American+Culture+01+--history.ppt

American Culture 01 I. Discovering America II. England Imperial Stirrings III. The Plantation Colonies IV. New England I. Discovering America Indirect causes: 1. Christian Crusaders of the 11th to 14th century 2. Muslim and Italian middlemen charged dearly 3. Renaissance 4. Portuguese successful plantation experiment in Africa 5. Spain was ready Discovering the New World Christopher Columbus, an Italian, persuaded the Spanish monarchs to give him 3 ships. He sailed westward and landed an island in the Bahamas on Oct. 12, 1492. Effects: His discovery linked the four continents, making them an interdependent global economic system: - Europe = markets, capital and technology - Africa = labor - New World = raw materials: its gold and silver, its rich soil to grow sugarcane Collision of Two Worlds New World offered: ? tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, potato / iguanas rattlesnakes Old World offered: ? sugarcane / germs (smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria) Germs: In the century after Columbus’s landfall, nearly 90 percent of Native Americans perished, a demographic disaster without parallel in human history. Depopulation was so severe that entire cultures and ancient ways of life were extinguished. II. England Imperial Stirrings 1. The English sent John Cabot (an Italian navigator) to the northeastern coast of North America in 1498. 2. Encouraged by Elizabeth, English sea captains (pirates) plundered Spanish treasure ships and raided Spanish settlements. 3. Catholic Philip II of Spain tried to invade the Protestant English in 1588 with an “invincible armada”, only defeated by English. 4. The population of England was mushrooming, landlords were enclosing croplands for sheep grazing, forcing small farmers to become landless and homeless. 5. The law of primogeniture ruled that only oldest sons were entitled to inherit landed estates, forcing landlords’ younger sons to seek their fortunes elsewhere. 6. The emergence of joint-stock companies provided the