FE - Key Concepts: First Contact (Lesson)
Key Concepts: First Contact
Before you begin...
Notes are given here as well as in the Readings Document from Boundless which are available to download below. There is one presentation to view as well.
This Key Concepts lesson is very important as it covers the main areas of the Advanced Placement frameworks and the Georgia Performance Standards. Many of the test questions will relate to items found here.
The readings and sites included in each module will be considered your textbook for the course. Please be sure you read the content and pages of the course carefully and in a sequential manner.
Boundless: PDF of readings for this module. Links to an external site.
Digital History: The First Americans Links to an external site.
American Yawp:
Part 1: Indigenous America Links to an external site.
Part 2: Colliding Cultures Links to an external site.
You can also download these lecture notes. Links to an external site.
Key Concepts:
Download the key concepts questions that are found below and answer these as you read and view the information in the module. The answers are found in the text on this and the following pages, the readings, the online textbook links, and in the presentation. After you have done this, you will use these answers to review for the multiple-choice test for this module.
There are many theories about how the “first Americans” came to be in what we now refer to as “the Americas.” There are the Bering Land Bridge Theory and the Coastal Migration Theory among others, but it is important to remember that even the most widely accepted theories are just that—speculative theories. The most plausible one based upon current scholarship is the Bering Land Bridge Theory—the concept that early humans migrated from present-day Siberia across the Bering Land Bridge and into present-day Alaska and Canada when the land was not covered by water as it is today. Estimates for when the migration began range from 15,000 to 50,000 years ago and the theories are continually evolving based on the current data available.
Over thousands of years, the migrants slowly made their way down through Central and South America and eastward across North America. Scientists believe the migration continued as these early Americans followed animals in search of food. It is estimated that they would have moved only a few miles in a generation, so this was not a rapid process.
Early Americans adapted to a variety of environments and weather patterns---mountains, plains, deserts, and coastal regions as well as cold, hot, rainy, and dry weather patterns.
They developed diverse political, language, trading, and cultures based on geography and available foods and trade goods.
In about the 13th century, the Incas and the Aztecs in Mesoamerica (South America and present-day Mexico respectively) developed large, agrarian empires that were led by priests and kings who managed large populations with complex religious and political institutions.
There were no expansive empires north of present-day Mexico, but the cultivation of maize (corn) spread northward from the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan into the Rio Grande Valley and beyond, fostering the development of civilizations like the ones at Cahokia in the Mississippi River Valley and the Pueblos in the desert Southwest.
Along the Atlantic Coast of North America, the indigenous people practiced both hunting-gathering and agriculture. The people living along the coast led more sedentary lives. The indigenous people on the Western Plains lived a more nomadic lifestyle as they followed animal herds for food.
European Explorers
By the late 15th century Europeans arrived in the Americas following the development of improved navigational instruments and the caravel, a ship that was smaller, sat higher in the water and had multiple sails that could be manipulated to allow ships’ crews to maneuver more effectively, the Portuguese and Spaniards were the first Europeans to set off to explore beyond the limits of the known world.
The Age of Exploration changed world history forever. The Spaniards and the Portuguese were the first to “discover” the Americas as they looked for a sea route to Asia. In fact, Columbus was the “first” European to “discover” the Americas---in fact there were millions of people who had been living in the Americas for eons.
The Spanish conquistadors began to conquer the indigenous people, specifically the Aztecs and the Incas in present-day Mexico and Peru, respectively. The conquistadors also introduced a variety of diseases like smallpox, measles, yellow fever, and influenza that reduced the native populations by as much as 90% in the first 150 years following contact.
The indigenous empires in Mesoamerica and South America were more organized and were able to resist the invaders more effectively than the less organized native peoples in North America.
The exchange of diseases, foods, plants, and animals is called the Columbian Exchange which is a name given to this movement across the Atlantic Ocean, both east and west. The exchange of new crops and livestock transformed the American landscape.
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BERING LAND BRIDGE MAP COURTESY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH DAKOTA (NDSTUDIES.GOV)
COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE MAP COURTESY OF DISCOVERY EDUCATION