Identity

How did the identities of colonizing and indigenous American societies change as a result of contact in the Americas?

Work, Exchange,

and Technology

How did the Columbian Exchange—the mutual transfer of material goods, commodities, animals, and diseases—affect interaction between Europeans and natives and among indigenous peoples in North America?

Peopling

Where did different groups settle in the Americas (before contact) and how and why did they move to and within the Americas (after contact)?

Politics and

Power

How did Spain’s early entry into colonization in the Caribbean, Mexico, and South America shape European and American developments in this period?

America in the

World

How did European attempts to dominate the Americas shape relations between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans?

Environment

and Geography

How did pre-contact populations of North America relate to their environments? How did contact with Europeans and Africans change these relations in North America?

Ideas, Beliefs,

And Cultures

How did cultural contact challenge the religious and other values systems of peoples from the Americas, Africa, and Europe?