Societal Makeup of The Americas & European Arrival

The Americas Before European Arrival

  • Diversity of Native Societies: Native American societies were diverse, shaped by their environments.
  • Common Misconception: Not all Native Americans were nomadic buffalo hunters.

Examples of Native American Societies

  • Pueblo People:
    • Location: Utah and Colorado.
    • Lifestyle: Farmers practicing settled agriculture.
    • Crops: Beans, squash, and maize.
    • Advanced irrigation systems.
    • Urban centers made of hardened clay bricks.
    • Famous for cliff dwellings.
  • Great Basin and Great Plains People:
    • Location: Colorado to Canada.
    • Lifestyle: Nomadic hunter-gatherers.
    • Organization: Small, egalitarian kinship bands.
    • Example: The Ute people.
  • Northwest and Pacific Coast People:
    • Permanent settlements due to abundant resources.
    • Example: Chumash people in California.
      • Villages of nearly a thousand people.
      • Regional trade networks.
    • Example: Chinook people in the Pacific Northwest.
      • Extensive plank houses for families and kinship groups.
  • Iroquois People:
    • Location: Northeast.
    • Lifestyle: Farmers.
    • Communal living in longhouses made of timber.
  • Mississippi River Valley People:
    • Lifestyle: Farmers due to rich soil.
    • Trade along waterways.
    • Example: Cahokia
      • Large civilization of about 40,000 people.
      • Centralized government led by chieftains.

Key Idea

  • Native societies were distinct, complex, and shaped by their environment.
  • Vast trading networks existed across North and South America.

European Arrival

Context for European Exploration

  • Political Unification: European kingdoms were undergoing political unification in the 1300s and 1400s, forming stronger states governed by monarchs.
  • Demand for Asian Goods: Growing wealthy upper class desired luxury goods from Asia.
  • Trade Route Obstacles: Muslim control of land-based trade routes hindered European access to Asian markets.

Portugal's Maritime Ventures

  • Established trading posts around Africa.
  • Created a trading post empire.
  • Gained a foothold in the Indian Ocean trade.
  • Maritime Technology:
    • New and adapted technologies.
    • Updated astronomical charts.
    • Astrolabe.
    • Smaller, faster ships.
    • Borrowed technology: Latin sail and stern post rudder.

Spain's Exploration and Columbus

  • Reconquista: Spain completed the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors.
    • Motivated to spread Catholic Christianity.
    • Sought new economic opportunities.
  • Christopher Columbus:
    • Sought sponsorship to sail west to find wealth in Asian markets.
    • Sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
    • Sailed west across the Atlantic in 1492.
    • Landed in the Caribbean.
    • Found wealth, leading to competition among European nations.
    • Columbus's landing marked a major turning point. The consequences of this are the Columbian Exchange.

The Columbian Exchange

  • Definition: The transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases between the East (Europe, Africa, Asia) and the West (Americas). *Items Transferred:
    • From The Americas to Europe:
      • Foods: Potatoes, tomatoes, maize.
    • From Europe to The Americas:
      • Foods: Wheat, rice, soybeans.
      • Animals: Cattle, pigs, horses.
    • Other Transfers:
      • Gold and silver from The Americas to Europe.
      • People: European settlers and enslaved Africans to The Americas.
      • Diseases: Smallpox from Europe to The Americas (devastating impact on native populations); Syphilis, possibly from The Americas to Europe.

Economic and Societal Shift in Europe

  • Influx of wealth from The Americas caused shift from feudalism to capitalism.
  • Feudalism: Peasants worked on a noble's land for protection.
  • Capitalism: Economic system based on private ownership and free exchange.
  • Joint Stock Companies:
    • Limited liability organizations pooling money for ventures.
    • Shared profits if successful.

Spanish Colonization

  • Agriculture: Realized agriculture would create wealth.
  • Encomienda System:
    • Spaniards forced natives to work on plantations and extract resources.
    • Problems:
      • Difficulty keeping natives enslaved.
      • Native populations decimated by smallpox (and other diseases).
    • Solution: Importation of enslaved African laborers.
      • Africans less likely to escape (unfamiliar with geography).
      • Greater immunity to European diseases.
  • Casta System:
    • Social classes based on racial ancestry.
    • Hierarchy:
      • 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.

Interactions Between Europeans and Natives

  • Europeans generally looked down on natives.
  • Natives seen as sources of exploitation, military alliances, forced labor, and subjects of Christian conversion.
  • Cultural Exchange:
    • Natives taught the English how to hunt and cultivate maize.
    • Natives adopted iron tools and weapons.
  • Justification for Treatment:
    • Belief that Native Americans were less than human.
    • Juan Guines de Sepulveda argued natives benefited from harsh labor.
    • Bartolome de las Casas defended native humanity and persuaded the king to pass laws ending native slavery (later repealed).

Justification for Enslaving Africans

  • Used biblical interpretations (Book of Genesis, Noah's curse on Ham's son Canaan).
  • Europeans concluded black skin was the mark of Ham, destined for slavery.