History 201

1
History 201

• American History I
• From Discovery
• To
• Civil War

2
Intro

• We chronicle the history of the U.S. from
  colonial origins to the beginning of the 21st
  century.
• Key themes 1) Exceptionalism 2) socioeconomic
  mobility and opportunity 3) Universal
  suffragedemocracy 4) The Melting Pot and the
  American Identity.
• This the continuing saga of how to make a
  Republic and as Franklin suggested, Keep it if
  we can.

3
Living Bravely and Worlds Apart

• Christopher Columbuss voyage from Spain, across
  the Atlantic, marked the beginning of the most
  important encounter of places and peoples in
  human history.
• Colin Calloway described New Worlds for All.
• The New World was first inhabited maybe around
  40,000 to 12,000 yrs agowe suspect, mostly
  populated from Eastern Asia(central Siberia)the
  Archaic period

4
Living BravelyNew World

• The remains of Kennewick Man discovered in
  Washington state have contributed to the
  controversy of just who the first immigrants
  truly were and where did they come?
• First Americans, Paleo-Indians, around 1500,
  numbered around 70 millionprobably spoke over
  300 dialects and even completely different
  languages. Became settled Farmers with permanent
  villages.

5
New World

• Some Native cultures reached heights of
  sophistication and were much developed.
• The Incas, The Aztecs and the Olmecs are just a
  few examples. They had highly developed
  religious and political practices. The Mayans
  actually had sophisticated writing systems.
• Not really a new worldvery much
  inhabitedcrossed the Siberian land bridge with 3
  successive waves of Asian migrants.

6
New World Settlement

• Regardless of who or where, settlement took place
  rapidly. The Aztecs settled as a culture and
  developed a city called TenochtitlanThe Pueblos
  or the Anasazi settled further up the Southwest
  from Mexico(Hopi Indians).
• Throughout the Southeast the adena-Hopewell
  developed intricate Mound-building
  societiesculminating at Cahokia in the
  Mississippi Valley.
• Interestingly enough, most Native Peoples
  practiced an unstable social relationship.

7
New World

• Tenochtitlan probably inhabited around 200,000
  peoplelooked very much like a European city
  around 1200.
• But as things in Mesoamerica changed and
  developed so did things in Europecreating an
  unknown confrontation.

8
Europe

• After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe
  lapsed into an economic and cultural backwater.
• Continent fragmentedEast controlled by Byzantine
  and West remnants of Roman rule.
• It was politically disorganized, economy reduced
  to primitive levels of barter
• It emphasizes the difficulty ancient empires have
  in trying to resurrect themselvesimporting new
  ideas and technology was expensive.

9
Europe

• Crusades changed this-opened up the idea of state
  supported and organized exploration
• Saw the cultural benefits of trading with the
  East and the Orientspices, books, technology etc
  
• Marco Polovery famous

10
Marco Polo

• Opened up the possibilities of world markets but
  also, revealed difficulties of private financing
• Europe frustrated by lack of geographic
  proximity, costs, Mediterranean monopolies,
  Europe underwrote their own expeditions and form
  Joint Venture companies.
• Prince Henry the navigator(Portuguese) avoiding
  the original Robber barons over land routes
  began a sea exploration along the coast of West
  Africa.

11
Christopher Columbus

• I say all that to get to thisThis search for new
  markets and trade routes led to state sponsored
  exploration
• More and more Seafarers searched for quicker
  routes to the Indiesie Vasco da Gama succeeded
  in rounding the cape of Good Hopenow India was
  open to a European reciprocity of trade.
• Columbus convinced King Ferdinand and Queen
  Isabella of Spain he could reach the Orient
  sailing west

12
New World

• The European visit to the New World was
  surprisingly a great disappointment. It was seen
  a probable formidable obstacle to the reaching
  China.
• Magellans trip proved that the pacific Ocean was
  bigger than first thought
• Balboa tried to find a path across the Isthmus of
  Panamabut also failed
• Many looked for the Great Northwest Passage, but
  to no availNorth America was turning into a
  booby prize! So they looked elsewhere for awhile.

13
Freebooters

• These guys were state sponsored to some
  degree-but essentially private owned expeditions
  (Cortes, Pizzaro etc )
• Looking for Gold and Richesnot
  settlementwithout constraint and minimal
  oversight these guys implemented their own code
  of law and ethics
• Essential a social-experiment with untold riches
  to be hadthis came at a tremendous cost to the
  native peoples.

14
American Nation Building

• So, this has what to do with American history? It
  created and perpetuated a notion of what people
  wanted and desired out of government and society.
• 1) Passion for Freedommany different forms
  political, religious, and economicbut freedom in
  whatever form is an urge still present today
• 2) Educationa classic American form of
  opportunity to become an educated self-made
  manindividual opportunity.

15
American Nation Building

• 3) Popular Governmentdemocracy, republicanism,
  whateverpeople have the inalienable right to
  govern themselveswe may fight amongst ourselves,
  but we have never fought over whether we should
  become a Monarchy
• 4) experimentationa forward-looking attitude, an
  ingenuity to make things better with what we
  have. WE welcome the new and untriedwe have few
  constraints and tend to assimilate quickly.

16
American Nation Building

• 5) Exceptionalismwe really believe this we are
  a city upon a hill for others to emulate. We
  created the first truly successful Colonial war
  for independence and created successfully the
  first large scale Democratic Republicwhile other
  nations butchered one another over whether the
  Psalms should be sung in Latin or French, we
  developed religious toleration
• We opened our political and economic system to
  anyonebased on brains and talent and not
  heredity.

17
American Nation Building

• Yes, it has created a certain savoir fair a
  ethnocentric smugness that creates issues form
  time to time but it is a suggestion that our
  country above all others, with its problems, is
  worth saving.
• We are committed to a certain set of ideas, built
  not around race or ethnicity, but around
  political documents such as the Constitution,
  Declaration of Independence, and Civil Rightsa
  deep seated passion for freedomwe are very
  different from others.

18
Early Americans

• DNA fortifies the Asian invasion However, other
  native tribes do not fit the bill
• Seems they came from herevery odd indeed.
• Kennewick mancarbon dating puts him 8,000yrs
  old, but DNA also suggests he is not related to
  Asian influencea conundrum indeed.
• Regardless by 1492, probably 70 million people in
  both South and North America

19
European Arrival on Eastern Seaboard

• The Spanish had essentially plundered the
  Islands, North and South American Continentsbut
  really no other Old World peoples settled
  permanently with any success.
• There was the attempt of Roanoke and the Lost
  Colony but even the Spanish had a hard time
  settling permanently in the Contiguous land east
  of the Mississippi.

20
Eastern Seaboard

• Though exposure to disease had wiped out many
  tribes, there still remained about 125,000
  Indians along the eastern seaboard.
• Fishing, agriculture, and hunting,
  hunter-gatherersthey had all they needed to
  sustain life.
• 3 Large family groups dominated east of the
  Mississippi Algonquins, Iroquois, and Muskhogean

21
Eastern Woodland Indians

• Algonquiansincluded the Abnaki, the Delaware and
  Powhatan confederacy
• Iroquoisfive nations controlled the Great Lakes
  region(Mohawk,, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, and
  seneca, later the Tuscarora
• Muskhogeanincluded the Creeks, Seminoles and
  Cherokees.

22
Eastern Woodland Indians
23
Eastern Woodland Society

• Never fully reached the impressive level of
  civilization attained by their southern continent
  cousins.
• Essentially still in the Stone Age upon European
  arrivalone reason Europeans considered
  themselves far more advanced.
• Politically ruled over by Elders and by
  persuasionnever by fiat They remained a loosely
  organizedThis proved detrimental, as the
  Europeans were a tightly organized unit.

24
Eastern Woodland Society

• Slash/Burn Agri. Corn a staple crop, but also
  beans, pumpkins, and squash.
• Labor was communal women performed most all
  agriculture tasks
• Menhunted, fished, occasional war Game provided
  food and clothing and shelter.

25
Eastern Woodland Society

• NomadicAutumn moved to the interior for shelter
  from the coastal cold winters Summer moved
  upstream away from the hot dismal miasmic swamps
  and tide water basins that carried diseases.
• Indians tended to follow patterns for
  survivalThe Europeans considered them
  uncivilizeda permanent settlement meant staying
  put not moving aroundthe Indians smiled and
  watched them die by the thousands.