History 146 OER Textbook: Natives to Reconstruction
Introduction to the First Americans
Conceptualizing the "New World": While Europeans used the term "New World" to describe the Americas, the continent had been inhabited by humans for over years.
Diversity and Complexity: At the time of European contact, Native Americans were a dynamic and diverse population. They spoke hundreds of languages and developed thousands of distinct cultures.
Societal Organization:
Communities ranged from settled towns to groups following seasonal migration patterns.
Native groups maintained peace through complex alliances but also engaged in warfare with neighbors.
Economies were self-sufficient, supported by vast trade networks.
Highly developed art forms and spiritual values were central to life.
Kinship ties served as the primary social glue knitting communities together.
Impact of the Columbian Exchange: The arrival of Europeans triggered a global exchange of people, animals, plants, and microbes. This bridge across years of geographic separation resulted in centuries of violence, biological devastation, and a total revolution of world history.
Indigenous Origin Accounts and Belief Systems
Oral and Written Traditions: Indigenous peoples have maintained their own histories regarding their origins, often focused on creation and migration.
Representative Traditions:
Salinan People (California): A tradition where a bald eagle formed the first man from clay and the first woman from a feather.
Lenape Tradition: The story of Sky Woman falling into a watery world; with the assistance of a muskrat and beaver, she landed on a turtle's back, creating "Turtle Island" (North America).
Choctaw Tradition: A tradition locating their beginnings inside the "Mother Mound" earthwork called Nunih Waya in the lower Mississippi Valley.
Nahua People: Trace their ancestors to the "Seven Caves," from which they emerged before migrating to central Mexico.
Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on Migration
Scientific Approach: Archaeologists and anthropologists analyze artifacts, bones, and genetic signatures to reconstruct migration histories.
The Last Global Ice Age:
Enormous continental glaciers trapped much of the world's water.
years ago, ice sheets up to a thick reached as far south as modern-day Illinois.
Lower sea levels exposed a land bridge connecting Asia and North America across the Bering Strait.
Migration Timeline and Methods:
Native ancestors crossed between and years ago.
Recent scholarship suggests migrants largely moved in boats along the coast, settling where ecosystems were favorable before moving inland.
Glacial sheets began receding around years ago, opening corridors to warmer climates.
Early Settlement Evidence:
Monte Verde (Chile): Evidence of human activity dating back at least years.
Florida Panhandle: Similar evidence of human settlement from roughly the same time.
Convergence of Evidence: Dental, archaeological, linguistic, oral, ecological, and genetic data illustrate significant diversity, suggesting multiple groups settled over thousands of years from various points of origin.
Agricultural Development and the "Three Sisters"
Timeline: Agriculture emerged between and years ago, nearly simultaneously in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Mesoamerican Maize:
Mesoamericans in Mexico and Central America relied on domesticated maize (corn).
The first settled population emerged around .
Corn was high in calories, easy to dry/store, and could be harvested twice a year in fertile Gulf Coast regions.
The Eastern Woodlands:
Located between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean.
The Three Sisters: Corn, beans, and squash. These three crops provided the necessary nutrition to sustain large civilizations.
Land Management Techniques:
Controlled Burning: Communities burned underbrush to create park-like hunting grounds and clear space for planting.
Shifting Cultivation: Farmers cut forests and burned undergrowth to plant seeds in nutrient-rich ash. Once yields declined, they allowed the forest to regrow (fallow) and moved to new fields.
Permanent Agriculture: In more fertile regions, farmers practiced permanent, intensive agriculture using hand tools, which was more sustainable and produced higher yields than European-style plows.
Social Structure, Property, and Gender
Social Specialization: Agricultural surpluses allowed some members of society to become religious leaders, soldiers, and artists rather than focus solely on food production.
Spiritual Worldview: Most Native Americans did not distinguish between the natural and supernatural; spiritual power was tangible, accessible, and permeated the world.
Kinship and Lineage:
Matrilineal Systems: In many cultures, family and clan identity were passed through the female line (mothers and daughters).
Family Dynamics: In matrilineal societies, husbands often joined the wife's extended family. A mother's brothers often had a more significant role in child-raising than the biological father.
Female Influence: Mothers often held significant local influence, and a man's status frequently depended on his relationship with women.
Sexual and Marital Beliefs: Compared to European cultures, Native cultures typically allowed more sexual and marital freedom. Women often chose their own husbands, and divorce was relatively simple. Sex was frequently viewed as a social act, similar to a greeting.
Concepts of Property:
Personal ownership applied to items actively used (tools, weapons, crops).
Land use was recognized: groups exploited specific areas and could use violence or negotiation to exclude others.
Crucially, the right to use land did not imply the right to permanent possession or absolute ownership.
Cultural and Communicative Technologies
Ojibwe (Algonquian-speaking): Used birch-bark scrolls to record medical treatments, recipes, songs, and stories.
Eastern Woodlands: Wove plant fibers, embroidered skins with porcupine quills, and created complex ceremonial earthworks.
The Plains: Artisans wove buffalo hair and painted on buffalo skins.
Pacific Northwest: Weavers used goat hair for soft textiles.
Mesoamerica (Maya, Zapotec, Nahua): Painted histories on plant textiles and carved them into stone.
The Andes (Inca): Used "khipu," a system of knotted strings, to record demographic, status, and tax data.
Major Pre-Columbian Civilizations
The Puebloan Groups (Greater Southwest)
Timeline: Centered in the current-day southwestern US and northwestern Mexico between and .
Chaco Canyon: Home to as many as people.
Infrastructure: Massive residential structures made of sandstone and lumber. Pueblo Bonito spanned over acres, rose stories, and contained over rooms decorated with turquoise and copper bells.
Spiritual Life: Houses included kivas (small dugout rooms for ceremonies). Architecture was aligned with the sun, moon, and stars.
Collapse: Faced ecological challenges like deforestation and over-irrigation. A severe drought started in , leading to the desertion of Chaco Canyon. New groups like the Apache and Navajo later entered the territory.
The Mississippian Culture (Cahokia)
Location: Near modern-day St. Louis, along the Mississippi River.
Peak Population: Between and people around years ago. No American city would match this population until after the American Revolution.
Monks Mound: A central earthen hill rising stories, larger at its base than the Egyptian pyramids.
Social and Political Organization: Organized into chiefdoms, a hierarchical system where leaders held sacred and secular authority.
Slavery: Based on a lack of kinship rather than property. Captives were often enslaved but could be fully integrated through marriage or adoption.
The "Big Bang": Around , the city saw a population increase in a single generation, involving massive social and ideological shifts.
Collapse: By , the city collapsed due to potential environmental strain (arable land burden), deforestation, erosion, drought, or political turmoil and external threats.
The Lenape (Eastern Woodlands)
Settlement: Loosely bound independent communities in the Hudson and Delaware River watersheds.
Political Structure: Governed by sachems who acquired authority through wisdom and experience. Decisions were consensus-based, involving men, women, and elders.
Social Stability: Matrilineal organization and small settlements contributed to resilience. Lack of defensive fortifications suggests they avoided large-scale warfare.
Economy: Proficient farmers (Three Sisters, tobacco, sunflowers) and fishers (elaborate nets and seasonal fish camps for shad and shellfish).
The Pacific Northwest Groups
Groups: Kwakwaka’wakw, Tlingit, Haida, and Coast Salish.
Salmon Dependency: Salmon was the core of survival and treated with spiritual respect. They used sustainable harvesting practices (First Salmon Ceremony) to ensure future runs.
Social Organization: High population density led to the potlatch, an elaborate feast to celebrate births/weddings and determine status. Hosts gave away wealth to gain prestige.
Art and Architecture: Elaborate plank houses (e.g., Suquamish Oleman House, long) and large totem poles carved from cedar to tell stories.
European Expansion and the Portuguese Innovations
The Norse: Leif Erikson reached Newfoundland around the year , but the colony failed due to isolation, weather, and Native resistance. It was largely forgotten by the rest of Europe.
The Crusades: Reconnected Europe to Asian wealth and knowledge, sparking the Renaissance and a demand for Asian goods.
Consolidation of Power: The Hundred Years’ War helped consolidate the English and French nation-states. In Spain, the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella united Aragon and Castile.
The Reconquista: Ended in with the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from the Iberian Peninsula.
Portuguese Exploration:
Prince Henry the Navigator: Invested in maritime research at his estate on the Sagres Peninsula.
Astrolabe: A tool used to calculate latitude precisely.
Caravel: A rugged, deep-draft ship capable of long ocean voyages and carrying heavy cargo.
Trading Posts: Portugal established forts along the African coast; Vasco da Gama eventually reached India via Africa.
Sugar and Slavery:
Sugarcane was a labor-intensive luxury crop requiring tropical climates ( growing season).
Portugal used Atlantic islands (Azores, Canaries, Cape Verde) as training grounds for plantations.
The indigenous Guanches were enslaved or died out.
Portugal began purchasing slaves from African kingdoms (Kongo, Ndongo, Songhai) in exchange for guns and iron, creating the first great Atlantic plantations.
The Spanish Conquest
Christopher Columbus: An Italian-born sailor who underestimated the earth's size by . Backed by Spain, he set sail in with three ships (Niña, Pinta, Santa María) and reached the Bahamas on October 12.
The Arawaks (Taíno): Columbus described them as gentle and "without knowledge of what is evil." Finding small gold ornaments, he captured a dozen Arawaks to bring to Spain and promised the crown gold and slaves.
Spanish Brutality:
Bartolomé de Las Casas: An eyewitness who documented Spanish atrocities, including the cutting off of hands and noses for no reason.
Encomiendas: Huge estates where Spaniards forced Indians to labor.
Depopulation: The population of Hispaniola (estimated between and ) was virtually exterminated within a few generations.
Virgin Soil Epidemics: Native Americans lacks immunities to Old World diseases (smallpox, typhus, measles). While the deadliest smallpox killed of infected Europeans, it killed over of infected indigenous people. Roughly of the American population died within years of contact.
The Fall of the Aztec and Incan Empires
The Aztec Empire:
Tenochtitlán: Built in on Lake Texcoco. It had buildings and people.
Infrastructure: Chinampas (artificial islands) and the Templo Mayor pyramid.
Hernán Cortés: Organized an invasion in with men. He used a translator (Doña Marina/La Malinche) and exploited internal unrest among Aztec subjects.
Conquest: Captured Montezuma, but was forced out during la noche triste (night of sorrows). He returned in to besiege the city. Smallpox and a siege led to the city's fall.
The Incan Empire:
Scale: Stretched from Ecuador to Chile/Argentina with people and miles of roads.
Francisco Pizarro: Invaded in with only men. He took advantage of a succession war and smallpox, which arrived in and killed half the population, including Emperor Huayna Capac.
Spanish Colonial Society
Migration: Spaniards migrated in the 16th century ( total over 3 centuries). Most were young, single males seeking wealth.
Sistema de Castas (Racial Hierarchy):
Peninsulares: Iberian-born Spaniards (highest rank).
Criollos: New World-born Spaniards.
Mestizos: Mixed Spanish and Indian heritage.
Indios and Slaves: Lowest rungs.
Mestizaje: Cultural and racial mixing was common. By , Mestizos were a large portion of the population.
Religion and Culture: In , the report of the Virgin of Guadalupe (appearing to Juan Diego as a dark-skinned Indian) became a national icon for the new hybrid society.
North American Expeditions
Juan Ponce de León: Landed in Florida in seeking wealth and slaves.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: Shipwrecked in Florida; embarked on a multi-year journey through Texas to Mexico.
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés: Founded St. Augustine, Florida (), the oldest continuous European settlement in the US.
Violence: Hernando de Soto explored the Southeast, while Francisco Vázquez de Coronado pillaged the Southwest.
The Legacy of the Columbian Exchange
Demographic Disaster: Scholars like Henry Dobyns estimate of Native Americans perished in the first years (for comparison, the Black Death in Europe killed ).
Dietary Revolution: Calorie-rich American crops (potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, peppers) transformed global diets and caused a worldwide population boom.
Animal Introduction: Europeans brought pigs (which transformed landscapes) and horses. Horses were adopted by Plains Indians, fundamentally changing their cultures.