The discovery of America, and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind.

1.1 Adam Smith, The Results of Colonization (1776)

Advantages Europe Derived from Colonizing America

• Increase in enjoyments

  • Europe imports America’s surplus produce

    • A variety of commodities, previously inaccessible, reach the continent

      • For convenience, pleasure, ornament

• Augmentation of its industry

  • America had direct trade with Spain, Portugal, France, and England

  • Indirect traders use the direct traders as channels to send their produce

    • Austrian Flanders

    • Some provinces in Germany

  • High-quality goods such as linen gained an extensive market

    • It encouraged producers to increase production quantity

Effects of Discovering America

• Raise the mercantile system to a monumental degree of splendor and glory

  • Objective: To enrich a great nation by trade and manufactures than by improvement and cultivation of land.

  • Operated by industries of the towns compared to the country

• Commercial towns in Europe became the manufacturers of thriving cultivators in America

1.2 Giovanni da Verrazano, Encountering Native Americans (1524)

Giovanni da Verrazano - Italian-born navigator who sailed in 1524 under the auspices of King Philip I of France.

Letter to the King

• Description of the Natives

  • The reaction of the Natives to the fleet

  • Clothing

  • Appearance

  • Religion

  • A glimpse of their culture

    • Criticized the natives’ culture of freedom

  • Economy

    • Valuing red and blue over gold

• The hostility of the Natives

• Description of the Island

  • Heavily populated East

  • Dense and deep forest

1.3 Bartolome de las Casas: Spanish Treatment of the Indians

Bartolome de las Casas - Also known as the “Apostle of the Indians,“ a Catholic priest, was the most eloquent critic of the Spanish mistreatment of the New World’s native population. Las Casas denounced Spain for causing the deaths of millions of innocent people.

History of Indies

• Details the exploitation the Spaniards did against the Indians. Detailed to false freedom the Spaniards bestowed upon the Indians.

1500

• The King sent a new governor to Hispaniola

  • Hispaniola - the only seat of the governor to the Indies

  • Fray Nicolas de Ovando - Knight of Alcantara, comendador of Lares, Hispaniola

• The exploitation of the Indians

  • Shifts were extended from six to eight months

    • They would bring gold for minting once finished

  • Workers earned little to no peso due to increased debt to merchants and creditors

  • During the minting period, the Indians were allowed to go home by foot

  • The Spaniards would make them work on weekends and holidays and assign them minor tasks

    • Building and repairing houses

    • Carrying firewood

  • Did not provide adequate nutrition

    • Only fed cassava bread

    • Meat leftovers were given to about 30-40 Indians to share

  • Poor wages

    • 3 maravedis every two days less than one-half a maravedi

      • To not exceed the yearly half gold peso

    • 225 maravedis paid once a year cacona

      • Cacona - pin money meaning bonus or reward

    • This sum bought a comb, a small mirror and a string of green or blue glass beads

    • Wages increased to one peso

      • It was still not enough to feed oneself

  • Indians were held captive through a rope to prevent free-movement

  • Ill workers were often not believed to be sick and were labeled “lazy dogs“ subjecting them to beatings

  • Most of them were sent home but died along the journey due to intense hunger and fatigue

  • After 8 years, no change was seen. Instead, slavery expanded to San Juan, Jamaica, Cuba, and the continent

1.4. The Pueblo Revolt (1680)

In 1680, the Pueblo Indians revolted against Spanish Rule. Franciscan friars worked diligently, often violently, to convert Indians to Catholicism. Some natives accepted baptism. But the friars’ efforts to stamp out traditional religious ceremonies in New Mexico— they burned Indian idols, masks, and other sacred objects— alienated far more Indians than they converted. The uprising, concluded a royal attorney who interviewed survivors in Mexico City, arose from the “many oppressions” the Indians had suffered. In 1692, the Spanish launched an invasion that reconquered New Mexico.

Declaration of Josephe, Spanish-speaking Indian (December 19, 1681)

Asked what causes or motives the said Indian rebels had for renouncing the law of God and obedience to his Majesty, and for committing so many kinds of crimes, and who were the instigators of the rebel- lion, and what he had heard while he was among the apostates,

• Prime movers of the Rebellion

  • El Pope & El Taqu

    • Sons of San Juan

  • Saca from Taos

  • Francisco from San Ildefonso

• Cause of the rebellion

  • Ill-treatment and injuries received from Spanish rulers

    • Francisco Xavier - present secretary

    • Alonso Garcia - maestre de campo

    • Luis de Quintana & Diego Lopez - sargentos mayores

  • They were beaten and their wages were not given. They were working without pay.

• The strategy of the Indians

  • Burnt Christian images such as churches, images, and rosaries, made a mockery of them and made a trophy out of them

  • Killed priests and used the same torture they did to the Indians

  • “Now the God of the Spaniards, who was their father, is dead, and Santa Maria, who was their mother, and the saints, who were pieces of rotten wood,”

  • Washed away the water of baptism by going to the nearby river and bathing there

    • Plunge into the river and wash themselves with amole

      • Amole - a root native to the country

  • Enclosed churches in the plaza with seed of maguey, maize, and tobacco and performed their rites

    • Showed it to the children to understand their cause and bring it to the future

  • Banned the words “Jesus“ and “Mary“

  • Discarded baptismal names

  • Abandon wives they earned during matrimony

  • Ordered to erect all estufas

    • Estufas - houses of idolatry

  • Danced the dance of cazina throughout the whole kingdom

    • Made and wore masks in the image of the devil

Declaration of Pedro Naranjo of the Queres Nation (December 19. 1681)

Asked for what reason they so blindly burned the images, temples, crosses, and other things of divine worship.

• The Indian, Pope, came down in person with El Saca and El Chato from the pueblo of Los Taos

  • Pope ordered in all the pueblos the strategy of the Indians

1.5 Father Jean de Brebeuf on the Customs and Belief of the Hurons (1635)

With its small white population and emphasis on the fur trade rather than agricultural settlement, the viability of New France depended on friendly relations with local Indians. One of the Jesuit missionaries to the Huron people in modern-day Quebec, Jean de Brébeuf, left a vivid description of the lives and customs of the Indians. De Brébeuf was killed after being captured during a war between Hurons and Iroquois in 1649.

Indian Customs Foreign to the West

Religion

• Dreams, above all, have great credit

  • Their entire life pivots around the concept above

• Eataensic - woman who made earth and man

  • Caretaker of souls

  • Believed to be wicked for killing men

  • Believed to have fallen from the sky with her child

• Jousheka - the little son of Eataensic; governs the world along with his mother

  • Caretaker of the living and of things that concern life

• The Indians believe that the God and Goddess live like they do but without famine

• The Indians do not know who made the sky and its inhabitants

• They reject Catholicism and believe that it is not for everyone, certainly not for them

  • A sign of respect for all beliefs and loyalty to theirs

• Believe in the immortality of the soul, which they believe to be corporeal

• Animals have immortal and reasonable souls

  • As proof, they relate them to certain fables

• No mention of punishment or reward, the virtuous and vicious, they honor equally the internment of both

Marriage

• They only have one wife/husband

• They do not marry their relatives in a direct or collateral line, no matter how distant they may be

• They are seen to be lascivious at times

Morals

• No kissing or immodest caressing

• Married men distance themselves from their nursing wives for two to three years

• Gluttons: They prepare much food during superstitious feasts

  • They, however, can endure hunger more than the west can

• Hospitable people

  • Never close their doors upon a stranger

  • They share their best with their guest

  • The guest has total freedom of when they can leave

The West’s Strategy to Convert Indians to Catholicism

• They call together the people with the help of the captain of the village

  • The captain sounds a bell and assembles the people in one house

• Chanting Pater Noster in Huron verse

  • Father Daniel, the author, chants alone then the rest follow in unison

• Jean de Brebeuf stands and makes the sign of the cross

• A short discussion about Christianity to families

• The session is concluded by the talk of the Old Men

  • They discuss their difficulties and the beliefs of the Indians

1.6 Jewish Petition to the Dutch West India Company (1655)

Among European colonies in the seventeenth century, New Netherland was noted for religious toleration. In 1655, a group of Jews arrived from Brazil, from which they had been expelled after the Portuguese wrested control of the colony from the Dutch. When Governor Petrus Stuyvesant ordered them to leave, Jews in Amsterdam asked the Dutch West India Company to reverse the decision. The company granted the request, so long as the newcomers did not become a public “charge”— that is, require financial assistance.

The Request of the Jews

• For the Jewish nation to be granted passage to and residence in Amsterdam, and be permitted to live and traffic and enjoy the liberty of working like others, etc.

Reasons Supporting Their Request

• There are many nations who have lost their possessions at Pernambuco [Brazil] and have arrived from there in great poverty, and part of them have been dispersed here and there.

  • Petitioners had to expend large sums of money for their necessities of life, and through lack of opportunity all cannot remain here to live.

• They are unable to go to Spain or Portugal due to the Inquisition

• Many of the Jews tended to the land and remain loyal to the place

  • It is beneficial for taxation and trade

• Many Jews have been protected by the Dutch’s tolerance

  • Kept the Jews at peace with the King of Spain

  • Allowed Jews to enjoy the same liberties as the other inhabitants of the area

• Many of the Jewish nation are principal shareholders in the Company

  • They have always striven their best for the Company, and many of their nations have lost immense and great capital in their shares and obligations.

  • The Company has by a general resolution consented that those who wish to populate the Colony shall enjoy certain districts of land gratis.

• Foreign nations permit Jews to traffic and live in their areas

  • The French consent that the Portuguese Jews may traffic and live in Martinique, Christopher, and others of their territories

  • The English also consent at the present time that the Portuguese and Jewish nation may go from London and settle in Barbados