ favorite prey, the wooly mammoth, beganto die out, either from too much hunting or becauseof the changing environment. Faced with a dwin-dling food supply, early Americans began to makeuse of other types of food, including fish, shellfish,nuts, and small game.

Explaining How do scientistsdetermine the origins of ancient peoples?

Early Civilizations of MesoamericaAs time passed, early Americans learned how to

plant and raise crops. This agricultural revolutionoccurred between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago inMesoamerica—meso coming from the Greek word formiddle. This region includes what is today centraland southern Mexico and Central America.

The first crops grown in America included pump-kins, peppers, squashes, gourds, and beans. The most

Reading Check

CHAPTER 1 Converging Cultures 13

N

S

EW

500 kilometers0Bipolar Oblique projection

500 miles0

MEXICO

90°W100°W

20°N

10°N

TROPIC OF CANCER

PacificOcean

Gulf of Mexico

M E S O A M E R I C A

YucatánPeninsula

Tenochtitlán

ChichénItzá

Teotihuacán

Monte Albán

Mesoamerica B.C. 500–1500 A.D.

Olmec, c. 500 B.C.

Maya, c. A.D. 750

Toltec, c. A.D. 1200

Aztec, c. A.D. 1500

As the map above shows, the Aztec controlled all of the

Toltec territory as well as part of the Olmec territory.

Interpreting Maps How far did the Aztec empire extend

from north to south? FCAT MA.B.1.4.3, MA.B.2.4.1

period between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago—muchearlier than what scientists believed at the time ofGeorge McJunkin’s discovery.

How long ago the first Americans appearedremains a hotly debated question. Scientists can statemuch more confidently, however, who these earliestpeople were, how they arrived in America, and whattheir lives were like.

To learn the origins of ancient peoples, scientistsstudy their skulls, bones, and teeth. In recent yearsthey have been able to examine DNA—which standsfor deoxyribonucleic acid—a molecule described asthe basic building material of all life on Earth. DNArecovered from the bones of people who died manythousands of years ago enables scientists to trace theirethnic, and thus their geographic, origins. From DNAand other evidence, researchers have concluded thatthe earliest Americans probably came from Asia.

To determine how old objects are, scientists relyon radiocarbon dating. With this method, theymeasure the radioactivity left in a special type of car-bon called carbon 14, which can be taken from frag-ments of wood and bone. Radiocarbon dating worksbecause all living things absorb carbon. Knowing therate at which carbon 14 loses its radioactivity,experts can calculate the age of the objects the car-bon came from.

Studies of the earth’s history offer other importantclues. About 100,000 years ago, the earth began tocool gradually, entering what scientists call a periodof glaciation. Such periods are often called Ice Ages.Much of the earth’s water froze into huge ice sheets,or glaciers. As ocean levels dropped, they eventuallyexposed an area of dry land that connected Asia withthe part of North America that is now Alaska. Theland was named Beringia, after Vitus Bering, a laterexplorer of the region. Scientists think that about15,000 years ago, people from Asia began trekkingeastward across this new land bridge to America insearch of food. Others may also have come by boateven earlier, hugging the shoreline of Beringia.

These early arrivals were probably nomads,people who continually moved from place to place.In this case, the people were hunters who stalkedherds of animals across Beringia. They hunted suchmassive prey as the wooly mammoth, as well as ante-lope, caribou, bison, musk ox, and wild sheep. Wildplants, birds, and fish probably made up an impor-tant part of their diet, too. These early peoples didnot come all at once. Their migrations probably con-tinued until rising seawater once again submergedthe land bridge about 10,000 years ago, creating awaterway that today is called the Bering Strait.

Scientists believe that as the last Ice Age ended, thenomads’ favorite prey, the wooly mammoth, beganto die out, either from too much hunting or becauseof the changing environment. Faced with a dwin-dling food supply, early Americans began to makeuse of other types of food, including fish, shellfish,nuts, and small game.

Explaining How do scientistsdetermine the origins of ancient peoples?

Early Civilizations of MesoamericaAs time passed, early Americans learned how to

plant and raise crops. This agricultural revolutionoccurred between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago inMesoamerica—meso coming from the Greek word formiddle. This region includes what is today centraland southern Mexico and Central America.

The first crops grown in America included pump-kins, peppers, squashes, gourds, and beans. The most

Reading Check


N

S

EW

500 kilometers0Bipolar Oblique projection

500 miles0

MEXICO

90°W100°W

20°N

10°N

TROPIC OF CANCER

PacificOcean

Gulf of Mexico

M E S O A M E R I C A

YucatánPeninsula

Tenochtitlán

ChichénItzá

Teotihuacán

Monte Albán

Mesoamerica B.C. 500–1500 A.D.

Olmec, c. 500 B.C.

Maya, c. A.D. 750

Toltec, c. A.D. 1200

Aztec, c. A.D. 1500

As the map above shows, the Aztec controlled all of the

Toltec territory as well as part of the Olmec territory.

Interpreting Maps How far did the Aztec empire extend

from north to south? FCAT MA.B.1.4.3, MA.B.2.4.1


c. 28,000 B.C.Asians begin migrating to NorthAmerica across the Bering Strait

c. 9000 B.C.Human populationsreach the tip ofSouth America

✦ 1000 B.C.

c. 8000 B.C.Agricultural societies begin tocultivate crops in Mesoamerica

c. 200 B.C.Hopewell culturerises in NorthAmerica

c. 1000 B.C.Adena culture thrivesin North America

✦ 1500 B.C. ✦ 500 B.C.

c. 1500 B.C.Olmec civilization develops inMesoamerica

important crop of all was a large-seeded grass calledmaize, which is known today as corn. Maize wasimportant because it could be ground into flour tomake bread and could be dried and stored for longperiods of time.

The shift to agriculture allowed people to abandontheir nomadic way of life and stay in one place to tendtheir crops and store the harvest. With the discoveryof agriculture came the first permanent villages. Thecultivation of crops also led to many new technolo-gies, including tools for cutting, digging, and grind-ing. The need to store crops probably led to thedevelopment of pottery, and the development of per-manent villages led to new construction technologies.

As more people began to live in one place, morecomplex forms of government developed, as didsocial classes. People learned specialized skills andtraded their products for food and other goods. Asthese village societies became more complex,America’s first civilizations emerged. A civilization isa highly organized society marked by trade, govern-ment, the arts, science, and, often, written language.

The Olmec and the Maya Anthropologists thinkthe first people to build a civilization in Americawere the Olmec. Olmec culture emerged between1500 and 1200 B.C., near where Veracruz, Mexico, islocated today. The Olmec developed a sophisticatedsociety with large villages, temple complexes, andpyramids. They also sculpted imposing monuments,including 8-foot-high heads weighing up to 20 tons,from a hard rock known as basalt. Olmec culturelasted until about 300 B.C.

Olmec ideas spread throughout Mesoamerica,influencing other peoples. One of these peoples con-structed the first large city in America, called

Teotihuacán (TAY·oh·TEE·wah·KAHN), about 30 milesnortheast of where Mexico City is located today. Thecity was built near a volcano, where there were largedeposits of obsidian, or volcanic glass. Obsidian wasvery valuable. Its sharp, strong edges were perfectfor tools and weapons. Teotihuacán built up an elab-orate trade network and greatly influenced the devel-opment of Mesoamerica. The city lasted from about300 B.C. to about A.D. 650.

Around A.D. 200, as Teotihuacán’s influencespread, the Mayan culture emerged in the Yucatánpeninsula and expanded into what is now CentralAmerica and southern Mexico. The Maya had a tal-ent for engineering and mathematics. They devel-oped complex and accurate calendars linked to thepositions of the stars. They also built great templepyramids. These pyramids formed the centerpiecesof Mayan cities, such as Tikal and Chichén Itzá.Marvels of engineering, some pyramids were 200 feet(61 m) high. Topping each pyramid was a templewhere elaborately dressed priests performed cere-monies dedicated to the many Mayan gods.

Although trade and a common culture linked theMayan people, they were not unified. Each city-statecontrolled its own territory. Because of the frag-mented nature of Mayan society, the different citiesfrequently went to war.

The Toltec and the Aztec Despite their frequentwars, the Mayan people continued to thrive until theA.D. 900s, when their cities in the Yucatán were aban-doned for unknown reasons. Some anthropologistsbelieve Mayan farmers may have exhausted theregion’s soil. This in turn would have led to famine,riots, and the collapse of the cities. Others believe thatinvaders from the north devastated the region.

Olmec stone mask

American Civilizations

Mayan cities in the highlands of what is todayGuatemala flourished for several more centuries,although by the 1500s, they too were in decline.

In the meantime, people known as the Toltec beganbuilding a city called Tula. The Toltec were masterarchitects. They built large pyramids and huge palaceswith pillared halls. They were among the first NativeAmericans to use gold and copper for art and jewelry.

About A.D. 1200, Tula fell to invaders from thenorth, known as the Chichimec. One group ofChichimec, called the Mexica, established the city ofTenochtitlán (tay·NAWCH·teet·LAHN) in 1325 on thesite of what is today Mexico City. The Mexica took thename Aztec for themselves, from the name of theiroriginal homeland, Aztlán. Aztlán is thought to havebeen located somewhere in the American Southwest.

The Aztec created a mighty empire by conqueringneighboring cities. Using their military power, theAztec controlled trade in the region and demandedtribute, or payment, from the cities they conquered.They also brought some of the people they con-quered to Tenochtitlán to serve as human sacrifices intheir religious ceremonies. When the Europeansarrived in the 1500s, an estimated five million peoplewere living under Aztec rule.

Examining How did the shift toagriculture allow early peoples to advance beyond meresurvival?

North American CulturesNorth of Mesoamerica, other peoples developed

their own cultures and civilizations. Many anthro-pologists think that the agricultural technology ofMesoamerica spread north into the American

Southwest and up the Mississippi River. There ittransformed many of the scattered hunter-gatherersof North America into farmers.

The Hohokam Beginning in A.D. 300 in what is nowsouth-central Arizona, a group called the Hohokamcreated a civilization that featured a very elaboratesystem of irrigation canals. The Hohokam used theGila and Salt Rivers as their water supply. Theircanals carried water hundreds of miles to their farms.

The Hohokam grew large crops of corn, cotton,beans, and squash. They also made decorative red-on-buff pottery and turquoise pendants, and theycreated the world’s first etchings by using cactusjuice to etch shells. Hohokam culture flourished formore than 1,000 years. In the 1300s, they began toabandon their irrigation systems, most likely due tofloods. Increased competition for farmland probablyled to wars and emigration. By 1500 the Hohokamhad vanished from history.

The Anasazi Between A.D. 700 and 900, the peopleliving in villages in the Four Corners area, whereUtah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico nowmeet, came together to create a civilization. We knowthese people only by the name the Navajo gavethem—Anasazi, or “ancient ones.”

In the harsh desert environment of the AmericanSouthwest, the Anasazi accumulated water for theircrops by building networks of basins and ditches tochannel rain into stone-lined depressions with highearthen banks.

Between A.D. 850 and 1100, the Anasazi living inChaco Canyon in what is now northwest New Mexicobegan constructing large, multi-story buildings ofadobe and cut stone with connecting passageways

Reading Check


✦ A.D. 500 ✦ A.D. 1000 ✦ A.D. 1500

c. A.D. 200 Mayan culture emergesin Mesoamerica

c. A.D. 1200 Population ofCahokia reaches16,000

c. A.D. 1325 Aztec buildTenochtitlán

c. A.D. 300 Hohokam buildirrigation systemsin southwesternNorth America

c. A.D. 1100 Anasazi communitiesform at ChacoCanyon and Mesa Verde

c. A.D. 800 Toltec conquerTeotihuacán and dominateMesoamerica

c. A.D. 1400–1500Incan empirereaches its peak in South America

Toltec statues

Mayan pyramid

and circular ceremonial rooms called kivas. EarlySpanish explorers called these structures pueblos, theSpanish word for villages. The Anasazi built thesepueblos at junctions where streams of rainwater,draining from the canyon, ran together. One particularpueblo in Chaco Canyon, called Pueblo Bonito, cov-ered more than three acres. Its 600 rooms probablyhoused at least 1,000 people. Later, at Mesa Verde inwhat is today southwestern Colorado, the Anasazibuilt equally impressive cliff dwellings.

Beginning around A.D. 1130, Chaco Canyon expe-rienced a devastating drought that lasted at least 50years. This probably caused the Anasazi to abandontheir pueblos. The Mesa Verde pueblos lasted foranother 200 years, but when another drought struckin the 1270s, they too were abandoned. Some anthro-pologists think that epidemics or attacks by hunter-gatherers may have caused the Anasazi civilizationto collapse.

The Adena and Hopewell Cultures About thesame time that the Olmec people began to build acivilization in Mesoamerica, the people living inNorth America’s eastern woodlands were developingtheir own unique cultures. The people of the eastern

woodlands developed woodworking tools, includingstone axes and gouges. They built dugout canoes andmade nets to snare birds. They also made clay potsby stacking up coils of clay.

Beginning about 1000 B.C., the people of the regionbegan burying their dead under massive dome-shaped mounds of earth. The most important earlymound-building culture was the Adena culture, whichlasted from 1000 B.C. to about A.D. 200. The Adena cul-ture originated in the Ohio River valley and spreadeast into what is now New York and New England.

As the people of the Ohio valley began to plantcrops and build permanent settlements between 200and 100 B.C., another new civilization known as theHopewell culture rose to prominence. It featured huge,geometric earthworks to serve as ceremonial centers,observatories, and burial places. The Hopewell culturemysteriously began to decline after A.D. 400.

The Mississippian Culture Between A.D. 700 and900, as agricultural technology and improved strainsof maize and beans spread north from Mexico and upthe Mississippi River, another new culture—theMississippian—emerged. It began in the MississippiRiver valley, where the rich soil of the flood plains

History

Southwestern Cliff Dwellers These abandoned ruins (right) and ritual objects (left) in the southwesternUnited States are testimony to the civilizations of Native Americans who lived on the continent before the arrivalof Europeans. What are some reasons scientists give for the disappearance of the Anasazi civilization?

Writing About History


Checking for Understanding1. Define: radiocarbon dating, Ice Age,

glacier, nomad, agricultural revolution,maize, civilization, obsidian, kiva,pueblo.

2. Identify: Beringia, Aztec, ChacoCanyon, Cahokia.

3. Explain how the agricultural revolutionled to the establishment of permanent settlements.

Reviewing Themes4. Geography and History How did

Asians migrate to America?

Critical Thinking5. Evaluating Choose an early culture

group in Mesoamerica or NorthAmerica. What kind of civilization didthis group develop?

6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizerlike the one below to list the advancesof early culture groups in NorthAmerica.

Analyzing Visuals7. Picturing History Study the photo-

graphs on this page and on page 16.How did the Native Americans in eachregion adapt to their environments?

8. Expository Writing Using library orInternet resources, find more informa-tion on one of the culture groups discussed in this section. Use the infor-mation to write an in-depth reportabout the culture group.

was perfectly suited to the intensive culti-vation of maize and beans.

The Mississippians were great builders.Eight miles from what is now St. Louis,near Collinsville, Illinois, lie the remains ofone of their largest cities, which anthropol-ogists named Cahokia. At its peakbetween about A.D. 1050 and 1250, Cahokiacovered 5 square miles (13 sq km), con-tained over 100 flat-topped pyramids andmounds, and was home to an estimated16,000 people. Most of the people lived inpole-and-thatch houses that spread outover 2,000 acres (810 ha). The largest pyra-mid, named Monks Mound, was 100 feet(30.5 m) high, had four levels, and covered16 acres (6.5 ha). The base of MonksMound was larger than that of any pyra-mid in Egypt or Mexico. A log wall withwatchtowers and gates surrounded thecentral plaza and larger pyramids.

From the Mississippi valley, Miss-issippian culture spread widely, follow-ing the Missouri, Ohio, Red, andArkansas Rivers. Expanding east acrossthe American South, Mississippian cul-ture led to the rise of at least three otherlarge cities with flat-topped mounds—at present-daySpiro, Oklahoma; Moundville, Alabama; andEtowah, Georgia.

Cahokia itself collapsed around A.D. 1300. Anattack by other Native Americans may have causedits destruction, or the population may simply havebecome too large to feed, resulting in famine andemigration. Another possibility is that an epidemic

may have devastated the population. AlthoughCahokia came to an end, many aspects ofMississippian culture survived in the Southeast untilthe Europeans arrived in America.

Explaining By what route didagricultural technology spread from Mesoamerica into North America?

Reading Check

History

Culture Groups Advances

Adena and Hopewell Culture The Great SerpentMound in southern Ohio (above) is an example of theearthen mounds built by the Adena culture. The copperfalcon (right) is a Hopewell design. These artifacts helpscientists learn more about the culture of ancient civiliza-tions. For what did Native Americans use their earthen mounds?

S I B E R I AS I B E R I A

BE

RI

NG

IA

L A U R E N T I D E

I C E S H E E T

C O R D I L L E R A N

I C E

S H E E T

L a n d b r i d g e t h e o r y

C o a s t a l r o u t e

Route between meltingice sheets 14,000 years ago

OnionPortage

Healy Lake

BatzaTena

Carter/Kerr-McGee

Horner

Leonard

RoaringSprings Cave

Marmes

DriftwoodCreek

Shoup

Broken Mammoth

DryCreek

Buhl

Bluefish CaveOld Crow

Fairbanks

TrailCreek

Lindsay

Kennewick

Cooper's Ferry

Fishbone Cave

GallagherFlint Station

Mostin

BoraxLake

Putu

OnionPortage

Healy Lake

BatzaTena

DriftwoodCreek

Broken Mammoth

DryCreek


Fairbanks

TrailCreek


Putu

TangleLakes

GroundHog Bay

Hidden Falls

49-PET-408 Namu

Ugashik

Anangula

Mesa

N

SW

E

Geography&History

Early American SitesAnimal remains

and artifactsHuman remains

and artifacts

More than 13,500 years ago

10,900 to 13,500 years ago

7,000 to 10,900 years ago

Extent of present-day ice cap

Vegetation and glaciation as of 21,000 years ago is shown on map

0 250 500 miles

0 250 500 kilometers

GLACIER

When glaciers formed during the lastIce Age, sea levels fell to expose newshorelines (below, left). As the Ice Ageended, melting glaciers reversed theprocess, raising sea levels and creat-ing the present-day island shoreline(below, right).

Cut marks on this bone from a mammothfound in Blue Fish Cave indicate thatpieces have been intentionally flaked off.The bone is part of mounting evidencesuggesting that people may have lived inBeringia more than 23,000 years ago.

MODERN ISLANDSHORELINE

ICE AGE ISLANDSHORELINE


S I B E R I A

t h e o r y

OnionPortage

Healy Lake

BatzaTena

Carter/Kerr-McGee

Horner

Leonard

RoaringSprings Cave

Marmes

DriftwoodCreek

Shoup

Broken Mammoth

DryCreek

Buhl


Fairbanks

TrailCreek

Lindsay

Kennewick

Cooper's Ferry

Fishbone Cave


Mostin

BoraxLake

Putu

Cooper's Ferry

Carter/Kerr-McGee

Horner

Leonard

RoaringSprings Cave

Marmes

Shoup

Buhl

Lindsay

Kennewick

Fishbone Cave

Mostin

BoraxLake

Milliken

Glenrose

Vermilion Lake

LEARNING FROM GEOGRAPHY1. What geographical event made the

sea level drop to reveal the landbridge between Asia and America?

2. What other ways may settlers havemade their way to the Americas?

agree that the Beringia migrationbegan between 14,000 and 15,000years ago. Recently, however archaeol-ogists have found artifacts that sug-gest people were in America evenbefore the land corridor had opened.The new evidence has led to theoriessuggesting other possible routes tothe Americas.

One theory proposes that peoplecrossed from northeast Asia in skin-covered boats, skirting the shore andlanding occasionally to hunt for foodand water (red arrows at left).Continuing south along the coast,they would have reached SouthAmerica quicker than by any landroute (see inset map below). ThePacific crossing theory suggests thatmigrants from Southeast Asia wentsouth to Australia and across thePacific Ocean, hopping from island to island until they reached SouthAmerica.Yet a third theory, theAtlantic crossing theory, suggests that America’s earliest inhabitantswere from southwestern Europe(modern-day southern France andSpain). Hugging the edge of the glaciers of the North Atlantic, theymay have sailed from Iceland andGreenland down to North America.A skull found in Brazil has alsoprompted some people to considerthe possibility of an early migrationfrom Africa.

Land Bridgeto America

During the last Ice Age,the Bering Strait that nowseparates Alaska and Siberiawas dry land.Across this so-called land bridge, bands

of fur-clad hunter-gatherers from Asiatrekked to the northwestern cornerof America (purple arrows at left).Asthey followed herds of woolly mam-moths and other big game animals,they slowly spread east through a corridor between two glaciers andthen pushed south into the interior of the continent.

These intrepid travelers havebeen held up as the originalAmericans.They flourished on theGreat Plains and the Southwest of the present-day United States. In lessthan a thousand years, their descen-dants had settled most of the hemi-sphere, from the Arctic Circle to thetip of South America.

The intercontinental land bridgethat made this amazing journey possi-ble was up to 1,000 miles (1,609 km)wide. Known as Beringia, it emergedwhen vast ice sheets absorbed thewater, dropping the sea level about300 feet (91 km) to reveal the floor of the Bering Sea. Many scientists

A t l a n t i c

O c e a n

P a c i f i c

O c e a n

Bering Sea

ASIA

AUSTRALIA

SOUTH

AMERICA

AFRICA

EUROPE

Greenland

Iceland

NORTH

AMERICAKennewick

(Clovis) Blackwater Draw CactusHill

Quebrada Tacahuay

Monte Verde

Fells Cave

Land bridge theory

Coastal ro

ute theory

Pacific crossing theory

Atlantic crossingtheory

Extent ofice cap duringthe Ice Age

Area enlarged

Ancient stone points andblades—some made 20,000years ago—have helped archae-ologists develop new theoriesabout the first Americans andwhen they arrived.

The peopling of the Americas was probably amore complex process than migration across theBering land bridge alone. Settlers may havearrived in many waves of migration and by a num-ber of routes. As shown in the map at left, theymay have traveled from Europe or Australia aswell as from Asia.


Did the Natchez people of the southeastern United States descend from the Toltec ofMesoamerica? A Natchez man told this story to a European explorer in the mid-1700s:

“Before we came into this land we lived yonder under the sun (pointing with his fingernearly south-west, by which I understood that he meant Mexico). . . . There our Suns[Mexican rulers were called Suns] had their abode and our nation maintained itself for along time. . . . Our nation extended itself along the great water [Gulf of Mexico] where thislarge river [the Mississippi] loses itself; but as our enemies were become very numerous . . .our Suns sent some of their subjects who lived near this river, to examine whether we couldreturn into the country through which it flowed. The country on the east side of the riverbeing found extremely pleasant, the Great Sun, upon the return of those who had exam-ined it, ordered all his subjects who lived in the plains, and who still defended themselvesagainst the ancients of the country, to remove into this land, here to build a temple. . . .”

—quoted in America in 1492

c. 1300Fighting eruptsamong the Iroquois


✦ 1400 ✦ 1600

The WestAlthough Mesoamerican civilization may have shaped Natchez society, the culture of

most Native Americans developed in response to their environments. By the time thefirst Europeans arrived, Native Americans were fragmented into many small groups

Native AmericanCultures

Natchez earthen pyramid

Main IdeaThe Native Americans of what is todaythe United States had diverse socialstructures and religions.

Key Terms and Nameskachina, Algonquian, Iroquoian, slash-and-burn agriculture, longhouse,wigwam, kinship group, Dekanawidah,Hiawatha

Reading StrategyCategorizing As you read about NativeAmericans, complete a chart like the onebelow by filling in the names of theNative American groups who lived ineach region.

Reading Objectives• Describe the cultures of Native

American groups of the West, the FarNorth, and the Eastern Woodlands.

• Describe the agricultural techniques of the Woodlands Native Americans.

Section ThemeCulture and Traditions The culturaldifferences between Native Americangroups can be explained by studying thegeography where each group lived.

c. 1492Europeans arrivein the Americas

c. 1500People of the western GreatPlains become nomadic

1500sNavajo arrive inthe Southwest

c. 1570IroquoisLeague created

Region Groups

West

Far North

Eastern Woodlands

✦ 1300 ✦ 1500

that had adapted to the different regions of NorthAmerica. Fragmentation in the American West wasespecially severe because of the great variations inthe region’s climate and geography.

The Southwest The descendants of the Anasazi andHohokam lived in small groups in the aridSouthwest. These groups included the Zuni, Hopi,and other Pueblo peoples. The people of theSouthwest depended on corn to survive. Farmerscultivated several species of corn whose seeds couldwithstand the dry soil. With a long taproot, the corngrew deep, reaching moisture far below the surface.The farmers also grew squash and beans.

Among these groups, when a man married, hejoined the household of his bride’s mother. Within thefamily, men’s and women’s work was separate. Menfarmed and herded sheep. They also performed mostceremonies, made moccasins, and wove clothing andblankets. It was women’s work to take care of thehouse. In addition, women crafted pottery and basketsand hauled water. The women also helped the men intwo occupations—farming and constructing houses.

When boys turned six, they joined the kachinacult. A kachina was a good spirit. The Pueblo peoplebelieved kachinas visited their town each year withmessages from the gods. Members of the kachina cultwould wear masks symbolizing the spirits, and theywould dance to bring the spirits to the town.

Sometime around the 1500s, two other peoples—the Apache and the Navajo—came to the region fromthe far northwest of North America. Although manyof the Apache remained primarily nomadic hunters,the Navajo learned farming from the Pueblo peopleand lived in widely dispersed settlements, wherethey grew corn, beans, and squash.

The Pacific Coast Many different groups, includingthe Tlingit, Haida, Kwakiutls, Nootkas, Chinook, andSalish peoples, lived in the lands bordering thePacific Ocean from what is now southeastern Alaskato Washington state. Although they did not practiceagriculture, these groups dwelt in permanent settle-ments. They looked to the dense coastal forests forlumber, which they used not only to build homes andto fashion canoes, but also to create elaborate worksof art, ceremonial masks, and totem poles. They wereable to stay in one place because the region’s coastalwaters and many rivers teemed with fish, particu-larly salmon. Farther inland, between the CascadeRange and the Rocky Mountains, the Nez Perce,Yakima, and other groups fished, hunted deer, andgathered roots and berries.

South of the Nez Perce’s territory,between the Sierra Nevada and RockyMountains, the climate was much drier.There, groups such as the Ute and Shoshonelived a nomadic life. Because the land wastoo arid for farming, they roamed widely insearch of food that was often scarce.

West of the Ute lands in what is today cen-tral California, several groups enjoyed abun-dant wildlife and a mild climate. The Pomo,for example, gathered acorns, caught fish innets and traps, and snared small game andbirds. Pomo hunters, working together,would drive deer toward a spot where thevillage’s best archer waited, hidden and dis-guised in a deer-head mask. Sometimes, thehunters stampeded game into a corral, wherethe animals could be easily killed. When gamewas scarce, however, the Pomo relied uponthe acorn, which they had learned to convertfrom a hard, bitter nut into an edible flour.

The Great Plains When Europeansarrived in America, the people of the GreatPlains were nomads. Before this, up untilabout 1500, people living on the GreatPlains practiced agriculture. Influenced bythe Hopewell and Mississippian cultures,these peoples lived near the Missouri andother rivers, where they could plant cornand find wood to build their homes.

Around 1500 the peoples of the westernplains abandoned their villages and becamenomads, possibly because of war ordrought. Those in the east—including thePawnee, Kansas, and Iowa peoples—contin-ued to farm as well as hunt. Peoples of thewestern plains, such as the Sioux, followedmigrating buffalo herds on foot and lived incone-shaped tents called tepees.

Life for the Sioux and others on the GreatPlains changed dramatically after theybegan taming horses. The Spanish had broughthorses to North America in the 1500s. Over the nextfew centuries, as horses either escaped or were stolen,the animals spread northward, eventually reachingthe Great Plains. There the Sioux encountered andmastered them, and in the process became some ofthe world’s greatest mounted hunters and warriors.

Sioux men achieved fame in the communitythrough bravery in both hunting and war. Sioux war-riors would take the scalps of enemies they hadkilled, but they could gain even greater glory through


Pacific coasttotem pole

1,000 kilometers0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

1,000 miles0

N

S

EW

Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Alaska

Atlantic

Ocean

Arctic

Ocean

Pacific

Ocean

HudsonBay

80°W100°W120°W140°W150°W160°W170°W

50°N

40°N

30°N

20°N

INUIT

INUITDENE

DOGRIB

TLINGIT

HAIDA TSIMSHIAN

SALISH

NOOTKAKOOTENAI

NEZPERCE

PAIUTE

SHOSHONE

POMO

YOKUT

PAPAGO

COCHIMI PIMA

ZACATEC

TOLTEC

NAHUATL(AZTEC) MAYA

COAHUILTEC

APACHE

HOPI

NAVAJO

UTE

COMANCHE

KIOWA

ARAPAHO

IOWA

PAWNEE

CHEYENNEDAKOTA(SIOUX)

OJIBWA(CHIPPEWA)

CROW

ASSINIBOINE

BLACKFOOT

CREE

CHIPWYANINUIT

NASKAPI

MONTAGNAISBEOTHUK

MICMACALGONQUIAN

CREE

ABENAKI

SAUK

ILLINOIS

POTAWOTAMI

SHAWNEE

CHEROKEECHICKASAW

CREEKCHOCTAW

CALUSALUCAYO

CIBONEY SUB TAINOTAINO

TUSCARORA

DELAWARE

PEQUOTSUSQUEHANNOCK

NARRAGANSETIROQUOIS

MOHAWKONONDAGA

CAYUGASENECA

ONEIDA

CHINOOK

ZUNI

MIAMI

North American Cultures, c. A.D. 1300

the dangerous but nonviolent act of “counting coup,”from the French word meaning “blow” or “touch.” Awarrior would charge into a group of the enemy andsimply touch one of them with a stick—as a means ofhumiliating the enemy—then gallop away.

Contrasting How did Native Ameri-cans respond to the different climates of the American West?

The Far NorthTwo different Native American groups made

the Far North their home. The most northern andwidespread were the Inuit, whose territory stretchedacross the Arctic from present-day Alaska toGreenland. The Aleut settled Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

The Inuit and Aleut depended heavily upon hunt-ing for their livelihood. They hunted seals, walruses,whales, polar bears, caribou, musk oxen, and smallergame. Over time, they invented a wide variety ofdevices to cope with the harsh environment, includingthe harpoon, the kayak, the dogsled, boots with ivoryspikes for walking on ice, and special goggles to pre-vent snow blindness. They also were the only NativeAmericans to develop lamps. They used whale oil andblubber for fuel. Occupying a harsh and unforgivingland, they lived in groups—from a single family to afew hundred people—spaced widely apart.

Identifying What technologies didthe Native Americans of the Far North develop?

Reading Check

Reading Check

Northeasternlonghouse

Agriculture

Fishing

Hunting

Hunting-Gathering

Uninhabited

1. Interpreting Maps What was themain food source for the Northwest?

2. Applying Geography Skills Whywere Great Plains peoples nomadic?

Southwest pueblo

The Eastern WoodlandsEast of the Mississippi River and south of the Great

Lakes lay almost a million square miles of woodlands.This landscape supported an amazing range of plantand animal life. Almost all of the Native Americans inthe Eastern Woodlands provided for themselves bycombining hunting and fishing with farming. Deerwere plentiful in the region, and deer meat regularlysupplemented the corn, beans, and squash the peopleplanted. Deer hide was also used for clothing.

The Peoples of the Northeast Most of the peoples of the Northeast were divided into two major lang-uage groups—those who spoke Algonquian(al·GAHN·kwee·UHN) languages and those whospoke Iroquoian (IHR·uh·KWOY·uhn) languages.The Algonquian-speaking peoples included most ofthe groups living in what later became known asNew England. Among these peoples were theWampanoag in Massachusetts, the Narragansett inRhode Island, and the Pequot in Connecticut. Farthersouth in what is today Virginia lived the Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Powhatan Confederacy.Native Americans in New England and Virginia wereamong the first to encounter English settlers.

Other Algonquian-speaking peoples included theDelaware who lived near the Delaware River and theShawnee who lived in the Ohio River valley. Wordsfrom the Algonquian language used in English todayinclude succotash, hominy, moccasin, and papoose.

Stretching west from the Hudson River across whatis today New York and southern Ontario and north toGeorgian Bay were the Iroquoian-speaking peoples.They included the Huron, Neutral, Erie, Wenro,

Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida,and Mohawk.

Many peoples in the Northeast,including the Algonquians of NewEngland and the Iroquoians of NewYork, practiced slash-and-burnagriculture. By cutting down partsof forests and then burning thecleared land, they were left with

nitrogen-rich ashes, which they then worked into thesoil, making it more fertile.

The early peoples of the Northeast used severaltypes of houses. Many villages, enclosed by woodenstockades, had large rectangular longhouses withbarrel-shaped roofs covered in bark. Others builtwigwams. These dwellings were either conical ordome-shaped and were made using bent poles cov-ered with hides or bark.

The Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples shared sometraits. Both made beads of white and purple shells thatthey arranged on strings and wove into belts calledwampum. The designs on the wampum recordedimportant events and agreements. Both groups alsoviewed land as a resource for a group of people to use,and not for one person to buy or sell.

GOVERNMENT

The Iroquois League All of the Iroquoian peopleshad similar cultures. They lived in longhouses inlarge towns, which they pro-tected by building stock-ades. The people lived inlarge kinship groups, orextended families, headedby the elder women of eachclan. Iroquois women occu-pied positions of power andimportance in their commu-nities. They were responsi-ble for the planting andharvesting of crops. Up to 10 related families livedtogether in each longhouse.


History Through Art

Eastern Woodlands Native Americans hunted theabundant deer in the East by disguising themselves incleaned deerskins and sneaking very close to their target.French artist Jacques Le Moyne created this illustration in1591 depicting the practice. What other food sources

did Eastern Woodlands peoples have?

Student WebActivity Visit the

American Vision Web

site at tav.glencoe.com

and click on StudentWeb Activities—Chapter 1 for an

activity on America’s

prehistory.

HISTORY

The Eastern WoodlandsEast of the Mississippi River and south of the Great

Lakes lay almost a million square miles of woodlands.This landscape supported an amazing range of plantand animal life. Almost all of the Native Americans inthe Eastern Woodlands provided for themselves bycombining hunting and fishing with farming. Deerwere plentiful in the region, and deer meat regularlysupplemented the corn, beans, and squash the peopleplanted. Deer hide was also used for clothing.

The Peoples of the Northeast Most of the peoples of the Northeast were divided into two major lang-uage groups—those who spoke Algonquian(al·GAHN·kwee·UHN) languages and those whospoke Iroquoian (IHR·uh·KWOY·uhn) languages.The Algonquian-speaking peoples included most ofthe groups living in what later became known asNew England. Among these peoples were theWampanoag in Massachusetts, the Narragansett inRhode Island, and the Pequot in Connecticut. Farthersouth in what is today Virginia lived the Algonquian-speaking peoples of the Powhatan Confederacy.Native Americans in New England and Virginia wereamong the first to encounter English settlers.

Other Algonquian-speaking peoples included theDelaware who lived near the Delaware River and theShawnee who lived in the Ohio River valley. Wordsfrom the Algonquian language used in English todayinclude succotash, hominy, moccasin, and papoose.

Stretching west from the Hudson River across whatis today New York and southern Ontario and north toGeorgian Bay were the Iroquoian-speaking peoples.They included the Huron, Neutral, Erie, Wenro,

Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida,and Mohawk.

Many peoples in the Northeast,including the Algonquians of NewEngland and the Iroquoians of NewYork, practiced slash-and-burnagriculture. By cutting down partsof forests and then burning thecleared land, they were left with

nitrogen-rich ashes, which they then worked into thesoil, making it more fertile.

The early peoples of the Northeast used severaltypes of houses. Many villages, enclosed by woodenstockades, had large rectangular longhouses withbarrel-shaped roofs covered in bark. Others builtwigwams. These dwellings were either conical ordome-shaped and were made using bent poles cov-ered with hides or bark.

The Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples shared sometraits. Both made beads of white and purple shells thatthey arranged on strings and wove into belts calledwampum. The designs on the wampum recordedimportant events and agreements. Both groups alsoviewed land as a resource for a group of people to use,and not for one person to buy or sell.

GOVERNMENT

The Iroquois League All of the Iroquoian peopleshad similar cultures. They lived in longhouses inlarge towns, which they pro-tected by building stock-ades. The people lived inlarge kinship groups, orextended families, headedby the elder women of eachclan. Iroquois women occu-pied positions of power andimportance in their commu-nities. They were responsi-ble for the planting andharvesting of crops. Up to 10 related families livedtogether in each longhouse.


History Through Art

Eastern Woodlands Native Americans hunted theabundant deer in the East by disguising themselves incleaned deerskins and sneaking very close to their target.French artist Jacques Le Moyne created this illustration in1591 depicting the practice. What other food sources

did Eastern Woodlands peoples have?

Student WebActivity Visit the

American Vision Web

site at tav.glencoe.com

and click on StudentWeb Activities—Chapter 1 for an

activity on America’s

prehistory.

HISTORY


Despite their similar cultures, war often eruptedamong the Iroquoian groups. In the late 1500s, five ofthe nations in western New York—the Seneca,Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk—formedan alliance to maintain peace. This alliance was latercalled the Iroquois League or Iroquois Confederacy.Europeans called these five nations the Iroquois,even though other nations spoke Iroquoian as well.

According to Iroquois tradition, Dekanawidah(DEK·uh·nuh·WEE·duh), a shaman or tribal elder,and Hiawatha, a chief of the Mohawk, founded theLeague. They were worried that war was tearing thefive nations apart at a time when the more powerfulHuron people threatened them all. The five nationsagreed to the Great Binding Law, a constitution thatdefined how the confederacy worked.

Although the 50 chiefs who made up the rulingcouncil of the Iroquois League were all men, thewomen who headed the kinship groups selected

them. Council members were appointed for life, butthe women could also get rid of an appointee if theydisagreed with his actions. In this way, Iroquoiswomen enjoyed considerable political influence.

The Peoples of the Southeast Almost all of thepeople in the Southeast lived in towns. Women didmost of the farming, while the men hunted deer, bear,wildfowl, and even alligator. The Mississippian cul-ture influenced many of the people in the Southeast.The town buildings were arranged around a centralplaza. Stockades usually surrounded the towns,although moats and earthen walls were also used.The houses were built out of poles and covered withgrass, mud, or thatch.

The Cherokee were the largest group in theSoutheast. They lived in what is today western NorthCarolina and eastern Tennessee. About 20,000Cherokee lived in some 60 towns when theEuropeans arrived. The Cherokee and a nearbygroup of people called the Tuscarora were Iroquoianspeakers. Other people in the Southeast included theChoctaw, Chickasaw, Natchez, and Creek. The Creekwere a large group living in what is today Georgiaand Alabama. They lived in about 50 villages thatwere divided into War Towns, where the war leaderslived and men trained for war, and Peace Towns,where the political leaders lived.

By the 1500s, Native Americans had created awide array of cultures and languages. They had alsodeveloped economies and lifestyles well suited to thegeography and climate in their particular corners ofNorth America.

Analyzing How did someWoodlands Native Americans increase their crop yield?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Define: kachina, slash-and-burn

agriculture, longhouse, wigwam, kinship group.

2. Identify: Algonquian, Iroquoian,Dekanawidah, Hiawatha.

3. Explain why five Native Americangroups formed the Iroquois League.

Reviewing Themes4. Culture and Traditions How did geog-

raphy and climate affect the customsand traditions of Native Americangroups?

Critical Thinking5. Analyzing Why were some Native

American groups more nomadic thanothers?

6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizerlike the one below to list NorthAmerican regions and the ways NativeAmericans living in these regionsobtained food.

Analyzing Visuals7. Analyzing Maps Examine the map of

North American cultures on page 22.Which method of acquiring food wasused over the largest geographical areaof North America?

8. Descriptive Writing Take on the roleof a Sioux teenager living in NorthAmerica around 1500. Write a journalentry describing a typical day in yourlife. Be sure to discuss where you liveand how your family obtains food.


Pass the Popcorn Native Americans per-fected the popular American snack of pop-corn at least 5,000 years ago. In order topop, a corn kernel must contain at least14 percent water. When heated, thiswater turns into steam, which expandsand forces the kernel to explode into itsfamiliar shape. Native Americans devel-oped corn with a high water contentsuitable for popping, as well as sweetcorn to eat off the cob and feed cornfor animals. According to legend, pop-corn made up part of the menu at thefirst Thanksgiving feast in 1621.

Region Ways of Getting Food

Among the Native American

groups with the richest oral liter-

ary traditions are the Iroquois.

The Iroquois lived in what is

today New York state. For a long

time, they were a mighty and

warlike people given to fighting

amongst themselves. During the

1500s a shaman, or tribal elder,

named Dekanawidah urged

the Iroquois to stop fighting

and unite to protect themselves

from their common enemies.

Dekanawidah’s ideas led to

the formation of the Iroquois

Confederation of the Five

Nations, commonly known as

the Iroquois League.

Read to DiscoverHow did the Iroquois Confed-

eration organize the Confed-

erate Council?

Reader’s Dictionaryfoundation: basis

unanimous: in complete

agreement

render: make; provide

from The Constitution of the Five Nations


I am Dekanawidah and with theFive Nations’ Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of Great Peace. . . .

The Mohawk Lords are the foun-dation of the Great Peace and it shall,therefore, be against the GreatBinding Law [the constitution] topass measures in the ConfederateCouncil after the Mohawk Lordshave protested against them.

All the business of the Five NationsConfederate Council shall be con-ducted by the two combined bodiesof Confederate Lords. . . . In all casesthe procedure must be as follows:when the Mohawk and Seneca Lordshave unanimously agreed upon aquestion, they shall report their deci-sion to the Cayuga and Oneida Lordswho shall deliberate upon the ques-tion and report a unanimous decisionto the Mohawk Lords. The MohawkLords will then report the standing ofthe case to the Firekeepers [theOnondaga], who shall render a deci-sion as they see fit in case of a dis-agreement by the two bodies. . . .

There shall be one War Chief foreach Nation and their duties shall beto carry messages for their Lords andto take up the arms of war in case ofemergency. They shall not participatein . . . the Confederate Council.

Whenever a very important matteror a great emergency is presented

before the Confederate Council [that]affects the entire body of the FiveNations . . . the Lords of theConfederacy must submit the matterto the decision of their people and thedecision of the people shall affect thedecision of the Confederate Council.

Analyzing Literature1. Recall and Interpret Which of the

Five Nations settles disputes within the

Confederate Council?

2. Evaluate and Connect Which Nation

seems to have the most individual

power?

Interdisciplinary ActivityGovernment Imagine that you and sev-

eral classmates are leaders of five small

nations that are going to join together as

one. In small groups, develop a new con-

stitution under which all members of the

new nation will live.

Among the Native American

groups with the richest oral liter-

ary traditions are the Iroquois.

The Iroquois lived in what is

today New York state. For a long

time, they were a mighty and

warlike people given to fighting

amongst themselves. During the

1500s a shaman, or tribal elder,

named Dekanawidah urged

the Iroquois to stop fighting

and unite to protect themselves

from their common enemies.

Dekanawidah’s ideas led to

the formation of the Iroquois

Confederation of the Five

Nations, commonly known as

the Iroquois League.

Read to DiscoverHow did the Iroquois Confed-

eration organize the Confed-

erate Council?

Reader’s Dictionaryfoundation: basis

unanimous: in complete

agreement

render: make; provide

from The Constitution of the Five Nations


I am Dekanawidah and with theFive Nations’ Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of Great Peace. . . .

The Mohawk Lords are the foun-dation of the Great Peace and it shall,therefore, be against the GreatBinding Law [the constitution] topass measures in the ConfederateCouncil after the Mohawk Lordshave protested against them.

All the business of the Five NationsConfederate Council shall be con-ducted by the two combined bodiesof Confederate Lords. . . . In all casesthe procedure must be as follows:when the Mohawk and Seneca Lordshave unanimously agreed upon aquestion, they shall report their deci-sion to the Cayuga and Oneida Lordswho shall deliberate upon the ques-tion and report a unanimous decisionto the Mohawk Lords. The MohawkLords will then report the standing ofthe case to the Firekeepers [theOnondaga], who shall render a deci-sion as they see fit in case of a dis-agreement by the two bodies. . . .

There shall be one War Chief foreach Nation and their duties shall beto carry messages for their Lords andto take up the arms of war in case ofemergency. They shall not participatein . . . the Confederate Council.

Whenever a very important matteror a great emergency is presented

before the Confederate Council [that]affects the entire body of the FiveNations . . . the Lords of theConfederacy must submit the matterto the decision of their people and thedecision of the people shall affect thedecision of the Confederate Council.

Analyzing Literature1. Recall and Interpret Which of the

Five Nations settles disputes within the

Confederate Council?

2. Evaluate and Connect Which Nation

seems to have the most individual

power?

Interdisciplinary ActivityGovernment Imagine that you and sev-

eral classmates are leaders of five small

nations that are going to join together as

one. In small groups, develop a new con-

stitution under which all members of the

new nation will live.

In 1324 Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali empire, made a pilgrimage to theArabian city of Makkah (Mecca), a place holy to his religion, Islam.

Musa had encouraged scholarship and trade in his realm, establishing hisempire’s leading city, Timbuktu, as a great center of learning. A man namedMahmoud Kati, a native of the city, wrote a book praising Timbuktu for “the solid-ity of its institutions, its political liberties, the purity of its morals, the security ofpersons, its consideration and compassion towards foreigners, its courtesy towardstudents and men of learning and the financial assistance which it provided forthe latter. . . .”

Musa was not the first African king to visit Makkah, but no one there or alonghis route had ever seen anything as dazzling as his traveling party. With him came60,000 men, 12,000 of them personal servants he had enslaved. All were lavishlydressed. His vast caravan included 80 camels carrying 300 pounds of gold each.

Along the route, Musa’s generous spending brought prosperity to the towns he passed andmade his name famous. More importantly, the unmistakable wealth of his empire opened theeyes of North Africans, Arabs, and Europeans to the greatness of the Mali civilization.

—adapted from Wonders of the African World

African Cultures

Main IdeaPeoples in West, Central, and SouthernAfrica developed diverse governmentsand lifestyles.

Key Terms and NamesSahara, savannah, Islam, Muslim,Soninke, mosque, Malinke, Sorko,Yoruba, matrilineal

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about the civi-lizations and peoples of West, Central,and Southern Africa, complete a graphicorganizer similar to the one below by fill-ing in the names of several groups fromeach region.

Reading Objectives• Describe the culture of early West

African kingdoms.• Describe the lifestyles of early Central

and Southern African peoples.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections The interaction ofWest African and European civilizations created changes in both cultures.

A.D. 400West Africa’s first empire,Ghana, arises


West Africa Between the 400s and 1500s, three great empires—Ghana, Mali, and Songhai—rose

and fell in West Africa. These realms grew and prospered in large measure by trading intwo precious commodities—gold and salt.

A.D. 610Muhammad beginsteaching ideas of Islam

1240 Mali expandsits power

1450Songhai empireexpands in West Africa

West Africa Central andSouthern Africa

✦ A.D. 400 ✦ 1450✦ 1100

1009First Songhaistate established

✦ 750

Mansa Musa

GEOGRAPHY

The Lay of the Land Africa’s geography helpeddetermine where these empires arose. West Africais an immense bulge of territory bordered on thenorth by the Mediterranean Sea and on the westand south by the Atlantic Ocean. Its northern andsouthern perimeters are well watered and fertile,but between them lies the vast expanse of theSahara, whose name comes from an ancient Arabicword meaning desert. At the edges of the Sahara,regions of scrub forest and a kind of rolling grass-land called savannah make for a more hospitablelandscape.

From the western tip of the continent, where theAtlantic coast curves eastward to form West Africa’ssouthern edge, a tropical rain forest grows.Civilizations both large and small arose in the rainforest and in the savannah along the Niger River,which cuts through West Africa and long served asits major path for east-west migration and trade.

Other important trade routes in West Africacrossed the vast Sahara. Early merchants bravelytrekked through the desert using oxen, donkeys, andhorses to carry their wares. Although pack oxencould travel a few days without water, long distancetrade was rare and risky. For centuries most tradeacross the Sahara remained local. People living onthe edge of the Sahara would exchange food for saltmined in the desert.

When Arab merchants introduced camels to theregion between the third and fifth centuries A.D., theyrevolutionized trans-Saharan trade. Camels couldcarry more weight than oxen or horses, and theycould walk for a much longer period each day. Mostimportantly, camels could go for over a week withoutwater and could easily withstand the desert’s scorch-ing days and cold nights.

Although crossing the Sahara was still risky,camels enabled merchants to open up long-distancetrade routes across the desert. Gold, ivory, ostrichfeathers, and furs from south of the Sahara soonbecame more available to North Africa and Europe.As the demand for West African products increased,large trading settlements developed at the northernand southern boundaries of the Sahara.

Islam and West African Civilizations Ideas aswell as goods traveled along these African traderoutes. Among the most significant of these were thereligious ideas of Islam.

In the early A.D. 600s, Islam began winning con-verts outside of its native Arabia. By 711 Islam,whose followers are called Muslims, had spread all

the way across northern Africa to the Atlantic Ocean.Through both armed conquest and the sense of reli-gious solidarity that Islam promoted, this new creedwon wide acceptance.

By the 900s, the nomadic peoples who controlledthe trade caravans in the Sahara had become Muslimas well. They in turn carried Islam across the Saharainto the heart of West Africa, where many people liv-ing in the region’s cities and market towns wouldeventually embrace it.

The Lure of Gold West Africa prospered primarilybecause of the gold trade. The Muslim conquest ofNorth Africa greatly increased the demand for goldin the 800s and 900s because the new Muslim statesof the region used gold coins.

Later, in the 1200s, trade between Europe andNorth Africa experienced an economic revival as therulers of Europe shifted from silver and copper coinsto gold coins. By the 1300s, as much as two-thirds ofthe gold in Europe and North Africa had come fromtrade with West Africa.

Explaining Why were camels betterthan horses or oxen for traveling in the desert?

The Empires of West AfricaThe African peoples who lived on the southern

edge of the Sahara were perfectly positioned to benefit from the growing trade in gold. Being inthe middle of the trade, they had access both to thegold from the south and the saltand other goods coming fromthe north. Their ability tocontrol this trade increasedtheir wealth and power andenabled them to build largeempires.

Ghana The earliest empireto emerge was Ghana in theA.D. 400s. Located between thegold mines of Bambuk (justeast of present-day Senegal)and the salt mines of Taghaza inthe Sahara, the Soninke, as thepeople of Ghana were called, con-trolled the region’s trade and builtWest Africa’s first empire. A visi-tor from Spain, Abu Hamid al-Andalusi, wrote of Ghana:

Reading Check

Gourd drum from Africa’s west coast


“In the sands of that country is gold, treasure inex-pressible. . . . Merchants trade with salt for it, takingthe salt on camels from the salt mines. They . . .travel in the desert as it were upon the sea, havingguides to pilot them by the stars or rocks. . . . Theytake provisions for six months, and when they reachGhana they weigh their salt and sell it against a cer-tain unit of weight of gold. . . .”

—quoted in African Kingdoms

After the Muslim conquest of North Africa and theSahara in the 600s and 700s, Ghana’s merchants grewwealthy from the gold and salt trade. Muslim tradersfrom the north found a warm welcome in Ghana’scapital of Kumbi-Saleh, where the ruler even permit-ted them to build their own mosques—Muslimplaces of worship. Ghana’s ruler taxed the trade andbecame very wealthy as well. Most of Ghana’speople, however, were farmers and herders who didnot profit from the trade.

Despite this success, Ghana’s empire had collapsedby the early 1200s. Although Ghana had become aMuslim kingdom in the 1100s, it was hurt by frequentwars with the Muslims of the Sahara. Equally con-tributing to Ghana’s collapse was a change in theenvironment. Ghana’s land was exhausted, and itsfarmers could no longer feed its people.

At the same time that these factors were combin-ing to weaken Ghana, new gold mines opened inBure (located in what is today northeast Guinea).Trade routes to these mines bypassed Ghana to theeast, depriving Ghana’s rulers of the wealth theyneeded to keep their empire together.

Mali East of Ghana, the Malinke people controlledthe upper Niger Valley. This enabled them to directthe gold trade from Bure. With their new wealth and

power, the Malinke conquered theSoninke of Ghana and built theempire of Mali.

By the mid-1300s, the empire ofMali had spread east down theNiger River past Timbuktu andwest down the Senegal andGambia Rivers to the AtlanticOcean. The ruler of Maliwas called the mansa. Thegovernment of Mali wassimilar to that of Ghana. Inboth empires, a bureaucracyof scribes and treasurerslived in the capital city withthe emperor.

In outlying towns, tradi-tional rulers stayed inpower and managed localaffairs. To stay in power, localleaders had to collect tributefrom the farmers and send aportion to the capital. Toenforce the system, the mansakept a large army ready andmade army leaders important officials in his govern-ment. Although the rulers and traders of Mali adoptedIslam, many of the people—especially the farmers—clung to their traditional belief in “spirits of the land,”whom they thought ensured the growth of their crops.

The empire of Mali reached its peak in the 1300sunder the leadership of Mansa Musa and his brotherMansa Sulayman. By that time, new gold mines hadopened in the Akan region (located in what is todayGhana), shifting the trade routes farther east andleading to the rise of Timbuktu as a great center oftrade and Muslim scholarship.

Songhai The Sorko people who lived along themiddle Niger, east of Mali, built the Songhai empire.The Sorko fashioned canoes and fished for a living.They also used their canoes to control the river andtrade with peoples to the north and south, gainingboth wealth and power. By the 800s they had createdthe kingdom of Songhai. Although Songhai had con-tact with Mali, most of its territory never came underMali’s control.

When Mali began to decline, the ruler of Songhai,Sonni Ali, used a powerful army of cavalry backedby a fleet of war canoes to seize Timbuktu in 1468.Until his death in 1492, Ali led his cavalry and warcanoes in a series of wars of conquest. After takingTimbuktu, Ali pushed northward into the Sahara to


Wooden stool from Ghana

Akan memorial head

the Taghazi salt mines, and then he expanded south-ward down the Niger about 200 miles (322 km) tocapture the town of Jenne. According to legend,Sonni Ali’s army never lost a battle.

Sonni Ali’s son and successor proved to be an inef-fectual ruler, and within a year a Songhai generalnamed Askiya Muhammad seized the throne.Askiya Muhammad, a devout Muslim, revivedTimbuktu as a great center of learning, encouragedmore trade across the Sahara, and centralized powerin the Songhai capital, Gao. Visiting Gao in 1513, ayoung Moroccan named Leo Africanus wrote:

“Its inhabitants are rich merchants who travel constantly about the region with their wares. A greatmany Blacks come to the city bringing quantities ofgold with which to purchase goods imported from theBerber country [North Africa] and from Europe, butthey never find enough goods on which to spend all their gold and always take half or two-thirds of ithome.”

—quoted in African Kingdoms

Songhai remained a powerful and wealthyempire until 1591, when Moroccan troops, armed

with guns and cannon, defeated Songhai’s armies.After the battle shattered its army, the Songhaiempire began to decline.

Describing Why did the empire ofGhana begin to decline?

The Forest Kingdoms of GuineaGhana, Mali, and Songhai arose on the wide vis-

tas of West Africa’s savannah, an open landscapethat made it easier to control large territories. Thesituation differed in the dense, almost impenetrableforests of West Africa’s southern coast, an area calledGuinea. There, smaller states and kingdoms, such asIfe and Benin, developed.

Both the Yoruba people of Ife and the Edo people ofBenin were a mixture of hunters, farmers, and tradersliving in small village communities. The rich farmlandsand tropical climate enabled the people of the forestkingdoms to produce surplus food that was then usedto support rulers, government officials, artisans, andartists. Surplus food was also traded for copper andsalt from the Sahara. Ife artists produced some of themost impressive art in West Africa. They carved woodand ivory, made terra-cotta sculptures, and cast metal.

To the south and east of Ife, the Edo peopledeveloped the city-state of Benin in theeleventh or twelfth century. By 1400, Benin wasa large, walled city measuring several milesacross. The ruler of Benin was called the oba. Inthe mid-1400s, Oba Ewuare assembled a

Reading Check

West African Empire This turreted mosque in Djenné, Mali, dates back to the1300s. It still provides a vital worship center in the Sahara, much as it did during thedays of the West African empires. Why did so many empires arise in West Africa?

History


powerful army and built Benin into an empire thatstretched from the Niger delta west to where the cityof Lagos, Nigeria, is located today.

After establishing his empire, Ewuare appointeddistrict chiefs to replace the local rulers he had con-quered. Benin’s leaders also began trading enslavedpeople they had captured in war to the Portuguese inexchange for Portuguese goods. They then sold thePortuguese ivory, pepper, gum, and cotton. Later,when Benin collapsed into civil war in the 1700s,many Benin citizens were themselves enslaved andtraded to the Portuguese.

Examining Why were the statesand kingdoms smaller in Guinea than in West Africa’s savannah area?

Central and Southern AfricaTo the southeast of Benin lay the impenetrable

reaches of the rain forests. There, the dense vegeta-tion made the movement of people and goods

difficult. Many Central African villages,located on rivers, gained a living from fishingbut also grew wheat and raised livestock. Thevillagers had complex family structures andmaintained close links to their communities.Other Central Africans lived nomadic livesand subsisted by hunting and gathering.

Like the Iroquois in America, many CentralAfrican societies were matrilineal. Peopletraced their lineage, or descent, through theirmothers rather than through their fathers.Upon marriage a man became a member of hisbride’s family.

Though women took responsibility forchild rearing and cooking, they also played amajor role in trade. In many places the womenfarmed while the men hunted, fished, andraised livestock. Tribal chiefs were almostalways male, but a chief’s son could not expectto succeed his father. Instead, the son of thechief’s eldest sister inherited the post. Thus,Central and Southern African women of thetime enjoyed far more influence and authoritythan women in many other parts of the world.

The Central African kingdom of Kongooriginated around 1400 in a group of pros-perous villages along the Zaire River, which

flows southwestward through the region to theAtlantic. Fertile soil and abundant rainfall allowedthe farmers who lived in these villages to producefood surpluses. By the early 1500s, the Kongo kingruled over a large region from the Atlantic to theKwango River. South of Kongo, another large king-dom arose among the Mbundu-speaking people inthe region that is now Angola.

Analyzing Why were the peoplesof the Kongo able to produce food surpluses?

SlaveryAs in other parts of the world, slavery existed in

African society. Most of the people enslaved inAfrican societies had been captured in war. A fewwere convicted criminals who had been enslaved aspunishment. Before the Arabs and Europeans beganpurchasing enslaved Africans, most African societieswould either ransom captives back to their people orabsorb them into their own society. With hard workand good luck, enslaved Africans had a chance toimprove their difficult position. In rare instances,they could purchase their freedom by selling pro-duce they had grown or marry into their captor’ssociety and improve their social status.

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Empires of West and Central Africa,c. 1100–1525

1. Interpreting Maps Which African empire claimed themost territory?

2. Applying Geography Skills What natural featuredetermined the location of these empires?

Ghana, c. 1100Mali, c. 1350

Songhai, c. 1492Benin, c. 1450

Kongo/Mbundu, c. 1525Trade route



Checking for Understanding1. Define: savannah, mosque, matrilineal.2. Identify: Sahara, Islam, Muslim,

Soninke, Malinke, Sorko, Yoruba.3. Explain why Songhai became a great

empire.

Reviewing Themes4. Global Connections How did the

concept of slavery change as tradebetween Africa and Europe flourishedin the 1500s?

Critical Thinking5. Comparing How were Central and

Southern African societies differentfrom each other?

6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to list ways of making a living in African cultures.

Analyzing Visuals7. Examining Artifacts Study the West

African artifacts on pages 27 and 28.The skillful handiwork of these itemsindicates a society able to devote timeto artistic pursuits in addition to neces-sary tasks. What two commodities wereessential to the prosperity of WestAfrica?

8. Descriptive Writing Imagine you are aPortuguese explorer in West Africa.Write a journal entry describing a WestAfrican civilization.

African slavery began to change with the arrival ofIslam. Muslims in the Middle East were permitted toenslave non-Muslims. Arab traders began to tradehorses, cotton, and other goods in exchange forenslaved Africans captured in war.

The Gold Trade The gold trade also changedslavery in West Africa. In the early 1400s, the Akanpeople began mining gold and trading it to the Maliempire. To increase their production, they acquiredenslaved Africans from Mali traders for use in clear-ing the land and mining the gold.

In the 1420s, the Portuguese began exploring thewest coast of Africa and trading with West Africanmerchants. They traded European goods for Africangold, ivory, pepper, and palm oil. When Portuguesemerchants arrived on the coast south of the Akanregion, they began to supply the Akan people withenslaved Africans in exchange for gold. They alsopurchased enslaved Africans to work on Portuguesesugar plantations.

Sugar and Slavery Europeans learned about thecultivation and processing of sugarcane from theMuslims during the 1100s. The introduction of sugarchanged the diet of Europeans, who had formerlyused honey and fruit juices to sweeten their foods.Demand for sugar began to rise steadily. Eventuallyabout 20 percent of all calories consumed in Europecame from sugar.

Europeans set up sugar plantations on theMediterranean islands of Cyprus and Sicily. Theselocations, unlike most of Europe, provided the specificclimate and type of soil sugarcane needs to grow well.

Sugarcane cultivation requires heavy manuallabor. The cane is tough and thick and has to bechopped down using heavy knives. A huge amountof sugarcane has to be cut to produce a pound ofsugar. Consequently, plantation owners needed alarge labor force. To get people to do the work, theyeither had to pay very high wages or find a way toforce people to do the work without paying them. Asa result, the introduction of sugarcane farmingencouraged Europeans to use enslaved workers andto enter into the slave trade.

The first enslaved workers used by the Europeanson sugar farms were captured Muslims and Slavicpeoples. Rising demand for sugar in the 1400s ledSpain and Portugal to establish sugarcane planta-tions on the Canary and Madeira Islands off the westcoast of Africa. They then brought in enslavedAfricans to work the fields. The limited amount ofland available to Europeans to plant sugarcane kepttheir participation in the slave trade limited duringthe 1400s. This would change dramatically afterEuropeans introduced sugarcane to America.

As the European demand for slave labor rose fol-lowing the colonization of America, slavery in Africacompletely changed. Traders took enslaved Africansfrom their homes and sent them across the Atlantic.For the most part, enslaved Africans shipped toAmerica had little chance of winning their freedom.Torn from their own cultures, they had to learn acompletely new way of life amid often horrifyingconditions.

Analyzing Why did Europeanswant slaves?

Reading Check

Central andSouthern Africa

West Africa

Ways of Making a Living

In 1095 Pope Urban II, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, was a worried man.The Holy Land, the birthplace of Christianity, was in the hands of Muslims, who, Urbanfeared, would no longer allow Christians access to holy religious sites. To meet thisthreat, Urban organized a great meeting of Christians in Clermont, France. On November18, before a huge outdoor crowd of bishops, knights, and common people, Urban madean impassioned speech, calling on Europeans to seize control of Christianity’s holiest sitesby armed conquest. A cleric known as Robert the Monk recorded the Pope’s speech inthese words:

“Jerusalem is the navel of the world. . . . This is the land which the Redeemer of mankindilluminated by his coming, adorned by his life, consecrated by his passion, redeemed by hisdeath, and sealed by his burial. This royal city, situated in the middle of the world, is nowheld captive by his enemies. . . . It looks for help from you, especially, because God hasbestowed glory in arms upon you more than on any other nation. Undertake this journey,therefore, for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of ‘glory which cannot fade’ inthe kingdom of heaven.”

—quoted in The Discoverers

1095Pope Urban IIlaunches the Crusades


✦ 1230 ✦ 1500

European SocietyPope Urban II’s call to arms launched nearly two centuries of armed struggle to

regain the Holy Land. These expeditions were called the Crusades, from the Latin wordcrux, meaning “cross.” The Crusades helped pry western Europe out of centuries of

European Cultures

Main IdeaThe fall of Rome fragmented Europe.Between 1100 and 1400, several develop-ments helped reunify parts of Europe andencouraged new explorations.

Key Terms and NamesCrusades, Roman Empire, feudalism,manorialism, serf, Renaissance, astrolabe,lateen sail, caravel, Henry the Navigator,Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about Europeanlife in the Middle Ages, complete agraphic organizer similar to the onebelow by filling in the key events thatbrought Europe out of its long isolation.

Reading Objectives• Discuss the impact of the Crusades on

Europe’s contact with the Middle East.• Analyze the impact of the Renaissance

on European exploration.

Section ThemeScience and Technology TheRenaissance helped start a scientific revolution that enabled Europeans toexplore the world.

✦ 1365

1200sMongol empireestablished

1300sRenaissancebegins in Italy

1420sPortugal begins explor-ing the African coast

1497Vasco da Gamareaches India

End of EuropeanIsolation

✦ 1095

Pope Urban II with other Church leaders

isolation and triggered a series of events that revolu-tionized European society and encouraged a newdesire for exploration.

For centuries, the Roman Empire had dominatedmuch of Europe, imposing a stable social and politicalorder. By A.D. 500, however, the Roman political andeconomic system had collapsed, isolating westernEurope from the rest of the world. Trade declined.Cities, bridges, and roads fell into disrepair. Law andorder vanished, and money was no longer used.For most people, life did not extend beyond thetiny villages where they were born, lived, anddied. This period, lasting roughly from 500 to1400, is known as the Middle Ages.

Feudalism With the weakening of centralgovernment, a new political system knownas feudalism developed in westernEurope. Under this system, a king wouldgive estates to nobles in exchange fortheir loyalty and military support.Eventually, the nobles owning the estatesbecame strong enough to assume many of the pow-ers usually held by government. They raised theirown armies, dispensed justice, and even mintedcoins. In return, the nobles swore an oath of loyaltyand promised to provide knights, or mounted war-riors, for the royal army.

By 1100 feudalism had spread throughout much ofEurope. Because the system lacked a strong centralgovernment, warfare occurred frequently in feudalsociety. As a result, most nobles built castles, or forti-fied manor houses, for defense.

The Manorial System The wealth of a feudal lordcame from the labor of the peasants who lived on hisland. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, many peas-ants had worked for large landowners, in partbecause they could not obtain their own land and inpart for protection.

A lord’s manor, or estate, varied in size from sev-eral hundred to several hundred thousand acres.Each manor included the lord’s house, pastures forlivestock, fields for crops, forest, and a peasant vil-lage. While feudalism describes the political relation-ships between nobles, manorialism describes theeconomic ties between nobles and peasants.

In return for protection, peasants provided vari-ous services for the lord. Chief among these werefarming the lord’s land and making various pay-ments of goods. Warfare and bandits made trade dif-ficult, so the manor had to produce nearly everythingits residents needed.

Peasants rarely left the manor. Mostwere serfs, people who were bound to the manor andcould not leave it without permission. Serfs were notconsidered enslaved, however, since they could notbe sold from the land where they lived and worked.Serfs typically lived in tiny, one-room houses withdirt floors, a hole in the roof for a chimney, and one ortwo crude pieces of furniture. Coarse bread, a fewvegetables, and grain for porridge made up theirusual diet. They spent most of their waking hoursworking. Here, an English monk describes a serf’saccount of his day:

“I work very hard. I go out at dawn, driving theoxen to the field, and I yoke them to the plough; how-ever hard the winter I dare not stay home for fear ofmy master; but, having yoked the oxen and made theploughshare and coulter fast to the plough, every dayI have to plough a whole acre or more.”

—quoted in Colloquy

An Improving Economy The economy of westernEurope, devastated since the fall of Rome, began toimprove around 1000. The invention of a better plowallowed farmers to produce more food, as did theinvention of the horse collar, which allowed farmers touse horses instead of oxen. Horses could pull a plowfaster than an ox, enabling farmers to plant more cropseach year.


The Middle Ages This Bayeaux tapestry and aprayer book show art styles in Europe in the MiddleAges. What aspect of life in the Middle Ages doesthe tapestry depict?

History Through Art

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Europe in the Age of Exploration, c. 1100–1400

The ability of many villages to produce a surplusof food helped to revive trade in Europe and encour-aged the growth of towns. Some European rulerssucceeded in building strong central governments.Warfare and raids by bandits decreased, and roadswere soon filled with traders carrying goods to mar-ket. The number of towns in western Europe grewtremendously between 1000 and 1200.

The Church The Roman Catholic Church struggledmightily against the social and political fragmenta-tion of Europe that followed the fall of Rome. In theface of civil chaos and personal insecurity, it pro-moted stability and order. It had its own laws andcourts that dealt with cases related to the clergy, doc-trine, marriage, and morals.

Disobedience to Church laws resulted in severepenalties for common persons and rulers alike—including excommunication for those who commit-ted grave offenses. Excommunication barred peoplefrom participating in Church rites. They also lostpolitical and legal rights.

Describing What was the socialorder in Europe during the Middle Ages?

Expanding Horizons Pope Urban II’s call for Christians to free their reli-

gion’s holy places from the Muslims launched aperiod of profound change in Europe. The Crusades

Reading Check

1. Interpreting Maps Which city was Europe’s overlandgateway to India?

2. Applying Geography Skills Which Eastern empire wascrucial for organizing the movement of goods betweenEurope and China?

Major commercial centers

Major trade routes

helped change western European society by bringingwestern Europeans into contact with the Muslim andByzantine civilizations of eastern Europe and theMiddle East. The western European presence in this region heightened demand at home for Easternluxury goods: spices, sugar, melons, tapestries, silk,and other items. Trade increased in the easternMediterranean area and especially benefited Italiancities such as Venice, Pisa, and Genoa.

By 1200 Italian and Arab merchants controlled muchof the trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Chinese andIndian traders sold silk, spices, and other goods to Arabmerchants, who then moved the goods overland to theMediterranean coast, where they reaped huge profitsselling the goods to Italian merchants.

As trade increased, merchants found that manyArab traders would only accept money in payment.European merchants therefore needed a commonmedium of exchange, and this led to the rise of an econ-omy based on money. The increasing demand for goldfrom Africa to make gold coins during the 1200s was adirect result of Europe’s expanding trade with Asia.

The rise of the Mongol empire in the 1200s helpedto increase the flow of goods from China and otherparts of Asia. Mongol horsemen swept out of centralAsia in the early part of the century and built one oflargest empires in world history. The Mongol con-quest integrated much of Asia’s economy. It brokedown trade barriers, opened borders, and securedthe roads against bandits, encouraging even moretrade between Asia and Europe.

By the 1300s Europe was importing vast quantitiesof spices, silks, and other goods from Asia. To thefrustration of European merchants, however, theMongol empire collapsed in the 1300s, and Asia againseparated into dozens of independent kingdoms andempires. The flow of goods from Asia declined, andthe price of spices, already very high, rose even more.Increasingly European merchants and rulers began tolook for a route to Asia that bypassed the Muslimkingdoms. If they could not reach China by land, theythought, perhaps they could reach it by sea.

Summarizing Describe the effectsof the Crusades on Europe.

New States, New Technology The wealth that could be earned by trading directly

with Asia had given Europeans a compelling motiveto begin exploring the world. Before the 1300s, how-ever, western European rulers and merchants did nothave the ability to look for a direct sea route to Asia.

Feudalism had created a society so fragmentedand torn by war that no western European kingdomhad the wealth to finance exploration and overseastrade. Western Europeans also lacked the technologyto even attempt to reach China by sea. Beginning inthe 1300s, however, a number of major changes tookplace in Europe that enabled the Europeans to beginsending ships into the Atlantic Ocean in search of awater route to China.

GOVERNMENT

Strong States Emerge Western Europeans beganexploring the world in the 1400s and 1500s for severalreasons. First of all, feudalism was in decline. Both theCrusades and trade with Asia had helped to weakenthis system. The rise of towns and merchants had pro-vided kings and queens with a new source of wealththey could tax. They could now use their armedforces to open up and protect trade routes and toenforce uniform trade laws and a common currency

Reading Check

• The Crusades broadened Europeanhorizons and stimulated interest inluxury goods.

• Monarchs of new states wanted toacquire gold to strengthen their rule.

• The Renaissance promoted ascientific and practical view of theworld.

• New technology like the compassand astrolabe made explorationpossible.

• An exchange of goods and ideasbetween Europe and the Americasbegan.

• European diseases devastated NativeAmerican populations; Americandiseases spread to Europe.

• Europeans became increasinglyinvolved in the West African slavetrade.

European explorations brought profound cultural changesto many parts of the world.

Evaluating How did technology play a role in exploration?



CaravelThe caravel was typical ofSpanish and Portugueseship design during the earlyyears of European worldexploration. Ranging inlength from 75 to 90 feet(23 to 27 m), caravels weresuited for sailing along shal-low coastlines. They werenot, however, well suited forvery long voyages, as theycould not carry enoughcrew and supplies. Caravelswere usually rigged withthree or four masts, employ-ing both square and triangu-lar sails. How did thecaravel’s lateen sails helpsailors?

within their kingdoms. Merchants, who stood to ben-efit as well from increased trade, loaned money tomonarchs to further finance their operations.

The revenue from trade meant that Europeanrulers did not have to rely as much upon the nobilityfor support. Increasingly, western European mon-archs asserted their power over the nobles. Theybegan to unify their kingdoms and create strong cen-tral governments. By the mid-1400s, four strongstates—Portugal, Spain, England, and France—hademerged in western Europe. Starting with Portugalin the early 1400s, all four began financing voyages ofexploration in the hope of expanding their trade andnational power.

The Renaissance Spurs Discoveries The politicaland economic changes that encouraged westernEuropeans to begin exploring the world would nothave mattered had they not had the technology neces-sary to launch their expeditions. Fortunately, at aboutthe same time that new unified kingdoms were emerg-ing in western Europe, an intellectual revolutionknown as the Renaissance began as well. This periodbegan around A.D. 1350 and lasted until around 1600.

Renaissance is a French word that means “rebirth.”In this case, it referred to a rebirth of interest in the cul-ture of ancient Greece and Rome. European scholarsrediscovered the works of Greek and Roman philoso-phers, geographers, and mathematicians. They alsobegan to read works by Arab scholars. TheRenaissance started with a renewed interest in thepast, but it quickly became much more. TheRenaissance not only produced spectacular works ofart, it also marked a renewed commitment to learningand helped to trigger a scientific revolution.

New Technology If western Europeans were goingto find a water route to Asia, they needed naviga-tional instruments that would enable sailors to travelout of sight of land and still find their way home.They also required ships capable of long-distancetravel across the ocean. By the early 1400s, Europeanshad acquired these technologies.

By studying Arab texts, western Europeans learnedabout the astrolabe, a device invented by the ancientGreeks and refined by Arab navigators. An astrolabeuses the position of the sun to determine direction,latitude, and local time. Europeans also acquired the

The triangular lateen sail caught windthat blew perpendicular to the ship,providing more manueverability.

1 Ballast stones were placed inthe hull of the ship to providebetter balance.

2

A bilge pump, operated fromthe main deck, removed waterfrom storage areas.

3

lateen sail

ballast stones

bilge pump



Checking for Understanding1. Define: feudalism, manorialism, serf,

Renaissance, astrolabe, caravel.2. Identify: Crusades, Roman Empire,

lateen sail, Henry the Navigator,Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama.

3. Describe how feudalism brought aboutsocial and political order during theMiddle Ages.

Reviewing Themes4. Science and Technology How did

scientific advancements affect geographical knowledge?

Critical Thinking5. Synthesizing How did the Renaissance

lead to European exploration?6. Organizing Use a graphic organizer

similar to the one below to list theeffects of the Crusades.

7. Analyzing If you had been a merchantin Europe during the 1400s, would youhave supported attempts to find newroutes to Asia? Why or why not?

Analyzing Visuals8. Examining Maps Study the map of

European exploration on page 34. Howdo you think the Crusades assisted thedevelopment of the trade routesthroughout the European and Asiancontinents?

9. Descriptive Writing Imagine you are aserf living in Europe in the year 1100.Write a letter to a relative describingyour daily life.

compass from Arab traders. Invented in China, thisdevice reliably showed the direction of magnetic north.

Navigational instruments were important toexploring the world, but not as essential as ships andsails capable of long-distance travel. Late in the 1400s,European shipwrights began to outfit ships withtriangle-shaped lateen sails perfected by Arab traders.These sails made it possible for ships to sail against thewind. Shipwrights also stopped using a single mastwith one large sail. Multiple masts with severalsmaller sails hoisted one above the other made shipstravel much faster. In addition, moving the rudderfrom the side to the stern made ships easier to steer.

In the 1400s a Portuguese ship called the caravelincorporated all these improvements. A caravel was asmall vessel capable of carrying about 130 tons (118 t)of cargo. Because a caravel needed little water to sail,it allowed explorers to venture up shallow inlets andto beach the ships to make repairs. Caravels and shipswith similar technology finally enabled Europe toexplore the world.

Examining What political and technological developments made it possible for Europeans to begin exploring the world?

Portuguese ExplorationSailing their caravels, Portuguese explorers became

the first Europeans to find a sea route to Asia. In 1419Prince Henry of Portugal, known as Henry theNavigator, set up a center for astronomical and geo-graphical studies at Sagres on Portugal’s southwesterntip. He invited mapmakers, astronomers, and ship-builders from throughout the Mediterranean world tocome there to study and plan voyages of exploration.

Beginning in 1420, Portuguese captains beganmapping Africa’s west coast. Portuguese explorersdiscovered the Azores, the Madeira Islands, and CapeVerde. In 1488 a Portuguese ship commanded byBartolomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa,later named the Cape of Good Hope. Nine years later,four ships commanded by Vasco da Gama sailedfrom Portugal, rounded Africa, and then headedacross to India and landed on India’s southwest coast.A water route to eastern Asia had been found.

Describing How did Henry theNavigator help encourage exploration?

Reading Check

Reading Check

Crusades

The CompassWhile the Europeans made numerous advances in

navigation, it was the Chinese who invented one of themore important seafaring tools: the compass. Evidenceof this fact includes a Chinese document from 1086 thattalks of sea captains relying on a “south-pointing needle”to help them find their way in foggy weather. The dateon the document is more than100 years earlier than the firstrecorded use of the compass inEurope. What other inven-tions aided European exploration?

Earlycompasses

In 1492 Christopher Columbus led 90 sailors on a voyage into the unknown. OnSeptember 9 Columbus noted in his log: “This day we completely lost sight of land, and manymen sighed and wept for fear they would not see it again for a long time.” As the voyagedragged on, the sailors grew nervous and began plotting mutiny. Columbus wrote:

“All day long and all night long those who are awake and able to get together never ceaseto talk to each other in circles, complaining that they will never be able to return home. . . . Iam told . . . that if I persist in going onward, the best course of action will be to throw meinto the sea some night.”

Then, on the morning of October 12, the Pinta’s lookout, Rodrigo de Triana, let out ajoyous cry—“Tierra! Tierra!” (“Land! Land!”). At dawn a relieved and triumphant Columbuswent ashore. He believed he had arrived in the Indies—islands located southeast of China.

—adapted from The Log of Christopher Columbus

c. A.D. 1001Vikings reachNorth America


The Vikings Arrive in America Although his historic journey set the stage for permanent European settlement in the

Americas, Christopher Columbus was not the first European to arrive there. Strongarchaeological evidence credits that accomplishment to the Norse, or Vikings, a peoplewho came from Scandinavia.

Europe EncountersAmerica

Main IdeaColumbus sought a sea route to Asia.Instead, he landed in the Americas.

Key Terms and Names Vikings, Christopher Columbus, ClaudiusPtolemy, San Salvador Island, SantoDomingo, Pope Alexander VI, line ofdemarcation, Amerigo Vespucci, Florida,circumnavigate, Columbian Exchange

Reading StrategyOrganizing As you read about Europeanexploration of the Americas, complete achart like the one below by filling in theoutcome of each exploration listed in the chart.

Reading Objectives• Describe Viking and Spanish explo-

rations of North America.• Summarize Columbus’s journeys and

their impact on Native Americans andEuropeans.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections Material exchangesbetween Europe and the Americasyielded both positive and negative results.

✦ 1000 ✦ 1500

1492Christopher Columbuslands in America

1494Treaty ofTordesillas

1522Magellan’s expedition circumnavigates the earth

Exploration Outcome

Vikings

Columbus

Vespucci

Balboa

Magellan

✦ 1525

1475Ptolemy’s Geography revolutionizes mapmaking

✦ 1475

Replicas of Spanishcaravels at sea

Beginning in the late A.D. 700s, Viking ships, calledlongboats, began to venture outward from theirhomeland. Most headed south, some to trade withthe wealthier peoples to the south and others to raidtheir settlements. Still others braved the violentNorth Atlantic Ocean and headed west.

Sometime around A.D. 1000, Leif Ericsson and 35Vikings explored the coast of Labrador and may havestayed the winter in Newfoundland. Although theVikings later tried to set up colonies in the region,their attempts failed, in large part because the NativeAmericans opposed them. Unlike later Europeancolonists, the Vikings did not have better weaponsthan those of the Native Americans, who outnum-bered them. It would take a new series of Europeanexpeditions, embarking in the 1400s and 1500s frompoints much farther south, to establish a permanentEuropean presence in the Americas.

Examining How do we know thatColumbus was not the first European in the Americas?

Spain Sends Columbus WestFor more than 400 years after the Vikings aban-

doned their settlements in North America, there is noconvincing evidence that Europeans traveled to theAmericas. In the mid-1400s, the Renaissancerenewed European interest in the world’s geography.With many European states eager to find a sea routeto Asia, a few persons, including an Italian navigatornamed Christopher Columbus, became interested insailing west across the Atlantic.

A New Geography By the 1400s most educatedEuropeans knew that the world was round. On themost accurate European maps of the time, however,only the Mediterranean, Europe, the Middle East,and Africa’s northern coast showed any detail. Thena book appeared that revolutionized Europeanexploration.

Twelve centuries earlier, a Greek-educatedEgyptian geographer and astronomer namedClaudius Ptolemy had drawn maps of a roundworld, complete with 360 lines of longitude, onedegree apart, projected onto a flat surface. Ptolemy’sGeography was rediscovered in 1406 and printed in1475. It became very influential, and its basic systemof lines of latitude and longitude is still used today.

European mariners also consulted the work of atwelfth century Arab geographer named al-Idrisi,who had traveled widely in the Middle East. In 1154al-Idrisi published a geographical survey of as much

of the world as was then known to Europeans andMuslims. By studying the maps of Ptolemy and al-Idrisi, Western mariners finally obtained a reliableidea of the geography of the eastern African coastand the Indian Ocean.

Columbus’s Plan Despite its usefulness, Ptolemy’sGeography had seriously underestimated the distancethat each degree of longitude represented, making theearth seem much smaller than it actually was. Basinghis own calculations on Ptolemy’s, ChristopherColumbus predicted with wild optimism that “theend of Spain and the beginning of India are not farapart . . . and it is known that this sea is navigable ina few days’ time with favoring wind.”

Columbus sought Portuguese financial backing tomake a voyage across the Atlantic to Asia. In 1484 heapplied to the king of Portugal, who referred him toa committee of experts in navigation. Basing theirdecision on sources other than Ptolemy’s maps, thescholars reasoned correctly that Columbus hadgreatly underestimated the distance to Asia.Furthermore, when news arrived in 1488 thatBartolomeu Dias had successfully rounded thesouthern tip of Africa, the Portuguese lost all interestin supporting Columbus.

Reading Check


Archaeological Evidence This carving of aEuropean figure (left) and Viking calendar(above) prove that the Vikings arrived in NorthAmerica before Columbus. Why were Vikingsunable to colonize successfully?

History Through Art

For the next few years, Columbus tried to winbacking from other rulers. His brother Bartho-lomew, a respected mapmaker in Europe, tried andfailed to secure financing for Columbus’s expedi-tion from the rulers of England and France. Havingno success with them, he spent six years trying topersuade King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ofSpain that his scheme would bring them wealth,empire, and converts to Catholicism. Finally, in1492, after it became clear that Portugal was aboutto reach Asia by going east around Africa,Ferdinand agreed.

TURNING POINT

The First Voyage Columbus and his three ships—the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria—finally leftSpain in August 1492. First he sailed south to theCanary Islands to take on fresh supplies. Then heembarked on the harrowing voyage westwardacross the mysterious and frightening Atlantic until,unaware of where he was, he reached the Caribbeanand landed in the Bahamas, probably on what istoday San Salvador Island. There, for the first time,he encountered the Taino people, a part of theArawak. He called the people Indians because hethought he had reached the fabled Indies. Columbusnoticed that some of the local people had a smallpiece of gold “hanging from a hole which they havein their nose.” After several attempts to ask wherethe gold had come from, he learned that “there was aking who had large vessels of it, and possessedmuch gold. . . .” Columbus then headed deeper intothe Caribbean, determined to find this gold he hadheard about. He found the island of Cuba, and healso found Hispaniola, which today is divided into

the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.Columbus mistakenly concluded that Cuba was thecoast of China and that Hispaniola was Japan.

Columbus and his sailors felt equal parts admira-tion and curiosity toward the Native Americans thatthey encountered in the Bahamas and Hispaniola.Columbus wrote the following of the Arawak:

“[They are] artless and generous with what theyhave, to such a degree as no one would believe buthe who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it beasked for, they never say no, but do rather invite theperson to accept it, and show as much lovingness asthough they would give their hearts.”

—quoted in 500 Nations

For their part, the Arawak must have been equallycurious about the white-skinned, bearded Spanish.Columbus recorded his interpretation of their reac-tion to him and his men:

“The people kept coming down to the beach, call-ing to us and giving thanks to God. Some brought uswater, some food; others, seeing that I did not wish togo ashore, swam out to us. . . . One old man climbedinto the boat, and the others, men and women, keptshouting, ‘Come and see the men who have comefrom Heaven; bring them food and drink.’ ”

—quoted in The Voyage of Christopher Columbus

Like other Native Americans, the Arawak had anintense spiritual life. To Columbus, however, theyappeared to have no religion. He predicted that “theywould become Christians very easily.”


Exploration New technology such as thecaravel and improved mapmaking madeworld exploration easier. What publica-tion helped improve mapmaking?

History Through Art

On Christmas Eve Columbus’s flagship, the SantaMaria, struck a reef off Hispaniola and broke apart.He built a small fort called La Navidad on the islandand left 40 crew members to search for gold while heheaded home with his remaining ships.

In March 1493 Columbus made a triumphantreturn to the Spanish court with gold, parrots, spices,and Native Americans he had brought back. The kingand queen awarded him the titles “Admiral of theOcean Sea” and “Viceroy and Governor of theIndies.” Ferdinand and Isabella listened closely asColumbus promised “as much gold as they want iftheir Highnesses will render me a little help. . . .”

Columbus’s Later Voyages Less than six monthsafter Columbus returned to Spain, he headed backacross the Atlantic, this time with 17 ships and over1,200 Spanish colonists. In November 1493 heanchored off the coast of Hispaniola, only to learnthat the men he had left behind had been killed andtheir fort destroyed. Abandoning the ruins,Columbus founded a new colony, called Isabella.

Many of the colonists were Spanishnobles. They had come expecting toget rich, and they refused to plantcrops or do other manual labor. Theyaccused Columbus of misleading themwith false promises of gold, and manyof them headed back to Spain to com-plain to the government.

Hoping to find more gold and savehis reputation, Columbus beganexploring the interior of Hispaniola.There he discovered enough loose goldto make mining worthwhile. He thendecided to enslave the local Taino andforce them to work for the Spanish,mining gold and planting crops.

In 1496 Columbus headed back toSpain. In the meantime, his brotherBartholomew founded a new townnamed Santo Domingo on the southcoast of Hispaniola closer to the goldmines. Santo Domingo became the firstcapital of Spain’s empire in America.

Columbus made a third voyage toAmerica in 1498. After arriving on thenorthern coast of South America andstudying the volume of fresh water atthe mouth of the Orinoco River, hewrote in his journal, “I believe that thisis a very great continent, which untiltoday has been unknown.” Columbus

made one final voyage in 1502. He mapped theAmerican coastline from Guatemala to Panamabefore turning back.

Describing Describe the results ofColumbus’s voyages.

Spain Claims AmericaAfter Columbus had shown the way, Spanish

explorers and settlers flocked to the Caribbean hop-ing to become wealthy through conquest and trade.By the early 1500s, the Spanish had explored themajor Caribbean islands, established colonies onHispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, andbegun exploring the American mainland.

The Treaty of Tordesillas Before colonizationcould begin, however, Ferdinand and Isabella had toestablish their claim to the new lands. Portugal hadclaimed the right to control the Atlantic route to Asia.To resolve the issue peacefully, they appealed to thepope for a decision.

Reading Check

i n H i s t o r yChristopher Columbus1451–1506

Christopher Columbus was born inGenoa, Italy. Growing up in a bustlingseaport gave Columbus a glimpse ofthe wider world. Although he was theeldest son, he decided to leave his fam-ily’s wool-weaving business and go tosea at the age of 14. After sailing formore than 10 years, Columbus settledin Lisbon, Portugal. His brotherBartholomew soon joined him, and thetwo brothers worked together as map-makers—although Columbus con-tinued to sail as well.

In 1479 Columbus married the sisterof the governor of Porto Santo in theMadeira Islands and moved to theisland to live. There he witnessed theuse of enslaved Africans as forced laboron the sugar plantations. He wouldlater introduce similar practices toAmerica.

In the 1480s Columbus served onseveral Portuguese expeditions toAfrica, where he schooled himself in

Atlantic currents and wind patterns. Inthe process, he developed his theorythat the easiest way to reach Asia wasto sail west across the Atlantic.

Despite his achievements, Columbusremained unhappy. A devout Christian,he believed God had destined him tofind the western route to Asia andspread the Christian faith. He died in1506, frustrated that he had not foundAsia nor been given the honors andrecognition that he felt he deserved.



The ColumbianExchange

European contact with the Americas marked the start of an extensive exchange of plants and animals between the two areas of the world. Dramatic changesresulted from the exchange of plant life,leading to a revolution in the diets ofpeoples in both hemispheres.

Maize (corn), potatoes, many kindsof beans, tomatoes, and pumpkinswere among the products the EasternHemisphere received from theAmericas. Meanwhile, the EasternHemisphere introduced rice, wheat,barley, oats, melons, coffee,bananas, and many other plantsto the Western Hemisphere.

PlantsBy about 1600, American maize and sweet potatoeswere staple crops in China. They contributed to a world-wide population explosion beginning in this period.

AnimalsThe Spanish reintroduced horses to theAmericas. Horses native to the Americas haddied out during the Ice Age. Their reintroductiontransformed Native American societies.

➤

In 1493, to prevent a war between the two rivalCatholic nations, Pope Alexander VI established a line of demarcation, an imaginary north-to-southline running down the middle of the Atlantic. This line granted Spain control of everything west ofthe line and Portugal control of everything east. KingJohn II of Portugal accepted the idea of division, buthe asked for the line to be moved farther west.

The following year the two countries resolvedtheir differences over the dividing line in the Treatyof Tordesillas, named for a town northwest of theSpanish capital, Madrid. The treaty moved the linealmost 1,000 miles (1,609 km) to the west.

The Treaty of Tordesillas did two things. It con-firmed Portugal’s right to control the route aroundAfrica to India, and it also confirmed Spain’s claim tothe new lands of America. Unknowingly, however,the line had been drawn so far west that it cutthrough part of South America, giving much of theland that is now Brazil to Portugal.

Naming America Interestingly enough, Columbusdid not give his name to the new land he had encoun-tered while trying to reach Asia. In 1499 an Italian

named Amerigo Vespucci, sailing under the Spanishflag, repeated Columbus’s initial attempt to sail westto Asia. Exploring part of the coast of South America,Vespucci, like Columbus, assumed that he hadreached Asia.

Vespucci made his next voyage in 1501, this timecommissioned by Portugal. He sailed far southalong the coast of South America, and he eventuallycame to the conclusion that this large land masscould not be part of Asia. Vespucci’s descriptions ofAmerica were published and widely read in Europe. In 1507 a German scholar named MartinWaldseemüller published a study in which he pro-posed that the new continent be named America for“Amerigo the discoverer.”

Continuing Spanish Expeditions Even thoughEurope now knew that the Americas were not a partof Asia, explorers continued to chart the region. In 1513 the Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon, sailed north. According to atraditional story, he was searching for a wondrousfountain that was said to magically restore youth,although historians have disputed whether or not

➤

this was really his motivation. In any event, De Leondid discover a land full of blooming wildflowers andfragrant plants. Before leaving, he gave it the nameFlorida, which means “land of flowers.”

Spanish explorers continued to search for a pas-sage to China and India by sailing west. In 1510Vasco de Balboa, a planter from Hispaniola trying toescape his creditors, stowed away on a ship headingto the American mainland. There he founded acolony on the Isthmus of Panama. After hearing talesfrom Native Americans of a “south sea” that led toan empire of gold, Balboa hacked his way acrosssteamy, disease-ridden jungles and swamps until hereached the opposite coast. There, in 1513, Balboabecame the first European to reach the Pacific coastof America.

In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguesemariner working for Spain, discovered the strait laternamed for him at the southernmost tip of SouthAmerica. After navigating its stormy narrows, hesailed into the ocean Balboa had seen. Its watersseemed so peaceful, or pacific, that Magellan gave thenew ocean that name. Although Magellan died in thePhilippine Islands, his crew continued west, arriving

in Spain in 1522. They became the first known peopleto circumnavigate, or sail around, the globe.

Analyzing Why was the Treaty ofTordesillas important?

The Columbian Exchange The arrival of European colonists in the Americas

set in motion a series of complex interactions betweenpeoples and environments. These interactions, calledthe Columbian Exchange, permanently altered theworld’s ecosystems and changed nearly every culturearound the world.

From America to Europe Native Americans taughtthe Europeans local farming methods and introducedthem to new crops. Corn, which colonists soonadopted as a basic food, traveled back to Spain onColumbus’s very first journey and then spread to therest of Europe. Other American foods, such as squash,pumpkins, beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chili pep-pers, peanuts, chocolate, and potatoes also made theirway to Europe, as did tobacco and chewing gum.

Reading Check

N

S

EW1,000 kilometers0

Mercator projection

1,000 miles0

90°W 60°W 30°W

30°N

ATLaNTIC

OCEaN

SquashQuinine

SweetPotatoes

Avocados

PineapplesPeppers

Turkeys

Corn

Pumpkins

Cassava Peanuts

Potatoes

TomatoesTobacco

CocoaBeans

Beans

Vanilla

CoffeeBeans

Onions Olives

CitrusFruits

Bananas

Grapes

Turnips Peaches &Pears

SugarCane

Grains

Livestock

Honeybees

Disease- Wheat- Rice- Barley- Oats

- Cattle- Sheep- Pigs- Horses

AMERICAS TO EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA

EUROPE, AFRICA, AND ASIA TO AMERICAS

DiseaseEUROPE

AFRICA

NORTHAMERICA

The Columbian Exchange, c. 1500s

Europeans also unwittingly brought many diseases to the Americas, includingmeasles, mumps, chicken pox, and typhus. The consequences were devastating toNative Americans. Some Native American groups suffered a 90 percent populationloss in the first century after European contact. This catastrophe reduced the laborsupply available to Europeans, who then turned to enslaving Africans. Thus slavery inthe Western Hemisphere is traceable in part to the Columbian Exchange.


Perhaps the most important discovery forEuropeans was the potato. European farmers learnedthat if they planted potatoes instead of rye, aboutfour times as many people could live off the sameamount of land. Europeans also adopted manydevices invented by Native Americans, including thecanoe, the snowshoe, the hammock, the poncho, thetoboggan, and the parka.

From Europe to America The Europeans intro-duced Native Americans to wheat, oats, barley, rye,rice, coffee, dandelions, onions, bananas, and orangesand other new citrus fruits, none of which existed inAmerica. Europeans also brought over domestic live-stock such as chickens, cattle, pigs, sheep, and horses.In addition, they introduced Native Americans to arange of technologies, including new types of metal-working, new techniques of shipbuilding, and newforms of weapons, including firearms.

No beneficial European import, however, couldever offset the dreadful effects of an invisible one—the bacteria and viruses that caused such diseases asinfluenza, measles, chicken pox, mumps, typhus, andsmallpox. Native Americans had never experiencedthese diseases and had no immunity. Exposure led tocatastrophic epidemics in which millions of NativeAmericans died.

The movement of disease, however, was not one-way. Native American illnesses made their way toEurope as well, where they infected millions ofpeople. Unlike European diseases, Native Americanillnesses did not lead to a catastrophic collapse of theEuropean population.

No one in Columbus’s time could have imaginedthe course of events in the Americas that have led tothe present day. Some people feel that the tragic epi-demics and military conquests that devastated theNative Americans and the subsequent introductionof slavery overshadow the positive effects of theexchange Columbus initiated. The human dramathat unfolded over the next few centuries, however,also led ultimately to the founding of the UnitedStates. Despite tragic events along the way, thepeople of the United States managed to build anation that honors the worth of the individual andprotects the rights and freedoms of its citizens andothers around the globe. This too is one of the lega-cies of Christopher Columbus.

Describing Why did millions ofNative Americans die as a result of contact with Europeans?

Reading Check

Writing About History8. Descriptive Writing Take on the role

of a sailor on Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas. Write a journal entryabout the Caribbean islands you encounter.


Spain, 1492 ChristopherColumbus proudly carried theSpanish banner of Castile and Leon to the shores of the Bahamas. The flag’scastle represented QueenIsabella. The lion sym-bolized her husband,King Ferdinand.

Checking for Understanding1. Define: line of demarcation,

circumnavigate, Columbian Exchange.2. Identify: Vikings, Christopher

Columbus, Claudius Ptolemy, SanSalvador Island, Santo Domingo, Pope Alexander VI, Amerigo Vespucci,Florida.

3. Explain why the Vikings failed to settlein Newfoundland.

Reviewing Themes4. Global Connections How did the

maps drawn by Ptolemy and al-Idrisirevolutionize European sea exploration?

Critical Thinking5. Analyzing Why did the king and

queen of Spain agree to Columbus’ssecond voyage?

6. Categorizing Use a graphic organizersimilar to the one below to list theexchanges between the NativeAmericans and the Europeans in theColumbian Exchange.

Analyzing Visuals7. Examining Images Study the images

on pages 42 and 43 illustrating theimportance of the Columbian Exchange.Do you think the positive effects of theexchange outweigh the negative effects?Explain your answer.

EuropeansReceived

Native AmericansReceived

Columbian Exchange

Social StudiesSocial Studies

Reading a Time Line

Applying the SkillReading a Time Line Extend the time line on this page

to include at least five additional events that took place

in North America between A.D. 500 and 1000.

Glencoe’s Skillbuilder Interactive WorkbookCD-ROM, Level 2, provides instruction and

practice in key social studies skills.

The Americas

c. 1000Vikings arrive

1270sDrought forces Anasazi

to abandon pueblos

1492Columbus arrives

1095Pope Urban II

launches Crusades

1271Marco Polo journeys

to China

1324Mansa Musa makes

pilgrimage to Makkah

1475Ptolemy’s Geographyis republished

✦ ✦✦✦1400 1410 1420 1430

✦ ✦✦✦1490 1492 1494 1496

45

The World

c. 1300Cahokia collapses; fighting

breaks out among Iroquois

✦✦✦1000–1100s 1200s 1300s 1400s

Why Learn This Skill?When you read a time line, you see not only

when an event took place but also what eventstook place before and after it. A time line can helpyou develop the skill of chronological thinking.Developing a strong sense of chronology—whenevents took place and in what order they tookplace—will help you examine relationships amongthe events. It will also help you understand whatevents caused or were the result of other events.

Learning the SkillA time line is a chart that lists events that

occurred between specific dates. The number ofyears between dates is the time span. A time linethat begins in 1490 and ends in 1500 has a 10-yeartime span. Some time lines are divided into cen-turies. The twentieth century includes the 1900s, thenineteenth century includes the 1800s, and so on.

Time lines are usually divided into smaller seg-ments, or time intervals. If you look at the twotime lines below, you will see that the first time linehas a 30-year time span divided into 10-year timeintervals, and the second time line has a 6-yeartime span divided into 2-year time intervals.

Practicing the SkillSometimes a time line shows events that

occurred during the same time period but in twodifferent parts of the world. The time line aboveshows some events in the Americas and in the restof the world during the same time span. Study thetime line, and then answer the questions.

1 What time span and intervals appear on thistime line?

2 What two important events took place aroundA.D. 1300 in North America?

3 About how many years before Ptolemy’sGeography was republished did the Vikingsreach North America?

4 When did Pope Urban II begin the Crusades?

Skills AssessmentComplete the Practicing Skills questions on

page 47 and the Chapter 1 Skill ReinforcementActivity to assess your mastery of this skill.

Social StudiesSocial Studies

Reading a Time Line

Applying the SkillReading a Time Line Extend the time line on this page

to include at least five additional events that took place

in North America between A.D. 500 and 1000.

Glencoe’s Skillbuilder Interactive WorkbookCD-ROM, Level 2, provides instruction and

practice in key social studies skills.

The Americas

c. 1000Vikings arrive

1270sDrought forces Anasazi

to abandon pueblos

1492Columbus arrives

1095Pope Urban II

launches Crusades

1271Marco Polo journeys

to China

1324Mansa Musa makes

pilgrimage to Makkah

1475Ptolemy’s Geographyis republished

✦ ✦✦✦1400 1410 1420 1430

✦ ✦✦✦1490 1492 1494 1496

45

The World

c. 1300Cahokia collapses; fighting

breaks out among Iroquois

✦✦✦1000–1100s 1200s 1300s 1400s

Why Learn This Skill?When you read a time line, you see not only

when an event took place but also what eventstook place before and after it. A time line can helpyou develop the skill of chronological thinking.Developing a strong sense of chronology—whenevents took place and in what order they tookplace—will help you examine relationships amongthe events. It will also help you understand whatevents caused or were the result of other events.

Learning the SkillA time line is a chart that lists events that

occurred between specific dates. The number ofyears between dates is the time span. A time linethat begins in 1490 and ends in 1500 has a 10-yeartime span. Some time lines are divided into cen-turies. The twentieth century includes the 1900s, thenineteenth century includes the 1800s, and so on.

Time lines are usually divided into smaller seg-ments, or time intervals. If you look at the twotime lines below, you will see that the first time linehas a 30-year time span divided into 10-year timeintervals, and the second time line has a 6-yeartime span divided into 2-year time intervals.

Practicing the SkillSometimes a time line shows events that

occurred during the same time period but in twodifferent parts of the world. The time line aboveshows some events in the Americas and in the restof the world during the same time span. Study thetime line, and then answer the questions.

1 What time span and intervals appear on thistime line?

2 What two important events took place aroundA.D. 1300 in North America?

3 About how many years before Ptolemy’sGeography was republished did the Vikingsreach North America?

4 When did Pope Urban II begin the Crusades?

Skills AssessmentComplete the Practicing Skills questions on

page 47 and the Chapter 1 Skill ReinforcementActivity to assess your mastery of this skill.

• A.D. 1095–late 1400s: The Crusades, the emergence ofstrong states, the Renaissance, and new technology lead toEuropean exploration of Africa and North America.

• 1400s: European explorers discover gold and sugarcane,which leads to the first enslavement of African peoples byEuropeans.

• Late 1400s: Europeans encounter the Americas and latercolonize the area, leading to the expansion of the slave trade.

Europe

• A.D. 400–1450: Various African groups with differentcultures shaped by the environment developed in West,Central, and Southern Africa.

• 1300s and 1400s: The arrival of Arabs and Europeansleads to the beginning of the slave trade; many cultures are destroyed by the demand for enslaved Africans.

Africa

• About 30,000 years ago: Asians beginmigrating to North America.

• Between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago:Agricultural revolution begins.

• A.D. 200–late 1500s: Various NativeAmerican culture groups shaped by theenvironment develop.

• 1500s: Native American groups begin to beaffected by European diseases and militaryconquests.

• 1565–early 1600s: Spanish and Frenchestablish towns in St. Augustine, Quebec,and Santa Fe.

North America

Reviewing Key TermsOn a sheet of paper, use each of these terms in a sentence.

Reviewing Key Facts28. Identify: Dekanawidah, Hiawatha, Henry the Navigator,

Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus,Claudius Ptolemy, Pope Alexander VI, Amerigo Vespucci.

29. How and why did Asians migrate to the Americas during theIce Age?

30. How do scientists determine the age of ancient artifacts?

31. Why did some Native American groups settle in villageswhile other Native Americans groups were nomads?

32. How and why did the arrival of camels affect the trans-Saharan trade in West Africa?

33. How did the religion of Islam spread throughout West Africa?

34. What were four major factors that encouraged Europeanexploration in the 1400s and 1500s?

35. Why were Europeans searching for a sea route to Asia?

36. What new inventions increased agricultural yields in Europein the Middle Ages?

1. radiocarbon dating

2. Ice Age

3. glacier

4. nomad

5. agricultural revolution

6. maize

7. civilization

8. obsidian

9. kiva

10. pueblo

11. kachina

12. slash-and-burn agriculture

13. longhouse

14. wigwam

15. kinship group

16. savannah

17. mosque

18. matrilineal

19. feudalism

20. manorialism

21. serf

22. Renaissance

23. astrolabe

24. caravel

25. line of demarcation

26. circumnavigate

27. Columbian Exchange

Critical Thinking37. Analyzing Themes: Cultures and Traditions How did envi-

ronment, climate, and food supplies influence the lifestyles of

early peoples in the Americas?

38. Forming an Opinion If you had been King Ferdinand or

Queen Isabella, would you have agreed to support

Christopher Columbus on his voyages to the Americas? Why

or why not?

39. Sequencing Use a graphic organizer similar to the one

below to list some major events in the early history of the

Americas.

Practicing Skills40. Reading a Time Line Refer to the time line on page 45.

Then answer the following questions.

a. Interpreting Time Lines What is the time span on this

time line?

b. Synthesizing Information How much time elapsed

between the publication of Ptolemy’s Geography and

Columbus’s landing in America?

Chapter Activities41. Technology Activity: Using a Database Search a library or

the Internet to find information about the early civilizations

in the Americas and in Africa that were discussed in this

chapter. Build a database collecting information about the

cultures of these early civilizations. Include information about

religious customs and traditions, ways of making a living,

government, and housing. Include a map showing the loca-

tions of these civilizations.

42. American History Primary Source Document Library CD-ROM Read “Letter From Christopher Columbus” under

Exploring the Americas. Work with a few of your classmates

to describe how Columbus mapped the region he visited.

Writing Activity43. Portfolio Writing Choose an early civilization described in

the chapter and write a script for a scene in a documentary

about it. Describe the location of the scene, what the scene

would be like, and what the people in the scene would be

doing. Place the script in your portfolio.

Geography and History44. The map above shows the routes of the Crusades. Study the

map and answer the questions below.

a. Interpreting Maps Which Crusade ended at

Constantinople?

b. Applying Geography Skills Which Crusade traveled

almost exclusively by land?

28,000 B.C. 7000 B.C. A.D. 200 1000 1400 1492

Self-Check QuizVisit the American Vision Web site at tav.glencoe.com

and click on Self-Check Quizzes—Chapter 1 to

assess your knowledge of chapter content.

HISTORY

StandardizedTest Practice

Directions: Choose the best answer to thefollowing question.

As part of the Columbian Exchange, Spanish explorers

brought such things as chocolate and tobacco from the

Americas to Europe. What is one thing they brought

from Europe to the Americas?

A Hieroglyphic writing

B Democratic government

C Horses

D Corn

Test-Taking Tip: Eliminate answers that don’t make sense.

For instance, the Spanish had a monarchy, not a democracy.

Therefore, it would be illogical for them to bring democratic

government to the Americas.

500 kilometers0

500 miles0

Azimuthal Equidistant projection

N

S

EW

20°W 0° 20°E 40°E

40°N

30°N

50°N

NorthSea

Black Sea

Mediterranean Sea

AtlanticOcean

SICILY

IBERIANPENINSULA

BRITISHISLES

JerusalemAcre

Constantinople

Venice

Rome

Cologne

Regensburg

Lyon

Lisbon

ParisMainz

PisaGenoa

BrugesDartmouth


Islamic world

Christian world

1st Crusade

2nd Crusade

3rd Crusade

4th Crusade

The Crusades, 1095–1204

FCAT LA.A.1.4.2, MA.D.1.4.1, MA.E.1.4.1

FCAT LA.A.2.4.4

FCAT LA.B.1.4.2

Critical Thinking37. Analyzing Themes: Cultures and Traditions How did envi-

ronment, climate, and food supplies influence the lifestyles of

early peoples in the Americas?

38. Forming an Opinion If you had been King Ferdinand or

Queen Isabella, would you have agreed to support

Christopher Columbus on his voyages to the Americas? Why

or why not?

39. Sequencing Use a graphic organizer similar to the one

below to list some major events in the early history of the

Americas.

Practicing Skills40. Reading a Time Line Refer to the time line on page 45.

Then answer the following questions.

a. Interpreting Time Lines What is the time span on this

time line?

b. Synthesizing Information How much time elapsed

between the publication of Ptolemy’s Geography and

Columbus’s landing in America?

Chapter Activities41. Technology Activity: Using a Database Search a library or

the Internet to find information about the early civilizations

in the Americas and in Africa that were discussed in this

chapter. Build a database collecting information about the

cultures of these early civilizations. Include information about

religious customs and traditions, ways of making a living,

government, and housing. Include a map showing the loca-

tions of these civilizations.

42. American History Primary Source Document Library CD-ROM Read “Letter From Christopher Columbus” under

Exploring the Americas. Work with a few of your classmates

to describe how Columbus mapped the region he visited.

Writing Activity43. Portfolio Writing Choose an early civilization described in

the chapter and write a script for a scene in a documentary

about it. Describe the location of the scene, what the scene

would be like, and what the people in the scene would be

doing. Place the script in your portfolio.

Geography and History44. The map above shows the routes of the Crusades. Study the

map and answer the questions below.

a. Interpreting Maps Which Crusade ended at

Constantinople?

b. Applying Geography Skills Which Crusade traveled

almost exclusively by land?

28,000 B.C. 7000 B.C. A.D. 200 1000 1400 1492

Self-Check QuizVisit the American Vision Web site at tav.glencoe.com

and click on Self-Check Quizzes—Chapter 1 to

assess your knowledge of chapter content.

HISTORY

StandardizedTest Practice

Directions: Choose the best answer to thefollowing question.

As part of the Columbian Exchange, Spanish explorers

brought such things as chocolate and tobacco from the

Americas to Europe. What is one thing they brought

from Europe to the Americas?

A Hieroglyphic writing

B Democratic government

C Horses

D Corn

Test-Taking Tip: Eliminate answers that don’t make sense.

For instance, the Spanish had a monarchy, not a democracy.

Therefore, it would be illogical for them to bring democratic

government to the Americas.

500 kilometers0

500 miles0

Azimuthal Equidistant projection

N

S

EW

20°W 0° 20°E 40°E

40°N

30°N

50°N

NorthSea

Black Sea

Mediterranean Sea

AtlanticOcean

SICILY

IBERIANPENINSULA

BRITISHISLES

JerusalemAcre

Constantinople

Venice

Rome

Cologne

Regensburg

Lyon

Lisbon

ParisMainz

PisaGenoa

BrugesDartmouth


Islamic world

Christian world

1st Crusade

2nd Crusade

3rd Crusade

4th Crusade

The Crusades, 1095–1204


Documents

Three Worlds Meet - PC\|MACimages.pcmac.org/SiSFiles/Schools/AL/ChiltonCounty/... · America’s first civilizations emerged. A civilization is a highly organized society marked by