Molly Ball!
Period 4!
Mr. Rudolph!
25 August, 2014!

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Chapter 1: New World Beginnings!

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1. How did “man” reach the New World? Why did we come?!
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When the Ice Age caused the sea level to drop, it exposed a land bridge from
Eurasia to North America. Therefore, while some nomads took boats to the New World, the majority of the first nomadic Asian hunters came to the New World by walking across the land bridge, called Bering isthmus. Small bands of these immigrants continued to travel across the bridge for 250 centuries. It is thought that the first nomadic humans came across the land bridge because they were following herds of migrating game whom also took that path. !

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2. Why is it difficult to generalize about North American …show more content…

When the Europeans discovered the new plants in America, such as tobacco, maize, beans, and potatoes, they took those back to the Old World. The transfer of crops

changed the European diet for good. To this day, 3/5 of the world’s crops originated in
America. Along with crops, the New World supplied the Old World with gold, silver, and even the disease syphillis, which entered Europe for the first time. However, some would argue that the New World was changed more drastically than the Old World.
When Columbus came back to Haiti with 17 ships of humans, cattle, horses, and pigs, organisms that had never touched the New World or its inhabitants spread all over. First off, horses from the Old World spread all over North America, even up into Canada, making the Indian societies more mobile, and allowing for the hunting of bison. More importantly, the Europeans brought with them a variety of deadly diseases, which the
Indians did not have antibodies to fight against. Smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria took out over 90% of the Indian population after Columbus discovered it. Along with the transactions between the Old and New Worlds, Africa supplied the New World with slave labor. !

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8. Given that they were so few in number, what accounts for the fantastic success of the
Conquistadors?!
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The success of the Conquistadors can be attributed partially to the amount of silver the Spaniards received from all of their colonies. The Spanish began with a good