Chapter 1 - Give Me Liberty

Old Worlds and New

  • 1534, Mi’kmaq Indians approached Jacques Cartier’s to attempt to trade

  • Europe had trade relations with Muslims in North Africa making Europe a “distinct” community

  • Europeans in west Africa built the slave trade

  • of the 10 million men who crossed to the Americas between 1492 and 1820 7.7 million were enslaved Africans

  • Europeans saw America as a religious refuge, a society of equals, and a source of power and glory

An Old World: North America

  • Each native group had its own political system, religious beliefs, and language

  • They did not think of themselves as “one people”. Their identity came from their family, clan, town, nation, or confederacy

The Setting of the Americas

  • Native American ancestors crossed the Bering Strait via land bridge from Asia

  • It is believed that some of the migrants arrived from the Pacific Islands

  • Some Native American Migration stories tell of a migration but others describe their creation having been in the Americas

  • The earliest inhabitants of the Americas spread across the continents 9000 years ago

  • Maize, squash, and beans were the basis of Native American Agriculture

Politics and Power in Native North America

  • The Medieval Warm Period that began around 950 produced longer growing periods and more predictable weather

  • Agriculture expanded and large scale farming and urban living became possible

  • The largest city north of Mexico was Cahokia (across the river from what is now St. Louis) and was a part of “Mississippian civilizations”

  • Mississippian leader ruled from large halls temples and council chambers built on top of a central mound

  • Southwest tribes - Puebloans and Huhugam

    • constructed irrigation systems, long distance trade, large multi-family dwellings

    • Pueblo Bonito, in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico was 5 stories high and had more than 600 rooms

  • The Medieval Warm Period ended in 1250 and the little ice age begain

  • Oral Histories and archeological evidence indicated a growing distrust in powerful leadership and centralized political systems

  • People moved out of large Mississippian and southern cities in favor of small locally sustainable towns and farms

  • Spanish Explorers called the southwest Indians the Pueblo people because that is what the called their towns

  • Some Spanish explorers saw Mississippian cities but the largest had fallen

  • Confederacies of Native tribes were forming

    • In NY and PA the Haudenosaunee (Great Leauge of Peace meaning “the people of the longhouse”) formed with the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Onondagas (male representatives chosen by women)

    • In the Southeast the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee (creek), and Catawba nations united in loose alliances

Economics and Trade in Native North America

  • in the 1500s a successful leader used persuasion and reciprocity (used for material goods and ideas)

  • Trade networks extended across the entire continent

  • The eastern native live on corn, squash, and beans for plants and fish, deer, turkey, and other game for meat.

  • On the great plains natives followed buffalo herds for part of the year and agricultural communities for the rest

  • The Pacific lived by fishing and gathering wild plants and nuts

  • Natives saw land as a resource that a particular people had a right to use not as something to be bought and sold

  • The reputation/influence of a Native American leader rested on their ability to distribute the goods to their populous

  • Roger Williams (colonial leader) noted “there are no beggars among them”

  • Native societies were highly gendered but more equal than European societies

  • Many North American societies were Matrilineal and women had power of their own sexuality and marriage/divorce

    Women ran the households, built houses, made the decisions about food cultivation, storage and preparation, decisions about going to war, and peace-talks

Religion in Native North America

  • spiritual power was in all parts of the world, including inanimate objects and living organisms

  • religious ceremonies were intended to harness the spiritual power and direct in to their particular needs

  • Religious leaders held positions of respect and authority

  • Native American religions were inclusivist

    • This means they would incorporate the beliefs and practices of other religions as an effort to make sense of the world

Slavery and Freedom in Native North America

  • Europeans initially thought Native Americans were the embodiment of freedom but would later believe they did not understand freedom

  • Traders noted the lack of a word for king or subjects

  • The descendants of Mississippian Indians saw the danger in excessive power and built their societies on the type of freedom that was important to them

  • individual autonomy was not as important as kinship ties, spiritual values, and the well being of the community

  • Natives practiced small scale slavery (war captives)

  • slavery was not inheritable and captives could become full members of the society that adopted them

An Old World: West Africa

Politics and Power in West Africa

  • Most West Africans lived in towns run and lead by elders

  • many communities had women in charge of farming and land management

  • some empires existed in the 1300s

    • The Mali empire had a few major cities (Jenne, Gao, and Timbuktu)

    • Benin existed in the south (modern day Nigeria) the capital was Edo and their craftsmen are known for the bronze sculptures they produced

Economics and Trade in West Africa

  • The wealth of west African communities came from trans-Saharan trade

  • Around the year 1000 Muslim North African traders crossed the Sahara to trade with west Africa

  • these trade routes would lead to the Portuguese establishing trade by sailing to west Africa

  • West Africans thrived by farming, herding, and fishing

    • Rice millet, peas, okra, melons, and yams were the most notable crops

Religion in West Africa

  • West African religion was inclusiveist

  • Many began to converted to Islam and blended it with older previously held practices and beliefs

Slavery and Freedom in West Africa

  • Trans-Saharan trade in clouded material goods and enslaved people

  • West Africans had defined rights and could own property and marry free persons. In addition they could often awuire their freedom

  • Slavery was not the basis of the economy unlike colonial America

  • Many West African leaders were Islam, forbidding them from enslaving fellow Muslims

  • Slavery was allowed as long as the enslaved person was provided religious instruction

  • Slavery in West Africa was religion-based and war-based but not race-based

An Old World: Western Europe

Politics and Power in Western Europe

  • Monarchies grew in response to the crises of the 13th and 14th centuries

  • Portugal, Spain, France, England, and the Holy Roman Empire were patrilineal lines of succession

  • In England the legal doctrine known as “coverture” required a married woman to surrender her legal identity and become “covered” by her husband

  • The male-dominated hierarchical social structure was described by 16th century writers as ordained by God

Economics and Trade in Western Europe

  • The Americas seemed like an ideal place for agricultural expansion

  • They only recently connected to the over land trade route that stretched from the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East to South Asia and China

    • This would eventually lead to the quest for a sea route to the East Indies (gold, silk, tea, sugar, spices)

Religion in Western Europe

  • Most of Western Europe converted to Christianity by the early Middle Ages and were officially Catholic until the 16th century Protestant Reformation

  • Cathedrals were town centers and calendars were built around church feasts

  • older religious traditions still endured (belief in witches, demons, magic)

  • Commercial and religious desire to eliminate Islamic intermediaries and win control of trade combined to push for a direct route to West Africa and Asia

  • in 1469 King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile united their warring kingdoms

  • in 1492 they completed the reconquista (reconquest) of Spain from the Moors (African Muslims) who had occupied part of the Iberian Peninsula for centuries

  • King Ferdinand and Isabella ordered all Jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity or leave the country

Slavery and Freedom in Western Europe

  • Freedom was not a single idea but a collection of distinct rights and privileges enjoyed by only a small portion of the population

  • in Europe freedom was a social and political status more than a moral or spiritual condition

  • Freedom meant abandoning a life of sin to embrace the teachings of Christ "

    • By this definition servitude and freedom were mutually reinforcing since those who accepted the teachings of Christ were “free from sin and servants of God”

  • Christian Liberty had no connection to religious toleration

  • Religious uniformity was assumed to be necessary for public order

  • Equating liberty to devotion to a higher power caused freedom to mean obedience to law

  • Freedom in Europe meant fulfilling the duties befitting ones social class and lacked economic freedom

  • European liberties were limited to formal and specific privileges granted by the government to specific groups

Contact

Chinese and Portuguese Navigation

  • At the start of the 15th century China would have been predicted to establish the world’s first global empire

  • 1405-1433 Admiral Zheng He lead 7 naval expeditions in the Indian ocean

  • After 1433 China did not see a need to expand their empire and stopped funding maritime exploration

  • Portugal took advantage of new sailing and navigation techniques to begin exploring the Atlantic

Portugal and West Africa

  • Caravel - ship capable of long-distance travel

  • 1434 a Portuguese ship brought a sprig of rosemary from West Africa to prove one could sail beyond the desert and return

  • 1485 the ships reached Benin and established trading posts along the coast

  • They also colonized islands of the coast of Africa in the Atlantic replacing native populations with enslaved African people

  • 1450-1500 100,000 Africans were transported to Spain and Portugal

  • 1502 the first Africans were brought across the Atlantic

  • 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope giving Europe a sea route to the East

The Voyages of Columbus

  • On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas on the land or the Taíno (Arawak)

  • Christopher Columbus knew the earth was round but did not realize its size. He used the bible and Marco Polo’s account of his visit by land to China in the 13th century. His contemporaries knew he was underestimating the earth’s size.

  • He was attempting to find a western route to Asia (he died believing he had done his)

  • The Vikings had established a settlement in 1000 but abandoned it within a few years

  • He was from Genoa, Italy but was sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain

  • He explored the islands of the Bahamas, Hispaniola (Hati and DR), and Cuba

  • 1493 he returned with 17 ships and 1000 men to establish trading outposts

  • Amerigo Vespucci’s explorations between 1499 and 1502 proved that it was a new continent

Exploration and Conquest

  • John Cabot, a genoese merchant who settled in England reached Newfoundland in 1497

  • French, Spanish, and English fishing boats were active in the region

  • Pedro Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500

  • Conquistadores were often accompanied by religious missionaries

  • 1513Vasco Núñez de Balboa trecked across the isthmus of Panama and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas

  • Between 1519 and 1522, Ferdinand Magellan, the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.He was killed in the Philippines, but his fleet completed the journey

  • Hernán Cortés landed in the coast of Mexico and decided to march on the city of Tenochtitlán (Aztec capital)

  • Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas

  • Gold and silver from the mines of Mexicoand Peru crossed the Atlantic to enrich the Spanish royalty

The Colombian Exchange

  • Columbian exchange – the transAtlantic flow of goods

  • American products introduced to the rest of the world included corn, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, and chili peppers

  • Products introduced to the Americas were wheat, rice, watermelons, horses, and other livestock

  • European disease assisted the Spanish in the conquest of the Americas

The Spanish Empire

  • The Atlantic and Pacific oceans were now used for the exchange of goods by the middle of the 16th century

  • The Spanish Empire in America included from the Andes mountains through modern Mexico and the Caribbean and the south western United StatesAs well as Florida

  • Mexico City was the capital of the Spanish Empire in North America

Governing Spanish America

  • to govern the empire, a system was established that started with the king and went to the council of the Indies And then local officials in America

  • Council of the Indies – the main body in Spain for colonial administration

  • The Catholic Church was an additional administrator of the Spanish colonies

  • Royal officials were generally appointed from Spain rather than creoles

  • Creoles - persons born of European ancestry in the colonies

Colonists in Spanish America

  • The government barred non-Spaniards from immigrating to the American colonies as well as non-Christians

  • Peninsulares - persons of European birth and the top of the social hierarchy (Smallest proportion of the Spanish American population)

  • Haciendas - large scale farms controlled by Spanish landlords and worked by native Americans

  • The Spanish crown ordered colonist wives to join them in America and single men to marry

  • The population of Spanish women in the colonies was low and single men married native women instead

  • Mestizos - persons of mixed origin

  • By 1600 Spanish America had evolved into a hybrid culture of Spanish native and some African people

  • 1531, Nahuatl Indian, One Diego reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary speaking his language

Christianity and Conquest

  • Europeans expected those who crossed the Atlantic to follow the exclusivist mandate of Christianity and those in America to follow the newcomers traditions

  • Pope Alexander VI declared that most of the Americas belong to Spain, and most of Africa belong to Portugal and justified his announcement by requiring Spain and Portugal to spread Catholicism

  • In 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses Accusing the church of wilderness and corruption, Causing the protestant reformation

  • He wanted to prevent the sale of indulgences (Official dispensations For forgiving sins)

    • believers should read the Bible for themselves rather than relying on priest interpretation

    • Spain believed the primary goal of colonization was to save Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under this way of Protestantism

  • Spanish writers insisted that Indians could be “brought up“ to the level of European civilization

Native Rights and Freedoms in the Spanish Empire

  • Christians found the violence that conquistadors used to be inconsistent with the mandate to convert and civilize them

  • In 1537 Hope Paul the third outlawed the enslavement of native Americans. This did not apply to African enslaved people.

  • Bartolome de Las Casas was a Dominican priest who wrote about the Spanish atrocities towards the native people of the Caribbean islands

  • Las Casas declared “the entire human race is one” and “nothing is certainly more precious and human affairs, nothing more esteemed , then freedom”

  • In 1542 Spain issued a proclamationCommanding that native people no longer be enslaved

  • The repartimiento system - Native towns were required to provide a fixed amount of Labor each year to Spanish or farms

  • As tribute terms, they were ruled by natives and lived according to their own laws and customs as long as annual tribute was paid

  • Black legend – the image of Spain, as a uniquely, brutal and exploitative colonizer

  • The black legend was used as justification for other European powers to challenge Spain predominance in the Americas

Exploring North of Mexico

  • In 1508 Spain establish the first permanent colony and what is now the US on what is now Puerto Rico

  • Juan Ponce de Leon sent a large amount of Puerto Rican gold to Spain

  • In 1513 he attempted an expedition to Florida and search of wealth and a fountain of eternal youth. The Calusa natives repelled him

  • In 1528 another Spanish expedition landed in Florida the men Became separated from their ships and only four made it back to Mexico

    • For seven years before survivors wounded through native lands from Florida to the desert of the southwest and northern Mexico

    • Álvarez Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and an Enslaved African Esteban

    • After walking all the way to Mexico with Cabeza de Vaca in 1536 Esteban returned north leading Fryer Marcos De Niza

  • In the late 1530s and 1540s juan Rodriguez Caprio explored the Pacific coast as far north as modern day, Oregon

Florida and the Spanish

  • Spain wanted to establish a military base in present day Florida to combat pirates who threatened the treasure fleet that sailed each year from Havana. As well as preventing French incursions in the area

  • In 1565 Philip, the second of Spain authorized Pedro Menendez de Avilés to lead a colonizing expedition to Florida

    • They destroyed a small outpost at Fort Caroline established by a group of Hugonauts (French protestants) Establish in 1562 (Near modern Day Jacksonville)

  • By 1574 native people had destroyed almost all attempts at Spanish establishment in Florida Only Saint Augustine survived

  • The Crown invited Franciscan missionaries to establish missions in what is now Georgia through the Florida panhandle

  • Native communities were interested in the missionaries due to their useful goods and compelling spiritual ideasInclusive indigenous religions allowed them to incorporate

  • In 1597 Guale Indians Planned and launched an attack on the missions in their province

  • As late as 1763, Spanish Florida only had 4000 inhabitants of European descent

The Southwest and the Spanish

  • In 1598 Juan de Oñate lead a group from Mexico of several hundred soldiers,missionaries, and colonists

  • Rather than establish their own town and farms Oñate Demanded the native people feed and work for them

  • The Puebloans Were not one people, but inhabitants of over 80 towns and six different languages

  • The Pueblo of acoma killed a Spanish patrol, including Oñate’s nephew. He retaliated by killing an estimated 800 of Acoma’s people

  • In 1606 Mexico City authorities, deposed and punished Oñate

  • In 1609 New Mexican colonists were ordered to establish a separate town and farms And only married soldiersWere stationed in New Mexico

  • In 1610 Santa Fe would be the first permanent European settlement in the southwest

The Pueblo Revolt

  • Some natives left their Pueblos to build new towns further from the Spanish

  • many also found Catholicism appealing and accepted baptism, adding Jesus and Catholic Saints to the rest of their religious beliefs

  • The inquisition– Persecution of non-Catholics,

  • As the inquisition intensified, so did the friars effort to stamp out traditional religious ceremonies

    • This included burning native sacred objects and threatening religious leaders

  • In 1660 a drought began and Navajo and Apache attacks added to local discontent

  • Popé - A religious leader, born around 1630 in San Juan. One of 47 natives arrested in 1675 for practicing their traditional religion. After being publicly and brutally punished, he returned home and began holding secret meetings in Pueblo communities

  • Under his leadership, a coordinated uprising of 2000 warriors destroyed farms and missions killing 400 colonists including 21 Franciscan missionaries. The Pueblo revolt was a complete victory over Spanish rule

  • Kivas -native places of worship

  • Natives uprooted, fruit trees, destroyed cattle burned churches and images of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and washed off their Catholic baptisms

  • By the end of the 1680s warfare had broken out among several Pueblos, even as a Apache and Navajo raids continued

  • In 1692 the Spanish launched an invasion reestablishing the colony of New Mexico

VoF - From Bartolomè de las Casas, History of the Indies (1528)

  • Natives of Hispaniola were completely deprived of freedom and forced into harsh servitude

  • Last passes compared their freedom to that of beasts saying beasts were more free

  • They fell ill frequently

  • 90% of the original people had perished within eight years

    • Los Casas was the Dominican priest who condemned the treatment of Indians in the Spanish empire. His widely disseminated writings helped establish the black legend of Spanish cruelty

VoF - From Friar Marcos de Niza’s Account of His Voyage with Esteban (1539)

  • Guided by Esteban

  • The natives greeted them with joy

  • Many natives still feared them due to Christians, who had been making war and enslaving them

    • In part due to Bartolomé de Las Casas ratings Spanish outlaw, Indian slavery, and Marcos de Niza north in 1539 to spread the news that the slave rates would stop. His guide was Esteban, and enslaved African man.Esteban had journey from Florida to Northern Mexico with the man who owned him under Spanish law, Andrés Dorantes, as well as Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Now he led Niza through Northern Mexico to Arizona and New Mexico

Questions

  1. Why does Las casa, after describing the ill treatment of Indians, right, “and this was the freedom, the good treatment, and Christianity the Indians received”? - he uses this as a sarcastic remark to point out the obvious hypocrisy of the people perpetrating the violence and ill treatment

  2. Why did the native peoples greet Niza and Esteban with “welcome rejoicing“? - They did this because they were receiving the very welcome news that their enslavement would stop

  3. What ideas of freedom are apparent in the two documents? - freedom is shaping into a personal state rather than a social or legal one

The French and Dutch Empires

  • The black legend inspired as sense of superiority among Spain’s European rivals

  • The Atlantic trade route became the predominant trade route globally

  • The 17th century French Dutch and English established colonies in North America

  • England colonies tended to be agricultural settlements

  • New France and new Netherland were commercial ventures like Spanish Florida and New Mexico

  • Native Americans exercise, more power, and freedom over Dutch and French settlements

French Colonization

  • The French wanted to find gold and locate the northwest passage

  • French settlement failed in the 16th century and would not be successful until the 17th century

  • Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608

  • In 1673 the Jesuit priest Jaques Marquette and fur trader Louis Joliet located the Mississippi river And by 1681 had descended into the Gulf of Mexico

  • By 1700 the number of French inhabitants had only prison to 19,000

  • In France, America was seen as icy and savage

  • most French, who left their homes preferred to settle in the Netherlands, Spain, or West Indies

  • In 1685 the edict of Nantes was revoked

  • Edict of Nantes – extended religious toleration to French protestants

  • The French Crown wanted new France to remain Catholic

The Fur Trade

  • French and native alliances worked out a complex series of military commercial and diplomatic connections

  • Jesuit missions converted some natives to Catholicism

  • Natives who converted were promised full membership into French colonial society, however the opposite was more likely to occur

  • French trading partners along the Saint Lawrence river were Innus (Montagnais), Algonquins, and Wendats (Hurons)

  • These allies of the French insisted they join their military alliance against the enemy (Haudenosaunee(Iroquois) league)

The Dutch Empire

  • in 1609 Henry Hudson in Englishman, employed by the Dutch East India Company sailed into New York Harbor, looking for The northwest passage But only managed to sell up the now known as Hudson River

  • By 1614 Dutch traders had established an outpost at Fort Orange

  • 1624, the Dutch West India company had been avoided a monopoly of trade in America and settled on Manhattan Island

  • The Netherlands dominated international commerce and Amsterdam was Europe’s for most shipping and banking center

  • Dutch invented the joint stock company proving central and developing modern capitalism

  • Netherlands established a far-flung empire, reaching Indonesia, South America, and the Caribbean, as well as temporarily controlling Brazil

Dutch Freedom

  • freedom of the press and private religious practice were available in the Netherlands

  • Many religious groups, Alienated in other parts of Europe, fled to the Netherlands (French huguenots,German Calvinists,those wanting to separate from the church of England, And Spanish Jewish people)

Freedom in New Netherland

  • New Amsterdam was a fortified military outpost controlled by appointing of the Dutch West India Company

  • Unlike England Dutch married women retained a separate legal identity

    • They could go to court, borrow money, and own property

    • Men’s wheels generally left possessions to their widows and daughters as well as sons

  • The Dutch dominated Atlantic slave trade in the early 17th century

  • In the 1640s a petition by a group of enslaved Africans gives them “half freedom” - Requiring Them to pay an annual fee to the company and work for it when called upon, but they were given land to support their families

The Dutch and Religious Toleration

  • 1630s at least 18 languages were said to be spoken in new Amsterdam, Settlers came from Africa, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia

  • Both and new Netherland had an official religion, the Dutch reformed church (A protestant national church)

  • Dutch freedom of religion only included private practice, not public Worship

  • The Flushing Remonstrance- 1657 petition by a group of English settlers protesting the governors order barring Quakers from living in the town of Flushing on Long Island

New Netherland and the Haudenosaunee

  • The Dutch determined to treat the native inhabitants, more humanely

  • Many Dutch people identified with natives having one their own independence from Spain

  • Dutch authorities recognized native sovereignty and forbid settlement unless the land had been purchased

  • By the 1640s Dutch traders were Exporting thousands of furs each year

  • Play decades of the 1600s the Haudenisaunne expanded their domain beyond their homelandsAnd were considered the most powerful people in the northeast

A Trading Colony

  • Dutch attempts at settlement rather than trade created conflict

  • To attract colonists, the Dutch West India Company, promised Jeep, livestock, and Freeland after six years of labor

  • The Dutch desire to attract colonists caused conflict with the Delawares

  • The Dutch took more land than agreed upon, and Dutch livestock damaged their crops. The Delaware retaliated by eating the livestock

  • The new Netherland governor demanded that Delaware start Paying yearly tribute in corn

  • A three-year conflict known as Kieft’s War followed, resulting in the death of an estimated 1000 Delaware and their allies and more than 200 colonists

  • This conflict caused many settlers to flee and dissuaded new settlers

  • By the mid 1660s, the European population of new Netherland numbered only 9000

Borderlands and Empire in Early America

  • Borderland is a meeting place of peoples where geographical and cultural borders are not clearly defined

  • Era of colonization created many areas like this

  • The Spanish French Dutch and English empires, fought one another for dominance

  • In spite of laws, restricting commerce between empires traders challenged boundaries

  • all European settlers brought Christianity, new Technology, and war/disease

Review Questions

  1. In the age of exploration, when different areas of the world were brought into sustained contact, how did local economies change? - The Americas became dependent on intercontinental trade and trade with the Europeans as their goods were highly sought after and became a staple to Native American life

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