CHAPTER 1
WHEN OLD WORLDS COLLIDE: ENCOUNTERS IN THE
ATLANTIC WORLD TO 1600
Chapter Outline
I. Peoples in Motion
A. From Beringia to the Americas
B. The Great Extinction and the Rise of Agriculture
II. The Emergence of Complex Societies in the Americas
A. The Andes: Cycles of Complex Cultures
B. Inca Civilization
C. Mesoamerica: Cycles of Complex Cultures
D. The Aztecs and Tenochtitlan
III. Agricultural takeoff in North America
A. Urban Cultures of the Southwest
B. North American Mound Builders
C. North America in 1491
D. The Norse Connection
IV. Europe and the World by the 15th Century
A. China: The Rejection of Overseas Expansion
B. Christian Europe Challenges Islam
C. The Legacy of the Crusades
D. The Unlikely Pioneer: Portugal
E. Africa, Colonies and the Slave Trade
F. Portugal’s Asian Empire
G. Early Lessons
V. Spain, Columbus, and the Americas
A. Columbus
B. Spain and the Caribbean
VI. Conquest and Catastrophe
A. The Conquest of Mexico and Peru
B. North American Conquistadores and Missionaries
C. The Spanish Empire and Demographic Catastrophe
D. Brazil
VII. Global Colossus, Global Economy
VIII. Explanations: Patterns of Conquest, Submission, and Resistance
Chronology
30,000–13,000 BCE Bering land bridge open; Migrations to the Americas begin
9000 BCE Shenandoah Valley occupied
9000–7000 BCE Most large American mammals become extinct
500 BCE–400 CE Adena–Hopewell mound builders thrive in the Ohio valley
200–900 Maya civilization flourishes in Mesoamerica
900–1250 Medieval Warm Period; Toltecs dominate the Valley of Mexico;
Maize becomes a major food source in North America; Mogollon,
1-1
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures thrives in American Southwest;
Cohokia becomes largest Mississippian mound builders’ city
1001–1014 Norse find Vinland on Newfoundland
1200–1300s Little Ice Age begins; Original inhabitants abandon Cahokia;
Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures decline
1400s Incas begin to dominate the Andres; Aztecs begin to dominate
Mesoamerica (1400–1450); Cheng Ho makes voyages of exploration
for China (1405–1434); Portuguese begin to master the Atlantic coast
of Africa (1434); First Portuguese slave factory established on
African coast (1448); Dias reaches Cape of Good Hope (1487);
Columbus reaches the Caribbean (1492); Treaty of Tordesillas
divides non-Christian world between Portugal and Spain (1494); da
Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope and reaches India (1497–1499)
1500s Portuguese discover Brazil (1500); Balboa crosses Isthmus to
Panama on the Pacific (1513); Magellan’s fleet circumnavigates the
globe; Cortés conquers the Aztec empire (1519–1522); de Vaca
makes overland journey from Florida to Mexico (1528–1536);
Pizarro conquers the Inca empire (1531–1532); de Soto’s expedition
explores the American Southeast (1539–1543); Coronado explores
the American Southwest (1540–1542); Jesuit mission established at
Chesapeake Bay (1570–1571); Philip II issues Royal Order for New
Discoveries (1573); Philip II unites Spanish and Portuguese empires
(1580)
Thematic Topics for Enrichment
1. What physical changes did North America experience starting 15,000 years ago? How
did humans utilize the continent for food after these changes took place?
2. Compare and contrast the complex societies that arose in the Americas, such as the Incas,
Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs.
3. In what ways did Cahokia constitute a city in our present-day sense? In what ways did it
not?
4. Although China was able to carry out overseas expansion, explain why it did not do so.
5. Discuss the rise of Portugal as a seaborne empire in the 15th century. Why does your
reading refer to it as an “unlikely pioneer”?
6. Describe what motivated Spain to be interested in exploration or colonization.
7. What elements of world geography did Columbus possess knowledge of right before
setting out in 1492? What elements did he have wrong?
8. What were Columbus’s motives in 1492, and what were those of the Spaniards who
followed him to the Americas?
9. Discuss the use of the word catastrophe to describe the results of the contact between the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries.
10. Contrast the idealism and ethnocentrism of the missionary efforts in the Western
Hemisphere.
Suggested Essay Topics
1-2
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
,1. What is the connection of the Crusades to the colonization of the Americas by Europeans
in the 15th and 16th centuries?
2. What advantages did Europeans have over other groups in 1500? What disadvantages did
they turn to their ultimate benefit?
3. Create your own accounts of the conquest of the Aztec civilization from the contrasting
points of view of Moctezuma and Cortés. In what ways can the conflict be described as a
“cultural misunderstanding”?
4. What factors account for the success Spain and Portugal had in colonizing the New
World in the 16th century compared to other western European nations at the time?
5. What were the basic mechanisms of the slave trade? Assess the relationship of slavery
and the conquest of the Western Hemisphere.
Lecture Outline
1. The story of the settlement of the Americas is only one part of a larger epic of peoples in
motion, of which the Western Hemisphere was only one destination.
a. The first immigrants traveled from Beringia to the Americas over the land
bridge created during the last Ice Age.
(Show Map 1.1: Indian Settlement of America)
b. Advanced weaponry coupled with climatic changes led to the great extinction of
the large mammals on which the bands of hunters depended; extinction led to the
rise of agriculture in the aftermath of the last Ice Age.
2. The centuries before Columbus witnessed the emergence of complex societies in the
Americas.
a. The rise of sedentary cultures occurred throughout the Americas.
i. The Andes contained a number of cycles of complex cultures,
culminating in the Inca civilization, which thrived on its ingenious
methods of terrace agriculture.
ii. Mesoamerica also featured successive cycles of complex cultures,
including the Aztecs and Tenochtitlán, the Mayans, and the Olmecs.
(Show Map 1.2: The Major Empires and Cities of the Andes and Mesoamerica from the 10th to
the Early 15th Century and Map 1.3: Valley of Mexico, 1519)
3. The cultivation of maize was a central component in the rise of other cultures in North
America.
a. The Southwest featured Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures.
(Show Map 1.4: Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi Sites).
b. “Mound Builders” appeared in North America, such as the Adena–Hopewell
culture.
i. Cahokia was the largest mound-building site, near present-day St. Louis,
Missouri.
(Show Map 1.5: Mound-Building Cultures of North America).
c. Peoples from the north, Norsemen, traveled from the upper reaches of Europe to
North America long before Columbus’s voyages.
4. Europe was the primary region involved in overseas exploration.
a. China decided that the outside world offered little interest and decided to stay
within its borders.
1-3
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
, b. Europe made some advances technologically and economically in the medieval
period. Various European countries also engaged rapidly expanding Islamic
empires on the battlefield and in the Mediterranean.
(Show Map 1.6: Expansion of Islam)
c. Portugal was the unlikely pioneer of European expansion, as the nation of only
several hundred thousand established a remarkable empire in Africa, India, and
Asia; its experiences and instigation of the slave trade provided the rest of
Europe with important early lessons.
(Show Map 1.7: Africa and the Mediterranean in the 15th Century)
d. Much larger and more populous than its neighbor, Spain followed closely on
Portugal’s heels and soon eclipsed it in the race for an Atlantic empire.
i. Sailing under the Spanish flag, Christopher Columbus accidentally
found the Americas.
(Show Map 1.8: Columbus’s First Voyage, 1492)
ii. Spain quickly established an empire in the Caribbean in the aftermath of
Columbus’s expeditions.
5. By the turn of the century, cultural misunderstandings resulted in conquest and
catastrophe.
a. Hernán Cortés led a band of less than a thousand men in the conquest of Mexico,
and a little more than a decade later, the Pizarro brothers brutally subdued the
Incas in Peru.
b. North American conquistadors and missionaries soon spread out from the
Caribbean, simultaneously spreading Christianity and establishing Spanish
dominion.
(Show Map 1.9: Principal Spanish Explorations of North America and 1.10: Spanish Missions in
Florida and Mexico circa 1675)
6. Through the 16th century, the Spaniards erected a remarkable Empire while unleashing a
demographic catastrophe on the Indians.
7. Spanish and other European seamen copied Portuguese activities in Brazil, creating the
beginnings of a global economy based largely on slave labor and staple crop production.
a. In Mexico and Peru, Spain imposed a labor system called encomienda, which was
modeled after Aztec and Inca labor methods.
8. Silver formed the backbone of Spain’s economic and political power during the 16th
century. By the middle 1500s, Spain’s global empire was reaching its zenith. However,
cracks in Spanish power were already evident by the close of the sixteenth century.
9. Historians have suggested many conflicting explanations for the various patterns of
conquest, submission, and resistance in the century following Columbus’s voyages.
(Show Map 1.11: Spanish Empire and Global Labor System)
Conclusion: By accident, on October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus made contact with
America. From then on, and for the next several hundred years, Europeans contested for
domination of the Western Hemisphere. The costs were high, and the consequences for
the peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas proved immeasurable. For the
indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, the consequences of contact proved
catastrophic.
1-4
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
WHEN OLD WORLDS COLLIDE: ENCOUNTERS IN THE
ATLANTIC WORLD TO 1600
Chapter Outline
I. Peoples in Motion
A. From Beringia to the Americas
B. The Great Extinction and the Rise of Agriculture
II. The Emergence of Complex Societies in the Americas
A. The Andes: Cycles of Complex Cultures
B. Inca Civilization
C. Mesoamerica: Cycles of Complex Cultures
D. The Aztecs and Tenochtitlan
III. Agricultural takeoff in North America
A. Urban Cultures of the Southwest
B. North American Mound Builders
C. North America in 1491
D. The Norse Connection
IV. Europe and the World by the 15th Century
A. China: The Rejection of Overseas Expansion
B. Christian Europe Challenges Islam
C. The Legacy of the Crusades
D. The Unlikely Pioneer: Portugal
E. Africa, Colonies and the Slave Trade
F. Portugal’s Asian Empire
G. Early Lessons
V. Spain, Columbus, and the Americas
A. Columbus
B. Spain and the Caribbean
VI. Conquest and Catastrophe
A. The Conquest of Mexico and Peru
B. North American Conquistadores and Missionaries
C. The Spanish Empire and Demographic Catastrophe
D. Brazil
VII. Global Colossus, Global Economy
VIII. Explanations: Patterns of Conquest, Submission, and Resistance
Chronology
30,000–13,000 BCE Bering land bridge open; Migrations to the Americas begin
9000 BCE Shenandoah Valley occupied
9000–7000 BCE Most large American mammals become extinct
500 BCE–400 CE Adena–Hopewell mound builders thrive in the Ohio valley
200–900 Maya civilization flourishes in Mesoamerica
900–1250 Medieval Warm Period; Toltecs dominate the Valley of Mexico;
Maize becomes a major food source in North America; Mogollon,
1-1
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures thrives in American Southwest;
Cohokia becomes largest Mississippian mound builders’ city
1001–1014 Norse find Vinland on Newfoundland
1200–1300s Little Ice Age begins; Original inhabitants abandon Cahokia;
Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures decline
1400s Incas begin to dominate the Andres; Aztecs begin to dominate
Mesoamerica (1400–1450); Cheng Ho makes voyages of exploration
for China (1405–1434); Portuguese begin to master the Atlantic coast
of Africa (1434); First Portuguese slave factory established on
African coast (1448); Dias reaches Cape of Good Hope (1487);
Columbus reaches the Caribbean (1492); Treaty of Tordesillas
divides non-Christian world between Portugal and Spain (1494); da
Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope and reaches India (1497–1499)
1500s Portuguese discover Brazil (1500); Balboa crosses Isthmus to
Panama on the Pacific (1513); Magellan’s fleet circumnavigates the
globe; Cortés conquers the Aztec empire (1519–1522); de Vaca
makes overland journey from Florida to Mexico (1528–1536);
Pizarro conquers the Inca empire (1531–1532); de Soto’s expedition
explores the American Southeast (1539–1543); Coronado explores
the American Southwest (1540–1542); Jesuit mission established at
Chesapeake Bay (1570–1571); Philip II issues Royal Order for New
Discoveries (1573); Philip II unites Spanish and Portuguese empires
(1580)
Thematic Topics for Enrichment
1. What physical changes did North America experience starting 15,000 years ago? How
did humans utilize the continent for food after these changes took place?
2. Compare and contrast the complex societies that arose in the Americas, such as the Incas,
Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs.
3. In what ways did Cahokia constitute a city in our present-day sense? In what ways did it
not?
4. Although China was able to carry out overseas expansion, explain why it did not do so.
5. Discuss the rise of Portugal as a seaborne empire in the 15th century. Why does your
reading refer to it as an “unlikely pioneer”?
6. Describe what motivated Spain to be interested in exploration or colonization.
7. What elements of world geography did Columbus possess knowledge of right before
setting out in 1492? What elements did he have wrong?
8. What were Columbus’s motives in 1492, and what were those of the Spaniards who
followed him to the Americas?
9. Discuss the use of the word catastrophe to describe the results of the contact between the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries.
10. Contrast the idealism and ethnocentrism of the missionary efforts in the Western
Hemisphere.
Suggested Essay Topics
1-2
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
,1. What is the connection of the Crusades to the colonization of the Americas by Europeans
in the 15th and 16th centuries?
2. What advantages did Europeans have over other groups in 1500? What disadvantages did
they turn to their ultimate benefit?
3. Create your own accounts of the conquest of the Aztec civilization from the contrasting
points of view of Moctezuma and Cortés. In what ways can the conflict be described as a
“cultural misunderstanding”?
4. What factors account for the success Spain and Portugal had in colonizing the New
World in the 16th century compared to other western European nations at the time?
5. What were the basic mechanisms of the slave trade? Assess the relationship of slavery
and the conquest of the Western Hemisphere.
Lecture Outline
1. The story of the settlement of the Americas is only one part of a larger epic of peoples in
motion, of which the Western Hemisphere was only one destination.
a. The first immigrants traveled from Beringia to the Americas over the land
bridge created during the last Ice Age.
(Show Map 1.1: Indian Settlement of America)
b. Advanced weaponry coupled with climatic changes led to the great extinction of
the large mammals on which the bands of hunters depended; extinction led to the
rise of agriculture in the aftermath of the last Ice Age.
2. The centuries before Columbus witnessed the emergence of complex societies in the
Americas.
a. The rise of sedentary cultures occurred throughout the Americas.
i. The Andes contained a number of cycles of complex cultures,
culminating in the Inca civilization, which thrived on its ingenious
methods of terrace agriculture.
ii. Mesoamerica also featured successive cycles of complex cultures,
including the Aztecs and Tenochtitlán, the Mayans, and the Olmecs.
(Show Map 1.2: The Major Empires and Cities of the Andes and Mesoamerica from the 10th to
the Early 15th Century and Map 1.3: Valley of Mexico, 1519)
3. The cultivation of maize was a central component in the rise of other cultures in North
America.
a. The Southwest featured Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi cultures.
(Show Map 1.4: Mogollon, Hohokam, and Anasazi Sites).
b. “Mound Builders” appeared in North America, such as the Adena–Hopewell
culture.
i. Cahokia was the largest mound-building site, near present-day St. Louis,
Missouri.
(Show Map 1.5: Mound-Building Cultures of North America).
c. Peoples from the north, Norsemen, traveled from the upper reaches of Europe to
North America long before Columbus’s voyages.
4. Europe was the primary region involved in overseas exploration.
a. China decided that the outside world offered little interest and decided to stay
within its borders.
1-3
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
, b. Europe made some advances technologically and economically in the medieval
period. Various European countries also engaged rapidly expanding Islamic
empires on the battlefield and in the Mediterranean.
(Show Map 1.6: Expansion of Islam)
c. Portugal was the unlikely pioneer of European expansion, as the nation of only
several hundred thousand established a remarkable empire in Africa, India, and
Asia; its experiences and instigation of the slave trade provided the rest of
Europe with important early lessons.
(Show Map 1.7: Africa and the Mediterranean in the 15th Century)
d. Much larger and more populous than its neighbor, Spain followed closely on
Portugal’s heels and soon eclipsed it in the race for an Atlantic empire.
i. Sailing under the Spanish flag, Christopher Columbus accidentally
found the Americas.
(Show Map 1.8: Columbus’s First Voyage, 1492)
ii. Spain quickly established an empire in the Caribbean in the aftermath of
Columbus’s expeditions.
5. By the turn of the century, cultural misunderstandings resulted in conquest and
catastrophe.
a. Hernán Cortés led a band of less than a thousand men in the conquest of Mexico,
and a little more than a decade later, the Pizarro brothers brutally subdued the
Incas in Peru.
b. North American conquistadors and missionaries soon spread out from the
Caribbean, simultaneously spreading Christianity and establishing Spanish
dominion.
(Show Map 1.9: Principal Spanish Explorations of North America and 1.10: Spanish Missions in
Florida and Mexico circa 1675)
6. Through the 16th century, the Spaniards erected a remarkable Empire while unleashing a
demographic catastrophe on the Indians.
7. Spanish and other European seamen copied Portuguese activities in Brazil, creating the
beginnings of a global economy based largely on slave labor and staple crop production.
a. In Mexico and Peru, Spain imposed a labor system called encomienda, which was
modeled after Aztec and Inca labor methods.
8. Silver formed the backbone of Spain’s economic and political power during the 16th
century. By the middle 1500s, Spain’s global empire was reaching its zenith. However,
cracks in Spanish power were already evident by the close of the sixteenth century.
9. Historians have suggested many conflicting explanations for the various patterns of
conquest, submission, and resistance in the century following Columbus’s voyages.
(Show Map 1.11: Spanish Empire and Global Labor System)
Conclusion: By accident, on October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus made contact with
America. From then on, and for the next several hundred years, Europeans contested for
domination of the Western Hemisphere. The costs were high, and the consequences for
the peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas proved immeasurable. For the
indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, the consequences of contact proved
catastrophic.
1-4
© 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
