CHAPTER 1: Ancient America and Africa

American Stories:Four Women’s Lives

1. Isabella of Castile(born 1451)
Supported Columbus
2. Tecuichpotzin (Isabella) (born 1521)
Cortes
Pioneer of meszaje (mixing of races)
3. Elizabeth I (1603)
English colonies in N.A.
4. Queen Njinga (born 1595)
Led fierce resistance to Portuguese slave trade.

Three worlds meet in new global age

I. The Peoples of America Before Columbus
A. Migration to the Americas
from Asia to Alaska across the Bering Straits land bridge
between 11,000 and 14,000years ago
B. Hunters, Farmers, and Environmental Factors
Separate, diverse cultures
Developed from hunting to agricultural techniques.
Megafauna: large animals (woolly mammoths, huge bison, etc.)
Kin-based groups, regional trading networks, greater social and
political complexity

C. Mesoamerican Empires
Middle region (Mexico)
Aztec empire 1427-151910-20 million people
immense capital, Tenochtitlan, a canal city island, with
aqueduct, floating gardens, 150,000 people
Stratified society (nobility, free commoners, serfs,
slaves)
Advanced civilization

D. Regional North American Cultures

American Southwest
“pueblo” people developed planned villages, multistoried
buildings, irrigation in agriculture, skill in ceramics and
woven textiles.
Pacific Northwest
Skill in carving and painting
Potlach, great winter gathering with song, dance, ritual
Great Plains
Mound building societies have been traced back as far as
.9000 BCE. Developed complex society with vast
trading network. City of Cahokia has at least 20,000
inhabitants.
Eastern seaboard
Smaller, less developed societies.

E. The Iroquois
Confederation of five tribes
Communal kinship groups
Matrilineal families (Family membership determined through the
female rather than male line)
Women appointed the chiefs
Men did most of the hunting and fishing;; women were primary
agriculturists.
Different approach to raising children and authority; less
complicated and focused on tradition and attachment to the
group.

F. Pre-Contact Population
50-70 million population in hemisphere in 1500
No horses, oxen, wheeled vehicles, or potter’s wheel; no
technology for smelting iron. But had valuable crops such as
corn and potatoes.

G. Contrasting Worldviews
Relationship to environment
Meaning of property
Personal identity

II. Africa on the Eve of Contac

A. The Spread of Islam