Period 11491-1607

On a North American Continent controlled by American Indians, contact among the

peoples of Europe, the Americas and West Africa created a New World

Key Concept 1

• Before the arrival of the Europeans, native populations in North America developed a wide variety of social, political and economic structures based in part on interactions with the environment and each other

As settlers migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America over time, they developed quite different and increasingly

complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments

• The spread of maize cultivation from present day Mexico northward into the American Southwest and beyond supported economic development and social diversification among societies in these areas; a mix of foraging and hunting did the same for societies in the Northwest and areas of California

Maize Culture

• Around A.D. 1000, maize agriculture began to spread from Central America through North America– Maize was especially popular in the southwest– Societies developed vast irrigation systems (Pueblos in Rio

Grande)

• Maize cultivation transformed societies– Less emphasis on hunting and gathering– Led to an increase in population

• Villages were built around maize fields

Northwest

• Roughly 300,000 natives lived in California prior to the arrival of Europeans– Most of these societies were based on hunting, gathering,

and foraging• Gather nuts, fish, and hunted

– Societies tended to be ruled by wealthy families

• Chinooks– Advocated warrior traditions– Used advanced fighting techniques– Lived in longhouses which could house many families

Northwest Indians

Codex Nuttal

Chahokia- Mississippian Settlement

• Societies responded to the lack of natural resources in the Great Basin and the Great Plains by developing largely mobile lifestyles

Pre-Columbian Plains Indians

Plains Indians

• Most natives lived off of hunting and gathering– Lack of natural resources – Large, flat area

• With the introduction of the horse, life on the Great Plains was drastically altered– Bison hunting became much easier– Natives with horses became stronger militarily

• Natives in the Great Basin hunted bison and sheep– Like natives on the Great Plains, horses helped natives

become more powerful

• In the Northeast and along the Atlantic Seaboard some societies developed mixed agricultural and hunter-gatherer economy that favored the development of permanent villages

Northeast and Atlantic Seaboard• Many societies were a mix of hunting and gathering,

and agriculture and developed permanent villages• Iroquois (Present day NY and PA):

– Adapted to their environment:• Burned forests to hunt and grow crops• Villages were built around maize

• Iroquois were a matriarchal society:– Power was based on female authority– Women were instrumental in councils and decision-making– Women would tend to crops and oversaw community

affairs while men hunted

Northeast Indians

Key Concept 2

• European Overseas expansion resulted in the Columbian Exchange, a series of interactions and adaptations between societies across the Atlantic

Columbian Exchange• What was it?

– The exchange of plants, animals, culture, humans, diseases, etc. between the Americas, Europe, and Africa

• Examples of goods:– Americas to Europe and Africa: potatoes, maize (corn), tomatoes– Europe to the Americas: wheat, rice, horses, chickens, oxen

• Impact of exchange?– In Europe and Asia: massive population growth due to new food– In Africa: Spanish and Portuguese used Africans from West Africa to be used as

slaves in the Americas– In the Americas: spread of diseases (smallpox), social classes (Mestizos), horse

transformed Native life (made hunting easier), Encomienda system

• Big Ideas:– What were positives and negatives of the Columbian Exchange on both hemispheres?– What were reasons that led to European exploration?

The arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere in the 15th and 16th centuries

triggered extensive demographic and social changes on both sides of the Atlantic

• Spanish and Portuguese exploration and conquest of the Americas led to widespread deadly epidemics, the emergence of racially mixed populations and a caste system defined be an intermixture among Spanish settlers, Africans and Native Americans.

• Spanish and Portuguese traders reached west Africa and partnered with some African groups to exploit local resources and recruit slave labor for the Americas.

http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-1600

Why African Slavery

• One possible answer draws on the different values of societies around the Atlantic and, more particularly, the way groups of people involved in creating a trans-Atlantic community saw themselves in relation to others – in short, how they defined their identity. Ocean-going technology brought Europeans into large-scale face-to-face contact with peoples who were culturally and physically more different from themselves than any others with whom they had interacted in the previous millennium. In neither Africa nor Asia could Europeans initially threaten territorial control, with the single and limited exception of western Angola.

• African capacity to resist Europeans ensured that sugar plantations were established in the Americas rather than in Africa. But if Africans, aided by tropical pathogens, were able to resist the potential invaders, some Africans were prepared to sell slaves to Europeans for use in the Americas. As this suggests, European domination of Amerindians was complete. Indeed, from the European perspective it was much too complete. The epidemiological impact of the Old World destroyed not only native American societies, but also a potential labor supply.

• The trans-Atlantic slave trade therefore grew from a strong demand for labor in the Americas, driven by consumers of plantation produce and precious metals, initially in Europe. Because Amerindians died in large numbers, and insufficient numbers of Europeans were prepared to cross the Atlantic, the form that this demand took was shaped by conceptions of social identity on four continents, which ensured that the labor would comprise mainly slaves from Africa.

• The introduction of new crops and livestock be the Spanish had far reaching effects on native settlement patterns, as well as on economic, social and political development in the Western Hemisphere.

• In the economies of the Spanish colonies, Indian labor, used in the ecomienda system to support plantation based agriculture and extract precious metals and other resources, was gradually replaced by African slavery

European expansion in the the Western Hemisphere caused intense social/religious,

political and economic competition in Europe and the promotion of Empire building

• European exploration and conquest were fueled by a desire for new sources of wealth, increased power and status, and converts to Christianity

• What drove European exploration and conquest?– 3 G’s – Gold, Glory, Gospel– To spread Christianity – Spain– Mercantilism

• Money and food from the Americas led to population growth in Europe and helped shift the economy to capitalism– Joint-stock companies – used to raise $ for explorations

• Used in Jamestown (1607)• New technology aided exploration:

– Sextant – could be used to find exact position on earth – more precise sailing

– Compass– Caravel– Map Making

• New crops from the Americas stimulated European population growth while new sources of mineral wealth facilitated the shift from feudalism to capitalism

• Improvements in technology and more organized methods for conducting international trade helped drive changes to economies in Europe and the Americas.

Key Concept 3

• Contacts among American Indians, Africans and Europeans challenged the worldview of each group.

Big Idea

– How did Europeans view the Natives and justify their treatment of them?

– How did Africans adapt to life in the Western Hemisphere while still preserving their own cultures?

– Be familiar with the impacts of the Columbian Exchange – not just food

• Increase in world trade, permanently connecting two hemispheres

– Identify specific goods and their impacts – horse and potato

– Impact on Africans – drastic growth in slavery

European overseas expansion and sustained contacts with Africans and American Indians

dramatically altered European views of social, political and economic relationship among and

between white and nonwhite peoples

• With little experience dealing with people who were different from themselves, Spanish and Portuguese exploders poorly understood the native peoples they encountered in the Americas, leading to debates over how American Indians should be treated and how civilized these group were compared to European standards

Misunderstandings• Many Spanish and Portuguese did not understand Natives and

their cultures– Natives were viewed as “Savages” by many Europeans

• Juan de Sepulveda:– Advocated harsh treatment of Natives– Claimed slavery for Natives was justified under Christianity

• Bartolome de Las Casas:– Argued that Natives deserved the same treatment as all other men– Played an instrumental role in the ending of the encomienda system

• Europeans began to develop a belief in white superiority to justify the treatment of Africans and Natives

• The Portuguese were mainly interested in trade only and had little desire initially to settle anywhere, except for trading purposes. The Spanish wanted to incorporate the inhabitants of the new lands under the Spanish crown and, more importantly, to convert them to Catholicism.

• The Portuguese and Spanish became great colonizing nations at the end of the Middle Ages. Portuguese colonization, which received impetus from the development of greatly improved methods of navigation, began with the establishment of trading ports in Africa and the East, while the Spanish concentrated most of their efforts in the Americas. Both the Spanish and the Portuguese exercised strict governmental control over their colonies and used them primarily as a basis for rich commerce with the parent government. They discouraged them from becoming economically self-sufficient.

Read more: colonization: The Portuguese and Spanish | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/colonization-the-portuguese-spanish.html#ixzz3B8CjGVT5

Portuguese vs. Spanish

• Many Europeans developed a belief in white superiority to justify the subjugation of Africans and American Indians, using several different rationales

• The Spanish settlers had three terms which applied to their dealings with the Indians, the encomiendo, the mitad, and the repartimiento, each indicating a form of injustice. The conquerors divided the country between them, and the encomiendos were rights granted them to hold the Indians for a number of years as workers in their fields or their [187] mines. Under these grants, the natives were converted into beasts of burden, and forced to do the hardest work without the least compensation. They were obliged to labor all day long under the burning tropical sun, to dive into the sea in search of pearls for their masters, or to toil buried from the light of day in the depths of the mines. It is not surprising that these miserable slaves, accustomed to a life of indolence and ease, perished as if exposed to a killing plague.

• Encomienda-were rights granted them to hold the Indians for a number of years as workers in their fields or their mines. Under these grants, the natives were converted into beasts of burden, and forced to do the hardest work without the least compensation

• Repartiemento- it the district officials were required to supply all things needed by the Indians

• Mitad- every man from the ago of eighteen to fifty was required to render bodily service

Encomienda• Early 16th century• Spanish system of control over Natives in much of the Americas• What did it do?

– Royal grants of land from the Spanish Crown to Spaniards– In return, the Spanish promised to Christianize the Natives living on the land

• Spanish gained tribute from the Natives• How were Natives affected?

– Most were treated harshly• Heavy manual labor – building roads and infrastructure

• Encomiendas became wealthy due to the discovery of gold and silver

Downfall of Encomiendas

• Many Catholics began to protest the harsh treatment of the Natives

• Mestizos (individuals of Spanish and Native Ancestry) could not be forced to work the encomienda system– In time, this helped lead to the decline of the

system• Gradually, the system was replaced by African

slave labor, like many areas of the Americas

Native peoples and Africans in the Americas strove to maintain their political and cultural autonomy in the face of European challenges to their independence

and core beliefs

• European attempts to change American Indian beliefs and worldviews on basic social issues such as religion, gender roles and the family, and the relationship of people with the natural environment led to American Indian resistance and conflict

• The Spanish often tried to convert Natives to Christianity– Spanish Mission System:

• Outposts throughout the Americas to help convert Natives• Outposts were often military bases as well• Don Juan de Onate defeated the Pueblos• Spanish established Santa Fe in 1610 • Spanish priests and government suppressed Native practices that were

inconsistent with Christianity• Spanish demanded tribute and labor from Natives

• Many Africans preserved their culture and autonomy in the New World– Maroon Communities:

• Consisted of runaway slaves, many were located in the Caribbean– Many Africans would combine elements of Christianity with their

native African religions and customs

• In spite of slavery, African’s cultural and linguistic adaptations to the Western Hemisphere resulted in varying degrees of cultural preservation and autonomy