The history of the United States, heavily influenced by the regions that took part in its settlement, began with the arrival of Columbus in the Americas. The clash of three worlds, the Americas, Europe, and Africa, forever changed each region. Cultures and civilizations existed here long before the first permanent European settlements started in the Americas. These cultures played a pivotal role in the development of the United States. This timeline begins with the peopling of the Americas almost 30,000 years ago, the progress through the Native American civilizations and their contributions, and certain societies in Africa and Europe. The Mesoamerican nations, such as the Maya and Aztec, lagged behind their European counterparts in some aspects of technology, but equaled or surpassed them in areas such as astronomy, architecture, mathematics, and engineering. The Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, destroyed by the Spanish conquistador Cortes, rivaled the grandest cities in Europe. The Inca, found in the Andes Mountains in Western South America, had an extensive transportation system connecting the different regions of the empire. The engineering feats, from building bridges and roads to connect all parts of the mountainous empire to terraces built to farm on the mountainsides, showed accomplishments of a highly developed civilization.
The North American Indians did not develop widespread civilizations like those in South America. The many tribes traded throughout the continents, varied in societal structures, and had different roles of tribal governance, treatment of women, children, and the elderly. The Iroquois Confederation, found in the general region of New York, had a federal system of governance to what some believe to be similar to what developed through the United States Constitution. Further research has shown “that the Iroquois Confederacy rested on distinctive Indian principles, as remarkable in conception as those in the U.S. Constitution” (Tooker 305). Each of the original five (and then six) Iroquois nations had an individual government system to make decisions important for the individual nation, and sent representatives to a council made up of people from each of the Iroquois nations. This council made decisions for the Iroquois that concerned all the nations together.
The Americas were not a New World to those who had populated it for thousands of years. The total population of the Americas ranged between 50 – 100 million with about 7 – 10 million in North America. The Native American concepts of land usage, their often-matriarchal societies, and other cultural and societal differences from the Europeans help to explain the original encounters and conflicts between European settlers and their Native American hosts.
Africa was a wildly diverse continent, socially, politically, and ethnically in the Pre-Colombian period. The West African kingdoms, that included the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, traded widely with Middle East. Trade with the Middle East brought Islam to Northern African regions initially and finally sub-Saharan civilizations. Africa became a region of wealth through traded goods, such as slaves, ivory, salt, and gold. This wealth allowed Africa to house some of the world’s most highly developed civilizations. Mansa Musa, a Mali king, returned to Timbuktu from his Hajj to Mecca, with some of the top scholars, writers, and architects of the time. Timbuktu would later become a center of culture and learning throughout Africa. The slave trade provided much of the wealth in the kingdoms. African slaves were sold throughout North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. African slavery had existed for centuries. African slavery was not hereditary, not racially specific, and allowed the slaves rights and the opportunities for freedom. This type of slavery differed from the type that became a part of United States culture.
The Europeans, re-exposed to the classical ideas of the Greeks and Romans through the treks to the Middle East during the Crusades, developed the technology, the economic ability, and the interest to venture further afield. Desire for goods from Asia, traded through the Middle Eastern middlemen, gave them the motivation to explore. Navigation tools acquired from the Arab traders, such as the compass and the astrolabe, coupled with European inventions like the caravel, gave Europeans the ability for exploration. The rise of trade produced a growth in capital that financed explorations. The European nations’ explorations to the Far East had a huge effect on the rest of the world. Spain and Portugal led these initial trips to the Far East. The Portuguese set up trading posts along the West African coast as they worked their way south. This expanded African slavery into Europe. The Spanish initially believed Columbus had found the Far East. They developed settlements, and later an empire, in the Americas which fostered huge amounts of wealth for the nation. A huge influx of labor was required in the Americas for the growth of sugarcane and sugar production. Native Americans were initially used for the labor, but later Africans were brought into the country. This led to the start of the strong and repressive system of slavery in the Americas that would last for almost 300 years.
The greatest effect of the Spanish arrival in the Americas was the Columbian Exchange. Goods were brought to the Americas from Europe and Africa, and taken back to Africa and Europe. These new products changed the diet, health, and lifestyle of all involved. Nutrient-dense foods from the Americas were brought to both Europe and Africa. This made the people of each region far healthier, which led to population growth. Large animals brought to the Americas, such as sheep and cattle, gave a rich source of protein to the natives. The horse, brought by the Spanish, transformed the culture and lifestyle of some of the Native Americans. Finally, the Europeans introduced diseases into the Americas that devastated the native populations. The Native Americans had no natural immunity to these European diseases. Disease reduced the native population of the Americas by 90%.
Other European nations looked to share in the wealth that Spain gained from the American empire. Their ideas became a part of the history that would make up America. The different ideas of religion in Europe, starting with the Protestant Reformation, carried over to the Americas and greatly influenced the way of life. Political ideas that took hold in England, beginning with the 1215 Magna Carta, hugely impacted the development of our system of government. By the time the first English settlement started in America, the seeds of democratic ideas had been planted.
Primary Resources for Era 1
- Watercolors by John White, leader of the attempted settlement at Roanoke. White made paintings of the plant life, animals, and the Native Americans. These very realistic drawings can give students of all ages insight to what life was like before too many Europeans came to America.
http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/jamestown.html - This site contains excerpts of Columbus’s journal, including the description when they first site land. This is very long, but bits and pieces could be used to give a good idea of the conditions sailors faced in that period. The section on finding land for the first time is on Oct. 11.
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1400-1500/columbus/extract.htm - The Iroquois Constitution is found at this site. Students can read parts (again, the entire document is very long) and make comparisons to the US government and other representative governments.
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1776-1800/constitution/iroq_const.htm - A secondary source, “The United States Constitution and the Iroquois League,” by Elisabeth Tooker dispels the idea that the Iroquois Constitution is a model for the United States Constitution. It shows how both are based on distinct and separate principles.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/482139 - A description of what John White found when he returned to Roanoke.
http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/ronoake.html - The First Virginia Charter (April 6, 1606) and instructions to the settlers. This is the charter granted to the London Company of Virginia to settle in the region of Virginia. The specific boundaries for settlement are described, as are requirements for the settlements. An interesting part is paragraph #14 where the settlers are granted the same rights (basic rights of Englishmen) as those living in England.
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1601-1650/virginia/instru.htm
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/D/1601-1650/virginia/chart01.htm - A map by Gerrit van Schagen showing the Americas (05) and a double hemisphere map by Justus Danckerts (01), which shows the Americas as well. Both maps still refer to the New York region as New Amsterdam, which indicates that these maps were made prior to 1662.
http://lowcountrydigital.library.cofc.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2FMKA