Unit 1: 1491-1607

Unit 1: 1491-1607

Native American Societies Before 1492

Aztecs

• Written language, complex irrigation, human sacrifice

Maya 

• Complex irrigation, large cities, water storage 

Inca

• Big empire, grew potatoes and maize, complex irrigation 

• Maize supported economic development, settlement of ppl, advanced irrigation

Pueblo

• Settled, farmed maize, organized with religious centers and administrative centers

Mississippi River Valley 

• Settled by a river which supported fertile soil and farming 

Iroquois 

• Grew crops, longhouses 

European Exploration in the Americas

Reasons for Exploration

• Population increase bc they got out of the black plague 

• Political unification and centralized governments

• Wealthy class desired luxury goods

• Land based trade routes were controlled by Muslims so Europeans couldn’t trade on their own terms, inspired a water based route

Maritime Technology

• Caravels were trading ships were efficient

• Updated maps and charts, astrolabe and stern post rudder, made navigation easier

Empires

• Portugal rounded Africa established trading posts and ESP wanted to profit like them, they also explored but they focused on spreading Christianity 

• Columbus landed in the Americas and saw gold so Europeans came to explore 

The Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest

Columbian Exchange 

• Transfer of food, animals, minerals, people, and diseases b/t AFR, EU, and AME

• Smallpox was spread to the Natives bc of Europeans, led to their fall

• Maize, Tomatoes Potatoes, Tobacco, and gold/silver go to EU from AME 

• Rice, wheat, lemons, horses and farm animals go to AME from EU 

  • Horses revolutionized farming and hunting

• EU experienced economic growth while AME attracted colonizers, feudalism was ended and started capitalism, ESP practiced mercantilism 

• African slaves were sent to Americas 

Labor, Slavery, and Caste in Spanish America

Slavery

• EU establish forts along the coast of AFR for trade and slave transport

• EU believed that Africans weren’t human so they had the right to enslave

• Native Americans were not good slaves so ESP bring Africans

Encomienda System

• Encomienderos were given land and all natives who lived their were enslaved

• Priests were sent over to convert natives to Christianity

• Natives either died too much bc of disease or escaped the land 

Caste System

• Had to tax people based on their role in society

• Peninsulares(Iberians) -> Criollos(ESP born in AME) -> Mestizos (ESP and Native ancestry) -> Mulattoes (ESP and AFR ancestry) -> Africans -> Native Americans

Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

• Mission System - sending missionaries instead of soldiers in the AME to conquer 

• Natives believed in Animism and that Land wasn’t a commodity, but ESP were Catholic and believed land existed for private ownership 

• Both adopted aspects that they saw useful 

Pueblo 

• Some wanted to combine Christianity and their religion but priests were like no

• Some secretly practiced their religion others revolted like Pueblo 

• Led to questioning about ESP rule in AME 

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