New World Beginnings

 

I.                    The Shaping of North America

a.       Continents Form

                                                               i.      225 million years ago, a single supercontinent contained all the world’s dry land

                                                             ii.      Enormous chunks of terrain began to drift away from this supercontinent.  This had the following results:

1.      Opened the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

2.      Narrowed the Pacific Ocean

3.      Formed the landmasses of Eurasia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the Americas

                                                            iii.      The existence of a single original continent has been proved in part by the discovery of nearly identical species of fish that swim today in the long-separated freshwater lakes of the various continents

b.      Mountain Ranges

                                                               i.      Shifting and folding of the earth’s crust thrust up mountain ranges

1.      350 million years ago – Appalachians

2.      135-25 million years ago – Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades

c.       Ice Age

                                                               i.      Occurred 2 million years ago

                                                             ii.      Ice sheets crept from the polar regions to blanket parts of Europe, Asia, and the Americas

                                                            iii.      In North America, the glaciers covered most of present-day Canada and the U.S. as far southward as Pennsylvania, Ohio, the Dakotas, and the Pacific Northwest

                                                           iv.      When the glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago, they left the North American landscape much as we know it today

1.      Melting glaciers formed the Great Lakes

2.      They drained southward through the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico

3.      Melting glaciers left the Great Salt Lake

II.                 Peopling the Americas

a.       Bering Land Bridge

                                                               i.      As the Ice Age was ending and the sea level dropped, it exposed a land bridge connecting Eurasia with North America in the area of the present-day Bering Sea between Siberia and Alaska

                                                             ii.      Across that bridge, probably following migratory herds of game, ventured small bands of nomadic Asian hunters

b.      Spreading Out and Surviving

                                                               i.      The original Americans eventually reached the far tip of South America

                                                             ii.      By 1492, as many as 54 million people lived in the Americas

                                                            iii.      Over 2,000 separate cultures arose

1.      Peru – Incas

2.      Central America – Mayans

3.      Mexico – Aztecs

                                                           iv.      Main crop was maize (corn)

                                                             v.      Didn’t have horses, oxen, or even the wheel, but still managed to build large cities

III.               The Earliest Americans

a.       Corn

                                                               i.      Corn spread across the Americas from Mexico

                                                             ii.      Corn began to transform nomadic hunting bands into settled agricultural villagers

1.      The Pueblo (means village) people in the Rio Grande valley constructed intricate irrigation systems to water their cornfields

b.      Population and the Complexity of Society

                                                               i.      Throughout the continent to the north and east of the land of the Pueblos, social life was less elaborately developed

                                                             ii.      No dense concentrations of population or complex nation-states comparable to the Aztec empire existed in North America outside of Mexico

                                                            iii.      This was one reason for the relative ease with which the European colonizers subdued the native Americans

                                                           iv.      The Mound Builders of the Ohio River valley, the Mississippian culture of the lower Midwest, and the desert-dwelling Anasazi peoples of the Southwest did sustain some large settlements after the incorporation of corn planting around 1,000 AD.  However, all fell (possibly due to drought) by 1,300 AD

                                                             v.      The cultivation of maize, beans, and squash reached the southeastern Atlantic seaboard region of North America about 1,000 AD.  This allowed some of the highest population densities on the continent, among them the Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee peoples

c.       Iroquois

                                                               i.      Located in the northeastern woodlands

                                                             ii.      In the 16th century, inspired by the legendary leader Hiawatha, they sustained the closest thing to the great nation-states of Mexico and Peru

                                                            iii.      The Iroquois Confederacy developed the political and organizational skills to sustain a military alliance that menaced its neighbors, Native Americans, and Europeans alike, for well over a century

d.      Native American Settlements

                                                               i.      Most native Americans in North America were living in small, scattered, and impermanent settlements

                                                             ii.      Women tended the crops

                                                            iii.      Men hunted, fished, and cleared fields for planting

                                                           iv.      This pattern of life frequently conferred substantial authority on women (power and possessions passed down the female side of the family line in many Indian cultures)

                                                             v.      Native Americans revered the physical world and endowed nature with spiritual properties.  However, they did sometimes ignite massive forest fires to down trees for better hunting habitats, especially for deer

                                                           vi.      They were so thinly spread across the continent that vast areas were virtually untouched by a human presence

                                                          vii.      By 1492, there were about 4 million Native Americans in North America

IV.              Indirect Discoverers of the New World

a.       Norse

                                                               i.      Scandinavia seafarers landed in present-day Newfoundland about AD 1000

                                                             ii.      The area had many wild grapes, so they called it Vinland

                                                            iii.      Their venture failed because they weren’t supported by a nation-state

b.      Christian Crusaders

                                                               i.      Foiled in their military assaults on the Muslims in the Holy Land from the 11th to 14th centuries, the crusaders acquired a taste for the exotic delights of Asia

                                                             ii.      Goods that had been virtually unknown in Europe now were craved:

1.      Silk

2.      Drugs

3.      Perfumes

4.      Draperies

5.      Spices

a.       Sugar, a rare luxury in Europe before the crusades, was used to preserve and flavor food

c.       Wanting a New Route

                                                               i.      The above goods had to be transported enormous distances from China and India in ships or on camel

                                                             ii.      By the time the goods reached Europe, they were so costly that purchasers and profits alike were limited

                                                            iii.      European consumers and distributors were naturally eager to find a less expensive route

V.                 Europeans Enter Africa

a.       Marco Polo

                                                               i.      An Italian adventurer returned to Europe in 1295 and began telling tales of his nearly 20-year stay in China

                                                             ii.      Though he may in fact never have seen China, he must be regarded as an indirect discoverer of the New World.  His book, with its descriptions of rose-tinted pearls and golden pagodas, stimulated European desires for a cheaper route to the treasures of the East

b.      Portuguese and Africa

                                                               i.      With the development of better ships, the Portuguese mariners could overcome obstacles of wind and current

                                                             ii.      As a result, the Portuguese began to creep down the West African coast in the middle of the 15th century (Dark Continent)

c.       Slavery

                                                               i.      They set up trading posts along the African shore for the purchase of gold and slaves.  Arabs and Africans had traded slaves centuries before the Europeans had arrived

                                                             ii.      Especially expensive were slaves from distant places, who could not easily flee to their native villages.  Slave traders also mixed tribes purposely so that it would be difficult to mount organized resistance

                                                            iii.      Portugal built up their own slave trade to work the sugar plantations there and on their islands

                                                           iv.      Slave trading became a big business.  40,000 Africans were carried away to the Atlantic sugar islands in the last half of the 15th century

                                                             v.      Portugal was the origin of the modern plantation system, based on large-scale commercial agriculture and exploitation of slave labor

d.      Bartholomeu Dias (1488)

                                                               i.      Wanting to find a water route to Asia, Dias rounded the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488

e.       Vasco da Gama (1498)

                                                               i.      Rounded the tip of Africa and reached India (hence Indies refers to Asia – East Indies – Indonesia; West Indies – Caribbean Sea Islands)

f.        Spain

                                                               i.      In the late 15th century, Spain became more powerful from:

1.      The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon & Isabella of Castile

2.      Expulsion of the “infidel” Muslim Moors after centuries of Christian-Islamic warfare

                                                             ii.      As a result of their new strength, the Spaniards were eager to outdo their Portuguese rivals.  Since Portugal controlled the waterways around Africa, Spain looked west

VI.              Columbus Comes Upon a New World

a.       The Stage Is Set

                                                               i.      Europeans – Clamored for more and cheaper products from the lands beyond the Mediterranean

                                                             ii.      Africa – Was established as a source of cheap slave labor for plantation agriculture

                                                            iii.      Portuguese voyages – Demonstrated the feasibility of long-range ocean navigation

                                                           iv.      Spain – Was taking shape, with unity, wealth, and power to shoulder the formidable tasks of discovery, conquest, and colonization

                                                             v.      Renaissance – In the 14th century, it nurtured an ambitious spirit of optimism and adventure

                                                           vi.      Printing presses – Facilitated the spread of scientific knowledge

                                                          vii.      Mariner’s compass – Possibly borrowed from the Arabs, eliminated some of the uncertainties of sea travel

b.      Christopher Columbus

                                                               i.      Italian seafarer who persuaded the Spanish monarchs to outfit him with three tiny ships (Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria).  He intended to find a water route to Asia

                                                             ii.      His crew was people from a mix of backgrounds (motley crew)

                                                            iii.      Fearful of venturing into the oceanic unknown, the crew increasingly became mutinous

                                                           iv.      On October 12, 1492, the crew sighted an island in the Bahamas

                                                             v.      He intended to find a new water route to India, but he bumped into an enormous land barrier.  He felt for sure that he had skirted the rim of the “Indies” – (Asia or China) so he called the native peoples Indians

c.       Result of Columbus’ Discovery

                                                               i.      He returned with gold, encouraging further expeditions

                                                             ii.      An interdependent global economic system would emerge

1.      Europe – provided the markets, capital, and technology

2.      Africa – furnished the labor

3.      New World – Offered its raw materials, especially metals and soil for sugar cane, tobacco, corn, and more

VII.            When Worlds Collide

a.       Positive Results of Columbus’ Discovery

                                                               i.      New World plants, such as tobacco, maize, beans, tomatoes, and potatoes eventually revolutionized:

1.      The international economy

2.      The European diet (3/5 of the crops cultivated around the globe today originated in the Americas)

3.      Fed the rapid population growth

                                                             ii.      Columbus returned to Hispaniola (Dominican Republic today) with cattle, swine, and horses

1.      The horses reached the North American mainland through Mexico and in less than two centuries had spread as far as Canada

2.      North American Indian tribes like the Apaches, Sioux, and Blackfoot swiftly adopted the horse, transforming their cultures into highly mobile, wide-ranging hunter societies that roamed the grassy Great Plains in pursuit of the shaggy buffalo

b.      Negative Results of Columbus’ Discovery

                                                               i.      The Europeans also brought the germs that caused smallpox, yellow fever, and malaria

                                                             ii.      During the Indians’ millennia of isolation in the Americas, most of the Old World diseases disappeared from them and so their bodies didn’t need the protective antibodies.  These diseases would quickly devastate the Native Americans.  90% of the Native Americans perished

                                                            iii.      Indians infected early explorers with syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that was transferred to Europe

c.       Amerigo Vespucci (1497)

                                                               i.      Italian member of a Portuguese expedition

                                                             ii.      Explored South America

                                                            iii.      A cartographer mistakenly thought that Vespucci had an expedition to the New World before Columbus, so he named the continent America

VIII.         The Spanish Conquistadores

a.       Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

                                                               i.      Spain secured its claim to Columbus’s discovery in this treaty

                                                             ii.      It created a Papal Line of Demarcation, which divided with Portugal the lands of the New World – east for Portugal and west for Spain.  Most went to Spain, but Portugal received compensating territory in Africa, Asia, and what would become Brazil

b.      Spain

                                                               i.      Became the dominant exploring and colonizing power in the 1500s

                                                             ii.      Spanish conquistadores (conquerors) fanned out across the Caribbean and eventually onto the mainland of the American continents

c.       Spanish Explorers

                                                               i.      Vasco Nunez Balboa (1513)

1.      Discovered the Pacific Ocean and crossed Panama

                                                             ii.      Ferdinand Magellan (1519-1522)

1.      Set out to sail around the world

2.      Started with five vessels

3.      Was killed in the Philippines

4.      One ship made it home in 1522 (first circumnavigation of the globe)

                                                            iii.      Juan Ponce de Leon (1513 & 1521)

1.      Explored Florida for gold and the fountain of youth

                                                           iv.      Francisco Pizarro (1532)

1.      In South America, Pizarro crushed the Incas of Peru and added a huge booty to Spanish coffers (a strongbox for holding money)

                                                             v.      Hernando de Soto (1539-1542)

1.      He discovered and crossed the Mississippi River

                                                           vi.      Francisco Coronado (1540-1542)

1.      Wandered through Arizona and New Mexico in search of golden cities that turned out to be adobe pueblos

2.      Discovered the Grand Canyon and enormous herds of bison

d.      Results of Spanish Discoveries

                                                               i.      By 1600, Spain had a huge amount of silver.  This resulted in:

1.      The foundation of the modern commercial banking system

2.      Increased consumer costs by as much as 500%

3.      Could have led to the growth of capitalism

4.      Spread commerce and manufacturing

5.      Paid for trade with Asia

                                                             ii.      Islands of the Caribbean Sea (West Indies) served as bases for the Spanish exploration of mainland America (supplies could be stored and men/horses could be rested)

                                                            iii.      The West Indies also served as a place to test the encomienda system.  It allowed the government to give Indians to certain colonists in return for the promise to try to Christianize them.  It was actually slavery.  With the death of Native American slaves, Spaniards began importing African slaves

IX.              The Conquest of Mexico

a.       Hernan Cortes (1519)

                                                               i.      Set sail from Cuba to Mexico with:

1.      16 horses

2.      Many guns

3.      Several hundred men

4.      11 ships

                                                             ii.      Along the way, he managed to pick up two interpreters

                                                            iii.      He heard from the interpreters about gold and other wealth stored up in the legendary Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan

                                                           iv.      He also learned of problems the Aztec empire was having with peoples who were failing to pay tribute to them

                                                             v.      The Aztec chieftain Moctezuma sent ambassadors bearing fabulous gifts to welcome the Spaniards.  They only wetted the conquistadors’ appetites

                                                           vi.      Superstitious Moctezuma believed that Cortes was the god Quetzalcoatl, whose return from the eastern sea was predicted in Aztec legends.  As a result, he allowed the conquistadors to approach his capital unopposed

                                                          vii.      The size (10 square miles) and number of inhabitants (300,000) surprised the Spaniards.  It rivaled the size of any city in Europe and rose from an island in the center of a lake, surrounded by floating gardens of extraordinary beauty

                                                        viii.      At first welcomed, eventually, the Spanish thirsted too much for gold and attacked in June 1520

                                                           ix.      Cortes then laid siege to the city and it fell in August 1521, the same year a smallpox epidemic swept through the area

                                                             x.      The population of Mexico shrank from 20 million to 2 million in less than a century

b.      Other Results of Spanish in the Mexico

                                                               i.      Spanish brought:

1.      Crops

2.      Animals

3.      Language

4.      Laws

5.      Customs

6.      Religion

                                                             ii.      Intermarried with the surviving Indians, creating a distinctive culture of mestizos, people of mixed Indian and European heritage

X.                 The Spread of Spanish America

a.       Spain’s Colonial Empire

                                                               i.      Half a century after Columbus’s landfall, hundreds of Spanish cities and towns flourished in the Americas

                                                             ii.      They established cathedrals, printing presses, and universities, including two founded in Mexico in 1551, 85 years before Harvard

b.      Other Powers Send Explorers

                                                               i.      Other powers were already exploring the area

                                                             ii.      John Cabot (in 1497-98 from England)

1.      Explored the northeastern coast of North America

                                                            iii.      Giovanni da Verrazano (in 1524 from France)

1.      Probed the eastern seaboard

                                                           iv.      Jacques Cartier (in 1534 from France)

1.      Journeyed hundreds of miles up the St. Lawrence River

c.       Protecting Their New World

                                                               i.      To secure the northern periphery of their New World domain and to convert more Indian souls to Christianity, the Spanish began to fortify and settle their North American borderlands

                                                             ii.      The Spanish erected a fort at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565.  This founded the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the future U.S.  The purpose of the fort was to:

1.      Block French ambitions

2.      Protect the sea-lanes to the Caribbean

                                                            iii.      Texas

1.      To fend against further French exploration in the south, in 1716 the Spanish began to establish settlements in Texas

2.      Some refugees from the Pueblo uprising trickled into Texas, and a few missions were established there, including the one at San Antonio later known as the Alamo

3.      However, for another century Spanish presence remained weak in the area

d.      Juan de Onate (1598)

                                                               i.      1598 – Spanish conquistadore who traversed the Sonora Desert from Mexico into the Rio Grande Valley

                                                             ii.      1599 – They cruelly abused the Pueblo peoples they encountered (in the Battle of Acoma, the Spanish severed one foot of each survivor)

                                                            iii.      1609 – They proclaimed the area to be the province of New Mexico

                                                           iv.      1610 – Founded the capital of Santa Fe

e.       Catholicism in the New World

                                                               i.      Found few furs and little gold, but they did discover a wealth of Indians to be converted to the Christian religion

                                                             ii.      Pope’s Rebellion of 1680

1.      The Indians were upset that missionaries were suppressing their religious customs

2.      Indian rebels destroyed every Catholic church in the province and killed priests and hundreds of settlers

3.      It took nearly half a century for the Spanish fully to reclaim New Mexico from the Indians

f.        California

                                                               i.      There were no serious foreign threats in California, so the Spain turned their attention there belatedly

                                                             ii.      1542 – Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo explored the California coast, but found nothing of interest

                                                            iii.      1769 – Spanish missionaries, led by Father Junipero Serra founded at San Diego the first of a chain of 21 missions that wound up north of San Francisco Bay

                                                           iv.      They taught them horticulture and basic crafts.  They also adopted Christianity, but lost contact with their native cultures and often lost their lives as well through white man’s diseases

g.       Effects of the Spanish in the New World

                                                               i.      Misdeeds of the Spanish established the “Black Legend.”  This concept held that the conquerors merely:

1.      Tortured and butchered the Indians

2.      Stole their gold

3.      Infected them with smallpox

4.      Left little but misery behind

                                                             ii.      They also erected a large empire from Florida to California

                                                            iii.      They input their culture, laws, religion, and language

                                                           iv.      Intermarried and incorporated native culture into their own (rather than shun and eventually isolate the Indians as the English did)

                                                             v.      Laid the foundations for many Spanish-speaking nations