Native American Societies and European Colonization

Native Societies Before European Arrival

• Native American societies were diverse, adapting to their environments.
• They were not a monolithic group.
• Some lived in coastal fishing villages.
• Others led nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyles.
• Some congregated in cities and built empires.

Pueblo People

• Located in present-day Utah and Colorado.
• They were farmers, growing beans, squash, and maize.
• They had advanced irrigation systems.
• They built urban centers using hardened clay bricks.
• They were known for cliff dwellings.

Great Basin and Great Plains Region

• Nomadic hunter-gatherers.
• They hunted buffalo and gathered food.
• Organized into small, egalitarian kinship bands.
• Example: Ute people.

Northwest and Pacific Coast

• Permanent settlements due to abundant resources.
• In California, the Chumash people built villages sustaining nearly a thousand people.
• They participated in regional trade networks.
• In the Pacific Northwest, the Chinook people built plank houses.

Northeast

• Like the Pueblo, they were farmers.
• They lived communally in longhouses, built from abundant timber.

Mississippi River Valley

• Farmers due to the rich soil.
• They traded along the waterways.
• The Cahokia civilization had a population of about 40,000.
• It was led by powerful chieftains with a centralized government.

Native American Societies

• Developed distinct, complex societies.
• Societies were shaped by the environment.
• They utilized vast trading networks.

European Arrival

European Kingdoms

• From the 1300s to 1400s, European kingdoms unified politically forming stronger, centralized states governed by monarchs.
• A wealthy upper class desired luxury goods from Asia.
• Muslims controlled land routes, so Europeans sought sea routes for trade.

Portugal

• Portugal established trading posts around Africa.
• They established a trading post empire.
• They gained a foothold in the Indian Ocean trade network.
• They used new and adapted maritime technology.

Maritime Technology

• Updated astronomical charts and astrolabe for navigation.
• New ship designs (smaller, faster, more nimble) for trade.
• Borrowed technologies: Latine sail and stern post rudder for accurate navigation.

Spain

• Spain finished the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the North African Muslim Moors.
• This had two important consequences:
  • A desire to spread Catholic Christianity.
  • A desire to seek new economic opportunities.

Christopher Columbus

• Columbus sought sponsorship from Ferdinand and Isabella to sail west to find wealth in Asian markets.
• In 1492, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean.
• He landed in the Caribbean and found wealth.
• This led to competition among European nations to explore these lands.

Columbian Exchange

• Columbus's arrival was a turning point in world history.
• The Columbian Exchange is the transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases from the East to the West and vice versa.

Food

• From The Americas to Europe: potatoes, tomatoes, and maize.
• From Europe to The Americas: wheat, rice, and soybeans.

Animals

• From The Americas to Europe: turkeys.
• From Europe to The Americas: cattle, pigs, and horses.

Resources

• Gold and silver were transferred from The Americas to Europe.

People

• Europeans settled in The Americas.
• Enslaved Africans were brought to the continent.

Disease

• Europeans brought smallpox to the Americas, decimating native populations due to lack of immunity.
• Europeans may have contracted syphilis from the natives.

Economic Shift in Europe

• Influx of wealth shifted feudalism to capitalism, which is an economic system based on private ownership and free exchange.
• Joint stock companies rose to fund exploration. These are limited liability organizations.
• Investors pooled money, shared profits if successful, and had limited liability if the venture failed.

Spanish Colonization

Encomienda System

• The Spanish realized agriculture was more profitable than precious metals.
• The encomienda was an economic system where Spaniards forced natives to work on plantations and extract gold and silver.
• Problems:
  • Difficulty keeping natives subservient because they could escape.
  • Natives dying due to smallpox.
• Solution: Importation of African slave laborers.
  • Africans were less likely to escape because they did not know the geography.
  • Africans had more immunity to European diseases due to previous contact.

Casta System

• Spain dominated Central and South America and created a new social class based on racial ancestry.

• The system was structured as follows:

  • Peninsulares: Spaniards born in Spain.
  • Criollos (Creoles): Spaniards born in The Americas.
  • Castas:
    • Mestizos: Spanish and Native American blood.
    • Mulatos: Spanish and African blood.
  • Africans
  • Native Americans.

European Views of Natives

• Europeans viewed natives as good for exploitation, military alliances, forced labor, and Christian conversion.
• Despite conflict, each group adopted customs from the other.
  • Natives taught the English how to hunt and cultivate maize.
  • Natives adopted iron tools and weapons.
• The relationship was difficult and brutal.

Justification for Treatment

• Europeans developed beliefs to justify their treatment of natives.
• Some Spaniards believed Native Americans were less than human.
• Juan Guines de Sepulveda argued Native Americans benefited from harsh labor conditions.
• Bartolome de las Casas defended the humanity of the natives and persuaded the king to pass laws ending slavery, but the laws were later repealed.

Justification for Exploitation of African Laborers

• Europeans used the Bible to justify the exploitation of African laborers.
• They interpreted Noah's curse on Ham's son Canaan as a justification for slavery, claiming black skin was a mark of Ham.
• Africans were distined to be slaves from the beginning.