AS+Chapter+1+Notes

Chapter 1
 * Several Billion Years ago, the Earth came into being
 * Recorded history of the western world started 6,000 years ago
 * America was discovered about 500 years ago
 * Great Ice age started 2 million years ago.
 * People came to the Americas by land
 * A land bridge connected Eurasia with America
 * The bridge melted 10,000 years ago, stopping immigration
 * By the time Europeans arrived in America 1492, some 54 million people lived on the two continents
 * There were 2,000 languages, countless tribes, religions, etc.
 * Agriculture was key in sophistication of Native American culture.
 * The time when cultures got the corn planting, that determined development of societies (South/Mexico first, then North Midwest)
 * Corn, Squash and beans were key in South Eastern tribes
 * Many cultures were matri-linear, because them men were always hunting, so women stayed.
 * Europeans believed humans had dominion over Earth, as Native Americans did not.
 * Norse explorers came across present day Canada in 1000, but abandoned their settlement.
 * Many luxuries from Asia were brought back to Europe, but were very expensive b/c of distance.
 * Discovery of easy way to explore Africa (Ships that could sail up and down coast) led to gold, slaves, and eagerness for more.
 * In 1498, explorers reached India through African coast.
 * Rivals of Portugal, Spain went west because Portugal controlled east)
 * In 14492, Christopher Columbus sailed 3 ships from Spain to Asia Eastward, and stumbled upon America.
 * Columbus thought he reached India, thus called Native Americans “Indians” and islands West Indies
 * Many new crops came to Europe from the New World.
 * Columbus returned in 1492 with 1200 men, animals, and crops.
 * Old World also brought disease, which devastated Native Americans.
 * 90% of Native Americans perished because of explorers
 * Spain and Portugal divvied up land, Spain getting most.
 * Pacific Ocean discovered 1513, Magellan killed in 1519 in Philippines, but a ship returned home.
 * Incas of Peru defeated in 1532, Kingdom went to Spain.
 * Juan Cortez conquered Mexico, after visiting Moctezuma in the Aztec Capital of Tenochitlan.
 * Native Americans in Mexico went from 20 million, to 2 million.
 * Cortez’s people intermarried with surviving Indians creating mestizo culture.
 * English and French explorers (John Cabot and Giovanni de Verazano)
 * St. Augustine, Florida founded in 1565
 * Spanish expeditions led by Don Juan de Onate founded Sante Fe, New Mexico in 1610.
 * Indian rebellion in 1680 killed Spaniards and reclaimed Sante Fe.
 * 1769 Father Junipero Serra started the 21 California Missions in San Diego. Ended up in Sonoma, north of San Francisco
 *  Spanish did adopt and infuse Indians in their culture, unlike English.