PERIOD ONE

1491-1607

Native American Societies before �European Contact

• Indigenous peoples settled, were nomadic or were primarily hunter and gatherers all dependent on the climate and land on which they dwelled
• Groups who chose maize as their main source of sustenance, seen in Mexico and the American Southwest, developed settled societies who used irrigation
• While indigenous people had traits in common, like a deep spirituality, they were also diverse and spoke numerous languages

Title:

The population of North America

KEY TURNING POINT: Maize

*impact of agriculture

• development of a hierarchical society
• surplus of food meant not everyone needed to farm
• Strong military & political institutions
• caste system
• collect tribute from subjugated people
• Urbanization & Cities

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This led to the development of civilizations…

Great Empires of Mesoamerica: Dense population, productive agriculture & organized hierarchy

• indigenous cultures that developed in parts of Mexico and Central America prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century.

• Conquered neighboring cities
• Used military power
• Controlled trade & demanded tribute

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Consider the architectural achievements of the Mayan, they used neither wheels nor large domesticated animals!

Incan Empire

Advanced Engineering Principles

• Machu Picchu
• Inca Road System

Cahokia: Monks Mound

• organized labor
• urban planning

Collapse of Cahokia by 1350

• Depletion of resources
• Climate Change
• War

Cahokia, at its peak in 1200 A.D. had as many as 40,000 people (some sources say 60,000), the same as Medieval London. It was the largest settlement north of the Rio Grande until the late 1800s. (Philadelphia, the largest city in America had only 23,000 people in 1763, and only surpassed the historic size of Cahokia in 1800.)

Great Plains

• Transformed by the horse
• Comanches - successful raiders
• Sioux (confederation of seven distinct peoples) - move west and dominate

Pueblo Cultures

How did the Pueblo / Anasazi interact with the physical environment?

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Note the major characteristics of trade networks in the Americas prior to European arrival.

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What impact did they have on native societies? Who benefitted from them?

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1491

European Exploration in the Americas

Goals

• Acquire new wealth (mercantilism)
• Gain advantage against European competitors (Spain, Portugal, France, Dutch and English)
• Spread Christianity

Tools

• Printing press
• Maritime technology- astrolabe, caravel, improved map making
• Joint-stock companies
• Diseases!
• priests and forced conversions

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Motives for European Exploration

Renaissance (1300 - 1450) → art & learning: curiosity about other lands and peoples.

SPAIN: Reconquista (unite behind one religion)

Reformation (1517 - 1658) → Religious Division: Catholics and Protestants

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• Political: world power through gaining wealth & land.
• Economic: Search for new trade routes & resources
• Religious: spread Christianity - missionaries

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GOD, GLORY & GOLD

Two Worlds Collide...& Significance of Columbus

• Decisive start to European colonization
• Changed European understanding of geography
• Europeans - defined a "civilized" society
• Created globalization

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In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue…

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• Objective: Route to Asia
• Reality: Not A route to Asia!
• Exaggerated potential wealth
• Brutal treatment of Indians to meet objectives
• Did Columbus “discover” America?

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Doctrine of Discovery - 1493

• Pope Alexander VI
• Supported Spain’s strategy: secure “discoveries”
• “any land not inhabited by Christians was available to be discovered, claimed and exploited by Christian rulers”
• “the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself”
• Basis for all European claims in the Americas - and ultimately western expansion

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The Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 & �The Pope’s Line of Demarcation

The Columbian Exchange

Spanish: Goals for Colonization?

Spanish Conquistadors

1565: St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States.^[7]

Spanish Colonial Class System

Peninsulares

(Natives of Spain)

Creoles (Criollos)

(Spanish BUT born in colonies)

Mestizos

(Spanish man & Indian Woman)

Mulattos

(Spanish man & African Woman)

Native Indians

Black Slaves

While the Spanish intermarried with Native people, unlike the British Colonies, what problems are evident?

Bartolomé de las Casas

Encomienda System

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Caste System - taxes

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Impact on African Slavery

Atlantic Slave Trade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NXC4Q_4JVg

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French- Goals for Colonization?

English- Goals for Colonization?

Subjugation and Resistance

• Europeans developed a race-based system of forced labor that they justified by viewing non-whites as inferior
• This system of seeing non-whites as inferior, hence justifying their use and why they could be ‘owned’ and not consulted about matters involving them, will evolve throughout the story of America
• There are stories of defiance, and resisting total assimilation, as the indigenous peoples maintained some of their spiritual and gender roles that differed from European values

On the treatment of the natives…

• King Ferdinand of Spain, 1513-

“with the help of God we shall use force against you, declaring war upon you from all sides and with all possible means, and we shall bind you to the yoke of the Church and Their Highnesses; we shall enslave your persons, wives, and sons, sell you or dispose of you as the King sees fit; we shall seize your possessions and harm you as much as we can as disobedient and resisting vassals.”

• Spanish king Charles V, 1526, 9 years after Luther posts his 95 theses (CONTEXT), ordering the fair treatment of Indians so that

“it may be accomplished with no offence to God, without death nor robbery of said Indians and without enslaving them, so that the desire to spread our faith among them be achieved without grieving our consciences.”

Pueblo Uprising, 1680 (period 2)

• Pueblo people of New Mexico organized to stop the Spanish conquistadors’ religious persecution and violence
• No gold or silver in New Mexico, natives were forced to grow and give corn- but there was a drought – great tensions
• Pope- leader of the Pueblo people- argued the Corn Mother went away when Jesus moved in
• The revolt failed to take back their land for more than 12 years, the Spanish policies loosened

Period One

• Identify the significance of the indigenous peoples resisting total assimilation in response to Spanish colonization.
• Evaluate the extent to which the Columbian Exchange altered the economy of the New World.