Central Question: How did Native American societies differ across the Americas?
Many thousands of years before Christopher Columbus’ ships landed in the Bahamas, a different group of people discovered America: the nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans. By the time European adventurers arrived in the 15th century, scholars estimate that more than 50 million people were already living in the Americas. Of these, some 10 million lived in the area that would become the United States. In order to keep track of these diverse groups, anthropologists and geographers have divided them into “culture areas,” or rough groupings of contiguous peoples who shared similar habitats and characteristics. Most historians break North America — excluding present-day Mexico — into 10 separate culture areas: the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast, and the Plateau.
For more background, read “Native American Cultures” on the History Channel website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the spread of human societies in the Americas and can explain how these diverse native cultures differed.
Preparation
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Homework
Central Question: How did Christopher Columbus’ arrival in 1492 change the Americas for centuries to come?
In 1492, the voyages of Columbus triggered a great transfer of people, plants, animals, and diseases back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. This transfer, which still continues today, is called the Columbian Exchange. When Europeans first touched the shores of the Americas, Old World crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had not traveled west across the Atlantic, and New World crops such as maize, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and manioc had not traveled east to Europe. In the Americas, there were no horses, cattle, sheep, or goats, all animals of Old World origin. Nor did the New World have the diseases associated with the Old World’s dense populations of humans, such as smallpox, measles, chicken pox, influenza, malaria, and yellow fever. The Europeans who came to America brought with them germs that caused smallpox and other diseases deadly to Native Americans. Historians estimate that in some areas, 90% of the native population was wiped out by European diseases.
For more background, read “The Columbian Exchange” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the significance of Columbus’ voyages and his interactions with indigenous peoples and can explain the course and consequences of the Columbian Exchange.
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Central Question: How did Christopher Columbus’ arrival in 1492 change the Americas for centuries to come?
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Term:
Scholars understand the lasting impact of Columbus’ voyages on the Americas and can illustrate the major peoples of the Americas and the arrival of Europeans on a map.
Preparation
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Homework
Central Question: Why did different peoples come to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries?
As an international theater of colonial development, the culture of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries was a product of the many peoples that came — or were forcibly brought — to the New World. The first phase of European colonization in the Americas began with the Atlantic Ocean crossings of Christopher Columbus, followed by a phase of conquest led by Spain and Portugal. Future waves of European colonists were driven by varying combinations of economic, religious, and political motivations, based in part on the conditions in their nations of origin. And as native populations declined — mostly from European diseases but also from forced exploitation and conquest — they were often replaced by Africans imported through a large and growing commercial slave trade.
For more background, read “European Colonization of the Americas” on the New World Encyclopedia website.
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Terms:
Scholars can explain how and why different European colonists and enslaved Africans populated the Americas.
Preparation
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Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: Why did different peoples come to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries?
Scholars revise their Exit Tickets based on individualized teacher feedback to make their essays stronger and clearer and to understand how to use their feedback to grow as writers.
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Central Question: How did Europeans and Native Americans view one another?
Although often told as the story of the Europeans’ “discovery” of the Americas, native communities were just as awestruck by the arrival of a strange, new culture in their own world. It is little wonder then that rumors of the marvels to be had in exchange for beaver pelts and other furs preceded both settlers and native peoples wherever they went. Luxuries to one culture were commonplace in the other, and vice versa, leading to stories like the “sale” of Manhattan Island for $24 and the exchange of massive amounts of new resources from the Americas for seemingly innocuous trinkets and manufactured goods and, eventually, horses and guns.
For more background, read “Native American Discoveries of Europe” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand the emerging relationships between Europeans and the natives they encountered and can explain how these encounters led each group to view the other.
Preparation
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Discuss (3 minutes)
Homework
Central Question: How did Europeans and Native Americans view one another?
Scholars understand how Europeans and Native Americans viewed one another and can plan illustrations demonstrating these differing perspectives of Native Americans and Europeans in a historically accurate and compelling way.
Preparation
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Examine (5 minutes)
Discuss (3 minutes)
Give scholars 2 minutes to revise their main idea annotations for either image based on the discussion.
Discuss (3 minutes)
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: How did Europeans and Native Americans view one another?
Scholars understand how Europeans and Native Americans viewed one another and can create illustrations demonstrating these differing perspectives of Native Americans and Europeans in a historically accurate and compelling way.
Preparation
Homework
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: Why did war erupt between Native Americans and European colonists?
While Spanish conquistadors used violence against Native Americans early on in their arrival in the Americas, full-scale war did not break out in the rest of European colonial America for many years. While skirmishes and conflicts often occurred, Native Americans and Europeans also often worked together or made peaceful agreements. King Philip’s War shattered a nearly 40-year peace between colonists and Native Americans in New England and changed the trajectory of the relationships between Europeans and native peoples in the rest of colonial America. The war, also known as Metacom’s Rebellion, marked the last major effort by the American Indians of southern New England to drive out English settlers following the collapse of their trading partnerships and the continued expansion of colonial settlements. As a percentage of population lost, King Philip’s War remains the most deadly conflict in American history.
For more background, watch “King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Term:
Scholars understand the power struggles between Europeans and Native Americans in the Americas and can explain why war ultimately broke out during King Philip’s War.
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Homework
Central Question: Why did early English colonists struggle to survive in North America?
The first English colonists to North America came to Roanoke, North Carolina. After three failed attempts to colonize the region — marked by starvation, freezing weather, conflicts with native peoples, and mysterious disappearances — the English finally settled their first successful colony in 1606: in Jamestown, Virginia. The colonists at Jamestown faced incredible hardships in settling the Americas for England. Indeed, the company that sponsored the colony ultimately failed and rule of Virginia was taken over by the English crown. Despite the hardships of the “starving time,” all successful English colonies followed in its wake.
For more background, read “Jamestown and the Founding of English America” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Terms:
Scholars understand how the Jamestown colony was established and governed and can explain the hardships early English colonists faced to establish a colony in the Americas.
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Homework
Central Question: How did religion influence early European colonists’ views of the Americas?
The New England colonists — with the exception of those in Rhode Island — were predominantly Puritans, who, by and large, led strict religious lives. Puritan leadership, especially in Massachusetts and Connecticut, integrated their version of Protestantism into their political structure. The future governments of these colonies contained elements of theocracy, asserting that leaders derived authority from divine guidance and ought to enforce religious conformity. To understand America’s balance among national laws, local community practices, and individual freedom of belief, it’s important to first understand the experiences and influence around religion in early colonial culture.
For more background, read “The Puritans and Dissent” and “Religion and 18th-Century Revivalism,” both on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Terms:
Scholars understand the religious conflict between the Puritans and Church of England and can explain how Puritanism shaped the views of early New England colonists.
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Central Question: How did religion influence early European colonists’ views of the Americas?
Scholars revise their Exit Tickets based on individualized teacher feedback to make their essays stronger and clearer and to understand how to use their feedback to grow as writers.
Preparation
Homework
Teacher Feedback Guidance
Central Question: Why did the Salem Witch Trial hysteria erupt in Puritan Massachusetts?
In 17th-century New England, witchcraft was a serious crime. In Exodus 22:18, the Bible proclaims, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!” Between 1620 and 1700, 16 individuals outside of Salem were executed after being convicted for witchcraft. This, however, pales in comparison to the hysteria that swept Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. By the end of the Salem Witch Trials, 20 residents had been executed and over 100 had been jailed. The fact that the governor’s own wife was accused helped bring an end to the killings.
For more background, read “The Witches of Salem” in The New Yorker and listen to “In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Term:
Scholars understand the causes of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and can explain how religion affected cultural and societal values in colonial Massachusetts.
Preparation
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Homework
Central Question: To what extent did colonial life differ across British America by the turn of the 18th century?
Over time, England’s colonial holdings in North America began to increase. What once began as Jamestown in Virginia and Plymouth in Massachusetts expanded to become 13 colonies along the East Coast of North America. The 13 colonies that joined together to become the United States of America were a small part of what would become the first British Empire. In 1707, the country of England merged with Scotland, forming a new nation: Great Britain. This new nation began more dramatically pursuing its empire and colonial growth. Beginning with a broad and dramatic expansion of England that began with the establishment of “plantations” in Ireland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, British colonization reached a peak with the conquest of Canada and the extension of British influence over India during the 1760s. In the New World, alone, at the time of the American Revolution, Britain had close to two dozen colonies, most in the Caribbean, apart from the 13 rebellious ones. As was the case for other colonizing nations, this expansion was driven by a variety of factors, including religion, nationalism, and economics — often categorized as gold, God, and glory.
For more background, read “The 13 Colonies” on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website (free login required).
Scholars understand and can fluently use the following Unit 1 Key Terms:
Scholars understand how early colonies were established and governed, and can explain how and why the cultures, economies, and governments differed in New England, the Middle colonies, and the South.
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