Spanish Colonization

1.     Explain how the Spanish set up their colonies.

They used a monarchy with a King and Queen at the top then they divided the Americas into five provinces.They also appointed people to go and live in these provinces, they were called viceroys. They also created a council called the Council of the Indies, which would create the laws. But there were some problems The viceroy lived in the province so they knew what was needed and what was not. But the council of the Indies could only guess what was right. Then there was the problem with birth. The people who were born in Spain were at the top they were called Peninsulares. Then there were people with Spanish parents but were born in America, they were called Creoles. Then there were people who had a Spanish parent and an Indian parent, they were called Mestizos. They lacked identity because they were neither Spanish or Indian they were Mestizos.

2.     Explain how the Spanish got the Native Americans to work on the farms.

They used a system called Encomienda, so they let the Native Americans have some land and then sneakily they have a Spanish guy get on the property and own it and then forces the Native Americans to work, they became like slaves. They get paid but not for how much work they do.

3.     Explain how the Spanish got the Native Americans to work in the mines.

Well they used this system  called the Draft. So every village of Native Americans had a quota of people (a limited or fixed number or amount of people) to go work in the mines each year.
But the working conditions in the mines were awful wet and cold and they had to carry giant bags of ore up out of the mine they got sweaty after doing this and some of them died once they got out of the mine and went back in because of the climate change. Just like on the farms they got paid but not as much as they should get for how much work they are doing.

4.     Explain how the Spanish replaced the Native Americans with a different source of cheap labor.

They imported Africans and made them slaves. Because the Native Americans were dying to quickly.

European Eploration

1.     Identify the different explorers who came to  the Americas and what they did.

Well the first one is Christopher Columbus, he found the Americas while trying to find Asia but when he found the Americas he thought it was Asia. The next man was also the first one to make it to the America's his name was Juan Ponce de Leon he was looking for the fountain of youth. Unfortunately he didn't find it though and the only thing he became famous for was being the first to arrive in the America's. The next explorer was the first to see the Pacific ocean. His name was Balboa he never crossed it though. The man to cross it was named Sir Francis Drake.


2.     Explain the technological advances that allowed European explorers to travel better.

Well there was the Compass, Better boats to travel faster in, there were better maps with Latitude and Longitude, and there was the Astrolabe which helped them know their location better by measuring the Latitude.


3.     Explain the contributions the Spanish and Portuguese made towards the discovery of the Americas.

Well they sent a lot of explorers to discover it and they were some of the first Europeans to colonize the Americas. They also made big stories like Christopher Columbus who thought he had found Asia but had not. Then there was Juan Ponce de leon who actually thought there was a fountain of youth but was disappointed to find that there wasn't one.

Arrival of the first Americans and Plains Indians

1. Explain the four theories on how the Americas became inhabited

Well the first theory was the Ice/Land Bridge theory. It said that Russia was touching Alaska by either the ice or by land.
The second theory was the Native Americans had always lived in the Americas.
The third Theory was that some of the ten tribes of Israel got scattered to the Americas.
The fourth Theory is the most unlikely. It is that the sailors got lost and ended up in the Americas. But you need men and women to start life so unless there were woman on board this doesn't work.

2. Explain how and why people spread out once they were in the Americas.

 Well the hunters and gatherers had to roam for their food because they didn't grow it they had to find animals and fruit to eat. So they kept on spreading. They also wanted land for themselves

3. Explain how the Plains Indians adjusted to the environment they lived in.

Well they killed a lot of buffalo to eat but when the United states killed almost all of the buffalo they didn't have much to eat. Then the Americans taught them how to grow food. Then they got horses so they could hunt even better.

Tobacco in North America and African slaves

So from Europe people went to the Americas because they had a lot of good things like furs, fresh fish, and gold. But once all of the gold ran out then they found a new gold green gold. Tobacco, People tried planting tobacco at North america but they said that it did not taste good it was to bland lacked taste. So they took tobacco seeds from Spain and then they planted it there. They made their tobacco like this. First they would plant the tobacco then they would take the leaves and dry them and then roll them into dust. So they started planting a lot of tobacco in north america. Then they would smoke it. But the king didn't like it he said that the tobacco was bad for the people and ruined their lungs. The people didn't have good doctors back then so they kept on smoking tobacco. But soon they had to much tobacco and they had start making farms. But for farms they needed people to take care of them so when the farms got bigger they started getting slaves from Africa. So first the Europeans went to Africa traded pots and pans and other stuff like that for slaves then they went to North America and then they traded slaves for furs, fish, tobacco and other things, then they went back to Europe. This was called the triangular trade. After this Africa started losing a lot of people. So they started to stand their ground and not let the Europeans take their people. In one part of Africa an African queen named Ana Nzinga Mbande. She had a couple sisters and she helped the king fight the Europeans. This battle went on for a long time and soon the king died and someone else inherited the throne. But he was a coward and did not really want to fight the Europeans. Nzinga was mad she told him to fight them. A little after she got an English army general to help them and train their army to use guns. And soon they were doing pretty good but then the king called for peace and he told Nzinga to tell them to stop. So she went and called for peace and all was well.

Why People can only be President Two Times

People can only be president two times because of our first president.

George Washington had a chance to be president for more than two times.

But he decided that he wanted to let other people have a chance and to go back and be a farmer and regular person.

Because of his decision someone else got to be president and from then on each president couldn't stay for more than two terms.

This has helped America by making sure no one gets to proud or too much power.

Abe Lincoln

I just read the Magic Tree House book Abe Lincoln at Last.

In it Jack and Annie go to meet Abe Lincoln to give him a message of hope and get a special feather.

I learned that :

Abe was not famous when he was a kid.

He grew up in a log cabin made by hand and was very poor.

Life was very hard for him. He had to do a lot of chores like making corn bread, cutting wood, getting water from the stream and the last thing was grinding the corn for the corn bread.

He also taught himself how to read and liked learning from his sister Sarah.

When he grew up he was very honest and he believed slavery was wrong. When he became President he stopped slavery and freed the slave but some states didn't like it so they left the country and then there was the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee

Robert Edward Lee was a general that served as a commander of the US army for 32 years! He was married to Mary Anna Custis Lee.

Robert Edward Lee’s nickname was the marble man because he was very nice man and there were many monuments built is his honor. he was also considered to be a man nearly perfect just like marble is. that is how his nickname marble man was adopted.

Lee was also part of the civil war as a general of the  Confederate Army of Virginia in the American Civil War. the civil war lasted four years. Unfortunately during the war 600,000 people died. He had 7 kids. And he died at age 63.                             

Montezuma and Cortes

I just read about when Cortes went to the Aztecs. The people saw him and when he brought his horses out of the ship many ran away in terror because they’d never seen a horse before.

Cortes went with his men to look for cities of gold and the people who lived there thought he was a God because he had the same helmet as a picture of a prophecy. Because of these they gave him gold and Montezuma let him in the city.

After that though he killed several of Montezuma’s men and Montezuma was very mad. He fought them but the Conquistadors killed Montezuma in a battle and Cortes was made king.

One night when Cortes looked out it appeared deserted so he went out to the moat with his troops to escape with the gold from the city. He built a bridge and they were crossing it, but the Aztecs came in canoes and fought them on the bridge. Many of the Spaniards pockets were so filled with gold that they drowned.

Cortes and some of his best men survived so they went and got another army of Natives to come conquer the Aztecs. The Aztecs had sacrificed these people’s families so they were happy to fight against the Aztecs.

They did a siege around the city and since they didn’t have enough food and water Cortes took over the city.