COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE AND THE ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM (UNIT 1)

Causes and Effects

• Gold, God, and Glory

• Europeans wanted spices from Asia but were too expensive

  • Then they sailed West

• Christopher Columbus - 1st to try to sail across the world (on behalf of Spain)

• 1492 - lands in the Americas, thought he landed off the coast of China

• After Europe “discovered” the Americas, an intense exchange of goods began to happen between the two worlds

  Things Brought to Americas Things Brought to Old World

• Horses - Tomatoes

• Cows - Potatoes

• Pigs - Maize/Corn

• Smallpox - Tobacco

Effects of the Columbian Exchange

• Horses introduced into the Americas eventually led to the near extinction of the wild buffalo

• Smallpox, etc. devastated Native American population

Triangular Trade

• Columbian Exchange - Old World & New World

• Triangular Trade - specific trade routes people took when dealing with the Old World

• Americas → Raw materials → Europe → Manufactured goods → Africa → Enslaved Africans → Americas

• Enslaved people brought from Africa → Americas

• Material goods brought from Americas → Europe

• Manufactured goods brought from Europe → Africa

Coerced Labor

• Americas were a European colony to make profits

• To make this profit, they had to farm crops they grew there

• Spanish - Encomienda system

• Rest of Europe - slavery

Encomienda

• Used by Spanish to rule over native subjects

• Based on agriculture

• Concept - Natives forced to work for their conquerors, but conquerors take care of them physically and spiritually

  • Works in theory, not in practice

Atlantic Slavery

• Chattel

  • Most aggressive form of slavery

  • Treats humans like “cattle”

  • Associated with the African Slave Trade

  • vs. Encomienda system - takes care of people, caring masters

  • Could do whatever to slaves

• The Desire for Africans

  • At first, it was more profitable to use Native people

    • Already in Americas

    • Familiar w/ land

    • However, they could run away

  • Switched to Africans for labor

    • Exposed to European diseases

    • Experience in farming

    • Little knowledge of the land

The Middle Passage

• Refers to the trip Africans would take to Americas

• Crowded, unsanitary conditions

  • Ride on planks 66’’ x 15’’

    • 20’’-25’’ of headroom

  • Males chained together in pairs

  • Kept away from women and children

  • High mortality rates

    • 1/3 die between capture and embarkation

      • Many enslaved were thrown overboard/jumped themselves

  • Diseases were rampant

• Enslaved were fed twice a day

  • Poor and insufficient diet

    • Vegetable pulps, stews, and fruits

    • Denied meat/fish

    • 10 eating from 1 bucket

    • Unwashed hands spread disease faster

Life as a Slave

• Enslaved people had 2 options

  • Cruel

  • Crueler

• Caribbean & Brazilian Slavery

  • Incredibly cruel & deadly

  • Dying constantly

  • Constant inflow of enslaved persons from Africa

• North American Slavery

  • Slightly less cruel

  • Usually had Sundays off

  • Had some free time to form families

• ~4 million imported

  • Over ½ of all slaved went to Caribbean

  • 1/3 to Brazil

  • 1/20 to North America

New Colonies in the Americas (1600s-1700s)

• FDELSTCS

  • French - furs, forts, friends

  • Dutch - deals

  • England

  • Spain - Treasure, Converts, Servants

• New Spain

  • Spanish were 1st to colonize America

  • Modern-day Florida, Southwest, Latin America

  • Spanish just took back Spain from Muslim Moors so they were on a high

  • Hernan Cortes - conquered Aztecs

  • Devout Catholics, Spanish conquered America and spread Catholicism/Christianity while also making money

    • Used Encomienda system

  • Spanish took advantage and slacked on duties of taking care of the Indigenous Americans

  • Bartolome de las Casas

  • Due to the location of their colonies, they mostly dealt with the Pueblo Indigenous Americans and Incas (not counting conquered Aztecs)

  • With the Indigenous Americans, religious conversion was mixed but heavily resisted

    • Pueblo’s Revolt (1680) - aka Pope’s Revolt

  • With South American colonies, focus was more on silver

New Spain Economy

• Spanish were mercantilists and government was heavily involved in trade, travel, colonization

• Spanish implemented Castas System

  • Established hierarchy for tax brackets

    • Peninsulares (Spanish born in the Iberian Peninsula)

    • Creoles (American-born Spanish)

    • Mestizos (mixed European/Indigenous American)

    • Mulattos (mixed European/African)

New France

• A lot of claimed territory

• Very few settlements/settlers (in the form of military forts)

  • Most settled areas were in Louisiana and Canada

• More focused on fur trade over long-term settling

  • Not just business partners but also allies

  • Would intermarry & give gifts to better relationships

• French were Catholic (Jesuit)

  • Priests would learn the native language and seek out possible converts

  • Much more empathetic than Spanish

• Overall, had most positive relationships with Indigenous Americans

New Netherlands (Dutch)

• Smallest colony

  • Modern-day New York (New Amsterdam) & New Jersey

• Sandwiched between English colonies (who eventually took over)

• Very trade-heavy, nearly no trade restrictions

  • Had joint-stock companies (VOC) like the English, unlike the Spanish

• Had a very business-like relationship with Indigenous Americans (mainly Iroquois)

  • Unlike France who wanted allies

  • Unlike Spain who wanted slaves

• Technically Protestant, nearly no focus on conversion

New England

• New England (northern colonies)

• Mid-Atlantic (middle colonies)

• Southern (southern colonies)

• All had different reasons for settlement, e.g. religious freedom, economic opportunity

• Overall, the English were focused on taking land for settling

  • Not really for conversion

  • Not really for trade

• Had a lot of settlers arriving in the colonies

• Relationship with Indigenous Americans worsened over time as the English drove them out of the land to settle on

English Colonies in the Americas

• Protestant Reformation

  • Puritans - Protestants who want to cleanse the Church of Catholicism

  • When Protestantism was first created, Church of England (Catholic) persecuted Protestants

  • King of England declared himself head of church; changed England’s religion to divorce his wife

  • Then Protestants persecuted Catholics

  • Queen Mary started persecuting Protestants to bring Catholicism back

  • Queen Elizabeth officially made Protestantism England’s religion

New England (Northern) Colonies (Massachusetts & up)

• Most religious of the English colonies

  • Wanted land, religious freedom

  • Founded in family groups to seek this religious freedom

• Farmed just enough to survive

• Ship-building economy

Mid-Atlantic (Middle) Colonies (New York, New Jersey)

• Access to rivers and crops

  • Export economy, mostly staple crops

    • Wheat

    • Corn

• Called the Breadbasket Colonies

Chesapeake Colonies and Jamestown

• Looked for wealth

• Tried to settle for gold, was unsuccessful

• Started farming tobacco (a cash crop)

  • Made such a profit that the colonists kept seeking more land, pushing into Native American territory

• Indentured servants - main source of labor until Bacon’s Rebellion lead to re-focusing on slave labor

West Indies & Southern Colonies (Virginia to Georgia)

• Southern colonies had the LEAST religious motivation for colonization

• Instead MOST focused on economic reasons

  • Sugarcane (mostly), cotton (eventually), tobacco

• Sugarcane requires tropical climate & intense labor

“American” Democracy

• French, Dutch, & Spanish would be focused on economics

• Would be in constant contact with Europe

• England said no!

• England was on their own; colonies crafted their own political bodies of representation

  • New England was closer to a true democracy

  • Middle colonies had a hierarchy based on economic status

  • Southern colonies created a Representative Democracy influenced by economic status

THE GREAT AWAKENING & ENLIGHTENMENT (1700-1800) (UNIT 2)

Enlightenment

• Spread “enlightened” or liberal ideas

  • All humans have worth as humans

    • Clashed heavily with Calvinism

      • Souls were predestined to go to Hell/Heaven already, regardless of deeds/actions

  • Tradition should be shunned in favor of rational decision-making

  • Logic and science should take place of blind belief

• Deism was developed through these thoughts

  • God cannot be observed and is therefore irrelevant

  • Christianity was still strong, so instead of becoming atheists, Deism was invented

    • God made the universe but left it alone to play out

    • Sets everything into motion (the Almighty Clockmaker)

    • Therefore, to observe and get closer to God, you must observe his creations (the Universe)

  • Confirms the theory of predestination

Great Awakening

First Great Awakening (feeling)

• Early-mid 1700s

• A change from the rational thought emphasized by the Enlightenment, and the boring ways of preaching based on education of theology

  • Emphasized emotion, spiritualism, and fantasy

  • Created the modern-day example of preaching imagined today

• In reaction to Calvinism and Deism, Arminianism & Pietism were created

Arminianism

• Opposite of Calvinism

• Anyone can get into Heaven as long as they accept God’s doctrine

Pietism

• Heavy emphasis on emotional connection with God and living a devout Christian life based on God’s doctrine

Second Great Awakening (action)

• Late 1700s to mid 1800s

• Still kept the goal of conversion

• Placed less emphasis on emotion and more on real world efforts and reforms

  • Education, philanthropy, moral reform, etc.

Great Awakening vs. Enlightenment

• Through the 1700s/1800s, Enlightenment thoughts/goals of the Great Awakening battled for aspects of society

• Enlightenment controlled people’s thoughts/actions

  • Scientific and mathematical discoveries

  • Satirical and government written

  • The Great Awakening drove people to action

    • Doing good works

  • Sometimes the Great Awakening and Enlightenment aligned

    • Women’s rights

    • Abolition