Bellwork

• Who is Christopher Columbus and what did he do? In 2 sentences, explain what you think his impact or legacy on the world was. Was it positive or negative? – Be prepared to discuss this concept.

American History

Section 3, Unit 1First Contact and Early American

Colonization

Objectives

• Identify the main reason why the Spanish traveled westward across the Atlantic

• Explain the formation and impact of the Encomienda system

• Deduce the effects of European Colonization on the Native American populations

Section 3

• We are now in a new section of World History. This section is going to cover initial European contact and Spanish colonization in the Americas.

Prior to Columbus• European contact with

Americas actually occurred well before Christopher Columbus.

• The 11th century Viking explorer, Leif Erikson, temporarily settled parts of Northeastern Canada and was most likely the first person to settle.

• Other groups also stated that they saw new lands, but never attempted to settle there. It wouldn’t be until Christopher Columbus that Europeans would finally attempt to settle in the new world.

Question

• In the last lesson, why did the other European nations want to travel to Asia so desperately? Who pioneered a new route to Asia?

Spain

• The Eastern neighbor to Portugal, Spain (and most other European nations) desired a cheaper, faster route to Asia.

• Spain, largely because of it’s boldness and imagination, was willing to fund the explorations of Christopher Columbus– who looked West, rather than East.

Christopher Columbus

• Columbus grew up Genoa, an Italian port city.

• Adventurous, Columbus sailed as a man in various trading vessels.

• Overtime, he became an excellent navigator and learned to handle small sailing vessels on his own.

Christopher Columbus

• Eventually, he found his way to Lisbon, Portugal which was the center of European knowledge of sea travel. – During his studies, he formulated that a westward

route to Asia could not be too far, only 2,400 miles west of Portugal.

Sponsorship

• In the 1480’s, Columbus tried to persuade various European monarchs to sponsor a westward voyage across the Atlantic. He had little success early on– King John II of Portugal for example doubted his calculations of the distance to Asia. – King John II was correct, as Asia was about five

times farther away than Columbus calculated.

Sponsorship (cont.)

• Initially, Columbus had no better luck with the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella.

• However, Columbus continued to ask for sponsorship and detailed the riches that would be waiting for the monarchs if they funded his journey– golden palaces and temples.

• He also vowed to take his Catholic faith to people of foreign lands, a concept that impressed the deeply religious Isabella.

Sponsorship (cont.)

• On, April 17, 1492, the king and queen of Spain authorized the funding for Columbus’s journey.

• To reward the explorer for future discoveries, Ferdinand and Isabella agreed that Columbus would: be knighted, appointed admiral, and made viceroy (governor) of all lands he might discover. – As well, after his death, all titles would be inherited and

he would receive 10% of all riches he would find.

First Voyage• Columbus outfitted, three vessels: the Santa Maria, the Niña, and the Pinta and recruited an experienced crew of about 90 sailors.

• On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew departed from Spain and journeyed almost 800 miles southwest to the Canary Islands, Spains westernmost territory.

• Then, in September, the three vessels set out across the uncharted ocean.

Question

• It took almost a month before the Spanish crew saw any land. They have not sighted land and their patience is wearing thin.

• What do you think the crew started to demand of Columbus?

October 12

• As many sailors began to demand to turn back, a lookout scans the horizon and makes the call: “Tierra!” (land)

• As they approached the land, Columbus described the event in his journal: – “they reached an islet… soon they saw naked

people and [Columbus] went ashore in his armed longboat”

Tainos• Columbus and his men

landed on a tiny Island in the central Bahamas, about 400 miles southeast of present-day Florida. He named it San Salvador and called the people Indios, the Spanish word for Indian. – He mistakenly believed

that the people he met were Indians.

Tainos (cont.)

• The Natives he met were called the Tainos, meaning “good” or “noble”.

• They were farmers who lived in small settlements and traded goods (salt, shells) with their neighbors.

• Taino war chiefs increased their power through successful raids and it was not unusual for groups to raid one another.

Tainos (cont.)

• The Spanish were treated hospitably by the Tainos, who offered to share their goods with Spanish.

• However, the Spanish mistook this characteristic as meaning two things:– That they would make easy converts to

Catholicism– They could be conquered easily and compelled to

do anything the Europeans wished.

Gold

• Because some of the Tainos wore gold ornaments, Columbus assumed that the gold mines were close.

• Over the next month, Columbus sailed from island to island searching for gold (to no success). Each island he landed on, he claimed for Spain and named.

Gold (cont.)

• However, in 1492, he struck a coral reef off the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and had to abandon the Santa Maria. – Believing this was a sign from God, he established

the first Spanish colony here: La Navidad.

Return to Spain• In 1493, Columbus sailed back to Spain and took

with his two dozen Taino captives and evidence of riches in the Indies.

• Ferdinand and Isabella, impressed by what they saw, gave him a hero’s welcome and approved another voyage. – The captives were objects of curiousity and sympathy. – Isabella ordered that Indians on Hispaniola be treated

humanely and converted to the Catholic faith. • However, she did leave open the possibility that anyone

who resisted be enslaved.

Question: Was Isabella being truly kind to the Natives?

Columbus’s Return

• When Columbus returned to La Navidad, he found the colony destroyed and all the Spaniards gone. – Some probably left to find gold, while others

either died of illness were killed by the Tainos. • Chances are, because the colonists continued to

excessively demand goods from the Tainos, the Tainos probably retaliated.

• Columbus and around 1,500 male colonists built another settlement: Isabela.

Colony of Isabela• Columbus left the care

of Isabela to his brother, Bartolome and spent three years searching for gold.

• While Columbus was gone, pressure by the colonists on the natives for food and gold lead to violent revolts against the Spanish.

Colony of Isabela

• However, during Bartolome’s rule, the colonists would also begin to fight against one another over resources.

• Because of this failure to maintain order, Columbus was eventually replaced as viceroy.

Replacement• Aside from being a poor governor, Columbus

was also accused of being a tyrant. He was replaced by Francisco de Bobadilla. – In a report by Bobadilla, he also found that during

Columbus’ reign, him and his brothers were found to use torture and mutilation to govern Hispaniola. • In one example, Columbus is said to have had one mans

ears and nose cut off for having stolen corn.

Encomienda• Before Columbus was replaced,

he granted the colonists control over Native labor.

• He informally introduced a system- encomienda- in which the colonists (called encomenderos) would be able to have a certain number of natives work for them.

• The colonists used the natives to mine gold, provide food, and build houses. – The colonists also had to force

their charged into the Roman Catholic faith and permit the natives to grow their own food.

Encomienda (cont.)

• The Spanish crown officially established the encomienda in 1503 and the crown believed that the Native Americans were not slaves– they were paid small allowances for their work.

• However, the system amounted to slavery, as the natives were rarely paid.

Question

• What effect do you think the encomienda system would have on:– Native American trade– Society– Self-growth– Religion/customs

Consequences

• The encomienda system disrupted native societies:– Because of excessive demands for food and labor,

natives could produce little for themselves• Malnutrition became widespread

– Natives could no longer trade with one another easily

– The native religious were being forced out by Catholic practices and forced conversion.

Bartolome de Las Casas• Some Spaniards protested

the harsh treatment of Native Americans.

• One prominent critic, a priest named Bartolome de Las Casas, spent many years initially supporting the encomienda system. However, overtime he began questioning the morality of the system itself and urged the Spanish to end the encomienda and work peacefully with the natives.

Apologetic History of the Indies

• In his writings, Las Casas argued that the Natives humanity and wisdom equaled the Europeans:“Not only have [the Indians] show themselves to be very wise peoples and possessed of lively and marked understandings,… governing and providing for their nations… but they have equaled many diverse nations of the… past and present… and exceed by no small measure the wisest of all these”

Las Casas

• Las Casa argued for native rights at the same time the Spanish king wanted to limit the growing independence of the colonies.– The Spanish crown would enact laws in 1542 to

restrict encomiendas.• However, the colonists refused to give up their

control of native labor.

End of the Encomienda

• However, the end of the encomienda would not come through the crowns actions, but by a decline in native populations.

• Between European diseases, overwork, and malnutrition, the native population in the West Indies fell by almost 90% by the 1550’s.

• To replace these laborers, the Spanish began to import African slaves. – We will discuss the “benefits” of African slavery for the

Europeans in a future lesson.

Effects of growth

• As Spain grew in the new world, other nations began to notice the benefits of exploration in the new world.

• One of these would be Portugal, who also sent explorers to the new world.

Exploration• Of the explorers, Amerigo

Vespucci would prove to be one of the most important. – He traveled along the eastern

cost of South America, primarily in and around modern-day Brazil.

– Unlike any Spaniard, Amerigo Vespucci concluded at the end of his journey that the Americas was not, in fact, Asia.

– In honor of his discovery, the “new world” was named after Amerigo by a German mapmaker- he referred to it as “America”.

Spanish Expansion

• As the Caribbean colonies began to make Spain one of the most wealthy European nations, they began to expand their territory throughout the American continents.

• Dreams of new conquests prompted Spain to make a series of expeditions into the southwestern United States.

• The Spanish took with them priests to help spread Catholicism and hoped to find mythical “cities of gold” in North America.– However, they would find no large empires (recall: Native

Americans in the U.S.), but would find other Native groups in their path.

Effect on the U.S. Native Americans

• There was much initial opposition to Spanish claims in the Southwestern portions of the United States, in Mexico, and parts of South America.

• Some natives were still being treated inhumanely by the Spaniards and the forced conversion of natives to Catholicism continued to be an issue for many decades to come.

Exchange

• When Europeans came to the Americas, they brought with them many things that the Native Americans never saw before.

• As well, during their explorations, they took with them many things that would revolutionize Europe.

• This exchange of ideas, concepts, goods, and more are all part of what is known as the Columbian Exchange.

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Question: What do we see in this picture? What is being traded?

Columbian Exchange• In the new world Columbus helped find, an

exchange between the two parts of the world- East and West- began to occur. Both sides began to exchange a variety of things including: – Foods– Animals– Disease– Religions– Human populations (such as African slave trade)– Technologies– Ideas

Effect of the Columbian ExchangeEurope/Africa• Europe experienced new foods

that they had not had before, such as corn, potatoes, and peants, and various other South American spices

• Europe was also introduced to animals such as the turkey.

• Africa would also experience increased demands in slave labor, to which African kingdoms were more than willing to supply the Europeans with (often with captured Africans)

• However, the eastern hemisphere would be introduced to a new disease: syphilis.

Americas• The Americas receive

various things from the eastern hemisphere: – Asian rice, wheat, barley,

peaches, onions– Animals such as the horse,

cow, chicken, and sheep– The most damaging

exchange, however, would prove to be the diseases Europeans brought with them, including: smallpox, measles, influenza, plague, typhus cholera, malaria, and measles (among others).

Legacy

• All in all, Christopher Columbus and the Spanish would be remembered throughout history for the discovery of the new world.

• However, this new discovery, depending on who is asked, will have immense effects on both sides of the world for centuries after Columbus’ death.

Review Objectives

• Identify the main reason why the Spanish traveled westward across the Atlantic

• Explain the formation and impact of the Encomienda system

• Deduce the effects of European Colonization on the Native American populations

Questions

• If you have any questions, please ask now.

Next Lesson

• In the next lesson, we are going to discuss Spanish colonization in the southern United States.

Review1. What is the major difference between how Isabella and Las

Casas felt about how the natives should be treated? 2. Why did Columbus lose his position as viceroy?3. Why did the Tainos revolt against the Spanish?4. What was the effect of Spanish presence on the native

populations and their culture? 5. How did the Spanish respond when they discovered that

the Native Americans were generous to Columbus’ people? 6. Why did Christopher Columbus travel westward to reach

Asia and how did this effect what he called the Natives when he reached them?

7. Between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, who do you think benefitted the most from the Columbian exchange? Who do you think suffered the consequences the most? Why?

Homework Assignment

• Please read the handout “Reconsidering the Legacy of Christopher Columbus”

• Directions: write down at least a page as to whether or not you feel that Columbus’ arrival to the Americas was ultimately good or bad. If you feel both ways, explain your feelings.