Before European Settlement and Early European Experiences

1. Before European SettlementandEarly European Experiences

2. Before the Europeans Arrive • 1492: 54 million people lived in the Americas • Over 2,000 separate cultures • Peru = Incas • Central American = Mayans • Mexico = Aztecs • Main crop is Maize • No horses, oxen, or even a wheel • Still built large cities, farmed extensively

3. Indirectly Discovering the New World • Norse in Newfoundland • About 1000 AD • No economic support from home • Christian Crusaders • Fail to remove Muslims from Holy Land in 11th-14th centuries • But, acquire a taste for exotic goods • Silk, spices, perfumes, fruits • Europeans also develop taste for sugar • These goods were costly and dangerous to transport by sea and overland to Europe from China, India, Far East • European investors want to find a cheaper, safer route to the Far East

4. Indirectly Discovering the New World • Marco Polo • Returned from “China” in 1300 after 25 years • His extravagant descriptions further encouraged Europeans to get to Asia

5. Europeans “Discover” Africa • Portuguese and Africa – 15th century • Better ships, better knowledge of wind and current • Trading posts to purchase gold and slaves • Slave trade to work the sugar plantations in Africa and S. America • 40,000 slaves taken in second half of 15th century • Dias: Southernmost tip of Africa in 1488 • Vasco da Gama, 1498 India                                                     • Spain -- Late 15th century politics • “Reconquista” • Unification of kingdoms, leads to economic power • Go West to avoid conflict with Portugal in Africa

6. Columbus – The Stage is Set • Desire for cheap goods • Africa = cheap labor • Portuguese showed that long travel was possible • Spain had the organization and military experience • Renaissance: nurtured ambition, spirit of adventure, and fostered technological advances Columbus • October 12: thinks he found Asia, but it is an island in the Bahamas • Returns with Gold • Potential for unlimited wealth will redefine world trade • Europe = capital , technology, markets • Africa = slaves • New World = cash crops (sugar, tobacco, rice, corn) and metals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9W1G3Tn31A

9. Collision Positive Results of Columbus’ Discovery • Columbian Exchange • The European diet (3/5 of the crops cultivated around the globe today originated in the Americas) • Fed the rapid population growth • Horses reached the North American mainland through Mexico and in less than two centuries had spread as far as Canada • Transformed their cultures into highly mobile, wide-ranging hunter societies Negative Results of Columbus’ Discovery • Smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria • Indians infected early explorers with syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that was transferred to Europe

11. Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) • Pope favors Spain • Spain: dominant exploration and colonizing power

12. Spanish Explorers • Vasco Nunez Balboa (1513): Pacific Ocean, Panama • Ferdinand Magellan (1519-1522): circum-navigation • Ponce de Leon (1513, 1521): Florida • Francisco Pizarro (1532): Incas of Peru • Hernando de Soto (1539-1542): Mississippi River • Francisco Coronado (1540) Arizona, New Mexico

13. How the Conquistadores viewed Americans

14. Conquistadores and Treatment of Americans • Looking for Social and economic advancement. • Noble, but poor • Inhumane treatment– learned from “Reconquista” • Torture • Starvation • Search for Gold – Legend of El Dorado • Spain needed capital to compete with England and France • Forced labor – quotas • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-eQN9p6K2A

15. Social Structure The Southwest Isolated communities, not directly connected Easy for Europeans to conquer Dependent on corn, beans, and squash

16. Northeastern Woodlands • Dense population • Iroquois Confederacy developed the political and organizational skills to sustain a military alliance that menaced its neighbors, Native Americans, and Europeans alike, for well over a century

17. Similarities: Native American Settlements • Most native Americans in North America were living in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements • Substantial authority on women (power and possessions passed down the female side of the family line in many Indian cultures) • They were so thinly spread across the continent that vast areas were virtually untouched by a human presence •  By 1492, there were about 4 million Native Americans in North America

19. Results of Spanish Discoveries • By 1600, Spain had a huge amount of silver. • Paid for trade with Asia • Encomienda system: Land given to certain colonists in return for the promise to Christianize Natives. • Natives worked to death. • Spaniards began importing African slaves

20. The Conquest of Mexico • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dVhgLVbbH4 Hernan Cortes (1519) Learns of internal conflict and rumors of GOLD End result: Death, population shrank from 20 million to less than 2 million within 100 years

21. Spanish Conquest: More Results • Spanish brought: • Crops, animals, language, laws, customs, religion • The Spanish intermarried with the surviving Indians, creating a distinctive culture of mestizos, people of mixed Indian and European heritage • Spain’s Colonial Empire • Half a century after Columbus’s landfall, hundreds of Spanish cities and towns flourished in the Americas • Cathedrals, printing presses, and universities, including two founded in Mexico in 1551, 85 years before Harvard

22. Other Europeans • John Cabot (in 1497-98 from England): Explored the northeastern coast of North America •   Jacques Cartier (in 1534 from France): Journeyed hundreds of miles up the St. Lawrence River

23. Remaining in the New World • Why? Block England and France, convert natives • St. Augustine, Florida in 1565, oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the future U.S. • Strategic location near Caribbean • Texas • 1716: prevent French settlement • Missions, but generally weak presence

24. California • 1542 – Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo explored the California coast, but found nothing of interest • 1769 – Spanish missionaries, founded at San Diego the first of a chain of 21 missions

25. Missions • 1 day’s journey apart • Located in regions with large Indian populations • Established according to guidelines in Laws of the Indes • Drew on long experience living in semiarid environments • Typically sited on elevated land away from coast • Rectangular main structure built around central courtyard • Mission church major element of main structure • Indian quarters in rough barracks outside main structure • Missions expected to be self-supporting • Turn into peasant farmers • Disastrous results for Indians, both physically and culturally

26. Presidios • Built to establish and maintain military control • Friction between military and religious leaders • Presidios dependent on missions for food • Never many soldiers in region • A few obtained land grants in return for service

27. Effects of the Spanish in the New World • “Black Legend.” This concept held that the conquerors had no choice but to: • Tortured Indians • Steel their gold • Infect them with smallpox • They also erected a large empire from Florida to California • They input their culture, laws, religion, and language • incorporated native culture into their own