APUSH Period 1: 1491 to 1607 Study Guide
Bartolome de Las Casas (1484-1566)
An early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery
Motivations for Colonization
Spain's colonization goals were to extract gold and silver from the Americas, to stimulate the Spanish economy and make Spain a more powerful country. Spain also aimed to convert Native Americans to Christianity.
The Slave Trade
As disease and years of fighting diminished the Native American populations in North and South America, Europeans began looking for a new labor force. Africans were brought to the new world first to South America and then eventually to North America. An estimated 12 million African Americans were forcibly brought to North and South America during the slave trade (1500s-1800s). The Africans made better slaves for the Spanish because their previous interactions with the Europeans have caused them to develop an immunity to their diseases.
Labor, Slavery, and Caste in the Spanish Colonial System
Early interactions between the Spanish and Native Americans who lived in Central and South America led to a series of cultural exchanges that affected both the New World and the Old World. In order to extract natural resources from the Americas, European colonizers created labor systems, like the encomienda system, to exploit Native American labor. When Native Americans began to die from diseases like smallpox, the Spanish and Portuguese began capturing and sending enslaved Africans to the Americas as a labor force.
European Discovery of the New World (1492)
*Portuguese sailors successfully navigated an eastward route to West Africa, where they established a trading foothold. Portugal then spread its empire down the western coast of Africa to the Congo, along the western coast of India, and eventually to Brazil and the Atlantic islands. Although the Portuguese did not rule over an immense landmass, their strategic holdings of islands and coastal ports gave them almost unrivaled control of nautical trade routes. The Spanish, threatened by the Portuguese monopoly on enslaved Africans and expansion in the Atlantic, started their own colonization project with Christopher Columbus in 1492. - Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain's Ferdinand and Isabella, accidently discovered the New World in 1492 - Columbus had originally set out to find a direct water route from Europe to Asia, and, upon landing in the present-day Bahamas, he at first believed he had reached the Indies - Columbus's discovery made him a celebrated hero upon his return to Europe. He would make three more journeys across the Atlantic—in 1493, 1498, and 1502
Native American societies before European contact (1491)
- Around 50 million people were already settled in the Americas before Christopher Columbus' arrival (4 to 6 million lived in North America) - As native populations migrated and settled across the vast expanse of North America over time, they developed distinct and increasingly complex societies by adapting to and transforming their diverse environments [Southwest, Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, Plains]
Pueblo Revolt
-1680, revolt of indigenous laborers led by shaman named Pope -killed colonists and priests and burned the churches -the remainder of the Spanish fled, and thus victory for the Pueblo
Cultural Interactions between the Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans
-A new societal reality was imposed in the Americas by Spanish hegemony, or the domination of one nation/group by another nation/group. -Spanish colonizers attempted to integrate Native Americans into Spanish culture by marrying them and converting them to Catholicism. -Although some Native Americans adopted aspects of Spanish culture, others decided to rebel. *The Pueblo Revolt was one example of a successful Native American effort to reclaim their religious practices, culture, and land.
Caste System
-A social system in which class status is determined at birth. -Used to determine how to impose taxes based on racial ancestry; the lower your status in the system, the higher your taxes -The Spanish had mixed-race children in the Americas with enslaved Africans and Native Americans. Status was determined by how "Spanish" one was, so those with little to no Spanish blood were in the lowest class. 1) Peninsulares - Spaniards born in Spain 2) Criollos - Spaniards born in the Americas 3) Mestizos - descendants of a Spaniard and Native American 4) Mulattoes - descendants of a Spaniard and African Slave
Treaty of Tordesillas 1494
-An agreement between Spain and Portugal aimed at settling conflicts over lands of the New World encountered by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers -The treaty drew a north-to-south line through South America. Spain gained territory west of the line, while Portugal retained the lands east of the line, including the east coast of Brazil. -This ultimately legitimized Spain's holdings in the New World, indicating Spanish primacy over Portugal.
Inevitability of Conflict between the Natives and Europeans
-European ideas about owning land as private property clashed with indigenous people's understanding of land use. -Native Americans did not believe in private ownership of land; instead, they viewed land as a resource to be held in common for the benefit of the group. -Colonizers erected fields, fences, and other means of demarcating private property. Indigenous people who moved seasonally to take advantage of natural resources now found areas off-limits, claimed by colonizers.
Virginia Company
-Granted a charter by King James I in 1606, the Virginia Company was a joint-stock company created to establish settlements in the New World. -This is a seal of the Virginia Company, which established the first English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. joint stock companies - a limited liability organization in which a plurality of investors pool their money to fund a venture
Encomienda System (early 16th century - 1720)
-In the early 16th century, the Spanish crown set up the encomienda system to divide up the American Indian labor force in order to aid the development of their mining economy. -Under this system a Spanish conquistador, or another prominent male Spaniard (known as an encomendero), was granted the labor of a certain number of Native Americans living in the area. -The encomendero provided the laborers protection from warring tribes, and teachings in the Catholic faith. The native laborer paid tributes to the encomendero in the form of gold or other metals, or agricultural products. -Spanish conquistadores had issues with this system because of frequent escapes and the natives' vulnerability to diseases.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: FROM THE NEW WORLD TO THE OLD WORLD
-Native Americans had been growing tobacco in small amounts for medicinal and ritual purposes for centuries before European contact. Tobacco was unknown in Europe before 1492, however, European colonists then took up the habit of smoking, and they brought it across the Atlantic. -The major reason for tobacco's growing popularity in Europe was its supposed healing properties. Europeans did not import tobacco in great quantities until the 1590s. At that time, it became the first truly global commodity; English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese colonists all grew it for the world market. -People in Europe were introduced to maize (a type of corn), potatoes and sweet potatoes, beans and squashes, tomatoes, avocados, papaya, pineapples, peanuts, chili peppers, and cacao (the raw form of cocoa). -New crops from America changed how Europeans lived and farmed. *The potato, for example, had an enormous impact. It was nutritious and easy to grow. It helped people create a stable food supply. As a result, the population surged. Eventually, the growth in population contributed to major social changes, such as the Industrial Revolution. -New crops from Americas increased populations in Europe, and shifted the economy from feudalism, a social system that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages in which people worked and fought for nobles who gave them protection and the use of land in return, to capitalism, a system of private ownership and free exchange.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: GOODS INTRODUCED BY EUROPE, PRODUCED IN THE NEW WORLD
-Of all the commodities in the Atlantic World, sugar proved to be the most important. -Although refined sugar was available in the Old World, Europe's harsher climate made sugarcane difficult to grow. -Columbus brought sugar to Hispaniola in 1493, and the new crop thrived. Over the next century of colonization, Caribbean islands and most other tropical areas became centers of sugar production, which in turn fueled the demand to enslave Africans for labor.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW WORLD
-On his second voyage, Christopher Columbus brought many domesticated animals such as pigs, cows, chickens, and horses to the islands of the Caribbean. Many Native Americans used horses to transform their hunting and gathering into a highly mobile practice. -Travelers between the Americas, Africa, and Europe also included microbes: silent, invisible life forms that had profoundly devastating consequences. *Native peoples had no immunity to Old World diseases to which they had never been exposed. European explorers unwittingly brought with them chickenpox, measles, mumps, and smallpox, decimating some populations and wholly destroying others. *EXAMPLES: When the Spanish landed on the island of Hispaniola, they brought smallpox with them, hence, a population devastation of 300,000 people occurred amongst the native Arawak & Taino people. In 1530, the Incas people had a population of 9 million, and about a century later, their population was 500,000.
The Columbian Exchange 1492
-The transmission and interchange of plants, animals, diseases, cultures, human populations, and technologies between the New World and Old World. -Greatly benefited Europe and Asia while simultaneously bringing catastrophe to American Indian populations and cultures.
Mission System
A chain of missions established by Franciscan monks in the Spanish Southwest and California that forced Indians to convert to Catholicism and work as agricultural laborers.
Motivation for European conquest of the New World
After 1492, the motivations for European migration to the Americas centered around the three G's: God, gold, and glory. -desire to extract natural resources like gold and sugar from the New World. -desire to spread Christianity to the New World -desire for European colonizers to increase their nation's status as a world power and gain military strength through colonization *European colonization of the Americas was made substantially easier through several technological innovations like compasses, caravels, and astrolabes. It affected economic development by making it possible for large scale trade networks between the Old World and the New World to develop.
Hernan Cortez (1485-1547)
Conquistadores - Spanish explorers with hopes of conquest in the New World -In 1519, Hernán Cortés entered Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec/Mexica Empire. He and his men were astonished by the sophisticated gardens and temples in the city, and the Aztec wealth in gold. -Hoping to gain power over the city, Cortés took Moctezuma, the Aztec ruler, hostage. The Spanish then murdered hundreds of high-ranking Mexica during a religious festival, but the people of Tenochtitlán quickly retaliated and Cortés and his people fled for their lives. LA NOCHE TRISTE (The Sad Night) -Following his defeat, Cortés slowly created alliances and recruited tens of thousands of native peoples who resented Aztec rule. Only by playing upon the disunity among the diverse groups in the Aztec Empire were the Spanish able to capture Tenochtitlán. -In August 1521, Cortés claimed Tenochtitlán for Spain and renamed it Mexico City. -The Spanish also brought smallpox, which took a heavy toll on the people in Tenochtitlán. Illness played a much greater role in the city's downfall than violence. -Cortés was also aided by a Nahua woman called Malintzin—also known as La Malinche or Doña Marina, her Spanish name. -Some people view her as a traitor because she helped Cortés conquer the Aztecs, while others see her as a victim of European expansion.
Natives in the Northeast
Major Tribes: Algonquians, Iroquois, Susquehannocks, Mohicans, and Hurons ADAPTING & TRANSFORMING THEIR ENVIRONMENT: -Northeastern Native Americans began to rely primarily on agriculture due to the temperate climate, accessible waterways, and good farming conditions, during the Hopewellian period, from 200 BCE to 500 CE. -"Three-sister" farming of squash, beans, and corn established more permanent and larger villages throughout the Ohio River Valley. -Algonquians retained hunting and gathering as a source of food while beginning to farm. Women gathered berries and cultivate the cornfields, while men hunted and occasionally aided in farming. -Northeastern indigenous people living near rivers would fish salmon and collect shellfish, as well. COMPLEXITY -A trading system was established as all "three sisters" quickly became cash crops, crops in high demand by Native Americans on the Plains and West Coast. The Northeastern natives received large shells, pearls, copper, and silver in return for the foods. -Groups within the region would trade food and commodities with other Northeastern peoples, depending on their area's niche good. *For example, the Susquehannocks of Pennsylvania traded wampum beads for nets and furs from the Hurons of the Great Lakes region. -In effort to prevent intertribal violence as a result of trade competition, the Iroquois League, which devised a government system for local affairs, trade policies and diplomacy issues, was established between 1100 and 1400 CE.
Natives in the Northwest Coast (WEST)
Many different groups of Native Americans, with distinct cultures based on their resource allocation and climate, inhabited the western region of North America. ADAPTING & TRANSFORMING THEIR ENVIRONMENT: -Hunting, gathering, and fishing supplied most of the food for indigenous people throughout the West, especially along the Columbia and Colorado Rivers. -Along the Colorado River, Native Americans gathered a variety of wild food and planted some tobacco. Women would gather and process acorns into flour using a mortar and pestle by extracting toxins from the pulp. -Salmon was plentiful along the Columbia and Colorado rivers. Native fishermen would use large harpoons to stab the fish swimming through the rushing water, along with complex trapping systems. -The Great Basin natives were the first to create canoes to aid the fishing. COMPLEXITY: -A trade network that extends from The Dalles to the Plains and Pacific was established. The Chumash people were known for their trade fairs, where they would exchange marine mammals for shells from the Pacific Northwest and animal hides from the Plains. Acorns were often used as currency. -The Chinookan people, whose strategic position along the Columbia River ensured fishing and hunting success, practiced slavery to complete the laborious tasks required to process large animals like bison.
Natives in the Southwest
Many distinct native tribes populated the southwest region, beginning in 7000 BCE Major Tribes: the Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache ADAPTING & TRANSFORMING THEIR ENVIRONMENT: -The Ancestral Pueblo tribes (the Anasazi, Mogollon, and Hohokam) began farming in the region as early as 2000 BCE, producing an abundance of corn, since the Southwest is very dry, desert region with limited grazing animals. -In the arid climate of the Southwest, Ancestral Pueblos developed complex irrigation systems, which maintained the crops even in the intense heat. (By 800 CE, Hohokams had created one of the largest irrigation systems to date, which allowed the Pueblos to begin planting beans and squash in addition to corn.) -The Navajos and Apaches tribes primarily hunted and gathered COMPLEXITY: -With surplus food and stability, they became more sedentary, living in stone and adobe houses with multiple stories and rooms. -The Chaco Canyon, a center for the Anasazi people, was a trade hub and home to over twelve thousand people. The Chacoans created over four hundred miles of roads that connected the town to other villages in the region. The Chacoans mostly traded away turquoise, traveling west for seashells from California, south for exotic birds from Central America, and north for minerals and ores from the Rocky Mountains. ... These ancient southwestern tribes deserted the area around 1300 CE, most likely due to crop failures; the European colonists encountered a group of people partially descended from the Ancestral Pueblos in the mid-1500s
Differences in Culture (Natives v. Spanish)
Natives: - Pantheists/Animists (natural world of spirits) - Land was not a commodity - Kinship networks of up to 70 people Spanish: - Catholic (belief in a single deity) - Land existed for private ownership - Focused on nuclear family
Adoption of Culture
Natives: -eager to acquire metal tools from the Europeans, used for farming and hunting -horses and guns for warfare Europeans: -access to the lucrative North American fur trade; thus, arranged marriages with native american women to secure trading rights with diff. people
Francisco Pizarro
Spanish explorer who conquered the Incas in what is now Peru and founded the city of Lima (1475-1541). -Francisco Pizarro, another conquistador, made his way to the Spanish Caribbean in 1509, drawn by the promise of wealth and titles. -He participated in successful expeditions in Panama before following rumors of Inca wealth to the south. Although his first efforts against the Inca Empire in the 1520s failed, Pizarro captured the Inca emperor Atahualpa in 1532 and executed him soon thereafter. -In 1533, Pizarro founded Lima, Peru. Like Cortés, Pizarro had to combat not only the native peoples of the lands he was conquering but also competitors from his own country—a Spanish rival, Diego de Almagro, assassinated him in 1541.
Natives of the Plains
The Plains were very sparsely populated until about 1100 CE, when Native American groups including Pawnees, Mandans, Omahas, Wichitas, Cheyennes, and other groups started to inhabit the area. The climate supported limited farming closer to the major waterways but ultimately became most fruitful for hunting large and small game. ADAPTING & TRANSFORMING THEIR ENVIRONMENT: -Plains inhabitants also harvested plants for medicinal purposes; for example, chokecherries were thought to cure stomach sickness. -Women farmed and gathered, while men hunted. Hunting became a more dominant practice when a drought struck in the 1300s. -Plains Native Americans lived in both sedentary and nomadic communities. They constructed teepees—conical tents made out of buffalo skin and wood—shelters that were easy to put up and take down if a band was following a buffalo herd for hunting. Sometimes, Native Americans would plant crops and establish villages in the spring, hunt in the summer, harvest their crops in the fall, and hunt in the winter. COMPLEXITY: -Hunting-agrarian groups were mostly divided at the level of the band. A band could consist of a dozen to a few hundred people who lived, hunted, and traveled together. Often, bands would unite in a village setting to farm or hunt a large herd of bison -In the eastern part of the Plains, where the Hidatsa and Mandan peoples cultivated maize, they established trade networks along the Mississippi River. They made bull boats by stretching bison skin over a wooden frame to trade goods along the rivers. They traded elaborate baskets and leather for metal and furs from the Northeast. ... When horses arrived on the Plains along with the Spanish colonizers, or conquistadores, they disrupted agricultural norms and intensified hunting competition between Native American groups.
Natives in the Southeast
This region stretches down the Mississippi River and into the area surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, through some of the most fertile lands in North America. Native Americans were the first to take advantage of such promising agricultural conditions (Prominent Native American groups) The Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles ADAPTING & TRANSFORMING THEIR ENVIRONMENT: -The Southeastern region of North America was an agriculturally productive region for many Native American groups living in the area. -Cherokee women planted and harvested crops, including beans, squash, corn, tobacco, and sunflowers. They supplemented their diets with acorns, nuts, seeds, and fruits. - Without the use of fertilizers, the Cherokees used slash and burn agriculture to create new fields every season, which ultimately led to large crop yields. -Southeastern Native Americans also continued to hunt and fish. They hunted deer with bows and arrows and fished in rivers and in the Gulf of Mexico for protein. -In southern Florida, Calusa people developed complex fishing and trapping systems for clams, mussels, and saltwater fish. COMPLEXITY: - Mississippian culture was complex in that they had urban trade centers. For instance, Cahokia was one of the major urban trade centers and was a city home to approx. 40,000 Cahokian people. -The Creek people in Georgia practiced slavery, forcing prisoners of war to work their fields. The Southeast Native Americans were the first to organize villages around chiefdoms, in which families were ranked by social status and proximity to the chief himself.
The Triangular Trade (late 16th to early 19th centuries)
Triangular trade (transatlantic slave trade) was a trade route originating in Europe that was used to supply colonies in the New World with slave labor. -European colonial powers would ship manufactured goods such as textiles, rum, and guns, to West Africa, where they would exchange them for slaves. -The slaves would be taken to the Americas on the Middle Passage as new sugar and tobacco plantations in the Americas and Caribbean heightened the demand for labor. -Once in the New World, slaves would be traded for raw materials harvested on plantations, such as sugar, cotton, tobacco, and wood. These raw materials would be taken back to Europe, where they would be used to manufacture goods, thus beginning the cycle of trade again.
