Bellwork
• Who is Christopher Columbus and what did he
do? In 2 sentences, explain what you think his
impact or legacy on the world was. Was it
positive or negative?
– Be prepared to discuss this concept.
American History
Section 3, Unit 1
First Contact and Early American
Colonization
Objectives
• Identify the main reason why the Spanish
traveled westward across the Atlantic
• Explain the formation and impact of the
Encomienda system
• Deduce the effects of European Colonization
on the Native American populations
Section 3
• We are now in a new section of World History.
This section is going to cover initial European
contact and Spanish colonization in the
Americas.
Prior to Columbus
• European contact with
Americas actually occurred
well before Christopher
Columbus.
• The 11th century Viking
explorer, Leif Erikson,
temporarily settled parts of
Northeastern Canada and
was most likely the first
person to settle.
• Other groups also stated
that they saw new lands,
but never attempted to
settle there. It wouldn’t be
until Christopher Columbus
that Europeans would
finally attempt to settle in
the new world.
Question
• In the last lesson, why did the other European
nations want to travel to Asia so desperately?
Who pioneered a new route to Asia?
Spain
• The Eastern neighbor to
Portugal, Spain (and most
other European nations)
desired a cheaper, faster
route to Asia.
• Spain, largely because of
it’s boldness and
imagination, was willing
to fund the explorations
of Christopher Columbus–
who looked West, rather
than East.
Christopher Columbus
• Columbus grew up
Genoa, an Italian port
city.
• Adventurous, Columbus
sailed as a man in
various trading vessels.
• Overtime, he became
an excellent navigator
and learned to handle
small sailing vessels on
his own.
Christopher Columbus
• Eventually, he found his way to Lisbon,
Portugal which was the center of European
knowledge of sea travel.
– During his studies, he formulated that a westward
route to Asia could not be too far, only 2,400 miles
west of Portugal.
Sponsorship
• In the 1480’s, Columbus tried to persuade
various European monarchs to sponsor a
westward voyage across the Atlantic. He had
little success early on– King John II of Portugal
for example doubted his calculations of the
distance to Asia.
– King John II was correct, as Asia was about five
times farther away than Columbus calculated.
Sponsorship (cont.)
• Initially, Columbus had no better luck with the
Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella.
• However, Columbus continued to ask for
sponsorship and detailed the riches that would
be waiting for the monarchs if they funded his
journey– golden palaces and temples.
• He also vowed to take his Catholic faith to people
of foreign lands, a concept that impressed the
deeply religious Isabella.
Sponsorship (cont.)
• On, April 17, 1492, the king and queen of Spain
authorized the funding for Columbus’s journey.
• To reward the explorer for future discoveries,
Ferdinand and Isabella agreed that Columbus
would: be knighted, appointed admiral, and
made viceroy (governor) of all lands he might
discover.
– As well, after his death, all titles would be inherited
and he would receive 10% of all riches he would find.
• Columbus outfitted, three
vessels: the Santa Maria,
the Niña, and the Pinta
and recruited an
experienced crew of
about 90 sailors.
• On August 3, 1492,
Columbus and his crew
departed from Spain and
journeyed almost 800
miles southwest to the
Canary Islands, Spains
westernmost territory.
• Then, in September, the
three vessels set out
across the uncharted
ocean.
First Voyage
Question
• It took almost a month before the Spanish
crew saw any land. They have not sighted land
and their patience is wearing thin.
• What do you think the crew started to
demand of Columbus?
October 12
• As many sailors began to demand to turn
back, a lookout scans the horizon and makes
the call: “Tierra!” (land)
• As they approached the land, Columbus
described the event in his journal:
– “they reached an islet… soon they saw naked
people and [Columbus] went ashore in his armed
longboat”
Tainos
• Columbus and his men
landed on a tiny Island
in the central Bahamas,
about 400 miles
southeast of presentday Florida. He named
it San Salvador and
called the people
Indios, the Spanish
word for Indian.
– He mistakenly believed
that the people he met
were Indians.
Tainos (cont.)
• The Natives he met were called the Tainos,
meaning “good” or “noble”.
• They were farmers who lived in small
settlements and traded goods (salt, shells)
with their neighbors.
• Taino war chiefs increased their power
through successful raids and it was not
unusual for groups to raid one another.
Tainos (cont.)
• The Spanish were treated hospitably by the
Tainos, who offered to share their goods with
Spanish.
• However, the Spanish mistook this
characteristic as meaning two things:
– That they would make easy converts to
Catholicism
– They could be conquered easily and compelled to
do anything the Europeans wished.
Gold
• Because some of the
Tainos wore gold
ornaments, Columbus
assumed that the gold
mines were close.
• Over the next month,
Columbus sailed from
island to island searching
for gold (to no success).
Each island he landed on,
he claimed for Spain and
named.
Gold (cont.)
• However, in 1492, he struck a coral reef off the
island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican
Republic) and had to abandon the Santa
Maria.
– Believing this was a sign from God, he established
the first Spanish colony here: La Navidad.
Return to Spain
• In 1493, Columbus sailed back to Spain and took
with his two dozen Taino captives and evidence
of riches in the Indies.
• Ferdinand and Isabella, impressed by what they
saw, gave him a hero’s welcome and approved
another voyage.
– The captives were objects of curiousity and sympathy.
– Isabella ordered that Indians on Hispaniola be treated
humanely and converted to the Catholic faith.
• However, she did leave open the possibility that anyone who
resisted be enslaved.
Question: Was Isabella being truly kind to the Natives?
Columbus’s Return
• When Columbus returned to La Navidad, he
found the colony destroyed and all the
Spaniards gone.
– Some probably left to find gold, while others
either died of illness were killed by the Tainos.
• Chances are, because the colonists continued to
excessively demand goods from the Tainos, the Tainos
probably retaliated.
• Columbus and around 1,500 male colonists
built another settlement: Isabela.
Colony of Isabela
• Columbus left the care
of Isabela to his brother,
Bartolome and spent
three years searching
for gold.
• While Columbus was
gone, pressure by the
colonists on the natives
for food and gold lead
to violent revolts
against the Spanish.
Colony of Isabela
• However, during Bartolome’s rule, the
colonists would also begin to fight against one
another over resources.
• Because of this failure to maintain order,
Columbus was eventually replaced as viceroy.
Replacement
• Aside from being a poor governor, Columbus
was also accused of being a tyrant. He was
replaced by Francisco de Bobadilla.
– In a report by Bobadilla, he also found that during
Columbus’ reign, him and his brothers were found
to use torture and mutilation to govern
Hispaniola.
• In one example, Columbus is said to have had one mans
ears and nose cut off for having stolen corn.
Encomienda
• Before Columbus was
replaced, he granted the
colonists control over Native
labor.
• He informally introduced a
system- encomienda- in which
the colonists (called
encomenderos) would be able
to have a certain number of
natives work for them.
• The colonists used the natives
to mine gold, provide food,
and build houses.
– The colonists also had to force
their charged into the Roman
Catholic faith and permit the
natives to grow their own food.
Encomienda (cont.)
• The Spanish crown officially established the
encomienda in 1503 and the crown believed
that the Native Americans were not slaves–
they were paid small allowances for their
work.
• However, the system amounted to slavery, as
the natives were rarely paid.
Question
• What effect do you think the encomienda
system would have on:
– Native American trade
– Society
– Self-growth
– Religion/customs
Consequences
• The encomienda system disrupted native
societies:
– Because of excessive demands for food and labor,
natives could produce little for themselves
• Malnutrition became widespread
– Natives could no longer trade with one another
easily
– The native religious were being forced out by
Catholic practices and forced conversion.
Bartolome de Las Casas
• Some Spaniards protested
the harsh treatment of
Native Americans.
• One prominent critic, a
priest named Bartolome
de Las Casas, spent many
years initially supporting
the encomienda system.
However, overtime he
began questioning the
morality of the system
itself and urged the
Spanish to end the
encomienda and work
peacefully with the
natives.
Apologetic History of the Indies
• In his writings, Las Casas argued that the
Natives humanity and wisdom equaled the
Europeans:
“Not only have [the Indians] show themselves to be
very wise peoples and possessed of lively and
marked understandings,… governing and providing
for their nations… but they have equaled many
diverse nations of the… past and present… and
exceed by no small measure the wisest of all these”
Las Casas
• Las Casa argued for native rights at the same
time the Spanish king wanted to limit the
growing independence of the colonies.
– The Spanish crown would enact laws in 1542 to
restrict encomiendas.
• However, the colonists refused to give up their
control of native labor.
End of the Encomienda
• However, the end of the encomienda would not
come through the crowns actions, but by a
decline in native populations.
• Between European diseases, overwork, and
malnutrition, the native population in the West
Indies fell by almost 90% by the 1550’s.
• To replace these laborers, the Spanish began to
import African slaves.
– We will discuss the “benefits” of African slavery for
the Europeans in a future lesson.
Effects of growth
• As Spain grew in the new world, other nations
began to notice the benefits of exploration in
the new world.
• One of these would be Portugal, who also sent
explorers to the new world.
Exploration
• Of the explorers, Amerigo
Vespucci would prove to be
one of the most important.
– He traveled along the eastern
cost of South America,
primarily in and around
modern-day Brazil.
– Unlike any Spaniard, Amerigo
Vespucci concluded at the
end of his journey that the
Americas was not, in fact,
Asia.
– In honor of his discovery, the
“new world” was named after
Amerigo by a German
mapmaker- he referred to it
as “America”.
Spanish Expansion
• As the Caribbean colonies began to make Spain one of
the most wealthy European nations, they began to
expand their territory throughout the American
continents.
• Dreams of new conquests prompted Spain to make a
series of expeditions into the southwestern United
States.
• The Spanish took with them priests to help spread
Catholicism and hoped to find mythical “cities of gold”
in North America.
– However, they would find no large empires (recall: Native
Americans in the U.S.), but would find other Native groups
in their path.
Effect on the U.S. Native Americans
• There was much initial opposition to Spanish
claims in the Southwestern portions of the
United States, in Mexico, and parts of South
America.
• Some natives were still being treated
inhumanely by the Spaniards and the forced
conversion of natives to Catholicism continued
to be an issue for many decades to come.
Exchange
• When Europeans came to the Americas, they
brought with them many things that the
Native Americans never saw before.
• As well, during their explorations, they took
with them many things that would
revolutionize Europe.
• This exchange of ideas, concepts, goods, and
more are all part of what is known as the
Columbian Exchange.
nge
Question: What do we see in this picture? What is being traded?
Columbian Exchange
• In the new world Columbus helped find, an
exchange between the two parts of the worldEast and West- began to occur. Both sides began
to exchange a variety of things including:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Foods
Animals
Disease
Religions
Human populations (such as African slave trade)
Technologies
Ideas
Effect of the Columbian Exchange
Europe/Africa
• Europe experienced new foods
that they had not had before,
such as corn, potatoes, and
peants, and various other South
American spices
• Europe was also introduced to
animals such as the turkey.
• Africa would also experience
increased demands in slave labor,
to which African kingdoms were
more than willing to supply the
Europeans with (often with
captured Africans)
• However, the eastern hemisphere
would be introduced to a new
disease: syphilis.
Americas
• The Americas receive
various things from the
eastern hemisphere:
– Asian rice, wheat, barley,
peaches, onions
– Animals such as the horse,
cow, chicken, and sheep
– The most damaging
exchange, however, would
prove to be the diseases
Europeans brought with
them, including: smallpox,
measles, influenza, plague,
typhus cholera, malaria, and
measles (among others).
Legacy
• All in all, Christopher Columbus and the
Spanish would be remembered throughout
history for the discovery of the new world.
• However, this new discovery, depending on
who is asked, will have immense effects on
both sides of the world for centuries after
Columbus’ death.
Review Objectives
• Identify the main reason why the Spanish
traveled westward across the Atlantic
• Explain the formation and impact of the
Encomienda system
• Deduce the effects of European Colonization
on the Native American populations
Questions
• If you have any questions, please ask now.
Next Lesson
• In the next lesson, we are going to discuss
Spanish colonization in the southern United
States.
Review
1. What is the major difference between how Isabella
and Las Casas felt about how the natives should be
treated?
2. Why did Columbus lose his position as viceroy?
3. Why did the Tainos revolt against the Spanish?
4. What was the effect of Spanish presence on the
native populations and their culture?
5. How did the Spanish respond when they discovered
that the Native Americans were generous to
Columbus’ people?
6. Why did Christopher Columbus travel westward to
reach Asia and how did this effect what he called the
Natives when he reached them?
7. Between Europe, Africa, and the Americas, who do
you think benefitted the most from the Columbian
exchange? Who do you think suffered the
consequences the most? Why?
Homework Assignment
• Please read the handout “Reconsidering the
Legacy of Christopher Columbus”
• Directions: write down at least a page as to
whether or not you feel that Columbus’ arrival
to the Americas was ultimately good or bad. If
you feel both ways, explain your feelings.