Most of what we call Greece is a peninsula in the southeastern corner of Europe. The land in Greece is hilly and rocky, which means it is not well suited for farming. Because of that, the Greeks turned to the sea for food.

The Greeks became avid fishermen and sailors. They traveled to different lands and learned the customs of many different cultures. They traded with the Phoenicians of North Africa, who taught them their alphabet.
1-2 City-states
    Today Greece is a single nation, but in ancient times it was divided in many city-states. Each city was actually a small nation with its own leaders and army.

    The city-states were small and often had to depend on one another. About 499bc, several of the city-states combined to defeat the powerful Persian Empire.
1-3 Athens
    Athens developed a unique form of government where the people of the city, or citizens, ruled. It wasn't a true democracy because the Athenians held slaves who were not allowed to participate.

    Athens produced many great philosophers. Socrates taught his students by asking questions. While Aristotle used logic, rather than superstition, to explain natural events.
1-4 Sparta
    The people of Sparta were very different from the Athenians. While Athens valued democracy and learning, the Spartans valued physical courage, strength and bravery in war.

    Spartan boys were taken from their homes to train as soldiers. Every Spartan was expected to give complete loyalty to the city-state. Today we refer to someone with bravery and strong discipline as "spartan."

1-5 The Sophists

    The Sophists were a group of thinkers in ancient Athens. The Sophists believed in practicing rhetoric. Rhetoric is speech used to persuade people.

    Some Athenians, including Plato, felt the Sophists were more interested in winning arguments than in pursuing truth. The modern word "sophisticated" comes from the sophists.
 

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    Originally, Rome was another city-state like Athens, Sparta or Carthage. But Rome had a strong army that conquered the neighboring areas. Unlike the other city-states, Rome welcomed the conquered people into their government.

    Rome eventually conquered almost all of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Their goal was to make the Mediterranean Sea a "Roman Lake."

    For over one thousand years Rome flourished as the world's most advanced civilization before slowly dissolving into many different cultures.
2-2 Julius Caesar
    Julius Caesar was the most popular leader of Rome in the first century bc. He was ordered by the government to break up his army in France, but instead he marched the army across the Rubicon River to return to Rome. Today, when someone makes a decision that cannot be undone, we say they have "crossed the Rubicon."

    Caesar made many changes that were popular with the Roman people, but the senators were afraid he would ask the people to make him king. A group of Senators murdered Caesar in 44bc.
2-3 All roads lead to Rome
    The Romans are remembered for building many roads through their territory. The roads made it easier for the citizens to travel, but it also made it possible for the army and tax collector to travel.

    The Roman Empire expanded as far as modern Great Britain to the west and Afghanistan to the east. The construction or roads made it possible for the Roman Empire to expand.
2-4 The birth of Christianity
    Around the year 4bc, a Jewish baby named Jesus was born in the Roman province of Judea. We now call this area Israel.

    The Romans believed Jesus was a revolutionary. A revolutionary is someone who would bring down the government. The Romans had Jesus executed by nailing him to a cross.

    Christians believe that three days after his execution, Jesus awoke from the dead and ascended, or rose, into heaven.
2-5 Latin
    The Romans spoke Latin, and as their empire expanded, so did their subjects. Eventually, people throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa needed to learn Latin to conduct the affairs of government.

    The Roman Empire slowly dissolved, and so did their language. In time, Latin evolved into separate local languages called "Romance Languages."

    The Romance Languages are Italian, French, Spanish and Romanian.
 

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    The Middle Ages is the period of European history between ancient and modern history.  Many historians suggest the fall of Rome in AD476 was the end of ancient history.  The invention of the printing press in 1455 is often marked as the beginning of modern history.  For our purposes, we can round off the dates to say that the Middle Ages lasted from AD500 to AD1500.

    "Medieval" is the Roman word for middle.  This term is often used in place of the Middle Ages.  This period is also referred to as the "Dark Ages."  We shall see that the great civilizations of Greece and Rome were swept aside in this sad period of history.

3-2  The Germans
    The Roman Empire slowly dissolved into many different cultures.  The Empire was under attack by the Vikings and several Germanic tribes.

    There were several groups of German tribes including the Huns, the Goths and the Vandals.  They often went in search of "plunder," or goods taken by force.  In AD476, the tribes reached the "eternal city" of Rome.

    The Vandals were one of the Germanic tribes.  Today, we use the term "vandal" to describe people who destroy property.
 

3-3 The Great Schism
    Today there are many different Christian sects. Until the Middle Ages, however, there was only one Church.  The Church split into the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox church in a period known as "The Great Schism."

    The head of the Church, the Pope, lived in Rome, but the Roman emperor had moved to Constantinople.  The emperor Constantine now lived in another land with a very different culture from Rome.

    The one event that many believe led to the Schism occurred in AD800.  Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as "Holy Roman Emperor."  The ruler in Constantinople was enraged for he saw himself, not Charlemagne, as the legitimate heir of Julius Caesar.

3-4 The Great Plague

    Almost half of the people of Western Europe died in a great sickness known as "The Great Plague."  This sickness was also referred to as "The Bubonic Plague" or "The Black Death."  The latter referred to the color of the skin of the diseased people.  Their skin turned a dark gray color.

    Fleas that had fed on the blood of infected rats helped spread the plague.  The Europeans were susceptible to disease because they lived in crowded surroundings with very poor sanitary conditions.  The Europeans  often ate stale or diseased meat because refrigeration had not yet been invented.  Finally, medicine was primitive and unable to remedy an illness that modern technology might have cured.
 

3-5 Charlemagne

    Charlemagne lived in a time before careful records were kept.  We know his name means "Charles the Great."  He was born about AD 742.  Charlemagnes' father was a ruler named "Pepin the Short."  In Charlemagnes' time, many people did not have a family name.

    Charlemagne was a vicious ruler who attacked his neighbors.  He is said to have slaughtered more than 4,500 people in one day.

    Charlemagne controlled almost all of Western Europe, and on New Year's Day, AD800, Pope Leo III attempted to place a crown on Charlemagne's head to name him Holy Roman Emperor.  At the last second, Charlemagne took the crown from the Pope and placed it on his head himself.  Charlemagne himself, not the Pope, crowned himself emperor.
 
 

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    Learning and the arts began to flourish during the Renaissance. There were many factors that contributed to the "rebirth of Europe."

    The Crusaders had returned home from the Middle East with incredible tales of other cultures. In 1455, Gutenberg invented the printing press. Books could now be easily reproduced and became much less expensive. Wealthy families and the church began to find value in the arts. They hired many brilliant artists to create work to teach and inspire themselves and others.

4-2 Renaissance Men

    The Renaissance first flowered in Florence, Italy, where the wealthy Medici family supported many wealthy artists. A supporter of learning and the arts is known as a patron.

    The Italian peninsula was the home of many brilliant sculptors, painters and scientists including Leonardo daVinci, Michelangelo, and Galileo.

    Many of the "Renaissance Men" were accomplished in more than one field.. Today we refer to a person who are talented in more than one field a "Renaissance Man."

    There were very few "Renaissance Women." Men were encouraged to develop their abilities in the Renaissance, but for women, the Middle Ages continued for many years.

4-3 Martin Luther

    Martin Luther was a German priest who was angered by indulgences. An indulgence was a pardon for a sin in exchange for a gift or money. The church sold indulgences in order to pay for many of the great cathedrals.

    Luther wrote a list of ninety-five complains and nailed them to the door of a church. Luther was charged with heresy, or challenging the beliefs of the church, but many people agreed with his complaints. Luther was a part of the Protestant reformation, a movement that split the Christian Church in Western Europe.

4-4 The Reformation

    The Protestant Reformation split the Christian Church in Western Europe. A Protestant is one who "protests" against the rule of the Pope.

    Many people, particularly Martin Luther, felt the church had become too worldly and was more interested in money than spirituality.

    The clergy became less important at the time of the Reformation. People were able to own their own Bibles and no longer had to rely on the clergy to explain religion to them.

4-5 Leonardo daVinci

    Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci, near Florence in 1542. He was accomplished as a painter, but became very interested in many different scientific fields including anatomy, physics and mathematics.

    Leonardo made many sketches. One of his sketches show that he understood how to make an airplane fly more than four hundred years before the Wright Brothers flew in North Carolina.
 

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The Enlightenment
5-1  The Renaissance continues

    The invention of the printing press encouraged people to read and think independently.  Thinkers began to challenge the church and the nobility.  They began to see that "natural laws" we now call science, controlled the physical world.

    Science sometimes required bravery.  Galileo, Isaac Newton, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein challenged the popular ideas of the time and were sometimes punished for what they discovered.

    Scientists may make new discoveries and change what we thought we knew.  They may be treated as heroes, but history shows us they may also be punished as heretics.

5-2 Galileo

    Galileo Galilee was an Italian scientist who used observation and measurement to make many discoveries.  Most people thought heavier objects fell faster than light objects, but Galileo proved that all objects fell at the same speed unless air slows them down.

    Galileo used a telescope to prove Copernicus' theory of a sun centered universe.  The church imprisoned Galileo for heresy.  A legend says the church made Galileo say publicly that the earth was motionless.  He did, but then muttered, "nonetheless, it does move."

5-3 The American Revolution

    In 1776, the British colonies of North America declared their independence from Britain.  They began to think of themselves not as Virginians or Georgians, but as "Americans."  The American independence movement took many of their ideas from the thinkers of the Enlightenment.

    The revolution in France led to the Reign of Terror and Napoleon's rule, but the American Revolution was much more successful.  Today, the United States is the oldest democracy in the world.  We've been in existence since 1776.

5-4 Liberals and Conservatives

    Liberals are people in favor of change.  In revolutionary France, the Liberals wanted to change the government and end the monarchy.

    Conservatives tend to want to keep things the way they are.  Reactionaries are people who want to return to the old ways of doing things.

    When the National Assembly met in 1789, the Liberal sat on the left wing and the Conservatives on the right.  The moderates sat in the middle.  Since then, liberals have been called "left wing" and conservative "right wing."

5-5 Rethinking everything

    Imagine what would happen if our government was replaced by a regime that wanted to change everything.  That happened in the French Revolution.  Most French people wanted to make small changes.  They didn't expect King Louis XVI to be executed or the Reign of Terror.

    During the Reign of Terror, the leaders renamed 1792 Year One.  There were ten days weeks and thirty-day months.  The leftover five days (six on leap year) at the end of the year were for celebrations and vacations. The months were renamed (for words meaning vintage, mist, frost, snow, wind, sprouting time, blossom, meadow, harvest, heat, and fruit).  Napoleon returned France to the Gregorian calendar in 1806.

5-6 Napoleon

    Napoleon was born on the island of Corsica.  If he were born a few years earlier, he would not have been considered French.  France conquered Corsica from the Italian city-state of Genoa in 1769, the same year Napoleon was born.  Napoleon was considered a Frenchman and was educated in France, but if here were older, he would have been considered an Italian.  It might not have mattered, because when Napoleon conquered most of Europe, he named himself King of Italy.

    Napoleon became First Consul of France when he was thirty.  Three years later he was named "Consul for Life," and two years after that, in 1804, he crowned himself Emperor of France."

5-7 After Napoleon

    Louis XVI's grandson became Louis XVIII when Napoleon was sent into exile in 1815.  Thirty-three years later in 1848, the last King was exiled and Napoleons' nephew, Louis Napoleon, was elected president.  Four years after that, Louis Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon III.

    The younger Napoleon ruled France for twenty-two years until 1870.  Since then France has been a republic except for a seven year period during World War Two.

    Jacques Chirac was elected President of France in 1995.
 
 
 

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    Carl Sandburg said that those who cannot remember the past are bound to repeat it.  The world has learned a valuable but deadly lesson in the twentieth century.  Two "world" wars ended the lives of more than forty-five million (45,000,000) people.  The World Wars not only took those lives, the wars took the contributions those victims would have made to make the world a better place.

    In 1945, many of the nations of the world joined the "United Nations," an organization that hopes to "end the scourge of war."  We can only hope that the world will never have live through the terror of  a third world war.

6-2 Entering World War One
    The United States managed to stay out what was then called the "Great European War" for three years.  Woodrow Wilson was narrowly re-elected President because "he kept us out of war."  That changed in 1917.

    The Germans were at war with Great Britain, but 128 Americans were onboard the British passenger ship Lustiania when the Germans sunk it.  Britain also passed the encoded "Zimmerman note" to the Americans.  When the Americans broke the code, they learned that the Germans planned to ask Mexico to form an alliance against America.  After the war, Germany would ensure that a defeated United States returned parts of Texas, California and other southwestern American states to Mexico.  The United States entered the war shortly after decoding the note.

6-3 The Great Depression
    The most significant event between the World Wars was the Great Depression, a time when business was unable to sell their products and people were both unable to find work and feed their families.  The depression in America led to the election of President Franklin Roosevelt and the "New Deal."  The New Deal was a series of government programs designed to get America back to work.

    The depression in Germany was even worse than in America.  The frustrated German people began to listen to the rantings of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party.  Hitler blamed many of Germany's problems on the Jewish minority.  The mistake of the German people in listening to Hitler led to the tragedy of the Second World War.

6-4 Kristallnacht
    The German Nazis had blamed the Jewish minorities for many of their nations problems, but the abuse turned violent on two nights in November, 1938.  The violence began after a seventeen year old Jewish boy shot and killed a German Nazi who has mistreated his family.

    The Nazis used the assassination as an excuse for Kristallnacht, or "the night of broken glass."  Throughout Germany, Jewish stores had their windows smashed and their contents stolen.  Storm troopers burned 267 synagogues (Jewish churches) and arrested 20,000 people.

6-5 Fascism in Italy
    Russia adopted a Communist government for most of this century while Germany and Italy turned to fascism.  The fear of Communism and the appeal of strong nationalism encouraged the Italian people to follow the lead of Benito Mussolini, who became dictator.  The success of Mussolini encouraged the Nazis in Germany.

    The Italians removed Mussolini from power and had him arrested in 1943.  The Germans rescued him and made him the head of a puppet government in northern Italy.  In 1945, the Italian people captured Mussolini and his mistress, shot them, and hung their bodies in a public square.

6-6 America in World War Two
     The Second World War raged in Europe as America remained neutral.  Many Americans were horrified by the atrocities of the German Nazis, but were unwilling to send American lives into battle.  President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress agreed to the "Lend Lease Act" that allowed the United States to lend supplies to Britain and China.  China was fighting Japan while Britain fought Germany.

    Some Americans were "isolationists."  They believed that the United States should not involve itself in alliances.  The debate over isolationism continued until December 7, 1941, when the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
 
 

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 Russia and Communism

7-1  A very large nation

    Russia spans the European and Asian continents.  The Ural Mountains are considered the dividing line between the two continents.

    Russia was once part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), which was commonly called the Soviet Union.  In 1991, many of the Soviet Republics broke away from the union to become independent nations.
 

7-2  Superpowers

    The United States and the Soviet Union were considered superpower nations after World War Two.  Both nations had developed the military strength to destroy the world as we know it.

    The two nations never fought, but tensions between the nations were known as "The Cold War."  In 1961, the Soviets built missiles in Cuba.  America and the Soviets were on the brink of war until the Soviets agreed to dismantle their weapons.  In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, many American lives were lost in Vietnam as American soldiers fought against a Soviet backed communist government.
 

7-3   Ending the Arms Race
    The United States and the Soviet Union were military rivals for many years.  The nations built huge arsenals of weapons and developed technology that would allow either nation to destroy the world as we know it.

    Both nations saw the folly of the arms race and began to dismantle their weapons in 1980’s.  Both nations agreed to allow the other to supervise the dismantling of their weapons.

    Today we still live in a world where we have the ability to destroy ourselves.  Let us all hope we have the wisdom to choose not to use that technology.

 7-4   Karl Marx
    You have to admit that Karl Marx had many interesting ideas, even if you don't agree with them.  Marx is the Father of Communism.  He believed that workers should own factories and farms.

    Marx wanted everyone to share the wealth.  "From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs," he said.  Marx told workers that they should refuse to work in unfair conditions and begin a worldwide Communist revolution.

    America has always fought communism, but we have applied some of Marx's ideas.  In the last century, our government has written laws to allow workers to strike, and to provide benefits to those who are unable to contribute to the economy.
 

(Don't write this: be prepared to discuss a group of people who the American government provides benefits for.)

7-5   Lenin and Stalin
    Lenin and Stalin were the Russian leaders who claimed to use the ideas of Karl Marx.  Lenin believed in changing Russia and was not afraid of violence.  Stalin was a ruthless dictator who turned his nation into a superpower.

    Lenin was a true Communist.  He divided farmland among peasants and worked to make life better for the common people of Russia.  He did not allow opposition, but truly believed in the ideas of Karl Marx.

    Stalin was a ruthless dictator.  He forced peasants to work on huge farms and in factories.  He cared little for the lives of the Soviet people, but he made Russia into a superpower nation.

    Lenin and Stalin changed the way people lived, but we might ask ourselves if Karl Marx would have approved of what they did.

 7-6  Mikhail Gorbachev
    Men trained during the Stalin era had controlled the Soviet Union for many years, but in 1985, they turned to a younger generation.  Mikhail Gorbachev was a Communist, but he was also someone who wanted to improve the lives of the Russian people.

    Gorbachev believed he could reform the Soviet system by allowing the citizens more power.  He did not understand how unhappy the Soviet people were with communism.  They used every opportunity to speak out and vote against the system Karl Marx devised for the workers.

    Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day, 1991.  He remains a hero in the eyes of many people throughout the world, but when he ran for President of Russia in 1996, he received less than one percent of the vote.
 

 7-7  Russia Today
    Russia is still a very powerful nation, but the threat to lead a worldwide Communist revolution is gone.  Russia rejected communism in 1991 and is developing a capitalist economy.

    The Russian economy is much weaker than the American economy.  The Gross Domestic Product per capita of a nation is the total value of goods and services divided by the population.  The G.D.P. per capita of Russia is $5,300.  In America, the G.D.P. per capita is $28,600.  This figure suggests that that American economy is five times stronger than the Russian economy.
 
 

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Europe Today
8-1  Many cultures
    Europe is considered a continent; however, it is not a separate landmass as most continents are.  Europe and Asia share the same landmass.  The Ural Mountains of Russia are dividing line between Europe and Asia.

    Europe is a crowded continent with many cultures and languages.  Those cultural and linguistic barriers, rather than natural boundaries, form the separate nations of Europe.  Throughout history the borders of many European nations have changed because of migration (people moving) or war.  In the last ten years, the borders of Eastern Europe have changed as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia dissolved into smaller nations.
 

8-2 Mountains and Seas

    Europeans joke that if you stand on your toes in England, you can see the Ural Mountains in Russia.  That isn’t true because the earth is curved and Europe is very flat, but much of Europe is composed oif flat land.  Russia’s’ Ural Mountains are one of four mountain chains in Europe.  The others mountain chains are the Alps of Central Europe, the Balkans of southeast Europe and the Pyrenees.  The Pyrenees forms a natural border between Spain and France.

    The Mediterranean Sea forms the southern border of Europe while the Atlantic Ocean forms the western border.  Severe weather and the Arctic Ocean form a natural northern border between Europe and Canada.

8-3 European governments

    Kings and queens once ruled Europe.  While many nations retain their monarchs, most European nations are ruled by a parliamentary system.

    Representatives from districts of a nation compose a parliamentary system of government.  The representatives from a majority party elect a “Prime Minister” who controls the nation.  Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy and Germany all have parliamentary systems and are led by a Prime Minister.  The United States has a congress, but we also elect a president who is not a member of congress.

8-4 Becoming One

    Europeans are familiar with war, but events since World War II suggest that Europeans are looking past their difference to form a single union.  In 1957 six western European nations formed the Common Market.  The Common Market nations reduced tariffs, or fees for imported goods.  In the 1990s, the Common Market expanded to include most of Europe.

    Eastern European nations have asked to join the new European Union and many are expected to be admitted in the coming years.  The dream of the United Nations to save future generations from war. This may happen as the nations of Europe grow to depend on one another.
 

8-5  New challenges

    Not all Europeans are in favor of uniting.  Strong feelings of nationalism still exist and ethnic violence is not uncommon on the continent.  Europe is prosperous and has a stable population.  This makes it attractive to immigrants.  Immigrants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia have complained that they have not been treated fairly in Europe.

    Eastern Europe is not as economically advanced as Western Europe.  Eastern Europe is still making a transition to market economics after the fall of Communism.  Ethnic rivalries caused a civil war in Yugoslavia and may continue to divide the peoples of Eastern Europe.

8-6 Conflict in Ireland

    Ireland is a divided island west of Britain.  The Catholic Irish Free State would like to reclaim nine counties in Northern Ireland known as Ulster.  Most of the people of Northern Ireland are Protestant and want to remain a part of Great Britain.
The argument goes back hundred of years.  Henry VIII declared himself King of Ireland and introduced the Reformation there. Catholics were treated poorly and the native Gaelic language declined to near extinction.

    Ireland declared its independence from Britain in 1922 after many years of war, but Ulster has remained a part of Great Britain.  A violent group called the Irish Republican Army has been using terrorism to force the British from Northern Ireland.
 
 

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Canada
9-1  A Vast Nation

     Canada is the world’s second largest nation, only Russia has more land.  Despite having more land, Canada supports only thirty million (30,000,000) people as opposed to two hundred seventy five million (275,000,000) people in the United States.  Most Canadians live near the American border because the weather in northern Canada is too severe to support a large population.

     Canada has only one neighbor, the United States. The Atlantic Ocean in the east, the Pacific in the west and the Arctic Ocean to the north surrounds the “maple leaf” nation.  The United States forms the southern border, and Alaska forms part of the northwestern border.
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9-2 Bilingualism

     Canada has two official languages: English and French.  The French were Canada’s first European settlers, but England took control of the nation in 1760.  Most French speaking people live in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario.  English is the primary language in all Provinces with the exception of Quebec.

     Quebec is protective of French language and traditions.  English is banned in store signs and French is the primary language of instruction in Quebec’s schools.  There has been a separatist movement in Quebec for many years.  The separatists want Quebec to leave the Dominion of Canada to form a separate nation.  Quebec remains a part of Canada, but separatism remains an important political issue in Canada.
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9-3 A Parliamentary system

     A Prime Minister instead of a President leads Canada.  The Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament, Canada’s legislative body.  America’s legislative body is the Congress.  The current Prime Minister of Canada is Jean Chrétien.  Chrétien is a native of Quebec, but he opposes Quebec separating from the rest of Canada.

     America has two major political parties.  Canada has several.  If no party wins a majority of seats in Parliament, several parties form a coalition.  If a political party leaves the coalition, a new election must be called. Jean Chrétien is the leader of Canada’s Liberal party and is likely to hold power until Canada’s next election in October 1998.
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9-4 Canada’s Ten Provinces

     America has fifty states, but Canada is divided into only ten provinces and two territories.  New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island comprise the Maritime Provinces.  Fishing is the primary occupation in these eastern provinces, the poorest of Canada.  Most of Canada’s commerce is conducted in Quebec and Ontario, where the majority of Canadians live.  Manitoba and Saskatchewan are known as the “Prairie Provinces.”  The Prairie Provinces are also known as the breadbasket of Canada, because the many farms of the region supply the nation with wheat.  Alberta and British Columbia comprise the western provinces of Canada.  Great mineral wealth and the awesome beauty of the land make the Western Provinces the fastest growing part of Canada.
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9-5 Canada’s Two Territories

     Canada includes two sparsely populated territories: Yukon and the Northwest Territories.  Both territories are rich in mineral wealth and many settlers were originally attracted to the area in the Gold Rush in the middle of the nineteenth century.  Yukon and the Northwest Territories are only for the heartiest of people because of forbidding weather.  The Northwest Territories extend almost to the North Pole!

     The Northwest Territories will split in two next year.  A new territory, Nunavet, will be the homeland of the Inuit, Canada’s native people.  The Inuit have struggled to maintain their own identity and culture in a nation dominated by English and French cultures.  In Inuit, Nunavet means “our land.”
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    The Caribbean Sea is a partially enclosed body of water south of the eastern portion of the United States.  It is the westernmost extension of the Atlantic Ocean.  The Caribbean is an important shipping route leading to and from the Panama Canal.

    The Caribbean Sea is home to the West Indies, a group of islands discovered by Columbus when he landed in the Caribbean.  The West Indies was named because Columbus thought he was in India.  India and the land of southeast Asia are sometimes known as the East Indies.

10-2 The West Indies

    The islands of the Caribbean Sea are known collectively as the West Indies, but they are grouped together to form the Greater and Lesser Antilles.
The Greater Antilles include the northern islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispanola and Puerto Rico.   Hispanola is comprised of the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  Jamaica and Cuba are island nations.  Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States.

    The Lesser Antilles are subdivided into the Leeward and Windward islands.  The Leeward Islands include several small islands between Puerto Rico and Guadeloupe.  The Windward Islands include Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados and Grenada.  Trinidad and Tobago are a two island nation off the coast of Venezuela.  West of Trinidad and Tobago are the A-B-C islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

10-3 Puerto Rico

    The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico is a possession of the United States. The Spanish first settled on the island in 1508 and named it “rich port,” or Puerto Rico in Spanish. The United States claimed possession of Puerto Rico after winning the Spanish-American War in 1898.

    Three and a half million (3,500,000) people live on an island that extends one hundred miles east to west and thirty-five miles north to south.  Additionally, almost three million Puerto Ricans live on the United States mainland.  Spanish and English are the official languages of the islands, though only a minority of Puerto Ricans speak English fluently.

10-4 Cuba

    Cuba is a Caribbean island only ninety miles south of Florida.  America has had an uneasy relationship with Cuba since Fidel Castro took control of the island in 1959.  Castro’s government espoused Communism and was supported by the Soviet Union.  America came close to nuclear war with the Soviets in 1962 after they placed nuclear missiles on the island.

    Castro’s government faces many pressures.  Cuba has become increasingly isolated in the world since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.  Additionally, Cuban expatriates (or former residents) in the United States remain strongly opposed to Castro’s government.  Castro remains in power despite many predictions that his government would fall.

10-5 Haiti

    Haiti has had a tortured history despite some of the world’s best weather and farmland.  What might be a prime tourist attraction or a land of abundant crops is instead a nation of extreme poverty where most citizens are unable to read or write.

    The French colonized Haiti.  They imported African slaves to work their huge plantations.  The slaves revolted after a long and bloody war ending in 1804.  The former slaves had lost their connection to their African homeland, were illiterate, and unprepared to run a country.

    Several strongmen ran the nation until 1990, when Jean-Bertrand Aristride was elected President.  A military coup overthrew Aristride the following year, but Aristride was returned to power in 1994 after an American invasion.  Today Haiti is a democratic nation, but the democratic government faces many challenges.

10-6 Sugar

    Sugar is the primary crop of the Caribbean.  The reliance on the crop has affected the history of the West Indies.  European nations colonized the region and imported African slaves to farm the crops.  Sugar is a labor-intensive crop, so the African slaves greatly outnumbered the Europeans.  Cuba was the last Caribbean nation to abolish slavery in 1868.

    The introduction of modern medicine and changing economics have led to caused many Caribbean islands to have more people than they can support.  Unemployment in the region is high and wages for the unskilled workers are very low.
 

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    Many people only consider the United States and Canada when they think of North America, but in fact we share our continent with six nations south of the Rio Grande River.  Mexico and the nations of Central America form a large isthmus between the mainlands of North and South America.  An isthmus is a narrow strip of land separating to larger bodies of land.  The isthmus is most narrow in the nation of Panama, where a famous canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

    All but one of the nations of the region are dominated by the Spanish language and culture.  Spanish is the dominant Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, but English is spoken in Belize.

11-2 Banana Republics

    Mexico and Central America are poor nations when compared to the United States, in part because American businesses have exploited the land and the people of the region.   America’s United Fruit Company built railroads throughout Central America, and spent lavishly to keep friendly governments in power.  Those governments comprised what are often derisively known as “banana republics.”

    Unskilled workers in the region are paid wages and work in conditions that horrify Americans, particularly in the garment industry.  The American companies respond by saying that their low paying jobs are better than no jobs at all.  They add that low labor costs keep the costs of their products low.  Americans would not want these jobs, but for many unskilled workers in Central America, it is the only income they can earn to support their families.

11-3 Mexico’s Growing Population

    Mexico is our southern neighbor and home to more than one hundred million (100,000,000) people.  Mexico is growing at an alarming rate.  The population explosion in the nation is leading to overcrowding, pollution and unemployment as the Mexican economy is unable to support its growing population.

    The problem is particularly acute in Mexico City, the world’s second largest city.  High mountains surround Mexico City, so the city’s pollution is contained within the region.  Air quality is so low that many residents suffer from respiratory ailments.  Additionally, the Mexican government has not been able to build enough housing to support the growing population of Mexico city and the demands of city services, including police and fire protection along with sanitation removal are more than the government can provide.

11-4 The Mexican War

    Most of California was once part of Mexico, but was lost to the United States in the Mexican War of 1846-47.  Mexico began the war after the United States annexed Texas.  Texas was once part of Mexico, but declared war and formed an independent nation in 1836.  Sam Houston, a former governor of Tennessee, led Texas’ independence movement.  Nine years later, Texas’ request to become the twenty-eighth American state was granted.

    Mexico was enraged because they still considered Texas part of Mexico.  America won the war.  Portions of  California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona were relinquished by Texas and Mexico.  America paid Texas ten million dollars and Mexico fifteen million dollars for the acquired land.
 

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