American Pageant Chapter 1 APUSH Review (Period 1)

Native Americans Pre-Contact (Prior to 1492)

  • Over 10,000 years before Columbus, people came to the Americas via the Bering Strait
  • Native Americans developed wide variety of social, political, and economic structures based upon interactions with each other and the environment.
  • Native American religion was very often connected to their relationship with nature
    • Animism: belief that non- human things (plants, animals) possess a spiritual essence

Native American Culture

  • They developed different and complex societies that both transformed and adapted to their diverse environments
  • Examples:
  • ^^Southwest^^ (Pueblo): lived in arid land and relied on irrigation to grow maize & other agricultural products
  • ^^Great Basin & Great Plains^^ (Lakota Sioux): lack of natural resources led to growth of nomadic lifestyle & the importance of hunting buffalo
  • ^^Atlantic coast & Northeast^^ (Iroquois): mix of agricultural & hunter-gatherer society. Established permanent villages
    • Iroquois Confederation

Colonization of the “New” World

  • 3 G's: Gold, Glory, God
    • Gold: New sources of wealth (trade with Asia)
    • Glory: power & status
    • God: convert the native population to Christianity
  • The arrival of Columbus in 1492 (& other Europeans after) led to massive demographic and social changes on both sides of the Atlantic
  • Columbian Exchange: Trans-Atlantic exchange of people, diseases, food, trade, ideas, etc. between the Western Hemisphere, Africa, and Europe
    • Horses (from Europe) dramatically change Native life
    • Disease such as smallpox (from Europe) lead to massive population decline as deadly epidemics spread
    • Maize/corn (from America) fueled population increase in Europe

Early Colonization: Spain & Portugal

  • Treaty of Tordesillas Spain & Portugal agree to divide up the Western Hemisphere
  • Spain was the earliest to colonize North America (St. Augustine, 1565)
  • Encomienda System: Spanish colonists received land with native people
    • Native slave labor in mining (silver) or agriculture (sugar)
    • Spanish sought to convert Native people to Catholicism
  • Racially mixed populations of European, Native, and African people
    • Mestizo: people of mixed Indian and European heritage
    • Mulatto: people of mixed white and black ancestry

Attempts to change Native American beliefs led to resistance and conflict

  • Pueblo Revolt 1680
  • Popé's Rebellion in 1680 leads to the death of hundreds of Spanish colonists and the destruction of Catholic churches in the area
  • “Native people strove to maintain their political and cultural autonomy

Debating Spanish Colonization

  • "Debates occurred over how Native Americans should be treated and how "civilized" they were compared to European standards"
  • Juan de Sepúlveda wrote "Just Causes for War Against the Indians" that justified Spanish colonization of the Americas
  • Bartolomé de las Casas published in 1552 "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" that criticized Spanish treatment of the indigenous people

Comparing European Colonization

  • Protestant England will soon challenge Spanish colonization of North America
  • Unlike the ^^English^^ colonist, the %%Spanish, French, and Dutch%% are going to attempt to exploit new world resources AND form more complex relationships with indigenous people
    • Spain and Portugal formed colonies that used Native American and African slave labor in agriculture and mining
    • France, Holland, Spain will trade, intermarry with natives

    Reasons for colonization

  • Mercantilism: colonies exist to enrich the Mother country
    • Access to raw materials
    • Provide gold and silver