UNIT I

1491-1607

Content: Geography and environment; Native American diversity in the Americas; Spain in the Americas; conflict and exchange; English, French, and Dutch settlements; and the Atlantic economy.

Key Concepts:

1.1: Before the arrival of Europeans, native populations in North America developed a wide variety of social, political, and economic structures based in part on interactions with the environment and each other.

1.2: European overseas expansion resulted in the Columbian Exchange, a series of interactions and adaptations among societies across the Atlantic

1.3 Contacts among American Indians, Africans, and Europeans challenged the worldviews of each group.

Key Terms/Vocabulary: Columbian exchange, Treaty of Tordesillas, encomienda, three-sister farming, mestizos, Black Legend, Algonquian, Iroquois Confederation, Mayas, Incas, Aztecs, conquistadores, Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, New Laws of 1542, Lakota Sioux, Peublos, Bartolome de Las Casas, John Cabot, Samuel de Champlain, Henry Hudson, Protestant Reformation, Roanoke Island, Spanish Armada. 

READINGS/VIDEOS/Podcasts:

The American Pageant, chapters 1-2 (all students)

Don’t Know Much About History pages 1-32 (all students)

A Patriot's History of the United States pages 1-15 (AP students)

A People's History of the United States chapter 1 (AP students)

Primary Sources: Map of American Indian pre-1492 demographics; “Letter to Luis de Santangel”; “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartoleme de las Casas; Excepts from the journal of Christopher Columbus - Handouts from the teacher (all students)

Video: 

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (AP Students)

500 Nations: The Story of Indian Americans Part I (AP Students)

Crash Course U.S. History #1 (all students)

PodCasts:

Scott Thomason, History 104: #1 Native Tribes of North America (AP students)

DVDs:

The Great Courses: Before 1776: Life in Colonial America (Lectures 1 and 2 - "The World Before Columbus" an "Spain's New World Empire")  (supplemental AP students)

The Great Courses: Early American History (Lessons 1 an 2 - "Pre-Columbian America" and "Discovery and Exploration of America")  (all students; in-class instruction)

At the end of this Unit, students will be able to answer the following (AP Students all, regular students two): 

Identity – How did the identities of colonizing and indigenous American societies change as a result of contact in the Americas?

Work, Exchange, and Technology – How did the Columbian Exchange – the mutual transfer of material goods, commodities, animals, and diseases – affect interaction between Europeans and natives and among indigenous peoples in North America?

Peopling – Where did different groups settle in the Americas (before contact) and how and why did they move to and within the Americas (after contact)?

Politics and Power – How did Spain’s early entry into colonization in the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America shape European and American developments in this period?

America in the World – How did European attempts to dominate the Americas shape relations between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans?

Environment and Geography – How did pre-contact populations of North America relate to their environments?  How did contact with Europeans and Africans change these relations in North America?

Ideas, Beliefs, and Cultures – How did cultural contact challenge the religious and other values systems of peoples from the Americas, Africa, and Europe?