UNIT 1 (1491 - 1607)

PRE-EUROPEAN ARRIVAL

THE NATIVES IN AMERICA DEVELOPED DISTINCT AND COMPLEX SOCIETIES AND THE SOCIETIES WERE AFFECTED AND SHAPED BY THE ENVIRONMENT THEY LIVED IN .

• The natives were a diverse group of people in diverse environments (some permanent some nomadic)

• Set up cities, towns-fishing villages and developed trading post

CAUSES OF EUROPEAN ARRIVAL

• Political changes in european countries (monarchy), developed upper class desires for luxuries from asia

• Muslims controlled the middle east and so europeans had to find a sea based route to asia

• Navigation improvements led to voyages

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

• Wanted to find spices and wealth in asia; proposed his plan to the queen and king of spain

• Sailed the Atlantic ocean and landed on the Caribbean islands (he thought outer asia-east indies) in 1492.

• After finding great wealth within the natives he went back to Spain to share his findings, which  led to rumors of hidden wealth in the new world.

• Wanted christian conversion of natives

RESULTS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS’ LANDING

• THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: The exchange of plants, animals, diseases and people between the Europe and the new world.

• New world → Europe

  • Corn, potato

  • Turkeys

  • Gold and silver

• Europe → new world

  • Wheat, rice, soybean

  • Cattle, horses, pigs

  • Enslaved africans

  • Diseases (smallpox) - natives who were not exposed to diseases had no immunity

RESULTS IN EUROPE

Exchange of wealth caused economic shift in Europe:

Previous → Feudalism: peasant lived and worked in a noble’s land for protection

Change → more capitalistic system: economic system based on private ownership and free exchange

Ex. of this change

Rise of joint-stock companies : composed of multiple investors for the purpose of making  profit

• Funded voyages and invested in these voyages for a shared profit between the investors.
  

SPANISH IN AMERICA

THE SPANISH ESTABLISHED COLONIES IN THE AMERICAS IN ORDER TO EXTRACT WEALTH IN THE FORM OF CASH CROPS AND DIGGING OF GOLD AND SILVER. THEY SUBJECTED THE NATIVE AMERICANS, BY CONVERTING THEM TO CHRISTIANS, INTRODUCING THE CASTE SYSTEM AND EXPLOITING THEM FOR LABOR.

After realization that agricultural could be used to create profit (cash crops)

• Implemented the Encomienda System: a labor system that forced the natives to work in exchange for a promise of protection.

• However:

  • Natives were locals and familiar with geography, which made them hard to be subservient

  • Diseases killed native americans in large numbers

• Result:

  • Brought African americans

  • Previously interacted with europeans and had immunity

  • Did not know geography, more likely to be subservient

• Casta system: classified people into social classes based on racial ancestry

• Living together, brought marriages between natives and the spanish, showing Immersion of two cultures