The American Pageant: Chapter One Topic Outline

New World Beginnings

1. Exploration and Conquest

a. Early indirect discoveries of the New World involve Scandinavian seafarers and Christian Crusaders

b. After being charged to find a shorter sea route to the West Indies, Columbus strays from his course and accidentally runs across the New
World

c. This same era saw various efforts from both Spain and Portugal in trying to find shorter sea routes

d. Conquistadores from Spain travel to the New World in hopes of “gold, god, and glory”

i. Most conquests failed, but Hernan Cortes takes the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in modern-day Mexico

e. Missionaries also travel to convert and spread the word of God

f. Spanish explore the South for gold, English explore the East Coast for various reasons including settlement, and French explore the north for
the fur trade

2. Agriculture

a. Native Americans grow maize (corn) as a staple crop, along with beans and squash

i. Known collectively as the “three sisters”

b. Old World brings wheat, sugar, rice, and coffee

i. English grow tobacco in New England, sugar in the West Indies (Caribbean) if they are wealthy enough

c. Large-scale plantations tended by slaves or Native Americans

3. The Thirteen Colonies

a. Virginia: Populated by young men looking for a fortune denied them in England due to primogeniture

i. Primogeniture: Practice in which a family’s fortune is only passed on to the earliest sons

ii. Lack of hereditary aristocracy

b. Massachusetts: Populated by families and Puritans

c. Plantation colonies: Mainly for large-scale agriculture, expansionary due to soil abuse, religiously tolerant, and mainly aristocratic

d. North Carolina and Rhode Island: Most democratic and religiously tolerant of all colonies

e. Georgia: Serves as a buffer colony, religiously tolerant, eventually transformed into a plantation colony despite original wishes

4. Interdependent Global Economy

a. Triangular Trade System

i. Three sister crops, gold, and silver are brought to the Old World from the New World

ii. Textiles, rum, and manufactured goods are brought to Africa from the Old World

iii. Slaves are brought to the New World from Africa

5. Native American Culture and Beliefs

a. Strong kinship ties and connection with nature

b. Irrigation and terracing techniques

c. Organized in nation-states

d. North American tribes are mostly scattered, nomadic

e. Societies sometimes matrilineal

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6. Scandinavian Seafarers

a. First known explorers of the New World; traveled to the North and traded cloth and furs with native people. However, they were ultimately
unsuccessful in settlement due to disputes with natives.

7. Columbian Exchange

a. Trading of goods, cultures, ideologies, and diseases between the Old and New World

i. New World: Three sisters crops, potatoes, pineapples, chocolate, syphilis

ii. Old World: Horses, wheat, rice, coffee, sugar, smallpox and other diseases, Christianity

8. Inca, Maya, and Aztec Tribes

a. Large, organized South American native tribes

b. Large-scale agriculture, advanced irrigation techniques, organized economies and specialization of labor

c. Large pyramid structures for religious purposes and burial

d. Sacrificial element in warfare and rituals

9. Great Ice Age

a. Early time period which allowed for migration from Asia to America via the Bering Strait

10. Portugal’s Influence

a. Developed the caravel ship which allowed for smoother, more controlled sailing

b. Traveled and established ports along W. African coast, trading textiles and manufactured goods for slaves to send to the New World

i. Foundation for later plantation agriculture

c. Began the search for more efficient maritime trade routes uncontrolled by Muslims, which led to the discovery of the New World

i. Rivalry with Spain ensues

11. Sub-Saharan Africa

a. Participated in the triangular trade, sending slaves to the New World after accepting goods from the Old World

b. Also held valuable, desired resources such as gold

12. Gender Roles in Native American Societies

a. Men hunted, fished, and gathered while women worked the fields

b. Matrilineal society in which women are main figures of authority, family traced through women

13. Christian Crusades

a. Given their frequent sea travel from Europe westward, they likely contributed to the early and indirect discovery of America

14. Nation-States

a. Main organization of larger native tribes (Inca, Maya, Aztec)

i. Fragmented and scattered in comparison to more unified Old World forces, contributing to the ultimate success of New World
conquest

15. Mesoamerica

a. Middle America which served as a bridge between North and South America and allowed for southward migration

b. Location of the Aztecs (Teotihuacan)

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16. Pope’s Rebellion

a. Uprising in which members of the Pueblo tribe destroyed every church in the province and killed a number of Spanish priests and colonists

17. Horses

a. Brought from Old World to New World during colonization

b. Very helpful to natives, giving them mobility and the ability to hunt and fight on horseback

18. Slave Trade: Responsible Groups

a. Sub-Saharan Africa

i. Gave members of its own society away during the triangular trade for textiles and other manufactured goods

b. Portugal

i. Adopted, spread, and made slave trade a fundamental, functioning part of global trade

ii. This spread also allowed for slave-worked plantations, which drove the need for the slave trade up further

19. Glaciers Retreat

a. Great Ice Age ends, causing glaciers to melt

i. This process melts the Bering Strait connecting Asia and America, sculpts American land, and nourishes the land, making it fertile

20. Sugar Islands

a. Rich colonists travel to Caribbean islands (West Indies) and establish sugar plantations

i. Sugar is difficult to grow and requires intricate farming methods

1. For this reason, it was considered a rich man’s crop

ii. Many slaves were required to tend these fields, also driving up the desire for slave trade

iii. Sugar plantations became more successful and profitable than tobacco plantations in the north