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Geography /Pre-Columbian Civilizations/ Exploration

The Basics - Information that has been on most state examinations.

• The first Native Americans were not "Americans" at all, but Asians. During the Ice Age (about 15,000 years ago), hunters chased game like the wooly mammoth across the land bridge. As these people spread throughout North and South America, they created new settlements and had to adapt their cultures to the environments in which they lived. What crops you grew, what animals you hunted, and where and how you lived were all determined by climate and geography.

• We know of the early tribes is due to archeologists, who study items left behind be these groups. These items are called artifacts.

• The time period from the arrival of the first Native Americans on North or South American soil until Christopher Columbus' arrival is called the pre-Columbian period. It is known for the wide range of tribes, each having different cultures and traditions.

• The most successful Central and South American tribes were the Inca, Maya, and Aztecs. The Aztecs were known for their fearsome rule in what is now Mexico.

• There are several culture groups of North American Indians. Those living in the Northwest had plentiful rain and ideal growing seasons. They also hunted and fished. The Native Americans who settled in the southwest had to deal with dry, desert-like conditions. To do this, groups such as the Anasazi used irrigation, a man made means to move water. Native Americans living in and around New York State are called peoples of the Eastern Woodlands. Again, the can grow crops during summer and hunt all year long.

• Native Americans living in New York State were members of the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of five (and later six) nations who decided to work together rather than fight one another after being united by Hiawatha and Deganawida. The Iroquois had a sophiscated government consisting of men elected only by women. They lived in long houses - homes constructed of trees and bark up to 300 feet in length. The United States government is modeled after that of the Iroquois Confederacy. If you have to guess a Native American tribe on the exam, the Iroquois are a safe bet!

• As the countries of Europe each began to seek trade routes to the Middle East, India, and China, routes became closed. Thus, Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands crossed the Atlantic in order to get to India. The motivation for most expolration can be covered with the three G's - gold, glory, and God (the spreading of their religion around the world).

• Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean, and returned to Spain with the mistaken belief he had reached India. However, Spain soon realized that the discovery of South America may have been even better than getting to India, as gold was abundant. The Conquistadors, as the Spanish explorers were known, conquered the Aztec and Inca empires quickly because the Spanish had much more advanced technology. As the Spanish enslaved the Native Americans, they also brought diseases that did not previously exist in the Western Hemispere. It is these diseases, more than anything else, that result in huge numbers of deaths of Native Americans in both North and South America. The exchange of goods, diseases, and cultures between the Native Americans and the Spanish is called the Colombian Exchange.

• Other Euorpean nations sought the Northwest Passage, a nonexistant all water route to the Pacific. Not finding it, they began to establish colonies in North America. France created New France, a huge colony beginning in eastern Canada along the St. Lawrence River, stretching across the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi to Louisiana. New France was devoted to hunting and trapping, and its few citizens got along well with Native Americans. The Dutch created New Netherlands, now New York State. New Netherlands offered its citizens religious freedom, but was taken over by the English when its citizens came to despise their ruthless leader, the former pirate Peter Stuyvesant.