Transcript Pre-Columbian Exploration

Chapter 1: New World Beginnings
Characteristics of
Native Americans
- Came from Asia (30,000
to 15,000 years ago)
- Hunter gatherers who
followed herds across the
land.
- Uneven population that
was dense amongst the
coasts. Approximately 1
million at time of
European arrival.
The First Discoverers of
America
• The origins of the first
Americans remain something
of a mystery. According to
the most plausible theory of
how the Americas were
populated, for some 25,000
years, people crossed the
Bering land bridge from
Eurasia to North America.
Gradually they dispersed
southward down ice-free
valleys, populating both the
American continents.
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Political & Social Organization
• Tribe: The primary form of
organization was an independent, self
contained, social and political unit.
• Extended Families: Existed within the
tribes and tied people
together.
• 1000-2000 tribes existed
when Europeans arrived.
Council: Basic tribal ruling unit of
government.
• Consisted of mature
males over 30.
• All matters of
importance had to
be passed by the
council.
• The chief had no
special authority as
his power was the
same as the rest of
the council.
• Some powers and
responsibilities were
delegated to the
chief.
• Chief powers were
not inherited but
elected.
• Council meetings
were
open to
the
public.
Native American
Concept of land
• Land is unique as it cannot be owned, sold or
transferred; it could only be used.
• Part of Nature: Land was an integral,
inseparable part of nature.
• Sustenance: Land existed to sustain the
beings that lived upon it.
• Tribes: Each had the right to use the land
but not own it.
• Problems: This concept of land caused
problems with Europeans concept of land.
European Concept of
Land & Treaties
• The English based their land claims on
discovery, exploration and settlement. Each
colony could deal with the natives as they
pleased.
• The English felt that land could be purchased
through treaties but still needed approval
from colonial authorities.
• Often chiefs made decisions for the entire
tribe without authority. Europeans considered
chief’s equivalent to monarchs.
The New World as Paradise, by Theodore de Bry
• This sixteenth-century engraving by the Flemish
artist illustrates the Indian method of hunting by
setting fires to drive wild game into bow range.
John Carter Brown Library, Brown University
WHITE EUROPEANS
clash
•Used the land for economic needs
•Clearing the land, destroying hunting areas and fencing it
off into private property
•Divided the land and selling it for monetary value.
NATIVE AMERICANS
•Relationship with environment as part of their religion
•Need to hunt for survival
•Ownership meant access to the things the land produced,
not ownership of the land itself.
The World Known to Europe, 1492
• Technological developments in shipbuilding and
navigation, as well as a desire to find a water route
to Asia, would soon lead Europe into an era of
unprecedented exploration.
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Earlier Explorations
1. Islam & the Spice Trade  Silk
Road
2. New Player  Europe
Nicolo, Maffeo, & Marco Polo, 1271
Expansion becomes a state enterprise 
monarchs had the authority & the
resources.
Better seaworthy ships.
Motives for European
Exploration
1. Crusades  by-pass intermediaries
to get to Asia.
2. Renaissance  curiosity about other
lands and peoples.
3. Reformation  refugees &
missionaries.
4. Monarchs seeking new sources of
revenue.
5. Technological advances.
6. Fame and fortune.
European Exploration
• The Norseman
explored different
parts of North
Atlantic and North
America from 9th to
11th centuries.
• Eric the Red
colonized Iceland
and Greenland.
Direct Causes = 3 G’s
• Political: Become a world power through gaining
wealth and land. (GLORY)
• Economic: Search for new trade routes with
direct access to Asian/African luxury goods
would enrich individuals and their nations
(GOLD)
• Religious: spread Christianity and weaken
Middle Eastern Muslims. (GOD)
The 3 motives reinforce each other
European
explore
EFFECTS
•Europeans reach and settle Americas
•Expanded knowledge of world geography
•Growth of trade, mercantilism and capitalism
•Indian conflicts over land and impact of disease
on Indian populations
•Introduction of the institution of slavery
•Columbian Exchange
European Colonization
• The Portuguese were the first to
begin searching for an all water
route to Asia…..
– Prince Henry the Navigator –
1450’s
• Colonized the South America in
the area of what would become
Brazil
Explorers Sailing For Portugal
• Prince Henry the Navigator - Portugal Funded Exploration down coast of Africa
- 1419-1460
• Dias - Portugal - Rounded the Cape of
Good Hope - 1488
• da Gama - Portugal - Opened trade
with India - Placed Portugal in position
to dominate trade with India - 1498
• Cabral - Portugal - Claimed present day
Brazil for Portugal - 1500
Portugal
• Vasco da Gama
sailed around Africa
into India in 1498.
• He brought back
spices and valuable
products that gave
him a 600% profit.
Spain
• Christopher
Columbus made his
first voyage in 1492
and landed the
Bahamas were he
called the natives
Indians thinking he
was on the outskirts
of India.
Columbian Exchange or the transfer of goods
involved 3 continents, Americas, Europe and Africa
* Squash
* Turkey
* Cocoa
* Peanut
* Avocado
* Pumpkin
* Pineapple
* Tomato
* Peppers
* Tobacco
* Cassava
* Vanilla
* Olive
* Coffee Beans * Banana
* Onion
* Turnip
* Honeybee
* Grape
* Peach
* Sugar Cane
* Citrus Fruits * Pear
* Wheat
* Cattle
* Sheep
* Pig
* Flu
* Typhus
* Measles
* Diptheria
* Whooping Cough
* Sweet Potatoes
* Quinine
* POTATO
* MAIZE
* Syphillis
* Rice
* Barley
* Oats
* HORSE
* Smallpox
* Malaria
Spain
• Columbus later
voyaged to
Haiti, Puerto
Rico, Cuba,
Trinidad,
Central
America and
Venezuela.
• He died convinced he
had explored the
outskirts of Asia.
The Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494
& The Pope’s Line of Demarcation, 1493
Treaty of Tordesillas:
Document signed
between Spain and
Portugal in 1494. It
decided how
Christopher Columbus’s
discoveries of the New
World would be divided.
It ensured Spain’s claim
in the Americas and
conquistadores were
quickly sent in search of
gold and silver.
Trade Routes with the East
• Goods on the early routes passed through
so many hands along the way that their
ultimate source remained mysterious to
Europeans.
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Spain
• Amerigo Vaspucci
sailed to the New
World four times
between 1497 to
1503.
• He was the explorer
that realized the
New World was not
India.
Principal Voyages of Discovery
• Spain, Portugal, France, and
England reaped the
greatest advantages from
the New World, but much
of the earliest exploration
was done by Italians,
notably Christopher
Columbus of Genoa. John
Cabot, another native of
Genoa (his original name
was Giovanni Caboto), sailed
for England’s King Henry
VII. Giovanni da Verrazano
was a Florentine employed
by France.
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• Juan Ponce de Leon
explored Florida in
1513.
• He sought the mythical
fountain of youth but
ended up being killed
by the Native
Americans.
Spain
Hernando Cortez was the
Spanish conquistador who
conquered the Aztec Empire
from 1519 to 1522.
 He gained precious metal
riches for Spain
First Spanish Conquests: The Aztecs
Cortes conquered Aztec Empire in 1519
and took control of modern day Mexico.
vs.
Hernando Cortés
Montezuma II
Cortés and Malinche, c. 1540 (detail)
• Though done by an Indian artist, this drawing
identifies Malinche by her Christian name, Marina.
She eventually married one of Cortes’s soldiers,
with whom she traveled to Spain and was received
at the Spanish court.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
First Spanish Conquests: The Incas
Pizarro conquered Incan Empire in modern day Peru in 1532
vs.
Francisco Pizarro
Atahualpa
Cycle of Conquest &
Colonization
Explorers
European
Colonial
Empire
Permanent
Settlers
The Colonial Class System
Peninsulares
Spanish
ancestory
Mestizos
Spanish
and Indian
mixture
Native Indians
Creoles
Spanish and
Black
mixture.
Mulattos
White
American
and Black
mixture
Black Slaves
Spain
• Ferdinand
Magellan navigated
the globe
from 1519 to 1522.
He was killed in the
Philippines and the
voyage was
completed under
another explorer.
Spain
• Francisco Coronado searched
for the fabled seven Golden
Cities of Cibola in Northern
Mexico and SW U.S.
• He attempted to convert the
Natives into Christianity but
it never worked.
• He killed many natives and
never found treasures which
made his expedition a failure
to Spanish leaders.
Principal Early Spanish Explorations and Conquests
• Note that Coronado traversed northern Texas and
Oklahoma. In present-day eastern Kansas, he
found, instead of the great golden city he sought, a
drab encampment, probably of Wichita Indians.
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Spain
• Hernando De Soto left
from Cuba and explored
the southeast crossing of
the Mississippi from 1539
to 1542.
• He brutally mistreated
Native Americans with
iron collars and attack
dogs.
• He died from fever and
wounds.
Father Bartolomé de Las Casas
•Believed Native
Americans had been
treated harshly by
the Spanish.
•Indians could be
educated and
converted to
Christianized.
•Believed Indian
culture was
advanced as
European but in
different ways.
► New Laws --> 1542
1. Spanish practice of securing an adequate
and cheap labor supply = FEUDALISM
•“granted” to deserving subjects of the King
2. Conquistador controlled Indian populations
•Required Indians to pay tribute from their
lands
•Indians often rendered personal services as
well.
3. In return the conquistador was obligated to
•protect his wards
•instruct them in the Christian faith
•defend their right to use the to live off the
land
4. Encomienda system eventually decimated
Indian population.
5. The King prevented the encomienda with
the New Laws (1542) supported by de Las
Casas, the system gradually died out.
Treasures
from the Americas!
England
• Considered an
English “sea dog”
Francis Drake
competed against
the Spanish in the
Caribbean.
• He sailed around
South America to
California and was
the second person to
circumnavigate the
globe.
England
• Walter Raleigh
traveled to North
America and
established a colony
on Roanoke Island.
• This “Lost Colony”
of 90 men, 17 women
and 9 children was
founded in 1587 and
went missing in 1590.
• French settle Quebec (1608) &
Montreal (1642) and what would
become Canada
– Control St. Lawrence River & access to
interior of North America
– Develop a fur trade
– Couier do Bois
France
• Giovanni da
Verrazzano
attempted to find a
passage through
North America in
1524.
• He sailed the entire
east coast entering
New York Harbor
and Narragansett
Bay.
Explorers Sailing For France
• Cartier - France - Reached St. Lawrence
River - Claimed Eastern Canada for France
– 1535
• Samuel de Champlain - France - “Father
of New France” - Established Quebec (the
1st permanent French colony in N.
America) - Established settlements and
explored Maine, Montreal & Nova Scotia 1608
European Colonization
• Like French, Dutch focus on fur trade &
send only a few men to settlements
– Found Albany (New York, 1614) on Hudson
River
– New Netherland (becomes New York) is an
extension of the Dutch global trade system
• Dutch & French form alliances with Native
Americans—increase warfare & Iroquois
(Dutch ally) defeat Hurons
Explorers Sailing For The
Netherlands
• Henry Hudson - English sailing for the
Dutch - Searching for Northwest Passage
- Claimed Hudson River - Settlers
established New Netherlands (New York) 1609