Period 1: 1491–1607

Period 1: 1491-1607

On a North American continent controlled by American Indians, contact among the peoples of Europe, the Americas, and West Africa created a new world. Topics may include

 

 

Image Source: View of icons representing conquered towns and the tributes they paid to the Aztecs in a detail from the Codex Mendoza, ca. 1541 (Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)

Codex Mendoza page

  • 4–6% Exam Weighting

Resources by Period:

Key Concepts

1.1: As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America over time, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments.

1.2: Contact among Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans resulted in the Columbian Exchange and significant social, cultural, and political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Native American Societies before European Contact

Drawing on paper of Indian Towne of Pomeiock

American Indians

by Elliott West

Learn about the diversity of Indigenous tribes in North America.

  • Essay
modern-day painting depicting Cahokia Mounds by William Iseminger

Cahokia: A Pre-Columbian American City

by Timothy R. Pauketat

Learn about a center of trade and interaction built along the banks of the Mississippi.

  • Essay
Watercolor depicting Native American fishing practices

Nature, Culture, and Native Americans

by Daniel Wildcat

Watch a discussion about Indigenous peoples and their interaction with the environment.

  • Video
Engraving of Secotan Village, by Theodore DeBry

Secotan, an Algonquian village

ca. 1585

Engraving of an agrarian town in North America, based on a watercolor by English mapmaker John White

  • Primary Source
Naw-Kaw, a Winnebago Chief in headdress

North America on the Eve of the European Invasion

by Christopher L. Miller

Discover the way Native Americans lived in North America before Europeans arrived.

  • Essay
Tableau of the Principal Peoples of America

Native American Discoveries of Europe

by Daniel K. Richter

Learn about the cultural context of Native peoples' responses to the arrival of European explorers and colonists.

  • Essay
Theodore de Bry engraving, Indians worship the column in honor of the French king, 1591

America before Columbus

by Charles C. Mann

Watch a discussion about the pre-Columbian population and settlement of the Americas.

  • Video
Pictograph, Newspaper Rock, Indian Creek State Park, San Juan County, Utah

An Introduction to the History of Migration and Settlement in North America

by Edward A. Jolie

Learn about the migrations of indigenous peoples in the Americas.

  • Video
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European Exploration in the New World

Ca. 1585 watercolor showing silver mining operation at Potosi

Europeans and the New World

by Brian DeLay

Watch a discussion of the context of western European exploration and European interactions with Indigenous peoples.

  • Video
Columbus 1493 letter to Ferdinand and Isabella

Columbus reports on his first voyage

1493

Columbus’s letter to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain announcing the discovery of unknown lands 

  • Primary Source
Watercolor depicting Naval Engagement between warships

Imperial Rivalries

by Peter C. Mancall

Understand how European political competition in the late fifteenth century drove exploration and colonization.

  • Essay
View from sixteenth-century map showing attack of English naval expedition on St. Augustine

Sir Francis Drake's attack on St. Augustine

1586

Illustration depicting an English naval attack on Spanish St. Augustine in present-day Florida

  • Primary Source
Cityscape view of Dutch Ships in the New Netherlands Harbor

The Rise and Fall of New Netherland

by David Middleton

Read about Henry Hudson’s voyages for the Dutch Republic.

  • Essay
Detail from codex mendoza (ca. 1540) showing an Aztec person fishing

Mexicans in the Making of America

by Neil Foley

Learn about Spanish exploration and conquest of the Americas in a broad essay about changes and continuities.

  • Essay
19th-century engraving depicting Columbus planting a flag in the "New World"

European Exploration

by Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Benjamin Sacks

Learn about European navigation and the exploration of the Americas.

  • Essay
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The Columbian Exchange

Detail of a 17th-century map of North America showing various flora and fauna

Navigating the Age of Exploration

by Ted Widmer

Learn about the vast global movements that characterized the Columbian Exchange.

  • Essay
Early 19th-century painting depicting the landing of Columbus

The Columbian Exchange

by Alfred W. Crosby

Discover how the commingling of Old and New World plants, animals, and bacteria remade global ecologies.

  • Essay
Printed Map of Gulf of Mexico from ca. 1671

The Spanish Borderlands and Columbian Exchange

by Ned Blackhawk

Learn about Indigenous and European interactions in Spanish colonial holdings in the Americas.

  • Video
Nineteenth-century engraving showing Roger WIlliams making landfall

The Americas to 1620

by Christopher L. Miller

Learn about the broad context of European, African, and Indigenous interactions.

  • Essay
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Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

Close view of an embellished letter on a Papal Bull

The Doctrine of Discovery

1493

Pope Alexander VI’s decree granting Spain the exclusive right to lands in the Americas

  • Primary Source
Portolan chart depicting Atlantic, Americas, Europe, and Africa

Iberian Roots of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

by David Wheat

Understand the role of Portugal and Spain in the transatlantic slave trade.

  • Essay
Detail from a title page (16th century print matter) with alternating lines of black and red ink

Disputing the subjugation of the Indians

1550

Bartolomé de las Casas versus Juan Ginés Sepúlveda on the enslavement of the Taíno in Hispaniola

  • Primary Source
View of the handwritten letter to Francisco Coronado instructing him to explore North America

Spain authorizes Coronado's conquest in the Southwest

1540

Royal letter instructing Francisco Coronado to explore the northern lands in search of wealth and resources

  • Primary Source
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Cultural Interactions between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

Photograph of Cliff Palace in Colorado, showing pre-columbian Puebloan settlement

Early North America

by Peter C. Mancall

Look beyond the Euro-centric view of the “New World.”

  • Video
Manuscript on paper, Spaniards marching into Tenochtitlan ca. 1530

Indian Slavery in the Americas

by Alan Gallay

Learn about the European enslavement of Indigenous peoples in the Americas.

  • Essay
African American Burial Ground Memorial in NY City

The New York African Burial Ground

by Edna Greene Medford

Read about one of the earliest graveyards for free and enslaved Africans.

  • Essay
Detail of Broadside Capturing Slavery conditions in the West Indies showing the capture of slaves

The African Slave Trade

by Philip Morgan

Watch a discussion of the core experiences of slavery from East Africa to sugar plantations in the New World.

  • Video
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American History Timeline: 1491-1607

Image Citations

Listed in order of appearance in the sections above

Native American Societies before European Contact

Native American Societies before European Contact

  • White, John. The Towne of Pomeiock. 1585-1593. Drawing on paper. British Museum. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1906-0509-1-8
  • William Iseminger, Cahokia Mounds, 1982, Painting. Image courtesy of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. 
  • White, John. The Manner of Their Fishing. 1585-1593. Watercolor over graphite on paper. British Museum.
  • de Bry, Theodor. Village of Secotan. In A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia: of the Commodities and of the Nature and Manners of the Naturall Inhabitants. Frankfurt am Main: J. Wechelus, 1590. Engraving based on a drawing by John White. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
  • "Naw-Kaw, a Winnebago Chief." In The Indian Tribes of North America, vol. 1, by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall. Philadelphia, ca. 1840. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05120.02. 
    Grasset de Saint-Saveur, Jacques. "Tableau des principaux peuples de l'Amérique." Paris, France. 1789. Etching and aquatint with hand coloring. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • Theodore de Bry, Indians worship the column in honor of the French king, 1591, engraving for Collectiones peregrinationum in Indiam occidentalem, vol. 2: René de Laudonnière, Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae provincia Gallis acciderunt (Frankfurt am Main: J. Wechelus, 1591) (Rijksmuseum)
  • Hiser, David. Pictograph at Newspaper Rock, Indian Creek State Park, San Juan County, Utah. DOCUMERICA: The Environmental Protection Agency's Program to Photographically Document Subjects of Environmental Concern, 1972. Photograph. National Archives.

European Exploration in the New World

European Exploration in the New World

  • Anonymous Spanish artist. The Silver Mine at Potosí. ca. 1585. Watercolor on parchment. The Hispanic Society of America.
  • Columbus, Christopher. Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, February 1493. Epistola Chirstofori Colom: cui [a]etas nostra multu[m] debet: de Insulis Indi[a]e supra Gangem nuper inuentis. Rome, 1493. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01427.
  • Engagement [between] La Blanche and La Pare, ca. 1786-1805. Watercolor on paper. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC01450.800.
  • Boazio, Baptista. Drake’s Attack on St. Augustine, Florida, May 28–29, 1586. St. Augustine Map. 1589. Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.
  • Schenk, Peter. Nieu Amsterdam, een Stedeken in Noord Amerikaes Nieu Hollant. s.l., 1702. Print. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC03022
  • "An illustrated account of Aztec life-cycles" Codex Mendoza. ca. 1540. Manuscript on paper. Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
  • Martin, Johnson & Company. Landing of Columbus. New York, 1856. Engraving based on a painting by John Vanderlyn. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC08878.0001.

The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange

  • Visscher, Nicholas. Novi Belgi Novaeque Angliae [Map of New Netherland and New England]. Amsterdam, 1682. Map. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC03582.
  • Kemmelmeyer, Frederick. First Landing of Christopher Columbus. 1800/1805. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art.
  • Montanus. Insulae Americanae in Oceano Septentrionali, cum Terris adiacentibus [Map of the Americas]. s.l., 1671 Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC09789.
  • Johnson, Fry & Company. Landing of Roger Williams.  New York, 1867. Engraving based on a painting by Alonzo Chappel. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC08878.0006 

Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

  • Alexander VI. Copia de la bula del decreto y concession q[ue] hizo el papa [Inter caetera]. [Valladolio], 1493. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04093.
  • Roiz, Pascoal. A portolan chart of the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent continents. 1633. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008621738/.
  • Las Casas, Bartolomé de. Aqui se contiene una disputa . . . Seville, 1552. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04220.
  • García de Loaysa, Francisco. Letter to Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, June 21, 1540. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC04883.

Cultural Interactions between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

Cultural Interactions between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

  • Cliff Palace. Ancestral Puebloan (formerly Anasazi), 450–1300 C.E. Sandstone. Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Photo courtesy of Sara Charles.
  • "The March of the Spaniards into Tenochtitlan." Codex Azcatitlan. ca. 1530. Manuscript on paper. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
  • Carol Highsmith. African Burial Ground National Monument. New York, 2008. Photograph.  Carol Highsmith Archive. Library of Congress.
  • Wood, Samuel. Injured Humanity; Being a Representation of What the Unhappy Children of Africa Endure from Those Who Call Themselves Christians. New York, 1805. Broadside. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC05113.