Midterm Exam Flashcards
Pre-Confederation (232 cards)
Beringia
Beringia (Bering Land Bridge): 2000 km wide
18, 000 years ago, ice age began to melt resulting in many lakes
14, 000-12, 000 years ago, opening of human migration routes in North America
The first people from asia moved quickly along the Pacific ocean
Hunter-gatherer society began 20 000 years ago, migrated a few kilometers at a time (once they used their resources and ate all the animals, they moved on)
The genetic markers we have that exist in the Americas show that no one lived here before 20 000 years ago
The initial group of people was extremely small, a few dozens
There is evidence of humans in Canada about 10 000 years ago
Lake Agassiz
?
Paleoindians
First people to come here from Asia over the Bering
Clovis, New Mexico / Monte Verde, Chile
?
Na-Dene
Na-Dene Language family today is distinct from the previous migration, which shows there is a second migration from Asia that is entirely distinct from the Bering Land Bridge migration
Megafauna Extinction
A few thousand years Beringia, another major event occurred…
Megafauna Extinction: 70-80% of the largest animal species (woolly mammoths, bears, giant beavers, horses, camels, etc.) had gone extinct … these have been inhabiting the Americas for 4 million years
This occurred 10, 000-12, 000 years ago (when people were arriving and thriving in the Americas)
Possibilities of extinction: overhunting (unlikely because numbers of humans were small), climate change, so on
When should Canadian history start?
Canadian History, with regards to the land that area is today, should begin with Bering Land Strait. Canadian History, with regards to Canada as a society, should begin around the 1000s
3 ways of classifying First Nations
- In national terms
- In linguistic terms
- In cultural terms
Classifying First Nations in National Terms
Categorizing groups by their political views
Example: Quebec (uniting different groups into the Cris) → 11 different national groups
Downside:
Classifying First Nations in Linguistic Terms
Categorizing people by the way they communicate seamlessly with each other
(anthropology perspective)
Example: Na-Dene
11 distinct language groups (7 in BC alone)
50 total languages in all
Downside: you may end up with groups who, language is the only thing they have in common (like Germans and English)
Classifying First Nations in Cultural Terms
Classifies people according to their way of life
Example: “Potential” North American vegetation (i.e. if there were no agriculture)
6 cultural groups in all of Canada
Since way of life depends on environment and geography, it separates nicely into geographical areas
The way people live affects they way their society builds
Downside: blurs language differences and political boundaries
First Nations Groups (pre-contact)
Northwest Coastal Plateau Plains Northeast (Eastern Woodlands) Algonquian / Iroquoian Subarctic Arctic
First Nations (pre-contact)
Northwest Coastal: British Columbia
The FNs of NorthWestern Canada are the most complex
- 19 distinct languages
- Sustained villages year-long
- Highest population density in Canada pre-contact
- Approx 200 000 people living along the Coast in 1500
Why the Pacific Coast? Seafood was a never-ending, easy to capture food supply
Why not the Atlantic in the same way? Climate is nicer in the West Coast
Different from the rest of the groups for these characteristics:
- A wealthier way of life
- Rich material culture
- Accumulated artifacts
- Log houses (not nomadic)
- Sculptures carved out of wood
- Complex social hierarchy (nobles, commoners, slaves)
Example: Potlatch (an elaborate feast to show status by giving away wealth)
First Nations (pre-contact)
Plateau: British Columbia
- Relied on Salmon
- But culturally, they were much more egalitarian
- They were semi-nomadic and non-agriculture, small bands
- They were more like the Plains people than the Coastal people
First Nations (pre-contact)
Plains: Alberta to Western-Manitoba
- Lived on open grasslands
- Hot, dry summers and cold winters
- Organized their food around the Buffalo
- Fully nomadic hunters
- Used the Buffalo for everything (ate the meat, used skin for clothing and teepees, bones for tools, etc.)
Head-Smashed in Buffalo Jump, Alberta (a site developed 6-9000 years ago): they would herd the Buffalo to this point, they would have nowhere to go and then jump over this cliff (it was unused 4000 years ago and we do not know why)
- Unlike Coastal people, the Plains people were relatively poor so they hunted Buffalo and did not have much else to fall back again
- The arrival of the horse revolutionized their life 1500 years ago
- Horse arrived from the Spanish, before the Spanish people
First Nations (pre-contact)
Northeast (Eastern Woodlands): South Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, South Arctic
Covers FNs all the way from Southern Manitoba, through Ontario, Quebec, all the way to the Maritimes and up to the South parts of the Arctic
This is the first group the Europeans came in contact with
The Europeans defined FNs in terms of this group
Divided into two language groups:
(1) Algonquian
Similar language group, but spread far apart amongst North East
- Pretty similar social and political structure
- Each nation considered itself a distinct people but did not have a lot of political unity
- Hunted and fished
- Few contacts with other members of their band or of a broader nation except in times of war
(2) Iroquoian
Lived in the St. Lawrence Valley of Ontario and Quebec and along the Great Lakes
- 5 Nations of the Iroquois (later the 6 Nations): Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca
Lived in larger groups, villages of maybe 1500
Wood log houses
More stability and sustainability…
1500-1000 years ago, they became farmers (this is when it first took off)
Started growing corn, squash, pumpkins, tobacco
These crops moved up from Mexico
Agriculture moved up from Mexico to Canada
Agriculture provides stability and higher population density (and in fact requires that more people are living in a smaller area because farmers are needed)
Women farmed, men hunted, traded, fought
Iroquoians would trade with Algonquins for fur, meat, fish, etc.
First Nations (pre-contact)
Northeast (Eastern Woodlands): South Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, South Arctic
Covers FNs all the way from Southern Manitoba, through Ontario, Quebec, all the way to the Maritimes and up to the South parts of the Arctic
This is the first group the Europeans came in contact with
The Europeans defined FNs in terms of this group
Divided into two language groups:
(1) Algonquian
Similar language group, but spread far apart amongst North East
- Pretty similar social and political structure
- Each nation considered itself a distinct people but did not have a lot of political unity
- Hunted and fished
- Few contacts with other members of their band or of a broader nation except in times of war
(2) Iroquoian
Lived in the St. Lawrence Valley of Ontario and Quebec and along the Great Lakes
- 5 Nations of the Iroquois (later the 6 Nations): Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca
- Lived in larger groups, villages of maybe 1500
- Wood log houses
- More stability and sustainability…
- 1500-1000 years ago, they became farmers (this is when it first took off)
- Started growing corn, squash, pumpkins, tobacco
- These crops moved up from Mexico (agriculture moved up from Mexico to Canada)
- Agriculture provides stability and higher population density (and in fact requires that more people are living in a smaller area because farmers are needed)
- Women farmed, men hunted, traded, fought
Iroquoians would trade with Algonquins for fur, meat, fish, etc.
First Nations (pre-contact)
Subarctic : Territories
Evergreen forest across the Subarctic (Canadian Shield)
- No agriculture because not much soil
- Low population density because a lot of space was needed for hunting
- Lowest population density in the world
- Not much social or political organization at all
First Nations (pre-contact)
Arctic
Above the treeline
- The last area to be colonized about 4500 years ago
- Language family distinct from the Na-Dene
- It was argued that the Inuit were from a distinct migration, but this has been disproven
- They migrated with everyone and dispersed
- They maintained contact with the people of Greenland
Thule (ancestors of the modern Inuit) had populated the Central Arctic
Norse in America
The first non-First Nations people that we know came to Canada
Warrior Vikings that came from Scandinavia, specifically Norway
- Used the North Star to navigate by sea and calculated latitudes
- The Norse were a little like us 1000 years earlier…
- Travelling along North Atlantic in a time of warmer climate, and made it a little farther North than they had anticipated
- They were able to explore a little farther from Europe than people had done previously
870: Norse discovered Iceland
985: Eric the Red discovered Greenland (after being exiled from Norway)
Parts of Greenland were green, so Norse settled in Greenland for the next two centuries
Leif Ericsson, 1001
Eric the Red’s son
Leif Ericson sailed across the Atlantic shore of Canada where he found Helluland/Markland/Vinland
(Vinland has been historically understood as a point anywhere from Newfoundland to as south as Florida)
He returned home without seeing anybody
Helluland/Markland/Vinland
Leif Ericson (Norse, son of Eric the Red) sailed across the Atlantic shore of Canada where he found Helluland/Markland/Vinland
Understood as a point anywhere from Newfoundland to as south as Florida
L’Anse aux Meadows:
Helge & Anne Stine Ingstad
(1960s)
Archeologist couple who read the Norse sagas for clues of Norse settlement
They searched for Norse settlements and found a site - arguably the only site we know of - at the North tip of Newfoundland
They found houses, domestic belongings but no signs of renovation or progression
We are unsure of why it was a temporary settlement and why the Norse ended up leaving Newfoundland
(worsening climate? Spanish (Basque) Pirates? Difficulties with First Nations?)
European Expansion, ca. 1500
Its Global Significance
European Expansion: Expansion and domination over the planet
This was one of the most important events in world history
(1) “Reversed Continental Drift”
- Pulled the planet back together again in some ways
- Example: horse makes its way back to the Americas
(2) Transformed Global Demographics
- Think of how many Europeans live all over the world
- 1600: Europeans are 18% of Canada
- 1900: Europeans are 30% of Canada
(3) Made possible the transfer of a wide range of Staple Food Crops
- Crops were slow to develop in the Americas
- Example: the potato (started out in Chile and took long to spread across Americas)
- But with European expansion, the potato shoots over almost immediately to Ireland
(4) Offered Europe access to a vast storehouse of natural resources
- Contributes to Europe’s great wealth
- Fuels Industrial Revolution