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Chapter 1 The Collision of Cultures Learning Objectives • Describe the precontact peoples of America. • Contrast Spanish settlement in the Americas with that of the English, Dutch, and French. • Explain how contact between European arrivals and the native peoples of the Americas affected both groups. • Describe the effects of the importation of African slaves into the Americas. • Explain how the English experience in colonization of Ireland affected their efforts to colonize in America. Chapter Overview Many thousands of years before Christopher Columbus, human beings crossed into the American continents and began to people them. In South America and Central America, some formed elaborate civilizations. In the North, the many nomadic and seminomadic civilizations were less elaborate but still substantial. All would be dramatically affected by the arrival of Europeans. For the newcomers, this New World meant a new source of gold and silver, new land to exploit for agriculture, and new converts to the Christian religion; for some, it also meant new lives as settlers, and new freedoms. Through the end of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and England had all laid claim to rich resources in the New World. They brought with them diseases against which natives had no immunity. It was not long before they also brought African slaves. Themes • The colonization of the Americas included a collision of European and Native American cultures that had been developing along very different lines for thousands of years. • A variety of ambitions and impulses (political, personal, financial) moved individuals and nations to colonize the New World. • The motives of the colonizers, their experiences before immigrating, and their limited knowledge of the New World shaped their attitudes toward Native American cultures.
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