Sampling the Spanish Colonization Unit:
Persistent Issue:
When is a nation justified in intervening in the affairs of
another nation?
Central Question:
Should we celebrate or mourn the arrival of Europeans in
the Americas?
Culminating Activity:
World Court Hearing
Spanish Colonization: Hypothesis Formation
Central Question:
Should we celebrate or mourn the arrival of Europeans in
the Americas?
Lesson Focus Question:
How did people in Spain and the Caribbean live at the time
of initial contact?
Spanish Colonization: Hypothesis Formation
Purpose:
Provide the framing historical and cultural context
for inquiry into primary accounts
1. Introduce cultures of Spain, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica at
the time of initial contact.
2.Introduce the historical problem of “how we know”: the
perceptions of non-Western cultures of which we have no direct
records.
3.Introduce Aztec encounters (for which we have better records) to
give some sense of the indigenous peoples’ perspectives
Establishing Foundational Knowledge
Spanish Colonization of the Americas
• Strategy: Interactive Slide Lecture
• Hypothesis Formation
• Interpreting Archeological Evidence
Understanding the Worlds of
1492
Spain
&
The Taino
Who They Met:
The Taino World -- 1492
http://www.red-coral.net/ColumbP39.jpg
Geography of The Taino World
• Originally from South America
• Territory more than 1,000 miles east to west
• Occupied the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Bahamas,
Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba
Rouse, Irving. 1992. The Tainos. New Haven: Yale University Press. P. 6.
Taino Political/Social Organization
• Confederation style
gov’t
– Tiered chiefdoms
– Alliances of great
chiefdoms
– Hispaniola: 5
powerful chiefdoms
Taino Political/Social
Organization
• Village Life
http://welcome.topuertorico.org/images/bohios.jpg
Taino Political/Social Organization
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/duho-1.gif
Taino Political/Social Organization
• History (hypothesized)
– Internal warfare
alternating with periods of
alliance and trade
– Military stand-off of equal
chiefdoms
– By 1492, intermarriage
among elite to create a
pan-Taino ruling class
Taino Political/Social
Organization
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/taino-canoe.jpg
Taino Political/Social Organization
• Economy
– Based on agriculture
– Skilled use of sea
for food & trade
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/zemi-5.gif
Taino Religious Practices
• System of Gods: Zemis
– Explained how universe
was created
– Role humans played in
the universe
– Moral blueprint to guide
conduct
– Afterlife where good
people rewarded
Taino Religious Practices
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/wooden-deity.gif
Taino Religious Practices
• Two Supreme
Deities
– Lord of cassava and
sea
– Goddess of fresh
water & human
fertility
Taino Religious Practices
http://www.elmuseo.org/taino/ tainoimages/daily_zemifront.jpg
Taino Religious Practices
• Representations made
from remains of
ancestors
– Believed powerful
spirits in these objects
– Cannibalism: Drink
made from ground,
burned bones of
ancestors passed spirit
of person to living
Taino Religious Practices
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/wooden-rattle.gif
Taino Religious Practices
• Religious
agricultural feasts
• Shamans served as
advisors to chiefs
Taino Relations with Others
• Fought with Island-Caribs who had invaded territory
• Expanded influence to outward islands in Caribbean.
Resources flowed back to dominant Taino chiefdoms.
PIH Curriculum Design Principles
1. Scaffolded Instruction
2. Authenticity
3. Multiple Intelligences
4. Effective Collaboration