Prepare Yourself:
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1. Cahokia was the most complex Native American civilization to develop in North America. What role did geography play in the development of Cahokia and how did this allow for one city to influence so many other Mississippian communities as far away from Cahokia as 200 miles (southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas are approx. that far away from Cahokia).
2. What was the situation like in Europe that allowed Columbus and other explorers from Europe to begin expanding and eventually reaching and settling the New World?
3. Explain how Cortez embodied the conquistador mantra of God, Gold, Glory.
2. What was the situation like in Europe that allowed Columbus and other explorers from Europe to begin expanding and eventually reaching and settling the New World?
3. Explain how Cortez embodied the conquistador mantra of God, Gold, Glory.
Unit Terms
- Paleo-Indians
- Maize
- Mesoamerica
- Aztecs
- The Mississippians
- Burial mounds
- Adena-Hopewell Culture
- Cahokia
- Algonquians
- The Renaissance
- Christopher Columbus
- Amerigo Vespucci
- Roman Catholicism
- Protestant Reformation
- Indulgences
- Martin Luther
- John Calvin
- Calvinism
- Protestants
- Church of England
- Conquistadores
- Hernan Cortes
- Tenochtitlan
- Montezuma
- Francisco Pizarro
- Juan Ponce de Leon
- Hernando de Soto
- Columbian Exchange
- Infectious diseases
- New France
- Roanoke Island
- Virginia Dare
- Croatoan
Paleo Indians and Woodland Indians (Adena-Hopewell)
Most people commonly accept that humans occupied North America at least 14,000 years ago (about 12,000BC), but more recent archaeological research suggests that the first humans may have occupied North America as far back as 40,000 years ago. These first North Americans are most often referred to as Paleo-Indians that lived during the Paleo Era. The first identifiable culture within the Paleo Era that is accepted among most archaeologists is the Clovis people. Little is known of the Clovis culture except that they traveled in small groups, were hunter gatherers, lived short lives, and are distinguished by the manner they created their stone tools, especially their spear points and knives, known as Clovis points. They had no system of pottery, religion, hierarchy, or permanent settlements.
Clovis points with their hafted centers for securing on to a spear shaft with sinew.
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It's unclear for certain if Clovis people hunted Mastodons or if it was an earlier culture of North Americans that hunted them. Archaeological evidence suggests that humans did in fact hunt them, but it has yet to be proven if they were actually Clovis or a pre-Clovis culture.
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Toward the end of the Paleo Era, a new culture of people emerged that became known as the Archaic people, they developed new stone tool technology and began to have seasonal campsites they would revisit each year. Evidence suggests they would bury stone and bone tools and return to those sites where they would dig up those tools and use while camped in the area and then rebury them for use later when they moved on. They traveled in slightly larger groups than paleo Indians and may have begun to utilize campsites based on plant growth and/or animal migration patterns. They also began using a new technology of hunting with a throwing apparatus known as an atlatl. They also began serrating the blades of their stone points (known as a dart if used on atlatls) and sharpened them in a beveled method which allowed them to get more use out of a blade.
Basic concept of the atlatl.
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Example of atlatl being used.
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Archaic "Dalton" blade that shows the teeth of serrations.
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Archaic corner notch knife blade that shows the beveled edge really well.
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Archaic "Hardin" knife before it has been sharpened, as it would have appeared newly made.
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Archaic "Hardin" knife blade after it has been beveled through sharpening.
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Woodland Era - Adena Hopewell
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The Adena Hopewell was a culture that emerged during the Woodland Era which began about 500 BC (2,600 years ago). During the early Woodland period, the Indians of the Archaic period began settling in more permanent structures and campsites. Sometimes these campsites might have only been used for certain periods of time during the year, but what made them different was they built structures on the sites and later mounds. The Adena Hopewell developed into a complex society spread throughout a large geographical area. They began burying their dead in mounds and illustrated they had some sort of religion based on the burials and even the shapes of the mounds (many were in the form of snakes or other animals). It was also during this time period they developed pottery, new ways of making stone tools, and elaborate figures made of stone, as well as pipes used for ceremonial purposes in the shapes of various animals. The importance of the Adena Hopewell culture was the increase in ceremonial practices and the development of structured communities. The Adena Hopewell as well as other Woodland cultures eventually developed into the highly complex Mississippian culture.
Adena Hopewell era "Dickson" points. Known as stemmed points.
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Effigy pipe of the Adena Hopewell culture.
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Very well made Adena Hopewell pipe.
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The Mississipians
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Around 800 AD (1300 years ago), a new culture developed along the Mississippi River Valley that became very complex in culture, religion, material culture (what they made), agriculture, and politics. Around 1200 AD certain climatic changes were believed to have occurred that allowed for the expansion of farming and permanent villages. By allowing Indians to stay in one central location and produce more food, population grew which resulted in an expansion of all things related to developing civilizations. The largest and most powerful of these new settlements was Cahokia, located on the Mississippi River not far from where the mouth of the Missouri reaches the Mississippi. With plenty of life giving rain, the Mississippian Indians of Cahokia began large corn farming operations that supported thousands of people that lived near Cahokia. At one time, Cahokia was larger and more populated than London.
Cahokia mounds today.
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Cahokia as it looked 1200 years ago.
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Cahokia originally was made up of about 120 mounds spread over about six square miles. During its peak, the city was believed to have had over 20,000 people living within its border. It was laid out in a way that suggested it was the most advanced civilization of its day in North America with clearly defined zones for administrative, ceremonial, and residential neighborhoods. Geography played a huge role in the development, success, and eventual downfall. It was built along a very fertile region next to a tributary of the Mississippi River which was perfect for growing corn. The soil was suitable not only for farming, but also for building the huge mounds that were used for burial and ceremonial purposes and later for building fortifications to keep rival groups at bay. The nearby water system of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers offered an easy trade route for those in Cahokia who wished to leave the city and trade for goods which they needed to survive and thrive. These river ways also allowed leaders at Cahokia to see smaller satellite Mississippian communities and monitor the expansion of the complex into Southeast Missouri and further down the Mississippi River.
While the river ways were central to their survival, sometime around 1300 to 1400AD (about 700 years ago), a new climate change era emerged called the Little Ice Age, that brought cooler temperatures and a lot of rain, which led to massive flooding and a large loss of corn crops, ultimately leading to starvation. The people of Cahokia seemed to one day pack up and leave for places further south that were not as impacted by the cooler temps and rain.
While the river ways were central to their survival, sometime around 1300 to 1400AD (about 700 years ago), a new climate change era emerged called the Little Ice Age, that brought cooler temperatures and a lot of rain, which led to massive flooding and a large loss of corn crops, ultimately leading to starvation. The people of Cahokia seemed to one day pack up and leave for places further south that were not as impacted by the cooler temps and rain.
Cahokia points made for use on bows and arrows. The Mississippians were the first group to develop and use bow and arrow technology.
The Mississippian Indians became well known for their beautiful "effigy" pottery they buried with important members of the group.
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Decorative copper plates that were found south of present day Malden, Mo. Missouri does not have such copper deposits which suggest the Mississippians traded with groups in Wisconsin.
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The Mississippian Culture was the last of the ancient cultures before the arrival of European explorers.
Large Mississippian Indian mound located next to the school at New Madrid, MO.
Burial of an important Mississippian leader located across the road from the New Madrid school today.
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Original stone mace found on the body of a Mississippian Indian leader across the road from the New Madrid school.
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Hernando de Soto
Primary Documents
Cortés Describes the Country
From Cortés, First Letter
This country, Most Potent Princes, where we now are in the name of Your Majesties, has fifty leagues (know what distance a league is) of coast on the one side and the other side of this town, the seacoast being low with many sand-hills, some of which are two leagues or more in length. The country beyond these sand-hills is level, with many fertile plains, in which are such beautiful river banks, that in all Spain there can be found no better; these are as grateful to the sight as they are productive in everything sown in them, and very orderly and well kept with walks, and facilities for grazing all kinds of animals. There is every kind of game in this country, and animals, and birds such as are familiar to us--deer, fallow deer, wolves, foxes, quails, doves, and pigeons, and two or three kinds of hares and rabbits,--so that there is no difference between this country and Spain as regards birds and animals; there are lions and tigers . . . .[Note, it is hard to determine what the Spaniards were calling lions and tigers since neither is native to Mexico]
[The letter then describes the physical geography of Mexico, specifically commenting on a mountain which the Spaniards believed was covered with snow, which seemed odd to them given the general climate in southern Mexico.]
The people who inhabit this country, from the Island of Cozumel, and the Cape of Yucatán to the place where we now are, are a people of middle size, with bodies and features well proportioned, except that in each province their customs differ, some piercing the ears, and putting large and ugly objects in them, and others piercing the nostrils down to the mouth, and putting in large round stones like mirrors, and others piercing their under lips down as far as their gums, and hanging from them large round stones, or pieces of gold, so weighty that they pull down the nether lip, and make it appear to be very deformed. The clothing which they wear is like long veils, very curiously worked. The men wear breechcloths about their bodies, and large mantles, very thin, and painted in the style of Moorish draperies. The women of the ordinary people wear, from their waists to their feet, clothes also very much painted, some covering their breasts and leaving the rest of the body uncovered. The superior women, however, wear very thin shirts of cotton, worked and made in the style of rochets. Their food is maize and grain, as in the other Islands, and potuyuca, as they eat it in the Island of Cuba, and they eat it broiled, since they do not make bread of it; they have their fishing, and hunting, and they roast many chickens, like those of the Tierra Firma, which are as large as peacocks. [These exceptionally large chickens were probably turkeys.]
There are some large towns well laid out, the houses being of stone, and mortar when they have it.
Everyday, before they undertake any work, they burn incense in the said mosques [temples] and sometimes they sacrifice their own persons, some hacking the body with knives; and they offer up to their idols all the blood which flows, sprinkling it on all sides of those mosques, at other times throwing it up towards the heavens, and practicing many other kinds of ceremonies, so that they undertake nothing without first offering sacrifice there.
They have another custom, horrible, and abominable, and deserving punishment, and which we have never before seen in any other place, and it is this, that, as often as they have anything to ask of their idols, in order that their petition may be more acceptable, they take many boys or girls, and even grown men and women, and in the presence of those idols they open their breasts, while they are alive, and take out the hearts and entrails, and burn the said entrails and hearts before the idols, offering that smoke in sacrifice to them. Some of us who have seen this say that it is the most terrible and frightful thing to behold that has ever been seen. So frequently, and so often do these Indians do this, according to our information, and partly by what we have seen in the short time we are in this country, that no year passes in which they do not kill and sacrifice fifty souls in each mosque; and this is practiced, and held as customary, from the Isle of Cozumel to the country in which we are now settled. Your Majesties may rest assured that, according to the size of the land, which to us seems very considerable, and the many mosques which they have, there is no year, as far as we have until now discovered and seen, when they do not kill and sacrifice in this manner some three or four thousand souls. Now let Your Royal Highnesses consider if they ought not to prevent so great an evil and crime, and certainly God, Our Lord, will be well pleased, if, through the command of Your Royal Highnesses, these peoples should be initiated and instructed in our Very Holy Catholic Faith . . . .
From Cortés, First Letter
This country, Most Potent Princes, where we now are in the name of Your Majesties, has fifty leagues (know what distance a league is) of coast on the one side and the other side of this town, the seacoast being low with many sand-hills, some of which are two leagues or more in length. The country beyond these sand-hills is level, with many fertile plains, in which are such beautiful river banks, that in all Spain there can be found no better; these are as grateful to the sight as they are productive in everything sown in them, and very orderly and well kept with walks, and facilities for grazing all kinds of animals. There is every kind of game in this country, and animals, and birds such as are familiar to us--deer, fallow deer, wolves, foxes, quails, doves, and pigeons, and two or three kinds of hares and rabbits,--so that there is no difference between this country and Spain as regards birds and animals; there are lions and tigers . . . .[Note, it is hard to determine what the Spaniards were calling lions and tigers since neither is native to Mexico]
[The letter then describes the physical geography of Mexico, specifically commenting on a mountain which the Spaniards believed was covered with snow, which seemed odd to them given the general climate in southern Mexico.]
The people who inhabit this country, from the Island of Cozumel, and the Cape of Yucatán to the place where we now are, are a people of middle size, with bodies and features well proportioned, except that in each province their customs differ, some piercing the ears, and putting large and ugly objects in them, and others piercing the nostrils down to the mouth, and putting in large round stones like mirrors, and others piercing their under lips down as far as their gums, and hanging from them large round stones, or pieces of gold, so weighty that they pull down the nether lip, and make it appear to be very deformed. The clothing which they wear is like long veils, very curiously worked. The men wear breechcloths about their bodies, and large mantles, very thin, and painted in the style of Moorish draperies. The women of the ordinary people wear, from their waists to their feet, clothes also very much painted, some covering their breasts and leaving the rest of the body uncovered. The superior women, however, wear very thin shirts of cotton, worked and made in the style of rochets. Their food is maize and grain, as in the other Islands, and potuyuca, as they eat it in the Island of Cuba, and they eat it broiled, since they do not make bread of it; they have their fishing, and hunting, and they roast many chickens, like those of the Tierra Firma, which are as large as peacocks. [These exceptionally large chickens were probably turkeys.]
There are some large towns well laid out, the houses being of stone, and mortar when they have it.
Everyday, before they undertake any work, they burn incense in the said mosques [temples] and sometimes they sacrifice their own persons, some hacking the body with knives; and they offer up to their idols all the blood which flows, sprinkling it on all sides of those mosques, at other times throwing it up towards the heavens, and practicing many other kinds of ceremonies, so that they undertake nothing without first offering sacrifice there.
They have another custom, horrible, and abominable, and deserving punishment, and which we have never before seen in any other place, and it is this, that, as often as they have anything to ask of their idols, in order that their petition may be more acceptable, they take many boys or girls, and even grown men and women, and in the presence of those idols they open their breasts, while they are alive, and take out the hearts and entrails, and burn the said entrails and hearts before the idols, offering that smoke in sacrifice to them. Some of us who have seen this say that it is the most terrible and frightful thing to behold that has ever been seen. So frequently, and so often do these Indians do this, according to our information, and partly by what we have seen in the short time we are in this country, that no year passes in which they do not kill and sacrifice fifty souls in each mosque; and this is practiced, and held as customary, from the Isle of Cozumel to the country in which we are now settled. Your Majesties may rest assured that, according to the size of the land, which to us seems very considerable, and the many mosques which they have, there is no year, as far as we have until now discovered and seen, when they do not kill and sacrifice in this manner some three or four thousand souls. Now let Your Royal Highnesses consider if they ought not to prevent so great an evil and crime, and certainly God, Our Lord, will be well pleased, if, through the command of Your Royal Highnesses, these peoples should be initiated and instructed in our Very Holy Catholic Faith . . . .