Class Notes:

1.1 - What was North America like before European arrival?

The story of the Americans starts with the story of its indigenous peoples

Characteristics of indigenous peoples of the Americas:

Diversity - Were comprised of diverse populations
Mobility - Migrated to the Americas from different areas of the world
Complexity - established complex societies of their own over many centuries

Were Native Americans “Native”?
NO

Indigenous peoples of the Americas were the first peoples to live there, but they migrated from other parts of the world to the Americas during the last Ice Age around 15,000-20,000 years ago

Migrants from Asia may have crossed the BERING STRAIT LAND BRIDGE
This Bering Strait Land Bridge was a landmass that connected Asia and North America during the last Ice Age

The Land Bridge is now submerged under the Bering Sea

During the Ice Age when sea levels were much lower, early human populations likely followed herds of animals across this Land Bridge into the Americas.

The first peoples who may have migrated over the Land Bridge and inhabit the Americas were the COLVIS PEOPLE named for artifacts found near Clovis, New Mexico.
Sometimes the Clovis People are referred to as “Paleo-Indians.” They’re name shows that their society were hunter gatherers and nomadic.

Facts about the Clovis People:
- Culture lasted about ½ a millennium (from about 11,200 to 10,900 years ago)
- Successful efficient big-game hunters and gatherers
- Crafted spear points to hunt
- Hunted mammoth to sustain their peoples for long stretches of time
- Skilled botanists and used plants for food and equipment

However, other early migration theories along with DNA testing have challenged the Land Bridge Theory

Once in the Americas, these populations speak out over thousands of years and eventually populated North, Central, and South America
- Adapted to the varied environments they encountered
- Developed diverse societies across the continents
- Evolved into hundreds of tribes
- Spoke different languages
- Developed different belief systems
- Practiced different cultures
- Organized different governments

Before European arrival in 1492, the cultures of Central and South America developed significantly different than the cultures in North America

Cultures of Central and South America: Empires
South and “Meso-America”: Complex Civilizations (2300BCE-1500s CE):
Olmecs and the Aztecs (“Mexica”) in Mexico
Mayans on the Yucatan Peninsula
Incas in Peru (South America)
- Advanced agricultural practices that fed large populations, as many as 20 million in Mexico alone.
- Built cities and massive temples
- Engaged in long distance trade
- Made accurate calendars and methods of recording keeping
- Developed complex religious beliefs and works of art

True or False Statements:
- Pre-Columbian Southern and Meso-American peoples used horses and oxen. This statement is false. Horses and oxen were from Europe. They got here through the Columbian Exchange.
- Pre-Columbian Southern and Meso-American peoples used the wheel. This statement is false. They didn’t have beasts of burden to use them.

The main reason why the peoples of South and Meso-America were able to develop large empires was because they had a stable food source: maize

Domestication and cultivation of maize (corn) began thousands of years ago in Mexico. The indigenous people of the region depended on maize for much of their livelihood.

The transition from hunting and gathering to maize production:
- Led to a food surplus, enabled stable economies and organized societies to prosper throughout Mesoamerica and the Southwest region of the modern-day United States
- Encouraged advancements in irrigation and other advanced agricultural practices including the 3 sister method. This method became the trifecta of agricultural sustainability in pre-Columbian America.

The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, Squash. They were critical to indigenous survival and culture
Corn: Stalk allows beans to climb, maximizing space and supporting growth
Beans: enriches soil with nitrogen and improves fertility
Squash: Shades soil to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and protects other 2 crops by deterring pests with spiny leaves.

“The Great Corn Migration” through relocation diffusion
Corn and the 3 sisters farming method spread through human migration, diffusion of seed through trade networks and cultural exchange throughout the Americas and was used for:
- Food for people and animals
- Medicine
- Religious rituals and gifts to deities
- Building materials
- Clothing and textiles
- Toys and dolls
- Fuel
- Craft, art, musical instruments
- Containers and storgae
- Cosmetics
- Bedding material
- Glue and adhesives
-Alcohol and fermentaion


To the Iroquois people, corn beans and square are the Three Sisters, the physical and spiritual sustainers of life.
According to Iroquois beliefs, these 3 plants miraculously sprouted from the daughter of Sky Woman, the Iroquois mother goddess and then were given as a gift to the Iroquois people.
They also believed that each crop was protected by a spirit and that the Three Sisters should be planted, eaten, and celebrated together.
The 3 sisters method is still used today by many peoples to promote soil health, biodiversity and sustainability while enhancing productivity and reducing environmental impact.


Northern America Differed Significantly From South America
In general, native societies in this region were smaller and less sophisticated than those in Mexico and South America
By the 1490’s, the population of Northern America may have been anywhere from under 1 million to more than 10 million, as the cultivation of corn spread north slowly


But the regions that did grow corn and other crops were able to develop a more stable society than those that did not
By 1491, distinct Native American cultural regions had developed in North America.

Depending on their environment, each group developed their own:
- Economies and procuring food
- Types of housing and settlement
- Government organization
- Division of labor

1.2 - Why is the year 1492 a turning point in the formation of the Atlantic World?

Until the late 1400’s, Americans and the people of Europe, Africa, and Asia had virtually no knowledge of the Americas. While Vikings/Norse seamen from Scandinavia (such as Leif Eriksson) had visited Greenland and North America around the year 1000, these voyages did not have a lasting impact.

European Middle Ages (500-1500):
Little incentive for exploration: “AGE OF FAITH”

Feudalism, Manorialism, and the grip of the Roman Catholic Church on society resulted in people accepting life the way it was and not questioning anything

Result: Most people did not travel 25 miles beyond their home and did not question what might be beyond their surroundings.

At the same time, Native Americans lived in isolation on their separate continents for millennia before 1492.

Events during the High Middle Ages (1100s-1500s) slowly and gradually changed Europe, leading to an increased interest in overseas exploration by the late 15th century:

THE CRUSADES (1095-1292): Series of holy wars between Christians and Muslims for the capture of Jerusalem.
Reintroduced Europeans to Middle Eastern and Asian aspects of culture, products, and foods including spices (medieval diets were bland) increasing demand. Contact with other cultures led to trade of technologies (compass, astrolabe)

THE BLACK PLAGUE (1347-1351): Killed more than 1/3 of Europe and debilitated its already limited economy.
Acted as a “reset” for Europe: broke down feudalism, increased demand for labor, led to the rise of a middle class. By the end of the 15th century, the population had rebounded. Land values, commerce, and prosperity had recovered.

New Technology spurred on by the RENAISSANCE AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION (1300s-1600s)
Innovations in cartography and astronomy. Long distance sea travel was easier. Led to an increased interest in developing new markets, finding new products and opening new trade routes.

THE RISE OF NATION STATES: The Hundred Years War led to the decline of Feudalism and the power of the Roman Catholic Church
European nations under the increased power of monarchs developed national courts, armies, and tax systems; consolidated their power and wealth. Monarchs wanted to increase commercial growth of their nations.

THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (1453): The Ottomans seized control of the city and the eastern land trade routes to Asia
Because travel over land routes was now more dangerous and complex, Europeans had to find an alternate route on water.

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION (1515-1700s): Religious revolution spurred on by abuses of the RCC and the printing press.
Both Catholics and Protestants wanted to spread their religions to peoples in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Missionaries could gain allies of natives to help control and colonize them. Christianity seen as the only “civilized religion”. Feelings of Paternalism increased (a “superior” group music control an “inferior group” because it is “good for them”)

PORTUGAL
was the first European nation to send out individuals on voyages of exploration
- Prince Henry and the Navigator went to south and east and opened up a long sea route around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope (1455)
- Vasco da Gama reached India (1498)

However, it was the Spanish monarchs who contributed to the creation of the Atlantic World. After the Portuguese, the French and the English refused him, Columbus persuaded King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Spain to sponsor his quest to find a westward route to China, India, and Japan (“The Indies”).

The Spanish monarchs considered Columbus’s expedition as an opportunity to expand Spain’s trading network into the Indies’ lucrative economy.

October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, then Cuba, then Hispaniola and encountered the Taino (Arawak) people, bringing the long-standing isolation between Europe and the Americas to an end. He actually made 4 voyages to the Americas between 1492 and 1502. He died in 1506, still believing that he found a western route to Asia, calling the people he encountered “los Indios.”… THE INDIANS

As a result of Columbus’s voyages, world history took a sharp turn in a new direction…

THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
The global transfer of food, plants, animals, and diseases between the “Old World” and the “New World” for the first time (1492-1650).

The trade network led to significant social, cultural, economic, and political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

FROM EUROPE TO AMERICA
- Sugar became a lucrative industry in the Caribbean. Sugar plantations in the Caribbean required slave labor, leading to the triangular trade. Americas’ ecology is disrupted by foreign species of plants and animals.
- Horses greatly facilitated Native American hunting and travel
- Cows provided the Americas with a new source of food and hides
- Guns greatly advanced Native American hunting practices and revolutionized warfare between tribes and between Natives and Europeans.
- The wheel, iron implements, and the low improved American farming and facilitated the growth of new towns.
- Disease - European importation of diseases such as smallpox and others led to millions of deaths and the massive decline of the Native populations (mortality rate was 90%)

FROM AMERICAS TO EUROPE
- New foods increased life expectancy and resulted in population growth in Europe
- Corn and potatoes became staples of many European countries
- A wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and plants made the medieval diet more varied and exciting, and grew in demand.
- Tobacco is introduced, became extremely popular and grew in great demand, leading to the first American colony in Jamestown, Virginia.
- European rivals raced to create sugar plantations in the Americas and fought wars for control of production.
- Domesticated and wild animals were exchanged
- A 2-way trade network started Europe’s economic shift from feudalism to mercantilism and capitalism.
- Disease - Syphilis reached Europe due to mixing between Europeans and Natives. There was no widespread syphilis outbreak in Europe.


Deadlier than all the guns was the European importation of germs and diseases to the Americas. Millions died (there was a mortality rate of 90%), including entire tribal communities. Where Columbus landed, the population of the Taino decreased from 1 million to 500 within a few weeks. This is sometimes referred to as a DEMOGRAPHIC CATASTROPHE

1.3 - What were the impacts of European exploration in the “New World”

The Spanish developed an empire in the Americas in 3 stages

Stage 1: Exploration: Europeans came into contact with the Americas while looking for a water route to Asia. The encounter between Columbus and Native Americans ended the isolation between Europe and the Americas, initiated the Columbian Exchange and created the Atlantic World

Timeline of Stage 1:
1492 - Columbus landed in the Bahamas
1493 - Pope Alexander draws the Line of Demarcation through South America, granting all lands east of the line to Portugal and all lands west of the line to Spain in response to disputes between 2 empires
1494 - Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, giving Portugal control of Brazil and Spain control of rest of the Americas
1513 - Vasco de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and saw the Pacific Ocean
1519-1522 - Ferdinand Magellan is credited with circumnavigating the globe

Stage 2: Conquest: Spanish Conquistadores (conquerors) traveled to the Americas, brutally subjugated the Natives they encountered, decimating their population through military campaigns and disease and brought back massive amounts of gold to Spain, increasing the gold supply by more than 500%, making Spain the richest and most powerful nation in Europe

Timeline of Stage 2:
1518 - Hernando Cortes conquered the Aztecs
1532-1538 - Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas
1539-1541 - Hernando de Soto crossed the Mississippi River, enslaved, multilated and executed the natives, often without provocation and ignored the king’s ordiance to treat the natives well and concert them to Catholicism
1540:1542 - Francisco Coronado traveled into New Mexico. He demanded that the natives (Zuni, Hopi, and Pueblos) convert to Christianity. They resisted and he killed many of them.
The expedition team of Francisco Coronado is credited with the discovery of the Grand Canyon.

Stage 3: Colonization: The Spanish settled in the Americas. Roman Catholic Spanish missionaries who had accompanied Conquistadores converted the Natives to Christianity, largely by force, replacing indigenous customs. Due to intermixing between Spanish and Native peoples, cultures eventually blend and a new social hierarchy emerges based on ethnicity. This new social hierarchy placed those with European descent in a higher social status than people with Native or African descent.

Timeline of Stage 3:
1565 - Spanish fort at St. Augustine is established (the first parmanent settlement in the present-day United States). It functioned as a military outpost, administrative center for Franciscan missionaries, and HQ for unsuccessful campaigns against North American natives
1573 - Spain enacted the Ordinances of Discovery - laws that band the most brutal military conquests and call for “peaceful conquest” of the natives
15989 - Don Juan Onate claimed Pueblo Indian land for Spain that Coronado had previously traveled. Onate distributes encomienda to the Spanish settlers.

By 1581, the Spanish Empire had reached its height, claiming land throughout North America, South America, the Caribbean, parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia

The Controversy of Encomienda: The Valladolid Debate
Most Europeans looked down upon Native Americans
- Viewed as inferior peoples
- Could be exploited for economic gains through harsh labir
- Could be converted to Christianitu
- Could be used as military allies against other European empires and other tribes
Europeans used different approaches to control Native Americans and operate their colonies
Spanish implemented the encomienda system
- Implemented by 1512 to control and regulate Native labor and behavior
- Used in feudal Spain during the Reconquista
- A grant of natives who lived on an area of land given to individual Spaniards:
- Natives were forced to farm or work in the mines or on a sugar plantation in the New World

Although technically a grant of people, the encomienda system in practice became a grant of land, and included native cities, towns, communities, and families that lived there.
- Natives forced to provide tribute (gold, silver, crops, food, animals)
- The Encomendero (Spaniard who received the grant) was responsible for the well-being of his subjects and converting and educating them about Christianity

What they actually did
- Brutally enslaved the natives
- Seized their land
- Demanded tribute of crops that could not be grown there
- Encomenderos became “landed nobility” over the natives

As a result of the abuses of the encomienda system, 2 priests engaged in a debate over how the natives should be treated under this system:

Bartolome de Las Casas: Spanish priest who lived in the West Indies. One of the first settlers there. One of the more vocal critics of encomienda. Dissented from most Europeans about natives. Owned land and slaves in West Indies. Fought in wars against the Indians. Became an advocate for better treatment of Indians. Persuaded King Charles V of Spain to pass the New Laws of 1542: Ended Indian slavery, stopped forced Indian labor and began to end the encomienda system

Juan Gines de Sepulveda: Spanish priest, theologian and philosopher. Did not live in the Americas. Eager to keep the encomienda system. Successfully got the King to repeal parts of the New Laws of 1542.

Eventually, the controversy over the encomienda system led the king of Spain to begin an investigation into the morality of Spanish colonization and the encomienda system itself.

The king charged Bartolome de Las Casas and Juan Sepulveda to have a formal debate in the Spanish court in 1550.

This formal debate, known as the Valladolid Debate (1550- 1551), would guide Spanish policy going forward.

The Valladolid Debate was the first moral debate in European history to discuss the rights and treatment of a colonized people by colonizers. Although Las Casas was unable to gain equal treatment for Native Americans, he established the basic arguments on behalf of justice for Indians.

1.4 - How did the Europeans take different approches to colonizing the Americas

The early history of Colonial North America centers primarily around the struggle of England, France, and Spain to gain control of the continent.

Settlers crossed the Atlantic for different reasons, their governments took different approaches to their colonizing efforts, and developed different relationships with the natives. These differences created both advantages and disadvantages that profoundly affected the fate of the New World.

By 1750, three European empires had gained almost total control of the Americas.

Spanish: Central America, Mexico, Florida, South America, Caribbean

French: Midwest, Great Plains, Parts of Canada, Mississippi River, Great Lakes

English: East coast of the United States, parts of Canada

Each European power’s approach:

Spanish: DO WHAT WE SAY
- Controlled trade and commerce
- Tricked natives into forced labor through encomienda
- Controlled the Americans directly
- Viceroys - Spanish governors
- Used diseases to control them
- Forced blending of cultures - Mestizos
- Spanish missionaries enforced the kings laws
- Thought they were barbarians.

French: SHOW US THE WAY
- French traded furs that the natives hunted for - the natives knew the terrain, and went into the interior of the land, hunted animals and then brought those animals to the french who traded them and sold them to Europe
- This alliance led to military alliances with the Natives
- They’re manipulating them and taking advantage of them
- They had intermixing - the french settled in families so there was less of an advantage to doing so
- They tolerated them, but still thought they were inferior

English: GET OUT OF OUR WAY
- First they were friendly, and the natives helped them at the start, but then as more English came and moved into the interior, their greed and need for land for cash crops led to conflict and warfare
- Little to no intermarriage - they lived in separate communities
- They didn’t respect them - called them savages
- Diverse geography allowed for diverse economies
- Mercantilism
- Self-sustaining government and self taxation

Native American tribes saw themselves as groups distinct from each other, not as part of a larger body of Native Americans. As a result, European settlers rarely had to be concerned with a unified response from the Native Americans.

Violence and DISEASE decimated native populations and forced them to adapt to new ways to survive. Some tribes allied with Europeans, some converted to Christianity in order to ensure the survival of their people, some left their ancestral lands, and others fought back unsuccessfully.
Regardless of how they dealt with the European invasion, Native Americans would never be able to return to the life they had known prior to 1492.

Adam Norris Video Guides:

Chapter 1:

America Before Columbus:

• Early Migration:

  • Many people came to the Americas via the Bering Straight

  • Some came via boats to Chile and Peru

• Civilizations in the Americas:

  • Incas – located in Peru; largest empire in the Americas

  • Mayans – located in Central America; developed a written system, calendar, and agricultural advancements
    Aztecs – Tenochtitlan – largest city ever to that point

  • Southwestern US – based on agriculture (maize) and built elaborate irrigation systems

  • Great Plains and Great Basin – hunted Buffalo; many were nomadic

  • Northeastern (Iroquois) – developed permanent villages; hunted, gathered, and agriculture dominated society

• Many native religions were associated with nature

• Tribal social roles:

  • Women raised children, prepared meals, and gathered food

  • Men hunted

  • In some societies (Iroquois, women helped make tribal decisions via (Counsels)

Europe Looks Westward

• Reasons for exploration:

  • Population growth – land in Europe was expensive

  • Advances in technology – sextant

  • Desire for new markets and products

  • As a result of Columbus’s explorations, Spain increased interest in exploration, surpassing Portugal

  • Spain claimed most of the New World (except for Brazil)

• Conquistadores:

  • Cortes (1518) devastated natives (especially via smallpox)

  • Many Conquistadores saw this as G-d’s work

  • Spanish sought gold and silver in the new world • Ordinances of Discovery (1570s) – banned harsh military conquests

• Spain required Catholicism be the only religion in their new territories

  • Set up missions – convert natives to Christianity

  • Many post-Conquistador Spanish immigrants came to spread religion

• St. Augustine, FL – first permanent European settlement

• Encomienda System:

  • Individuals were given land, could demand tribute and labor from natives

  • Essentially slavery for natives

• Pueblo Revolt:

  • What was it?

    • Native American Rebellion against the Spanish in New Mexico

  • Why did it occur?

    • 2,000 Spanish and 30,000 Pueblos

    • Spanish priests and government suppressed Native practices that were inconsistent with Christianity

    • Spanish demanded tribute and labor from Natives

  • What happened?

    • Pope (Native religious leader) killed hundreds and forced Spanish to flee

    • Spain regains control in 1696

  • Significance?

    • Spanish sought to religiously assimilate the Natives

    • Pueblos were given more freedoms from the Spanish

• By end of 1500s, the Spanish monarchy controlled virtually all local government in its new world colonies

  • Spain was more strict than Britain in terms of imposing economic policies

    • All trade must go through a few regulated ports

• Britain, France, and the Dutch focused on population growth and establishing permanent settlements

  • Spain did not continue to send large number of immigrants

• The Columbian Exchange:

  • Examples of goods:

    • Americas to Europe and Africa: potatoes, maizw (corn), tomatoes

    • Europe to the Americas: wheat, rice, horses, chickens, oxen

  • Impact of exchange?

  • In Europe and Asia: massive population growth due to new food

  • In Africa: Spanish and Portuguese used Africans from West Africa to be used as slaves in the Americas

  • In the Americas: spread of diseases (smallpox), social classes (Mestizos), horse transformed Native life (made hunting easier), Encomienda system

• Spanish Hierarchy:

  • People from Spain were at the top, natives and Africans were at the bottom

  • In the middle emerged a large Mestizo class (mixed native and European ancestry)

• African societies:

  • Tended to be matrilineal, unlike Europeans

    • Property was inherited from mother’s family, not father’s

  • Women played a large role in trade

  • Slavery in Africa existed, but was not usually hereditary like later in the US

  • The slave trade (dominated by Portugal and Spain) increased because of goods such as sugar, and later tobacco

    • African tribes fought with one another and traded captured enemies to sell as slaves

The Arrival of the English

• Reasons for English exploration:

  • Rising population, lack of land

  • Joint-stock companies – investors would pool $ together and share in profits and losses

    • Mercantilism:

      • Goal was to benefit the mother country (England)

      • Increased desire for colonies to gain wealth

    • Religion:

      • Puritans (those that wanted to purify the Anglican Church of Catholic rituals) sought refuge in the Americas

      • Puritans believed in predestination – introduced by John Calvin

        • Belief that God chose who to save, fate could not be changed

      • Separatists – wanted to break away from the Anglican Church (Pilgrims)

• English experiences in Ireland:

  • English viewed the Irish, that were mostly Catholic, as savages

    • Believed the Irish could not be assimilated and must be oppressed

  • The English would use similar tactics against natives in the Americas

• French and Dutch:

  • Spain barely colonized North America

  • The French explored into the North American Continent and developed close ties with natives

    • Coureurs de bois – French fur traders

    • The French developed an alliance with the Algonquians

  • The Dutch also traded furs, and were established around New York

    • Had a smaller population

• Spanish Armada:

  • Large Spanish fleet was defeated by the English

  • England emerged as a naval power

• English Settlements:

  • Roanoke – early English settlement known as the “lost colony”

    • In 1590, the colony was found deserted with “Croatoan” carved on a post

  • Jamestown – established in 1607 as a charter by King James I

    • Would become the 1st permanent English colony