APUSH - Topic 1.6 Cultural Interactions in The Americas

Explain how and why European and Native American perspectives of others developed and changed.

How did Europeans generally view Native Americans?

• saw them as inferior

• exploited for economic gain

• wanted to convert them to Christianity

• used for military allies

What were the Spanish debates about Native American treatment?

• most policies harmed Native Americans

• Bartolome de Las Casas

  • Spanish priest who advocated for better treatment of Natives

  • advocated for passage of New Laws of 1542

    • ended Native slavery, paused Native labor, began to end encomienda system

  • partially repealed by opposers

• Valladolid Debate

  • Las Casas vs. Juan Gines de Sepulveda

  • Native Americans are human and equal to Europeans vs. Native Americans are less than human (benefit from serving under Europeans)

  • neither side fully won

What were English relationships with Native Americans like?

• English settled in places with less Natives to provide labor (+ many had died already)

• Most English settlers were families (less interbreeding)

• initially coexisted → shared ideas and goods, Natives taught English many things

• deterioration of relationships

  • English didn’t respect Native cultures + saw them as savage

  • Natives threatened by English seizing of their land

  • English generally forced Natives to leave rather than dominate them

What were French relationships with Native Americans like?

• wanted furs and converts to Catholicism

• had good relationships with Natives → traded with Natives

• built trading posts (not many colonies therefore less threatening)

• assisted Huron people fight their long time enemy, the Iroquois

What were some of the survival strategies by Native Americans?

• ally with European power

• migrate west

  • caused conflict with Western Native Americans

  • did not identify as larger group of Native Americans

What was the role of Africans in America?

• added third culture to Americas

• grew important crops

• influenced culture (esp. music)

• Europeans justified slavery

  • used Bible to justify

  • argued that they were biologically inferior so it was ok to enslave them