Questions:
1. Summarize the chief forces, developments, ideas, trends, and so on, that led to the
discovery of America. Which two or three do you think were most important? Explain.
2. Characterize a few of the main features of the relatively advanced civilizations of the
Aztecs and Incas of Central and South America, and of the Eastern Woodland Indians of
North America.
3. Briefly write your impressions of the character and achievement of the new Spanish
empire in America.
4. Briefly summarize the main features of the seventeenth-century New World activities of
the Portuguese, French, and Dutch empires in America.
5. Identify each of the following with a brief description in which you relate who or what
was involved, its time and place, and its significance and effects.
6. Explain Jared Diamond’s thesis in “Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes” and give three
examples that he uses to back it up. What implication does his thesis have regarding the
European colonization of America?
7. In “The Indians’ New World: The Catawba Experience,” James H. Merrell writes about
how the white man affected the Indians’ world. What does he state were the chief
ingredients of this new Indian world, as experienced by the Catawba, after the arrival of
the Europeans? In what ways did the Indians adjust to these altered conditions?
8. Based on your reading of David Weber’s “Conquistadores of the Spirit,” write a
paragraph giving your evaluation of the work of the Franciscan missions.
Answers:
1. Summarize the chief forces, developments, ideas, trends, and so on, that led to the
discovery of America. Which two or three do you think were most important?
Explain.
Americus Vespucius, a Florentine merchant is said to have been the first to discover
America. After a letter Vespucius wrote was published in a geography book in 1507 it was
suggested that the land he discovered be named in his honor and was soon recognized
across Europe.
Discovery of new land materialized from crusades that were organized in hopes of
discovering new and shorter routes to the Far East for trading purposes. The Renaissance
period also encouraged exploration as people developed a new outlook on life where they
focused on the current world they were living in. Competition between countries would
also surge exploration where one would try to claim land before the other. Two significant
inventions which assisted in successful voyages were the compass and astrolabe which
