New World Beginnings & the Planting of English America (Chs. 1-3) – Vocabulary Review

Shaping of North America

• 4.5\text{ billion} years ago: Earth forms; by 225\text{ million} years BP super-continent Pangaea begins to rift- Opening of Atlantic & Indian Oceans; narrowing of Pacific

  • Continental drift verified by identical freshwater fish species on now-separated landmasses

• Major American mountain systems- Appalachians: uplifted \approx350\text{ m.y.} BP (pre-Pangaea break-up)

  • Western ranges (Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades, Coast Ranges): raised 135!–!25\text{ m.y.} BP → “American mountains”

• By 10\text{ m.y.} BP North America’s modern contours set- Canadian Shield (oldest exposed rock)—northeast anchor

  • Eastern tidewater plain → Appalachian ridges → interior basin → Mississippi Valley → Rockies → Great Basin → Sierra/Cascade → Pacific Coast Ranges

The Great Ice Age (\approx2\text{ m.y.} \text{–} 10{,}000\text{ BP})

• Continental glaciation \approx2\text{ m.y.} BP; 2-mile-thick sheets reach PA–OH–Dakotas–NW

• Effects after melting:- Weight depressed Shield; gouged basins → Great Lakes; rerouted drainage from Mississippi to St Lawrence

  • Lake Bonneville (UT/NV/ID) formed then shrank → Great Salt Lake & Great Basin deserts

Peopling the Americas

• Sea levels drop \approx35{,}000\text{ BP} → Bering land bridge between Siberia & Alaska- Nomadic Asian hunter bands cross for \approx250\text{ centuries} following megafauna

• Bridge submerged \approx10{,}000\text{ BP} isolating populations

• Ice-free corridors permit southward/eastward spread → tip of South America \approx15{,}000\text{ miles} from Beringia

• By 1492: \approx54\text{ million} inhabitants, >2{,}000 languages, myriad cultures

High Civilizations of Mesoamerica & Andes

• Incas (Peru), Mayans (Central America), Aztecs (Mexico)- Maize agriculture (domesticated \approx5000\text{ B.C.E.} in Mexican highlands) sustains dense populations (Aztecs \approx20\text{ m.})

  • Achievements: accurate astronomy, mathematics, commerce, elaborate cities, engineering w/out wheel or draft animals

  • Aztec religious human sacrifice (e.g., >5{,}000 victims at one coronation)

North of Mexico: Diverse Adaptations

• Lack of comparable nation-states helps later European conquest

• Mound Builders (Ohio R.); Mississippian Cahokia (IL) pop. \approx25{,}000 c. 1100 C.E.; Anasazi Chaco Canyon (NM) >600-room pueblo; decline \approx1300\text{ C.E.} (drought)

• Corn spread unevenly:- Southwest by 2000\text{ B.C.E.} → Pueblo irrigation/agriculture

  • Southeast Atlantic by 1000\text{ C.E.} → three-sister farming (maize-beans-squash) → high densities (Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee)

  • Northeast: Iroquois Confederacy (16th c., Hiawatha) sophisticated political/military alliance

• Most groups small, scattered, matrilineal authority common; cultural ethic of nature reverence yet used fire ecology

• Population north of Mexico \approx4\text{ m.} in 1492

Indirect European Discoverers

• Norse Vikings land at Vinland (Newfoundland) \approx1000\text{ C.E.}; settlements fail

• Crusades (11th–14th c.) stimulate taste for Asian luxuries (silk, spices, sugar) → desire for cheaper routes

• Marco Polo’s tales (1295) heighten demand

Europe Readies for Expansion

• Portugal develops caravel (c. 1450) + Atlantic wind-wheel routes; rounds Africa- Bartholomeu Dias (1488) Cape of Good Hope; Vasco da Gama reaches India (1498)

  • Establish coastal trading posts; pioneer plantation slavery on Atlantic islands (Madeira, Canaries, São Tomé, Principe)

  • Begin large-scale African slave trade: \approx40{,}000 Africans to Atlantic sugar islands 1450-1500; plant modern plantation system

• Spain unifies under Ferdinand & Isabella (1469); expels Moors (1492); seeks westward route

Columbus & the New World (1492)

• Sponsored by Spain; reaches Bahamas 12 Oct 1492 believing Indies; four continents convulsed

• Columbian Exchange- From New World → Old: maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, tobacco, vanilla, cacao, pineapple, precious metals, syphilis

  • From Old World → New: wheat, sugar, rice, coffee; horses, cattle, pigs; smallpox, measles, influenza, typhus, malaria; \approx90\% native demographic collapse

  • Sugar + African labor → Caribbean “sugar revolution”; Old World crops boost European population; New World metals fuel capitalism/international trade

Spanish Conquest & Empire

• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): Spain–Portugal divide non-European world; Spain gets bulk of Americas

• Encomienda system: crown grants Indians to colonists for Christianization → de facto slavery; condemned by Bartolomé de Las Casas

• Cortés conquers Aztecs (1519-1521); siege of Tenochtitlán; noche triste 30 Jun 1520; smallpox ravages; Mexico City on ruins

• Pizarro topples Incas (1532) → bullion flood; price revolution in Europe (↑500% 16th c.) → seeds of capitalism/banking

• Mestizo culture: Spanish + Indian; Dia de la Raza; Malinche / Doña Marina key interpreter

Exploration & Northern Borderlands

• Notables: Balboa (Pacific, 1513); Magellan circumnavigation (1519-1522); Ponce de León (Florida, 1513/1521); De Soto (SE & Mississippi, 1539-1542); Coronado (SW & Great Plains, 1540-1542)

• St Augustine, FL (1565) oldest European town in future USA

• New Mexico: Oñate 1598; Battle of Acoma (1599) brutal; Santa Fe 1610; Pueblo/Popé’s Rebellion (1680) destroy missions, Spanish reconquer \sim1692

• Texas settlements as buffer vs. French (La Salle 1680s); San Antonio 1716+

• California: Cabrillo 1542; missions from San Diego north by Junípero Serra (from 1769) → mission Indians decimated by disease/culture loss

Black Legend vs. Historical Balance

• Black Legend: trope that Spanish solely killed/enslaved/robbed natives and left no positives

• Reality: brutality + enslavement + disease but also created empire, grafted culture, language, laws; intermarried vs. English segregation

Chronological Signposts & Comparative Timelines

• \approx33{,}000\text{–}8000\text{ B.C.E.}: Bering migrations

• \approx5000\text{ B.C.E.}: maize domesticated; \approx1000\text{ C.E.} Norse Vinland

• 1492: Columbus; 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas; 1513-1542: major Spanish explorations; 1521: Cortés captures Tenochtitlán; 1532: Pizarro conquers Incas; 1565: St Augustine; 1598-1609: Spanish push into NM; 1609: Santa Fe; 1680: Popé’s Rebellion; 1769: first California mission

Thematic Connections

• PEO-1 Migration/Peopling: land bridge; coastal & river valleys; forced African diaspora; European settler waves

• WOR-1 Atlantic World: Columbian Exchange; bullion → capitalism; plantation complex; imperial contests

• CUL-1 World-views & Conflict: Spanish debate over Indian humanity (Sepúlveda vs. Las Casas); Black Legend; Native resistance strategies (Pueblos, Iroquois)

• Economic formulas: plantation = \text{large land} + \text{cash crop} + \text{coerced labor}

Key Terms & Individuals

• Canadian Shield; Pangaea; Great Basin; Lake Bonneville; Beringia

• Incas, Mayans, Aztecs; Cahokia; Anasazi; three-sister farming; Iroquois Confederacy (Hiawatha)

• Crusades; Marco Polo; caravel; Bartholomeu Dias; Vasco da Gama; Ferdinand & Isabella; Christopher Columbus; Hernán Cortés; Malinche; Moctezuma; Francisco Pizarro; Bartolomé de Las Casas; Junípero Serra

• Encomienda; mestizos; noche triste; Treaty of Tordesillas; Popé’s Rebellion; Black Legend; Columbian Exchange

Cause-and-Effect Web (Selected)

• European demand for Asian goods → search for routes → Portuguese down African coast → Spanish westward voyage → discovery of Americas

• Ice Age lowers seas → land bridge → peopling of continents → isolation → unique cultures but no immunity → post-1492 epidemics → demographic collapse

• Maize agriculture → population growth + urban centers in Mesoamerica → Spanish interest in gold tribute → conquest empires

• Sugar + African labor model on Atlantic islands → transatlantic slave trade → plantation economy in New World

• Price revolution from New World silver → inflation in Europe → growth of capitalism & banking → funding for further exploration

Comparative Snapshot: Spanish vs. English Early Approaches

Early English Colonization Efforts

• Motivations for English Expansion

  • Economic: Search for new markets and raw materials (e.g., gold, furs, timber). Desire for a Northwest Passage to Asia.

  • Social: Population growth and enclosure movement in England led to many displaced farmers seeking opportunity.

  • Religious: Protestant Reformation fueled rivalry with Catholic Spain; Puritan desire for religious freedom.

• Roanoke Colony (1580s)

  • Sir Walter Raleigh’s attempts; known as the “Lost Colony.”

  • Settlers mysteriously disappeared, highlighting early challenges.

• Jamestown (1607)

  • First permanent English settlement, financed by the Virginia Company (joint-stock company).

  • Early years marked by disease, starvation, and conflicts with Powhatan Confederacy (First Anglo-Powhatan War).

  • Saved by tobacco cultivation (John Rolfe, c. 1612) → cash crop economy.

  • Introduction of House of Burgesses (1619) as first representative assembly in America.

  • First African laborers arrive (1619), marking the beginnings of chattel slavery.

  • Headright System: granted 50 acres of land to anyone who paid passage for a new immigrant, encouraging migration.

• Maryland (1634)

  • Founded by Lord Baltimore as a haven for Catholics.

  • Act of Toleration (1649): granted religious freedom to all Christians, though later limited by Protestant majority.

  • Economy based on tobacco with labor moving towards African slaves.

• New England Colonies

  • Plymouth Colony (1620): founded by Separatist Pilgrims who signed the Mayflower Compact (early form of self-government).

  • Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630): founded by Puritans; led by John Winthrop, envisioned a “city upon a hill.”

  • Focus on religious piety, strong community, diversified economy (fishing, shipbuilding, trade, small farms).

  • Development of town meetings for local governance and Harvard College (1636).

  • Roger Williams (Rhode Island) and Anne Hutchinson (exiled) challenged Puritan orthodoxy.

  • Pequot War (1637) and King Philip’s War (1675-1676): significant conflicts with Native Americans over land and resources.

• Southern Colonies (Carolinas, Georgia)

  • The Carolinas (founded late 17th c.): split into North and South.

    • North: poorer, small farmers, often dissenters from Virginia.

    • South: aristocratic, ties to Barbados, focused on rice and indigo plantations, heavily reliant on African slave labor.

  • Georgia (1733): founded by James Oglethorpe as a buffer colony against Spanish Florida and a haven for debtors.

    • Initially tried to prohibit slavery but eventually succumbed to plantation economy.

• Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware)

  • New York: originally Dutch New Netherland, taken by English in 1664; diverse population, major trade port.

  • Pennsylvania (1681): founded by William Penn (Quaker); promoted religious tolerance, fair dealings with natives, and a diverse agricultural economy.

  • Known for fertile land, diverse ethnic groups, and religious pluralism, earning them the name “bread colonies.”

• Colonial Labor Systems

  • Indentured Servitude: primary labor source in early Southern colonies; workers exchanged labor for passage to America.

  • African Slavery: gradually replaced indentured servitude, especially after Bacon’s Rebellion (1676), becoming the dominant labor system in the South.

  • Triangular Trade: complex network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas, primarily for the exchange of raw materials, manufactured goods, and enslaved people.