What You Missed By Not Reading Chapter 1

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featuring a Q&A between cartoon animals and 80s rock legends

Students will learn about...

Native American historyreligionland & propertygender roles

European views of natives

European trade

Slaveryorigins

What did Native Americans believe in?

Native Americans believed...

that spirits were everywhere and in everything (animals/land)in one supreme being (e.g., "spirit master of life"--Iliniouek)in various spiritual ceremonieshallucinogens helped connect with the spirit world

in no ownership of landin dividing land between people to use for the greater

goodin moving when the soil became

depleted/weather/hunting

in having various sexual partnersin divorcein men moving in with the wife's familythat men would hunt/defend and women would

farm/nurturewomen could be involved with "religion" and "politics"

Douglas the sad mustachioed dragon wants to know...

What did Europeans think of Native Americans?

Douglas the sad mustachioed dragon wants to know...

Europeans thought natives...

were uncivilized savageslacked religion/faithweren't utilizing the land (and therefore had a right to it)were weak and lacked freedomlacked rules/lawswere too free

"Colonization" didn't end well for the natives did it?

Douglas the sad mustachioed dragon wants to know...

Heart shaped Hall and Oates has the answer...

No. No it did not Doug. Europeans brought with them diseases that Native Americans were unable to fight off (e.g., smallpox, influenza, measles); they also fought with the natives over land and cultural differences. Sadly, millions of natives died as a result of colonization.

As a matter of fact, at the start of the 15th century there were roughly 15-25 million Native Americans living in North America; that number was down to 250,000 by 1900. Now, we can't be totally certain on the actual numbers, but historians are fairly certain that between 50%-90% of the entire Native American population was eradicated by the start of the 20th century.

What should I know about European trade around the time of colonization?

Karate bear Dave wants to know...

Trade...

was expensivewould take for...ev...er

Before Columbus Europeans...

would sail around Africa in order to trade with Asiawould have to deal with a Muslim middleman

Columbus...

sailed west in order to find a new trade route

was sponsored by the Spanish crownwould receive 10% of the profits, governorship over any new lands, and be named "Admiral of the Ocean Sea"landed in the Caribbean Islands

So when did slavery start and how did slaves get from Africa to the New World?

Karate bear Dave wants to know...

Turtleneck Rick Astley has the answer...

Oddly enough slavery started in Africa. Africans would enslave criminals, debtors and captives of war; but slavery was not the basis of the African economy and slaves had rights.

Well Rick, if Africans have been enslaving Africans way before Europeans, how did Europeans get involved in slavery?

Long story short... sometime in the 15th century Europeans started trading guns with Africans in exchange for Africans. Africa was a continent full of warring tribes/kingdoms who relied on this revolutionary technology to increase their power... the African leaders were more than happy to trade Africans for guns. And to Europeans, well, slave labor was much more valuable than guns.

Read this and then answer the following questions on your blog:

Ron the awkward cat would like you to...

1. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement (why/why not?):

What the Europeans did to the Native Americans/Africans was a necessary price to pay for progress (when dealing with the "African" part of the question focus only on the "Europeans trading guns for Africans" and not "slavery in America").

Students should understand...

Native American culture was in fact very developedspiritualitygender roles

Europeans viewed the natives assavageslacking freedom/too freewasting land

European trade was very expensive and timely pre-Columbus

Slavery originated in Africa but slaves were treated very differently

Europeans would trade guns in exchange for Africans