SCCC American History I Midterm

Sapa Inca

Ruler of the Inca Empire. Highly centralized systems such as this are extremely fast (strength) but fragile (weakness), which let Europeans graft themselves onto the existing power structure.

Civilization

A society based on culture, meaning traditions passed down generation by generation. 6 characteristics: writing (records); urban focus; distinct religious structure (gods, priests); political and military structure; social structure based on economic power; artistic and intellectual activity.

Renaissance

Literally "rebirth"; Latin ad fontes, "return to the sources." Deep self-reflection through returning to classical (Greco-Roman) literature and reading different sources of inquiry. Happened over MANY years (14th-17th centuries); named by Jacob Burckhardt in 1860. Exploded because of the printing press. Product of urban, mercantile northern Italian cities (Florence, Venice, Naples, Milan, Genoa, Rome) with surplus money who saw themselves as heirs to the Roman republic. Aided by the fall of Constantinople (1453), found statues, and a shift from theology to humanism.

Francesco Petrarca

Humanist who studied classic literature to understand himself and the human condition; coined the term "the Dark Age" (dark because few sources of inquiry); wrote letters to the ancients like Virgil and Homer.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Jared Diamond's book: history revolves around availability of resources. Eurasia had crops, trade, large domesticated animals, similar climates, and disease resistance, so food surplus allowed division of labor. The Americas had vastly different climates, only guinea pigs and alpacas, and no disease resistance. Agriculture ALWAYS precedes the industrial revolution. Europeans wrongly believed they were smarter than Native Americans.

Portuguese

One of the first to expand, out of pragmatism: collapse of the Mongol empire made trade with China (silk, spices) harder. Trade was imbalanced (China only wanted gold and mainly silver), so Europe sought silver and took routes around Africa with forts and trading posts. Mined silver/gold in the Americas; made very few Catholic converts; lost dominance by 1600 to rivals, especially the Dutch. Saw Africa as a source of gold; the Atlantic slave trade grew from the need for sugar plantation labor (a compromise of morality for efficiency and profit).

Dutch

Had significantly better shipping and business practices than the Portuguese: created the joint-stock company, used specialized ships, and led the way to modern commercial capitalism. Interested in profit; capitalism is amoral. Took over from the Portuguese as a leading colonial power.

Catholicism

The universal Christian church until the Protestant Reformation; dominated all of Europe and set the tone for how Europeans viewed themselves and others in the western hemisphere. Challenged 1517-1620 by the Protestant Reformation, and responded with the Counter-Reformation. Most settlers coming to the new world were Protestant, so the differences were stark in early US history.

Great Chain of Being

Image from Rhetorica Christiana (Didacus Valades) that clearly shows the European worldview of the time: a hierarchical system ordering all of creation under God.

Hierarchical System

A system ranking everything in a fixed order from highest to lowest (as in the Great Chain of Being); the basis of the European worldview.

Protestant Reformation

Response to growing corruption in the 16th-century Catholic Church (popes and bishops sold indulgences to fund building projects). Martin Luther publicly challenged church authorities in 1517, arguing salvation comes by grace, not purchase. Western Christianity split into many churches; Lutherans rejected intermediaries between individuals and God. Led to violence; the ruler's religion became the citizens' religion, and rejecting it was often punished by death. Happened alongside the Renaissance.

Martin Luther

Offended by the Catholic Church's sale of indulgences; argued salvation comes by grace, not purchase; publicly challenged church authorities in 1517, and some states rallied with him. Started the Protestant Reformation.

Printing Press

Invented by Johannes Gutenberg c. 1440. Put millions of texts into circulation (key questions: who encounters these texts, and how did it influence them?). Created a new self-consciously modern age with historical self-awareness, and made the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation explode.

Aztec Empire

Moved into central Mexico c. 1325; surrounded by competitors, with a heavy element of fear in society; saw hand-to-hand combat as most honorable. A Highly Centralized System: efficient but easy for conquerors to graft onto, which led to its downfall. Conquered by Hernán Cortés with help from La Malinche and Tlaxcalan allies. Motecuhzoma was in despair and saw the Spanish as gods.

Nahua

One of the peoples of the Aztec empire. Their writing combined pictures and symbols (unlike the Maya), making it hard to translate; mainly memory triggers.

Great Speaker

Nahua leader (the Aztec ruler, Motecuhzoma, at the time of the Spanish conquest) who was treated like a god.

Tenochtitlán

Capital of Aztec society.

Hernán Cortés

Early Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of Mexico ("blueprint of conquering 101"). Allied with the Tlaxcalans and welcomed Franciscan friars in 1524. Defeated rival Pánfilo de Narváez.

Pánfilo de Narváez

Spanish conquistador sent in 1520 to arrest Hernán Cortés for acting without authority; Cortés defeated him and added his men to his own forces.

Malinche

Nahua noblewoman given to Cortés as a gift; helped him communicate and make alliances. He could not have succeeded without her.

Tlaxcala

Native group who became Cortés's allies while fighting the Aztecs.

Otherness

Seeing new nations as weird or different. Europeans' views of Indians focused on lack of religion and how they used land as the basis for inferiority. Native religion seen as demonic. Also existed between higher and lower social standing in Europe. After the Uprising of 1622, extreme amounts of this ended collaboration.

Martin Frobisher

English conqueror commissioned to find the Northwest Passage (quicker route to China); captured a native family and displayed them in England, dehumanizing them. Example of Otherness.

Florentine Codex

12-volume oral history of the Aztecs by Bernardino de Sahagún, based on massive interviews (asking European questions of Aztecs). Shows the bias in explaining someone else's history, the "mastering of the history of the other," and Europe's intellectual effort to understand the "other."

Inca Empire

Settled around Cuzco c. 1400. A Highly Centralized System ruled by the Sapa Inca. Many weapon systems (like the Aztecs); processed metal ore and made bronze; armies up to 100,000 in one battle; forcibly controlled conquered nations by resettling peoples but allowed great autonomy; maintained over 25,000 miles of roadway.

Cuzco

Capital of the Inca Empire; the Inca settled around here c. 1400.

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca Empire (1532-1533). Capturing the Sapa Inca, Atahualpa, worked because the Inca were a Highly Centralized System that Europeans could graft onto.

Encomienda System

Established 1503 by Spain. Monarchs entrusted a number of Amerindians to European settlers for labor, gold, and goods in exchange for teaching them Christianity. Meant to "protect" locals, but most were used as physical labor. Colonial social structure favored those born in Europe, then Europeans born in the New World, then mixed European/American descent.

“Blue-Blooded”

Term for lighter-skinned people, whose blue veins are visible; reflected the colonial social hierarchy favoring those born in Europe.

Native American Religion

Based on animism with no sharp distinction between supernatural/natural or secular/religious. Seen as demonic by Europeans, which contributed to Otherness.

Science, Religion, and Magic

public knowledge of the natural world, private knowledge of the supernatural world, and using supernatural power on the natural world (often a trick or illusion). Mostly a European view; most nations blended them

Scientific Revolution

Brought peer review and intense fear of being wrong in education; religion stayed dominant, and the aim was to find a link between the natural and supernatural worlds.

Philosopher's Stone

Alchemists' symbol of the missing link between natural and supernatural worlds: a pure element said to transmute metals, extend life, and cure disease. Used to convince patrons to fund research; symbolized humanity's transmutation toward perfection and the divine.

Sir Isaac Newton

Scientist of the Scientific Revolution who was also an alchemist; shows how science, religion, and magic overlapped in this era.

Environmental Determinism

The idea that one's environment determines how a person develops (proto-racism).

Tutsi

Minority group in Rwanda favored by colonizers who held most of the wealth; targeted in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Hutu

Majority group in Rwanda who came to hate the Tutsi and eventually revolted (1994 Rwandan genocide).

Niumi People

Settled in modern-day Gambia. Met the Portuguese from 1446 (Nuno Tristao's crew was slaughtered by their naval forces; Cadamosto advised on trade goods in 1455; Diogo Gomes navigated trade in 1456). Africa wasn't colonized until the late 19th century because of disease (yellow fever, sleeping sickness). Society had landlord-stranger relationships, kinship, bride price, and a tripartite social structure.

Tripartite Social Structure

Niumi society: “Freeborn”; skilled workers (potters, leatherworkers, bards, blacksmiths, living outside society and keeping techniques secret); slaves (2/3 to 3/4 of the population, with no free will but able to rise in rank, and the only revenue-producing property recognized in African law).

African Slavery

someone lacking free will. Originally very different from the later system; victims were always on the outside of society. Most were female (higher price). Obtained by violence or crime; in 1500-1750 largely by trade (weapons for people). Some opposition within this country (Ahmad Baba). Justified by Aristotle (natural), some parts of the Bible, and Dum Diversas. Portuguese trade disrupted traditional treatment of war captives.

Slavers

Ship captains who justified or rationalized their trade: Captain William Snelgrave (justification). Captain William Watkins (brutality and power). Captain James Fraser (rationalizing morality).

“Sarah”

Enslaved woman on the Hudibras (1785, Captain Jenkin Evans). Favored by the captain (essentially sexually assaulted), she led a mutiny; she was not killed but sold because she was seen as expensive merchandise.

Dum Diversas

Papal order (executive order) that Spain and Portugal had permission to enslave any unbeliever and capture their property.

Indentured Servants

Slaves by another name. First word means a contract for labor for a period of years in exchange for passage to the New World and possibly land after; sounded like a good deal, but most died before finishing.

Jamestown Colony

Founded 1607. Starvation (even cannibalism); relations with Powhatan and Pocahontas. Powhatan never intended to kill John Smith, just show his power.

The Uprising of 1622

Led by Powhatan's successor Opechancanough. Began increasing divisions between settlers and natives (extreme Otherness, no more collaboration); English adopted the same separation strategy used in Ireland and Wales.

Tobacco

Key source of economic power for the colonies (Chesapeake); extremely labor intensive, driving demand for servants and later slaves.

Puritanism

Followers of John Calvin's theology of predestination ("the elect"). Congregationalist (not tied to a larger governing body). Moral liberty: John Winthrop's "city upon a hill"; became free by accepting severe restraints on speech, religion, and behavior.

Pilgrims

Puritans can be these people, but these people aren't necessarily Puritans. Settled Plymouth with just and equal laws; voting not restricted to the church; church and state separated so politics wouldn't taint the church.

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes's work, based on his own experience, arguing for a very strong centralized government (in contrast to communal governance). The name is a serpent: the head is the king and the body follows.

Anne Hutchinson

Put on trial as a threat to the Massachusetts Bay Colony; argued inner grace, not just church attendance and moral behavior, determined who was among the saved Puritan elect.

William Penn

Quaker (Society of Friends) founder of Pennsylvania with extremely high ideals; it didn't work out.

Bacon's Rebellion

1676 in Virginia. Governor William Berkeley's corrupt regime limited the vote (1670) to large property owners; poor population lacked land. Nathaniel Bacon rebelled against Natives and Berkeley, burning Jamestown. Result: aggressive policy toward Natives and planters preferring slaves over rebellious white servants.

King Philip's War

Metacom's war (1675-1678); nearly ended European presence in New England, fueled by otherness (civilized vs. uncivilized) with viciousness on both sides. June 1675: three natives hanged for killing a colonist; led a 14-month campaign. Aug 1676: shot, drawn and quartered, head put on a pole at Plymouth. About half of English settlements were ruined; Puritans saw it as God's wrath. Cemented exclusion of natives from colonial states. Was portrayed as an evil king but just wanted colonists out of his lands.

17th Century Crisis

Period of upheaval including the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Maryland Uprising (Protestants take control), end of the Dominion of New England; property, not church membership, qualified voting, and the Salem Witch Trials.

The Glorious Revolution

Dethroned Catholic absolutist James II; William and Mary took the throne, securing the rule of Parliament and a Protestant monarchy. Colonies took control.

The Salem Witch Trials

1 accused person would name others to save themselves, so accusations multiplied; 150-200 people accused and hanged; hysteria from superstition and fear. European trials were far worse.

"The Middle Ranks"

Small farm families of colonial society; 2/3 of free males owned land (vs. 3/5 of the English population owning no property).

The Enlightenment

Movement of reason, progress, and natural rights. Center in France 1715-1748; American Revolution put ideas into practice 1748-1776. Causes: end of the Plague of 1720 (hope and optimism), coffee houses and newspapers, academies and universities, public opinion as a political force. Critics of the old regime were the Philosophes. The key to democracy?

Seven Years' War

1756-1763; continuation of the War of Austrian Succession, based on a mercantilist worldview. Includes the French and Indian War (Ohio Valley). Ended with the Treaty of Paris (1763) and the rise of the British Empire ("the sun never sets").

Pontiac's Rebellion

1763 uprising by Natives who rejected European technologies, commercial relations, and alcohol, and wanted the British expelled; another example of growing division between settlers and Indians. The Proclamation Line restricted settlers from crossing.

The Sugar Act

1764 act aimed at stopping smuggling and reducing taxes on molasses from the French West Indies; only affected merchants and those in trade.

The Stamp Act

1765 tax that affected everyone; repealed by the British, who also issued the Declaratory Act.

Taxation Without Representation

American view: colonists were used to political participation. British view: Parliament already represents the colonies (also, representing the colonies would mean doing the same for others).

Sons of Liberty

Group practicing "politics in the streets" in resistance to British acts; also involved in the tenant uprising in New York.

The Townshend Act

1767 taxation of trade; sparked boycotts of English goods and debate over the rights of Englishmen (John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania).

The Tea Act

1773 act letting the British East India Company sell this product directly to the colonies at a cheaper price, undercutting colonial merchants and keeping the tax on this product. Led to the Boston __ Party and then the Intolerable Acts (Boston Port Act closed the port until the this product was paid for).

The Boston Massacre

Good example of yellow journalism (overblown). British soldiers, trained for military work not policing, were stationed in Boston. Involved Crispus Attucks; John Adams defended the soldiers.

Crispus Attucks

Figure killed in the Boston Massacre.

The Intolerable Acts

Spring 1774 acts including the Boston Port Act (closed Boston's port until tea was paid for) and the Quartering Act (British commanders could stay in colonists' houses).

First Continental Congress

Produced the Suffolk Resolves: refuse to obey new laws, withhold taxes, and prepare for war.

Second Continental Congress

Met 1775 after Lexington and Concord. Olive Branch Petition (July 1775) went directly to the king; Prohibitory Act (Dec 1775) ended trade and colonial ship protection.

George Washington

Aggressive in younger years; not the best strategic commander but excelled at keeping the Continental Army in the field. Nearly replaced until victories at Trenton and Princeton.

Common Sense

Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet arguing for independence. Argued Britain's distance and America's growth made British rule absurd, and that "the law is king." Showed political faith can be as strong as religious faith.

The Declaration of Independence

States "all men are created equal" with unalienable rights (Life, Liberty, pursuit of Happiness); government needs consent of the governed and cannot threaten natural rights. Shift from rights of Englishmen to human rights.

The American Military

Up until WWII the default condition of the US military was as a reserve force.

Yorktown

Site where most enslaved people who had joined the British under the Dunmore Proclamation were re-enslaved.

Battle of Saratoga

1777 huge turning point. British goal was to divide and conquer; General Burgoyne had 7000 troops. Benjamin Franklin then persuaded France to join the American side.

Jane McCrea

Woman associated with the Saratoga campaign and Fort Ticonderoga events during Burgoyne's advance in 1777.

Women in the Revolution

Boycotted British goods (Manifesto of the Ladies of Edenton, NC, 51 women); camp followers; "Molly Pitchers" brought water to cool cannons.

Margaret Corbin

A Molly Pitcher whose husband died; she knew how to fire the cannon and took over his job.

Glorious Revolution of 1688

James II dethroned; William and Mary take the throne, securing Parliament and a Protestant monarchy

Tenochtitlán

capital of the Aztec Empire

“Freeborn”

rulers, farmers, merchants, Muslim clerics within Niumi Society