Transcript WorldsInMotion

Worlds in Motion
1450–1550:
Native Americans and European Conquest
Main Themes

New Worlds for All

Native American Life Before Euros

Columbus and “The New World”

Power Dynamics from The Start

Early British Settlement
Worlds in Motion
1450-1550

Overview
 The
World of the Indian Peoples
 The Worlds of Christopher Columbus
 Worlds in Collision
 The Biological Consequences of Conquest
 Onto the Mainland
Worlds in Motion
1450-1550

The World of the Indian Peoples
 The
Archaic Indians
 The Indians of the Eastern Woodlands
 The Indians of the Plains
 The Indians of the Deserts
 The Indians of the Pacific Coast
 The Great Civilizations of the Americas
The World of the Indian Peoples
 The

Archaic Indians
Native American societies spread across the Western Hemisphere
between 10,000 BCE – 3,000 BCE

1st N.A. crossed Bering Strait @ 16,000 years ago

Clovis peoples: hunter-gatherers
 Native

Americans developed broad cultural diversity
Adapted to different environments, climates, and developed
distinctive cultures

Great variety: over 300 languages, more diversity of language
than other regions of world
History of Human Migration
The First Americans
When did first Americans arrive? How?
Bering Strait
Beringian Corridor
Coastal Route
Both?
At different times?
clovis tip – dated to 9000 BCE




Clovis points
(Clovis, NM)
Were the makers
of these the first
Americans?
Moving from
Alaska to tip of
S.A. in 1500 years?
Following big
game?
Clovis Point Found with Bison
But what about these
Pre-Clovis sites?
Location of Dated
North American PreClovis Sites –14000 –
40000 years old
Topper Site video

PBS “Time Team America” Video link

Questions to answer:
 Goals
of the archeologists studying the Topper site?
 Methods/tools archeologists use?
 What questions have been answered at Topper with firm
evidence? What is the evidence?
 Which questions are still up in the air or controversial?
 Criticisms of the show?
Variety of major Native
American cultural areas
Different Types of North American
Amerindian Cultures




Hunter-Gatherers – in the Arctic and Great Basin
(present-day NV, UT)
Limited-Scale Tribal Societies – Canadian Subarctic,
Algonquians, NW Coastal people, and others
Full-Scale Tribal Societies – Plains, Prairie,
Southeast, and Eastern Woodland Indians
Complex Societies – Adena, Hopewell, and
Mississippian
The World of the Indian Peoples

Native American Economic Complexes:

Four Geographic-Cultural Domains in North America:
 Eastern
Woodlands: horticulture and hunting
 Mississippian

mound builders
City center: Cahokia
 Iroquois
 Algonquians
 Plains:
maize and buffalo hunting
 Buffalo
hunters
The World of the Indian Peoples
 Deserts:
maize horticulture
 Anasazi

Chaco Canyon

Mesa Verde: Link to online photos
 Pacific
 The
pueblos villages
Coast: fishing and hunting
Great Civilizations of Mesoamerica
 Mayas
and Toltecs
Mesa Verde, Spruce Tree House,
Winter
Life at Mesa Verde
Mayan Pyramids
Chichen Itze
Pyramid
Indicates a
hierarchical
society
Rituals and
Rulers
Priests and
Ritual Bloodletting – portal
to spiritual
world
Mayan Codex
Mayan Bowl & Lid
Mayan Flints
Mayan
Seated
Figures –
Copan Site
Mayan Gold Jaguar Jewelry
Aztec and Inca Empires,
1300-1550
Pre-Spanish Invasion
Effects of Isolation in the Americas




Lacked contact with other cultures – no means of
acquiring new technologies or ideas
Late to start agriculture, so social developments
arose later too
Lacked immunity to diseases
Lacked large mammals for work or food
Ancient Societies of MesoAmerica
Aztecs
Mayans
Olmec
The Aztec Empire




Founding myth stated that people
were led to Lake Texcoco by the
god Huitzilopochtli (Southern
Hummingbird
There they saw an eagle perched
on a cactus, eating a snake – a
positive omen
They built their city on islands in
the lake
Aztec society only existed for 200
years before Spanish invasion,
but ruled over 10-20 million
people
City in the Lake – Tenochtitlan




City built in Lake Texcoco
Chinampas agriculture – floating gardens, plenty of water, very
productive & nutritious crops
Lake provided protection from invaders
200,000 inhabitants – supported by subject peoples
Map of Chinampas farming methods
Mayan Writing – The Codices




Pictographic writing system
Carved on stone and written on tree bark paper books,
called codices (plural) or a codex (singular)
Thousands of these books existed, documenting history,
astronomy, philosophy
Only FOUR of these books remain – the rest were
burned by the Spanish conquistadors and priests
Mayan
Dresden
Codex
Codices give accounts of:
Calendar of Rulers
History
Rulers and war
Territorial battles and
conquests
Gods and divination rituals
Healing rituals
Mayan Social Hierarchy
Aztec Imperial Beliefs





Aztec Empire established by Motecuzoma in 1468
Based on cosmic mission theory – sun and earth needed
human sacrificial victims to gain energy; w/o them,
earth would go dark
Theory justified imperial growth and expansion
High demand for sacrifice = need for slaves
Also kept commoners and subject peoples under control
– fear and domination
Like the Mayans,
the Aztecs recorded
history and beliefs in
Codices
Only a few exist
This image is from the
Florentine Codex,
Page I, F, 6r. Human
sacrifice
Aztec War
Images
from the
Florentine
Codex
Tlatelolco. The remains of 41 sacrificial victims. 30 infants and
the rest youths and adults found at the foot of the stairway of
the Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl temple.
Aztec Social
Classes
Priests, Warriors,
Merchants
Artisans,
Farmers,
Slaves
Kings &
Nobles
Social Classes and Roles







Class of Lords – Tecuhtli – successful generals, officials,
priests – not hereditary
Warrior meritocracy – commoners could rise through
military skill
Education for all Aztec children
Merchant class – Pochteca – closed caste
Artisan class – Tolteca
Commoners – Macehualtin – had civil rights
Slave class – Tlatlacotin
The Incan Empire



Developed later than
Aztecs
3000 miles long
Built upon the work of
earlier societies and
Andean cultures
Building the Incan Empire


In 100 years, Inca created one of the largest empires in
human history
Two legendary rulers:
 Pachacuti
– 1438-1471 CE
 Topa Inca Yupanqui – 1471-1493 CE


Incorporation of conquered peoples – announced attacks,
used force only if persuasion failed
Resettlement and incorporation – non-discrimination
against incorporated people – became Inca
Consolidating Empire



Common trade
language
Road and bridge system
through mountains
connected all parts of
empire
A message could be
carried from one end to
the other in 12 days
Machu Picchu
Incan Class System
Sapa Inca – Ruler
2 Noble Classes:
Inca Caste
(Sapa Inca’s Family)
&
Curacas
(Govt. Officials)
Commoner Class
(Worked fields and paid tribute to higher classes)
Incan Building methods


Many buildings still stand
Rocks fit together so well, there was no need for
mortar
Machu Picchu
Rediscovered in 1911
1200 people could have lived there, but
believed to be retreat for rulers
360 degree site tour
European Exploration and
Colonization
1400s-1600s
Euro. Colonization and the World
Economy




In less than 50 years, from Columbus’ first voyage to
the mid-1500s, the Americas were incorporated
and became a major part of a new global
economy
This new global economy was based on labor and
environmental exploitation
The core of the new economy was Europe
Other regions and peoples were forced into
dependency, servitude, and slavery
Worlds in Motion
European Exploration and Colonization






Changes in Europe Led to Increased Exploration,
Trade, Conquest
Spanish and Portuguese Were Leaders
Early Exploration and Colonization
Set Up Model of Colonization Followed by Other
European Powers
Columbian Exchange: People, Goods, Disease
Issues of Power, Domination, and Control from the
Outset of Europeans in Americas
Major Themes – British Colonization




Early British colonization of Americas was minor blip
in a much more extensive history and process of
European colonization
British modeled themselves after Spanish and
Portuguese – imperial competition
British adopted and adapted Spanish and Port.
modes of dealing with Native Americans and
Africans
Growth of British power over time
Age of Exploration

Major Questions:
Why did Europeans with their history of fragmentation and
internal problems, begin to look towards expansion abroad?
 What were European motives?
 Who were the major European colonial powers?
 How did they accomplish overseas expansion?
 What effects did expansion have on European societies?
 What effects did expansion have on colonized or enslaved
peoples?

Motives

Question: What were European motives for
expansion?
 Economic
– search for profits: silks, spices and other
goods that could benefit the Crown and merchant
classes
 Religious – Spanish Reconquista – take colonial
possessions before Muslims could gain influence
 Econ. & Religious – undercut or bypass Muslim world
 Racial – through contact with other peoples, Europeans
formulated ideas of racial superiority – combined
ideas of cultural, scientific, religious, economic, and
physical superiority
Means

How did Europeans expand beyond Europe?
 Creation
 Spanish
of stable governments/monarchies
example – unification of different small kingdoms
into one
 Battle against Muslims (Reconquista) helped unify Spanish
Crown (Ferdinand & Isabella)
 Monarchs
gained wealth, wanted to spend it on new
things: new trade routes, exploration, expansion
 New technologies or used borrowed technologies –
Portolini (navigation maps), compass, astrolabe,
knowledge of wind patterns
Portuguese Maritime Empire

Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460)
 Wanted
to find a mythical Christian Kingdom in Africa
to ally against Muslims
 Acquire new trade opportunities
 Extend the influence of Christianity

India and Vasco da Gama
 Original
goal of da Gama’s mission was to destroy the
Muslim monopoly over the Spice Trade (economic)
 1497 sailed around Cape of Good Hope in Africa

Success = military superiority & seamanship
Global Exploration 1415 – 1522 C.E.
Flow of Commerce in Portuguese World 1600
Portuguese Atlantic System

Beginnings of plantation complex:
 Staple
crops – grown for export to Europe
 Sugar plantations in Mediterranean, then off African
coast, then Brazil
 Use of slave labor: native populations, but, particularly
African slaves
 Slave forts on African coast – slaves captured inland
and taken to forts, then sold to Port.
 Other European powers soon competed for slave labor
Lure of Discovery: Spain


Spanish Success = naval superiority, military strength &
religious zeal
Spanish Model:






crown maintained control over colonies
most colonists were male (intermarried)
wealth based on exploitation of native population and
(not African)
system of encomienda (labor system of service to the
Spanish governors) – brutal exploitation
slaves
local
1592 Slave Laws – Catholic Church convinced Crown to
outlaw the use of the Native population as slaves
Link for History Channel information on Christopher Columbus
Columbus’ First Voyage
Spanish Exporation: Caribbean, North, and Central Americas
Links

Related Links for European Exploration:
 http://www.nps.gov/seac/outline/07-
exploration/index.htm
 PBS Link for Guns Germs & Steel


The Columbian Exchange: exchange of crops and
germs between Europe and the Americas –
primarily benefited Europe, while harming native
American societies
Link to National Geographic Columbian Exchange
Columbian Exchange
Worlds in Motion
1450-1550



Worlds in Collision: Columbus in “The New
World”
Thoughts on film?
New World for Native Americans?:
Effects on Native Populations


Encomienda system – tribute paid in labor to benefit
Spanish
Demographic collapse – by early 1500s only 1,000
Tainos left on Hispaniola
 Smallpox
and other diseases brought through
Columbian Exchange



Loss of families, villages, cultures
Search for labor in Caribbean = African slaves
Central and South America = native populations
much larger, more gold, silver wealth
Onto the Mainland

The First Florida Ventures, 1513, 1521

Juan Ponce de León


The Conquest of Mexico, 1519

The Aztec Empire before conquest




What did the Calusa take away from their encounter with the Spanish?
City capital: Tenochtitlán (pop. 200,000)
Ruler: Moctezuma
Hernán Cortés’s bloody conquest
The Establishment of a Spanish Empire

Center


The transformation of Tenochtitlán to Mexico City
Expansion


Takeover of the Incan Empire in Peru
Borderlands outposts in present-day New Mexico
Other European Colonial Powers


Competition with Spain for power, wealth, military
strength
France (1534-1635)
North America – 1534 Cartier (fur trade)
 Caribbean – Haiti – SUGAR (became most important)


English First Attempts
Roanoke, NC (Sir Walter Raleigh), 1585: Link to PBS, Time
Team America episode on Roanoke Island
 East India Company, 1591 (India)

English in North America
French Exploration in Americas
Dutch Overseas Empire

Dutch East India Company, 1602
 designed




to breakup Portuguese monopoly
1621 Dutch West India Company (WIC) –
Caribbean & North America
New Amsterdam (New York) – Fur Trade
Curacao (Caribbean – slave trade, pirating, cacao
trade)
Trade with Native Americans in North America:
Created problems for French & English and a mini arms race among Native
Americans in the Northeast for furs. In exchange for beaver pelts – guns,
gun powder, steel headed tomahawks & alcohol
Dutch Atlantic Empire
European Colonies by 1700
European Labor Systems

Colonization & Empires based on exploitation of
native and African populations
 Spanish
system = encomienda labor system = mining and
agriculture by natives (slaves/serfs)
 Portuguese, French, and English = enslavement of Africans
 Creation of plantations in Caribbean, No. and So.
Americas to grow staple crops: sugar, coffee, tobacco,
cotton
 Racial system of slavery eventually developed –
Europeans rationalized only blacks could be slaves