New World Beginnings: From Geological Formation to the Spanish Empire

Foundations of the New World and Colonial Identity

• Pre-Revolutionary Mindset: Between $33,000\text{ B.C.}$ and $1783$, initial European explorers and the early settlers of the $13$ English colonies did not intend to establish a new, independent nation. In the $17\text{th}$ and $18\text{th}$ centuries, colonists primarily viewed themselves as subjects of the English king and part of a transatlantic European world.

• Evolution of an American Identity: Over time, unique conditions in the New World fostered a distinct culture. Many colonists escaped poverty or religious persecution, leading them to cherish ideals such as individual liberty, self-government, religious tolerance, and economic opportunity. By the time of the American Revolution, these common bonds facilitated a unified vision of an independent nation.

• Shared Hardships and Social Conflict: While the settlement experience provided a common stock of values, it also involved the subjugation of others, including the near annihilation of indigenous populations through disease and war and the forced labor of enslaved Africans on tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations.

• Regional Colonial Differences:

  • New England: Characterized by Puritans who established pious, democratic communities on small family farms with rocky soil. This region was relatively homogeneous.

  • Southern Colonies: Dominated by large landholders and Anglicans who operated coastal plantations using enslaved labor. A sharp social divide existed between the elite and poor white backcountry farmers.

  • Middle Colonies: From New York to Delaware, this region focused on diversity and commerce, led by merchants in New York City and Quakers in Philadelphia.

• The Road to Independence: Despite localized conflicts over economics and religion, the imperial rivalry between France and Britain from $1756$ to $1763$ (the French and Indian War) eventually forced colonial unity. Post-$1763$, a financially strained British government imposed new taxes, leading to a crisis of authority by the $1770\text{s}$. Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence formalized the struggle for "unalienable rights," focusing on "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Geological Evolution of the North American Continent

• Continental Drift: Approximately $225,000,000$ years ago, the earth consisted of a single supercontinent (Pangea). Massive tectonic shifts caused landmasses to drift apart, creating the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and narrowing the Pacific. Evidence for this exists in nearly identical freshwater fish species found on now-separated continents.

• Mountain Formation:

  • Appalachians: Likely formed $350,000,000$ years ago, prior to the continental separation.

  • Western Ranges: The Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and Coast Ranges are geologically younger, arising between $135,000,000$ and $25,000,000$ years ago.

• North American Topography: By $10,000,000$ years ago, the continent's basic shape was established. Key features include the Canadian Shield (ancient rock anchoring the northeast), the tidewater eastern coastal plain, the Mississippi Valley basin, and the intermountain Great Basin.

The Great Ice Age and Environmental Transformation

• Glaciation: Starting $2,000,000$ years ago, ice sheets up to $2\text{-miles-thick}$ covered parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. In North America, glaciers reached as far south as a line from Pennsylvania through the Ohio country and the Dakotas.

• Post-Glacial Landscape: When the ice retreated $10,000$ years ago, it left behind transformed geography:

  • The weight of the ice depressed the Canadian Shield and created depressions that became thousands of lakes.

  • The Great Lakes were scooped out; they originally drained into the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi before the St. Lawrence River outlet opened.

  • Lake Bonneville: A massive glacial lake covering parts of present-day Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. As it evaporated due to decreased rainfall, it left behind the arid Great Basin and the Great Salt Lake. Ancient shorelines are still visible on mountainsides $1,000\text{ feet}$ above the current dry floor.

The Peopling of the Americas and Early Migrations

• The Bering Land Bridge: During the Great Ice Age, lowered sea levels exposed a land bridge connecting Eurasia (Siberia) and North America (Alaska). Nomadic Asian hunters followed migratory game across this bridge for roughly $250$ centuries ($25,000$ years).

• Isolation: Roughly $10,000$ years ago, the melting glaciers caused sea levels to rise, inundating the bridge and isolating the inhabitants of the Americas. Over millennia, these populations migrated as far south as the tip of South America, roughly $15,000\text{ miles}$ from their point of origin.

• Demographic Diversity: By $1492$, the population of the two American continents reached approximately $54,000,000$ people. They spoke over $2,000$ separate languages and developed vast cultural and religious diversity.

Sophisticated Civilizations of the South

• Nation-States: The Incas in Peru, Mayans in Central America, and Aztecs in Mexico established advanced civilizations.

• Aztec Achievements: Based in Mexico, the Aztecs cultivated maize (Indian corn) which fed a population of nearly $20,000,000$. Though they lacked the wheel and large draft animals like horses or oxen, they built elaborate cities, engaged in far-flung commerce, and performed accurate astronomical observations.

• Religious Practices: The Aztecs focused on seeking divine favor through human sacrifice, often using captives of war. Records suggest up to $5,000$ victims were ritually killed for a single chieftain's coronation.

Native Societies in North America

• Maize Cultivation: Corn planting transformed nomadic bands into settled villagers. It reached the American Southwest around $1200\text{ B.C.}$, leading to the Development of the Pueblo culture in the Rio Grande valley, known for intricate irrigation and multistoried terraced dwellings.

• Civilizational Scale: Outside of Mexico, North American societies were generally less dense, making them easier for Europeans to subdue. However, some large settlements did exist:

  • Cahokia: A Mississippian settlement near East St. Louis that housed up to $25,000$ people.

  • Anasazi: Built a pueblo with over $600$ interconnected rooms in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

  • Three-Sister Farming: By $1000\text{ A.D.}$, the cultivation of beans, corn, and squash together (which retained soil moisture) supported high population densities among the Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee.

• The Iroquois Confederacy: Led by Hiawatha in the $16\text{th century}$, they created a robust military alliance in the northeastern woodlands. Their culture was matrilinear, with power and property passing through the female line.

• Impact on Nature: Unlike Europeans who practiced aggressive environmental manipulation, Native Americans revered the spiritual properties of nature. While they used fire to clear brush for hunting habitats, their presence across the continent remained relatively thin, with only about $4,000,000$ people in North America by $1492$.

Indirect Explorers and the Quest for Asia

• Norse Seafarers: Around $1000\text{ A.D.}$, Scandinavians landed at L'Anse aux Meadows (Newfoundland), naming it Vinland. Their discovery was forgotten as no strong nation-state supported their settlement.

• The Crusades: Between the $11\text{th}$ and $14\text{th}$ centuries, European warriors developed a taste for Asian luxuries (silk, drugs, perfumes, spices, and sugar) after failing to take the Holy Land from Muslim control.

• The Italian Link: Marco Polo's return to Europe in $1295$ and his stories of China stimulated the desire for a cheaper route to the East to bypass Muslim middlemen who made Asian goods prohibitively expensive.

Portuguese Exploration and the Origins of the Plantation System

• Maritime Innovations: Around $1450$, Portuguese mariners developed the caravel and discovered how to sail against prevailing winds and currents to return from the West African coast.

• Sub-Saharan Access: This opened trade for gold and slaves. The Portuguese extended existing Arab and African slave-trading practices, purposefully mixing people of different tribes to prevent resistance.

• The Modern Plantation: The Portuguese established large-scale commercial agriculture using slave labor on African coastal islands like Madeira, the Canaries, So Tom , and Principe. Approximately $40,000$ Africans were enslaved for Atlantic sugar islands in the late $15\text{th century}$.

• The Water Route to India: Bartholomeu Das rounded the tip of Africa in $1488$; Vasco da Gama reached India by $1498$.

Columbus and the Global Economic Shift

• The Voyage of $1492$: Christopher Columbus, funded by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile of a newly united Spain, sighted the Bahamas on October $12$, $1492$. He mistakenly labeled the natives "Indians" believing he had reached the rim of the Indies.

• Economic Interdependence: His voyage linked four continents. Europe provided capital, markets, and technology; Africa provided labor; the New World provided raw materials (metals, soil for sugar).

The Columbian Exchange and Demographic Impact

• Flora and Fauna Exchange:

  • From New World: Tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and the potato (which fueled Europe's population boom). About $3/5$ of crops grown globally today originated in the Americas.

  • From Old World: Cattle, swine, horses, and sugar cane. The introduction of the horse transformed tribes like the Apaches, Sioux, and Blackfoot into mobile hunter societies.

• The Great Dying: Native Americans lacked protective antibodies against Old World diseases (smallpox, yellow fever, malaria). In Hispaniola, the Taino population fell from $1,000,000$ to $200$ within $50$ years. Overall, up to $90\text{ percent}$ of the indigenous population perished.

• Exchange of Syphilis: Native Americans unintentionally introduced syphilis to European explorers.

The Age of the Conquistadores and European Expansion

• Treaty of Tordesillas ($1494$): Spain and Portugal divided the "heathen lands" of the New World, with Spain receiving the majority share in the Americas and Portugal receiving territory in Africa, Asia, and Brazil.

• Key Spanish Figures:

  • Vasco Nuez Balboa: Discovered the Pacific Ocean off Panama in $1513$.

  • Ferdinand Magellan: Completed the first circumnavigation of the globe ($1519$-$1522$).

  • Juan Ponce de Len: Explored Florida ($1513$, $1521$) seeking gold.

  • Francisco Coronado: Discovered the Grand Canyon and buffalo herds while searching for golden cities in Arizona and New Mexico ($1540$-$1542$).

  • Hernando de Soto: Explored the Southeast and crossed the Mississippi River ($1539$-$1542$).

  • Francisco Pizarro: Crushed the Incas of Peru in $1532$, flooding Europe with silver.

• Capitalism and Encomienda: The influx of New World bullion increased European consumer costs by $500\text{ percent}$, fueling the growth of capitalism. The encomienda system allowed the government to give Indians to colonists for "Christianization," which was effectively slavery.

The Fall of the Aztec Empire

• Cort s's Expedition: In $1519$, Hernn Cort s sailed from Cuba with $11$ ships and $16$ horses. He used interpreters, including the enslaved Malinche (Doa Marina), to coordinate with Aztec rivals.

• Moctezuma and Tenochtitln: The Aztec leader Moctezuma initially welcomed the Spaniards, believing Cort s was the god Quetzalcoatl. The capital, Tenochtitln, had $300,000$ residents and surpassed European cities in size.

• The Conquest: Cultural and gold tensions led to the noche triste (sad night) on June $30$, $1520$, where the Aztecs drove the Spanish out. Cort s besieged the city, and it fell on August $13$, $1521$. Smallpox simultaneously reduced the population from $20,000,000$ to $2,000,000$ within a century.

The Extension of Spanish Rule in North America

• Empire Building: Spain founded universities in Mexico City and Lima in $1551$. To protect against English and French encroachment (Cabot, Verrazano, Cartier), they fortified their borders:

  • St. Augustine, Florida: Founded in $1565$, the oldest permanent European settlement in the future U.S.

  • New Mexico: Settled by Don Juan de Oate in $1598$. During the Battle of Acoma ($1599$), the Spanish severed a foot from each survivor. Santa Fe was established as the capital in $1610$.

  • Pop 's Rebellion ($1680$): Pueblo rebels killed hundreds of settlers and destroyed Catholic churches to protest religious suppression. It took nearly $50$ years for Spain to reclaim the area.

  • California: In $1769$, Father Junipero Serra established the first of $21$ missions at San Diego to Christianize the $300,000$ native Californians.

• The Black Legend: A concept suggesting Spaniards only tortured and killed for Christ. While atrocities occurred, the Spanish also built a massive empire and fused with indigenous cultures through marriage (forming the mestizo race), unlike the English who later isolated native peoples.

Chronological Timeline of Major Events

• $33,000\text{ B.C.}$-$8000\text{ B.C.}$: First humans cross the Bering Land Bridge.

• $5000\text{ B.C.}$: Corn developed as staple in Mexico.

• $1000\text{ A.D.}$: Norse discovery of Newfoundland; corn reaches the American Midwest.

• $1492$: Columbus lands in the Bahamas.

• $1494$: Treaty of Tordesillas.

• $1519$-$1521$: Cort s conquers Mexico.

• $1532$: Pizarro defeats the Incas.

• $1565$: St. Augustine fortress built.

• $1680$: Pop 's Rebellion.

• $1769$: Serra founds first California mission.