American History 1

Final Exam Review

What Are We Reviewing
Unit 1 - Cultures Converege

Unit 2 - Road to Revolution and The American Revolution

Unit 3 - Federalist Era

Unit 4 - Era of Good Feelings and Jacksonian Demoncracy

Unit 5 - Age of Reform

Unit 6 - Westward Expansion

Unit 1
Spanish Exploration
• In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus convinced
Spain to back his effort to reach Asia by sailing west across the
Atlantic
• This route led to the discovery of the American continents and
established Spain’s claim to a “new world”
• Oct. 1492: Columbus landed in the West Indies (islands in the
Caribbean Sea, near Florida)
Spanish Exploration
• Columbus enslaved and tortured the natives and made them
mine for gold
• Named governor by the Spanish king, Columbus was removed
from office due to corruption and abuse of power
• Within 50 years of his arrival, 90% of the natives had died from
exposure to European diseases like smallpox, measles, and
influenza
Conquistadores
Following Columbus’ establishment of permanent Spanish
settlements in the Caribbean, the Spanish sent military
expeditions into the continental Americas to explore and
conquer
• Spanish conquistadores quickly toppled the large Native
empires of the Aztec and Inca peoples and expanded Spanish
control of both the people and resources of the Americas
• Pizarro - Incan Empire
• Cortes - Aztec Empire
Spanish Advantages Over Natives
• So how did a few hundred Spaniards defeat millions of natives?
– superior military technology (horses, armor, guns &
cannons)
– rivalries between native groups kept them from cooperating
– disease decimated the native population and destroyed
their religious faith systems
Spanish Empire
• Spain developed an American empire stretching from Northern
California to South America
• Spain’s rivals (primarily England and France, but also the Dutch
Republic, Portugal, and even Sweden) began to show an
interest in creating their own American empires
• Spanish wealth came from exploiting American gold, silver, &
sugar resources using slave labor
Motivations for Exploration
• What were the primary motivating forces that drew Europeans
to the Americas?
– God: The opportunity for religious freedom, or to act as
Christian missionaries to the Native Americans
– Glory: To build empires or to become famous
– Gold: To get rich
• What primary advantages allowed them to reach these goals?
– Germs: Diseases wiped out much of the Native population
– Guns: Military advantage over the Natives
Columbian Exchange
● Global transfer of living things between Europe and the
Americas
● Europe to Americas: Smallpox, Horses, Sugar, Coffee
● Americas to Europe: Corn, Potato, Tobacco
● Unequal exchange that favors the Europeans. Even while
Native American populations were decimated by Old World
diseases (Small pox), European populations swelled as
American crops helped to overcome Old World famine.
English Reformation
• In the early 1530s, King Henry VIII of England abandoned the Catholic Church and
joined the Protestant Reformation by creating the Church of England (or Anglican
Church), with himself as head of the Church.
• Henry outlawed Catholicism and ordered his entire population to practice only
Anglicism; this move angered both loyal Catholics and the members of other
Protestant branches of Christianity.
• Eventually, strict limits on religious freedom would drive many English dissenters,
including Puritans, Quakers, and Catholics, to seek to create new colonies in North
America
Economic Forces
• By the early 1600s, a changeover from grain farming to sheep
ranching by wealthy English landowners had left hundreds of
thousands of Englishmen impoverished and unemployed. Many
of these would seek the opportunity of a new life in America.
• English merchants also needed new markets as English
industries began overproducing goods. Many organized joint-
stock companies, pooling the money of many investors for large
projects, such as establishing colonies.
The Lost Colony
• The colony established at Roanoke in 1587, consisted of 115
men and women.
• When a relief ship returned to the island in 1590, no trace of
the colonists remained and their fate remains a mystery to this
day.
• CROATAN
Jamestown
• In 1606, King James I of England granted the Virginia Company,
a joint-stock company, a charter to establish a colony in
Virginia.
• In 1607, 104 men established the settlement of Jamestown on
an island in the James River in modern-day Virginia.
• While Jamestown would become the first permanent English
colony in North America, it had to overcome many problems in
order to survive.
Jamestown
• Jamestown, since it was founded by a joint-stock company, was intended to be
profitable
• As a result, the settlers spent more time looking for gold or other valuables than
they did creating a safe, stable, self-sustaining colony
• Jamestown had also been poorly sited – the area was swampy and mosquito ridden,
so the settlers forced to battle disease as well as hunger
• To make matters even worse, the local Algonquin Indians were often openly hostile,
forcing the settlers to spend time building a fort (which they needed in case of
Spanish attack, as well)
Jamestown
• The Jamestown Company offered free land to people who worked for the colony for
seven years. New settlers arrived (and John Smith left) in 1609, but there was not
enough food to support them.
• The new settlers stole food from the Powhatan, who retaliated by attacking them if
they left the safety of the fort.
• Recent evidence suggests that the colonists resorted to cannibalism to survive.
• By spring of 1610 only 60 out of about 500 settlers survived at Jamestown.
• Although the suffering did not totally end at Jamestown for decades, some years of
peace and prosperity followed after the wedding of the Indian princess Pocahontas
to colonist John Rolfe (although Pocahontas died in 1617).