The 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
Understanding the Worlds of
1492
Spain
&
The Taino
The Spanish World in 1492
1482
1513
© PIH Network, 2008
W. European Nation-States Arise
• 4 major states by late 1400's:
–
–
–
–
Portugal
Spain
France
England
• Strong central governments
– Bureaucracy
– Standing army
– Need money to pay
government employees
© PIH Network, 2008
European Religious Practices
• Roman Catholic faith
across Medieval Europe
• Dissenters seen as threat
to society
– mobs burn accused heretics
– 1231: Pope creates
Inquisition to bring order
and legality to process
• Series of crusades to
reclaim biblical Holy
Land from Muslims
(1095-1270)
© PIH Network, 2008
Motivations for Exploration
•
•
•
•
Access to riches of East: Spices
New sources of gold and silver
Spread Christianity
Renaissance spirit of adventure
© PIH Network, 2008
The Iberian
Peninsula: 1400's
• Feudal Christian
kingdoms in North
• Muslim Moors in
South
Independence from
the Moors
• Precursor to Crusades:
Pope calls for fight for
"the Cross" in Spain
• Christian Kingdoms
gradually re-take
peninsula
• United Spanish state
formed by marriage of
Ferdinand and
Isabella: 1469
© PIH Network, 2008
Spanish Monarchs gain power
• Isabella's aims
– Spanish unity
– Universal Catholicism
• Firm alliance with
Catholic Church
– 1478: Spanish
Inquisition authorized
• Rivalry with Portugal
for trade with East
© PIH Network, 2008
1492
• Fall of Granada, last Moorish city in Spain
• Jews offered choice of baptism or expulsion
• Columbus sent to find new trade route to East
© PIH Network, 2008
Who They Met:
The Taino World -- 1492
http://www.red-coral.net/ColumbP39.jpg
© PIH Network, 2008
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.
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Pol/Soc Organization
• Confederation style
gov’t
– Tiered chiefdoms
– Alliances of great
chiefdoms
– Hispaniola: 5
powerful chiefdoms
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Political/Social
Organization
• Village Life
http://welcome.topuertorico.org/images/bohios.jpg
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Political/Social Organization
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/duho-1.gif
© PIH Network, 2008
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
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Political/Social
Organization
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/taino-canoe.jpg
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Political/Social Organization
• Economy
– Based on agriculture
– Skilled use of sea
for food & trade
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Religious Practices
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/zemi-5.gif
© PIH Network, 2008
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
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Religious Practices
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/wooden-deity.gif
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Religious Practices
• Two Supreme
Deities
– Lord of cassava and
sea
– Goddess of fresh
water & human
fertility
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Religious Practices
http://www.elmuseo.org/taino/ tainoimages/daily_zemifront.jpg
© PIH Network, 2008
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
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Religious Practices
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/taino/wooden-rattle.gif
© PIH Network, 2008
Taino Religious Practices
• Religious
agricultural feasts
• Shamans served as
advisors to chiefs
© PIH Network, 2008
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 Network, 2008