Period 1 Notes (1491 - 1607)

1.1 Contexualizing Period 1

Christopher Columbus Arrival

• Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492

  • The period before him was the Pre-Colombian Era.

  • He was not the first European to reach North America, the Norse had arrived in modern Canada around 1000.

  • But his arrival marked the beginning of the Contact Period, during which Europe sustained contact with the Americas.

  • Existing cultures varied vastly when Columbus first arrived in Americas.

    • Mostly because of geography and climate differences.

      • NA in dry regions created irrigation systems.

      • NA in forested systems created used fire to clear land for agriculture.

  • European explorers came to America for different motives

    • To spread Christianity.

    • To be wealthy by finding northwest passage and making fur-trading posts as well as plantations and mines.

  • Europeans relied on violence to subdue NA culture.

  • Contact between Europeans and NA started with the Columbian Exchange which was a trade in animals, plants, and disease.

  • NA and Africans resisted Europeans by maintaining parts of their own culture.

    • Enslaved Africans were first brought in 1501.

    • NA population was significantly reduced mostly by disease.

  • The period ends in 1607 because that is the year of the first English settlement.

Bering Land Bridge (Connected Eurasia and North America)

• First people to inhabit North and South America came across Bering Land Bridge.

• Ancestors of the Native Americans could walk across the Bering land bridge from Siberia (in modern Russia) to Alaska.

• During this period, the planet was significantly colder.

1.2 Native American Societies Before European Contact

Cultures of Central and South America

• Three groups of natives (highly organized):

  • Mayans

    • Rainforests

    • Cities

    • Maize

  • Aztecs

    • Large empires

    • Central America, Mexico

    • Corn (maize)

  • Incas

    • Western south america

    • Empires

    • Potatoes

Cultures of North America

• Area in US and Canada.

• General Patterns

  • Fewer ppl and less complex social structures

    • Because of lack of maize and how it provided nutrition.

  • Semi permanent settlements.

• Language Differences

  • Multiple language families, more than europeans.

• Southwest Settlements

  • Classes

  • Wealth because of corn

• Northwest Settlements

  • Mountains

  • Huntings

  • Longhouses

• Great plains

  • Nomadic tribes.

  • Migrations.

• The marker of 1491 serves as a division between the Native American world and the world that came after European exploration, colonization, and invasion.

• North America was home to hundreds of tribes, cities and societies.

• Indigenous societies in North America before Europeans were definitely very complex.

Settlements

• Permanent Settlements:

  • The spread of maize cultivation from present-day Mexico northward into the present-day American Southwest and beyond supported economic development.

  • Along Northwest coast and in California, tribes developed communities along ocean to hunt whales and salmon, totem poles, and canoes.

  • In the northeast, the Mississippi river valley, and along the Atlantic seaboard, some indigenous societies developed.

• Nomadic Settlements:

  • Great Plains and surrounding grasslands

  • More suitable for hunting and gathering.

1.3 European Exploration in the Americas

Changes in Thought and Technology

• The Renaissance in Europe prompted changes in technology.

  • Europeans primarily enhanced inventions by others, like the compass and gunpowder from Arabs and Chinese people.

  • The printing press in the 1450s was also popular.

Religious Conflicts

• The end of the Renaissance was a period of great religious tensiion.

  • In the west of Europe, the pope (Roman Catholic Church Leader) dominated.

  • When Queen Isabela and King Ferdinand married, it was known as Catholic victory in Spain over the Moors, Islamic invaders from North Africa.

  • The Protestant Reformation was a conflict between the Catholics and protestants in the eary 1500s when some christians revolted against the pope.

    • As a result, both groups wanted to spread their own versions of Christianity to people in Africa, Asia, and Americas.

    • Thus, there was a religious motive for exploration.

Expanding Trade

• Europeans wanted to find new trade routes to trade with places like Africa, India, and China.

  • Vasco da Gama was the first european to reach India.

  • Europeans, especially the Portugese, traded for slaves from West Africa to cultivate sugar, and that success led to a similar system in America.

  • Trade became easier with joint-stock companies (corps with shareholders to settle and developed land in North america).

    • British east india company

    • Dutch east india company.

    • etc…

Dividing the Americas

• Small European kingdoms were uniting into larger ones

  • These were nation-states.

  • Spain and Portugal were the first to claim territories in the Americas.

    • The Treaty of Tordesillas granted Brazil to Portugal while the Spanish claimed other parts.

  • English’s earliest voyages were by John Cabot, an Italian dude.

  • The French and english were SLOW to develop colonies.

    • English were slow because of Religious conflict and breaking of catholic church.

    • French too with religious conflict.

1.4 Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, and Conquest

Christopher Colombus

• In 1492, Columbus was finally granted financial supported by Isabela and Ferdinand of Spain, because they were occupied with defeated the Moors.

  • He was supposed to get gold and spices from India and China, but didn’t (boohoo 🙂)

  • A colony is a territory settled and controlled by a foreign power.

The Colombian Exchange

• Colombian Exchange: the transfer of disease, plants, and animals from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

  • Exchange of potatoes, tobacco, guns, pigs, horses, etc.

  • Old World to New World: horses, pigs, rice, wheat, grapes

  • New World to Old World: corn, potatoes, chocolate, tomatoes, avocado, sweet potatoes.

  • Population growth in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

  • Bad in americas 😭

    • NA had no immunity to germs and diseases like smallpox and measles.

    • Their population declined.

The Rise of Capitalism

• In Europe, there was Feudalism.

  • Monarchs granted land to nobles in exchange for military service.

  • It declined.

  • In its place, capitalism started to rise.

  • Capitalism: control of capital (money and machinery) became more important than control of land.

    • As trade increased.

      • Europeans wanted to have the riches of Africa, Asia, and Americas.

  • Colombus was a FAILURE 😂👏

    • Many believe he was a religious fanatic who sought to convert EVERYONE and kill 🔪

1.5 Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System

Spanish Exploration and Conquest

• Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs in Mexico.

  • Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas in Peru.

  • The Conquistadors expanded Spain’s gold supply as they sent ships back to them.

  • They used the Encomienda System

    • Spain’s King granted natives who lived on some land to individual Spaniards.

    • NA were forced to work or farm or mine.

    • They gave resources to Spanish who in returned “cared” for them and converted them to Catholicism 🙄

  • The Portugese has primarily used African labor.

    • Transatlantic Slave Trade

    • Africans revolted in many ways.

    • They didn’t know the land well, so they didn’t escape as often as NA.

    • English colonists associated African dark skin with inferiority.

    • Ended in 1808.

  • Inventions like the sextant made exploration easier.

The Middle Passage

• Middle Passage: a shipping route that brought enslaved people to the Americas.

  • Conditions for Africans were very inhumane 😢

    • Some committed suicide or dies of disease.

  • Slavery flourished in the South because of short growing season.

  • Only the very wealthy owned slaves.

Spanish Caste System

• Many spanish ppl had kids with NA and African women cause they were single bachelors 😂

  • As a result, Spanish colonies became more diverse and a caste system developed.

  • Spanish caste system:

    • At the top there were pure-blooded Spaniards.

    • At the middle, there were people of mixed Spanish-European, African, and NA heritage.

    • Bottom were pure Africans and NA.

1.6 Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

Europeans' Treatment of Natives

• SPANISH POLICY

  • Bartolome de Las Casas was a Spanish priest.

    • He fought wars against them and stuff but he still advocated for better treatment of them.

    • He persuaded the king to put in place the New laws of 1542 (ended NA slavery and started to end encomienda system)

    • Conservative Spaniards persuaded king to repeal some parts of this.

    • Primarily tries to influence Spanish monarchs.

  • Valladolid Debate: formal debate over roles of NA in Spanish colonies.

  • ENGLISH POLICY

    • Unlike Spanish, English settled in areas with no large NA population for labor.

      • Because when English colonists arrived, diseases from Europe already wiped out a lot of NA.

    • In Massachusetts, NA and English lived peacefully.

      • However, relations started growing worse

  • FRENCH POLICY

    • Mainly looked for fur and for converting ppl to Catholicism.

      • Treated NA nicely and as allies.

      • They were less of a threat to NA because they had fewer colonies.

Survival Strategies by Natives

• As european settlements expanded, NA wanted to protect their culture.

  • One strategy they used was to ally with Europeans.

  • Others migrated West to get away from settlers.

    • Showed strong NA loyalty to their tribes and culture.

  • Others resisted.

Role of Africans

• They brought many languages, instruments, and styles to Americas.

English Colonization

• Relationships between English people and NA were strained.

  • They married with Africans and NA.

  • England’s first attempt to settle was in Roanoke Island (now in north Carolina).

    • The colony had mysteriously disappeared in 1590 👻

    • The English didn’t try again until Jamestown in 1607.