Essential QuestionsEssential Questions: :

• What does it mean to say that Europeans What does it mean to say that Europeans "conquered" the land and peoples of North "conquered" the land and peoples of North America? America?

• What were the What were the advantagesadvantages & & disadvantagesdisadvantages of of Spanish, French, & English colonial patterns in Spanish, French, & English colonial patterns in terms of terms of long-term long-term colonization in America?colonization in America?

Advantages for long-term

colonization

Disadvantages for long-term

colonization

Spain

France

England

The Spanish Colonies in America

A World Transformed

• Native Americans were eager for European trade; they were not initially victims of Spanish exploration

• They became dependent on and indebted to Europeans

• Disease decimated perhaps 95% of Native American population

Spanish Conquests & Colonies

Spanish missionaries focused heavily on converting Native

Americans & establishing missions

The Spanish used the encomienda system to create large cash crop plantations using Native American & African slave labor

From Plunder to Settlement

• By 1650, 1/2 million Spaniards immigrated to the New World– Mostly unmarried males came to New

World; intermarriage led to mixed-blood

mestizos & mulattos– Distinguished between social classes:

peninsulares & creoles– The Spanish government operated strict

control over the colonies

Whites from Spain

Whites born in America

Spanish Empire• Its conquering of the Americas would allow Spain to become

the most powerful empire in the world during the 16th Century

• “We came here to serve God and King… and to get rich”

• Not only disease, but civil wars and religious superstitions also allowed the Europeans, namely the Spanish, to conquer the Native Americans (who GREATLY outnumbered the explorers)

• The advanced technology of the Europeans offered an incredible advantage in combat

– Gunpowder, cannon, and bullets vs. bows and arrows

– Horses (transport and cavalry) and also pigs, cattle, and goats (foodstuffs) played a very important role in conquest

Spanish-American Culture

• The Spanish conquerors would establish the encomienda system– Encomienda – a system of villages granted to

a privileged Spanish officer or aristocrat• Was responsible for providing for Spanish

missionaries and contributing wealth to the empire• Extreme class discrepancy: at one end were the

wealthy conquistadores and at the other the impoverished natives

The Spread of Catholicism• Catholic missionaries quickly spread to the Americas in the wake

of the conquistadors’ victories• The Natives were viewed as pagans and the Catholic religion

was in turn imposed upon the people

– The spreading epidemics were seen as the wrath of God upon the pagans and justified the actions of the god-fearing Spanish

• A few missionaries would become the only advocates that the Natives had among the Europeans

– Bartolome de la Casas and A Brief Relation of the Destruction of the Indies

– Poet Staceyann Chin reads Bartolomé de Las Casas

Spanish Exploration of the US• Spain would never develop successful settlements (in terms of trade

and power) in US territory mainly due to its primary lust for gold and silver instead of developing centers of trade– Juan Ponce de Leon – explored Florida– Hernando de Soto – explored the Southeast US– Francisco Coronado – explored the Southwest US– St. Augustine – the oldest surviving settlement in the US,

established in 1565 in Florida– Spanish missions would dot the Southwest US with some

surviving today• Santa Fe was the 1st permanent seat of government in the US• By 1630 there were over 50 missions and 3,000 Spanish in the

New Mexico territory

The Horse

• The introduction of the horse would forever transform the Native American cultures of the US

– Tribes such as those of the Great Plains converted from agriculturally domestic to nomadic within a very short period of time after acquiring and breeding a significant horse population

– Following the buffalo herds became the focus of Native society

The French Colonies in America

The French Claim Canada

• In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec; French Empire eventually included St. Lawrence River, Great Lakes, Mississippi

• The French government strictly controlled the colonies but made little effort to encourage settlement

• Because the fur trade was the basis of the colonial economy, Indians became valued trading partners (not exploitive like Spain)

Like Spain, the French gov’t encouraged converting Native

Americans & establishing missions

The English Colonies in America

The English Colonies• In the 1600s, English settlers arrived in

North America– English colonization differed from Spanish &

French because the English gov’t had no desire to create a centralized empire in the New World

– Different motivations by English settlers led to different types of colonies

Migrating to the English Colonies

• 17th century England faced major social changes:– The most significantly was a boom in

population; Competition for land, food, jobs led to a large mobile population (vagrants?)

– People had choices: could move to cities, Ireland, Netherlands, or America (but this was most expensive & dangerous)

Migrating to the English Colonies• Motives for migration to America:

– Religious: purer form of worship– Economic: Escape poverty or the threat of

lifelong poverty– Personal: to escape bad marriages or jail

terms

• Migration to America was facilitated by the English Civil War & Glorious Revolution

The Stuart Monarchs

Four Colonial Subcultures

• The values of the migrants dictated the “personality” of the newly created colonies; led to distinct (not unified) colonies– The Chesapeake– New England– Middle Colonies– The Carolinas & Georgia

By the early 1600s, Spain, England, & France had large territorial claims in North America

(but these colonies were not heavily populated, especially in Spanish & French claims)

These colonial claims came largely at the expense of the Native

Americans already living there