Three Worlds Meet

1. Three Worlds Meet U.S. History C. Corning 2011

2. What was the first settlement in the territory of the United States? • Native Americans – crossing Bering Straits over 30,000 years ago • Caparra, Puerto Rico – 1508 (Spanish) • Charlesfort, Parris Island, South Carolina – 1562 (French) • Pensacola– 1559 / St. Augustine* (FL) –1565 (Spanish) • Roanoke – 1586 (English) • Jamestown *- 1607 (British) • Plymouth Colony –1620 (British) • * First permanent settlements

3. American Indigenous Societies • Textbook pages 8 – 13 (map) • This period of history called “Pre-colonization” – how does that title reflect a European bias? • Movement of people over the Bering Straits about 20,000 years ago • About 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, agriculture revolution in Central Mexico • Mixture of nomadic and agrarian cultures.

4. Empires of Middle and South America • Mayan Empire – Guatemala and Yucatan Penisula (250 – 900 CE) • Aztec Empire – Valley of Mexico (1200s – early 1500s) • Inca Empire – 2,500 miles down western coast of South America (1200s – early 1500s)

5. North American Cultures (pg 11) • Southwest Native Groups – agriculture in the arid deserts (Anasazi, later Pueblo and Hopi) • California/Northwest groups/Subarctic • Plains Natives – later pushed from the edges into the middle • East of Mississippi River (from Great Lakes to Gulf of Mexico) – Eastern Woodlands • Iroquois, • Mixture of agriculture and hunting/gathering societies • Not large empires like those of Central and South America

6. West African Societies • Why West Africa? • Portuguese start exploration for trading ports in mid 1400s – possibly based on reports by earlier Egyptian/Phoenician sailors/traders • Three West African kingdoms: Songhai (Mail and Ghana), Benin and Kongo (Angola) • Use of slave labor: not born into slavery, nor necessary a lifetime sentence, usually due to wars or debts • Slavery could be released due to end of term, adoption or marriage into the tribe.

7. Europe • Why tell Europe’s part of the story last? • What does Eurocentric mean? How does it influence our understanding of other cultures? Our history? • Choice of terms: contact, exploration, encounter, exploitation, discovery, conquest • Why Europeans exploring the Americas? Why not the other way around? • Review thesis of “Guns, Germs and Steel” • Video: Guns, Germs and Steel – Episode 2

8. Why Europe • Advances in military technology – around 1400 European leaders started an arms race. • Bigger guns, mounted on ships, siege warfare • Expanded use of social technology – bureaucracy, double-entry bookkeeping, mechanical printing. • Ideological development: amassing wealth and dominating other people came to be seen as a positive value. • The nature of European Christianity – believed in a transportable, proselytizing religion that offered a rationale for conquest. • Europe’s recent success in taking over island societies: Malta, Sardinia, Canary Islands – route to wealth.

9. Early European Contact • Vikings (from Greenland and maybe Iceland) – 1000 – 1350, Labrador, Newfoundland (Canada) • European fishing ships – chasing cod across the Atlantic ocean, used northern east coast to dry fish, gather food, wood and water.

10. Review: Motives, Process and Legacy • Motives: • Military strength/strategic position • Land for settlement • Missionaries – conversion to Christianity • Spreading of European Civilization • Belief in European cultural/racial superiority • Control over raw materials/precious metals/potential markets • Profit for private business owners/forced labor • National rivalry/patriotism

11. Process • Warfare/weapons of industrialization • Transportation/communication inventions • Divide and conquer (and rule) • Alliance with local powers • Economic reorganization to meet the needs of the “mother” country • Direct rule / indirect rule • Creation of an educated elite to help govern colony • Forced labor • Westernization/assimilation influences

12. Legacy • Indigenous people lost their land to the colonizers • Colonies often became dependent on a single cash crop • Infrastructure build to support retrieval of raw materials/transportation • Indigenous manufacturing activities within colony end • Improvements in schools, hospitals, sanitation • Cultural changes – language, customs, religion, food, music • Increase in racism - locals begin to believe in European superiority • Migration • Rebellions and resistance • Increased conflict = instable societies • Rise of nationalism in colonies • National borders redrawn without consideration of geographic or ethnic issues

13. The Christopher Columbus Story • Not really sure where he was born • Also most people, especially sailors and educated people, knew that the world was round! • He was looking for a new route to Asia – Portugal had “blocked” the one around Africa. • April 3, 1492 – Columbus sailed the ocean blue • Many myths about the journey, sighting land • What we do know is that he landed on October 12, 1492 on an island he called San Salvador- Native people called Arawaks • Map of the Caribbean • God, Gold and Glory • Columbus Day (October) – why do we “celebrate” this day? What is the significance?

14. Columbus Experiences • Four trips in total – kept logs for each – looking for gold and taking possession all the land he saw (for Spain) • Logs on blog • Referred to natives as los indios • Map of voyages/Interactive Map on blog • 1492 – Hispaniola, also made landfall at Bahamasand “sighted” Cuba • Contact between Columbus and Taino (video on blog) • First settlement at Navidad on Hispaniola • 1493 – he returned to begin building a Spanish colony – soldiers, priests, and hidalgos • 1498 – failure – many complaints • 1502 – shipwrecked and a ruined man

15. Building a Spanish Empire • Spanish Conquistadors – (click here for additional info.) • Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) – why only Spain and Portugal (see blog entry) • Aztecs – Hernan Cortes (1519 – 1521) and La Malinche (see video) – pg 37 • Incas – Francisco Pizzaro – Conquest of 1532 (3rd attempt) – “Guns, Germs and Steel” video • Southwest Exploration (interactive map) • 1528 – Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, landed on Tampa Bay FL and traveled to Mexico City (1537) • 1540 – Francisco de Coronado – Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas • 1598 – capital of New Mexico established 25 miles north of Santa Fe (1610)

16. Building a Spanish Empire • Florida – fountain of youth?, gold, slaves and land • 1513 – Juan Ponce de Leon – Coast of FL • 1539 – Hernando De Soto • 1565 – Menendez de Aviles, founding of St. Augustine (to ward off the French at Ft. Caroline, Jacksonville, FL 1564 – haven for French Hugenots) • 1763 – British, 1783 - Spanish, 1819 - U.S. (Adams-Onis Treaty – give up claims on Texas) • Initially two Vice-royalties: New Spain (capital in Mexico City) and Peru • Later divided into additional viceroyalties • Spanish Colonization Maps on blog

17. Process/Legacy of Spanish Colonization of Caribbean • Use the textbook pgs 27 – 29, 36 – 41 and the “Conquest and Colonization” packet to look for examples of “process” and “legacy”. • Resources on blog: suggested (plus others) • “1491 and 1493 – How Columbus Shaped a World to Be” • Columbus’ Log • “Columbus and the Taino” video • Reaction to the Spanish “process” • de las Casas, Native resistance • Why “America”? Why not “Columbia”? (see blog)

18. Columbian Exchange • The transfer of plants, animals and diseases between the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. • Textbook map – pg 29 • Blog resources • Food quiz • How many came from the “New World”?