Period One: 1491-1607

native american societies, how/why europeans first explored + colonized the americas

background knowledge

• crusades: wars fought between christians and muslims (holy wars)

• european desire for eastern goods → have to pass through muslim-occupied territories in africa, middle east → search for more efficient trade routes → discovery of america

• death of feudalism

• decline of lords/kings, growth of towns, new economic life returns to europe, strong central government develops and a middle class is created

• renaissance

• rebirth of new ideas, inventions, and learnings

• humanities celebrated an individual's potential to change the world

• power lies in individual rather than in church

• national pride developed due to

• competition in colonization in order to access alternate trade routes

• protestant v catholic church

indigenous societies before european contact

• western peoples: hunting, fishing, + foraging (+maïze in sw)

• central peoples: hunting — lack of natural resources

• eastern peoples: agriculture + hunting

• good at using environment to their advantage

• significantly less obsession with [female] sexuality than europeans

• originally viewed by europeans as innocent, paragons of beauty

• dehumanization + infantilization of their ways of life

european exploration in the new world

• reasoning → "3 gs": gold, glory, + god

• alternative reasons: faster trading routes, natural resources, fleeing persecution, colonization/expansion, improved technologies, employment, escaping overpopulation

• english exploration

• first settlements: roanoke, jamestown, plymouth, massachusetts ("city on a hill")

• colonization → all other nations just had settlements

• french exploration

• canada + mississippi river

• louisiana territory

• fur trade + missionaries

• dutch exploration

• traders

• already had east india co, wanted to establish west

• henry hudson explored + gained land

• the great migration

• 30,000 puritans immigrate to new world

• charters gave land + guaranteed rights for settlers

the columbian exchange

• exchange of goods, ideas, people, and disease between europe, africa, and the americas

• new world gained sugar cane [plantations], horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, and diseases

• old world gained maize, potatoes, tobacco, and syphilis

• europe: feudalism → capitalism

• africa: increase of slave trade

labor, slavery, and caste in the spanish colonial system

• encomienda system

• forced labor of indigenous peoples

• development of the "black legend" → horrific treatment of indigenous peoples

• never know the full extend because no written language of indigenous population

• father bartolomé de las casas: rejected spanish treatment of indigenous peoples, led the passage of "new laws" (1542) top end the practice; was forced to return to spain

• treatment justified through "racial superiority"

• natives seek autonomy → gained more following pueblo revolts against spanish forcing christianity on indigenous peoples

cultural interactions between europeans, native americans, and africans

• development of a rigid caste system

• native-born spaniards — land + power ("pure bloods")

• spaniards born in the nw ("creoles")

• spanish-indigenous people ("mestizoes")

• spanish-black people ("mulattoes")

• english defeat of the spanish armada

• decline of spanish empire + naval power

• rise of english empire; world power + naval dominance

• beginning of english colonization in the nw

• african interactions

• sought autonomy

• developed mixed religions between christianity + various african religions

• formed "maroon" communities of runaway slaves

• the pueblo revolt

• uprising against spanish colonization, resulted in better treatment of + religious freedom for indigenous peoples under spanish rule