Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 1: EARLY AMERICA

In what is now the southwest the indigenous population practi-

United States, the Anasazi, ancestors cally from the time of initial con-

of the modern Hopi Indians, began tact . Smallpox, in particular, ravaged

building stone and adobe pueblos whole communities and is thought

around the year 900 . These unique to have been a much more direct

and amazing apartment-like struc- cause of the precipitous decline in

tures were often built along cliff the Indian population in the 1600s

faces; the most famous, the “cliff than the numerous wars and skir-

palace” of Mesa Verde, Colorado, mishes with European settlers .

had more than 200 rooms . Another

Indian customs and culture at the

site, the Pueblo Bonito ruins along time were extraordinarily diverse,

New Mexico’s Chaco River, once as could be expected, given the ex-

contained more than 800 rooms .

panse of the land and the many dif-

Perhaps the most affluent of the ferent environments to which they

pre-Columbian Native Americans had adapted . Some generalizations,

lived in the Pacific Northwest, where however, are possible . Most tribes,

the natural abundance of fish and particularly in the wooded eastern

raw materials made food supplies region and the Midwest, combined

plentiful and permanent vil ages pos- aspects of hunting, gathering, and

sible as early as 1,000 B .C . The opu- the cultivation of maize and other

lence of their “potlatch” gatherings products for their food supplies .

remains a standard for extravagance In many cases, the women were

and festivity probably unmatched in responsible for farming and the

early American history .

distribution of food, while the men

hunted and participated in war .

NATIVE-AMERICAN

By all accounts, Native-American

CULTURES

society in North America was closely

T

tied to the land . Identification with

he America that greeted the first nature and the elements was integral

Europeans was, thus, far from an to religious beliefs . Their life was

empty wilderness . It is now thought essentially clan-oriented and com-

that as many people lived in the munal, with children allowed more

Western Hemisphere as in West- freedom and tolerance than was the

ern Europe at that time — about 40 European custom of the day .

million . Estimates of the number of

Although some North Ameri-

Native Americans living in what is can tribes developed a type of hi-

now the United States at the onset of eroglyphics to preserve certain

European colonization range from texts, Native-American culture was

two to 18 million, with most histori- primarily oral, with a high value

ans tending toward the lower figure . placed on the recounting of tales

What is certain is the devastating ef- and dreams . Clearly, there was a

fect that European disease had on good deal of trade among various

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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

groups and strong evidence exists

Columbus never saw the main-

that neighboring tribes maintained land of the future United States,

extensive and formal relations — but the first explorations of it were

both friendly and hostile .

launched from the Spanish posses-

sions that he helped establish . The

THE FIRST EUROPEANS

first of these took place in 1513

T

when a group of men under Juan

he first Europeans to arrive in Ponce de León landed on the Florida

North America — at least the first coast near the present city of St .

for whom there is solid evidence Augustine .

— were Norse, traveling west from

With the conquest of Mexico in

Greenland, where Erik the Red 1522, the Spanish further solidi-

had founded a settlement around fied their position in the Western

the year 985 . In 1001 his son Leif is Hemisphere . The ensuing discov-

thought to have explored the north- eries added to Europe’s knowledge

east coast of what is now Canada and of what was now named America

spent at least one winter there .

— after the Italian Amerigo Ves-

While Norse sagas suggest that pucci, who wrote a widely popular

Viking sailors explored the Atlan- account of his voyages to a “New

tic coast of North America down World .” By 1529 reliable maps of the

as far as the Bahamas, such claims Atlantic coastline from Labrador

remain unproven . In 1963, however, to Tierra del Fuego had been drawn

the ruins of some Norse houses dat- up, although it would take more than

ing from that era were discovered at another century before hope of dis-

L’Anse-aux-Meadows in northern covering a “Northwest Passage” to

Newfoundland, thus supporting at Asia would be completely abandoned .

least some of the saga claims .

Among the most significant ear-

In 1497, just five years after ly Spanish explorations was that of

Christopher Columbus landed in Hernando De Soto, a veteran con-

the Caribbean looking for a west- quistador who had accompanied

ern route to Asia, a Venetian sail- Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of

or named John Cabot arrived in Peru . Leaving Havana in 1539, De

Newfoundland on a mission for

Soto’s expedition landed in Florida

the British king . Although quickly and ranged through the southeast-

forgotten, Cabot’s journey was later ern United States as far as the Missis-

to provide the basis for British claims sippi River in search of riches .

to North America . It also opened

Another Spaniard, Francis-

the way to the rich fishing grounds co Vázquez de Coronado, set out

off George’s Banks, to which Eu- from Mexico in 1540 in search of

ropean fishermen, particularly the the mythical Seven Cities of Cibo-

Portuguese, were soon making reg- la . Coronado’s travels took him to

ular visits .

the Grand Canyon and Kansas, but

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