The “New World”1491-1607

Mr. OwensCrash Course #1: "The Black Legened: Native Americans and the Spaniards"

Essential Questions:

• In what ways and to what extent did the native populations of North America adapt to and transform their diverse environments?

• Compare and contrast the Spanish, French, Dutch, and British social and political development of their colonies, including their relationships with native populations.

• What were the effects of the Columbian Exchange on the New World, Europe, and Africa?

Cultures of Central & South America• Archeologists believe first migrants

arrived 40,000 years ago from Asia via Bering land bridge

• Advanced civilizations: Maya (AD 300-800) in Yucatan Peninsula, Aztecs “Mexica” in central Mexico – Tenochtitlan pop. of 200,000, Incas in Peruvian Andes

• Highly organized, trade routes, calendars, and agricultural systems

Cultures of North America• Population of N. America (U.S. & Canada) in 1490s historians

est. between 1 to 10 million or higher• Mostly small societies of 300 people or less – hunting (men) &

gathering, & farming (female), many matriarchal, and were animists

• Language: diverse more than 20 language families and 400 languages – largest Algonquin in Northeast

• Southwest: Spread of maize cultivation from Mexico, Pueblo – farming, cliff caves, brick buildings

• Northwest & California: hunting & gathering, fishing• Great Plains & Great Basin: nomadic, tepees, buffalo hunters –

horse from Spanish in 1600s• East: woodland – hunting & gathering, fishing, farming

permanent settlements – fur trade. Iroquois Confederacy in Mohawk Valley of NY most powerful

Causes of European Exploration• Technology improvements: gunpowder

(China), sailing compass (China via Arabs), shipbuilding - caravel, mapmaking, Guttenberg’s printing press.

• Religion: Spreading of Catholic faith (Spain & Portugal) after conquest of Spain by 1492. Protestant Reformation (England & Holland) -spreading rival versions of Christianity

• Expanding trade routes to Asia & development of slave trade for labor – mercantilism/merchant capitalism

• Development of nation-states that relied on trade and the church

Early Exploration & Contact• Columbus 1492 (Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain)

arrived in Bahamas the “Indies”• Columbus controversial legacy?• Columbian Exchange: transfer of plants, animals,

and germs/diseases. From America: beans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco & syphilis. From Europeans: sugarcane, pigs, horses, wheels, iron tools, guns & variety of diseases smallpox, measles.

• Treaty of Tordesillas 1494 Spain & Portugal divide New World

• Spanish conquistadores – search for gold “requerimiento” – Cortes, Coronado

• Encomienda system: land grants & natives to influential Spaniards – caste system

• Asiento system: slave trade from W. Africa taxes supported monarch

English, French & Dutch• Both England & France behind Spain

occupied by European wars & internal religious conflict

• England: John Cabot explores Newfoundland 1497. Queen Elizabeth I in 1580s Sir Francis Drake raids Spanish ships, Sir Walter Raleigh failed colony of Roanoke in 1587. Jamestown in 1607

• France: Jacques Cartier (1534-1542) explored St. Lawrence river (Canada), Samuel de Champlain “Father of New France” founds Quebec in 1608 settlements extend down Mississippi River down to Louisiana by 1682 –coureurs de bois, Jesuit Missionaries

• Dutch: Henry Hudson in 1609 “Hudson River” establish “New Netherlands” and “New Amsterdam” trade of Dutch West India Company (joint-stock company), large land grants to patroons

Spanish Settlements in N. America• Florida: St. Augustine founded 1565

oldest permanent European settlement

• New Mexico: Santa Fe 1610, imposing Christianity led to Pueblo Revolt led by Pope in 1680 controlled until 1693

• Forced Spanish to compromise• Texas: small settlements – grow in

early 1700s• California: San Diego 1769, San

Francisco 1776, Mission system set up by 1784 Father Junipero Sera

European Treatment of Native Americans• Clashing views of nature & land: collectivism &

animism vs. culture of capitalism• Spain: rigid caste “casta” system. Bartolome de Las

Casas critical of treatment led to “New Laws of 1542” end Native American slavery. Valladolid Debate: Las Casas vs. Juan Gines de Sepulveda 1550-1551

• England: initial coexistence and trade in certain areas but eventual warfare & expulsion of “savages” – some “praying towns” – “transplantations”

• French: coexistence – fur trade (coureus de bois), intermarriage, alliances with Huron & Algonquin– Jesuit missionaries.

• Dutch developed trade alliances especially with the Iroquois – fur trade.

• Native American reaction: some tribes opened trade networks, some formed alliances with Europeans against other tribes, some resisted or migrated west away from Europeans