Ancient History of America

Ice Age  Most recent ice age was happened 35000 years ago.
 The whole world was covered in ice sheet.

Beringia Strait  A land bridge, named Beringia appeared, of about 1500km,

connecting Asia with Northern America i.e., Eastern Russia with
presently Alaska.
 People unknowingly crossed this land bridge for the purpose of
hunting and entered a new land which was not known to mankind.

Settlements  They then moved South and started settling in the present-day
United States and Latin America.
 They settled in the:
o Pacific Ocean in Northwest
o Mountains and deserts in Southwest
o Mississippi river in Midwest

Early Group  These early groups were:

o Hohokam
o Adenans
o Hopewellians
o Anasazi
 They built villages, grew crops, lived together and they also
fought.
 There were around 40 million Native Americans before Europeans
arrival.
 Large number of these groups is believed to have died from the
diseases, mainly smallpox due to the initial contacts with
Europeans.

Geography of America
 There are currently 50 states of America.
 Hawaii is the recently added state.
 America is divided into 5 regions.
o The Atlantic Slope
o The Appalachian Highland
o The Mississippi Valley
o The Rockey Mountain
 o The Pacific Slope

Socio, Political, and Economic conditions of Native

Americans
 Before Columbus discovery, there were 5 distinctive racial groups.
o Indians
 They were about 30 million in number in 1492.
 They resided mainly in Peru, Mexico.
 They did agriculture.
 They were very backward.
 They did not know the use of wheel and tools.
 They had no political system.
o Mayas
 They inhabited San Salvador, Honduras.
 They knew astronomy, mathematics, architecture, sculpture, weaving.
 They know political system and were living in states under rulers.
 They used clothes and jewellery.
 They knew writing.
o Toltecs
 Same as Mayas except they didn’t know writing.
o Aztecs
 Same as Mayas except they didn’t know writing.
o Incas
 They controlled large area of South America.
 They lived in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia.
 They had well developed military system.
 They worshipped Sun, Earth, Moon.
 They did not know writing as well.
 They were the most well-organized people in the pre-Columbus period.

Why Europeans wanted to explore sea routes?

 The Europeans always wanted to do trade in the East mainly with China, Japan, India.
 There were only 2 trade routes.
o Water route: Through Cairo, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
o Land route
 These trade routes were closed by the Ottoman Empire because of their rivalry with
the Europeans.
 Europeans had to pay huge amount for Asian products.
 That’s why they started exploring other routes and ways to reach Asia
Exploration of America
1st Europeans  It is believed that Norse were the 1st to arrive there.
Arrival  They were from Greenland.
 They came in 985.

Other Europeans  It took other Europeans about 500 years ago to reach North
Arrival America and 100 more years to settle.
 The Europeans were looking for a sea route that would take them
to Asia from Europe.
 These Europeans were:
o Spanish
o Portuguese
o Britain
o French
o Dutch
 Portuguese were the 1st to reach American continent.

1492  He was an Italian explorer.

 Queen Isabella of Spain sponsored his trip.
Christopher
Columbus  He landed in the Caribbean Sea in 1492.
 He never reached the present-day United States.
 He died in 1506.

1497  He was an explorer from England.

 He came 5 years later than Christopher Columbus.
John Cabot
 He landed in eastern Canada.
 He claimed the land of North America.
 His expedition provided the basis for the Britain to claim
America.

1502  African slaves arrived in Spanish America.

1507  He was an Italian explorer and navigator.

 He was the first one to realize that the new land was not Asia but
Amerigo Vespucci
a “New World”.
 The two American continents were named after Amerigo
Vespucci in 1507.
 He wrote his journey and voyage in his “New World”.

1513 – 1539  During 1500s, no country explored and claimed more land in
America than Spain.
Juan Ponce and
Hernando De Soto  They landed in Florida.
 Spain conquered Mexica in 1522.
 The most significant early Spanish exploration came under
 Hernando De Soto.

1518 – 1530  Smallpox ravaged Red Indians and killed millions.

1558  Elizabeth-I became English Queen.

1565  St. Augustine in Florida was founded.


Christopher Columbus and The Discovery
of America
His Life  The first and most famous of these explorers was Christopher
Columbus.
 Columbus was born in 1447 in Genoa, Italy.
 He was a son of a wool comber.

His Aims &  In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans wanted to find sea routes
Beliefs to the Far East.
 Columbus wanted to find a new route to India, China, Japan, and
the Spice Islands.
 Because then he would be able to bring back rich cargoes of silks
and spices.
 He believed that:
o The world was round.
o The world is far smaller than it actually is.
o Sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean was the shortest sea
route to Asia.
o Nothing lay in between Europe and Asia.
o Japan would appear on the horizon just 3000 miles to the
west.

His Early  Christopher Columbus struggled for 10 years to secure assistance

Failures for his voyage.
 He had 2 conditions:
o His arrogance: that he wanted ships and crews to be
provided at no expense to himself.
o His ambition: that he insisted on governing the lands he
discovered.
 Due to this reason, he found it difficult to find a patron.
o He was twice rejected by Portuguese.
o The rulers of England and France were not interested.

His Successful  In 1492, with influential supporters at court, Columbus convinced

Mission King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to partially underwrite
his expedition.
 He commanded 90 men and 3 ships:
o The Nina
o The Pinta
o The Santa Maria
 10 weeks later, the thought he had reached Asia, but it was
Bahamas.
 Then he thought that he had reached China, but it was Cuba.
Until the 15th century, nobody knew that there was a continent across the Atlantic.

His Voyages  1st voyage 1492  San Salvador, Bahamas, Cuba,

Hispaniola

 2nd voyage 1493  Dominica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico,

Cuba, Jamaica

 3rd voyage 1498  St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad,

Margarita, Venezuela

 4th voyage 1502  St. Lucia, Honduras, Nicaragua,

Costa Rica, Panama

Red Indians /  Once Columbus landed in America, he discovered that there were
Native already civilizations living in America.
Americans  He named the Native of America as Red Indians, thinking that he
had landed in India and those peoples are Indians.
 Columbus captured natives as evidence of achievement and took
them to Spain.

Name of  New World

America in  Strange Land
Beginning  Golden Land
 Why Europeans Looked Westward?
(Reasons of American Colonization /
Incentives of Colonizing America)
Colony:
A colony is a land where inhabitants of other region come to settle down and make that place
as their permanent home.

Causes / Reasons of Colonization of The New World:

1. Pressure of population
 Growth of population
 100 million people were living in Europe.
 Their way of living was based on agriculture.
 There was no fruitful yield.
 So, to increase production, they needed more land.
 The Black Death, a catastrophic epidemic of the bubonic plague that began in
Constantinople in 1347, had killed millions.

2. Rise of new merchant class / Trade and Agriculture

 A new merchant class was emerging to meet the rising demand for goods from
abroad.
 As trade increased, and as advances in navigation made long-distance sea travel
more feasible, interest in expanding trade grew even more quickly.
 Europe relied a lot on silk, spices, agricultural needs, cotton, cloth from Asia.
 It was the lure for the goods which encouraged Europeans to find new sea routes.

3. Improvement in Technology
 Columbus and other navigators lived in the time when the creativity was at its
peak.
 Europeans were improving in technology from gun powder to the sailing compass.
 There were also major improvements in ship building and map makings.

4. Renaissance in Europe
 1400 AD onwards is considered to be the rising time of Europeans after the Dark
Age which was 200 to 1200 AD.
 The Europeans now were making progress in every field of life and were keenly
involve in learning and exploring.
 The technology of printing press after 1450 also spread the knowledge across
Europe which played a very important role in educating the common man in
Europe.
5. Religious Conflicts in Europe
 The policies of religious intolerance and persecution forced people to leave
Europe and settle in the New World.
 The dominant Roman Catholic culture was threatened by Ottoman Empire while
the Protestants revolted against the Popes’ authorities in Rome led to a series of
war between Protestants and Catholic Christians.

6. Expanding trade
 Routes towards Asia were blocked after Ottoman had taken over the city of
Constantinople in 1453.
 Europe was dependent on Asian for trade, herbs and agriculture therefore they
were in extensive need to find any other route to Asia.

7. Search for New Routes

 To maintain the trade relation with Asia, Europeans wanted to find out the shortest
possible route which can again connect them to the sub-continent.
 They started financing navigators for exploration of new sea routes, which
ultimately led them to the discovery of America.
 Although in 1448 Vasco De Gama was the 1st person to reach India by the route
of Africa.

8. Desire for wealth

 By the time America was discovered it was known as a ―Golden Land.
 The normal perception was as if there is a lot of gold in America which can be
easily excavated.
 This was another important factor leading toward the colonization of the New
Land.

9. Imperial Race
 The Imperial powers of Europe were in race of having more and more land of
America.
 As in older days the country with most colonies and vast majority of land was
considered to be a superpower. Which today is been replaced by economy and
technology.

10. Royal Proclamation

 Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1648, between Spain and Dutch republic by
which each state would have the right to determine the religion of his own state
and also colonial claims were adjusted.

English Exploration in America & their

Founding of Colonies
The Success of Spain in America
 The Spaniards were successful in claiming most part of the land of the New World.
 Most of the new settlements were destroyed by the Spaniards.
 The first French colony in America was Quebec Colony in 1540s. It was destroyed.
 Later, they claimed another land in Florida.
 The Spaniards considered this as a threat and destroyed the colony in 1565.
 Later, the Spanish itself established the first permanent European settlement in North
America in St. Augustine in Florida.
 Spain made a lot of wealth from their colonized land in Mexico, Caribbean and Peru
which provoked the interest of other Europeans to continue their sail.

Why Britain Decided to Explore?

 Initially, the Britain didn’t show much interest.
 But the success and financial gains of Spain from its colonies in America attracted the
British.
 England suffered in their own land through European wars.
 There was reduction in the available land for cultivation.
 Population was growing, land was becoming scarce.
 Central to this trading drive was the emergence of a new concept of economic life
known as mercantilism. Mercantilism rested on the belief that one person or nation
could grow rich only at the expense of another, and that a nation’s economic health
depended, therefore, on selling as much as possible to foreign lands and buying as
little as possible from them. The principles of mercantilism spread throughout Europe
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One result was the increased attractiveness
of acquiring colonies, which became the source of raw materials and a market for the
colonizing power’s goods.

Early Expedition Missions by the Britain

 John Cabot was the 1st one to send on the mission to explore American continent.
o 1st voyage: New Foundland
o 2nd voyage: Virginia
 In 1558, Elizabeth-I became the Queen of England and she put her focus on
exploration.
 In 1578, she sent Humphrey Gilbert to colonize the land in the New World.
o He got lost and his brother, Raliegh, took the mission.
 Raliegh colonized North Carolina and then Virginia, named after the Virgin Queen.
 1585, 1st British colony was set up on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina.
 It got lost somehow.
 Later, the Britain tried their luck again. This time in Jamestown in 1607, which
changed the American history.
The Reason behind Britain Success over Spain and France
 Initially, the Britain failed to successfully colonize a land.
 So, the Queen granted a Charter to the companies for the purpose of trade and
colonization.
o Number of wealthy merchants formed London or Virginia Company.
o Another company called Plymouth Company was founded.
o These companies were granted a Charter by King James I in 1606.
 The Virginia Company and Plymouth Company was given the right to settle by the
virtue of this Charter.
 This paved the way for the colonization of the New World.
 This model was different than the rest of the Spanish and French colonizers.

Founding of British Colonies in America

 6 colonies were founded by the Companies with the help of Sovereign.
 Rest was founded by individuals through proprietary rights.

i. Planting of Virginia 1607:

 London Company reached America and founded James Town in 1607.
 The natives attacked many times.
 Soon 600 men settled in.
 Tobacco was making huge profits.

ii. Massachusetts and Plymouth:

 Plymouth Company sold the rights to Pilgrims in 1620.
 The permanent settlers who came in this region were Puritans and Separatists.
 William Bradford was appointed Governor.
 Boston was made the capital of colony in 1630.
 Plymouth Colony consisted of 8 towns and 3000 people in 1643.
 By 1670, number of people rose to 8000.
 In 1691, Plymouth Colony was merged into Massachusetts Bay Colony.

iii. New York and Delaware:

 These colonies were made initially by two joint stock companies.
o Dutch West India Company
o Swedish Company
 New York colony was bought in 1664 by the British.
 Delaware was lost to the British in 1664.

iv. Connecticut:
 Thomas Hooker had disagreements with the Governor of Massachusetts.
 He migrated to the Connecticut Valley with his followers in 1635.
 In 1662, it became on official colony.
v. Rhode Island:
 Roger Williams was a priest.
 He regarded the natives as the real owners and British as the intruders.
 He was forced to leave Massachusetts.
 He fled with Indians and formed a capital Providence and thus a new colony
called Rhode Island.

vi. Seven Proprietary Colonies:

 These 7 colonies were formed by individuals who received charter from England.
 They were expected to act as monarchs on these lands.
 These 7 colonies are:
o Maryland
 Named in the honour of Queen Maria by King Charles I.
 Lord Baltimore was given the charter to establish this colony in
1632.
o New Hampshire and Maine
 The Charter was granted to Sir Georges and Captain Mason.
 Sir Georges got North, and East zone called Maine.
 Captain Mason got South, and West zone called Hampshire.
o New Jersey
 The proprietary rights were granted to James, brother of King
Charles II.
 He sold away his rights.
 After much dispute, the colony was converted into Royal province
in 1702.
o North and South Carolina
 The Crown took proprietary rights from the proprietors in 1729
after much dispute.
o Pennsylvania
 Founded by William Penn, a Quacker in 1682.
 It was named after his father Penn.
 It was the most fertile and mineral-rich area of all.
o Georgia
 Last colony to get the Charter.