CCCUR Unit1 Teacher+

UNIT 4 | EARLY MODERN: GLOBAL INTERACTIONS
UNIT 1
A NEW WORLD
14911607
1
UNIT 14 | AEARLY
NEWMODERN:
WORLD GLOBAL INTERACTIONS
UNIT 1 | OVERVIEW, UNIT OBJECTIVES, ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
On a North American continent controlled by American Indians, contact among

the peoples of Europe, the Americas, and West Africa created a new world. Before
the arrival of Europeans, native populations in North America developed a wide
variety of social, political, and economic structures based in part on interactions with
the environment and each other. As settlers migrated and settled across the vast
expanse of North America over time, they developed quite different and increasingly
complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments. European
overseas expansion resulted in the Columbian Exchange, a series of interactions and
adaptations among societies across the Atlantic. Contact among American Indians,
Africans, and Europeans challenged the worldviews of each group.
TIMELINE: Prehistory - 1607 INSTRUCTIONAL HOURS: 5
2
UNIT 14 | AEARLY
NEWMODERN:
WORLD GLOBAL INTERACTIONS
UNIT OBJECTIVES
Describe the complex societies of early inhabitants of North America. Describe where
they settled, what they ate, how they interacted with each other and the land, and
what their lifestyles were.
Examine the impact of European discovery of North America and understand the results
on the peoples and land of North America stemming from The Columbian Exchange.
Analyze and describe the worldviews of those groups involved in the establishment
of America as a new economic resource.
Consider how native peoples and Africans in the Americas strove to maintain their
political and cultural autonomy in the face of European challenges to their independence
and core beliefs.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How did European contact in North America challenge the identities and value systems
of peoples from the Americas, Africa, and Europe?
How does the discovery of the Americas change the world?
3
UNIT 1 | A NEW WORLD
UNIT 1 | CONTENT
1 LESSON 1.1 | NATIVE AMERICANS PRECONTACT

3 Opening | EQ Notebook
5 Activity | Creation Stories
11 Read | The First Americans
19 Closing | EQ Notebook
21 LESSON 1.2 | CULTURAL COLLISION

30 Read | European Expansion
35 Watch | Crash Course US History #1
The Black Legend, Native Americans,
and Spaniards
38 Read | Documents of Discovery
44 Read | The Columbian Exchange
An Introduction
50 Watch | Crash Course World History #23
The Columbian Exchange
53 Read | The Columbian Exchange in
The Americas and Afro-Eurasia
61 Closing | Thought Bubble Reflection
4
LESSON 1.1 | NATIVE AMERICANS PRECONTACT
LESSON 1.1.0 | OVERVIEW | Native Americans Precontact
Before the arrival of Europeans, native populations in North America developed

a wide variety of social, political, and economic structures based in part on interactions
with the environment and each other. Different native societies adapted to and
transformed their environments through innovations in agriculture, resource use, and
social structure.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How did European contact in North America challenge the identities
and value systems of peoples from the Americas, Africa, and Europe?
1
LESSON 1.1.0 | OVERVIEW | Learning Outcomes, Vocabulary, & Outline
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Analyze causes of internal migration and patterns of settlement in what would become
the United States, and explain how migration has affected American life.
Explain how geographic and environmental factors shaped the development of various
communities, and analyze how competition for and debates over natural resources have
affected both interactions among different groups and the development of government policies.
LESSON ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Prior to European contact in North America, what was the continent
like in terms of established societies, culture, and achievements?
When does American history begin?
LESSON OUTLINE
2 Activity | Creation Stories
3 Read | The First Americans
4 Closing | EQ Notebook
2
LESSON 1.1.1 | OPENING | EQ Notebook

PURPOSE
Each unit of the Crash Course US History Curriculum Essential Question with evidence they have
(CCUSH) is guided by what we call an Essential gathered throughout the unit. This provides
Question. The Essential Question Notebook (EQ students an opportunity to track their learning
Notebook) is an informal writing resource for and to prepare them for future activities. To help
students to track their learning and understanding students focus on the important ideas, this activity
of a concept throughout a unit. Students will asks them to look at the big ideas through the lens
be given an Essential Question at the beginning of the Essential Question. At this point, students
of a unit and asked to provide a response based wont have much background to bring to bear on
on prior knowledge and speculation. Students will the issue just yet. This early exercise helps to bring
then revisit the notebook in order to answer the to the fore what they know coming into the unit.
PROCESS
Ask students to think about the Essential What does a complex society look to you?
Questions for Unit 1 and Lesson 1.1, Who judges which societies are advanced
respectively. Students should write down and which are primitive? When does American
the Essential Questions and record their history begin?
responses to opening questions in their
EQ Notebook Worksheets. Students can do this in the context of their
knowledge of US History, or relate it to their
Example Opening Questions: Prior to European own lives.
contact in North America, what was
the continent like in terms of established ATTACHMENT
societies, culture, and achievements? The EQ Unit 1 Notebook Worksheet
3
CRASH COURSE | US HISTORY
UNIT 1 | EQ Notebook Worksheet

Answer the Essential Questions in Lesson 1.1.1., then again in Lesson 1.1.4. In your
answer, be sure to include ideas such as historical context and how themes through
history change over time. Use specific examples to support your claims or ideas.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
1. Prior to European contact in North America, what was the continent like in
terms of established societies, culture, and achievements?
2. When does American history begin?
LESSON 1.1.1.
LESSON 1.1.4.
HOW HAS YOUR

THINKING CHANGED?
4
LESSON 1.1.2 | ACTIVITY | Native American Creation Stories
PURPOSE
These creation stories are important for a number and the motivations of humans in asking these
of reasons: Theyre entertaining, instructive, and types of questions. These readings will prepare
also useful, because they help us better understand students to study the peoples of this era.
the kinds of questions that creation stories answer
PROCESS
As a class, read the Mayan creation story Once all the groups have finished, have
and complete the information on the Creation students circulate around the room and
Story Comparison Worksheet for this article. fill in the other sections of the worksheet
There are three other origin stories in this unit: (or have each group put its information
Iroquois, Salinan, and Cherokee. Each group on the board for other students to copy).
of students will read one article and report Ask students to look at the information
back to the class. Youll need to decide if on the worksheet. Are there any significant
you want to use all three stories, which will similarities or differences among the stories
require three groups, have students complete that leap out at them? Does the information
the lesson individually or as a class. theyve written on their worksheets provide
any insight into the reasons why people have
Assign students to a group and assign each creation stories?
group a creation story. Students should read
their story and then discuss as a group how ATTACHMENTS
they would fill in the column for their origin Creation Stories Readings
story on the Creation Story Comparison Creation Story Comparison Worksheet
Worksheet. They should fill in the appropriate
column as they discuss the story.
5
WORKSHEET | ANSWER KEY | NATIVE AMERICAN CREATION STORIES
Directions: Use this chart to highlight the differences - and any similarities - between the origin stories you read.
MAYAN IROQUOIS SALINAN CHEROKEE
SOURCE OF THE WORLD Makers in the sky and sea First people lived Unknown The world was originally all water. Animals existed in the sky, but it
beyond the sky. Chiefs grew too crowded. So animals explored the water until earth was
daughter falls through made.
a hole in the sky.
ORIGINATOR OF THE WORLD Plumed serpent Great turtle in an Bald Eagle, chief of the animals Unknown
endless sheet of water
HOW THE EARTH FORMED Like a cloud unfolding Old lady toad spits out Unknown All animals lived in the sky realm, but it became too crowded.
a mouthful of dirt on A water beetle set out to look for more room by first walking
the back of the turtle upon the water to look for rest. Finally it dove to the bottom of
the water and brought up dirt, which is how Earth was made.
Different animals were responsible for different aspects of Earth.
AGE OF THE EARTH Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
FIRST LIFE FORMS Deer, pumas, jaguars, Swans, muskrat, Animals: Bald Eagle, Coyote Animals floating in Gllt,
rattlesnakes beaver, toad, turtle the sky realm.
HOW HUMANS FORMED Derived from corn on the third Dirt grows to form Bald Eagle formed man of clay, Humans came after plants and animals, but it is not discussed
attempt the world island created woman from a feather, how they originated. However, first was a man and woman. The
supporting the and blew life into them by man struck the woman with a fish, told her to multiply, and she
daughter flapping wings became pregnant. This happened every seven days until it was
decided women only produce children once a year.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMANS Hunt, gather, praise the gods Respectful of the Its complicated. It appears to be in harmony, though humans dont eat crawfish
AND PLANTS/ANIMALS nature which supports because the shell has been scorched and the meat spoiled.
humanity
6
READING | Creation Stories

into the water. Then the Heart of Sky called on the
Mayan Creation Story
wise ones, the diviners, the Grandfather Xpiyacoc
Now it still ripples, now it still murmurs, still sighs,
and the Grandmother Xmucane, to help decide how
and is empty under the sky. There is not yet one
to form a person. The Grandparents said it is well
person, not one animal, bird, fish, or tree. There
to make wooden carvings, human in looks and speech.
is only the sky alone; the face of earth is not
So wooden humans came into being; they talked
clear, only the sea alone is pooled under all the sky.
and multiplied, but there was nothing in their minds
Whatever might be is simply not there.
and hearts, no memory of their builder, no memory
of the Heart of Sky.
There were makers in the sea, together called the
Plumed Serpent. There were makers in the sky,
Then there came a great destruction. The wooden
together called the Heart of Sky. Together these
carvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised
makers planned the dawn of life. The earth arose
a flood for them. It rained all day and all night. The
because of them. It was simply their word that
animals came into the homes of the wooden carvings
brought it forth. It arose suddenly, like a cloud
and ate them. The people were overthrown. The
unfolding. Then the mountains were separated from
monkeys in the forest are a sign of this. They look
the water. All at once great mountains came forth.
like the previous people mere wooden carvings.
The sky was set apart, and the earth was set apart
in the midst of the waters.
[The story continues with the final people being
made from corn, an important crop that enabled
Then the makers in the sky planned the animals
the Mayans to move from being a hunting-and-
of the mountains the deer, pumas, jaguars,
gathering society to a more complex civilization.]
rattlesnakes, and guardians of the bushes. Then
they established the nests of the birds, great
Source
and small. You precious birds; your nests are in the
Big History Project. Unit 1 - What is Big History? Origin
trees and bushes. Then the deer and birds were
Stories. https://www.bighistoryproject.com. Web.
told to talk to praise their makers, to pray to them.
But the birds and animals did not talk; they just
squawked and howled. So they had to accept that Iroquois Creation Story: The Great Turtle
The first people lived beyond the sky because there
their flesh would be eaten by others.
was no Earth beneath. The chiefs daughter became
ill, and no cure could be found. A wise old man told
The makers tried again to form a giver of respect,
them to dig up a tree and lay the girl beside the hole.
a creature who would nurture and provide. They
People began to dig, but as they did the tree
made a body from mud, but it didnt look good.
fell right through the hole, dragging the girl with it.
It talked at first but then crumbled and disintegrated
7
Below lay an endless sheet of water where two Salinan Creation Story
swans floated. As the swans looked up, they saw When the world was finished, there were as yet
the sky break and a strange tree fall down into no people, but the Bald Eagle was the chief of the
the water. Then they saw the girl fall after it. They animals. He saw the world was incomplete and
swam to her and supported her, because she was decided to make some human beings. So he took
too beautiful to allow her to drown. Then they swam some clay and modeled the figure of a man and
to the Great Turtle, master of all the animals, who laid him on the ground. At first he was very small
at once called a council. but grew rapidly until he reached normal size.
But as yet he had no life; he was still asleep. Then
When all the animals had arrived, the Great Turtle the Bald Eagle stood and admired his work. It is
told them that the appearance of a woman from the impossible, said he, that he should be left alone;
sky was a sign of good fortune. Since the tree had he must have a mate. So he pulled out a feather
Earth on its roots, he asked them to find where it had and laid it beside the sleeping man. Then he left
sunk and bring up some of the earth to put on his them and went off a short distance, for he knew
back, to make an island for the woman to live on. that a woman was being formed from the feather.
But the man was still asleep and did not know
The swans led the animals to the place where the what was happening. When the Bald Eagle decided
tree had fallen. First otter, then muskrat, and then that the woman was about completed, he returned,
beaver dived. As each one came up from the great awoke the man by flapping his wings over him and
depths, he rolled over exhausted and died. Many flew away.
other animals tried, but they experienced the same
fate. At last the old lady toad volunteered. She was The man opened his eyes and stared at the woman.
under so long that the others thought she had been What does this mean? he asked. I thought I was
lost. But at last she came to the surface and before alone! Then the Bald Eagle returned and said with
dying managed to spit out a mouthful of dirt on the a smile, I see you have a mate! Have you had
back of the Great Turtle. intercourse with her? No, replied the man, for
he and the woman knew nothing about each
It was magical earth and had the power of growth. other. Then the Bald Eagle called to Coyote who
As soon as it was as big as an island, the woman happened to be going by and said to him, Do you
was set down on it. The two white swans circled it, see that woman? Try her first! Coyote was quite
while it continued to grow until, at last, it became willing and complied, but immediately afterwards
the world island as it is today, supported in the great lay down and died. The Bald Eagle went away and
waters on the back of the Great Turtle. left Coyote dead, but presently returned and revived
him. How did it work? said the Bald Eagle. Pretty
Source well, but it nearly kills a man! replied Coyote. Will
Big History Project. Unit 1 - What is Big History? Origin
Stories. https://www.bighistoryproject.com. Web.
8
you try it again? said the Bald Eagle. Coyote agreed, found no place to alight and came back again
and tried again, and this time survived. Then the to Gllt. At last it seemed to be time, and they
Bald Eagle turned to the man and said, She is all sent out the Buzzard and told him to go and make
right now; you and she are to live together. ready for them. This was the Great Buzzard, the
father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew
Source all over the earth, low down near the ground, and
John Alden Mason, The Ethnology of the Salinan Indians it was still soft. When he reached the Cherokee
(Berkeley: 1912), 191-192. country, he was very tired, and his wings began
Available through the Internet Archive to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they
struck the earth there was a valley, and where they
Cherokee Creation Story turned up again there was a mountain. When the
The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, animals above saw this, they were afraid that the
and suspended at each of the four cardinal points whole world would be mountains, so they called
by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which him back, but the Cherokee country remains full of
is of solid rock. When the world grows old and mountains to this day.
worn out, the people will die and the cords will break
and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all When the earth was dry and the animals came
will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this. down, it was still dark, so they got the sun and set
it in a track to go every day across the island from
When all was water, the animals were above east to west, just overhead. It was too hot this way,
in Gllt (the sky realm), beyond the arch; but and Tsiskagl, the Red Crawfish, had his shell
it was very much crowded, and they were wanting scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled;
more room. They wondered what was below the and the Cherokee do not eat it. The conjurers put
water, and at last Dyunis, Beavers Grandchild, the sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, but
the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see if it could it was still too hot. They raised it another time, and
learn. It darted in every direction over the surface another, until it was seven handbreadths high and
of the water, but could find no firm place to rest. Then just under the sky arch. Then it was right, and they
it dived to the bottom and came up with some soft left it so. This is why the conjurers call the highest
mud, which began to grow and spread on every side place Glkwgine Diglltiy, the seventh
until it became the island which we call the earth. height, because it is seven hand-breadths above
It was afterward fastened to the sky with four cords, the earth. Every day the sun goes along under this
but no one remembers who did this. arch, and returns at night on the upper side to the
starting place.
At first the earth was flat and very soft and wet.
The animals were anxious to get down, and sent There is another world under this, and it is like ours
out different birds to see if it was yet dry, but they in everythinganimals, plants, and peoplesave
9
that the seasons are different. The streams that fast until there was danger that the world could
come down from the mountains are the trails not keep them. Then it was made that a woman
by which we reach this underworld, and the springs should have only one child in a year, and it has been
at their heads are the doorways by which we enter, so ever since.
it, but to do this one must fast and go to water and
have one of the underground people for a guide. Source
We know that the seasons in the underworld are W. Powell, Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of
different from ours, because the water in the American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian
springs is always warmer in winter and cooler Institution, 1897-1898, Part I (Washington: 1900), 239-240.
in summer than the outer air. Available through Google Books
When the animals and plants were first made

we do not know by whomthey were told to watch
and keep awake for seven nights, just as young
men now fast and keep awake when they pray
to their medicine. They tried to do this, and nearly
all were awake through the first night, but the next
night several dropped off to sleep, and the third
night others were asleep, and then others, until,
on the seventh night, of all the animals only the
owl, the panther, and one or two more were still
awake. To these were given the power to see
and to go about in the dark, and to make prey of the
birds and animals which must sleep at night.
Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the
holly, and the laurel were awake to the end, and
to them it was given to be always green and to be
greatest for medicine, but to the others it was said:
Because you have not endured to the end you shall
lose your hair every winter.
Men came after the animals and plants. At first

there were only a brother and sister until he struck
her with a fish and told her to multiply, and so it was.
In seven days a child was born to her, and thereafter
every seven days another, and they increased very
10
LESSON 1.1.3 | READ | The First Americans
PURPOSE
This article provides an overview of the first of how people first migrated to North America.
inhabitants of North America. Where the previous Once in the new lands, the journal describes
activity introduced students to native creation where people settled and how they lived.
stories, this journal reading continues with that
theme while also examining environmental forces
PROCESS
Provide students with a copy of the attached
overview of the first inhabitants or have ATTACHMENTS
The First Americans
them download it on their own time. Students
should read actively by marking up the
text and taking notes. Students should be
prepared to answer any potential questions
regarding the text.
11
READING | The First Americans The American Yawp

American history begins with the first Americans. global sea levels were much lower, and a land
But where do their stories start? Native Americans bridge connected Asia and North America
passed stories down through the millennia that across the Bering Strait. Between twelve and
tell of their creation and reveal the contours of twenty thousand years ago, Native ancestors
indigenous belief. The Salinan people of present- crossed the ice, waters, and exposed lands between
day California, for example, tell of a bald eagle the continents of Asia and America. These
that formed the first man out of clay and the mobile hunter-gatherers traveled in small bands,
first woman out of a feather. According to a Lenape exploiting vegetable, animal, and marine resources
tradition, the earth was made when Sky Woman into the Beringian tundra at the northwestern edge
fell into a watery world and, with the help of muskrat
of North America. DNA evidence suggests that
and beaver, landed safely on a turtles back, thus these ancestors pausedfor perhaps 15,000 years
creating Turtle Island, or North America. A Choctaw in the expansive region between Asia and
tradition locates southeastern peoples beginnings America. Other ancestors crossed the seas and
inside the great Mother Mound earthwork, Nunih voyaged along the Pacific coast, traveling along
Waya, in the lower Mississippi Valley. Nahua people riverways and settling where local ecosystems
trace their beginnings to the place of the Seven Caves,
permitted. Glacial sheets receded around fourteen
from which their ancestors emerged before they thousand years ago, opening a corridor to warmer
migrated to what is now Central Mexico. Americas climates and new resources. Some ancestral
indigenous peoples have passed down many communities migrated south and eastward. Evidence
accounts of their origins, written and oral, which found at Monte Verde, a site in modern-day
share creation and migration histories. Chile, suggests human activity began there at least
14,500 years ago. Similar evidence hints at
Archaeologists and anthropologists, meanwhile, human settlement in the Florida panhandle at the
focus on migration histories. Studying artifacts, same time. On many points, archaeological and
bones, and genetic signatures, these scholars traditional knowledge sources converge: the dental,
have pieced together a narrative that claims that archaeological, linguistic, oral, ecological and
the Americas were once a new world for genetic evidence illustrates a great deal of diversity,
Native Americans as well. with numerous different groups settling and
migrating over thousands of years, potentially from
The last global ice age trapped much of the worlds many different points of origin. Whether emerging
water in enormous continental glaciers. Twenty from the earth, water, or sky, being made by a creator,
thousand years ago, ice sheets, some a mile thick, or migrating to their homelands, modern Native
extended across North America as far south as American communities recount histories in America
modern-day Illinois. With so much of the worlds that date long before human memory.
water captured in these massive ice sheets,
12
In the Northwest, Native groups exploited the park-like hunting grounds and to clear the ground
great salmon-filled rivers. On the plains and prairie
for planting the Three Sisters. Many groups
lands, hunting communities followed bison herds used shifting cultivation where farmers cut the
and moved according to seasonal patterns. In forest, burned the undergrowth and then planted
mountains, prairies, deserts, and forests, the seeds in the nutrient rich ashes. When crop yields
cultures and ways of life of paleo-era ancestors began to decline, farmers would move to another
were as varied as the geography. These groups field and allow the land to recover and the forest
spoke hundreds of languages and adopted distinct to regrow before again cutting the forest, burning
cultural practices. Rich and diverse diets fueled the undergrowth, and restarting the cycle. This
massive population growth across the continent. technique was particularly useful in areas with
difficult soil. But in the fertile regions of the Eastern
Agriculture arose sometime between nine and Woodlands, Native American farmers engaged
five-thousand years ago, almost simultaneously in permanent, intensive agriculture, using hand
in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. tools rather than European-style plows. The rich
Mesoamericans in modern-day Mexico and Central soil and use of hand-tools enabled effective and
America relied upon domesticated maize (corn) to sustainable farming practices, producing high
develop the hemispheres first settled population yields without overburdening the soil. Typically
around 1,200 BCE. Corn was high in caloric content, in Woodland communities, women practiced
easily dried and stored, and, in Mesoamericas agriculture while men hunted and fished.
warm and fertile Gulf Coast, could sometimes
be harvested twice in a year. Cornas well Agriculture allowed for dramatic social change,
as other Mesoamerican cropsspread across but for some, it also may have accompanied
North America and continues to hold an important a decline in health. Analysis of remains reveals
spiritual and cultural place in many Native that societies transitioning to agriculture often
communities. experienced weaker bones and teeth. But despite
these possible declines, agriculture brought
Agriculture flourished in the fertile river valleys important benefits. Farmers could produce more
between the Mississippi River and Atlantic food than hunters, enabling some members of
Ocean, an area known as the Eastern Woodlands. the community to pursue other skills. Religious
There, three crops in particularcorn, beans, and leaders, skilled soldiers, and artists could
squash, known as the Three Sistersprovided devote their energy to activities other than
nutritional needs necessary to sustain cities food production.
and civilizations. In Woodlands areas from the
Great Lakes and Mississippi River to the Atlantic North Americas indigenous peoples shared some
coast, Native communities managed their forest broad traits. Spiritual practices, understandings
resources by burning underbrush to create vast of property, and kinship networks differed markedly
13
from European arrangements. Most Native artistic and communicative technologies are still
Americans did not neatly distinguish between used today. For example, Algonkian-speaking
the natural and the supernatural. Spiritual Ojibwes used birch-bark scrolls to record medical
power permeated their world and was both treatments, recipes, songs, stories, and more.
tangible and accessible. It could be appealed Other Eastern Woodland peoples wove plant
to and harnessed. Kinship bound most Native fibers, embroidered skins with porcupine quills,
North American people together. Most peoples and modeled the earth to make sites of complex
lived in small communities tied by kinship ceremonial meaning. On the Plains, artisans
networks. Many Native cultures understood wove buffalo hair and painted on buffalo skins;
ancestry as matrilineal: family and clan identity in the Pacific Northwest, weavers wove goat
proceeded along the female line, through hair into soft textiles with particular patterns.
mothers and daughters, rather than fathers and Maya, Zapotec, and Nahua ancestors in
sons. Fathers, for instance, would often join Mesoamerica painted their histories on plant-
mothers extended families and sometimes even a derived textiles and carved them into stone.
mothers brothers would take a more direct role In the Andes, Inka recorders noted information
in child-raising than biological fathers. Mothers in the form of knotted strings, or Khipu.
could therefore often wield enormous influence
at local levels and mens identities and influence Two thousand years ago, some of the largest
often depended on their relationships to women. cultural groups in North America were the
Native American culture also generally afforded Puebloan groups, centered in the current-day
greater sexual and marital freedom than European Greater Southwest (the southwestern US and
cultures did. Women often chose their husbands, northwestern Mexico), the Mississippian groups
and divorce was often a relatively simple and located along the Great River and its Woodland
straightforward process. Moreover, most Native tributaries, and the Mesoamerican groups of the
peoples notions of property rights differed areas now known as central Mexico and the
markedly from Europeans notions of property. Yucatan. Previous developments in agricultural
Native Americans generally felt a personal technology enabled the explosive growth of the
ownership of tools, weapons, or other items that large early societies, such as that at Tenochtitlan
were actively used, and this same rule applied in the Central Mexican Valley, Cahokia along the
to land and crops. Groups and individuals exploited Mississippi River, and in the desert oasis areas
particular pieces of land, and used violence of the Greater Southwest.
or negotiation to exclude others. But the right
to the use of land did not imply the right to itsChaco Canyon in northern New Mexico was home
permanent possession. to ancestral Puebloan people between
900 and 1300 CE. As many as 15,000 people
Native Americans had many ways of communicating, lived in the Chaco Canyon complex in present-
including graphic ones, and some of these day New Mexico. Sophisticated agricultural
14
practices, extensive trading networks, and even No American city, in fact, would match Cahokias
the domestication of animals like turkeys allowed peak population levels until after the American
the population to swell. Massive residential structures, Revolution. The city itself spanned 2,000 acres
built from sandstone blocks and lumber carried and centered around Monks Mound, a large
across great distances, housed hundreds of Puebloan earthen hill that rose ten-stories and was larger
people. One single building, Pueblo Bonito, at its base than the great pyramids of Egypt.
stretched over two acres and rose five stories. As with many of the peoples who lived in the
Its 600 rooms were decorated with copper bells, Woodlands, life and death in Cahokia were
turquoise decorations, and bright macaws. linked to the movement of the stars, sun, and
Homes like those at Pueblo Bonito included moon, and their ceremonial earthwork structures
a small, dugout room, called a kiva, which reflect these important structuring forces.
played an important role in a variety of ceremonies
and served as an important center for Puebloan Cahokia was politically organized around chiefdoms,
life and culture. Puebloan spirituality was tied both a hierarchical, clan-based system that endowed
to the earth and to the heavens, as generations leaders with both secular and sacred authority.
carefully charted the stars and designed homes The size of the city and the extent of its influence
in-line with the path of the sun and moon. suggests that the city relied on a number of lesser
chiefdoms under the authority of a paramount
The Puebloan people of Chaco Canyon faced several leader. Social stratification was partly preserved
ecological challenges, including deforestation through frequent warfare. War captives would
and over-irrigation, which ultimately caused this be enslaved, and these captives formed an important
community to collapse and its people to disperse part of the economy in the North American
to smaller settlements. An extreme fifty-year drought southeast. Native American slavery was not
began in 1130; shortly thereafter, Chaco Canyon based on holding people as property. Instead,
was deserted. New groups filled this land, including Native Americans understood slaves as people
the Apache and Navajo, both of whom adopted who lacked kinship networks. Slavery, then,
several Puebloan customs. The same drought that was not always a permanent condition. Adoption
plagued the Pueblo also likely affected the or marriage could enable a slave to become
Mississippian peoples of the American Midwest a member of the community and to enter a kinship
and South. The Mississippians developed one network. Very often, a former slave could become
of the largest civilizations north of modern-day a fully integrated member of the community. Slavery
Mexico. Roughly one-thousand years ago, and captive trading became an important way that
the largest Mississippian settlement, Cahokia, many Native communities regrew and gained or
located just east of modern-day St. Louis, peaked maintained power.
at a population between 10,000-30,000. It
rivaled contemporary European cities in size.
15
Around the year 1050, Cahokia experienced what to reach the center of this civilization. 3,500 years
one archaeologist has called a big bang, which ago, the community at what is now Poverty Point,
included a virtually instantaneous and pervasive Louisiana, had access to copper from present-day
shift in all things political, social, and ideological. Canada and flint from modern-day Indiana. Sheets
The population grew almost 500 percent in only of Mica found at the sacred Woodland Serpent
one generation, and new groups of peoples Mound site near the Ohio River came from the
were absorbed into the city and its supporting Allegheny Mountains, and obsidian from nearby
communities. By 1300, the once powerful city earthworks came from Mexico. Turquoise from the
had undergone a series of strains that led to collapse. Greater Southwest was used at Teotihuacan 1200
Scholars previously pointed to ecological disaster years ago.
or slow depopulation through emigration, but new
research emphasizes mounting warfare or internal In the Eastern Woodlands, many Native American
political tensions instead. Environmental explanations societies lived in smaller dispersed communities
suggest that population growth placed too great in order to take advantage of the rich soils and
a burden on the arable land. Others suggest the abundant rivers and streams. The Lenapes,
demand for fuel and building materials led to also known as Delawares, farmed the bottom
deforestation, erosion, and/or an extended drought. lands throughout the Hudson and Delaware
Recent evidence suggests that political turmoil River watersheds in New York, Pennsylvania,
among the ruling elite and threats from external New Jersey and Delaware. Their hundreds of
enemies, as evidenced in the remains of defensive settlements, stretching from southern Massachusetts
stockades, may explain the end of the once great through Delaware, were loosely bound together
civilization. by political, social, and spiritual connections.
North American communities were connected Dispersed and relatively independent, Lenape
through complex kin, political, and cultural communities were bound together by oral histories,
relationships and sustained by long distance ceremonial traditions, consensus-based political
trading routes. The Mississippi River served as organization, kinship networks, and a shared clan
a particularly important artery, but all of the system. Kinship tied the various Lenape communities
continents waterways were vital to transportation and clans together and society was organized along
and communication. Cahokia because a key trading matrilineal lines. Marriage occurred between
center because of its position near the Mississippi, clans, and a married man would join the clan
Illinois, and Missouri Rivers, which created networks of his wife. Lenape women extended authority
that stretched from the Great Lakes to the American over marriages, households, agricultural production,
Southeast. Archaeologists can identify materials, and may have even played a significant part in
like seashells, that traveled over a thousand miles determining the selection of leaders, called sachems.
16
Dispersed authority, small settlements, and kin- rivers, and coasts. They made their homes in
based organization contributed to the long-lasting some of the most fertile and abundant lands in the
stability and resilience of Lenape communities. Eastern Woodlands and used their skills to create
One or more sachems governed Lenape communities a stable and prosperous civilization. The first Dutch
by the consent of their people. Unlike the hierarchical and Swedish settlers who encountered the
organization of many Mississippian cultures, Lenape Lenapes in the seventeenth century recognized
sachems acquired their authority by demonstrating Lenape prosperity and quickly sought their
wisdom and experience. Dispersed communities and friendship. Their lives came to depend on it.
their leaders gathered together in times of council
or for ceremonial purposes. Sachems spoke for their In the Pacific Northwest, the Kwakwakawakw,
people in larger councils that included men, women, Tlingits, Haidas, and hundreds of other peoples,
and elders. The Lenape experienced occasional speaking dozens of languages, thrived due to the
tensions with other indigenous groups like the moderate climate, lush forests and many rivers.
Iroquois to the north or Susquehannock to the south, The peoples of this region depended upon salmon
but the lack of defensive fortifications near Lenape for survival and valued it accordingly. Images of
communities leads archaeologists to believe that salmon decorated totem poles, baskets, canoes,
the Lenapes avoided large-scale warfare. oars, and other tools. The fish was treated
with spiritual respect and its image represented
The continued longevity of Lenape societies, which prosperity, life, and renewal. Sustainable
began centuries before European contact, was harvesting practices ensured the survival of
also due to their skills as farmers and fishers. Along salmon populations. The Coast Salish people
with the Three Sisters, Lenape women planted and several others celebrated the First Salmon
tobacco, sunflowers, and gourds. They harvested Ceremony when the first migrating salmon was
fruits and nuts from trees and also cultivated spotted each season. Elders closely observed
numerous medicinal plants which they used with the size of the salmon run and would delay
great proficiency. The Lenapes organized their harvesting to ensure that a sufficient number
communities to take advantage of growing seasons survived to spawn and return in the future. Men
and the migration patterns of animals and fowl commonly used nets, hooks, and other small tools
that were a part of their diet. During planting and to capture salmon as they migrated upriver to
harvesting seasons, Lenapes gathered together in spawn. Massive cedar canoes, as long as 50 feet
larger groups to coordinate their labor and take and carrying as many as 20 men, also enabled
advantage of local abundance. As proficient fishers, extensive fishing expeditions in the Pacific Ocean,
they organized seasonal fish camps to net shellfish where skilled fishermen caught halibut, sturgeon,
and catch shad. Lenapes wove nets, baskets, mats, and other fish, sometimes hauling thousands
and a variety of household materials from the of pounds in a single canoe.
readily available rushes found along the streams,
17
Food surpluses enabled significant population growth, hemispheres many climates. Some lived in cities,
and the Pacific Northwest became one of the most others in small bands. Some migrated seasonally,
densely populated regions of North America. The others settled permanently. All Native peoples
combination of population density and food had long histories and well-formed, unique cultures
surplus created a unique social organization centered that had developed over millennia. But the arrival
around elaborate feasts, called potlatches. These of Europeans changed everything.
potlatches celebrated births and weddings as well
as determined social status. A party would last for Source
days and the host would demonstrate his wealth L.D. Burnett et al., The New World, Joseph Locke and
and power by feeding and entertaining guests with Ben Wright, eds., in The American Yawp, Joseph Locke and
food, artwork, and performances. The more the host Ben Wright, eds., last modified August 1, 2016, http://www.
gave away, the more prestige and power they AmericanYawp.com.
had within the group. Some men saved for decades
to host an extravagant potlatch that would in
turn give him greater respect and power within
the community.
Many peoples of the Pacific Northwest built

elaborate plank houses out of the regions abundant
cedar trees. The 500-foot-long Suquamish Oleman
House (or Old Man House), for instance, rested on
the banks of Puget Sound. Giant cedar trees were
also carved and painted in the shape of animals or
other figures to tell stories and express identities.
These totem poles became the most recognizable
artistic form of the Pacific Northwest, but peoples
also carved masks and other wooden items, such
as hand drums and rattles, out of the great trees
of the region.
Despite commonalities, Native cultures varied

greatly. The New World was marked by diversity
and contrast. By the time Europeans were poised
to cross the Atlantic, Native Americans spoke
hundreds of languages and lived in keeping with the
18
LESSON 1.1.4 | CLOSING | EQ Notebook
PURPOSE
At the start of the lesson, students looked at the specific passages and evidence from the content
Essential Questions without much to go on. Now in the unit that provided insights into answering the
that the lesson is over, students should revisit the driving questions.
Essential Questions. This time, students should cite
PROCESS
Ask students to think about these questions
At the start of this lesson on the pre-contact
and respond on their EQ Notebook
North America, students were given two
Worksheets.
Unit 1 Essential Questions and two Lesson
1.1 Essential Questions. As a reminder, here
Now that students have spent some time
they are again:
with the material of this unit, they should
look back over the content covered as well
Unit 1 Essential Questions:
as any additional information they have
How did European contact in North
come across, and write down any quotes
America challenge the identities
or evidence that provide new insights into
and value systems of peoples from
the Essential Questions assigned for this
the Americas, Africa, and Europe?
lesson. Once theyve finished, they should
How does the discovery of the
think about how this new information has
Americas change the world?
impacted their thinking about the unit
Essential Question, and write down their
Lesson 1.1 Essential Questions:
thoughts in their EQ Notebook.
Prior to European contact
in North America, what was
the continent like in terms of ATTACHMENT
The EQ Unit 1 Notebook Worksheet
established societies, culture,
and achievements?
When does American
history begin?
19

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
1. Prior to European contact in North America, what was the continent like
in terms of established societies, culture, and achievements?
2. When does American history begin?
LESSON 1.1.1.
LESSON 1.1.4.
HOW HAS YOUR

THINKING CHANGED?
20
LESSON 1.2 | CULTURAL COLLISION
LESSON 1.2.0 | OVERVIEW | Cultural Collision
The arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere in the 15th and 16th centuries
triggered extensive demographic and social changes on both sides of the Atlantic.
Spanish and Portuguese exploration and conquest of the Americas led to widespread
deadly epidemics, the emergence of racially mixed populations, and a caste system
defined by an intermixture among Spanish settlers, Africans, and Native Americans.
Spanish and Portuguese traders reached West Africa and partnered with some
African groups to exploit local resources and recruit slave labor for the Americas.
The introduction of new crops and livestock by the Spanish had far-reaching effects
on native settlement patterns as well as on economic, social, and political development
in the Western Hemisphere. In the economies of the Spanish colonies, Indian labor,
used in the encomienda system to support plantation-based agriculture and extract
precious metals and other resources, was gradually replaced by African slavery.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How did European contact in North America challenge the identities and value systems
of peoples from the Americas, Africa, and Europe?
21
LESSON 1.2.0 | OVERVIEW | Learning Outcomes, Questions, & Outline
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Explain how cultural interaction, cooperation, competition, and conflict between

empires, nations, and peoples have influenced political, economic, and social
developments in North America.
Analyze how Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans contributed to the creation
of the Atlantic rim.
LESSON ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

Is the world better off for having experienced the Columbian Exchange?
LESSON OUTLINE
1 Opening | EQ Notebook 6 Watch | Crash Course World History #23
2 Read | European Expansion The Columbian Exchange
3 Watch | Crash Course US History #1 7 Read | The Columbian Exchange in
The Black Legend, Native Americans, The Americas and Afro-Eurasia
and Spaniards 8 Closing | Thought Bubble Reflection
4 Read | Documents of Discovery
5 Read | The Columbian ExchangeAn Introduction
ADDITIONAL RESOURCE
Extension Activity | Spanish Exploration and Conquest
22
READING | Spanish Exploration and Conquest The American Yawp

As news of the Spanish conquest spread, wealth- advanced mathematics, and stunningly accurate
hungry Spaniards poured into the New World calendars. Although it didnt disappear, Maya
seeking land and gold and titles. A New World civilization collapsed before European arrival, likely
empire spread from Spains Caribbean foothold. due to droughts and unsustainable agricultural
Motives were plain: said one soldier, we came practices. But the eclipse of the Maya only heralded
here to serve God and the king, and also to get the later rise of the most powerful Native civilization
rich. Mercenaries joined the conquest and raced ever seen in the Western Hemisphere: the Aztecs.
to capture the human and material wealth of the
New World. Militaristic migrants from northern Mexico,
the Aztecs moved south into the Valley of Mexico,
The Spanish managed labor relations through a legal conquered their way to dominance, and built the
system known as the encomienda, an exploitative largest empire in the New World. When the
feudal arrangement in which Spain tied Indian laborers Spaniards arrived in Mexico they found a sprawling
to vast estates. In the encomienda, the Spanish civilization centered around Tenochtitlan, an
crown granted a person not only land but a specified awe-inspiring city built on a series of natural and
number of natives as well. Encomenderos brutalized man-made islands in the middle of Lake Texcoco,
their laborers with punishing labor. After Bartolome located today within modern-day Mexico City.
de Las Casas published his incendiary account Tenochtitlan, founded in 1325, rivaled the worlds
of Spanish abuses (The Destruction of the Indies), largest cities in size and grandeur. Much of the city
Spanish authorities abolished the encomienda in was built on large artificial islands called chinampas,
1542 and replaced it with the repartimiento. Intended which the Aztecs constructed by dredging mud and
as a milder system, the repartimiento nevertheless rich sediment from the bottom of the lake and
replicated many of the abuses of the older system depositing it over time to form new landscapes.
and the rapacious exploitation of the Native A massive pyramid temple, the Templo Mayor,
population continued as Spain spread its empire was located at the city center (its ruins can still
over the Americas. be found in the center of Mexico City). When
the Spaniards arrived they could scarcely believe
As Spains New World empire expanded, Spanish what they saw: 70,000 buildings, housing
conquerors met the massive empires of Central perhaps 200,000-250,000 people, all built on
and South America, civilizations that dwarfed a lake and connected by causeways and canals.
anything found in North America. In Central Bernal Daz del Castillo, one of Cortezs soldiers,
America the Maya built massive temples, sustained later recalled, When we saw so many cities
large populations, and constructed a complex and villages built in the water and other great
and long-lasting civilization with a written language, towns on dry land, we were amazed and said that
23
it was like the enchantments Some of our soldiers kingdoms, including Tarascans to the north, and
even asked whether the things that we saw were the remains of Maya city-states on the Yucatn
not a dream? I do not know how to describe it, peninsula, chafed at Aztec power.
seeing things as we did that had never been heard
of or seen before, not even dreamed about. Through persuasion, and maybe because some
Aztecs thought Cortes was the god Quetzalcoatl,
From their island city the Aztecs dominated the Spaniards entered Tenochtitln peacefully.
an enormous swath of central and southern Cortes then captured the emperor Montezuma
Mesoamerica. They ruled their empire through and used him to gain control of the Aztecs
a decentralized network of subject peoples gold and silver reserves and its network of mines.
that paid regular tributeincluding everything Eventually, the Aztecs revolted. Montezuma
from the most basic items, such as corn, beans, was branded a traitor and uprising ignited the
and other foodstuffs, to luxury goods such as jade, city. Montezuma was killed along with a third
cacao, and goldand provided troops for the of Cortess men in la noche triste, the night of
empire. But unrest festered beneath the Aztecs sorrows. The Spanish fought through thousands
imperial power and European conquerors lusted of indigenous insurgents and across canals to flee
after its vast wealth. the city, where they regrouped, enlisted more
Native allies, captured Spanish reinforcements,
Hernan Cortes, an ambitious, thirty-four year old and, in 1521, besieged the island city. The
Spaniard who had won riches in the conquest Spaniards eighty-five day siege cut off food
of Cuba, organized an invasion of Mexico in 1519. and fresh water. Smallpox ravaged the city.
Sailing with 600 men, horses, and cannons, One Spanish observer said it spread over the
he landed on the coast of Mexico. Relying on people as great destruction. Some it covered
a Native translator, whom he called Doa on all partstheir faces, their heads, their breasts,
Marina, and whom Mexican folklore denounces and so on. There was great havoc. Very many
as La Malinche, Cortes gathered information died of it They could not move; they could
and allies in preparation for conquest. Through not stir. Cortes, the Spaniards, and their Native
intrigue, brutality, and the exploitation of allies then sacked the city. 15,000 died. The temples
endemic political divisions, he enlisted the aid were unmade. After two years of conflict, a million-
of thousands of Native allies, defeated Spanish person strong empire was toppled by disease,
rivals, and marched on Tenochtitlan. dissension, and a thousand European conquerors.
Aztec dominance rested upon fragile foundations. Further south, along the Andes Mountains in
Many of the regions semi-independent city-states South America, the Quechuas, or Incas, managed
yearned to break from Aztec rule while nearby a vast mountain empire. From their capital of Cuzco
24
in the Andean highlands, through conquest and male, emigrated for the various promises of
negotiation, the Inca built an empire that stretched land, wealth, and social advancement. Laborers,
around the western half of the South American craftsmen, soldiers, clerks, and priests all
continent from present day Ecuador to central Chile crossed the Atlantic in large numbers. Indians,
and Argentina. They cut terraces into the sides however, always outnumbered the Spanish
of mountains to farm fertile soil and by the 1400s and the Spaniards, by both necessity and design,
they managed a thousand miles of Andean roads incorporated Native Americansunequally
that tied together perhaps twelve million people. into colonial life.
But like the Aztecs, unrest between the Incas and
conquered groups created tensions and left the An elaborate racial hierarchy marked Spanish life
empire vulnerable to foreigners. Smallpox spread in the New World. Regularized in the mid-1600s
in advance of Spanish conquerors and hit the Incan but rooted in medieval practices, the Sistema de
empire in 1525. Epidemics ravaged the population, Castas organized individuals into various racial
cutting the empires population in half, killing the groups based upon their supposed purity of blood.
Incan emperor Huayna Capac and many members Various classificationsoften elaborately arrived
of his family and sparking a bloody war of succession. atbecame almost prerequisites for social and
Inspired by Cortess conquest of Mexico, Francisco political advancement in Spanish colonial society.
Pizzaro moved South and arrived amid an empire torn PeninsularesIberian-born Spaniards, or Espaoles
by chaos. With 168 men, he deceived Incan rulers occupied the highest levels of administration and
and took control of the empire and seized the capital acquired the greatest estates. Their descendants,
city, Cuzco, in 1533. Disease, conquest, and slavery New World-born Spaniards, or criollos, occupied the
ravaged the remnants of the Incan empire. next rung and rivaled the peninsulares for wealth
and opportunity. Mestizosa term used to describe
After the conquests of Mexico and Peru, Spain those of mixed Spanish and Indian heritagefollowed.
settled into their new empire. A vast administrative
hierarchy governed the new holdings: royal Like the French later in North America, the
appointees oversaw an enormous territory of landed Spanish tolerated and sometimes even supported
estates and Indian laborers and administrators interracial marriage. There were simply too few
regulated the extraction of gold and silver and Spanish women in the New World to support the
oversaw their transport across the Atlantic in natural growth of a purely Spanish population.
Spanish galleons. Meanwhile Spanish migrants The Catholic Church endorsed interracial marriage
poured into the New World. 225,000 migrated as a moral bulwark against bastardy and rape.
during the sixteenth century alone, and 750,000 As early as 1533, King Carlos I declared that any
came during the entire three centuries of Spanish child with Spanish blood to the half was entitled
colonial rule. Spaniards, often single, young, and to certain Spanish rights. By 1600, mestizos made
25
up a large portion of the colonial population. By the Native populations within Spains New World
early 1700s, more than one-third of all marriages Empire ensured a level of cultural and racial
bridged the Spanish-Indian divide. Largely separated mixtureor Mestizajeunparalleled in British
by wealth and influence from the peninsulares North America. Spanish North America wrought
and criollos, however, mestizos typically occupied a hybrid culture that was neither fully Spanish
a middling social position in Spanish New World nor fully Indian. The Spanish not only built Mexico
society. They were not quite Indios, or Indians, but City atop Tenochtitln, but food, language, and
their lack of limpieza de sangre, or pure blood, families spilled across racial barriers. In 1531, a poor
removed them from the privileges of full-blooded Indian named Juan Diego reported that he was
Spaniards. Spanish fathers of sufficient wealth visited by the Virgin Mary, who came as a dark-
and influence might shield their mestizo children skinned Nahuatl-speaking Indian. Reports of
from racial prejudice, and a number of wealthy miracles spread across Mexico and the Virgen
mestizos married Espaoles to whiten their family de Guadalupe became a national icon for a new
lines, but more often mestizos were confined to mestizo society.
a middle-station in the Spanish New World.
From Mexico, Spain expanded northward. Lured
Slaves and Indians occupied the lowest rungs of the by the promises of gold and another Tenochtitln,
social ladder. After Bartolome de las Casas and other Spanish expeditions scoured North America for
reformers shamed the Spanish for their harsh Indian another wealthy Indian empire. Huge expeditions,
policies in the 1530s, the Spanish outlawed Indian resembling vast moving communities, composed
slavery. In the 1550s, the encomienda system of land- of hundreds of soldiers, settlers, priests, and slaves,
based forced-labor gave way to the repartimiento, an with enormous numbers of livestock, moved
exploitative but slightly softer form of forced wage- across the continent. Juan Ponce de Leon, the
labor. Slaves labored especially on Spains Caribbean conqueror of Puerto Rico, landed in Florida in
plantation islands. 1513 in search of wealth and slaves. Cabeza de
Vaca joined the Narvaez expedition to Florida
Many manipulated the Casta System to gain a decade later, was shipwrecked, and embarked
advantages for themselves and their children. upon a remarkable multi-year odyssey across
Mestizo mothers, for instance, might insist that the Gulf of Mexico and Texas into Mexico. Pedro
their mestizo daughters were actually castizas, Menndez de Avils founded St. Augustine, Florida,
or quarter-Indians, who, if they married a Spaniard, in 1565, and it remains the oldest, continuously
could, in the eyes of the law, produce pure occupied European settlement in the present-day
criollo children entitled to the full rights and United States.
opportunities of Spanish citizens. But passing
was an option for the few. Instead, the massive
26
But without the rich gold and silver mines of

Mexico, the plantation-friendly climate of the
Caribbean, or the exploitive potential of large
Indian empires, North America offered little
incentive for Spanish officials. Still, Spanish
expeditions combed North America. Francisco
Vazquez de Coronado pillaged his way across
the Southwest. Hernando De Soto tortured and
raped and enslaved his way across the Southeast.
Soon Spain had footholdshowever tenuousacross
much of the continent.
Source
L.D. Burnett et al., The New World, Joseph Locke and
Ben Wright, eds., in The American Yawp, Joseph Locke and
Ben Wright, eds., last modified August 1, 2016, http://www.
AmericanYawp.com.
27
LESSON 1.2.1 | OPENING | EQ Notebook
PURPOSE
Each unit of the Crash Course US History Curriculum Essential Question with evidence they have
(CCUSH) is guided by what we call an Essential gathered throughout the unit. This provides
Question. The Essential Question Notebook (EQ students an opportunity to track their learning
Notebook) is an informal writing resource for and to prepare them for future activities. To help
students to track their learning and understanding students focus on the important ideas, this activity
of a concept throughout a unit. Students will asks them to look at the big ideas through the lens
be given an Essential Question at the beginning of the Essential Question. At this point, students
of a unit and asked to provide a response based wont have much background to bring to bear on
on prior knowledge and speculation. Students will the issue just yet. This early exercise helps to bring
then revisit the notebook in order to answer the to the fore what they know coming into the unit.
PROCESS
Ask students to think about the Essential its existence? How did they suffer from it?
Questions for Unit 1 and Lesson 1.2, How does the discovery of the Americas
respectively. Students should write down change the world?
the Essential Questions and record their
responses to opening questions in their Students can do this in the context of their
EQ Notebook Worksheets. knowledge of US History, or relate it to their
own lives.
Example Opening Questions: Is the world
better off for having experienced the ATTACHMENTS
Columbian Exchange? How and why did The EQ Unit 1 Notebook Worksheet
the Columbian Exchange change the
world forever? How did humans benefit from
28

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
1. Is the world better off for having experienced the Columbian Exchange?
2. How does the discovery of the Americas change the world?
LESSON 1.2.1.
LESSON 1.2.8.
HOW HAS YOUR

THINKING CHANGED?
29
LESSON 1.2.2 | READ | European Expansion
PURPOSE
This article provides an overview of the hundreds of drive for resources and wealth. Given their physical
years of European exploration to the North American position on the European continent, Spain and
continent prior to Christopher Columbus. This journal Portugal were forced to rely on expensive routes for
introduces students to what weve known all along: Asian goods. In an effort to cut out the middleman,
expansion and exploration are often fueled by a they sought a more direct route to Asia.
PROCESS
Provide students with a copy of the attached Who was Prince Henry the Navigator
overview of the European exploration or and what did he do?
have them download it on their own time. What wildly profitable commodity
Students should read actively by marking originally grown in Asia had become
up the text and taking notes. Students should a popular luxury item among the
be prepared to answer any potential wealthy of Europe?
questions regarding the text. In what ways was Columbus incredibly
wrong, misguided, and also lucky?
Potential Questions: According to Columbus, what was
What event in Europe accelerated Gods will?
nationalism and cultivated
the financial and military ATTACHMENT
administration necessary to European Expansion
maintain nation-states?
30
READING | European Expansion The American Yawp

Scandinavian seafarers reached the New World had never ended in Iberia: the Spanish crown
centuries before Columbus. At their peak they concluded centuries of intermittent warfare
sailed as far east as Constantinople and raided the Reconquistaby expelling Muslim Moors from
settlements as far south as North Africa. They the Iberian peninsula in 1492, just as Columbus
established limited colonies in Iceland and sailed west. With new power, these new nations
Greenland and, around the year 1000, Leif Erikson and their newly empowered monarchsyearned
reached New Foundland (Newfoundland) in to access the wealth of Asia.
present-day Canada. But the Norse colony failed.
Culturally and geographically isolated, some Seafaring Italian traders commanded the
combination of limited resources, inhospitable Mediterranean and controlled trade with Asia.
weather, food shortages, and Native resistance Spain and Portugal, at the edges of Europe,
drove the Norse back into the sea. relied upon middlemen and paid higher prices
for Asian goods. They sought a more direct
Then, hundreds of years before Columbus, the route, and so they looked to the Atlantic. Portugal
Crusades linked Europe with the wealth, power, and invested heavily in exploration. From his estate on
knowledge of Asia. Europeans rediscovered or the Sagres Peninsula of Portugal, a rich sailing port,
adopted Greek, Roman, and Muslim knowledge. The Prince Henry the Navigator (Infante Henry, Duke
hemispheric dissemination of goods and knowledge of Viseu) invested in research and technology and
not only sparked the Renaissance but fueled long- underwrote many technological breakthroughs.
term European expansion. Asian goods flooded His investments bore fruit. In the fifteenth century
European markets, creating a demand for new Portuguese sailors innovated the astrolabe, a tool
commodities. This trade created vast new to calculate latitude, and the caravel, a ship well-
wealth, and Europeans battled one another for suited for ocean exploration. Both were technological
trade supremacy. breakthroughs. The astrolabe allowed for precise
navigation and the caravel, unlike more common
European nation-states consolidated under the vessels designed for trading on the relatively
authority of powerful kings. A series of military placid Mediterranean, was a rugged ship with a deep
conflicts between England and Francethe draft capable of making lengthy voyages on the
Hundred Years Waraccelerated nationalism and open ocean and, equally important, carrying large
cultivated the financial and military administration amounts of cargo while doing so.
necessary to maintain nation-states. In Spain,
the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella Blending economic and religious motivations, the
of Castille consolidated the two most powerful Portuguese established forts along the Atlantic
kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula. The Crusades coast of Africa during the fifteenth century,
31
inaugurating centuries of European colonization crop. Portuguese merchants, who had recently
there. Portuguese trading posts generated new established good relations with powerful African
profits that funded further trade and further kingdoms such as Kongo, Ndongo, and Songhai,
colonization. Trading posts spread across the vast looked to African slaves. Slavery had long existed
coastline of Africa and by the end of the fifteenth among African societies. African leaders traded
century Vasco de Gama leapfrogged his way around war captiveswho by custom forfeited their
the coasts of Africa to reach India and lucrative freedom in battlefor Portuguese guns, iron,
Asian markets. and manufactured goods. From bases along the
Atlantic coast, the largest in modern-day Nigeria,
The vagaries of ocean currents and the limits the Portuguese began purchasing slaves for export
of contemporary technology forced Iberian sailors to the Atlantic islands. Slaves would work the
to sail west into the open sea before cutting sugar fields. Thus were born the first great Atlantic
back east to Africa. So doing, the Spanish and plantations.
Portuguese stumbled upon several islands off
the coast of Europe and Africa, including the Spain, too, stood on the cutting edge of maritime
Azores, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde technology. Spanish sailors had become masters
Islands. They became training ground for the later of the caravels. And as Portugal consolidated control
colonization of the Americas. over its African trading networks along the
circuitous eastbound sea route to Asia, Spain
Sugar, a wildly profitable commodity originally yearned for its own path to empire. Christopher
grown in Asia, had become a popular luxury Columbus, a skilled Italian-born sailor who studied
among the nobility and wealthy of Europe. The under Portuguese navigators, came calling.
Portuguese began growing sugar cane along the
Mediterranean, but sugar was a difficult crop. Educated Asians and Europeans of the fifteenth
It required tropical temperatures, daily rainfall, century knew the world was round. They also
unique soil conditions, and a fourteen-month knew that while it was therefore technically possible
growing season. But with the Atlantic Islands, to reach Asia by sailing west from Europethereby
the Portuguese had found new land to support avoiding Italian or Portuguese middlementhe
sugar production, and new patterns of human Earths vast size would doom even the greatest
and ecological destruction followed. Isolated from caravels to starvation and thirst long before
the mainlands of Europe and Africa for millennia, they ever reached their destination. But Columbus
island nativesknown as the Guancheswere underestimated the size of the globe by a full two-
enslaved or perished soon after Europeans thirds and therefore believed it was possible. After
arrived. Portugals would-be planters needed unsuccessfully shopping his proposed expedition
laborers to cultivate the difficult, labor-intensive in several European courts, he convinced Queen
32
Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to provide him (Columbus made four total voyages to the New
three small ships, which set sail in 1492. Columbus World). Still believing he had landed in the East
was both confoundingly wrong about the size of the Indies, he promised to reward Isabella and
Earth and spectacularly lucky that two large Ferdinands investment. But when material wealth
continents lurked in his path. On October 12, 1492, proved slow in coming the Spanish embarked
after two months at sea, the Nina, Pinta, and upon a vicious campaign to extract every possible
Santa Maria and their ninety men landed in the ounce of wealth from the Caribbean. The Spanish
modern-day Bahamas. decimated the Arawaks. Bartolome de las Casas
traveled to the New World in 1502 and would
The indigenous Arawaks, or Taino, populated the later write that I saw with these Eyes of mine the
Caribbean islands. They fished and grew corn, Spaniards for no other reason, but only to gratify
yams, and cassava. Columbus described them their bloody mindedness, cut off the Hands, Noses,
as innocents. They are very gentle and without and Ears, both of Indians and Indianesses. When
knowledge of what is evil; nor the sins of murder the enslaved Indians exhausted the islands meager
or theft, he reported to the Spanish crown. gold reserves, the Spaniards forced them to labor
Your highness may believe that in all the world on their huge new estates, the encomiendas. Las
there can be no better people They love Casas described European barbarities in cruel
their neighbors as themselves, and their speech detail. By presuming the natives had no humanity,
is the sweetest and gentlest in the world, and the Spaniards utterly abandoned theirs. Casual
always with a smile. But Columbus had come violence and dehumanizing exploitation ravaged
for wealth and he could find little. The Arawaks, the Arawaks. The Indian population collapsed.
however, wore small gold ornaments. Columbus Within a few generations the whole island of
left thirty-nine Spaniards at a military fort on Hispaniola had been depopulated and a whole
Hispaniola to find and secure the source of the people exterminated. Historians estimates range
gold while he returned to Spain, with a dozen from fewer than 1 million to as many as 8 million
captured and branded Arawaks. Columbus arrived (las Casas estimated the pre-contact population
to great acclaim and quickly worked to outfit of the island at 3 million). In a few short years,
a return voyage. Spains New World motives were they were gone. Who in future generations will
clear from the beginning. If outfitted for a return believe this? Las Casas wondered. I myself
voyage, Columbus promised the Spanish crown writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can
gold and slaves. Columbus reported, with fifty hardly believe it.
men they can all be subjugated and made to do what
is required of them. It was Gods will, he said. Despite the diversity of Native populations and
the existence of several strong empires, Native
Columbus was outfitted with seventeen ships Americans were wholly unprepared for the arrival
and over 1,000 men to return to the West Indies of Europeans. Biology magnified European cruelties
33
many times over. Cut off from the Old World

and its domesticated animals and its immunological
history, Native Americans lived free from the
terrible diseases that ravaged populations in Asia,
Europe and Africa. But their blessing now became
a curse. Native Americans lacked the immunities
that Europeans and Africans had developed
over centuries of deadly epidemics, and so when
Europeans arrived, carrying smallpox, typhus,
influenza, diphtheria, measles, and hepatitis, plagues
decimated Native communities. Death rates tended
to be highest near European communities who
traveled with children, as children tended to carry
the deadliest diseases. Many died in war and
slavery, but millions died in epidemics. All told,
some scholars estimate that as much as 90 percent
of the population of the Americas perished within
the first century and a half of European contact.
Though ravaged by disease and warfare, Native

Americans forged middle grounds, resisted with
violence, accommodated and adapted to the
challenges of colonialism, and continued to shape
the patterns of life throughout the New World for
hundreds of years. But the Europeans kept coming.
Source:
L.D. Burnett et al., The New World, Joseph Locke and
Ben Wright, eds., in The American Yawp, Joseph Locke and
Ben Wright, eds., last modified August 1, 2016, http://www.
AmericanYawp.com.
34
LESSON 1.2.3 | WATCH | Crash Course US History #1

The Black Legend, Natives, and Spaniards
PREVIEW
In which John Green kicks off Crash Course US but what colonizers are peaceful? Colonization
History! Why, you may ask, are we covering US pretty much always results in an antagonistic
History, and not more World History, or the history relationship with the locals. John teaches you
of some other country, or the very specific history about early Spanish explorers, settlements, and
of your home region? Well, the reasons are many. what happened when they didnt get along with
But, like it or not, the United States has probably the indigenous people. The story of their rocky
meddled in your country to some degree in the last relations has been called the Black Legend.
236 years or so, and that means US History is Which is not a positive legend.
relevant all over the world. In episode 1, John talks
about the Native Americans who lived in what is PURPOSE
now the US prior to European contact. This is In this video, students learn about those inhabitants
a history class, not archaeology, so were mainly of North America prior to European contact. Who
going to cover written history. That means we start were those people, how many were there, how did
with the first sustained European settlement in they arrive in North America? What were their
North America, and that means the Spanish. The civilizations like? This video examines the complexity
Spanish have a long history with the natives of and diversity of native inhabitants while also
the Americas, and not all of it was positive. The looking closely at their relationship with Europeans
Spanish were definitely not peaceful colonizers, once they arrived.
PROCESS
As with all of the videos in the course, ask history and tells the stories that tend
students to watch the video before class. to develop into mythology?
Remind students of Johns fast-talking and
play the video with captions. Pause and LINK
rewind when necessary. Before students Crash Course US History #1
watch the video, instruct them to begin The Black Legend, Natives, and
to consider what they learned in previous Spaniards
activities about pre-European contact in
Video questions for students to answer
North America. Were those peoples primitive?
during their viewing.
And what does primitive mean? Who writes
35
LESSON 1.2.3 | WATCH | Key Ideas Factual

Use these questions and prompts at the appropriate stopping points to check in
with students and ensure they are getting the key concepts covered in the video.
1. (:50) What two generalizations can be made SAMPLE ANSWER: When the Europeans arrived,
about North America at the time of European there were no classic-style civilizations with
discovery? monumental architecture and empires like the Aztec
or the Incas. And Native North Americans had no
metalwork, no gunpowder, no wheels, no written
languages, and no domesticated animals. However,
they did have farming, complex social and political
structures, and widespread trade networks.
2. (1:50) Approximately how many people lived SAMPLE ANSWER: Approximately 2-to-10 million
within present US borders when Europeans native inhabitants.
arrived?
3. (5:30) Who were the first Europeans to explore SAMPLE ANSWER: While there had been
North America and what were they looking for? Scandinavian settlers in parts of present-day
Canada, the first established Europeans
in North America were the Spanish, who were
looking for gold.
4. (7:00) How did the Spanish and southwestern SAMPLE ANSWER: Native population declined
natives clash? greatly thanks to European diseases and
the Spanish converting of indigenous peoples
to Christianity became militant. Franciscan
friars stamped out all native religion and cultural
blending no longer was the normal practice for
producing Christians. Finally the natives united
in an uprising in 1680.
5. (7:50) What is encomienda? SAMPLE ANSWER: Encomienda is the forced labor

practice the Spanish held over indigenous peoples.
36
6. (9:50) What is the Black Legend and what is the SAMPLE ANSWER: The Black Legend is essentially
trouble with its use? anti-Spanish propaganda stemming from the
treatment given to natives by the Spanish. The
Black Legend assumes that the Spanish unleashed
unspeakable cruelty to the natives, which is true.
This idea is later used by the English to justify their
own settlements of native land.
LESSON 1.2.3 | WATCH | Conceptual Thinking

Have students answer the following question in order for them to make connections
across different concepts and think more critically about the information presented
in the video.
1. Why is it problematic to use the term primitive when describing a group

of people or a civilization, particularly one that existed for millennia prior
to discovery?
37
LESSON 1.2.4 | READ | Documents of Discovery
PURPOSE
This reading provides students with primary source Spains plans for their plunder of resources and land.
documents and context to the Spanish discovery and All of this establishes Spains, and by a larger extent
exploration of the New World. Students will read the Catholic Churchs, authority to seize whatever
an excerpt from Columbus first letter announcing resources and people are found in the New World.
his discoveries of riches and possibilities in what he
assumes is Asia. From there, students will encounter
PROCESS
Provide students with a copy of the attached ATTACHMENT
documents outlining the discovery of the New Documents of Discovery
World or have them download it on their own
time. Students should read actively by marking
up the text and taking notes. Students should
be prepared to answer any potential questions
regarding the text.
Potential Questions:
What assumptions does Columbus What themes and imagery are
make about the people he presented in the letters with regard
encountered in the discovered lands? to the lands and the people? What
What threats are made in the Inter authority is given to those exploring
Caetera by Pope Alexander VI? the land?
What does this document mean in Who is Bartolom de Las Casas and
terms of Spanish dominance in the what is his position on natives?
New World?
38
READING | Columbus Reports on His First Voyage, 1493

On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain to On the thirty-third day after leaving Cadiz I came
find an all-water route to Asia. On October 12, more into the Indian Sea, where I discovered many islands
than two months later, Columbus landed on an island inhabited by numerous people. I took possession
in the Bahamas that he called San Salvador; the of all of them for our most fortunate King by making
natives called it Guanahani. For nearly five months, public proclamation and unfurling his standard,
Columbus explored the Caribbean, particularly no one making any resistance. The island called
the islands of Juana (Cuba) and Hispaniola (Santo Juana, as well as the others in its neighborhood,
Domingo), before returning to Spain. He left thirty- is exceedingly fertile. It has numerous harbors on all
nine men to build a settlement called La Navidad sides, very safe and wide, above comparison with
in present-day Haiti. He also kidnapped several any I have ever seen. Through it flow many very
Native Americans (between ten and twenty-five) broad and health-giving rivers; and there are in it
to take back to Spainonly eight survived. Columbus numerous very lofty mountains. All these island are
brought back small amounts of gold as well as native very beautiful, and of quite different shapes; easy
birds and plants to show the richness of the continent to be traversed, and full of the greatest variety of
he believed to be Asia. When Columbus arrived back trees reaching to the stars. . . .
in Spain on March 15, 1493, he immediately wrote
a letter announcing his discoveries to King Ferdinand In the island, which I have said before was called
and Queen Isabella, who had helped finance his trip. Hispana, there are very lofty and beautiful mountains,
In addition to announcing his momentous discovery, great farms, groves and fields, most fertile both
Columbuss letter also provides observations of the for cultivation and for pasturage, and well adapted
native peoples culture and lack of weapons, noting for constructing buildings. The convenience of the
that they are destitute of arms, which are entirely harbors in this island, and the excellence of the rivers,
unknown to them, and for which they are not in volume and salubrity, surpass human belief, unless
adapted; not on account of any bodily deformity, for one should see them. In it the trees, pasture-lands and
they are well made, but because they are timid and fruits different much from those of Juana. Besides,
full of terror. Writing that the natives are fearful and this Hispana abounds in various kinds of species, gold
timid . . . guileless and honest, Columbus declares and metals. The inhabitants . . . are all, as I said
that the land could easily be conquered by Spain, and before, unprovided with any sort of iron, and they
the natives might become Christians and inclined are destitute of arms, which are entirely unknown
to love our King and Queen and Princes and all the to them, and for which they are not adapted; not on
people of Spain. account of any bodily deformity, for they are well
made, but because they are timid and full of terror. . .
I have determined to write you this letter to inform . But when they see that they are safe, and
you of everything that has been done and
discovered in this voyage of mine.
39
all fear is banished, they are very guileless and of renowned memory, you have purposed with the
honest, and very liberal of all they have. No one favor of divine clemency to bring under your sway
refuses the asker anything that he possesses; the said mainlands and islands with their residents
on the contrary they themselves invite us to ask and inhabitants and to bring them to the Catholic
for it. They manifest the greatest affection faith. Hence, heartily commending in the Lord this
towards all of us, exchanging valuable things for your holy and praiseworthy purpose, and desirous
trifles, content with the very least thing or nothing that it be duly accomplished, and that the name
at all. . . . I gave them many beautiful and pleasing of our Savior be carried into those regions, we
things, which I had brought with me, for no return exhort you very earnestly in the Lord and by your
whatever, in order to win their affection, and that reception of holy baptism, whereby you are
they might become Christians and inclined to love bound to our apostolic commands, and by the
our King and Queen and Princes and all the people bowels of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of Spain; and that they might be eager to search enjoy strictly, that inasmuch as with eager zeal
for and gather and give to us what they abound for the true faith you design to equip and
in and we greatly need. despatch this expedition, you purpose also, as
is your duty, to lead the peoples dwelling
The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493 in those islands and countries to embrace the
The Papal Bull Inter Caetera, issued by Pope Christian religion; nor at any time let dangers
Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, played a central or hardships deter you therefrom, with the stout
role in the Spanish conquest of the New World. hope and trust in your hearts that Almighty God
The document supported Spains strategy to ensure will further your undertakings. And, in order that
its exclusive right to the lands discovered you may enter upon so great an undertaking
by Columbus the previous year. It established with greater readiness and heartiness endowed
a demarcation line one hundred leagues west with benefit of our apostolic favor, we, of our
of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and assigned own accord, not at your instance nor the request
Spain the exclusive right to acquire territorial of anyone else in your regard, but out of our
possessions and to trade in all lands west of that own sole largess and certain knowledge and
line. All others were forbidden to approach the out of the fullness of our apostolic power, by
lands west of the line without special license from the authority of Almighty God conferred upon us
the rulers of Spain. This effectively gave Spain in blessed Peter and of the vicarship of Jesus
a monopoly on the lands in the New World. Christ, which we hold on earth, do by tenor of
these presents, should any of said islands have
Wherefore, as becomes Catholic kings and been found by your envoys and captains, give,
princes, after earnest consideration of all matters, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and
especially of the rise and spread of the Catholic successors, kings of Castile and Leon, forever,
faith, as was the fashion of your ancestors, kings together with all their dominions, cities, camps,
40
places, and villages, and all rights, jurisdictions, and Catholic faith and train them in good morals.
appurtenances, all islands and mainlands found Furthermore, under penalty of excommunication
and to be found, discovered and to be discovered late sententie to be incurred ipso facto, should
towards the west and south, by drawing and anyone thus contravene, we strictly forbid all
establishing a line from the Arctic pole, namely the persons of whatsoever rank, even imperial and
north, to the Antarctic pole, namely the south, no royal, or of whatsoever estate, degree, order,
matter whether the said mainlands and islands are or condition, to dare without your special permit
found and to be found in the direction of India or or that of your aforesaid heirs and successors,
towards any other quarter, the said line to be distant to go for the purpose of trade or any other reason
one hundred leagues towards the west and south to the islands or mainlands, found and to be found,
from any of the islands commonly known as the discovered and to be discovered, towards the west
Azores and Cape Verde. With this proviso however and south, by drawing and establishing a line from
that none of the islands and mainlands, found the Arctic pole to the Antarctic pole, no matter
and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, whether the mainlands and islands, found and to
beyond that said line towards the west and south, be found, lie in the direction of India or toward any
be in the actual possession of any Christian king or other quarter whatsoever, the said line to be distant
prince up to the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ one hundred leagues towards the west and south,
just past from which the present year one thousand as is aforesaid, from any of the islands commonly
four hundred ninety-three begins. And we make, known as the Azores and Cape Verde; apostolic
appoint, and depute you and your said heirs and constitutions and ordinances and other decrees
successors lords of them with full and free power, whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding. We
authority, and jurisdiction of every kind; with this trust in Him from whom empires and governments
proviso however, that by this our gift, grant, and and all good things proceed, that, should you, with
assignment no right acquired by any Christian prince, the Lords guidance, pursue this holy and praiseworthy
who may be in actual possession of said islands undertaking, in a short while your hardships
and mainlands prior to the said birthday of our Lord and endeavors will attain the most felicitous result,
Jesus Christ, is hereby to be understood to be to the happiness and glory of all Christendom.
withdrawn or taking away. Moreover we command
you in virtue of holy obedience that, employing all Spain Authorizes Coronados Conquest
due diligence in the premises, as you also promise in the Southwest, 1540
nor do we doubt your compliance therein in This letter, written on behalf of King Charles V
accordance with your loyalty and royal greatness by Francisco Garcia de Loaysa, the president of the
of spirityou should appoint to the aforesaid Council of the Indies, acknowledges Francisco
mainlands and islands worthy, God-fearing, learned, Coronados report of the famous Niza expedition
skilled, and experienced men, in order to instruct of the previous year and authorizes Coronado to
the aforesaid inhabitants and residents in the explore the northern lands, in the search for wealth
41
and resources, and in the hope that through your Francisco Vsquez de Coronado, new Governor and
excellent efforts you will bring the natives of that Captain General of the Province of Galicia of New
province under our sway and dominion and will Spain, we saw your letter of July 15 of the year
bring them into the knowledge of the holy catholic prior to 1540, in which we became aware of the
faith. This letter is possibly the earliest surviving state of things of that province and the things
official authorization by any European regent to that you have worked on to bring peace to the
explore the lands that became the United States. natives of the land who remained in revolt for
which I thank you and have in service the notice
The Niza expedition, named after its leader, the that you had and have of the pacification and
Franciscan friar Marcos de Niza, recorded the population of the land and of the good treatment
enduring myth of Cibolaa city or series of cities of the natives that reside in the land and if you
in the American Southwest rich with gold. The continue to be in charge of them, that you continue
Niza expedition is also significant in that Nizas according to the letters of Don Antonio de
Moorish manservant, Estevan Dorantes, also Mendoza, my viceroy of New Spain, through whom
called Estevan the Black, was the first African I have made known by my name that I send you
documented in the New World. His presence through as the Captain General of this population
predated English and Spanish African slaves by of the conquest and land that was discovered
decades, and his ability to communicate with by Fray Marcos de Niza, that we have given to you
Native tribes proved to be vital to Nizas expedition. because we hope, that through the giving of this
title, with your life, my lord, you will be of service
Coronado, spurred by dreams of wealth, was shortly and the crown be royally presented; and that with
authorized to mount an impressive campaign to your good management you place the land under
seek out Cibola. Setting out from Compostela (in my rule and bring its natives to the knowledge
present-day Sonora, Mexico), he reached the Zuni of my Holy Catholic faith and we do order you to,
country in New Mexico that most scholars suspect with all prudence and good order, work on making
to be the location to which Cibola referred. sure that the orders and provisions that have been
Coronados quest for wealth carried him farther into ordered by us and the order that has been given
America, later in search of another mythically rich by my son, the viceroy, by which we inform you that
land called Quivira. The area referred to as Quivira my son, the viceroy, has been sent in your absence
proved to be the lands occupied by the Wichitas in so he may be able to watch your governance and
present-day Kansas. Some anthropological research provide what is beneficial to the service of my God.
supports the claim that Coronado traveled as far
as Kansas, but scholars are divided. Nevertheless,
this authorization spurred one of the most famous
explorations of the New World.
42
Bartolom de Las Casas debates He contradicted Sepulvedas assertions that the

the subjugation of the Indians, 1550 Indians were barbarous, that they committed
This tract, a summary of a debate concerning the crimes against natural law, that they oppressed
subjugation of Indians, contains the arguments and killed innocent people, and that wars should
of Bartolom de Las Casas, the Bishop of Chiapas, be waged against infidels. Las Casas managed
Mexico, and Juan Gines Sepulveda, an influential to convinced the theologians at Valladolid that
Spanish philosopher, concerning the treatment of the Spanish policy was unjust and had to change.
American Indians in the New World. However, his victory had no impact on the
colonists, who continued to enslave American
Las Casas came to Hispaniola, in the Caribbean, Indians. Las Casas has been called the father
in 1502 with a land grant, ready to seek his fortune. of anti-imperialism and anti-racism, and he
A Dominican friar nurtured Las Casass interest greatly influenced the drive to abolish the
in the priesthood as well as his sympathy toward Spanish encomienda system.
the suffering of the native inhabitants. In 1509,
Las Casas renounced his land grant, released his Here is contained a dispute, or controversy between
slaves, and returned to Rome to take his religious Bishop Friar Bartolom de las Casas, or Casaus,
vows. He returned to Hispaniola in 1512 as the first formerly bishop of the royal city of Chiapa which
ordained priest in the Americas and denounced is in the Indies, a part of New Spain, and Dr. Gines
the Spanish exploitation of the Indians and the de Sepulveda, chronicler to the Emperor, our lord,
military conquest of the New World. in which the doctor contended: that the conquests
of the Indies against the Indians were lawful; and
His efforts to end the encomienda system of land the bishop, on the contrary, contended and affirmed
ownership and forced labor culminated in 1550, them to have been, and it was impossible for them
when Charles V convened the Council of Valladolid not to be, tyrannies, unjust and iniquitous. Which
in Spain to consider whether Spanish colonists question was examined and defended in the presence
had the right to enslave Indians and take their lands. of many learned theologians and jurists in a council
ordered by his Majesty to be held in the year one
Sepulveda argued against Las Casas on behalf thousand and five hundred and fifty in the town
of the colonists property rights. Sepulveda of Valladolid. Year 1552.
rationalized Spanish treatment of American Indians
by arguing that Indians were natural slaves Source:
and that Spanish presence in the New World Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,
would benefit them. Period 1: 1491-1607. Retrieved from:
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Citing the Bible and canon law, Las Casas
responded, All the World is Human!
43
LESSON 1.2.5 | READ | The Columbian Exchange An Introduction
PURPOSE
This reading introduces students to the concept of plants, animals, diseases, ideas, technology, and
the Columbian Exchange, a term first coined by just about everything else, between the Old
Alfred Crosby to present the far-reaching impacts World and the New. The Columbian Exchange
of the worlds two hemispheres being joined by is arguably one of the most significant occurrences
Christopher Columbus travel to the Americas. The in human history and changed the world forever,
exchange involved the movement of peoples, for better or worse.
PROCESS
Have students read the provided article, ATTACHMENT
instructing them to pay particular attention The Columbian Exchange
to how the linking of the hemispheres led An Introduction
to massive global political, environmental,
and social transformations. Host a discussion
of themes following their completion
of the reading.
44
READING | The Columbian Exchange An Introduction
Columbian Exchange was a term first coined by The Old World consisted of places you probably
Alfred Crosby in his appropriately titled book, The already know quite a bit about. Almost all of our
Columbian Exchange (1972). Within that text, recorded human histories prior to the arrival of
Crosby presented the far-reaching impacts of the Columbus in the Caribbean come from the Old
reintroduction of Afro-Eurasia and the Americas, World of Africa, Europe, and Asia, or Afro-Eurasia.
which began with the voyages of Christopher The Han Dynasty, the Greeks, the Arab Empires
Columbus in 1492. While his work largely of the Middle East, the Buddha, Mansa Musa, all
focused on ecology and biology, he also included of that? Old World. The thing is though, as Im
quite a bit about some of the major ways that sure you already know, the New World wasnt
Columbian Exchange impacted the future of human really new at all.
civilization. Among the most central impacts
were the ways in which the effects of Columbian The peoples of North and South America had their
Exchange changed the societies, cultures, and own rich cultures and histories, too. Some of the
politics of both Afro-Eurasia and the Americas. But groups may be familiar to you, like the Olmecs,
before we dig into those topics, what exactly was Mayans, Aztecs, or Inca, but whats important
Columbian Exchange? to understand is that humans had been living in the
New World for at least 14,000 years. Those
Columbian Exchange involved the movement of people had very diverse ways of life, much like their
peoples, plants, animals, diseases, ideas, technology, fellow homo sapiens in the Old World.
and just about everything else, between what youll
sometimes see referred to as the Old World and Having studied World History for some time now,
the New. This exchange saw things like sugar, hopefully you would agree that trying to describe
pigs, Christianity, and smallpox travel from Old every person or group within the Old World with
to New, while things like tobacco, potatoes, and any broadly sweeping generalizations wouldnt do
syphilis went back the other way. Basically, stuff justice to the diversity of experiences that youve
that had once been isolated to one side of the been learning about. Similarly, we should probably
world or another was now being exchanged, though avoid the sweeping generalizations that are too
not always voluntarily or intentionally, between often made about the peoples of the New World.
the Old and New Worlds. Before we delve too In fact, the very terms Old World and New
deeply into Columbian Exchange, lets have a few World lend themselves to the myth that what
words about this whole Old World and New existed in Afro-Eurasia was deeper in its history
World concept. and its meaning, and therefore somehow better
than what existed in the Americas. It also implies
45
that the New World was just sitting there waiting advantages over the other empires that might have
to be colonized (or worse yet, civilized) by the Old. similarly been capable of dominating the Western
This categorization can make us think that, somehow, Hemisphere. Additionally, circumstances along
the Americas thousands of years of history didnt with social, political, economic, and cultural factors
matter as much. To avoid slipping into this trap, lets motivated European exploration and colonization
agree to some new terms. What weve previously across the Atlantic.
referred to as the Old World, well call Afro-Eurasia
from here on out. The New World? Well simply European motivations can be boiled down to some
refer to that as the Americas. Sound good? Great. basic factors, many of which were, at least in part,
economic. First, Europeans were largely on the
While were on the topics of nomenclature, the outside looking in at the lucrative trade taking place
Columbian Exchange isnt really all that much about in the Indian Ocean. This monsoon marketplace
Christopher Columbus. It takes its name from him provided a network of exchange among the many
because the processes started with his arrival in the diverse groups that populated the Indian Ocean
Caribbean, but at its core, its about understanding basin and their many valuable resources. By the
how the reconnection of Afro-Eurasia and the late 15th century, Muslim merchants had come
Americas helped to shape the Early Modern era. to dominate much of the trade, and their position
The effects of Columbian Exchange would have between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean
a profound impact on World History, and not just the allowed them to dictate quite a bit about how that
part about us humans. The ripples of this exchange trade would extend into Europe. This led to both
are way bigger than us and our ancestors. It impacted the Portuguese expeditions around Africa and
the ecology of the Earth itself, and in pretty big Columbuss voyages across the Atlantic in search
ways. But before we get into that, we need to first of new trade routes to Asia. These economic
figure out why this was taking place to begin with. motivations extended beyond the wishes of monarchs
and to individuals, too. Europes growing, independent
Columbian Exchange itself is an effect of something merchant class sought access to goods without the
that happened before it. That something was the price gouging of relay trade, and other classes saw
arrival of Europeans in the Americas in the late 15th opportunity to access new sources of wealth in
century. So, why were the Europeans so interested burgeoning colonies. While not necessarily separate
in heading across the Atlantic Ocean to begin with? from the economic factors, the idea of competition
Also, how were they able to be successful in between nations was certainly important as well.
bringing so much of the Americas land, peoples, The various states in Western Europe were in
and resources under European control? The simple competition with one another to gain a foothold
answer to this was that Europeans possessed certain in both the trade routes to the Indian Ocean and
practical advantages over the Native American the newly discovered territories across the Atlantic.
peoples they encountered and certain motivational Basically, economic and political rivalries between
46
states influenced rulers into engaging in competition, if Harry Potter wouldve been like, A letter from
which manifested itself in the chartering of a Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?
expeditions and claiming of colonies. A further Meh. The same concept holds true in World
motivation was the desire to spread Christianity History. Take the Ottoman Empire or the Ming
across new horizons. These motivations are all the Chinese, for example. While both of these groups
more potent due to the fact that European states possessed the technology and might to surpass the
and institutions were willing to put so much energy Europeans, neither had a need to undertake new
and resources into supporting peoples forays into explorations or seek new sources of wealth in the
expanding markets and territories into the Americas. same way that the Europeans did. The Ottomans
To put all of this more succinctly, the exploration and other Muslim empires had more than sufficient
and the conquest of the Americas was largely born access to wealth via the Indian Ocean. By the time
of a desire for to gain wealth, power, and influence Columbus showed up in the Caribbean, the Ming
while serving God and country. As Spanish soldier Dynasty had long ceased the trading voyages
Bernal Diaz de Castillo put it, We came here to popular under the Emperor Yongle and Admiral
serve God, and the King, and also to get rich. Zheng He. Their government saw virtue in focusing
its attention inwardly. As such, both the Ming and
As Im sure youre aware, having the motivation to do the Ottoman rulers did not present the incentives
something difficult is a large part of the battle, but that the European monarchs were providing for their
to be successful there are other things that must fall nations to expand into new marketplaces. With
into place. For example, a tone-deaf history teacher that particular advantage acknowledged, lets look
with a love for singing may have all the motivation at some things specific to Western Europe that
or desire in the world, but without some inherent allowed the Spanish, Portuguese, British, Dutch,
advantages, like not being tone deaf, that dream French, and others to be successful in this newly
will remain a long way gone. Fortunately for the connected market of Atlantic trade and colonization.
Europeans, the states of Western Europe, on the
cusp of the 16th century, were able to match their One obvious advantage that Western Europe had
desire for expanded trade and empire with a few over other potential suitors for American colonies
key advantages. Understanding these motivations was its geography. Western Europe was the part
and advantages together helps us get at exactly of Afro-Eurasia that was closest and in the best
why the European moment in World History position to take advantage of the natural wind
was possible. patterns and ocean currents used when travelling
across the Atlantic. Unlike the Indian Ocean
One important thing to note is that it is a distinct networks, where knowledge of the shifts in monsoon
advantage when those most capable of competing winds was required to successfully navigate,
with you lack the motivation to do so. I mean, the patterns of the North Atlantic were much
think how successful Voldemort would have been more regular.
47
Western Europe also possessed the technology Aztec Empire. They were treated harshly by the
necessary to both get large quantities of ships, Aztecs and many actually joined conquistador
goods and people to the Americas with routine Hernan Cortes in his conquest of Tenochtitlan.
success and to also subdue the powerful empires Similarly, many Inca were open to the idea of
that inhabited some of the continents most valuable allying with the Spanish as a means of preserving
territories. European guns and iron weapons would their power over peasants in their territories.
prove to be a great advantage over the Amerindian Additionally, the Inca were still reeling from
groups they encountered early on. Another advantage a prolonged civil war that took place in the
was the horse. Domesticated horses will later years just preceding conquistador Francisco
become a staple of life for many Native American Pizarros arrival in South America. These
groups, but the horses that showed up with circumstances served to undermine existing
the Europeans were the first seen in that part Amerindian empires and their ability to keep
of the world since early horses were wiped their territory and its resources out of Spanish
out approximately 12,000 years ago. Again, the hands. While significant in its own right, this
Europeans werent the only ones in the world advantage pales in comparison to the one the
with such seafaring technology, weapons, or horses. Spanish unwittingly possessed, that of disease.
In fact, much of what they did possess were
technologies that originated in other parts of Afro- Native Americans possessed no resistance to the
Eurasia and were either copied or later improved diseases and germs carried by the Europeans and
upon by Europeans, but the point remains that their Africans that arrived in the Western Hemisphere
most threatening potential competitors from Asia during the late 15th and into the 16th century. The
never desired to enter the contest. peoples in the Americas had lived in isolation from
not only the people and technology of Afro-Eurasia,
Another distinct advantage possessed by Europeans but also its diseases. You might be wondering
was the fact that the Amerindian empires that why the Americans, whose ancestors crossed into
did stand in the way of European domination of the North America from Asia, wouldnt bring with
Americas were not well suited to take on such them their resistance to diseases from that part
a challenge. In addition to not having the iron weapons of the world. Or, perhaps, why the Europeans
and armor, guns, or horses possessed by Europeans, werent sick themselves if they were carrying
the Aztec and Inca had political situations that were around these deadly pathogens? Well, the answer
unsuitable for rallying a response to this new threat to both of these questions relates to both groups
from across the Atlantic. When the Spanish showed exposure to a diverse group of other humans and
up in Mesoamerica (the territory from about their proximity to domesticated animals.
central Mexico to Costa Rica, today), the peoples
on the outskirts of Aztec territory were open to Europeans and Africans had long been exposed
the idea of supporting the new power against the to the germs and diseases carried by their livestock.
48
They had also been exposed to diseases from other and geography that created the advantages the
parts of the world through the vast Mediterranean, Europeans needed to succeed in their ventures.
Indian Ocean, and Silk Roads trading networks As youll see, these European advantages will lead
(remember the plague?). As such, those Europeans Columbian Exchange to have disproportionate
and Africans who were alive in the 15th or 16th effects on the various peoples involved.
century possessed resistance to deadly diseases
like smallpox. The Amerindians, however, did not.
While the ancestors of American Indians did come

to the Americas from Asia, they did so at a time
before domestication of animals (other than the
dog, really). As such, they had not been exposed
to the diseases that afflict humans who live in close
contact with large domesticated animals like pigs
or cows. The absence of these large, domesticated
animals in their new home, the Americas, would
set up the Amerindian for the most devastating
effect of the Europeans arrival. Without any
resistance to the pathogens carried by the
Europeans showing up on their shores, the
Indians contracted Afro-Eurasian diseases
in huge numbers, and their populations were
decimated. This made it much easier for the
Europeans, particularly the Spanish in Meso
and South America and the British in North America,
to spread their influence and take control of larger
and larger territories. In the case of the Spanish in
South America, the diseases brought to the coasts
by Europeans spread so rapidly that many within
the Incan Empire had died from smallpox before
the Spanish ever set foot in the Andes Mountains.
So, in order to understand why Columbian Exchange

occurred in the first place, its important to look
at the factors that encouraged the Europeans
across the Atlantic and the effects of history
49
LESSON 1.2.6 | WATCH | Crash Course US History #23

The Columbian Exchange
PREVIEW PURPOSE
In which John Green discusses the changes brought This video introduces students to the types of
by contact between the Afro-Eurasia and the worldwide exchange that occurred following
Americas. John does this by exploring the totally the discovery of the Americas. Disease and
awesome history book The Columbian Exchange invasive plant and animal species remade the
by Alfred Cosby, Jr. After Columbus discovered Americas, usually in negative ways. While native
the Americas, European conquerors, traders, and people, plants, and animals were being displaced in
settlers brought all manner of changes to the the Americas, the rest of the world was benefitting
formerly isolated continents. Disease and invasive from American imports, especially foods like
plant and animal species remade the Americas, maize, tomatoes, potatoes, pineapple, blueberries,
usually in negative ways. While native people, plants, sweet potatoes, and manioc. The world population
and animals were being displaced in the Americas, exploded, doubling in numbers from 1650 to 1850 CE.
the rest of the world was benefitting from American
imports, especially foods like maize, tomatoes,
potatoes, pineapple, blueberries, sweet potatoes,
and manioc. Was the Columbian Exchange a net
positive? Its debatable. So debate.
PROCESS
As with all of the videos in the course, ask LINK
students to watch the video before class. Crash Course US History #23
Remind them that they should just sit back The Columbian Exchange
and relax and get what they can from it.
Theyll dig in more in class, this just helps Video questions for students to answer during
them get oriented to all of Johns fast-talking. their viewing.
50
LESSON 1.2.6 | WATCH | Key Ideas Factual

Use these questions and prompts at the appropriate stopping points to check in
with students and ensure they are getting the key concepts covered in the video.
1. (:40) John immediately lists a number of SAMPLE ANSWER: The Columbian Exchange
things that occurred because of the Columbian irrevocably homogenized the worlds biological
Exchange. What are they? landscape. Since its genesis, the number of
plant and animal species has continually diminished,
as has the variation in species from place to
place. By making the planet biologically singular,
the Columbian Exchange completely remade the
populations of animals, particularly humans.
2. (1:35) Due to the Columbian Exchange, Europeans SAMPLE ANSWER: Its impossible to know the
introduced new diseases to American populations, actual number, but it is estimated that more than
which resulted in death. About how many natives 50% of the native population died and in some
died from exposure to European diseases? places up to 90% perished.
3. (2:30 - 3:00) What are some of the side effects SAMPLE ANSWER: The deaths of Aztec and Inca
of diseases being introduced in the Americas? rulers touched off wars, which made it even easier
for diseases to spread. Additionally, those native
empires would have had a significantly better chance
of defeating invading European forces had they
not been ravaged by illness. Finally, with an infected
population, disease led to starvation because
there simply werent enough healthy people to grow
and cultivate crops in order to feed the living.
Malnutrition also makes it easier to die from
exposure to disease.
4. (4:15) Aside from venereal disease, whats the SAMPLE ANSWER: Tobacco.
one gift the Americas gave to Afro-Eurasia?
51
5. (5:55) What animals brought to the Americas SAMPLE ANSWER: Pigs, cows and horses.
are listed by John as being revolutionary?
6. (7:00) What from the Columbian Exchange had SAMPLE ANSWER: Plants, specifically in the form
perhaps the biggest impact on the world? of food, which led to perhaps the greatest population
increase in history. And pizza.
7. (8:30) What happened to the world between SAMPLE ANSWER: The population of the world
1650 and 1850 CE? doubled as a result to an increase in caloric intake
due to the increase of food production brought on
by the Columbian Exchange.
8. (9:50) In 2005, 58% of corn grown in America SAMPLE ANSWER: Animal feed.
was used for what purpose?
LESSON 1.2.6 | WATCH | Conceptual Thinking

Have students answer the following question in order for them to make connections
across different concepts and think more critically about the information presented
in the video.
1. At the end of the video, John cites Alfred Crosbys views on the Columbian Exchange,
which are rather bleak, and asks the questions: Are longer, healthier lives for more
humans worth the sacrifice of an impoverished biosphere? And more importantly,
how will your conclusions about those questions shape the way you live your life?
Given what you know and have just viewed, answer these questions as best
as you can.
52
LESSON 1.2.7 | READ | The Columbian Exchange in The Americas and Afro-Eurasia
PURPOSE
This article expands on points originally discussed Meanwhile, the Triangular Trade between Europe,
in the Columbian Exchange: An Introduction reading. Africa and the Americas satisfied the desire for
Here, students will dive considerably deeper inexpensive labor that saw the forced migration
into what exactly took place throughout the world and enslavement of Africans to the new world.
as a result of the Columbian Exchange. Students Finally, the Columbian Exchange also impacted the
will examine how the societies of Europe greatly environment through the expansion of domesticated
benefitted by shifting their economic base by plants and animals, the new diets of the populations,
colonizing the Americas and embracing mercantilism. the clearing of land for cash crops, and the extinction
Previously isolated from the rest of the world, peoples of native crops.
of the Western Hemisphere were introduced to
new foods, threats, germs, religions and diseases.
PROCESS
Have students read the article and instruct What were the positive and nega-
them to pay particular attention to the tive effects of the silver trade with
positive and negative effects of Columbian respect to Spain?
Exchange. What sorts of systems and What types of coerced labor systems
revolutions were born out of the Columbian did the Spanish employ in the Americas?
Exchange? What is mercantilism?
Potential Questions & Discussion Points: ATTACHMENT

What was the Great Dying? The Columbian Exchange in The Amer-
How did the Great Dying create icas and Afro-Eurasia
a huge demographic shift in the
Americas?
53
READING | The Columbian Exchange in The Americas and Afro-Eurasia Jake Thurman
The exchanges that occurred during the Columbian The chief characteristic of the European conquest
Exchange were not equal. The advantages of the Americas was the enormous toll that
possessed by Europeans created a situation in which diseases from Afro-Eurasia took on the populations
the Americas and their peoples were largely at of North and South America and the islands of
the mercy of the European colonizers. This event the Caribbean. Diseases like smallpox, typhus,
was largely an environmental, social, cultural, and influenza, and yellow fever raged through native
demographic disaster for the roughly 60-80 million communities, creating whats become known
people living in the Americas at the turn of the 16th as The Great Dying. On the densely populated
Century. That being said, it is important to remember Caribbean islands, the Indians were all but completely
that those that survived the initial conquests wiped out by 1550. While that is the most extreme
exercised considerable agency in the ways that they example, death tolls of up to 90 percent were not
interacted with and reacted to this new order. uncommon in other parts of the Western Hemisphere.
How was this possible? How did the seemingly
The Europeans that arrived in the Americas were healthy people of Europe bring on such a pandemic
generations removed from their peoples initial by travelling across an ocean? The short answer:
exposure to the contagions they would go on to geography.
spread to the Indians. One of the consequences
of the Americas isolation of the Western Hemisphere The Great Dying and the environmental devastation
from the networks of exchange in the Eastern was were but two of the more pronounced impacts
that the Indians had never been exposed to the germs of European incursion into the Western Hemisphere.
that Europeans and Africans would bring to their By contrast, the effect of the Exchange on Western
shores. The Spanish that were disembarking in South Europe and other parts of Afro-Eurasia was, at the
America, for example, had both visible weapons and very least, a more positive one. Commodities from
armor, like guns and steel, but they also possessed the Americas brought great wealth to both Europe
invisible implements of conquest. They had their and China, and fundamentally changed the nature
unseen weapons, germs, and their unseen armor, of commerce. Foods from the West revolutionized
immunity (or at least high levels of resistance) to global diets, helping foster a population boom.
the devastating diseases mentioned above. So much
more devastating were these weapons that, by It is important to also note that these positive
the time Spanish Conquistadors reached the Andes effects were not absolute or in any way uniform
empire of the Inca, the population was already across Afro-Eurasia. The most glaring exception
dealing with heavy losses due to European diseases. to any analysis of the Columbian Exchange as
beneficial to those in the Eastern Hemisphere
was the horrors of the enslavement and forced
54
migration of peoples from Africa. Without the The Great Dying caused a huge demographic
Great Dying and the European desire for cheap shift in the Americas. The previous indigenous
labor to work the plantations of the Caribbean and population was decimated, and there were now
Brazil, in particular, this most heinous of crimes Europeans living on the continents. In addition,
would never have been committed on such a scale. the deaths of the Indians led to a massive labor
The most heartbreaking leg of the Triangular shortage, which the Europeans eventually filled
Trade that emerged between Europe, Africa, and with enslaved people from Africa. Thus, in the
America, would thus have been nonexistent if century following Columbuss arrival from Spain,
that triangle remained unknown. The terrorizing, the Western Hemisphere was economically and
dehumanizing nature of this trade is the topic demographically brought into a new global
of a later article, but it bears mentioning here. network of exchange and migration. This came
at great cost to the Indians, both those that
In addition to the function that the interconnectedness died and those that survived the Great Dying, and
of Afro-Eurasian societies played in exposing the millions of Africans caught up in the Trans-
the Europeans to diseases, their animals played Atlantic Slave Trade.
an important, albeit unknown to them, role even
before that. Large mammals, like the ones humans Placing the slave trade aside for the time being,
had been domesticating in Afro-Eurasia for the economic impacts of the Columbian Exchange
millennia, were essential to people in Eurasia on Afro-Eurasia were great. Silver became the
gaining acquired immunity to certain diseases. first truly global commodity. Mined in places like
These animals lived in close contact with human Potosi in present day Bolivia, Spanish silver made
beings and have more diseases, like smallpox, its way across both the Atlantic and Pacific, and
that made the jump to humans. Unfortunately for accounted for roughly eighty percent of the silver
the Indians, the Americas were almost completely in circulation. In Europe, this helped to make Spain
devoid of these large, domesticated mammals. into the dominant power of the 16th Century,
Remember all of the hits from the kids song, Old while in Asia, much of the precious metal ended
MacDonald? Unless your version included llamas up in China. As such, the explosion of the silver
or alpacas, all of those animals were unknown to trade helped to facilitate the global trade in other
the Western Hemisphere until Europeans brought goods, such as Chinese manufactured goods.
them along on their voyages of conquest. The cows, This especially ramped up as the Ming emperors
pigs, horses, and sheep that populate farms across shifted to requiring all taxes be paid in silver. This
the Western Hemisphere were not here until after change rippled throughout the Chinese economy
Columbus. Well, technically, horses were here and burdened the rural poor with reinventing their
before, but the last of the native North American economic lives to be able to exchange their labor
horses died out over a million years before and product for silver.
anything youve been learning about in this course.
55
In Spain, the results of the trade in silver were a method for the new encomenderos to seize
not all positive. While the increase in wealth native lands and enslave the people on them.
led to immediate prosperity and a rise in Spains
international profile, they failed to account for The horrors of this system were reported by
the increase in the supply of silver to such a degree missionaries like Bartolome de las Casas, who
that they were derailed by the rampant inflation wrote extensively of the physical damage being
that eventually came along. This resulted in a rapid done to the Indians and the spiritual damage done
increase in prices in Spain and a rapid downturn to the Spaniards. Eventually, these protests led to
in their economy. Also, Spains wealth inspired it to the end of the encomienda system, and it was
be more ambitious in its international affairs. This replaced by a system, known as repartimiento,
ambition led to several wars, which cost a lot of in which greater control over coerced labor was
money and ended up not working out exactly how given to representatives of the Spanish Crown
the Spanish had planned (cough, Spanish Armada, who then allotted workers to local mines and farms.
cough). In short, the vast increase in available This new system was, in many ways, similar to
silver because of the Columbian Exchange had the mita system that the Inca employed in Peru.
profound effects on economies across Afro-Eurasia, The Indian communities were not slaves, as they
though not all of these effects were positive. were not directly owned or controlled by the people
for whom they were working, but they were
The way these new American societies were shaped instead required to surrender a certain number
depended on the economic basis of their existence. of laborers for employment in the mines for
In Mexico and the Andes region of South America, a predetermined amount of time. While not technically
the economy was largely based on large-scale slaves, observing the conditions under which the
agriculture or the mining of gold and silver. In both natives were working in either the encomienda or
cases the surviving Indians were subject to the repartimiento systems might lead you to wonder
ruling colonial elites. As such, they provided what the difference was.
the vast majority of the labor. This labor was not
provided freely, but instead the Spanish employed By the 1600s, the encomienda had been replaced
various methods to coerce labor out of the by the repartimiento in most places. Eventually,
Indians. Two of the major systems used were the the ownership of land became more profitable than
encomienda and hacienda systems. the exporting of goods to the global marketplace.
This led to the development of the hacienda. Under
The encomienda system granted Spanish elites this system, large estates were controlled by
control over numbers of natives under the guise colonial elites and the work on these estates was
that they would extract their labor in exchange carried out by waged laborers of native or mixed
for protection and Christianity. With little oversight, race. While this may seem better, the Indians were
these arrangements quickly deteriorated into still subject to harsh working conditions, low
56
wages, and high taxes. These haciendas largely Indians attributed their roles and characteristics
produced goods for local consumption, including to the saints of the Europeans.
food for the workers in nearby mines.
Another social group that emerged in the Spanish
It should be obvious, but this economic system colonies of the Americas was the mestizo. These
was one in which race or ethnicity mattered people were of mixed European and Indian ancestry.
greatly. The societies that sprung up around this They occupied a diverse, middle space between
economic system reflected this in many ways. those of Spanish descent and the Indians. The
At the top of the proverbial pyramid were the existence of a mestizo population, which was
peninsulares. These were people born on the a large portion of the societies in Spanish America,
Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal sit. spoke to a few different causes. The most
They were the original colonial elite, but would important was that the Spanish largely came
diminish in number as time passed and people over in male-heavy waves. There were so
of European descent were born in the Americas. many more men than women that many men took
These people, known as the creoles, will come wives from the native populations. By contrast,
to dominate the social order over the next the lives of the few Spanish women in the Americas
few centuries. was very restricted and relations with people of
other races was forbidden. This double standard
The status of Indians in these societies could helped to deeply entrench the patriarchal nature
vary slightly, but they were largely kept at the of colonial society. In contrast, for many Indian women,
bottom of both the Mexican and Peruvian taking a Spanish husband and producing mestizo
societies. Many Indians coped with their predicament offspring was a way to climb a social ladder of sorts.
by creating an identity for themselves within While such voluntary involvement with Spanish
these new structures. Learning the Spanish language men certainly happened, there should be no mistaking
and religion were two major ways this occurred. the fact that untold numbers of native women
Shifting their artisanal production to match the were also subject to routine sexual violence at the
desires of the colonial elite also helped create hands of the Spanish, and the children resulting
an economic space in which a few natives were able from these injustices also contributed to the growing
to operate. The Indians, of course, also sought number of mestizos.
to maintain as much of their own culture and found
ways in which their traditions could continue. An The emerging mestizo population was not treated
example of this would be the way that Christianity uniformly as they were divided into castas based
developed in Latin America. Rather than adopting on skin color and parentage. For some mestizos,
Spanish Catholicism whole cloth, there emerged the ability to pass as more European could reap
in these areas a hybridized version of Christianity them huge benefits, which speaks to the racist
that, when possible incorporated native ritual nature of the society they were operating within.
and indigenous gods. These gods survived as the
57
Another impact of Columbian Exchange and the economic system of mercantilism was born.
the rapid colonization of the Americas was the Mercantilism was designed to preserve
shift in Western Europes economic base. As a nations existing wealth while they attempted
Europe gained a greater foothold in global trade to add to it by acquiring precious metals. This
through its Atlantic connections, Western Europe was accomplished through the establishment
underwent what was known as the Commercial of colonies and the requirement that those
Revolution. Colonization provided both a new colonies only participate in commerce with the
source of raw materials and new markets for mother country. This policy had some broad,
European products. This led to an increase in but important consequences. First, it led to an
commerce and exchange for Europeans. As such, increased desire for colonial possessions. The
they themselves began to develop a greater more colonies a nation had, the better it could play
culture of consumption. This transition had profound the mercantilist game. Second, mercantilism led
effects on European society. The urban class to increased economic and political conflict between
that dominated manufacturing and finance became European nations. The Commercial Revolution
known as the bourgeoisie. This emerging and shift to a mercantilist economy led to wars
class challenged the aristocracy for economic of religion being replaced by wars to preserve
and (eventually) political power. This new found the balance of power between European nations.
commercial success led to the creation of joint- Two of the prime participants in this system
stock companies. Joint-stock companies were were France and Britain. Under Louis XIV, France
businesses that were often backed by government- became a mercantilist power with its own
granted monopolies on trade in certain areas. joint stock companies and government-granted
They sold shares to individuals to raise money monopolies on colonial trade. The continental
for trading enterprises and to spread the risk rivalry between France and Britain soon became
among the investors. Another consequence of the a vast colonial rivalry. This culminated in the Seven
expansion of commerce was the development Years War (1756-1763), which took place on three
of stock exchanges. These were marketplaces continents. While many of these are topics for later
where shares of companies could be bought lessons, its important to understand that these
and sold. The greatest stock exchange of this events that will come to shape world history started
time was the Amsterdam Exchange in the with the seeds planted by the Columbian Exchange
Netherlands. Early on, the Dutch were leaders and European colonization of the Americas.
in this commercial revolution, though theyd
later be replaced by the British. By contrast, in the British colonies of North
America that emerged a century later, such racial
Governments adjusted their economic plan to fit mixing was an exception. No notable class of mixed-
this new reality. Out of the Columbian Exchange, race people emerged in these places because the
Colonization, and the Commercial Revolution, British arrived in far greater numbers on boats
58
filled with entire families. This more equitable The European diet expanded from the bread and
gender balance was a primary difference in how beer of the Middle Ages to include the calorically
these areas would come to be populated. robust new cops from the Western Hemisphere.
Potatoes became irreplaceable for many, as was
Yet another difference emerged in the Caribbean. evident by the devastation of the 19th century
Due to the almost complete depopulation of Irish Famine. American crops like corn were also
native groups, an encomienda-style system was used as feed for animals, which meant that meat
impossible. Instead, what developed was large- was now on the menu for more people. This new
scale plantation agriculture. The laborers were more effective diet combined with a revolution
enslaved peoples from Africa, and the most in agricultural practices to more efficiently fill the
lucrative product they cultivated was sugar. These bellies of the growing European population. It also
societies developed a similar race-based structure contributed to longer, healthier lives for many in
in which those of European descent dominated Western Europe.
those of mixed-race or African lineage.
The influx of new information, which accompanied
What this means in a wider view is that the the plants, animals, and peoples to whom Europeans
societies that emerged because of Columbian were being exposed to for the first time, also had
Exchange were notably diverse. They incorporated a profound effect on European and world history. It
both the peoples and cultures of societies in irreversibly challenged conventional wisdom. This
America, Africa, and Europe. The legacy of this helped to contribute to the larger paradigm shift that
can still be seen in the societies and cultures of became known as the Scientific Revolution, which
nations throughout Western Hemisphere today. in turn helped spawn the ideas of the Enlightenment.
In addition to the economic and political impact The combination of this revolution in commerce,
of the Columbian Exchange, there were immense thought, and agriculture, gave Western Europe the
societal and cultural changes, too. The influx foundation necessary for whats arguably one of
of new crops from the Americas fundamentally the greatest changes since we discussed farming
changed the diets of people across Afro-Eurasia. way back in unit one of world history: the Industrial
In China, the sweet potato became a staple of the Revolution. While about three hundred years
peasant diet. African diets were shaped by the separated Columbus from industrialization,
acquisition of new plants, especially cassava. In both it is important not to lose sight of how the
of these places, as well as in Europe, corn, potatoes, two are connected.
and other American crops would be fuel for the
rapid explosion of global population in the Early One final way that Columbian Exchange impacted
Modern era. the Americas was environmentally. The Europeans
sought to make their colonies in the image of the
59
lifestyles and desires of their mother countries. On the eve of Columbian Exchange, Western
The introduction of the aforementioned large Europe literally sat on the edge of Eurasia,
domesticated animals, as well as domesticated figuratively, on the outside looking in at the
plants like coffee, sugarcane, wheat, rice, and wealth and power of its distant neighbors.
dozens of other fruits and vegetables, fundamentally It is no coincidence that, in such a short time,
changed the diets and lifestyles of the surviving Western European powers would emerge and
Indian populations. The idea of nomadic Indians come to dominate and play a large role in shaping
riding on horseback and living on the open plains the most recent eras of world history. It is
would have been impossible before this exchange. Columbian Exchange that made this burgeoning
This part of the exchange had such obvious effects modern world possible.
on the societies that emerged, but its effects on
the environment shouldnt be overlooked. Native
plant and animal species were displaced and, in many
cases, driven to extinction by the invasive new
species from Afro-Eurasia. The clearing of land
to grow cash crops, especially in places like Haiti,
would make soil erosion and depletion a very real
concern in the centuries to come.
All told, the Columbian Exchange was nothing

short of revolutionary for the peoples and places
involved. For the first time, a truly global history
can be spoken of as people from Afro-Eurasia
brought their peoples, plants, and animals to
bear on the unsuspecting Americas. In doing so,
they paved the way for the emergence of Europe
in the Early Modern era and everything from the
Industrial Revolution to Globalization. As such,
it is also necessary to explore the effects of the
other side of this unequal exchange. In doing so,
well see that the revolutionary consequences
of this interaction were not reserved only for
the Western Hemisphere.
60
LESSON 1.2
7.3 | CULTURAL
WORLD WARCOLLISION
II & BIRTH OF NEW NATION
LESSON 1.2.8 | CLOSING | Thought Bubble Reflection
PURPOSE
In every Crash Course US History video, John takes Course videos. Students will read an overview
a moment to explain a concept in depth through of Indian Slavery in the Americas, which is an often
the use of the Thought Bubble. This segment, often overlooked event in history. After reading this
a minute and a half to three minutes in length account from a historian, students will then reflect
(roughly 300-500 words), dives into greater detail on the reading as a historian.
than most of the information discussed in Crash
PROCESS
For this activity, students will read the Indian Following their completion, have students
Slavery in the Americas document. At the exchange papers with a classmate and use
end of the document, the author calls upon a blank rubric to score one another. The
the narrative of what happened to important thing is that it is a short, concise
American Indians under European colonialism explanation of a topic, idea or event, but
to be revised. Using their Writing Rubric, done in a light and informative format.
Crash Course Style Guide, and a writing
document (digital or otherwise), have ATTACHMENTS
students attempt to rewrite this narrative Indian Slavery in the Americas
in their own words. This is the first attempt Writing Rubric
at a formal writing exercise, so students Crash Course Style Guide
should rely heavily on their writing rubrics.
Let them take a day or two to work on their
Thought Bubble.
61
READING | Indian Slavery in the Americas

The story of European colonialism in the Americas world. Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Native
and its victimization of Africans and Indians Americans kept slaves before and after Columbus
follows a central paradigm in most textbooks. The reached America. Enslavement meant a denial
African role encompasses the transportation, of freedom for the enslaved, but slavery varied
exploitation, and suffering of many millions in New greatly from place to place, as did the lives of
World slavery, while Indians are described in terms slaves. The life of a genizaro (slave soldier) of
of their succumbing in large numbers to disease, with the Ottoman Empire, who enjoyed numerous
the survivors facing dispossession of their land. This privileges and benefits, differed immensely from
paradigma basic one in the history of colonialism an American Indian who worked in the silver
omits a crucial aspect of the story: the indigenous mines of Peru or an African who produced sugar
peoples of the Americas were enslaved in large cane in Barbados. People could be kept as
numbers too. This exclusion distorts not only what slaves for religious purposes (Aztecs and Pacific
happened to American Indians under colonialism, Northwest Indians) or as a by-product of warfare,
but also points to the need for a reassessment where they made little contribution to the economy
of the foundation and nature of European or basic social structure (Eastern Woodlands). In
overseas expansion. other societies, slaves were central to the economy.
In many areas of West Africa, for instance, slaves
Without slavery, slave trading, and other forms of were the predominant form of property and the main
unfree labor, European colonization would have producers of wealth.
remained extremely limited in the New World. The
Spanish were almost totally dependent on Indian As it expanded under European colonialism to the
labor in most of their colonies, and even where New World in the late fifteenth through nineteenth
unfree labor did not predominate, as in the New centuries, slavery took on a new, racialized form
England colonies, colonial production was geared involving the movement of millions of peoples from
toward supporting the slave plantation complex one continent to another based on skin color. The
of the West Indies. Thus, we must take a closer creation of a vast slave-plantation complex
look at the scope of unfree laborthe central was an important cog in the modernization
means by which Europeans generated the wealth and globalization of the world economy. Africans
that fostered the growth of colonies. provided the bulk of labor in this new system
of slavery, but American Indians were compelled
Modern perceptions of early modern slavery to labor in large numbers as well.
associate the institution almost solely with
Africans and their descendants. Yet slavery was In the wake of the deaths of indigenous Americans
a ubiquitous institution in the early modern from European-conveyed microbes from which
62
they had no immunity, the Spanish colonists as domesticsjust like African slaves and
turned to importing Africans. A racist and gross European indentured servants. As with Africans
misinterpretation of this event posited that shipped to America, Indians were transported
most Indians could not be enslaved because from their natal communities to labor elsewhere
of their love for freedom, while Africans were as slaves. Many Indians from Central America
used to having their labor controlled by big men were shipped to the West Indies, also a common
in Africa. This dangerous view obscured a basic destination for Indians transported out of Charleston,
fact of early modern history: Anyone could be South Carolina, and Boston, Massachusetts. Many
enslaved. Over a million Europeans were held other Indians were moved hundreds or thousands
as slaves from the 1530s through the 1780s in of miles within the Americas. Sioux Indians from
Africa, and hundreds of thousands were kept the Minnesota region could be found enslaved
as slaves by the Ottomans in eastern Europe and in Quebec, and Choctaws from Mississippi in New
Asia. (John Smith, for instance, had been a slave England. A longstanding line of transportation
of the Ottomans before he obtained freedom and of Indian slaves led from modern-day Utah and
helped colonize Virginia.) In 1650, more English Colorado south into Mexico.
were enslaved in Africa than Africans enslaved
in English colonies. Even as late as the early The European trade in American Indians was
nineteenth century, United States citizens were initiated by Columbus in 1493. Needing money
enslaved in North Africa. As the pro-slavery to pay for his New World expeditions, he shipped
ideologue George Fitzhugh noted in his book, Indians to Spain, where there already existed
Cannibals All (1857), in the history of world slave markets dealing in the buying and selling
slavery, Europeans were commonly the ones held of Africans. Within a few decades, the Spanish
as slaves, and the enslavement of Africans was expanded the slave trade in American Indians from
a relatively new historical development. Not untilthe island of Hispaniola to Puerto Rico, Jamaica,
the eighteenth century did the words slave and Cuba, and the Bahamas. The great decline in the
African become nearly synonymous in the minds indigenous island populations, largely owed
of Europeans and Euro-Americans. to disease, slaving, and warfare, led the Spanish
to then raid Indian communities in Central America
With labor at a premium in the colonial American and many of the islands just off the continent,
economy, there was no shortage of people seeking such as Curacao, Trinidad, and Aruba. About
to purchase slaves. Both before and during African 650,000 Indians in coastal Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
enslavement in the Americas, American Indians were and Honduras were enslaved in the sixteenth
forced to labor as slaves and in various other century. Conquistadors then entered the inland
forms of unfree servitude. They worked in mines, American continents and continued the process.
on plantations, as apprentices for artisans, and Hernando de Soto, for instance, brought with
63
him iron implements to enslave the people of civilians, government contractors, and other
La Florida on his infamous expedition through elements of Spanish society. Even in regions where
the American southeast into the Carolinas and African slavery predominated, such as the sugar
west to the Mississippi Valley. Indians were used plantations in Portuguese Brazil and in the West
by the conquistadors as tamemes to carry their Indies, Indian labor continued to be used. And in
goods on these distant forays. Another form of many Spanish colonies, where the plantations did
Spanish enslavement of Indians in the Americas not flourish, Indians provided the bulk of unfree
was yanaconaje, which was similar to European labor through the colonial era. In other words, the
serfdom, whereby Indians were tied to specific growth of African slavery in the New World did not
lands to labor rather than lords. And under the diminish the use of unfree Indian labor, particularly
encomienda system, Indians were forced to outside of the plantation system.
labor or pay tribute to an encomendero, who, in
exchange, was supposed to provide protection Whereas in South America and the islands of the
and conversion to Christianity. The encomenderos West Indies, Europeans conducted the bulk
power survived longest in frontier areas, of slaving raids against Indians, (except in Brazil,
particularly in Venezuela, Chile, Paraguay, and in where bandeirantes of mixed blood were
the Mexican Yucatan into the nineteenth century. employed for slaving), much of the enslavement
By 1542 the Spanish had outlawed outright of Indians in North America above Mexico
enslavement of some, but not all, Indians. People was done by Indians. North American Europeans
labeled cannibals could still be enslaved, as could did enslave Indians during wars, especially in
Indians purchased from other Europeans or from New England (the Pequot War, King Philips War)
Indians. The Spanish also created new forms and the southeast (the Tuscarora War, the
of servitude for Indians. This usually involved Yamasee War, the Natchez War, just to name
compelling mission Indians to labor for a period a few), but ordinarily Europeans, especially the
of time each year that varied from weeks to English and French, purchased their Indian slaves
months with little or no pay. Repartimiento, as it from Indians. Colonists lured Indians to supply
was called, was widespread in Peru and Mexico, Indian slaves in exchange for trade goods and
though it faded quickly in the latter. It persisted to obtain alliances with the Europeans and their
for hundreds of years as the main system for Indian allies. Indians slaved against not only their
organizing Indian labor in Colombia, Ecuador, and enemies, but Indians they had never met. Many
Florida, and survived into the early 1820s in Peru Indians recognized they had little choice but
and Bolivia. Indian laborers worked in the silver to become slavers. If they did not do the Europeans
mines and built forts, roads, and housing for the bidding they could easily become victimized
army, church, and government. They performed themselves. It was not unusual for peoples
agriculture and domestic labor in support of victimized by slaving to become slavers, and
64
for those who had been slavers to become the the Europeans of those colonies purchased Indian
object of raids. slaves from other regions.
Colonists participated in Indian slave trading to Slaving against Indians did begin to decline in
obtain capital. It was as if capital could be created the east in the second quarter of the eighteenth
out of thin air: one merely had to capture an Indian century, largely a result of Indians refusal to
or find an Indian to capture another. In South Carolina, participate in large-scale slaving raids, but the
and to a lesser extent in North Carolina, Virginia, trade moved westward where Apaches, Sioux,
and Louisiana, Indian slavery was a central means and others continued to be victimized by Comanche
by which early colonists funded economic expansion. and others. From Louisiana to New Mexico, large-
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, scale enslavement of American Indians persisted
a frenzy of enslaving occurred in what is now well into the nineteenth century. Slave markets
the eastern United States. English and allied Indian were held monthly in New Mexico, for instance,
raiders nearly depopulated Florida of its American to facilitate the sale of Indians from the American
Indian population. From 1670 to 1720 more Indians West to northern Mexico. After the Civil War,
were shipped out of Charleston, South Carolina, than President Andrew Johnson sent federal troops into
Africans were imported as slavesand Charleston the West to put an end to Indian slavery, but
was a major port for bringing in Africans. The populous it continued to proliferate in California.
Choctaws in Mississippi were repeatedly battered
by raiders, and many of their neighboring lower The paradigm of what happened to American
Mississippi Valley Indians also wound up spending Indians under European colonialism must be revised.
their lives as slaves on West Indies plantations. Instead of viewing victimization of Africans and
Simultaneously, the New England colonies nearly Indians as two entirely separate processes, they
eliminated the Native population from southern should be compared and contrasted. This will shed
New England through warfare, slaving, and forced more light on the consequences of colonialism in
removal. The French in Canada and in Louisiana the Americas, and how racism became one of the
purchased many Indian slaves from their allies dominant ideologies of the modern world. It is time
who swept through the Great Lakes region, the to assess the impact of slave trading and slavery
Missouri Country, and up into Minnesota. All the on American Indian peoples, slave and free.
colonies engaged in slaving and in the purchase
of Indian slaves. Only in the colonial region of New Source:
York and Pennsylvania was slaving limited, in large Gallay, Alan. Indian Slavery in the Americans. Retrieved
part because the neighboring Iroquois assimilated from: The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
into their societies many of those they captured
instead of selling them to the Europeansbut
65
READING | Crash Course Style Guide

Pro-tips for how to write an episode of Crash Course and have fun doing it.
Introduction
Hi, Im Raoul Meyer, the head writer for Crash of the success of the episodes rests with John
Course Humanities and this is a, hopefully, brief and Hank Green, and unless they will be hosting
introduction to how to write an episode for Crash your episode you dont want it to sound exactly
Course the way I do. Now, Im sure there are like them, but there are some things you can do to
other ways to do it -- far better writers than I have emulate, or at least approximate, what we have
written some amazing episodes -- but after done in the first four series. So lets get started
writing more than 150 of em, Im probably qualified with Part I.
to offer some tips that you may or may not use.
Part I: The Process
You might have noticed that the first paragraph 1. Start with a straightforward idea. For the first
I wrote sounds a bit like the opening of a Crash two Crash Course series, World History 1 and
Course episode. If you did notice that, then Ive done U.S. History, the ideas for each episode came
a good job, because in these opening paragraphs from the AP curricula for those two courses,
Im trying to model the conversational style we shoot so it wasnt particularly difficult to decide what
for at Crash Course, as well as give you a flavor for to write about. The same thing is true for Crash
what a script looks like in its initial stages, which Course Government and Politics. For World History
is pretty much what youve just read. I also did the 2, however, I had to come up with an idea for each
most important thing that a Crash Course episode episode. Usually these came from single history
should do, but more on that in a minute. books that I particularly like, but sometimes they
came from multiple books.
This guide will be divided into two main sections.
First Im going to go over the process that goes Episodes based on a single book are easier to write
into coming up with an idea for a Crash Course because a good book will have a relatively clear
episode and the procedures I use to actually argument that can serve as the basis for what you
write one. That should be relatively short and want to say. The episode on the Columbian
straightforward, because, at least for me, the Exchange in Crash Course World History 1 is a good
process is both of those things. example of this type of essay, as is the episode
on Drought and Famine in the second World
The second section will be tips about what writers History series.
can do, stylistically, to create episodes that have
the sound and feel of Crash Course. Of course, part
66
The most important thing about your idea is this: make. Sometimes your episode will be mainly
you must know what it is you want to teach and informational, in which case the outline will
explain to your viewers why it is important that resemble a list. Other times you may want to lay
they should learn what you are teaching them. This out the different sides of the argument in relative
must be clear to you so that you can make it clear detail. This depends a lot on your own writing process.
to them.
4. Do your research. The amount of research
2. Identify the typical view on the topic. Once you need to do will depend on your familiarity with
you have identified the topic you want to write the topic and its complexity. With most of the
about and what you want to say about it, the next episodes in the first two seasons I didnt do a ton
step is figuring out what people would commonly of research because the topics tracked the AP
know about this topic. Ill say more about this in curricula pretty closely and I had taught most of
the style section, but many Crash Course episodes them for multiple years. But for World History 2,
build off the notion that theres an accepted view I read at least one book for each episode and often
of history that people probably have, even if they read more than one.
dont know it, and then theres another view that
they might not have considered. Many of my Its much easier to base an episode around a single
favorite Crash Course episodes play off this idea. book, but sometimes, as with the episode on
Historical Interpretation and the Rise of the West,
The most obvious example of this is the World or the two episodes on the origins of World
History episode on the Greeks and Persians, which War I, a single book just wont cut it. Its really
starts from the premise that the Greeks winning important to budget your time appropriately
the Persian Wars was a good thing and then flips based on how much reading you are going to
it on its head. In order to make the opposite need to do.
argument, I needed to present some information
about the Persian Empire and also provide an 5. Start writing. Once youve done steps 1-4, youre
interpretation of the Greeks that puts them in ready to write. I find that if I have a good outline
a less favorable, or at least more problematic and know what Im thinking of doing, it takes me
light. Pointing out the problems with commonly about 3-5 hours to write an episode. But, like A.J.
held views is something we try to do a lot at Liebling, I can write better than anyone faster than
Crash Course. me and faster than anyone better than me. At least
I can write Crash Course scripts faster than anyone
3. Make an outline. Having figured out the main I know. But probably not better.
argument you intend to make in your episode,
make an outline of the major points you want to
67
6. Let it marinate. Once youve finished, assuming Assume that your audience is smart and wants to
that you have the time, let your script sit for hear what you have to say. Its a good idea to address
a least a day before you edit it. Distance is a good your audience as though they are familiar with the
thing. Then edit the script and figure out where topic you are discussing. In setting up the premise
you think the Thought Bubble will fit. Dont worry that there is an accepted view of the topic and that
so much about the visuals; the gang at Thought you are trying to present an interpretation that is
Cafe will handle them, probably better than you slightly or maybe more than slightly different,
could. Certainly better than I could. speak to your audience as though they already know
the accepted view, because they probably do. One
So thats basically the process I follow. I know way to accomplish this is by addressing the audience
its not really a step-by-step guide, but everyone directly using the word you. If you watch the videos,
writes differently and what works for me might not youll probably notice that the host often introduces
work the same way for you. So now, lets move an idea by saying something like, Now, you probably
on to my not-so-secret pro-tips in Part 2. know that Kind of like I just did right there.
Part 2: Crash Course Style Use qualifiers like, probably, maybe, and kind
There are a lot of videos out there and most of them of, and if you are making a claim without a specific
have one thing in common: their style derives largely authority to back it up, say, many people believe,
from their host. Crash Course is no exception in this. or some people think. This is pretty important,
The way the videos look and sound has a great because one of the things Crash Course tries to
deal to do with the personalities of the original hosts, avoid is setting itself up as the authority on anything.
John and Hank. I have been lucky in that my writing The Humanities is largely about interpretation and
style meshes pretty well with Johns personality, and we strive to make that visible in our episodes. Not
the result has been an approach that I would say only does this acknowledge our humility in the face
combines seriousness with silliness, one in which of the work of real historians, but it points out that,
we honor the material and the study of history like our viewers, we are learning, too.
while always, always recognizing that the view
we are presenting is only one of many possible Try to be funny, but make yourself the object of
interpretations. If there is one word that encompasses the jokes more often than not. Part of our charm,
the Crash Course approach, Id say its humility. assuming that we have any charm, is that Crash
Course hosts are self-deprecating. Theres a place
That being said, here are some things to keep in mind in Crash Course for snarky humor, but it should be
that will help you make your script as Crash Course-y used sparingly, and snide remarks should be aimed
as possible. at the powerful rather than the powerless. Thats
why its ok for you to point out that the government
68
is often ineffective or to shine a light on patriarchy Be mindful of the order of your clauses. When you
where it exists, but also why we dont make fun of are trying to show two sides of an issue with two
things that arent funny, like slavery. clauses separated by a but it may be that the
second clause is the one that gets remembered and
In general, we try to make jokes that are timeless, the result is that you might seem biased in favor
recognizing that our YouTube videos have a long of what you put in that clause. You might think you
tail and that humor that is specifically related to are being completely fair and showing both sides
one celebrity or event might not make sense a year on paper, but on camera it appears that you have
or even six months down the road. Also its really a definite bias.
hard to know which trends are going to last. The
best example of this is the episode where we This became clear to me in our episode on the
make a joke out of both Kim Kardashian, who will Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one that was certain
probably be a comprehensible punch-line for a to inflame both sides of the hyphen. After careful
while to come, and Mike the Situation Sorrentino, editing, I was reasonably sure that we had done
who many viewers might have to Google even a good job of not offending anybody, or at least
now. Similarly, its probably ok to use Google as offending everybody equally, and not coming off
a verb in 2015, but who knows what well be as either pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. But when
using to search the Internet in 2020. I watched the video I had a nagging sense that by
mentioning the casualties suffered by Palestinians
Complex sentences with multiple clauses, especially in the second clause, after describing those suffered
relative ones -- especially those that use asides by Israelis, we had somehow given more weight
-- are good. Stylistically, sentences with piles of to the Palestinians cause. This was not at all
clauses give Crash Course its rhythm, but they intended, and its something to watch out for
also provide an analog to the way people, at least when you write.
the ones we know and admire, think about
important topics. Rarely do we arrive at conclusions Write conversationally But you knew that already.
in a completely linear fashion, and the twists
and turns of our phrasing demonstrate our thought Last, but not at all least, try to walk the fine line
processes to the viewers. Remember, we want between ironic detachment the argot of much of
the viewers to engage in thinking about history the writing that appears online and increasingly
with us rather than simply provide them with in print and earnestness. One of John and Hanks
an interpretation that they are expected to know. greatest strengths is the genuine love of learning
They probably have had enough experience with that that they exude and the joy they take in finding out
already. Also, dont worry so much about consistency something new and sharing it with the world. This
of pronouns, or even tenses since you can overcome is the attitude that is summed up in their version of
grammar inconsistencies with your reading.
69
nerdiness and is the essence of the mixture of fun

and seriousness that is what Crash Course, and
learning, should be.
Oh yeah, and last for real: try to keep your script

at about 2000 words, more or less.
70
HANDOUT | Writing Rubric | Teachers Guidelines
Use this rubric to evaluate writing assignments. Mark scores and related comments in the scoring sheet that follows.
ABOVE STANDARD (4) AT STANDARD (3) APPROACHING STANDARD (2) BELOW STANDARD (1) SCORE
FOCUS Topic and thesis are eloquently The introduction text has a thesis The introduction text has an The introduction text lacks an
Identifies a specific topic to expressed that supports statement that communicates unclear thesis statement that identifiable thesis and minimally
inform reader on concept, theory claims and answers compelling ideas, concepts, and information communicates some ideas, communicates ideas, concepts,
or event. Clearly states thesis questions made by student to the reader. concepts, and information to and information to the reader.
with supportive topic sentences with deep understanding of the reader.
throughout document. the information.
EVIDENCE Extensive demonstration of facts, The text offers sufficient The text provides some facts, The text lacks facts, figures,
Writing demonstrates extensive figures, instances and sources demonstration of facts, figures, figures, instances and examples instances and examples
research and details with a variety are documented throughout and sources to develop to support the central theme. to support central theme and
of sources and perspectives. the text. Resources support and explain central theme. But a limited understanding of demonstrates little or no
Provides examples that enhance the central theme while An understanding of the the topic in historic context is understanding of historic context.
central theme and argument. strategically addressing topic topic in historic context demonstrated.
in historic context. is demonstrated.
STRUCTURE The text has a clear objective The text offers good use and The text uses and offers primary Few if any primary sources
Cohesively links and analyzes and focus with effective use understanding of primary sources to support theme and are used to support theme and/
primary sources related to the of sources throughout that sources to support central begins to address the research or little attention is paid to
topic, and clarifies complex ideas supports central thesis and theme and addresses the question. addressing research question.
for formal audience. argument. research question.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS Student makes historical Student addresses claim with Student begins to address claim Student demonstrates little to
Evaluates historical claims and claim and provides significant good supportive evidence with evidence while relating address claim with no evidence
evidence by corroborating or evidence to support this claim and accurately summarizes historic events to overall theme. to support historic events
challenging them with other while challenging it with argument while analyzing it to overall theme.
information. contrasting source material. within a historic context.
71

CCCUR Unit1 Teacher+

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

CCCUR Unit1 Teacher+

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

UNIT 4 | EARLY MODERN: GLOBAL INTERACTIONS

UNIT 1 | OVERVIEW, UNIT OBJECTIVES, ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

On a North American continent controlled by American Indians, contact among

TIMELINE: Prehistory - 1607 INSTRUCTIONAL HOURS: 5

1 LESSON 1.1 | NATIVE AMERICANS PRECONTACT

21 LESSON 1.2 | CULTURAL COLLISION

LESSON 1.1.0 | OVERVIEW | Native Americans Precontact

Before the arrival of Europeans, native populations in North America developed

LESSON 1.1.0 | OVERVIEW | Learning Outcomes, Vocabulary, & Outline

LESSON ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

LESSON 1.1.1 | OPENING | EQ Notebook

UNIT 1 | EQ Notebook Worksheet

HOW HAS YOUR

LESSON 1.1.2 | ACTIVITY | Native American Creation Stories

WORKSHEET | ANSWER KEY | NATIVE AMERICAN CREATION STORIES

MAYAN IROQUOIS SALINAN CHEROKEE

AGE OF THE EARTH Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

READING | Creation Stories

When the animals and plants were first made

Men came after the animals and plants. At first

LESSON 1.1.3 | READ | The First Americans

READING | The First Americans The American Yawp

Many peoples of the Pacific Northwest built

Despite commonalities, Native cultures varied

LESSON 1.1.4 | CLOSING | EQ Notebook

UNIT 1 | EQ Notebook Worksheet

HOW HAS YOUR

LESSON 1.2.0 | OVERVIEW | Cultural Collision

LESSON 1.2.0 | OVERVIEW | Learning Outcomes, Questions, & Outline

Explain how cultural interaction, cooperation, competition, and conflict between

LESSON ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

READING | Spanish Exploration and Conquest The American Yawp

But without the rich gold and silver mines of

LESSON 1.2.1 | OPENING | EQ Notebook

UNIT 1 | EQ Notebook Worksheet

HOW HAS YOUR

LESSON 1.2.2 | READ | European Expansion

READING | European Expansion The American Yawp

many times over. Cut off from the Old World

Though ravaged by disease and warfare, Native

LESSON 1.2.3 | WATCH | Crash Course US History #1

LESSON 1.2.3 | WATCH | Key Ideas Factual

5. (7:50) What is encomienda? SAMPLE ANSWER: Encomienda is the forced labor

LESSON 1.2.3 | WATCH | Conceptual Thinking

1. Why is it problematic to use the term primitive when describing a group

LESSON 1.2.4 | READ | Documents of Discovery

READING | Columbus Reports on His First Voyage, 1493

Bartolom de Las Casas debates He contradicted Sepulvedas assertions that the

LESSON 1.2.5 | READ | The Columbian Exchange An Introduction

READING | The Columbian Exchange An Introduction

While the ancestors of American Indians did come

So, in order to understand why Columbian Exchange

LESSON 1.2.6 | WATCH | Crash Course US History #23

LESSON 1.2.6 | WATCH | Key Ideas Factual

LESSON 1.2.6 | WATCH | Conceptual Thinking

Potential Questions & Discussion Points: ATTACHMENT

All told, the Columbian Exchange was nothing

LESSON 1.2.8 | CLOSING | Thought Bubble Reflection

READING | Indian Slavery in the Americas

READING | Crash Course Style Guide

nerdiness and is the essence of the mixture of fun

Oh yeah, and last for real: try to keep your script

HANDOUT | Writing Rubric | Teachers Guidelines