The “New World”
1491-1607
Mr. Owens
Crash Course #1: "The Black Legened: Native Americans and the Spaniards"
Essential Questions:
• In what ways and to what extent did the native
populations of North America adapt to and
transform their diverse environments?
• Compare and contrast the Spanish, French,
Dutch, and British social and political
development of their colonies, including their
relationships with native populations.
• What were the effects of the Columbian
Exchange on the New World, Europe, and Africa?
Cultures of Central & South America
• Archeologists believe first migrants
arrived 40,000 years ago from Asia
via Bering land bridge
• Advanced civilizations: Maya (AD
300-800) in Yucatan Peninsula,
Aztecs “Mexica” in central Mexico –
Tenochtitlan pop. of 200,000, Incas
in Peruvian Andes
• Highly organized, trade routes,
calendars, and agricultural systems
Cultures of North America
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Population of N. America (U.S. & Canada) in 1490s
historians est. between 1 to 10 million or higher
Mostly small societies of 300 people or less – hunting
(men) & gathering, & farming (female), many
matriarchal, and were animists
Language: diverse more than 20 language families and
400 languages – largest Algonquin in Northeast
Southwest: Spread of maize cultivation from Mexico,
Pueblo – farming, cliff caves, brick buildings
Northwest & California: hunting & gathering, fishing
Great Plains & Great Basin: nomadic, tepees, buffalo
hunters – horse from Spanish in 1600s
East: woodland – hunting & gathering, fishing, farming
permanent settlements – fur trade. Iroquois
Confederacy in Mohawk Valley of NY most powerful
Causes of European Exploration
• Technology improvements: gunpowder
(China), sailing compass (China via Arabs),
shipbuilding - caravel, mapmaking,
Guttenberg’s printing press.
• Religion: Spreading of Catholic faith (Spain
& Portugal) after conquest of Spain by
1492. Protestant Reformation (England &
Holland) -spreading rival versions of
Christianity
• Expanding trade routes to Asia &
development of slave trade for labor –
mercantilism/merchant capitalism
• Development of nation-states that relied
on trade and the church
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Early Exploration & Contact
Columbus 1492 (Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain)
arrived in Bahamas the “Indies”
Columbus controversial legacy?
Columbian Exchange: transfer of plants, animals,
and germs/diseases. From America: beans, corn,
potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco & syphilis. From
Europeans: sugarcane, pigs, horses, wheels, iron
tools, guns & variety of diseases smallpox,
measles.
Treaty of Tordesillas 1494 Spain & Portugal
divide New World
Spanish conquistadores – search for gold
“requerimiento” – Cortes, Coronado
Encomienda system: land grants & natives to
influential Spaniards – caste system
Asiento system: slave trade from W. Africa taxes
supported monarch
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English, French & Dutch
Both England & France behind Spain
occupied by European wars & internal
religious conflict
England: John Cabot explores
Newfoundland 1497. Queen Elizabeth I
in 1580s Sir Francis Drake raids Spanish
ships, Sir Walter Raleigh failed colony of
Roanoke in 1587. Jamestown in 1607
France: Jacques Cartier (1534-1542)
explored St. Lawrence river (Canada),
Samuel de Champlain “Father of New
France” founds Quebec in 1608
settlements extend down Mississippi
River down to Louisiana by 1682 –
coureurs de bois, Jesuit Missionaries
Dutch: Henry Hudson in 1609 “Hudson
River” establish “New Netherlands” and
“New Amsterdam” trade of Dutch West
India Company (joint-stock company),
large land grants to patroons
Spanish Settlements in N. America
• Florida: St. Augustine founded 1565
oldest permanent European
settlement
• New Mexico: Santa Fe 1610, imposing
Christianity led to Pueblo Revolt led
by Pope in 1680 controlled until 1693
• Forced Spanish to compromise
• Texas: small settlements – grow in
early 1700s
• California: San Diego 1769, San
Francisco 1776, Mission system set up
by 1784 Father Junipero Sera
European Treatment of Native Americans
• Clashing views of nature & land: collectivism &
animism vs. culture of capitalism
• Spain: rigid caste “casta” system. Bartolome de
Las Casas critical of treatment led to “New Laws
of 1542” end Native American slavery.
Valladolid Debate: Las Casas vs. Juan Gines de
Sepulveda 1550-1551
• England: initial coexistence and trade in certain
areas but eventual warfare & expulsion of
“savages” – some “praying towns” –
“transplantations”
• French: coexistence – fur trade (coureus de
bois), intermarriage, alliances with Huron &
Algonquin– Jesuit missionaries.
• Dutch developed trade alliances especially with
the Iroquois – fur trade.
• Native American reaction: some tribes opened
trade networks, some formed alliances with
Europeans against other tribes, some resisted
or migrated west away from Europeans