Native American Societies

<aside> 💡 Before Europeans arrived, Native Americans organized themselves into diverse cultures depending on where they live

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Central/South America - large urban centers, well-formed religions, and complex political systems. All grew maize, which supported economic development, settlement, etc. Maize spread north.

Aztecs/Mexica (Central/Mesoamerica)

• Large cities → magnificent capital (Tenochtitlan) → 300,000 people

• Written language

• Complex irrigation systems

• Human sacrifice

• Grew maize

Maya (Yucatan Peninsula → southeast Mexico)

• Also developed large cities

• Complex irrigation and water storage systems

• Giant stone temples and palaces

• Grew maize

Inca (South America → Andes mountains)

• Massive empire → 16 million people

• Cultivated fertile mountain valleys, watered by elaborate water irrigation systems

• Grew maize

North American Continent

Pueblo (Southwest → New Mexico/Arizona)

• Sedentary (didn’t move around)

• Farmed maize and other crops

• Built adobe and masonry homes

• Highly organized with administrative offices, religious centers, etc.

Pacific Northwest - Lived by sea in longhouses settled in fishing villages and relied on elk

Chinook

• Used great cedar trees around them to create giant plank houses

Chumash

• Lived on in permanent settlements on the coast, hunters and gatherers

Northeast America

Iroquois

• Lived in villages of several hundred people

• Grew crops like maize and squash

• Built longhouses

Ute (Great Basin/Plains )

• Lived in small egalitarian kinship-based bands

• Nomadic people → hunter/gatherers

• Needed a lot of land to hunt and gather because of the aridity of the region

Mississippi River Valley - fertile soil around the river meant societies could stay put and develop

Hopewell

• Lived in towns of 4-6k

• Traded extensively

Cahokia

• Largest settlement in the region

• The government was composed of powerful chieftains

• Engaged in extensive trade networks

European Exploration

Reasons for exploration

• Population Increase/Rebound

• Political unification, resulting in centralized governments led by powerful monarchs

• Agricultural and commercial profits led to a wealthy class who had a desire for luxury goods

In Portugal, Prince Henry the Navigator attempted to find a passage to Asia. They established a trading post empire along the African coast. Portugal used updated maritime technology.

Spain saw Portugal’s success, and granted Columbus a sponsorship

Columbus landed in the Caribbean but thought he was in the East Indies. Because of this, he called the inhabitants Indians. Columbus brought back natives of which he had enslaved, alongside gold jewelry, of which he claimed there would be more to be found.

The Columbian Exchange

<aside> 💡 The transfer of food, animals, minerals, people, and diseases between Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Fundamentally changed the societies, economies, and environments of all 3 continents

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Spanish had a newfound mission to conquer and remake the Americas, one motive being the spread of Christianity

Transfer of Disease

• When the Spanish showed up with a new disease it decimated the native peoples (they had no immunity)

• When the Spanish showed up to Hispaniola they brought smallpox, devastated the native Arawak and Taino peoples

• Also destroyed the population of the Incas, Maya, and Aztecs

• Tenochtitlan fell to Hernando Cortes despite the number advantage of Tenochtitlan because their numbers were wiped out by disease

Transfer of Food

Americas to Europe

• Maize

• Tomatoes

• Potatoes

• Cacao

• Tobacco

Europe/Africa to Americas

• Rice

• Wheat

• Soybeans

• Rye

• Oats

• Lemons

• Oranges

• Horses

• Pigs

• Cattle

• Chickens

Food, especially grain crops, transformed America as it became a staple food item. Pigs and cattle transformed the diet of the native peoples, while the introduction of horses revolutionalized farming & warfare.

Spanish plundered the empires after they conquered them for gold and silver. It made Spain very rich and attracted more colonizers.

Before this wealth, Europe’s main system was feudalism, where peasants worked for the land of a noble in exchange for protection. After the sudden surge of wealth, capitalism took over.

Transfer of People

• Native Americans were taken back to Spain and enslaved

• Far larger transfer of Africans to the Americas

The Spanish colonization was driven by mercantilism (depended on heavy governmental direction and interventions). Later other nations would utilize joint-stock companies

Labor Systems and Societal Restructuring

African Slave Trade

• Usually slaves had some legal rights and it wasn’t a permanent situation

• Europeans began establishing ports along the African coast

• Europeans attempted to justify slavery by stating that Africans had descended from Kanan

• Encomienda system: system that leading men were granted a potion of land, the natives who lived on the land were then the coerced labor force. Natives who converted to Christianity were meant to be spared (not necessarily true)

• Labor system of Natives wasn’t working because the Natives kept dying and knew the land better to escape → African people replaced the Natives

Caste System

• The Spanish created a racial hierarchy that determined how much taxes you owed

• Peninsulares (born in Spain) → Criollos (Spanish but born in Americas) → Mestizos (Spanish and Native American ancestry) → Mulattoes (Spanish and African ancestry) → Africans → Native Americans

Cultural Interactions

Hegemony = the domination of one nation/group by another

Spain changed their method of expansion. They stopped sending soldiers and started sending missionaries to convert the Natives to Christianity (Mission System). Sometimes worked. The Pueblo and other groups adapted Christ, but retained their other gods.

When the Spanish tried to make it exclusive, some tried to keep their other practices hidden, while others resisted.

The Pueblo Revolt

• The Pueblo decided the root of their problems were the Spanish and Christ

• The Pueblo killed 400 Spanish colonizers and burned the churches down

• 12 years later the Spanish returned and reconquered

Natives

• Animists

• Land was not a commodity

• Kinship networks (extended family)

Spanish

• Catholic

• Land existed for private ownership

• Nuclear family (parents and children)

Both groups adopted culture that the found useful. Natives wanted guns and tools, Europeans wanted to partake in the fur trade.

There were debates on the morality of Spanish conquest. Some argued that because of Native inferiority, conquering them was bringing them riches. Others, like priest Bartolome De Las Casas, argued that Native’s souls would be lost go god and they would grow to resent Christianity. He argued that instead the Africans should replace then in the labor system, which is what the Spanish did.

Overall Review

<aside> 💡 The Native Americans developed distinct and increasingly complex societies which were affected by the environment in which they lived

</aside>

Pueblo

• Planted and harvested crops (maize)

• Evidence of advanced irrigation system

• Built small urban centers (cliff dwellings)

Northeast

• Iroquois: farmers who planted crops

• Lived in longhouses (constructed from abundant timber)

Great Basin

• Nomadic hunter/gatherers

• Organized in small egalitarian kinship bands → Ute

Mississippi River Valley

• Also farmers because of rich soil

• Participated trade

• Most famous → Cahokia (10k-30k)

  • Had a centralized government

Pacific Coast

• Permanent settlements along the coast because of the presence of fish (Chumash)

• Participated in trade

Growing wealthy class who developed a taste for luxury goods from Asia (wanted Asia route)

• Portugal was 1st, developed trading post along Africa (new maritime technology)

• Spain joined after seeing Portugal success

  • Wanted to spread Christianity

  • Sought new economic opportunities

  • Columbus sailed in 1492, ran into continent (Caribbean)

    • Created competition to seek wealth he claimed

Columbian Exchange: transfer of people, animals, plants, and diseases

• Potatoes/tomatoes/maize came to Europe

• Wheat/rice/soybeans to Americas

• Gold and silver

• People, introduced enslaved Africans

• EXCHANGE of DISEASE

Wealth shifted economics in European states (from feudalism to capitalism)

• Rise of join-stock companies to fund exploration

Spanish realized that the Americas was valuable for agriculture

• Encomienda system: forced Natives to work on their plantation

  • Struggled to stop Natives from escaping, and they kept dying from disease → African slaves

• Spain introduced Caste system (based on racial ancestry)

People stole what they saw valuable of the others culture.