A nation of immigrants
The First Immigrants
The first immigrants who came to the North American continent were the nomadic
ancestors of the Native Americans. Sometime around 50,000 years ago, several related
groups began crossing the Bering Sea over a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia. These
first groups were nomads who hunted animals and gathered fruits and berries.
Many immigrants brought just what they could carry. It may have been little more than furs
for clothing, some crude hunting tools, and perhaps baskets or fur sacks for gathering food.
The most important thing immigrants brought was the skills they had developed. These were
hunting and tracking skills, knowledge of fire, and tools of stone and bone.
All immigrants have had to adapt to their new environment. As the nomadic bands spread
out to different parts of the two continents, their way of life slowly developed into different
cultures. 5000 years ago the beginnings of such cultural groups could be identified in the
Americas and several of these developed into highly complex civilizations. The most famous
of these groupings are the Aztec and Mayan civilizations in Mexico and Central America, and
the Inca civilization in Peru. The Pueblo culture and the Algonquian culture of the northwest
are significant examples of many different Native American cultures.
Mayan – Aztec – Inca
Mayan civilization was in decline by the time Spanish explorers arrived in 1500s. It was an
urban culture with cities dominated by large stone pyramid-temples. Mayans had invented
writing and a system of mathematics.
The Aztec were a more warlike civilization. They had come to dominate Mexico and most of
the areas of the Mayan civilization by 1500. Their capital, Tenochtitlan was the city where
the gold and silver of the empire was collected.
The Incas, in Peru, had a flourishing urban-based civilization that controlled the large areas
of the Andes. The Incas didn’t have money. The state provided the essentials like food,
clothing, health care and education. They all worked together. Every citizen was required to
contribute with his labour and refusal or laziness was punishable with the
death penalty.
These civilizations are important for the understanding of the history of
Mexico but less for the history of the United States.
,Pueblo – Algonquian – Iroquois
These were the first American tribes. The Pueblo means ‘The House’. The culture of the
Pueblos revolved around their villages. Pueblos are villages of multi-storied buildings and
were built with defense in mind. Some, such as Pueblo Bonito, stand in valleys as large
isolated structures with windowless solid walls facing out. Other pueblos were built on cliffs
or mesas (flat plateaus with steep sides). Pueblo dwellers were dependent on agriculture,
and not hunting. Men did the work and women prepared the food and took care of the
children. Each pueblo was run by a man’s council. Their religion centered around the
cultivation of crops and there were elaborate ceremonies and rituals.
The villages of those tribes in the Algonquian language group were built of wood and other
perishable materials, and little archaeological evidence remains of them. The villages were
oftend surrounded by wooden posts forming a wall for defense. The female members
remained in the home in which they were born, and makes joined their wife’s families. This
arrangement is referred to as matrilineal. Women did the agricultural work for the tribe and
were often the political and religious leaders.
The Algonquian people were hunters, gatherers, and farmers. They developed many tools to
support their activities. They did not have metal or wheel and they didn’t have suitable
animals in the area, so they used canoes and walking for transportation. Their religion
focused on crops. They worshipped the forces of nature involved with planting and
harvesting.
The Iroquois are a tribe of the Algonquian group. They planned for the ‘seventh generation’
meaning that they cared about the future and not just the next few years. This suggests a
realization that actions have long-range effects that must be considered.
The Europeans did not understand the complex Native American civilisation. They first
worked together to survive, then the Europeans started to invade their territories and
suppress them.
European Immigrants
Celts – Vikings
There is evidence of settlements during the Roman Republic by the Celtic peoples which
comes from inscriptions found at a number of locations in the northeast, from Algonquian
tales of ancestors who came from ‘across the sea’ rather than the overland bridge, from
circles of stones in North America that are similar to Stonehenge, and from the facial
features of the Algonquians, which are much like the European features.
There is more evidence for the settlements and visits of the Vikings. There are written
references to travel to North America in the archives of Denmark. Eric the Red, who was
exiled from Iceland, founded a settlement in Greenland about 1000 A.D. His son, Leif
Ericson, explored the coast of North America. Norsemen went in land as far as Minnesota.
,Eric the Red was exiled and had heard about a landmass west of Iceland and set sail. He
called it Greenland. One time his son Leif Ericson went back to Norway and on his return was
blown off course to a different piece of land with wheat fields and grapevines. He had
‘discovered’ America. Never settled there though. Eventually contact was lost between
America and Europe.
Renaissance
The period we call the Renaissance replaced the Middle Ages. Among the many
philosophical ideas of the Renaissance, new attitudes toward the individual, and the concept
of a secular (having to do with worldly as opposed to spiritual or religious concerns) nation
state were most important. The former encouraged individuality and the latter encouraged
the growth of what we consider a modern nation.
Because of the Renaissance and new economic conditions, the Portuguese explored and
there were new sailing techniques, which Columbus also used on his voyages.
The Crusades had introduced ideas and goods from Asia to Europe. This is the reason why
the explorers wanted to find a shorter route to Asia.
Christopher Columbus
Columbus became a sailor and developed a vision that changed the course of history. After
several years, the rulers of Spain agreed to help finance a voyage westward from Spain to
Japan and on to India. The result is the famous first voyage of Columbus and his three sailing
ships. He touched land, in the nowadays Bahamas, and named the first island he touched
San Salvador. To the Europeans it seemed that Columbus had ‘discovered a new world’. We
know, however, that this is not true. Columbus came at a time in which many technical
developments in sailing techniques and communication made it possible to report his
voyages easily and to spread the word of them throughout western Europe. He died in 1506.
Spanish explorers
Two important Spanish expeditions were those led by Ponce de Leon, who conquered
Puerto Rico in 1508-9 and explored Florida in 1513, and by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who
crossed the Isthmus of Panama and saw the Pacific in 1513. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan
started on an expedition around the world. Although he was killed, his expedition returned
to Spain in 1522. His expedition had proved that the earth was round, and that the lands
visited by Columbus were not Asia.
John Cabot
John Cabot’s voyage was the first not to be sponsored by Spain but England, under the
agreement of King Henry VII. He sailed along the coasts of Newfoundland and New England
and as far south as Delaware Bay, claiming this territory for England and providing the basis
for English claims to North America.
, European Settlements in North America
The Spanish in the Americas – the Early Years
The Reformation in Europe, which destroyed the unity of the Christian Church in western
Europe, was the central concern of the northern Europeans in the 16th century.
The Reformation was the religious movement in Western Christendom precipitated by
Martin Luther in 1517 which resulted in the formation of various Protestant churches and
which ended the unity of Europe under the Roman Catholic faith.
The Spanish sought wealth and found it in Mexico, which was conquered by Ferdinand
Cortez in the 1520s, and in Peru, which was conquered by Francisco Pizarro in the 1530s.
Much of the native population was either killed or died of disease, and those remaining were
either enslaved to work in mines or made serfs on the land. In their devotion to Christianity,
the Spanish destroyed both written records and buildings of the Incas and Aztecs. They built
Christian churches and worked to convert the natives to Roman Catholicism. Their reasons
for settlement are considered both economic and ideological, thus providing a clear example
of a multi-caused explanation.
St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States, was
established in 1565 as a military fort to block the French exploration in Florida. The Spanish
founded Santa Fe in New Mexico in 1609 and San Diego in 1769, the first European
settlement in California.
There was an overwhelming impact of the Spanish conquest. In establishing their control,
they destroyed much of the culture of the Native American. An ever greater loss was in the
number of natives who died as a result of diseases introduced by the European explorers
and settlers. The natives had no immunity to such European diseases as smallpox.
Europeans did take a new, severe form of syphilis back from the Americas, and it spread
throughout the continent. One positive result of the opening up of the Americas was an
exchange of products. Beans and potatoes were introduced to Europe, and cattle and
horses, to the Americas.
A Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, explored the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and finally
the Mississippi River area. The French made an attempt at a settlement in Florida but were
stopped by the Spanish. In the early 17th century Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch,
explored the East Coast from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas. His voyages gave the Dutch a
claim to what became New York. The Englishman Sir Francis Drake explored the Pacific coast
of the Americas, raiding Spanish ships and entering San Francisco Bay (1579), which he
claimed for England. He is a hero to the English, but he was a pirate to the Spanish.
The First Immigrants
The first immigrants who came to the North American continent were the nomadic
ancestors of the Native Americans. Sometime around 50,000 years ago, several related
groups began crossing the Bering Sea over a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia. These
first groups were nomads who hunted animals and gathered fruits and berries.
Many immigrants brought just what they could carry. It may have been little more than furs
for clothing, some crude hunting tools, and perhaps baskets or fur sacks for gathering food.
The most important thing immigrants brought was the skills they had developed. These were
hunting and tracking skills, knowledge of fire, and tools of stone and bone.
All immigrants have had to adapt to their new environment. As the nomadic bands spread
out to different parts of the two continents, their way of life slowly developed into different
cultures. 5000 years ago the beginnings of such cultural groups could be identified in the
Americas and several of these developed into highly complex civilizations. The most famous
of these groupings are the Aztec and Mayan civilizations in Mexico and Central America, and
the Inca civilization in Peru. The Pueblo culture and the Algonquian culture of the northwest
are significant examples of many different Native American cultures.
Mayan – Aztec – Inca
Mayan civilization was in decline by the time Spanish explorers arrived in 1500s. It was an
urban culture with cities dominated by large stone pyramid-temples. Mayans had invented
writing and a system of mathematics.
The Aztec were a more warlike civilization. They had come to dominate Mexico and most of
the areas of the Mayan civilization by 1500. Their capital, Tenochtitlan was the city where
the gold and silver of the empire was collected.
The Incas, in Peru, had a flourishing urban-based civilization that controlled the large areas
of the Andes. The Incas didn’t have money. The state provided the essentials like food,
clothing, health care and education. They all worked together. Every citizen was required to
contribute with his labour and refusal or laziness was punishable with the
death penalty.
These civilizations are important for the understanding of the history of
Mexico but less for the history of the United States.
,Pueblo – Algonquian – Iroquois
These were the first American tribes. The Pueblo means ‘The House’. The culture of the
Pueblos revolved around their villages. Pueblos are villages of multi-storied buildings and
were built with defense in mind. Some, such as Pueblo Bonito, stand in valleys as large
isolated structures with windowless solid walls facing out. Other pueblos were built on cliffs
or mesas (flat plateaus with steep sides). Pueblo dwellers were dependent on agriculture,
and not hunting. Men did the work and women prepared the food and took care of the
children. Each pueblo was run by a man’s council. Their religion centered around the
cultivation of crops and there were elaborate ceremonies and rituals.
The villages of those tribes in the Algonquian language group were built of wood and other
perishable materials, and little archaeological evidence remains of them. The villages were
oftend surrounded by wooden posts forming a wall for defense. The female members
remained in the home in which they were born, and makes joined their wife’s families. This
arrangement is referred to as matrilineal. Women did the agricultural work for the tribe and
were often the political and religious leaders.
The Algonquian people were hunters, gatherers, and farmers. They developed many tools to
support their activities. They did not have metal or wheel and they didn’t have suitable
animals in the area, so they used canoes and walking for transportation. Their religion
focused on crops. They worshipped the forces of nature involved with planting and
harvesting.
The Iroquois are a tribe of the Algonquian group. They planned for the ‘seventh generation’
meaning that they cared about the future and not just the next few years. This suggests a
realization that actions have long-range effects that must be considered.
The Europeans did not understand the complex Native American civilisation. They first
worked together to survive, then the Europeans started to invade their territories and
suppress them.
European Immigrants
Celts – Vikings
There is evidence of settlements during the Roman Republic by the Celtic peoples which
comes from inscriptions found at a number of locations in the northeast, from Algonquian
tales of ancestors who came from ‘across the sea’ rather than the overland bridge, from
circles of stones in North America that are similar to Stonehenge, and from the facial
features of the Algonquians, which are much like the European features.
There is more evidence for the settlements and visits of the Vikings. There are written
references to travel to North America in the archives of Denmark. Eric the Red, who was
exiled from Iceland, founded a settlement in Greenland about 1000 A.D. His son, Leif
Ericson, explored the coast of North America. Norsemen went in land as far as Minnesota.
,Eric the Red was exiled and had heard about a landmass west of Iceland and set sail. He
called it Greenland. One time his son Leif Ericson went back to Norway and on his return was
blown off course to a different piece of land with wheat fields and grapevines. He had
‘discovered’ America. Never settled there though. Eventually contact was lost between
America and Europe.
Renaissance
The period we call the Renaissance replaced the Middle Ages. Among the many
philosophical ideas of the Renaissance, new attitudes toward the individual, and the concept
of a secular (having to do with worldly as opposed to spiritual or religious concerns) nation
state were most important. The former encouraged individuality and the latter encouraged
the growth of what we consider a modern nation.
Because of the Renaissance and new economic conditions, the Portuguese explored and
there were new sailing techniques, which Columbus also used on his voyages.
The Crusades had introduced ideas and goods from Asia to Europe. This is the reason why
the explorers wanted to find a shorter route to Asia.
Christopher Columbus
Columbus became a sailor and developed a vision that changed the course of history. After
several years, the rulers of Spain agreed to help finance a voyage westward from Spain to
Japan and on to India. The result is the famous first voyage of Columbus and his three sailing
ships. He touched land, in the nowadays Bahamas, and named the first island he touched
San Salvador. To the Europeans it seemed that Columbus had ‘discovered a new world’. We
know, however, that this is not true. Columbus came at a time in which many technical
developments in sailing techniques and communication made it possible to report his
voyages easily and to spread the word of them throughout western Europe. He died in 1506.
Spanish explorers
Two important Spanish expeditions were those led by Ponce de Leon, who conquered
Puerto Rico in 1508-9 and explored Florida in 1513, and by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who
crossed the Isthmus of Panama and saw the Pacific in 1513. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan
started on an expedition around the world. Although he was killed, his expedition returned
to Spain in 1522. His expedition had proved that the earth was round, and that the lands
visited by Columbus were not Asia.
John Cabot
John Cabot’s voyage was the first not to be sponsored by Spain but England, under the
agreement of King Henry VII. He sailed along the coasts of Newfoundland and New England
and as far south as Delaware Bay, claiming this territory for England and providing the basis
for English claims to North America.
, European Settlements in North America
The Spanish in the Americas – the Early Years
The Reformation in Europe, which destroyed the unity of the Christian Church in western
Europe, was the central concern of the northern Europeans in the 16th century.
The Reformation was the religious movement in Western Christendom precipitated by
Martin Luther in 1517 which resulted in the formation of various Protestant churches and
which ended the unity of Europe under the Roman Catholic faith.
The Spanish sought wealth and found it in Mexico, which was conquered by Ferdinand
Cortez in the 1520s, and in Peru, which was conquered by Francisco Pizarro in the 1530s.
Much of the native population was either killed or died of disease, and those remaining were
either enslaved to work in mines or made serfs on the land. In their devotion to Christianity,
the Spanish destroyed both written records and buildings of the Incas and Aztecs. They built
Christian churches and worked to convert the natives to Roman Catholicism. Their reasons
for settlement are considered both economic and ideological, thus providing a clear example
of a multi-caused explanation.
St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States, was
established in 1565 as a military fort to block the French exploration in Florida. The Spanish
founded Santa Fe in New Mexico in 1609 and San Diego in 1769, the first European
settlement in California.
There was an overwhelming impact of the Spanish conquest. In establishing their control,
they destroyed much of the culture of the Native American. An ever greater loss was in the
number of natives who died as a result of diseases introduced by the European explorers
and settlers. The natives had no immunity to such European diseases as smallpox.
Europeans did take a new, severe form of syphilis back from the Americas, and it spread
throughout the continent. One positive result of the opening up of the Americas was an
exchange of products. Beans and potatoes were introduced to Europe, and cattle and
horses, to the Americas.
A Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, explored the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and finally
the Mississippi River area. The French made an attempt at a settlement in Florida but were
stopped by the Spanish. In the early 17th century Henry Hudson, sailing for the Dutch,
explored the East Coast from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas. His voyages gave the Dutch a
claim to what became New York. The Englishman Sir Francis Drake explored the Pacific coast
of the Americas, raiding Spanish ships and entering San Francisco Bay (1579), which he
claimed for England. He is a hero to the English, but he was a pirate to the Spanish.
