Oklahoma Academic Standard 3.  The student will analyze the human characteristics of the United States and how geography impacts historic events.

Objective 3.1 Identify and describe early settlement patterns of regions in the United States.

C.  Summarize the reasons for key expeditions of North America by Spain, France, and England and their impact on the development of each region.

D.  Identify push and pull factors of human migration.

E.  Evaluate the impact of the Columbian Exchange on American Indian groups, African slaves and European settlers, including agriculture, trade, culture, military alliances, control of territory, and the sudden and significant decline of indigenous peoples.

In a Nutshell

Students should examine the multiple economic, political, and religious push and pull factors that motivated exploration by European powers, including access to mineral wealth, gain in territory, political prestige for monarchs, and religious conversion of indigenous peoples. The objective also requires students to understand the impact of interactions between American Indians and Europeans known as the Columbian Exchange, including new food and cash crops, livestock, and technology. In addition, students should evaluate the negative consequences to indigenous peoples caused by such interactions, including devastating diseases, loss of land, and enslavement.  

Teacher Action 

Student Action 

• Provide students with opportunities to answer geographic questions by organizing geographic information about regions of the United States from historical as well as contemporary perspectives.

• Assist students in comparing the perspectives of individuals and groups, regarding early encounters between American Indians and European explorers and settlers.

• Explain multiple causes and effects of historic events, such as European exploration and different examples of push and pull factors of migration.

• Use information from multiple print or digital sources (e.g. timelines, maps, graphs, images) to answer questions related to the early European explorations of North America.

Key Concepts 

Misconceptions 

• push factors of migration versus pull factors of migration

• notable explorers:

         Spain- Columbus, Ponce de León, DeSoto, Coronado;
         France- Marquette and Jolliet, LaSalle;

         England- Cabot, Raleigh, Drake, Hudson

• Columbian Exchange of natural resources, goods, raw materials, technology (agriculture) and ideas

• Causes of conflict including territory and concept of land ownership, communal property, assimilation 

• motivations for exploration:
  Spain- valuable minerals and spread of Christianity;
  France- trade in natural resources, such as fur, for finished products;
  England- raw materials, such a lumber, for early industrialization and trade

• major settlements: St. Augustine, Quebec, Jamestown

• Some students may assume that all European explorers and expeditions were aimed at retrieving valuable minerals, such as gold, for personal wealth without recognizing the varied goals and motivations of major European powers.  

• Many students may not have prior knowledge or understanding of the varied reasons for migration, nor how migration can be motivated by both push and pull factors. 

• Some students may mistakenly assume that the Columbian Exchange was primarily beneficial to both European colonists and indigenous peoples, neglecting to realize the actual costs of this exchange to American Indian cultures and populations.

   

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