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CHAPTER 1
NEW WORLD ENCOUNTERS
CHAPTER OUTLINE
TOWARD DISCUSSION
RELIVING THE PAST
CLASH OF CULTURES: THE INTERPRETING OF MURDER IN EARLY MARYLAND
NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORIES BEFORE CONQUEST
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The Environmental Challenge: Food, Climate, and Culture
Mysterious Disappearances
Aztec Dominance
Eastern Woodland Cultures
A WORLD TRANSFORMED
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Cultural Negotiations
Threats to Survival: Trade and Disease
WEST AFRICA; ANCIENT AND COMPLEX SOCIETIES
EUROPE ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST
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Building New Nation-States
IMAGINING A NEW WORLD
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Myths and Reality
The Conquistadors: Faith and Greed
From Plunder to Settlement
THE FRENCH CLAIM CANADA
THE ENGLISH ENTER THE COMPETITION
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Birth of English Protestantism
Militant Protestantism
Woman in Power
Religion, War and Nationalism
IRISH REHEARSAL FOR AMERICAN SETTLEMENT
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English Conquest of Ireland
English Brutality
CONCLUSION: CAMPAIGN TO SELL AMERICA
TOWARD DISCUSSION
THE “OTHER”
Your students will understand Chapter 1 more fully if they at least dip their toes into the murky waters of
modern literary theory. It is argued that we make sense of important experiences by constructing stories
that give them coherence and meaning. As the author points out, the unexpected meeting of Indians,
Europeans, and Africans in the Western Hemisphere after 1492 was interpreted differently by each of the
parties involved. The Europeans explained it as the triumph of Christianity and progress over ignorance
and idolatry. But the European interpretation was only one of the ways in which the events of 1492 were
understood. Indians and Africans constructed very different stories.
Literary critics have recently turned their attention to the vast literature that accompanied the first contacts
between Europeans and Indians in America. Two aspects of the stories told by both sides seem especially
interesting. The first is the conscious construction of histories by the Spanish explorers and
conquistadores to explain or justify actions that may not have been premeditated. Columbus, for example,
was probably not as visionary before 1492 as he later believed himself to be. In the contract he made with
Queen Isabella before starting out on his famous voyage, he seems to have expected that he would most
likely find, not Asia, but islands like the Canaries and Azores. He may have expected to sail into the
Ocean Sea, not across it. Similarly, the Spanish tale of the conquest of Mexico as a great Christian
crusade probably disguises an original intention to establish peaceful trade. Ironically, the conquest
narratives may make the Spanish seem more bloodthirsty in intention than they really were.
The second interesting aspect of contact literature is how the Europeans, Indians, and Africans reacted to
the “Other.” The concept of the “Other” derives mainly from structuralist theory, which argues that we
shape the world through language by use of such polar opposites as “high and low,” “sacred and profane,”
“raw and cooked,” “male and female.” One of the most potent of these pairs is “self and other.” It is
argued that we construct a sense of self by differentiating ourselves from others, and that we construct a
sense of otherness by differentiating others from ourselves. Since we usually impart values to the
distinctions we make, the “Other” is never an equal. The “Other” is either vastly superior or grossly
inferior, a god or a devil.
Scholars working with such theories have produced interesting analyses of the First Contact period.
Tzvetan Todorov, for example, argues that the Spanish victory over the Aztecs was more a triumph of
language than of military technology. The Aztecs, in his opinion, used language primarily to
communicate with the gods, with the result that their language, and the mental universe formed by
language, was highly ritualistic, repetitive, and predictable. Europeans, on the other hand, used language
in a more practical way to persuade and manipulate other humans.
In their mental universe, the “Other” was unpredictable, but manageable. Upon First Contact, the Aztecs
were dumbfounded by an “Other” they found impossible to explain. Montezuma begged the gods to tell
him what to do as the Spanish approached, but the gods fell silent. Cortès, however, was able to make
false promises, to disguise his intentions, to distort the truth, and even to make seemingly supernatural
omens conform to his own intentions. The Spanish defeated the Aztecs because they were more adept at
manipulating the signs and symbols that make up a system of communication.
The author of Chapter 1 uses modern literary theory throughout the text, most notably when he explains
that the English who came to America felt a need to fit the Indians into a proper mental category. For the
English, the most relevant “Other” was the “savage Irish” who resisted English colonization. The
consequence of this mental operation was tragedy. By anticipating Indian hostility, the English provoked
it.
The subject of the “Other” is especially interesting at a time when the possibility of contact with life
beyond our planet is the subject of so much speculation. Students should be encouraged to make
comparisons between 1492 and that unknowable time when we first encounter extraterrestrials. Much will
depend upon whether we first meet a big-eyed, sad-faced ET, or a slimy creature baring a full set of razorsharp teeth, because we too, like the Europeans, Africans, and Indians of 1492, have already met our
“Other.”
RELIVING THE PAST
Columbus recorded his first encounter with the Taíno people on the island they called Guanahani when he
first made landfall in the Western Hemisphere. This meeting of two worlds and two cultures proceeded
rather peacefully, but for a strange incident. Columbus took out his sword to show it to one of the natives
who apparently thought he was being offered a gift. He took it and cut his hand. What did a Stone Age
people think when they first saw the power of metal? And why had Columbus unsheathed his sword? See
the translation of The Log of Christopher Columbus by Robert Fuson (Camden, Maine: International
Marine Publishing Company, 1987).
The log itself is fascinating, and Fuson fully discusses the controversy over which island in the Bahamas
was the one the Indians called Guanahani and Columbus called San Salvador.
One of the most dramatic encounters in American history was the meeting between Hernan Cortès and
Montezuma. Both men behaved with solemn courtesy until Cortès attempted to embrace the emperor in
the friendly Spanish abrazo. Montezuma’s bodyguards grabbed Cortès by the arm and stopped him,
explaining that an embrace would greatly insult the emperor. That small episode epitomizes the
difficulties Europeans and Indians had in cross-cultural communication. Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of
New Spain (New York: Penguin Paperback, 1967).
CLASH OF CULTURES: THE MEANING OF MURDER IN EARLY MARYLAND
The author uses a murder case in Maryland in 1635 to illustrate the difficulty that European colonists and
native Americans had in understanding one another. Each side brought preconceptions molded by their
long histories into their contacts with other peoples, and each side was molded by contact with the other.
NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORIES BEFORE CONQUEST
America first became inhabited some twenty thousand years ago when small bands of nomadic Siberian
hunters chased large mammals across the land bridge between Asia and America. During this long
migration, the people who became known as the American Indians escaped some of the most common
diseases of humankind, such as smallpox and measles, but their children and grandchildren also lost the
immunities that would have protected them against such diseases.
A The Environmental Challenge: Food, Climate, and Culture
During the thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans, the continents of North
and South America experienced tremendous geologic and climate changes. As the
weather warmed, the great mammals died off, and the Indians who hunted them turned
increasingly to growing crops, bringing about an Agricultural Revolution.
B. Mysterious Disappearances
Agriculture allowed Indians to concentrate in large numbers in urban complexes, such as
Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Cahokia in Illinois. By the time Europeans reached
these areas, the great urban centers had disappeared, either because of climate changes or
overcrowding.
C. Aztec Dominance
In central America, the Aztecs settled in the fertile valley of Mexico and conquered a
large and powerful empire, which they ruled through fear and force.
D. Eastern Woodland Cultures
Elsewhere, along the Atlantic coast of North America for example, Native Americans
lived in smaller bands and supplemented agriculture with hunting and gathering. In some
cases, women owned the farming fields, and men the hunting grounds.
A WORLD TRANSFORMED
The arrival of Europeans profoundly affected Native Americans, who could be said to have entered a new
world.
A. Cultural Negotiations
Native Americans were not passive in their dealings with the Europeans. They eagerly
traded for products that made life easier, but they did not accept the notion that
Europeans were in any way culturally superior, and most efforts by the Europeans to
convert or “civilize” the Indians failed.
B. Threats to Survival: Trade and Disease
Wherever Indians and Europeans came into contact, they exchanged ideas, goods, crops,
technologies, etc. Part of this “Columbian Exchange” included the transmission of
diseases, like smallpox and measles. As a result, the Indian population declined rapidly.
For example, the Arawak population in Santo Domingo fell from almost 4 million before
the arrival of Columbus, to just 125 in 1570. An entire way of life disappeared.
WEST AFRICA: ANCIENT AND COMPLEX SOCIETIES
Contrary to ill-informed opinion, sub-Saharan West Africa was never an isolated part of the world where
only simple societies developed. As elsewhere, West Africa had seen the rise and fall of empires, such as
Ghana or Dahomey. West Africa had also been heavily influenced by the coming of Islam. The arrival of
Europeans was just the latest of many foreign influences that helped shape African culture.
The Portuguese came first, pioneering the sea lanes from Europe to sub-Saharan Africa in the fifteenth
century. They found profit in gold and slaves, supplied willingly by native rulers who sold their prisoners
of war. The Atlantic slave trade began taking about 1,000 persons each year
from Africa, but the volume steadily increased. In the eighteenth century, an estimated five and one-half
million were taken away. Altogether, Africa lost almost eleven million of her children to the Atlantic
slave trade. Before 1831, more Africans than Europeans came to the Americas.
EUROPE ON THE EVE OF CONQUEST
The Vikings discovered America before Columbus, but European colonization of the New World began
only after 1492 because only then were the preconditions for successful overseas settlement attained.
These conditions were the rise of nation-states and the spread of the new technologies and old knowledge.
A. Building New Nation-States
During the fifteenth century, powerful monarchs in western Europe began to forge
nations from what had been loosely associated provinces and regions. The “new
monarchs” of Spain, France, and England tapped new sources of revenue from the
growing middle class and deployed powerful military forces, both necessary actions in
order to establish outposts across the Atlantic.
Just as necessary to colonization was the advance in technology, especially in the art of
naval construction. The lateen sail allowed ships to sail into the wind, better techniques
were devised for calculating position at sea, ancient scientific works were examined and
the printing press disseminated the new knowledge rapidly.
IMAGINING A NEW WORLD
Spain was the first European nation to meet all of the preconditions for successful colonization. After
hundreds of years of fighting Moorish rule, she had become a unified nation-state under Ferdinand and
Isabella. In 1492, the year made famous by Columbus’‘ discovery of America, Spain expelled her Jews
and Muslims in a crusade to obliterate all non-Christian elements in Spanish life. Spain had also
experienced the difficulties of colonization in her conquest of the Canary Islands before turning her
attention to America.
A. Myths and Realities
Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo), born in Genoa in 1451, typified the
questing dreamers of the fifteenth century. He believed it was possible to reach the
Orient, the goal of all adventurers, by sailing westward from Europe. Undeterred by those
who told him the voyage would be so long that the crews would perish from lack of food
and water, Columbus finally persuaded Queen Isabella to finance his exploration.
Although Columbus found in America a vast treasure-house of gold and silver, he had
expected to find the great cities of China, and even after four separate expeditions to
America, he refused to believe he had not reached the Orient. He died in poverty and
disgrace after having lived to see his discovery claimed by another, Amerigo Vespucci,
for whom America is named. As a further cruel irony, the all-water route to the East
Indies that Columbus hoped to find was actually discovered by Vasco da Gama, who
sailed from Portugal around the southern tip of Africa. The net result of his efforts had
been frustration and ignominy for Columbus; however, he paved the way to world power
for Spain, which claimed all of the New World except for Brazil, conceded to Portugal by
treaty in 1494.
B. The Conquistadores: Faith and Greed
To expand Spain’s territories in the New World, the Crown commissioned independent
adventurers (conquistadores) to subdue new lands. For God, glory, and gold they came.
Within two decades they decimated the major Caribbean islands, where most of the
Indians died from exploitation and disease. The Spaniards then moved onto the mainland
and continued the work of conquest. Hernan Cortès destroyed the Aztec Empire in 1521
and the conquest of South America followed in the next two decades.
C. From Plunder to Settlement
The Spanish crown kept her unruly subjects in America loyal by rewarding the
conquistadores with large land grants that contained entire villages of Indians (the
encomienda system). As pacification of the natives progressed, the Spanish Crown
limited the autonomy of the conquistadores by adding layer upon layer of bureaucrats,
whose livelihoods derived directly from the Crown and whose loyalty was therefore to
the officials who ruled America from Spain. The Catholic Church also became an integral
part of the administrative system and brought order to the empire by protecting Indian
rights and by performing mass conversions. By 1650, about half a million Spaniards
immigrated to the New World. Since most were unmarried males, they mated with Indian
or African women and produced a mixed-blood population that was much less racist than
the English colonists who settled North America.
Spain’s empire proved to be a mixed blessing. The great influx of gold and silver made
Spain rich and powerful, but set off a massive inflation and encouraged the Spanish
Crown to launch a series of costly wars in Europe.
THE FRENCH CLAIM CANADA
France lacked the most important precondition for successful colonization, the interest of the Crown.
French kings sent several expeditions to America, most notably that of Samuel de Champlain, who
founded Quebéc in 1608, and even established an empire in America that stretched along the St.
Lawrence River, through the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi, but the French Crown made little
effort to foster settlement.
THE ENGLISH ENTER THE COMPETITION
England had as valid a claim to America as Spain, but did not push colonization until the late sixteenth
century, when it, too, achieved the necessary preconditions for transatlantic settlement.
A. Birth of English Protestantism
England began to achieve political unity under the Tudor monarchs who suppressed the
powerful barons. Henry VIII strengthened the Crown even further by leading the English
Reformation, an immensely popular event for the average men and women who hated the
corrupt clergy. Henry’s reason for breaking with the Pope was to obtain a divorce, but he
began a liberating movement that outlived him. During the reign of Queen Mary,
Protestants were severely persecuted, but the Reformation could not be undone.
B. Militant Protestantism
The Protestant Reformation had begun in 1517 in Germany when Martin Luther preached
that humans were saved by faith alone, as a gift from God, and not through the
sacraments and rituals of the Church. Other Reformers followed, most notably John
Calvin, who stressed the doctrine of predestination, the belief that humans could do
nothing to change their fate in the afterlife. The Reformers shattered the unity of the
Christian world and religious wars broke out all over Europe.
C. Woman in Power
Elizabeth II, the second daughter of Henry VIII, inherited the crown in 1558 and ruled
England successfully for nearly fifty years. She avoided a religious civil war by
reconciling her subjects to an established church that was Protestant in doctrine, but still
Catholic in many of its ceremonies. When the Pope excommunicated her in 1570, she
became more firmly attached to the Protestant cause.
D. Religion, War and Nationalism
Spain, the most powerful European nation at the time, was determined to crush
Protestantism in Europe. In retaliation, English “seadogs” attacked the Spanish in the
Caribbean. By 1588, the king of Spain decided to invade England and launched the
famous Armada. England’s providential victory over the great fleet convinced the
English people that they had a special commission from God to preserve the Protestant
religion.
IRISH REHEARSAL FOR AMERICAN SETTLEMENT
Each nation took along its own peculiar traditions and perceptions for the task of colonizing America. For
the English, Ireland was used as a laboratory in which the techniques of conquest were tested.
A. English Conquest of Ireland
The English went into Ireland convinced that theirs was a superior way of life. The Irish,
of course, disagreed and refused to change their own ways.
B. English Brutality
When the English seized Irish land by force, the Irish resisted. The English resorted to
massacres of women and children. In Ireland, such men as Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir
Walter Ralegih, and Sir Richard Grenville learned the techniques of colonization that
they would later apply in America.
AN UNPROMISING BEGINNING: MYSTERY AT ROANOKE
Although England had the capacity for transatlantic colonization by the late sixteenth century, its first
efforts were failures. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent a fleet to colonize Roanoke in North Carolina. The
effort failed, despite Raleigh’s continued attempts to reinforce it, and by 1600 there were no English
settlements in the Western Hemisphere.
CONCLUSION: CAMPAIGN TO SELL AMERICA
Despite Raleigh’s failure, Richard Hakluyt kept English interest in America alive by tirelessly advertising
the benefits of colonization. He did not mention, however, that those English people who went to
America would encounter other peoples with different dreams about what America should be.
LECTURE TOPICS
Discuss pre-Columbian Native American culture, stressing the diversity and complexity of indigenous
societies in the New World. Point out differences in population dispersal and density and the variety of
religions, architecture, art, and political and economic organization in these cultures. Discuss the meaning
of the term “civilization” and what modern-day Americans mean when they describe a society or culture
as “civilized.” Have students question the traditional historical assertion that American history began with
the arrival of Europeans and suggest that European settlement simply initiated another phase of American
history.
Present a discussion of the factors contributing to the development of European interest in exploration and
settlement in the New World. A complete treatment of the issue would examine both political and
individual reasons for movement into the New World. Include in the political discussion such issues as
the national pursuit of a mercantile economic policy, the political power associated with the acquisition of
empire, the expansion of military power, and the missionary motive. How did religion, economic
hardship, and the lure of adventure impact many people’s decisions to go to the New World?
DISCUSSION TOPICS (Broad Based/Theory)
Compare and contrast Native American, European, and West African society on the eve of contact. How
did beliefs regarding land ownership, family, religion, and law and justice impact relations among these
groups? How did each group regard the others and why?
Compare and contrast European perception and treatment of Native Americans and Africans during the
sixteenth century. What negative impressions did Europeans hold about each society? Did they see
anything positive or worthy in either culture? Discuss the distinction between race and culture. To what
extent did race and culture define the European perception and treatment of each group? Which of these
factors, race or culture, contributed most to the European perception of Native Americans? Which
contributed most to the European perception of Africans?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (Specific)
1
Discuss ecological change in the Americas. Topics could include changes among animal species,
ecological damage caused by humans, and the introduction of new flora and fauna into the
Americas. Address the biological and cultural exchange between Europe and the Native
Americans.
2
What is Africa? Discuss the importance of religion in Africa. What were the major religions of
Africa? How did it influence culture and events?
POINTS OF MASTERY
1
Identify the role of geography and environment in African history and development.
2
Understand the basic outlines of West African geography and culture.
3
Understand the developments of various West African civilizations.
4
Define the term Paleo-Indians.
5
Explain the impact of the development of agriculture on Native American society.
6
Define the term culture area and apply it to the development of Native American societies in the
New World.
7
List the Native American societies that emerged north of Mexico and describe their distinctive
cultural characteristics.
8
Distinguish between Catholic and Protestant Christianity and identify and chronologically place
the Protestant Reformation.
9
List the factors contributing to the development of western European interest in exploration and
discovery.
10
Identify Christopher Columbus and discuss his role in the European discovery and exploration of
the New World.
11
Explain the factors that contributed to Hernán Cortés’s conquest of the Aztecs in Mexico.
12
Define the term Columbian exchange and discuss its impact on European and Native American
culture.
13
Identify the reasons for French exploration in the sixteenth century and describe the creation of a
French empire in the New World.
14
Identify the major English explorers of the sixteenth century and describe their contributions to
creating a British empire in the New World.
15
Discuss the mystery of Roanoke Island and the possible explanations offered by historians as to
the fate of the settlement.
AUDIO/VISUAL RESOURCES
Suggested Documentaries and Films:
500 Nations, Warner Brothers Home Video, 1995.
This eight-part video series explores the Native American populations of North and Central America from
pre-Columbian times until the turn of the twentieth century.
American Indian Artists, KAET-TV, 1975.
This three-part video allows students to investigate Native American culture through the art of six artists
from the Pueblo, Navajo, and Hopi cultures.
In Search of History: The First Americans, A&E Video, 50 minutes.
This video examines the origins of the first human population in North America.
Roanoke, South Carolina Educational Television, 1986, 180 minutes.
This series chronicles the mysterious history behind “The Lost Colony.”
The West: The People, Insignia Films/WETA/Florentine Films/Time-Life Video, 1991.
The first episode of the nine-part Ken Burns series on the West, this film chronicles the early Native
American populations of North America and the impact of Spanish conquistadores on these native
cultures.
CLASS EXERCISES
1
Create an interactive exercise that centers on the encounter between Spanish explorers and
missionaries and the native peoples of North America by having students read letters, and other
pertinent accounts, from Columbus, Hernán Cortés, and Las Casas, determining what was fact,
opinion, and inference, and discussing the impact of the Spanish presence in the New World.
2
Assume that you are an archaeologist or anthropologist who wants to understand and reconstruct
in your region as much of the original Indian culture and typical daily life as possible from relics
and other remains. Present your findings to others in various forms: oral report, written paper,
table display showing artifacts and a model of Indian life, or artistic drawings or skits illustrating
Indian culture. Find out which Native American tribes and nations lived in your part of the
country and whether there are any archaeological working sites or remains, like Cahokia, to visit.
Also, visit any museums or historical parks that feature local Indian history.
3
Research the primary historical resources left by western Europeans in which they recorded the
events of their initial contact with Native Americans in the New World. These resources could
include written records, such as journals or diaries from explorers and early colonists, or
European art, particularly paintings and sketches based on a Native American theme. Discuss
how these primary resources teach us about the European response and reaction to Native
American culture.
4
Organize a group classroom activity in which students develop an understanding of Native
American, West African, and European culture. Organize students in the classroom into groups so
that one third of the class is working on Native American culture, one third on West African
culture, and one third on European culture. For example, in a class of 30, set up six groups of
five, with two groups working on each culture. Have them examine religion, family, politics, and
the economy in their assigned society. After the groups have finished this assignment, reorganize
the class into groups of three. Each group will include one member who has studied each of the
three groups. Have each student teach the other two about “his” or “her” culture. You can test the
material by giving a take-home essay in which the students are asked to compare and contrast the
Native American, West African, and European cultures.