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United States History
Three Worlds Meet (Origins 1620)
America, a beautiful land, a continent full of contrasts, towering mountains, unfurled prairies,
dense rain forests and rocky deserts. From all over the earth people have come to this land-different kinds of people, coming for many different reasons, bringing their languages and
customs, their skills and beliefs.1
Upon this land, many different cultures have met--Asian, African, European, Native American.
Sometimes we have fought, sometimes we have mingled,2 but in the encounters3 between cultures,
a new society has been created, a society always changing, always redefining4 itself. For, in many
ways, what it means to be an American reflects the ever-changing myths of cultures and ideas that
make up the American story.
So who were the peoples that created today's America?
Where did they come from?
How did they live?
Five hundred years ago, Europeans and Africans first met the native people of the Americas,
beginning an exchange and interaction that would reshape the history of the world.
Three Worlds Meet (Origins 1620)
The First Americans
Native Americans have many mythological stories about their origins. Some say the first people
descended from homes in the sky. Others say they came up from other worlds beneath ours. But
all of the stories establish a close connection between the land, the people and other living
things.5
Kathy Kitcheyan, San Carlos Apache, Educator, "It is very important to live in relationship and
harmony with the earth and with mother earth. In Apache we use that word in our prayers--Nikosanshuma--which means mother earth."6
Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, Jicarilla Apache, Historian, Author: "From mother earth comes life.
They consider their mountains sacred,7 and they consider their rivers sacred. They pay tribute to
Mother Nature and say, 'Thank you for giving me the bounties8 of the earth.'"
Archaeologists believe that people first came to the Americas from Northern Asia at least 20,000
years ago.9 The level of the world's oceans was lower then, and a land bridge connected Siberia
and Alaska. Hunters following herds of bison, caribou10 and mammoths crossed into North
America. As peoples spread south over the two continents, these Stone Age hunter-gatherers
encountered forests, deserts, mountains and prairies.11 They adapted to each environment,
creating many different cultures.
1
2
Why is America called a land "full of contrasts?"
mingled: to bring or mix together; combine; blend.
3
encounters: to meet unexpectedly; come upon
redefining: to change for the better, improvement
5
What are the two mythological stories about the origins of Native Americans?
6
How do the Native Americans describe harmony?
7
Sacred: consecrated to or belonging to the divinity or a deity; holy
4
8
bounties: something given freely; generous gift
When did the first people come to the Americas and how as it made possible?
10
caribou: any of several large North American reindeer
11
prairies: large area of level or slightly rolling grasslands, esp. one in the Mississippi Valley
9
1
No one knows for sure how many people lived in the Americas. Historians estimate that by the
15th century there were anywhere from 20 million to as many as 100 million people. Numbers
close to or perhaps even greater than the population of Europe.12 Hundreds of distinct Native
American societies spoke at least one thousand different languages.13 Most societies were ruled
by men, but in many Native American societies women held considerable power, and women
chiefs were not uncommon.14
Rebecca Bowen, Seneca Nation of Indians, Educator:"In a traditional log-house the clan mothers
who were made up of the oldest clan mothers in a log-house were especially the ruling body and
it was up to the clan mothers to decide who the chiefs would be. Even today the women have the
power and the authority to let their voices be heard and they should be heard and listened to,
adhered to."15
Many native societies were matriarchal.16 Family lineage17 was traced through women who also
controlled personal property.18 There's a lot we don't know about Native American life before the
1500s. Few Native Americans left written records. An evidence about their lives has been lost or
destroyed. Most of what we do know comes from archeological evidence, from the oral traditions
of modern Native Americans and from the accounts of early European visitors to the Americas.
We know that the heavily populated agricultural empires of Central and South America were
technologically sophisticated19 and highly organized. In the Central Prairies in eastern woodlands
of North America, tribes of hunter-gatherers lived off the bounty20 of the land. Men hunted and
fished, while women grew a variety of crops. In the southwest, the Peublo peoples lived in cliff
side villages, easily defended against attack. They grew cotton to spin cloth, and enough
squashed21 beans and corn to feed communities of a thousand or more people. In the colder
climes where the growing seasons were too short for agriculture, Inuits, Eskimos and other
Northern tribes relied on fish and game.22 Although their societies were very different, Native
Americans shared many common beliefs and attitudes.23
Most Native Americans didn't have any concept of owning the land. Instead, they saw all of their
relationships with other people and with the earth itself, as reciprocal24 and mutually dependent.25
12
How many people lived in the Americas in the 15th century?
How many languages did Native Americans speak at this time?
14
What was the condition of women in Native American societies?
15
What does Rebecca Brown say about the position of clan mothers in Native American societies?
16
Matriarchal: a form of social organization in which the mother is recognized as the head of the family or
tribe, descent and kinship being traced through the mother.
13
17
lineage: ancestry; family; stock
How did Native American societies organize private property?
19
Sophisticated: not simple but worldly-wise perceptive.
20
Bounty: riches
21
squashed: to squeeze or crush into a soft or flat mass b) to press or squeeze tightly or too tightly
22
What were the eating habits of the Inuits and the Eskimos?
23
Where did the Pueblo peoples live and what crops did they cultivate?
24
Reciprocal: present or existing on both sides; each to the other; mutual, to feel a reciprocal affection.
25
How does the concept of land differ in Native American ans European societies?
18
2
Joseph Medicine Crow, Crow Tribe Elder, Author: "Great Spirit made this Good land, gave it to
all of us to enjoy in common, and no one man should claim. 'This is my land.' We don't do that."
Rick Jenison, Seneca Nation, Director, Language and Culture Program :"It would be like trying to
own a block of air. How do you do that? It was completely foreign concept. And it was a concept
that was thrust upon us and created many problems for us."26
Many Native Americans still believe that there is a spirit force in all things--in water, trees and
animals as well as people. They didn't see to rule their environment. They tried to fit into the
natural order of creation.
West Africa
Across the Atlantic Ocean the geography and peoples of West Africa were equally diverse. Below
the Great Sahara, open grasslands27 and tropical rain forests spread out across the continent. On
the southern edge of the Sahara were the nomadic Tuareg traders, cattle and goat herders roamed
the grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, in the rain forests of Southern equatorial28 Africa, the
Bakongo Empire numbered in the millions.
Emma J. Lapsansky, Professor of History, Curator, Quaker Collection, Haverford College:
"Neither Native Americans or Africans saw themselves as being superior to or ready to dominate
the natural world.29 The natural world was a team mate rather than something to be subdued."30
Men and women among the peoples of Lower Guinea each handled their own affairs, each
governing over members of their own sex.
James A. Jones, Professor of History, West Chester University: "There are examples from West
African history, be that where women holding significant political power beats the mind. How the
Mali Empire, the Saudi Federation or Homi People who were looking at the New Guinea Coast
near the mouth of the Niger River, each of these places women either exercised direct political
control over their states or served for example in the military like the Homi People."31
But life in West Africa was different in many ways from life in the Americas. Not only did West
Africans have different crops and domesticated animals, they also lived in a world plagued by
yellow fever, malaria, sleeping sickness and other deadly diseases.32
Africans had for centuries followed earth-based religions, worshipping the spirits in the natural
world around them.33 But beginning in the 9th century a new religion appeared in West Africa-Islam.34
Professor Jones: "Islam's spread in its earliest used by war along the North African coast, but
merchants bought it across the Sahara desert in the process of their normal trading business which
26
What does Rick Jenison mean by the phrase "block of air?
Grasslands: and with grass growing on it, used for grazing; pasture land.
28
Equatorial: of or near the equator.
29
Describe the relationship Native American and Africans enjoyed with nature.
30
Subdued: to bring into subjection; conquer; vanquish
31
According to Professor James Jones how was the West African society constructed?
32
What were the different kinds of diseases West African battled with?
33
What is the difference between "earth-based religions" and the new religions such as Islam?
34
How did Islam spread?
27
3
took them to the large trading cities of the Sahel. As a result city dwellers in the Sahel were the
first peoples to convert to Islam in West Africa."
In the year 1325 Mansa Musa,35 the Muslim King of Mali, stopped in Cairo on his pilgrimage to
Mecca.36
Robert Shell, Professor of African History, Princeton University: "He set off in a caravan of his
people about five or six hundred people and walked right across the Sahara, carrying tons and
tons of gold."
Mansa Musa gave away so much gold on this one trip that he collapsed the price of gold in
Europe as well as North Africa.37 Stories of Mali's immense wealth spread throughout the Muslim
World and Europe. The Muslim Empire of Mali grew rich from its control of the West African
trade routes. Trading made the Kingdoms of the West African savanna rich and powerful. From
the forest people to the South they obtained gold, ivory, colon nuts and slaves. From the North
came salt, cloth, tools, horses and weapons from North Africa and Europe.38
Professor Jones: "Trans-Saharan trade created enormous amount of wealth and led to the
foundation of several large cities in the Sahel, most famous of which is Timbuktu,39 which by the
15th century possessed this Angorimas which was famous throughout the Muslim World, as well
as a university and something known to Muslim merchants as the source of all the gold from
West Africa."40
These African Kingdoms also expanded their wealth by raiding small non-Muslim villages on
their borders. Soldiers forced people to pay tribute and carried away others to sell or work as
slaves.41
Professor Jones: "The reason why middlemen in the Saharan trade didn't want anybody to know
what was going on at the other end of their trade routes was because they feared competition, in
particular from perhaps a more heavily-armed ruler of some state in this ongoing monopolizing42
sources of gold for themselves."43
Europe
Throughout the Middle Ages the Islamic World had been more technologically advanced than
Europe.44
35
Mansa Musa: Muslim state in NW Africa during the 7th-15th centuries. Thriving on its trade in gold, it
reached its peak in the 14th century under Mansa Musa (reigned 1312-37), when it occupied an area
covering present-day Senegal, Gambia, Mali, and S Mauritania. Mali's territory was similar to (though
larger than) that of the Ghana Empire (see Ghana, ancient), and gave way in turn to the Songhai Empire.
36
Who was Mansa Musa? Describe the cities of Cairo and Mecca.
37
Why did the price of gold collapse in Europe and North Africa?
38
Write a short note on the Muslim Empire of Mali.
39
Timbuktu: Also called Tombouctou, a town in Mali; population about 20,500. A camel caravan center on
the fringe of the Sahara from the 11th century, it was taken over 1433 by the Tuareg, nomads of the region,
replacing the rule of the Mali. Since 1960 it has been surrounded by the southward movement of the desert,
and the former canal link with the river Niger has become dry. Products include salt.
40
Why did Timbuktu come up in the 15th century?
41
How did African kingdoms increase their wealth?
42
Monopolizing: to get full possession or control of; dominate completely
43
Why did the Saharan middlemen keep their trade routes a secret?
44
Write a note on 15th century Europe.
4
Professor Jones: "Examples leap to mind that were in architecture and navigating, observation of
astronomical data and so forth. Lots of European science was actually deriving45 great benefits
from the Muslim once they made contact by the late Middle Ages."
In the early 15th century, Europe was just recovering from a wave of epidemic diseases46 that had
ravaged the continent for more than a century. Most Europeans were agricultural peasants, poor
and often malnourished. Unlike Africa and the Americas where women played prominent roles,
men dominated all aspects of life in Europe.
For a thousand years the Catholic Church47 had been the central institution in Europe.48 It not only
controlled religious life but played a major role in the political, economic and cultural life of
Europe as well. But in the 15th century the power of the Church was eroding. Cities were growing
and centralized states like France and Spain were becoming stronger. Commerce was expanding
and merchants were getting rich.
"As the feudal system49 broke down large states were broken up into smaller plots which could be
bought and sold as private property."50
The Bible taught European Christians that man had dominion over the earth.51 And as people
worked to improve their lives they saw the land, force, rivers and animals as resources to exploit
for private gain. Economic growth coupled with the new ideas unleashed by a Renaissance52 in
the sciences and the arts were revolutionizing Europe.53 More and more people were coming to
believe that mysteries could be understood and problems solved by thinking about them
45
Deriving: getting, receiving
Epidemic diseases: Outbreak of infectious disease affecting large numbers of people at the same time. A
widespread epidemic that sweeps across many countries (such as the Black Death in the late Middle Ages)
is known as pandemic.
47
The Catholic Church: It is one of the main divisions of the Christian religion, separated from the Eastern
Orthodox Church since 1054. The Pope heads the Church. Membership is about 900 million worldwide,
concentrated in S Europe, Latin America, and the Philippines. The Protestant churches separated from the
Catholic with the Reformation in the 16th century, to which the Counter-Reformation was the Catholic
response. An attempt to update Catholic doctrines in the late 19th century was condemned by Pope Pius X
in 1907. John Paul II has rejected more recent moves in this direction.
48
What role did the Catholic Church play in the 15th century?
49
Feudal system or feudalism: feudalism Latin feudem `fief´, coined 1839.Feudalism was the main form of
social organization that existed in medieval Europe. A system based primarily on land, it involved a
hierarchy of authority, rights, and power that extended from the monarch downwards. An intricate network
of duties and obligations linked royalty, nobility, lesser gentry, free tenants, villeins, and serfs. Feudalism
was reinforced by a complex legal system and supported by the Christian church. With the growth of
commerce and industry from the 13th century, feudalism gradually gave way to the class system as the
dominant form of social ranking.
50
What was the feudal system and how did it control people and societies?
51
What did the Bible say about man's position on earth? And how did this Biblical idea affect the
exploitation of natural resources?
52
Renaissance: or Revival of Learning, a period in European cultural history that began in Italy around
1400 and lasted there until the end of the 16th century; elsewhere in Europe it flourished later, and lasted
until the 17th century. Characteristic of the Renaissance is the exploration of the world and of the
individual, and the rediscovery of pagan classical antiquity (led by Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco
Petrarch). Central to the Renaissance was humanism, the belief in the active, rather than the contemplative
life, and a faith in the republican ideal. The greatest expression of the Renaissance was in the arts and
learning.
53
Write a note on the Renaissance in Europe?
46
5
rationally.54 This attitude supported scientific inquiry and led to a number of important inventions
and technological innovations.55
Emma J. Lapsansky: "The printing press was one possible way for people to know more, not that
people, not that anybody printed much in the early years except the Bible. But new kinds of ships
and new navigation equipment that made it possible to go farther from home."56
Meanwhile Christian armies were gaining ground in their long war against the Moslems who had
ruled Spain for seven hundred years.57 And Christian soldiers fighting religious wars to capture
Jerusalem from the Moslems were bringing back to Europe exotic new plants, spices, fabrics,
jewels and other treasures that Europeans wanted more of.
Professor Shell: "Europeans had to trade with Islamic traders because everything that the
Europeans wanted like gold and ivory and eventually slaves were on the other side of the Islamic
frontier. So whether they were importing spices from the East or gold from West Africa they had
to go through Islamic middlemen."58
Many began to wonder: Was there a water route that would give them direct access to the Indies?
Randall M Miller, Professor of History, Saint Joseph's University: "So one of the interest
Europeans had and when they developed the technology to do so, they began to think of finding
another way to what they called the Orient, the spice trade, the gold and the silver that would
make them rich."59
In Portugal, a small and isolated nation on the far Western edge of Europe, Prince Henry the
Navigator thought that by sailing south along the coast of Africa he could open new trade routes
to Black Africa and the Indies.60
Professor Randall: "Henry the Navigator was a prince of the ocean. He gathered around him
scientists, he gathered around him mapmakers, he gathered around him sailors. He started a
school of navigation."
Prince Henry sponsored a series of expeditions down the West Coast of Africa. By the 1470s the
Portuguese had reached the Niger River Delta and the city state of Benin where the King gave
them permission to trade for gold, ivory and slaves.61 Each year they sailed further south setting
up trading posts along the way. In 1488 Bartholomew Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa.
Ten years later Vasco de Gama finally reached India. The water route to Asia was a reality. But
the African continent was much bigger than Prince Henry had thought. And any voyages to India
would take a long time. Might there be a shorter route to the Indies?62
54
How did the rise of reason affect man's world?
Innovation: something newly introduced; new method, custom, device, etc.; change in the way of doing
things
56
Describe the impact of the printing press on the society and people?
57
How would you describe the Crusades?
58
What was the role Islamic middleman played in the 15th century?
59
Why were the Europeans keen to develop technology?
60
Who was Prince Henry the Navigator and what did he do?
61
Write a short note on the state of Benin.
62
Who were Bartholomew Dias and Vasco de Gama?
55
6
Three Worlds Meet
European scientists knew that the world was round and had made fairly accurate estimates of its
size. Japan, they guessed correctly, was some 11,000 miles to the west. Many ships had explored
the Atlantic finding the Madeira and Azores Islands But what lay beyond remained a mystery.
Mariners' stories of monstrous creatures and unsolved disappearances offered little
encouragement for long voyages into the unknown.
But there were tales of lands beyond the Atlantic.63 According to an old Viking legend, in the
year 1000, Leif Ericsson64 had sailed west from a Viking village on Greenland and come to a
flatland covered with trees, which the Vikings called Vinland.65 Archeologists confirmed the
story in the 1960s when they uncovered the remains of a Viking encampment in New Finland,
Canada. But 11th century Europeans had no need for cold distant lands inhabited by hostile
peoples. After four or five attempts to build settlements in Vinland the Vikings left and did not
return.
Professor Randall: "But the significant thing about Leif Ericsson is that he has lost to history and
had very little effect on subsequent colonization."
By the late 15th century the situation was very different. Backed by growing economies, new
technologies and a lust for riches, Europeans were willing to take some chances. On to the scene
stepped Cristóbal Colón we know as Christopher Columbus.66
Gary B. Nash, Professor of History, UCLA, "Christopher Columbus was a man from Genoa, a
sea-going man, a very experienced ship captain, but he only knew very limited part of the
world."67
Convinced that the earth was smaller than most scientists said and that the Indies lay only 3000
miles to the west, Columbus wanted the King of Portugal to bank roll him for a voyage across the
Atlantic. The King had no interest in such hair-brained schemes. But King Ferdinand and Queen
63
What was the distance between Japan and Europe?
Leif Ericson: lived c. 970 and was a Norse explorer, son of Eric the Red, who sailed west from Greenland
to find a country first sighted by Norsemen 986. He visited Baffin Island then sailed along the Labrador
coast to Newfoundland, which was named `Vinland´ (Wine Land), because he discovered grape vines
growing there. The story was confirmed 1961 when a Norwegian expedition, led by Helge Ingstad,
discovered the remains of a Viking settlement (dated c. 1000) near the fishing village of L'Anse-auxMeadows at the northern tip of Newfoundland.
65
Who was Leif Ericsson? How did an old Viking legend describe the Americas?
66
Christopher Columbus: or in Spanish Cristóbal Colón (1451-1506). He was an Italian navigator and
explorer who made four voyages to the New World: 1492 to San Salvador Island, Cuba, and Haiti; 1493-96
to Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica; 1498 to Trinidad and the mainland of South
America; 1502-04 to Honduras and Nicaragua. Believing that Asia could be reached by sailing westwards,
he eventually won the support of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and set off on his first
voyage from Palos 3 Aug 1492 with three small ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and his flagship the Santa Maria.
Land was sighted 12 Oct, probably Watling Island (now San Salvador Island), and within a few weeks he
reached Cuba and Haiti, returning to Spain March 1493. Born in Genoa, Columbus went to sea at an early
age, and settled in Portugal 1478. After his third voyage 1498, he became involved in quarrels among the
colonists sent to Haiti, and in 1500 the governor sent him back to Spain in chains. Released and
compensated by the king, he made his last voyage 1502-04, during which he hoped to find a strait leading
to India. He died in poverty in Valladolid and is buried in Seville cathedral. In 1968 the site of the wreck of
the Santa Maria, sunk off Hispaniola 25 Dec 1492, was located. Columbus Day (12 Oct), a public holiday
is named after him.
67
Who was Christopher Columbus and what did he discover?
64
7
Isabella of Spain liked Columbus' plan, for it offered them a way to beat the Portuguese to Asia.
The King and Queen were also devout Catholics and they were impressed by Columbus' deep
faith and his promise to convert to Catholicism any heathens he found in the Indies.68
Professor Randall: "One went out in order to spread the greater glory of the Church which was
also linked to the greater glory and one hoped the profit of the State. So they gave Columbus
enough support so that he could have the three ships that sent him off into the Western waters.69
And so of course eventually he touched down in Hispaniola, which is a part of the Caribbean and
discovered, quote the New World, even though he never knew he had discovered it."
October 12th 1492--three small ships appeared in the morning light of an island, its inhabitants
called Guanahani somewhere in the Bahamas. Soon strange men with white faces and bodies
encased in some unknown covering and shiny shells around their chests rode to shore. The
Arrowaks, being a curious and peaceful people, showed up to greet them. Unacquainted with steel
some of them cut their hands grasping the Spaniards' swords. In exchange of food and water to
drink for some beads and trinkets seem to cement a promising friendship.
Professor Randall: "When he hit these islands he convinced himself that he had achieved what
God had said he would achieve--he had found this route. And thus he dubbed these natives,
Indians for example and he acted as if he was on the outer reaches of what today we call Japan.
And then with a little more effort he would find what today we would call China."
Joseph Concha, Taos Pueblo, Educator: "Indians is a wrong term to describe Native Americans.
Indians are people that are indigenous to India and they think that Columbus discovered us. But
we weren't discovered. We knew who we were and we had a flourishing culture, way before they
ever set their foot on the New World."70
Looking for gold, Columbus sailed on to Cuba and Hispaniola and claimed them as well. The
native people were curious, friendly and generous, but they had very little gold. Still the King and
Queen of Spain were delighted with Columbus' voyage and agreed to sponsor more expeditions.
This time Columbus promised to find the emperor of China and bring back gold, spices and
slaves. But he didn't find the emperor on his next voyage or the next one after that.
Columbus made four voyages to the Americas, visiting many islands on the coast of Central and
South America. He died still believing he had found Asia. But the European explorers who
followed him soon realized that Columbus had stumbled upon a vast and exotic New World of
incredible wealth and beauty.71
The Columbian Exchange
Separated by two great oceans the old and new worlds developed very different eco-systems of
plants, animals and microbes.72 Columbus' discovery of the Americas brought these continents
back into contact and initiated a biological exchange between Africa, Europe and the Americas
that would rewrite this history of the world.73
68
Who were the people who supported Columbus in his search for the New World? And Why?
What was Columbus' original intention when he undertook his numerous voyages of discovery?
And what did he find on these voyages?
70
Is the word 'Indian' a correct word to describe the Native Americans?
71
Even when Columbus did not find gold in Cuba and Hispaniola, why did the King and Queen of
Spain agree to sponsor more expeditions?
72
Microbes: microscopic organism; esp., any of the bacteria that cause disease; germ.
73
How was the ecosystem of the Americas get affected by the arrival of the Europeans and West
Africans?
69
8
Bringing previously isolated eco-systems together is much like lighting a match near an open can
of gasoline. The Columbian Exchange had a lethal impact on New World people, plants and
animals. For the Old World had a distinct advantage in domesticated animals, weeds, pests and
almost everything else. European and African organisms swept across huge expanses of the
Americas quickly muscling out native plants and animals. European grasses, weeds and rats
spread like wildfire.
Professor Randall: "The discovery of the New World changed two worlds--changed the New
World and the Old World. Only think of those amber waves of grain out there, those amber waves
of grain were brought over by Europeans. They wanted to grow oats and barley and wheat and
rye and they brought those crops over and here, on this virgin land those crops flourished. The
swine flourished. They grew by the tens and thousands. The cattle flourished and some of them
went wild to get your longhorns in Texas and other places. And the horses! Some of them
escaped which would have changed the plains culture of Indians. Instead of having a walk you
could have a horse and they could cover wide areas. When I said fundamental change I mean it
literally remade both continents."
Professor Nash: "One of the most important kinds of contacts that was entirely unexpected was
the effect that European diseases had on these native peoples."74
While the Americas were disease free, Europe and Africa were loaded with them, and the Age of
Columbus was the age of infectious disease in Europe, an era ushered in by the Black Death of
the 14th century.75 Exposed to infectious diseases for many centuries, Europeans and Africans had
developed immunities76 that Native Americans lacked.
Professor Nash: "It was time they understood that the viruses that they were getting, deadly
viruses, small pox, diphtheria,77 things of that sort, they realized they were getting them from the
Europeans, but there was no stopping it, no remedies. Whole tribes would be wiped out. It led to a
huge depopulation of the Americas. So that for several centuries the population of the Americas
kept going down and down and down as more and more Europeans arrived.78
Conquest and Colonization
Using the growing colony of Hispaniola as a base, Spanish conquistadors or conquerors spread
out through the Americas.79 They sailed north to Florida, they crossed Panama and saw the
Pacific Ocean. They conquered the Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in Peru. In search of the seven
cities of gold they wandered deep into North America and sailed up the coast of California. And
everywhere they went disease either preceded or followed them.
74
What was the impact of European diseases on Native Americans?
What was the Black Death? And what did it do in 14th century Europe?
76
Immunities: resistance to or protection against a specified disease; power to resist infection, esp. as a
result of antibody formation
75
77
diphtheria: an acute infectious disease caused by a bacterium (Corynebacterium diphtheriae) and
characterized by weakness, high fever, the formation in the air passages of a tough, membrane like
obstruction to breathing, and the production of a potent neurotoxin
78
What caused the depopulation of the Americas?
79
Who were the Spanish conquistadors? What did they do to the Aztecs and the Incas?
9
In 1519 Fernando Cortes80 led an army into the heart of Mexico.81 The Aztec Empire, the
Spaniards found there, was large and powerful and its capital city Tenoch-titlán astonished the
Spaniards.
Professor James Jones: "Some of these soldiers had actually fought in other wars that had taken
them as far as Constantinople and certainly some had been to Rome but they were unprepared for
a city that size and grandeur anywhere yet in the Americas."
At first the Aztec leader Montezuma welcomes Cortes and his men. But after Spaniard soldiers
attacked worshippers at a religious ceremony the Aztecs fought back. Though they vastly outnumbered the Spaniards, the Aztecs weapons were no match for the armor, guns cannons and
mastiffs of the conquistadors.82 The Spanish fought the Aztecs for more than a year aided by
other Mexican tribes eager to escape the cruelty and human sacrifices practiced by their Aztec
rulers. But Cortes had another powerful enemy--disease. Small pox spread rapidly through central
Mexico, the most densely populated region in the Americas. In less than a hundred years the
population plunged from perhaps 25 million people down to a little more than a million.83
Professor Randall: "The Europeans, in carrying these diseases, and they didn't understand what
was happening, but in carrying these diseases and seeing that somehow people were dying before
them, were reinforced in their own idea of mission--that God had said, 'Go forth and conquer this
land.' They carried with them as well, this crusading idea that God expected them to go out and
convert the heathen, and if not to convert them, at least to destroy them, so that they wouldn't
stink in God's nostrils, to use a Christian phrase of today."84
"Who could deny," wrote Oviedo, "that the use of gunpowder against pagans is the burning of
incense to our Lord." So many Native Americans died from cruel treatment, overwork and
disease that few people were left to harvest the riches of the Americas for the Spanish Crown.
Professor Gary B. Nash: "Simply wasn't enough population to work the new land which was there
in huge abundance. Consequently they needed a new population sources."
The Spaniards found a solution to their labor problem in West African slaves, who, because they
came from an environment similar to those of the Americas, had greater resistance than
Europeans and Indians to most contagious diseases.85
Professor Robert Shell: "They went for that huge reservoir of labor in Africa. It was available.
There were Africans willing to sell people from different tribes and it started one of the most
brutal and dehumanizing commerce in the world--this dealing in human flesh. We look back on it
now and wonder how it could've happened. So many millions of people and slaves and brutalized
and brought to the New World."
80
Cortes: Cortés, Hernán Ferdinand (1485-1547) Spanish conquistador. He conquered the Aztec Empire
1519-21, and secured Mexico for Spain. Cortés went to the West Indies as a young man and in 1518 was
given command of an expedition to Mexico. Landing with only 600 men, he was at first received as a god
by the Aztec emperor Montezuma II but was expelled from Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) when he was found
not to be `divine. With the aid of Indian allies he recaptured the city 1521, and overthrew the Aztec Empire.
His conquests eventually included most of Mexico and N Central America.
81
Who was Fernando Cortes?
82
Describe the interaction between the Aztecs and the Spaniards?
83
Why did the population in Central Mexico plunge from 25 million to 1 million in a century?
84
Explain the link between diseases and mission developed by Professor Randall.
85
Why did the slave trade begin in West Africa?
10
By the 1520s the Spaniards had also discovered that the American tropics were an ideal climate
for the growing of the substance that Europeans craved for more than anything else--sugar.
Professor Randall: "Some cases, and this is one of the ironies, the kinds of skills that the Africans
had of being able to work in a semi-tropical environment, actually increased the rationale for
enslaving those people rather than somebody else."
It was the New World sugar plantations then that fuelled the greatest forced migration in modern
world history. Over the next 400 years, close to 12 million West Africans were loaded on to slave
ships on to Americas. Millions more died before they reached the boats. The trade in black gold
wrecked havoc on Africa, disorienting and disrupting African societies and economies. In
addition to the loss of millions, the trade in slaves led to the emergence of great slave trading
kingdoms like the Homi, Showanti which waged war to capture men and women for sale to the
Europeans.86
Professor Shell: "Black gold came about as a new name for African slave labor. And they were
called black gold because they were as valuable as gold. In fact they came from the same
region."87
Professor James Jones: "A majority of slaves exported from Africa were sent across the Atlantic
Ocean and where they wound up on plantations in either Brazil or the Caribbean."
In the following centuries the interbreeding of Europeans, Africans and Native Americans in the
New World brought about the greatest mixing of the races in world history.88
In the Americas, Africans struggled to adapt to life under slavery. Torn from their homes in
Africa, they tried to preserve their languages, religions, customs and traditions. Africans,
Europeans and Native Americans, all borrowed from each other, creating new cultures in the
Americas.
European cultivation of corn and potatoes would fuel an explosion in European population
contributing to the rapid growth in Europe's population after 1650, followed by increasing
European migrations to the Americas.89 The casada, a root plant of South American origin would
provide calories for multitudes of Africans and Asians in areas previously too wet, too dry or too
infertile to support more than sparse populations.
Europe and North America
Spain's American Empire helped make it the most powerful kingdom in Europe. Soon other
European countries--Portugal, France, England, Sweden, Holland--began sending ships across the
oceans to find riches of their own in America and to find a route around the continent to Asia.90
In 1497, just five years after Columbus' first voyage, John Cabot landed in North America,
probably in New Finland and claimed the land for the King of England.91 Three years later,
Portuguese Sea Captain Pedro Alvarez Gabrielle landed on the coast of Brazil which would
86
Where did the black slaves first work in the New World?
What does the term "black gold" mean?
88
Amongst which nationalities did interbreeding take place?
89
Explain why corn and potatoes became important in the 1650s?
90
Explain how Spain became the most powerful empire in Europe.
91
Who was John Cabot and what did he do?
87
11
become an important Portuguese colony. In 1534 Jean Cartier sailed to what is now Canada and
claimed that land for France.
Professor Randall: "The biggest difference technologically between Native Americans, West
Africans and the Europeans was that neither Native Americans nor West Africans could traverse
large bodies of water, whereas Europeans could. And that's why Europeans came to them."92
During the next century, settlers from nearly every country found their way across the Atlantic.
The nations of Western Europe engaged in a fierce competition for the land and resources of the
New World.
After 1517 this competition among Europeans divided them by religion as well as nationality. It
was in that year that German monk Martin Luther posted his 95-thesis onto the door of the castle
church in Wittenberg and unleashed the Protestant Reformation.93 This split between European
Christians set off a century of devastating warfare. Catholics and Protestants carried their
religious wars across the Atlantic, battling each other for the gold, territory and the souls of
Native Americans. European settlers, the Native American peoples they encountered, and the
African slaves they brought with them would all make their mark on the New World and on each
other. Their interactions in North America would shape a new colonial society unlike any the
world had ever seen before.
92
What was the biggest technological difference between Native Americans and West Africans on the
one hand and the Europeans on the other?
93
Who was Martin Luther and what did he do in 1517 that transformed the Christian Church?
12