Hiroshima

UNITED STATES HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT

I. American Beginnings

A. Three Worlds Meet

Early American history began in the collision of European, West African and ___________ _________________ peoples in North America. Europeans "discovered" America by accident, then created _________________ out of the conquest of _________________ peoples and the enslavement of ¬_________________. Yet conquest and enslavement were accompanied by centuries of cultural interaction--interaction that spelled disaster for _________________ and Native Americans and triumph for _________________, to be sure, but interaction that transformed all three peoples in the process.

1. Peopling the Americas

The lands that _________________ explorers called a New World were in fact very old. During the Ice Ages much of the world's water was bound up in _________________. Sea level dropped by hundreds of feet, creating a land bridge between _________________ and _______________.

_____________ walked across to become the first human inhabitants of the Americas. Scientists disagree on when this happened, but most estimates say it was around _________________years ago. When the last glaciers receded about ¬_________________ years ago ancestors of the _____________ _______________filled nearly all of the habitable parts of North and _____________ America. They lived in isolation from the history--and particularly from the _____________-- of what became known as the Old World.

2. Native American Societies Around 1492

The Native Americans who greeted the first Europeans had become diverse peoples. The _____________ of ______________ and the ¬______________ of Peru built great empires. In what is now the United States, the ______________ built cities surrounded by farmland between present-day ______________, Missouri, and Natchez, ______________. The Pueblo peoples of the ______________ lived in large towns, ______________ their dry land with river water, and ______________ with peoples as far away as Mexico and ______________. In the East, the peoples who eventually encountered______________ settlers were varied, but they lived in similar ways. All of them ______________ much of their food. ______________ farmed and gathered food in the woods. Men ______________, fished, and made ___________. None of these peoples kept herds of ___________ animals; they relied on abundant ___________ game for protein. All lived in family groups, but owed their principal loyalties to a wider network of ________ and to their ___________. Some--the ____________ in upstate New York and the Powhatan confederacy in ______________ --formed alliances called ______________ for the purposes of keeping peace among neighbors and making ___________ on outsiders.

3. European Exploration

The ______________ Turks captured ______________ in 1453. These conquests gave them control over the overland ______________ routes to ______________ as well as the sea route through the Persian Gulf. ______________ Europeans, on the other hand, were developing wealth and ______________ and a compelling need to ______________. The ______________ of Western European nations was growing, providing a ______________ base and a ______________ force for new classes of large landholders. These "elites" provided ______________ for goods that were available only through ______________ with Asia. When the expansion of ______________ gave control of eastern ______________ routes to Arab middlemen, Western Europeans had strong incentives to find other ways to get to ______________.

They were also developing ______________ technology and knowledge of currents and winds to travel long distances on the open sea. The ______________ led the way. They copied and improved upon the designs of ______________ sailing ships and learned to mount ______________ on those ships. In the 15th century they began exploring the ______________ coast of ______________ --bypassing ______________ merchants to trade directly for African ______________ and ______________. The European explorers were all looking for a ______________ route to ______________.

Christopher Columbus sailed for the monarchs of ______________ in 1492. He used the familiar prevailing winds to the ______________ Islands, off the northwest coast of ______________, and then sailed on. In about two months he landed in the ______________ on an island in the ______________, thinking he had reached the East ______________. Columbus made three more voyages. He died in 1506, still believing that he had discovered a ______________ route to ______________.

The Spanish investigated further. Italian navigator _____________ _____________ sailed to the northern coast of _____________ America in 1499 and pronounced the land a new ______________. European ______________ named it America in his honor.

Spanish explorer ______________ ______________ ______________ crossed the Isthmus of ______________ and in 1513 became the first of the European explorers of America to see the ______________ Ocean. That same year another Spaniard, Juan Ponce ______________ explored the Bahamas and ______________ in search of the fountain of youth.

B. Conquest of the Native Americans

For Native Americans, American history began in ______________. Native Americans _____________ heavily because of their ______________ from the rest of the world. Europe, Africa, and Asia had been trading ______________ and ______________ for centuries. Societies on all three continents had learned to use ______________ and kept herds of ______________ animals. Europeans had acquired ______________, paper, and ______________ equipment from the ______________. Native Americans had ______________ of these. They were often helpless against European ______________ with ______________, firearms, and especially______________ and weapons.

The most disastrous consequence of the long-term isolation of the Americas was ______________. Asians, Africans, and Europeans had been ______________ to one another's ______________ for thousands of years. By 1500 they had developed an Old World ______________ system that partially protected them from most ______________. On average, Native Americans were ______________ and ______________ than the Europeans who first encountered them. But they were helpless against European and African ______________. ______________ was the biggest killer, but illnesses such as ______________ and influenza also killed ______________ of people. Scholars estimate that on average the population of a Native American people dropped ¬____________