Pre-Columbian Period Summary PDF

History is what historians say it is. Who discovered America? Christopher Columbus Ethnocentric To believe that Columbus “discovered” America is to be “ethnocentric”, lacking a respect for other cultures and ways of life other than one’s own. An ethnocentric person feels that his or her own nation o...

History is what historians say it is. Who discovered America? Christopher Columbus Ethnocentric To believe that Columbus “discovered” America is to be “ethnocentric”, lacking a respect for other cultures and ways of life other than one’s own. An ethnocentric person feels that his or her own nation or group is the cultural center of the world. But we know that the Americas were populated with a multitude of nations and tribes prior to European contact. This period of time is called “Pre-Columbian”(before Columbus) America. The “Land Bridge” (Beringia) Creation Stories Pre-Columbian Period Since there were no written records from this period, historians work closely with archaeologists and anthropologists to get a better understanding of the history of Pre-Columbian America. The result is the categorization of native cultures into three distinct stages: Lithic, Archaic, and Formative. To put it another way, we can more easily study the peoples living during the Pre-Columbian period by grouping them according to lifestyles. Lithic Stage Often referred to as ” The Stone Age” Lasts from earliest human habitation until about 5,000 B.C.E. Characterized by the use of stone tools. Archaic Stage Cultures of the Archaic Stage are in the process of developing technologies such as pottery, weaving, and agriculture (unless reliant on seafood). In the process of establishing permanent villages. Hunting is gradually replaced by gathering. Formative Stage Cultures of the Formative Stage possess the technologies of pottery, weaving, and developed food production Very largely reliant on agriculture. Occupy permanent towns and villages, often including the first ceremonial centers. Chaco Canyon Pre-Columbian Civilizations in Middle and South America America, 8th Edition Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company Formative Stage in North America Although not on the same scale as the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas, the best examples of formative culture north of modern-day Mexico could be found in the deserts of the southwest and in the Mississippi River Valley. Ancestral Puebloan Peoples Formally called the “Anasazi”, the Ancestral Puebloan Peoples typically lived in elaborate housing and ceremonial complexes on the mesas of the southwest. Sometimes referred to as “Cliff-dwellers”. Ancestors of the modernday Hopi. Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde in Colorado Pre-Columbian Civilizations in North America America, 8th Edition Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company Pre-Columbian Civilizations in North America America, 8th Edition Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company Cahokia Cahokia Today Mississippian Mound-Builders Although Cahokia was the largest and best example of complex mound-building during the Formative Stage, evidence of the Mississippian mound-building culture that evolved from it can be seen today in Georgia. Ocmulgee Mounds (Macon) Etowah Mounds (Cartersville) Pre-Columbian Period Furthermore, Columbus and his crew were not even the first Europeans to arrive in North America. They were unknowingly preceded by.... The Norse Island Hopping ✓Faroes (800 A.D.) ✓Iceland (870 A.D.) ✓Eric the Red ✓Greenland (985 A.D.) ✓Bjarni Herjulfson ✓Leif Ericsson Norse Discoveries Start Finish America, 8th Edition Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company The Norse After three tries (the first under Leif Eriksson), the Norse failed to plant a permanent colony in North America and returned to Greenland. Their efforts remained little more than unconfirmed stories until validated by archaeological digs in eastern Canada in the 1960s. The Norse Bottom Line: The Norse “discovery” of North America is significant in and of itself, but there is no connection between their explorations and those of the Spanish, English, and French 500-600 years later. Europeans had no idea what the Norse had done. Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gutenberg (circa 1400-1468) was a German blacksmith and inventor who developed the world’s first mechanical moveable type printing press. Regarded as a milestone in modern human history, the printing press made knowledge contained in books and literature affordable and readily available to the literate (which was not everybody) for the first time. Renaissance Thanks to the printing press, those folks who could read (i.e. were literate) could peruse the works of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, etc. One of those books was Ptolomy’s Guide to Geography Cristoforo Colombo So why does Columbus sail the ocean blue? Because he wants to get to Asia. Ptolemy’s maps imply that one can sail west to go east. If the Earth is round, sailing west across the Atlantic will eliminate the arduous overland journey along the “Silk Road” or the equally lengthy ocean voyage around Africa to get to Asia. Spices Spices Spices had many uses at the time including culinary purposes, preservation of food (the largest use), winemaking, medicine, embalming, making perfumes, and religious rituals. Lacking easy access to Asian spice markets and not having the power to challenge the inflated prices of merchants in the Middle East, Europeans were inspired to venture into the trade. They put lots of effort into establishing or securing routes to regions in which the spices were produced. Dead Reckoning Most European navigators reasonably concluded that a westward voyage from Europe to Asia was unfeasible. Cristoforo Colombo On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships made landfall— not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador. In total, Columbus made four trips to the Americas, but at no time did he realize that he was anywhere other than Asia. Columbus’s Voyages America, 8th Edition Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company Cristoforo Colombo Columbus’s expeditions kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation on the American continents. Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy—he is remembered by some as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he and his fellow explorers encountered. Amerigo Vespucci An Italian, like Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci participated in two voyages across the Atlantic between 1499 and 1502. He claimed to have understood that he was on an unknown continent, which he called the New World. The claim inspired cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to recognize Vespucci's accomplishments in 1507 by applying the name “America” for the first time to his map of the New World. Lunch in 1492? The Answer Is... The Columbian Exchange The Columbian Exchange It’s a fascinating process and it will never happen again in human history unless we find life on Mars. For the most part, this exchange was benign and beneficial. But there was one thing that was exchanged unilaterally (only one way), and that’s the arrival of European diseases. Native people had no immunities to European diseases —and were almost wiped out.