Patterns of Conquest and Demographic Collapse
Bulliet et. al., the Earth and its Peoples Ch. 18 1. What plants and animals came with the
Europeans to the Americas? 2. What demographic change followed the
European arrival in the Americas? 3. Why did Spain and Portugal take their
religion with them to the Americas? 4. What European powers created colonies in
North America? 5. What trade drew France to settle Canada?
Who were the Europeans that traveled to the Americas?
Why were the Americas already populated?
1492 Chris Columbus contract with Catholic monarchs: Pope (Alex. VI, from Spain) entrusted a missionary task
Inherent Contradiction of the charge???
Two European waves settled the American continent by 1540
1. From Cuba (1516-1518) to Mexico (1519) Central America (1522)
Hernan Cortés landed at Veracruz in March, 1519-Aztec (Moctezuma) waiting for return of Quetzalcoatl, finery and
gifts
“A thing like a ball of stone comes out of its entrails, it comes out shooting sparks and raining fire. The smoke that comes out with it has a pestilent odor, like that of rotten mud… If the cannon is aimed against a mountain, the mountain splits and cracks open. It is is aimed against a tree, it shatters the tree into splinters.”
“Their dogs are enormous, with flat ears and long dangling tongues. the color of their eyes is burning yellow. Their eyes flash fire and shoot off sparks. Their bellies are hollow, their flanks long and narrow. They are tireless and very powerful. They bound here and there, panting, with their tongues hanging out. And they are spotted like an ocelot.”
The Earth and its Peoples, Ch. 18
The Diversity of American Colonial Societies 1530-1770What surprised you about interaction between different cultures in the Americas?
How did the Columbian Exchange alter the natural environment of the Americas?
How did these changes alter both European and indigenous cultures?
Francisco Pizarro led expedition in 1531 180 men and 30 horses
Conquest of Inca Empire, AtahualpaThen north to Quito (1534), Bogota
(1536)Spain used existing empire structure
to own advantage
Atahualpa
Small group discussions: Why did Spain occupy the Americas so quickly?
90% in 16th C. Sherbourne Cook, Woodrow Borah
How does such a demographic collapse affect a population?
Class collapse simulation: Number off by 10Virgin Soil Epidemics: no built-up immunity
Small Pox 1-3Measles 4-5Mumps 6Chicken Pox 7Influenza 8-9
Who is left? 10
Implications for Indigenous Cultures in the Americas?And then come the European colonists: demanding labor & gold
• The Columbian Exchange in Early Modern P.• What Plants and Animals came to Americas?• What returned to Europe?• What types of sources used to describe the
use of maize and potatoes?• Diseases went both ways
Find someone with something to trade No talking to simulate challenging cross-
cultural communication… Make a mutually-agreeable exchange Class: Process the encounter What were the stakes in the Americas?
Top Related