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CHAPTER 25
NEW WORLDS: THE AMERICAS AND oeE
IA INTRODUCTION
This chapter traces the devastating impact of European exploration and conque t on the societies
in the Americas and on the Pacific islands. Those societies, described in detail i Chapter 21,
succumbed quickly under the combined pressures of European diseases and su erior technology.
By 1700, most of the western hemisphere had been claimed by western powers Colonial societies
were shaped by a number of considerations:
•
Conquests of the Aztec empire by Cortes and the Inca empire by Piza were swift and
brutal. The Spanish empire brought the Indian empires of Mexico and eru under royal
authority, represented by the viceroy, and a small class of white lando ners. Indigenous
peoples were impressed into service in mines and on plantations.
• In Brazil, the Portuguese established a plantation society based on sug mills
(engenhos). After the native population died off, African slaves were i ported and forced
to labor under brutal conditions.
• The earliest British and French colonies in North America centered on e fur trade and
subsistence farming. Plantations in Virginia and the Carolinas were ori inally worked by
indentured servants from Europe, but by the late seventeenth century, p anters found
African slaves to be a better investment.
• Catholic missions in Spanish and Portuguese colonies actively sought t .e conversion of
native peoples. In North America, there were fewer contacts and more ative resistance
to conversion.
OUTLINE
I. Colliding worlds
A. The Spanish Caribbean
1. Indigenous peoples were the Taino
a) Lived in small villages under authority of chiefs
b) Showed little resistance to European visitors
2. Columbus built the fort of Santo Domingo, capital of the Spanish C ribbean
a)
Taino were conscripted to mine gold
b) Encomiendas: land grants to Spanish settlers with total control
er local people
c) Brutal abuses plus smallpox brought decline of Taino populatio s
B. The conquest of Mexico and Peru
1. Hernan Cortes
a) Aztec and Inca societies wealthier, more complex than Caribbea societies
33 b) With 450 men, Cortes conquered the Aztec empire, 1519-15211I
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c) Tribal resentment against the Mexica helped Cortes
d) Epidemic disease (smallpox) also aided Spanish efforts
2. Francisco Pizarro
a) Led a small band of men and toppled the Inca empire,
1532-1~33
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b) Internal problems and smallpox aided Pizarro's efforts
c) By 1540 Spanish forces controlled all the former Inca empire 1
C. Iberian empires in the Americas
1. Spanish colonial administration formalized by 1570
a) Administrative centers in Mexico and Peru governed by vicer ys
b) Viceroys reviewed by audiencias, courts appointed by the kin
c) Viceroys had sweeping powers within jurisdictions
2. Portuguese Brazil: given to Portugal by Treaty of Tordesillas
a) Portuguese king granted Brazil to nobles, with a governor to versee
b) Sugar plantations by mid-sixteenth century
3. Colonial American society
a) European-style society in cities, indigenous culture persisted n rural areas
b) More exploitation of New World than settlement
c) Still, many Iberian migrants settled in the Americas, 1500-1 00
D. Settler colonies in North America
1.
Foundation of colonies on east coast, exploration of west coast
a) France and England came seeking fur, fish, trade routes in the early seventeenth
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century
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b) Settlements suffered isolation, food shortages
2. Colonial government different from Iberian colonies
a) North American colonies controlled by private investors wi~ little royal backing
b) Royal authority and royal governors, but also institutions o~ self-government
3. Relations with indigenous peoples
a) Settlers' farms interrupted the migrations of indigenous pe pIes
b) Settlers seized lands, then justified it with treaties
c) Natives retaliated with raids on farms and villages
d) Attacks on European communities brought reprisals from
ttlers
e) Between 1500 and 1800, native population of North Arne 'ca dropped 90 percent
34 II. Colonial society in the Americas
A. The fonnation of multicultural societies
1. In Spanish and Portuguese settlements, mestizo societies emerg
a) Peoples of varied ancestry lived together under European
b) Mestizo: the children of Spanish and Portuguese men and n tive women
c)
Society of Brazil more thoroughly mixed: mestizos, mulatto s, zambos
2. Typically the social (and racial) hierarchy in Iberian colonies w
as follows:
a) Whites (peninsulares and criollos) owned the land and held the power
b) Mixed races (mestizos and zambos) perfonned much of the
anuallabor
c) Africans and natives were at the bottom
3. North American societies
a)
Greater gender balance among settlers allowed marriage wit in their own groups
b) Relationships of French traders and native women generated some metis
c) English disdainful of interracial marriages
d) Cultural borrowing: plants, crops, deerskin clothes
B. Mining and agriculture in the Spanish empire
1. Silver more plentiful than gold, the basis of Spanish New World
a)
ealth
Conquistadores melted Aztec and Inca gold artifacts into ing
b) Two major sites of silver mining: Zacatecas (Mexico) and Potosi (Peru)
c)
For labor at Potosi, Spanish authorities relied on mita system'n which each
village required to send one-seventh of male population to w rk for four months
d) Under mita system, wages low, work harsh, death rate high
2. The global significance of silver
a)
One-fifth of all silver mined went to royal Spanish treasury (
b) Paid for Spanish military and bureaucracy
c) Passed on to European and then to Asian markets for lUXUry +de goods
3. Large private estates, or haciendas, were the basis of spanish-Am1'rican production
a) Produced foodstuffs for local production
b) Abusive encomienda system replaced by the repartimiento syrem
c) Repartimiento system replaced by debt peonage by the mid-se enteenth century
4. Resistance to Spanish rule by indigenous people
a) Various fonns of resistance: rebellion, indolence, retreat
b) Pueblo revolt in northern Mexico (1680) c) Tupac Amaru rebellion in Peru (1780) 35 I
d) Difficult for natives to register complaints: Poma de Ayal 's attempt
C. Sugar and slavery in Portuguese Brazil
1. The Portugnese empire in Brazil dependent on sugar producti n
a) Colonial Brazilian life revolved around the sugar mill, or ngenho
b) Engenho combined agricultural and industrial enterprises
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c) Sugar planters became the landed nobility
2. Growth of slavery in Brazil
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a) Native peoples of Brazil were not cultivators; they resisted!rarm labor
b) Smallpox and measles reduced indigenous population
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c) Imported African slaves for cane and sugar production afte 1530
d) High death rate and low birth rate fed constant demand for
ore slaves
e) Roughly, every ton of sugar cost one human life
D. Fur traders and settlers in North America
1. The fur trade was very profitable
2. Native peoples trapped for and traded with Europeans
3. Impact of the fur trade a) Environmental impact b) Conflicts among natives competing for resources 4. European settler-cultivators posed more serious threat to native ocieties
a) Cultivation of cash crops-tobacco, rice, indigo, and later, c tton
b) Indentured labor flocked to North America in the seventeen
and eighteenth
centuries
5. African slaves replaced indentured servants in the late seventeen h century
a)
Slave labor not yet prominent in North America (lack oflab -intensive crops)
b) New England merchants participated in slave trade, distillati n of rum
E. Christianity and native religions in the Americas
1. Spanish missionaries introduced Catholicism
a) Mission schools and churches established
b) Some missionaries recorded the langnages and traditions of nftive peoples
c) Native religions survived but the Catholic church attracted mlny converts
2. In 1531, the Virgin of Guadalupe became a national symbol
3. French and English missions less successful a) North American populations not settled or captive b) English colonists had little interest in converting indigenous ptoples I
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c) French missionaries worked actively, but met only modest s ccess
In. Europeans in the Pacific
A. Australia and the larger world
1. Dutch mariners explored west Australia in the seventeenth cen
a) No spices, no farmland
b) Australia held little interest until the eighteenth century
2. British captain James Cook explored east Australia in 1770
a) In 1788, England established first settlement in Australia as a enal colony
b) Free settlers outnumbered convicted criminal migrants after 1 30s
B. The Pacific islands and the larger world
1. Spanish voyages in the Pacific after Magellan
a) Regular voyages from Acapulco to Manila on the trade winds
b) Spanish mariners visited Pacific islands; some interest in Gua
and the Marianas
c) Indigenous Chamorro population resisted but decimated by s allpox
2. Impact on Pacific islanders of regular visitors and trade a) Occasional misunderstandings and skirmishes b) Whalers were regular visitors after the eighteenth century c) Missionaries, merchants, and planters followed 1I2E1'LTlFICATION: PEQ~PLE
What is the contribution of each of the following individuals to world history? I entification
should include answers to the questions who, what, where, when, how, and why if this person
important?
Hernan Cortes
Motecuzoma II
Francisco Pizarro
Atahualpa
Cabeza de Vaca
James Cook
37 IDENTIFICATION: TERMS/CONCEPTS
State in your own words what each of the following terms means and wh it is significant to a
study of world history. (Terms with an asterisk are defined in the gloss .)
Mestizo *
Mita
Encomienda*
Taino*
Conquistadores *
Treaty of Tordesillas
Tupac Amam rebellion
Engenho*
Indentured labor*
Aboriginal Australians
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What became of the Taino people of the Caribbean?
2. Consider the impact of the encomienda system of land distribution 0 the future of Spanish
America.
3. How did Pizarro conquer the Inca empire with 180 men?
4.
What kinds of communities were established in the New World colo Iies of Portugal and
Spain? How were they organized? How were they governed?
T
t
5. Compare the French and English settlements of North America. WhJt kind of settlers came to
each? How did these colonies differ from the Iberian colonies farthe~ south?
I
6. Describe the typical relations between French and English settlers
7.
the Native Americans.
What determined the social hierarchy in the Iberian colonies? Who t nded to have wealth and
power?
8. What was the basis of the economy of the Spanish empire? Who pro lted most from this?
9.
Explain how sugar production came to dictate so much of colonial B azilian life.
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MATCHING Match these figures with the statements that follow. A. Heman Cortes
B. Motecuzorna
C.
D.
E.
F.
Francisco Pizarro
Taino
Mestizos
Conquistadores
G.
H.
1.
J.
K.
L.
Viceroy
James Cook
Cabez de Vaca
Dona Marina
Peninsulares
Atahualpa
1. _
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean Islands.
2. _
Mixed-race descendants of European and Indian parents.
3. _
Spanish conqueror of the Inca peoples.
4. _
Spanish conqueror of the Aztec peoples.
5. _
The last Aztec emperor.
6. _
The last Inca emperor.
7. _
Provided both intelligence and translating services to the Spanish conq erors.
8. _
Failed to complete the northwest passage but charted most of the Pad c Ocean in the
process.
9. _
Spanish soldiers who came to the Americas seeking gold and glory.
10. _
Distinction claimed by those who lived in the Americas but were bo
11. _
Title of the Spanish king's representative in the Americas.
12.
A European who explored Florida and the southeast of North Ameri a.
43 in Iberia.
SEQUENCING Place the following clusters of events in chronological order. Consider carefu ly how one event
leads to another, and try to detennine the intemallogic of each sequence.
A.
English Puritan settlement of Massachusetts
Portuguese settlement of Brazil
English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia
Spanish settlement of Mexico
Spanish settlement of Hispaniola
B.
Native resistance is brutally crushed by the superior Spanish weapo s.
Columbus finds Hispaniola densely populated by the Tainos.
African slaves are imported to perfonn manual labor.
The Taino are forced to work in Spanish mines and on plantations.
Smallpox and measles devastate the indigenous population of the
dwindles to a few thousand by the mid-sixteenth century.
aribbean, which
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44 QUOTATIONS
For each of the following quotes, identifY the speaker, ifknown, or the point of vi w. What is the
significance of each passage?
1. "Especially did it cause [Motecuzoma] to faint away when he heard how the
Spaniards'] command, discharged the shot. ... And when [the shot] struck a ountain, it was
as if it were destroyed, dissolved. And a tree was pulverized; it was as if som one blew it
away."
2. "We no sooner landed [on the beach], than a trade was set on foot for hogs a d sweet
potatoes, which the people gave us in exchange for nails and pieces of iron, rmed into
something like chisels .... As soon as everything was settled, I took a walk p the
Valley.... Our guide proclaimed our approach and every one whom we met fell on their
faces and remained in that position till we passed. This, as I afterwards unde stood, is done to
their great chiefs."
3. "Therefore, for the sake of peace and concord [between] the King of Portug 1 and the King
and Queen of Spain, they and their representatives agreed that a boundary 0 straight line be
drawn north and south, from pole to pole, on the [Atlantic Ocean], at a dista ce of three
hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands .... And all I ds, found or yet
to be discovered, on the eastern side of [that boundary] shall belong to the ing of Portugal
and his successors. And all other lands, found or yet to be discovered, on th western side of
[that boundary] shall belong to King and Queen of Spain and to their succe
4. "I obey, but 1 do not enforce."
5. "There were never Englishmen left in a foreign Country in such misery as e were in this
new discovered Virginia . ... Our food was but a small can of Barley sodde in water, to five
men a day. Our drink cold water taken out of the River; which was, at a [hi tide], very salt;
at a low tide, full of slime and filth: which was the destruction of many of ur men."
6. "We Spanish suffer from a disease ofthe heart which can only be cured wi h gold."
45 MAP EXERCISES
1. On the map of the New World below, clearly label each of the following YVL'vu..L'.'"
indicate whether claimed by the Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, or ~p(lrIllSn;
Cuba, Florida, Guiana, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Jamestown, Louisiana, M2lSsjclChuSf:tts
New Castille, New Granada, New Spain, Quebec, Rio de la Plata. By 1
power appears to have the strongest claim to South America? To North
25.1, page 672 in the textbook).
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2. On a map of North America, indicate the various European territorial c1~ims just before and
just after the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763 (discussed in Chapter 23).! How had the
balance of power in North America shifted by 1763'1
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In fifty words or less, explain the relationship between each of the following pailrs. How does one
lead to or foster the other? Be specific in your response.
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•
•
•
Colombian exchange and tobacco plantations
Encomienda system and African slave trade
Smallpox and indentured servants
Joint-stock companies and colonia11egislatures
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