Period 1 and Period 2 are Exploration and Colonization. This period begins with Columbus' discovery of North America and ends after several colonies are established in the New World.
Europe began moving towards exploration because of improvements in technology, religious conflicts, and expansion of trade. During this period, the most successful countries were the ones who made innovations in trade routes and expanded their influence around the globe. However, Europeans were not the first people to have sophisticated civilization nor were they the first to inhabit North America.
Native Americans had highly sophisticated tribes based on hunting and agriculture for survival. Some examples include the Great Plains Tribes from the Midwest that hunted Buffalo, the Pueblos of Southwestern U.S. who had multistory dwellings and advanced irrigation, and the Iroquois Tribe from the Northeastern part of the U.S. that later formed the League of Iroquois to protect their lands.
Europe began moving towards exploration because of improvements in technology, religious conflicts, and expansion of trade. During this period, the most successful countries were the ones who made innovations in trade routes and expanded their influence around the globe. However, Europeans were not the first people to have sophisticated civilization nor were they the first to inhabit North America.
Native Americans had highly sophisticated tribes based on hunting and agriculture for survival. Some examples include the Great Plains Tribes from the Midwest that hunted Buffalo, the Pueblos of Southwestern U.S. who had multistory dwellings and advanced irrigation, and the Iroquois Tribe from the Northeastern part of the U.S. that later formed the League of Iroquois to protect their lands.
Other examples of inhabitants of the Americas are advanced societies in Central and South America such as the Mayans(Yucatan Peninsula), Aztecs(Central Mexico), and Incas(Peru). Many of these great nations died out because of exploration and the disease that accompanied. |
The most notable explorer of this time period is Christopher Columbus. Sailing on his three ships, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, Columbus discovered the New World thinking that he actually discovered India. Columbus' voyage would begin what is called the Columbian exchange in which disease, materials, animals, plants, and religion were traded across the Atlantic Ocean. Below is a visual of what things were exchanged during this time.
Around this same time, the Spanish were attempting their own exploration of the Americas with notable explorers such as Vasco Nunez Balboa, Juan Ponce De Leon, Ferdinand Magellan, Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando De Soto, and Francisco Vasquez. The spanish used different techniques than the Europeans when exploring. They used notoriously brutal conquistadores to overthrow civilizations and established the encomienda system which gave natives to colonists in exchange for their promise to convert the natives to Christianity.
The first permanent English Colony in the New World was Jamestown. Originally chartered by the virginia Company, Jamestown endured much. The first year, called the starving time took the lives of 340 of the original 400 colonists. Then came the First and Second Powhatan Wars. It was many years before Jamestown would thrive After Jamestown followed Plymouth, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There also was The Carolinas, New York, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
Some, like many of the New England Colonies, wanted religious freedom. Others, allowed colonists a chance to raise their economic status through a search or treasure. Many were founded under the principle of mercantilism(benefitting the mother country) which later became a problem. |