Download The Americas Before Columbus

The Americas Before Columbus
SLIDE: "Vespucci Awakens a Sleeping America” by Johanes Stradanus
Until recently, western historians and anthropologists believed that American Indians and the land they lived on and interacted with had no real
history prior to 1492,
almost as if the indigenous peoples of the Americas floated along waiting for Europeans to arrive before they could actually exist and have a history
“worthy” of being recorded.
This supposition left Indians without agency, a state of existence that social scientists define as people who are not actors in their own right but
who are instead passive recipients of whatever happens to them or comes their way.
The idea that Native Americans lacked agency took hold of the popular imagination and has informed peoples’ memory and suppositions about
indigenous peoples ever since.
From textbooks to Hollywood movies, Natives have been cast as either blood-thirsty barbarians or noble savages—caricatures that never explained
or explored the real nature or diversity of indigenous life in the Americas.
This all-good or all-bad image locked Natives into a static position, reinforcing the sense that they did not truly exist as a force for change prior to
European contact.
Since history is defined by change, Natives were left as a people without a history.
Much of this attitude about American Indians formed because western historians advanced the idea that history was created and dominated by
great leaders of European descent, especially since European nations seemed to be overwhelming non-white societies everywhere.
History became identified with the activities of nation-states, particularly between the 18th and 20th centuries, leaving no room for exploring the
past in terms of other models, like culture, art, or religion.
But the collapse of European colonies and two world wars in the 20th century made historians take note, realizing that nation-states could be
destroyed and that there could be other measures of a society beyond great leaders and political regimes.
Recently, new disciplines and new technologies have challenged the old myths about American Indians.
While images still abound depicting Natives as environmental purists who lived an idyllic, nomadic lifestyle, research now reveals that most
indigenous peoples in the Americas lived south of the Rio Grande River in large, well-established cities, farmed, and depended on extensive trading
networks that spanned the continent.
The Americas before Columbus arrived were far busier, more diverse, and more populated than previously known.
How did the First People Come to the Americas?
SLIDE: Beringia Map
About 12,000 years ago, bands of hunters from northeast Asia pursued mammoths and other big game across a frozen patch of land known
as Beringia to become the first Americans.
This patch of land has since melted and is now a narrow ocean passage called the Bering Strait, which separates Siberia from Alaska.
SLIDE: Bering Strait Map
Cold weather and harsh conditions drove these hunters south in search of food and a better climate.
Gradually, they spread across North and South America and formed various Native American tribes.
SLIDE: The First Peoples
Most of what we know about these people has come from the things they left behind: stone tools and weapons, bones, pottery, ancient dwellings,
and bits of textiles and basketry.
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Though most historians believe the first Americans arrived from Asia, debate rages among anthropologists and archeologists about how and when
the first Americans arrived.
Archeological evidence found in 1927 indicated that the first known natives arrived around 12,000 years ago and no one questioned this evidence
for more than fifty years.
Since 1980, several archeological sites have proven that people were living in the Americas much earlier than 12,000 years ago.
That means that indigenous peoples had been living in the Americas much earlier than previously suspected.
SLIDE: New Theories on Routes to America
They likely arrived by a variety of methods, some walking across the iced-over land bridge, some coming in small boats and hugging the glaciers,
making their way south along the coastlines of what today is Oregon, Washington, and California, others crossing the Pacific Ocean from Polynesia
and Australia, landing in South America, and still others, mostly maritime fishers and hunters, working their way along the southern margins of the
Atlantic.
Central and South American Indians
By the time Christopher Columbus first laid eyes on the Americas, more than fifty million people lived in North and South America and about four
million lived in what we now know as the United States.
SLIDE: Maya
The richest, most complex native civilizations developed near the Isthmus of Panama, which divides North and South America.
These civilizations were:
Mayas
SLIDE: Mayan Civilization Map
Mayan culture developed in three regions of Mesoamerica between 300 and 900 AD with the most important development occurring in the central
part of southern Guatemala in the tropical rain forest.
SLIDE: Mayan Glyphs
The Mayas developed a sophisticated approach to astronomy, created a calendar that was more accurate than the one used in Europe,
conceptualized a sophisticated mathematical system including a figure to represent zero, and created the most complex system of writing in the
Americas.
SLIDE: Pyramid at Tikal
Tikal, one of the largest Mayan Cities in the area, traded with Teotihuacan and had a population of 100,000 at its peak.
SLIDE: Palenque
Because its economy was centered on agriculture, Mayan engineers built canals to water their crops.
SLIDE: Self Mutilation in Mayan Art
Numerous Mayan texts exist, containing rich detail about Mayan history, as well as their religious beliefs, which included human sacrifice and selfmutilation.
Mayan culture began to decline after the fall of Teotihuacan in 750 AD.
By the time the Toltec, a militaristic society, conquered most of Central America and Central Mexico in the 10th century, Mayan urban centers had
collapsed and the population dispersed into the surrounding countryside.
Today their descendants live in Guatemala, Chiapas, Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Belize, where they have held tenaciously to their culture
and traditions.
They continue to speak their languages, wear traditional clothing, follow long established rituals, and incorporate their beliefs into the practice of
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Christianity.
SLIDE: Aztec Sun
Aztecs
SLIDE: Map of Aztec Empire
The Aztecs, who called themselves Mexíca, lived in the central part of Mexico in the 14th through 16th centuries, building an extensive empire
around their capital of Tenochtitlán, which is now Mexico City.
SLIDE: Tenochtitlán
Built on a lake, the only access to Tenochtitlán was by causeway.
SLIDES: Chinampas
To help feed the city’s 200,000 inhabitants, the Aztecs built floating gardens, called chinampas, on the lake.
The Aztecs established alliances with their neighbors, but eventually Tenochtitlán became the center of power for the region.
The Aztecs frequently waged war against their neighbors and took captives to be used for sacrifices in their ceremonies.
SLIDE: Aztec sacrifices
As in other Mesoamerican cultures, human sacrifice was an important part of Aztec society.
The Aztecs, however, practiced it with an intensity not held by anyone else in the Americas.
At the dedication of the Great Pyramid of the Sun in 1487, Aztec priests sacrificed more than 84,000 prisoners (according to some sources) in a
ceremony that lasted four days.
For the sacrifice, the captive climbed the steps of the pyramid and was held by force on a sacrificial slab while a priest sliced opened his chest and
ripped out his heart.
The priest then held the heart up to the sun before placing it inside a statue of their god.
The lifeless body of the captive was rolled down the steps so that the captor’s family could eat parts of the body.
The captor himself did not eat the body; instead he fasted and mourned the death of his foe.
SLIDE: Great Pyramid
Though violent, Aztec society was highly advanced in the arts, especially in song and poetry.
Additionally, the Aztecs built an elaborate system of roads to facilitate trade and communications between its conquered territories.
The Aztecs were also one of the few groups in the world to institute mandatory education for all children.
SLIDE: AZTEC WRITING
The Spanish conquered the Aztecs in 1519 when the Aztec king, Montezuma, surrendered to Hernando Cortés.
Incas
SLIDE: MAP OF INCA EMPIRE
Also called the Quechua people, the Incas inhabited the Andes Mountains.
At its peak, the Incan empire extended some 2,000 miles, and included as many as 12 million people.
SLIDE: QUIPU
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Subjects of the empire were required to pay tribute, which the Incas measured using a device called aquipu.
The quipu, made of thread or animal hair, used a series of knots to calculate or record totals.
SLIDE: MACHU PICCHU
The Incas linked their vast empire together through a series of roads and suspension bridges.
To facilitate trade, the Incas built grain storehouses along the roads.
While the Incas practiced many forms of artistic expression, including pottery and textiles, their most impressive achievements were in the area of
architecture, especially in their ability to build cities high in the Andes.
SLIDE: MACHU PICCHU II
Using a method of construction that tightly locked large stones together, Inca engineers constructed structures capable of withstanding
earthquakes.
The Incas also made numerous discoveries in the area of medicine and even performed skull surgery.
North American Natives
Although North American native civilizations never achieved the level of sophistication of their South American neighbors, scholars speculate that
cultural diffusion did take place between North and South American peoples, evidenced particularly in the use of common crops and ideas.
Hopewell
SLIDE: HOPEWELL SYSTEM MAP
The Hopewell civilization, sometimes known as Adena/Hopewell, lasted from about 200 BC to 400 AD.
It was made up of communities that occupied much of the area now known as the American mid-west, along rivers in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Kentucky, and Tennessee.
The Hopewell were part-time farmers who lived in villages.
They constructed large burial mounds, from which archaeologists have unearthed a variety of objects that originated in distant areas from the Gulf
Coast to the Great Lakes.
The extensive trade networks developed by this culture stretched across the continent.
Mississippian
SLIDE: MISSISSIPPIAN MAP
The Mississippian culture, which had a mound-building tradition, was in existence between about AD 1000-1540.
The Mississippians lived primarily in the Mississippi Valley and the Southeast.
The Mississippian civilization was made up of stationary farmers, who grew primarily corn, beans, and squash and had a deep connection with the
land.
SLIDE: CAHOKIA
Cahokia, the largest city and long-time capital of the Mississippian world, was located in the low plains where the Illinois and Missouri rivers flow
into the Mississippi.
Cahokia is estimated to have had a population of over 15,000 around the year 1100 A.D.
Archaeological excavation of Mississippian sites reveal evidence of elaborate rituals and extensive trading.
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The Mississippian mound-builders perished over time from European diseases.
Mogollons
SLIDE: MOGOLLON MAP
The Mogollons inhabited the dry, mountainous areas of southern New Mexico and eastern Arizona.
From 200 B.C. until about 1300 A.D. their culture flourished.
This group developed homes that were designed to provide shelter in the harsh environment, complete with drainage systems sunk into the
ground like large pits, which helped to keep the home’s inhabitants cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
The Mogollons are best remembered for their delicate clay pottery, which formed an important part of their death and burial rituals.
While the decline and disappearance of the Mogollons remains a mystery, the pottery they left behind provides insight into their belief system.
Hohokams
The Hohokams occupied the area of the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona from about 300 A.D. to 1500 A.D, farming the floodplains of the Salt
and Gila rivers.
They built apartments into the ground, similar to those of the Mogollons.
SLIDE: Hohokam Irrigation
The Hohokams created far-reaching irrigation systems to move water to their crops.
The villagers grew several types of beans and squash, in addition to cotton and corn.
The Hohokams supplemented their diet by hunting and gathering in the mountains and desert.
Hohokam culture produced pottery, baskets, and jewelry, and traded with other civilizations in the Southwest and Mexico.
The rich Hohokam tradition also involved the construction of ball courts similar to those in Mesoamerica, and the ceremonial cremation of the
dead.
SLIDE: Map of Anasazi Location
Anasazi
The people known as the Anasazi, or Pueblos, occupied the four corners region (where the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah
meet) establishing permanent homes from around 490 to 1300 A.D.
The Anasazi diet consisted of gathered foods and hunted game, as well as garden corn, squash, and beans.
The Anasazi culture is most often remembered for its kivas, which were underground ceremonial chambers.
Communities lived in above-ground homes clustered around the kiva.
SLIDES: SOUTHWESTERN PUEBLOS
Spanish explorers later called these dwellings pueblos.
Anasazi culture included basket-making, gaming, gambling, and sporting events, often in connection with religious gatherings.
SLIDE: SOUTHWESTERN ART
SLIDE: Culture Area Map
Eastern Woodland People
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The Eastern Woodlands were occupied by people from two large language groups, Algonquin and Iroquoian, who shared many economic and
cultural patterns.
SLIDE: WOODLAND ENGRAVING
Most of these cultures were semi-sedentary and practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, girdling trees to kill them, burning the underbrush, and
planting primarily corn, beans and squash.
Woman assumed most farming and household responsibilities while the men were hunters and warriors.
Before the Europeans arrival, the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee, as they identified themselves, had created a confederacy of five tribes (Mohawk,
Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, and Onondaga) known as the Great Law of Peace.
The women of the tribes selected chiefs to attend the Grand Council where diplomacy replaced war among the tribes and enabled them to subdue
enemies.
SLIDE: INSIDE LONGHOUSE
They lived in longhouses, communal buildings sometimes as long as a hundred yards and as wide as sixty feet.
SLIDE: OUTSIDE LONGHOUSE
Villages could have as many as sixty longhouses each with dozens of families.
Historians continue to piece together the history of life in the Americas prior to European contact.
We now know that tens of millions of American Indians lived on a thriving continent with a great diversity of religions, languages, and cultures.
These indigenous peoples did have agency and did attempt to control their own destinies.
Despite the differences between Indian civilizations, the indigenous peoples in North and South America showed an enormous capability for
adapting to changing circumstances, forging new alliances, and altering their community structures.
When faced with European conquest, the natives resisted for centuries, adopting many European ways as their own and converting some
Europeans to native practices.
SLIDE: AFRICAN KINGDOMS
Europe on the Eve of Exploration
SLIDE: PEASANT
During the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, Europe underwent a period of fast-paced change and development known as
the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.”
The medieval period, lasting from the fifth through the thirteenth centuries, had been marked by rampant disease, political fragmentation, and
religious hysteria.
SLIDE: EUROPEAN SOCIETY BREAKDOWN
The Renaissance, however, featured:
revival of interest in learning, with special focus on ancient Greek and Roman scholarship
growth of major European cities
development of widespread trade and capitalistic economies
rise of new nation-states with powerful monarchs
Increased power and wealth in the hands of European monarchs led to an interest in exploration and expansion.
SLIDE: EARLY EXPLORERS
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The rulers of Europe turned their eyes toward the Atlantic and imagined the riches that might lay beyond it.
SLIDE: VIKINGS
The Vikings were the earliest known European explorers to cross the Atlantic.
In the ninth and tenth centuries they colonized Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, and then began exploring and exploiting the resources
from the Eastern coast of Canada.
We know about the Viking explorations because of archaeological findings and because their stories, told orally, were later written down in sagas
(narratives recording the deeds of historic and legendary figures).
One of the most famous Viking sagas is Beowulf.
The Vikings withdrew from their colonies by the eleventh century, and the details of their early explorations were unknown to later European
explorers.
If the Vikings explored and colonized areas in North America in 1000 A.D., why was it that Europeans did not “discover” and settle the New World
until after 1492?
The simplest explanation is that Europeans were not ready intellectually and technologically.
A number of important developments and movements would have to take place in Europe before the nation-states of the region were ready to
wage cross-oceanic explorations.
SLIDE: MAP OF EUROPE
Changes in Europe
In November 1095, Pope Urban II called on the nobility of Western Europe to travel east and assist their Christian brothers, the Byzantines, against
attacks from Muslim Turks.
Additionally, he called on Europeans to liberate Jerusalem.
Responding to the Pope’s call, Europeans launched a series of religious wars against the East.
These wars become known as “The Crusades.”
SLIDE: Map of the Crusades
Prior to the Crusades, Europe struggled through the Dark Ages, a period of decentralization and fragmentation.
This era witnessed numerous wars and starvation as roaming bands of barbarians attacked the isolated feudal kingdoms of the region.
Additionally, the period is marked by limited intellectual growth because little emphasis was placed upon education or the study of classical works.
In contrast, the Middle East flourished during this period.
Muslim scholars preserved ancient works and added to the fields of chemistry, mathematics, and medicine.
They built impressive cities, established lucrative trades routes to China and Africa, and mastered the use of new technologies and weapons,
including gunpowder.
Lasting some 200 years, the Crusades helped bring Europeans out of the Dark Ages by bringing them into contact with a civilization far more
advanced than their own.
Through the Crusades, Europeans encountered new ideas and technologies, while at the same time they established important trade routes
between the East and West.
Lastly, the Crusades provided Europeans with the confidence and desire to look beyond the confines of their own homes.
Trade and Economic Growth
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The Crusades and trade with the East fostered economic growth in Europe, especially among the merchant families of the Italian city-states.
These families facilitated trade between the East and the West as Europeans desired items from the Middle East, including paper, soap, perfumes,
ceramics, glass, jewelry, medicines, and textiles.
Of all the goods imported from the East, Europeans desired spices the most.
Europeans quickly learned that spices, such as pepper or cinnamon, could be used to preserve meats, or more importantly, add flavor to those that
were rotten or rancid.
Soon, many in the West considered spices (and an increasing number of other imports from the East) a necessity, and consequently, the merchant
families who facilitated the trade grew wealthier as trade increased.
These families, and their wealth, played an important part in bringing about the Renaissance and the rise of European nation-states.
The Renaissance
SLIDE: The Renaissance
As Europeans emerged from the Dark Ages, they entered into a period of rebirth known as the Renaissance.
Lasting between 1350-1550 A.D., this period brought about important changes for Europeans.
Nearly all aspects of life in Europe changed during the Renaissance.
Closely connected with the Crusades and the rediscovery of ancient works, this age of rebirth is defined by an increase in the study of language,
literature, history, ethics, and the world.
More importantly, it was a period of innovation and discovery.
The wealthy merchant families of Italy played a part in promoting the Renaissance.
These worldly and materialistic individuals used their wealth to sponsor new cultural activities and they financed the study of classical works.
In doing so, they not only glorified themselves, but they fueled intellectual and artistic growth throughout Europe.
The Rise of Nation-States
SLIDE: Map of European Nation-States
During the Dark Ages, Europe was divided as the nobility raised armies and built castles to protect their holdings from roaming barbarians.
As a result, the European economy grew stagnant and the region was little more than a series of isolated feudal kingdoms.
The Crusades and trade with the East brought an end to Europe’s stagnant economy by giving way to the rise of powerful nation-states.
As merchants in Europe acquired wealth, they grew interested in protecting their trade routes and livelihood—warfare and instability were bad for
business.
These merchants paid taxes and lent money to monarchs who would protect their economic interests.
Monarchs used this money to build large armies and to reunite their divided empires into nations.
This resulted in the formation of nation-states throughout Europe and monarchs had the resources and money necessary to finance overseas
voyages.
Population Growth
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Coinciding with the Crusades and the Renaissance, Europe’s population doubled between 1000-1500 A.D. from 38 million to 76 million.
Better diets were made possible through new farming techniques and spices resulted in a longer life expectancy for the average European.
SLIDE: LAND IN BLOCKS
As the population increased, land values and property taxes soared and opportunities for the poor and landless in Europe decreased.
Population growth, as well as the reasons discussed previously, provided incentives and motivations for overseas exploration.
SLIDE: MAP OF EURASIA AND AFRICA
When the Ottoman Empire blocked overland trade routes in the early 1400s, the Portuguese decided to explore a sea route around Africa to reach
India and China to acquire the spices and luxury goods from the East that they had enjoyed.
The Portuguese saw a potential for tremendous profits if they could bring the goods to Europe by ship.
But there were two main problems:

No one had ever attempted to sail to India or China from Europe
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Naval technology needed to improve before long oceanic voyages were possible
SLIDE: PRINCE HENRY
One wealthy Portuguese visionary, Prince Henry, sponsored numerous voyages of discovery along the western coast of Africa to add to geographic
knowledge, find a sea route to the Orient, and perhaps, find gold.
Henry supported cartographers who compiled the information brought back by sailors and his home became a mecca for instrument makers,
craftsmen, and mapmakers who improved upon and learned from each others’ work.
Prince Henry, born Dom Henrique, was called “The Navigator” by the English, although he never sailed on any voyages of exploration.
SLIDE: CARAVELS AND ASTROLABE
One of the problems that Portuguese mariners overcame involved the design of ships.
Traditionally-built ships were too heavy and slow for long distance travel but a new style of ship called the caravel was created by Portuguese
shipbuilders that was lightweight, had a shallow draft so that the ship could explore up rivers, and had a large cargo to hold supplies for long
voyages.
Caravels also had triangular sails that added to the ships’ maneuverability.
During the same period, mariners and instrument makers improved the astrolabe and the magnetic compass so that they could be used on a ship.
They developed a system to measure a ship's speed at sea that used knots tied in a rope and a weight on the end, hence the term "knots" is used to
measure velocity today.
Sailors measured how long it took for the knots to go over the edge of the ship into the sea.
Knowing how fast they were going and in which direction allowed them to change the way maps were drawn so that they were more accurate.
Improvements in navigation and technology allowed the Portuguese to explore further along the coast of Africa, but it was a slow process because
each ship would go only a little further than the previous ship before returning home with new information for cartographers to use to update
maps.
SLIDE: MAP OF DE GAMA AND DIAS
Two Portuguese sailors are well known for their early explorations: Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope, Africa’s southern tip, in
1488, and Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and on to India in 1498.
Colliding Cultures
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SLIDE: CONQUEST
The Europeans who arrived in the Americas starting in the fifteenth century brought profound changes to the land and to the native civilizations.
Through both exploration and exploitation, Europeans conquered the natives, creating a new society that we now know as “America.”
These early European explorers and settlers were a varied lot.
Some were dashing explorers seeking fame and fortune, while others were humble farmers hoping to own land for the first time.
As the economy flourished, more workers were needed, and the Europeans turned first to the Natives.
When the Natives proved unable or unwilling, the colonists turned to English indentured servants, and later to enslaved Africans.
The colonies prospered, and rival colonizers emerged: Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands.
The monarchs of Europe found it difficult to manage their distant territories and soon met with colonial resistance and eventually outright revolt.
Historians refer to this time as the Age of Exploration, but it has also become known as the Age of Exploitation or the Age of Conquest.
The terms imply different ways of looking at the period and differences among the historians who use them.
The Voyages of Christopher Columbus
SLIDES: Columbus Portraits
The exploration process was too slow for Christopher Columbus, who was born in the Italian seaside city of Genoa in 1451 to a family of weavers.
Learning to sail from Portuguese seamen, Columbus sailed for many years before moving to Lisbon, Portugal, to try to gain support for a voyage to
find a route to India, China, and Japan by sailing west across the Atlantic.
Unsuccessful finding funding in Portugal, Columbus moved to Spain.
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabell, the joint monarchs of Spain, agreed to finance Columbus’s voyage in return for the gold, spices, and
riches that he might find.
Columbus waited in Spain for several years for Spain’s war of reconquest against the Moors to end before receiving funding for his voyage.
SLIDE: Alhambra
Ferdinand and Isabella promised to finance his voyage but only after the last Moorish Kingdom had been captured and Islam driven from their
realm.
The Voyage of 1492
While historians disagree about Columbus’s intended destination, most assume he was seeking Japan and the East Indies.
SLIDE: Map of Columbus Conceptions
While his destination is disputed, his goals were apparent.
He intended to explore and trade, as well as conquer and exploit.
Columbus left Spain with ninety men aboard three vessels: the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria.
Both the Niña and the Pinta were caravels.
The Santa Maria was a larger, slower rig.
After several weeks at sea, the expedition finally landed in October of 1492 on an island off the Bahamas, and named it San Salvador, meaning
“blessed savior.”
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SLIDE: MAP OF FIRST JOURNEY
Columbus’s next stop was Cuba.
The expedition then continued to present-day Haiti, a part of an island that Columbus called Hispaniola.
Columbus promptly claimed the area for the Spanish crown.
The expedition was met with friendly natives bearing gifts for the newcomers.
Columbus’ group immediately began interacting with los indios, as he called them, claiming in his journal that they were friendly people and willing
allies.
Finding the land beautiful and the people agreeable, Columbus left about forty men behind and sailed home with news of success.
Believing that he had reached Asia, Columbus was eager to return to Europe with samples of the people and treasure to be had.
On this first voyage, Columbus seized about twenty natives and took them back to Spain.
Only seven or eight survived the trip.
Columbus didn’t call the native peoples Indians because he thought he was in India.
He actually thought he was in Japan.
He called these natives Indios, the Spanish word for people who live on a chain of islands—in this case, the Indies.
English explorers later took this Spanish word and Anglicized it to Indian.
Columbus’s Return Trip to Americañ
Columbus reached Spain in March 1493, immediately receiving titles and riches.
The published report of his successful voyage made him a hero throughout Europe.
He was made Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Governor of the Indies.
The success of the voyage was immediately recognized, and Columbus was quickly outfitted for a second voyage with seventeen ships, more than
1,200 men, and instructions from the King and Queen to treat the natives well.
While Columbus had been gone, the forty men he had left on Hispaniola had raped and murdered the natives and pillaged their villages.
The natives struck back, killing ten Spaniards.
Columbus counterattacked with crossbows, guns, and ferocious dogs and loaded five hundred natives on a ship bound for the slave market in
Spain.
These events set a trend of savage exploitation for the rest of Columbus’s explorations in the Americas.
Columbus made two more trips to the Americas (four total), each time becoming more greedy for gold and treating the natives more savagely.
To the end, he refused to believe that he had discovered anything other than the outlying lands of Asia.
Eventually he was charged with mismanagement of lands in the New World, arrested, and taken back to Spain in chains.
Columbus is celebrated yearly in the United States as the man who “discovered America,” but he never actually set foot on the mainland of North
America.
Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas is significant because it initiated the trans-Atlantic exchange of slaves, diseases, goods, crops, and
immigrants that characterized the future relationship between the Old and New Worlds.
SLIDE: Map of Early American Explorations
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The Americas are named quite accidentally not for Columbus but for another early Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who first sailed near the
mainland of America in 1497.
Vespucci’s accounts of his explorations were widely distributed, including his acknowledgement that an unknown continent had been discovered.
SLIDE: Map of Europe
Spanish Exploration
SLIDE: MAP OF SPANISH EXPLORERS
Spain’s motives for exploration were simple: they came for God, Gold, and Glory.
By the early sixteenth century, Spain had begun an inland conquest of the Americas.
Expeditions led by Spanish conquistadors, or “conquerors,” penetrated what is now the southeastern United States and much of South America.
By the late 1530s, Spain had established a vast empire in North and South America.
Hernán Cortés
Hernán Cortés is usually credited with conquering the Aztecs in Mexico, but this is not exactly true.
Cortés struck out on his own, against official orders, and landed his small fleet on the Mexican coast.
He dismantled his ships so his troops would have no choice but to follow him inland.
He met various groups of Indians on the way, and was given a woman as a gift by one tribe.
She turned out to be a great help to Cortés as a translator.
He called her doña Marina, but most Mexicans today call her la Malinche, the traitor.
SLIDES: Cortes & Malinche Depictions
With her help, Cortés convinced the tribes of Mexico to band together against the Aztecs, their overlord.
The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma (Montezuma), believed Cortés might have been the return of Quetzlcoatl, an Aztec deity, and was cautious of him.
Cortés was able to take Moctezuma prisoner, and eventually take over the empire that the Aztecs built.
From that point forward, the Spanish coerced most Mexicans into becoming Catholic, taking Spanish names with their baptism, and learning the
Spanish way of doing things.
Their society changed tremendously, but their political system remained much the same.
The main difference was that instead of paying tribute to the Aztecs, the Mexican people paid tribute to the Spanish.
SLIDE: Map of Pizzaro Route
Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Pizarro led a contingent of soldiers from Panama to Peru in 1527, attacking and conquering the Incan Empire, establishing the city of
Lima, Peru, and claiming most of South America for Spain.
Pizarro discovered the Incan empire at a time of weakness.
The empire was suffering from one of the first waves of smallpox to attack the region and the emperor Huayna’s death from the disease left a
vacuum of power that resulted in a civil war between two of his sons who struggled to gain control.
Pizarro took advantage of the situation to conquer the empire.
SLIDE: De Soto Depiction
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Hernando De Soto
After accompanying Pizarro on the Incan conquest in Peru, De Soto landed in what is now Florida in 1539 and spent the next four years wandering
through present-day Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana looking for gold, silver,
and other valuable goods.
De Soto was known for his extreme brutality and ruthlessness against the native peoples he encountered.
Some historians argue that he is responsible for beginning the hostile relationship between Indians and Europeans in North America.
De Soto considered the expedition a failure because he did not find the riches he sought. He died in present-day Arkansas.
Records from the expedition greatly increased Europe’s biological, geographic, and ethnological knowledge of the southern part of North America.
De Soto and his men experienced an unmatched glimpse of Indian life in the region that disappeared shortly afterward.
Indian civilization essentially crumbled in the wake of De Soto’s expedition.
Although De Soto raped, tortured, enslaved, and killed countless Indians, he also left a more silent and deadly weapon of destruction behind—
disease.
De Soto brought 300 hundred pigs to feed his army of 600 men, and these pigs carried anthrax, brucellosis, leptospirosis, trichinosis, and
tuberculosis.
All diseases to which Europeans had built immunities, but to which Indians were completely vulnerable.
Not only could the pigs pass these diseases directly to people they came into contact with but also to deer and turkey, infecting the forests in little
time.
SLIDE: Map of Native Populations
For an example of the estimated destruction disease caused, the Caddo population, a tribe that lived on the Texas-Arkansas border, fell from about
200,000 to 8,500 in the years following De Soto’s expedition.
This is a loss of nearly 96 percent of their population.
An equal loss today, for example, would wipe out all of New York City’s population and the remaining few alive would be able to fit into Yankee
Stadium.
SLIDE: Map of Cabeza de Vaca
SLIDE: Map of Coronado
Subjugation of the Indians
Eventually the conquistadors explored all of southern and central America and much of the southwestern part of the United States.
In much of South and Central America, the Spanish became the privileged landowners of the newly found territory.
They created a system known as the encomienda, in which favored Spanish officers controlled land and the nearby native villages, protecting the
villages but also demanding tributes from the natives in the form of goods and labor.
Two extremes developed in Spanish America: affluent Europeans and poor subjugated natives.
Encomienda became so harsh that the Spanish government eventually outlawed it, but landowners did not want to lose their free labor, so they
ignored the law.
Mexicans were essentially enslaved by the encomienda system--suppressed, exploited, and living in poverty.
Conversely, Spanish landowners became wealthy, acquiring huge landholdings called haciendas or ranchos. The system gave a tremendous
amount of political power to a few families at the expense of all others.
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Spanish Importation of Enslaved Africans
By the mid 1500s most of the native populations where the Spanish originally settled had perished, killed by overwork or disease.
To replace this labor force, the Spanish began importing enslaved Africans in 1518.
It is estimated that about 2 million enslaved Africans worked in Spanish colonies in the Americas.
Spanish Influence in the Americas
For most of the colonial period, much of what is now the United States belonged to Spain, and Spanish culture left a lasting imprint upon American
ways of life.
For example, cities like Santa Fe, San Antonio, St. Augustine, Los Angeles, and San Diego sprang from Spanish presidios and missions, and Spanish
farming and ranching impacted agriculture.
From place names to music, foods, clothing, and ranching techniques, a Spanish presence is still felt in North America today.
Biological Exchange
SLIDE: Columbian Exchange
Results of a Biological Exchange
An enormously influential biological exchange occurred when Europeans landed in the Americas, to the benefit and detriment of Europeans and
Natives.
Old World—New World plant and animal exchange resulted in sugar and bananas crossing the Atlantic while pigs, sheep, and cattle arrived in the
Americas.
The transfer of European diseases had catastrophic repercussions: influenza, typhus, measles, and smallpox devastated the Native American
population.
SLIDE: Columbian Exchange Map & Demo
The Biological Exchange (also called the Columbian Exchange or Grand Exchange) is one of the most significant biogeological events of world
history, affecting almost every society on earth and historians have only recently begun to question the event and the way it has been traditionally
interpreted.
In the traditional interpretation of the Biological Exchange, Indians lived in harmony with their environment in a pristine world and both the
Natives and the environment were suddenly devastated following the arrival of Europeans.
Biological exchanges of plants and animals enabled a better and longer life for Europeans, who took food items like potatoes and corn back to the
old world were suddenly able to grow food to support their large population while reducing the population overgrowth by transporting humans to
the new world.
Indians, on the other hand according to the traditional interpretation, were destroyed by the exchange, becoming the victims of European diseases
like smallpox and measles.
In 1992, on the five hundredth anniversary of the Columbian encounter, an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian
Institution) called the “Seeds of Change: 500 Years of Encounter and Exchange” and a publication from the Smithsonian Institution Press, Seeds of
Change: A Quincentennial Commemoration (1991), ignited an academic firestorm.
Seeds of Change, the National Museum of Natural History’s “contribution to the Columbian quincentennial” focused on “the global biological and
cultural transformation initiated by Columbus’s voyages, the shaping of a new world out of several old worlds.”
The exhibit and publication claimed Indians lived in a pristine wilderness “transparent in the landscape.”
For example, journalist Joel Simon wrote “Prophecy, Plague, and Plunder” in The Amicus Journal, stating “Five hundred years ago, the Aztecs lived
in fear of ecological doom.
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Then the Spaniards arrived.” Euroamerican agrosystems replaced fragile Amerindian systems and “disease opened an ecological niche for the
Spaniards[’ livestock] to occupy.”
According to Simon, “Spanish occupation of Mexico in the 1500s led to extreme degradation of what had been a carefully balanced environmental
structure.”
As Aztecs were wiped out by European diseases their sustainable agricultural systems “were replaced by resource exploitation and the introduction
of livestock that ravaged the landscape.”
In the mainstream Simon’s viewpoint is considered “politically correct.”
According to such views, Indians lived carefully and consciously within the rhythms of nature, while Europeans exploited nature at disastrous costs.
Undoubtedly Euroamericans changed some ecological patterns; however, historians, archeologists, and geographers in the last decade have begun
to challenge overtly simplistic perspectives, arguing that people are part of the ecosystem.
Regardless of political correctness, the database of research reveals that humans act within and upon nature.
Both societies, Amerindians and Euroamericans interacted in the natural environment, testing and pushing ecological limits.
Europeans and Amerindians before 1750 found it beneficial to work within ecological parameters.
Both had significant agency. “Native Americans” especially “were populous and technologically skilled.
The sustenance of those populations required agriculture and a vigorous use of resources that could be as damaging as any pre-industrial land-use
in the Old World….”
A survey of current archeology and geography indicates that “By 1492, Indian activity had modified vegetation and wildlife, caused erosion, and
created earthworks, roads, and settlements throughout the Americas.”
William Denevan in his pivotal article “The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492” mounted evidence that the prehistoric
Amerindian landscape—North and South America—was a humanized landscape.
But he found the myth still persists “that in 1492 the Americas were a sparsely populated wilderness”—“a world of barely perceptible human
disturbance.”
Evidence indicated “the contrary” that “the Indian impact was neither benign nor localized and ephemeral, nor were resources always used in a
sound ecological way.”
And in fact the landscape of 1750 was more “pristine” or “less humanized” than in 1492.
For example, in Arizona complex canal systems in the Salt River Valley irrigated “more land in prehistory than is cultivated today.”
The Columbian Quincentenary brought media coverage from alarmist journalists, commercial exploitation from corporations, governmental
propaganda from the Smithsonian, political debate among hot-aired politicos, and ideological polarization among the citizenry.
But none of it deterred the academic community from reexamining the aftermath of 1492 and taking a new look at the hard evidence, the
historical and geo-archeological database.
Many scholars now agree that “the impact of European agrotechnology on New World environments” does not support the “popular hypothesis of
colonial devastation.”
The politically correct thesis loses credibility, especially when one considers or “accepts” that the Americas had a population upward of 50 million
with settlement densities in regions comparable to those of the early twentieth century.
Challenges to Spain's Empire
SLIDE: French Explorers
The French
The French were the first to pose a threat to Spanish supremacy in the New World, establishing colonies in Canada and along the Mississippi River
Valley and Gulf Coast.
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The French were initially interested in fishing in the Grand Banks area but then invested heavily in the fur trade, creating elaborate trading
networks with Indian tribes.
Jacques Cartier
SLIDE: Map of Canada
Beginning in 1534, Jacques Cartier made three voyages into present day Canada, finding the St. Lawrence River and claiming the territory, calling it
“New France.”
He attempted to establish a colony near present day Quebec but it failed, and the French did not attempt to return to the area for seventy years,
mainly because the homeland was plagued by religious civil wars.
Samuel de Champlain
In 1608, Samuel de Champlain explored the area of present day Quebec, establishing fur trading connections.
SLIDE: Depiction of Hurons
He forged alliances between the Huron and Ottawa against their enemy, the Iroquois.
Champlain went on to explore the present day areas of the Great Lakes and the eastern coast of Canada and New England.
SLIDE: Map of LaSalle Routes
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
Robert La Salle sailed from Canada down the Mississippi River, discovering its outlet in the Gulf of Mexico.
He claimed the entire watershed for France, calling the territory Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.
La Salle attempted to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1684 to solidify French control of the region but the expedition
failed.
French, Dutch, and English Pirates
SLIDE: Henry Hudson
SLIDES: New Amsterdam Slides
More immediate threats to Spain’s dominance came from the French, Dutch, and English “sea beggars,” pirates who plundered Spanish ships,
attacked Spanish ports, and carried on an illegal trade with the Spanish colonies.
SLIDE: Spanish Armada
Eventually, war broke out between Spain and England, and England defeated the Spanish Armada (a fleet of warships) in 1588.
The defeat of the Armada marked the beginning of British naval supremacy and opened the way for English colonization of the New World.
SLIDE: Anne Bonny
Anne Bonny is the most famous female pirate.
She was born in Ireland and lived between roughly 1698 and 1782, though no one is sure when or how she died.
Some historians hail her as a modern feminist, rebelling again a male-dominated society while others say she was no more than an overgrown
tomboy.
Regardless of her reasons for being a pirate, she was infamous at the time as a plunderer, raider, and a cutthroat sailor.
English Colonization and Exploration
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Although Spain dominated the early years of exploration, England became the commanding colonial power by the eighteenth century; however,
the road to colonial might was bumpy for the British, and early settlers endured great hardships.
Factors that Encouraged English Colonization
Several events coincided that made the acquisition of New World colonies a virtual necessity for the English.
After Spain discovered the Americas, gold and silver from the New World flooded into Europe, creating a severely inflated economy.
England did not have any colonies that produced gold and suffered horribly from the inflation.
Compounding the problems associated with inflation, farmers began growing New World foods like corn and potatoes, which helped to eliminate
starvation in Britain.
With more food available, more people began to live longer and the birth rates soared, resulting in a population boom.
The increased population combined with economic problems, like the severe inflation, creating a chronic situation of unemployment and
underemployment for the mass of British people.
Once these events combined (the economic problems, increased population, unemployment, political instability, and religious conflict), the British
had little choice but to look to acquire New World colonies.
SLIDES: The Sea Dogs
Raleigh and Roanoke
SLIDE: Raleigh
English colonization began with Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh.
In 1578 Gilbert acquired a royal patent from Elizabeth, Queen of England, to discover and hold new territories not already claimed by other
countries.
He wanted to claim new land and transplant Englishmen to the Americas to settle and acquire wealth for themselves and for England.
SLIDE: Gilbert
Gilbert began his first transatlantic sailing in 1583, claimed land in Newfoundland and because winter was approaching, decided to return home.
On the way back to England, Gilbert’s ship vanished, and he was never seen again.
The next year Gilbert’s half-brother Raleigh petitioned the Queen for a commission in his own name.
In 1587, Raleigh sponsored an expedition of 117 men, women, and children, who settled on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina.
SLIDE: Roanoke
Because of the Spanish-English War, it was 1590 before another English ship was able to sail to Roanoke. When it arrived, the sailors found the
settlement abandoned.
No trace of the “Lost Colonists” of Roanoke was ever found.
SLIDE: Map of Roanoke
English Dominance in North America
English Colonization
Early English attempts at colonization were unsuccessful and expensive, but soon colonists did manage to establish themselves in the wilderness of
North America and England solidified its control of the region.
Managing the Costs of Colonization
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The risks involved in colonization became so enormously expensive that no single individual could fund expeditions.
Instead English entrepreneurs formed joint-stock companies, in which stockholders shared the risks and profits of colonization.
Companies acquired enough money to organize voyages by stockholders purchasing shares of ownership in the company.
These stockholders expected to get a return on their investment from gold and other minerals, products like wine, citrus fruits, and olive oil, and
trade with the natives for pitch, tar, and potash.
Joint-stock companies are the ancestors of today’s modern corporations.
Joint-stock companies paid out divisions to their shareholders by dividing up the profits of the colony.
These divisions were most often in cash, but when cash was scarce, divisions were paid in goods that could be sold.
The formation of joint-stock companies was a good way to raise large amounts of money quickly with few risks.
Some of the larger companies acquired patents from the monarchy, holding monopolies on large territories of land.
Virginia Company
SLIDE: King James I
The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company chartered by the newly-crowned King James I in 1606.
The London group, part of the Virginia Company, settled Jamestown, in Virginia, the first permanent English colony in the New World.
SLIDE: Map of Jamestown Colony
The Virginia Company had the power to set up the Council of Virginia (whose ultimate authority was the king) and the governor, but also had the
responsibility of providing settlers, supplies, and ships for the venture.
The colonists were foremost employees of the Virginia Company and had to follow the company’s instructions.
They soon discovered that living up to their financial responsibilities was difficult.
The colonists struggled to survive in the new environment, much less make a profit for the company.
To help encourage more settlement, the Virginia Company offered transportation and fifty acres of land to tenants who would be granted
ownership of the land after working it for seven years.
Men who settled the land could also be granted an extra fifty acres, called a “headright,” for each additional household member that they brought
with them.
The company went out of its way to secure rights and freedoms for its colonists, such as the right to a trial by jury.
These incentives were in the best interest of the company, which made more money if it attracted larger numbers of colonists.
More colonists meant more products to return to the investors who made the venture possible.
Joint-stock companies sometimes enjoyed success and high profits but there were lean periods, too.
When colonists died or failed to produce goods, the company could find itself unable to pay out dividends to its shareholders.
Joint-stock companies that were experiencing difficulty paying debts tried many tactics to promote even more investment and colonization.
When times were hard, the Virginia Company launched a large-scale advertising campaign, encouraging the British to be good citizens by
strengthening England’s colonies through settlement.
SLIDE: Pamphlet
The Virginia Company published more than twenty-seven books and pamphlets promoting colonization, and even convinced clergymen to endorse
American settlement in their sermons.
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Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement
Jamestown
SLIDE: Painting of Jamestown
On May 6, 1607, three ships carrying almost one hundred men reached the Chesapeake Bay. They chose a highly defensible site along the James
River in what is now Virginia, and began constructing a fort, thatched huts, a storehouse, and a church.
They named the settlement Jamestown.
The men set to planting, but most were either townsmen who did not know how to farm or were gentlemen adventures who felt manual labor was
beneath them.
They had come to find gold, not to form a settlement.
First Encounters
At first, the weather was good and the natives friendly.
Then came the blistering heat of summer and swarms of insects bred in the nearby wetlands.
The men became sick, quickly ran low on food, and faced hostilities from nearby natives.
Supplies from England were unreliable, and without the leadership of John Smith, the men would have likely not survived.
SLIDE: John Smith
Smith was a soldier of fortune and made a name for himself because of his military expertise.
He took firm control of the settlement, declaring all men must work to eat.
About 80 of the original 100 men survived on a diet of local small game and fish.
In 1609, a ship arrived from English with 400 additional colonists.
The new arrivals overwhelmed the beleaguered colony, and any hope that Smith might be able to maintain Jamestown faded when, suffering from
a gunpowder burn, he sailed back to England.
The “Starving Time”
What followed Smith’s departure is known as the “starving time.”
The winter of 1609-1610 was the worst the colonists had seen.
Their fields lay fallow.
Before long they began to tear apart their houses, burning the wood as fuel. Weakened by hunger and disease, the Jamestown settlers proved easy
targets for nearby hostile natives.
The colonists were trapped within their own fort.
During that winter, they ate their way through their livestock and then ate their pets, mice, and rats.
Eventually, they resorted to cannibalism.
SLIDE: Journal Entry
Only sixty people were still alive (480 had been alive the previous summer) when a ship arrived in May 1610 with supplies and additional colonists.
The ship brought only more mouths to feed, and the survivors resolved to abandon the colony.
Not more than ten miles down the river, the contingent met three additional English ships loaded with supplies and 150 more men.
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Jamestown had been given a reprieve, but for what?
The colonists had not found wealth or even a new route to the Orient.
They had not been able to produce anything of value for the mother country, England.
They had known only hardship and starvation.
Still the colony struggled on until 1612 when one of the new colonists, John Rolfe, began growing a local native crop: tobacco.
SLIDE: Pocahontas
Unlike in the Disney version of the story, Pocahontas did not marry John Smith.
SLIDE: Pocahontas & Rolfe
She married John Rolfe, helped establish peace between her tribe (the Powhatan) and the English, visited England, and died there in 1617.
Cash Crop: Tobacco
SLIDE: Rolfe with Tobacco
After arriving in Virginia, John Rolfe began cultivating a variety of tobacco that Europeans found appealing due to its mild flavor.
Tobacco had become the cultural rage in England, and anyone who could afford it smoked or sniffed the dried leaves of the plant, and demand for
the variety grown in Virginia was especially high.
Tobacco became the cultural rage in England.
SLIDE: Tobacco
By 1619 the Jamestown colonists had exported ten tons of tobacco to England, and the Europeans demanded more.
The little colony was prospering and nearly everyone in Virginia grew the cash crop.
As one individual noted, "streets and all other spare places [are] planted with tobacco...".
The prosperity signaled the permanence of the English in the New World.
At last stockholders and the monarchy found it profitable to invest in the colonies.
Tobacco was profitable because the English government forbade the colonists from selling their tobacco anywhere except London, where each
shipment was charged with a heavy excise tax.
By taxing each shipment, England shared in the profits.
SLIDE: Dried Tobacco
Still, tobacco garnered enough profits so the colonists prospered, too, so much so that they were able to invest in some of life’s “luxuries.”
In 1619 a private English company brought in ninety women, who were sold to men for marriage at a price of 120 pounds of tobacco each.
That same year the colonists exchanged foodstuffs for twenty black Africans from Dutch traders.
These Africans were legally indentured servants, not slaves, but they were the first Africans in North America.
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