Chapter 1: New World Beginnings
Key Words
Canadian Shield - a zone undergirded by ancient rock, probably the first part of what became the North American landmass to have emerged above sea level.
Incas - a group that was located in Peru which shaped stunningly sophisticated civilizations.
Aztecs - a group that was located in Mexico which shaped stunningly sophisticated civilizations.
Nation-States - The form of political society that traditionally combines centralized government with a high degree of ethnic and cultural unity.
Cahokia - the Mississippian settlement near present-day East St. Louis, was at one time home to as many as twenty five thousand people.
Three-Sister Farming - beans growing on the trellis of the cornstalks and squash covering the planting mounds to retain moisture in the soil.
Middlemen - exacted heavy tolls on merchants making goods more expensive
Caravel - a ship that could sail more closely into the wind
Plantation - there was a plantation system based on large-scale commercial agriculture and the wholesale exploitation of slave labor
Columbian Exchange - when Columbus came to the Americas bringing war, disease, and slavery along with new plants and animals while in return they got slave labor through the encomienda system and new plants
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) - dividing with Portugal the “heathen lands” of the New World.The lion’s share went to Spain, but Portugal received compensating territory in Africa and Asia, as well as title to lands that one day would be Brazil
Conquistadores - Spanish conquerors who fanned out across the Caribbean and eventually onto the mainland of the American continents
Capitalism - economic system that relied on the influence of monetary gain
Encomienda - A system that enslaved the Native Americans (“Indians”) to Spaniards based on if or if not they agreed to terms that they could not understand
Noche Triste - June 30, 1520, the Aztecs attacked, driving the Spanish down the causeways from Tenochtitlán in a frantic, bloody retreat
Mestizos - people of mixed Indian and European heritage.
Battle of Acoma - A battle in 1599, the Spanish severed one foot of each survivor.
Popé’s Rebellion - In 1680. The Pueblo rebels destroyed every Catholic church in the province and killed a score of priests and hundreds of Spanish settlers. In a reversal of Cortés’s treatment of the Aztec temples more than a century earlier, the Indians rebuilt a kiva, or ceremonial religious chamber, on the ruins of the Spanish plaza at Santa Fé.
Black Legend - The false concept held that the conquerors merely tortured and butchered the Indians (“killing for Christ”), stole their gold, infected them with smallpox, and left little but misery behind
Notes
Peopling the Americas
The advanced societies of the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs formed great civilizations, they had an agriculture primarily based on maize or Indian corn feeding over 20 million in Mexico alone
These groups lacked simple machines such as the wheel and because of location did not have labor animals such as oxen and horses.
These communities also seemed to slaughter people to sacrifice to the gods for rituals
The Earliest Americans
Corn was a very important staple in agriculture
There weren’t many big nation-states comparable to Aztec outside of Mexico
The Anasazi people lived near Cahokia yet at one point in history mysteriously disappeared
Some of the highest populace in the continent including the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek used the three-sister farming system
The Iroquois who lived in northeastern woodlands, inspired by the mighty hero Hiawatha, might be the ancient civilization most similar to the great empires of Peru and Mexico with the knowledge to create political and militia power
In the majority of the settlements in the Americas it was to a lesser scale, women would farm while men would hunt, fish, gather fuel, and clear the fields for farming
There was more of a maternal society and possessions and power were passed down through the maternal side
The people cared for their land unlike the Europeans and believed it to be a gift
Indirect Discoverers of the New World
The Scandinavians were the first to brush with the New World landing in present day Newfoundland yet due to no strong nation-states wanting to found the settlements were soon abandoned
Wanting to find a faster way to Asia the European superpowers sent out crusaders to venture into new water
Europeans Enter Africa
Due to Marco Polo’s discovery of what he said to be Asia many countries wanted to find more efficient paths to the East
Since it was so hard to travel back home the Portuguese developed the caravel
Due to the harsh travel no one had traveled past the Sahara before, due to this the land and its resources were a mystery
Portuguese set up trading posts trading slaves and gold
During this time there was a huge expansion of slave trade due to the Portuguese