Unit 1
Bartolome de las Casas
A Spanish Dominican priest whose activism in behalf of Indians led to the reform of the Encomienda system. His multi-volume work, History of the Indies, documented Indian Culture and the devastating effects of the Encomienda system, Humanized them and gave statistics of impact on Indians of the system. His writings helped to persuade Spain to implement the Repartimiento System in 1550, which limited the use of forced Indian labor, Limits slavery to men only and only 45 days/year that they can work along and were supposed to get wages. Although the Encomienda System was phased out, it was replaced by another system of forced labor that used African slaves, They tried Indian slave trade in Europe previously but they couldn't survive in the region. Although during his first 12 years in America Las Casas was a willing participant in the conquest of the Caribbean, he did not indefinitely remain indifferent to the fate of the natives. In a famous sermon on August 15, 1514, he announced that he was returning his Indian serfs to the governor. Realizing that it was useless to attempt to defend the Indians at long distance in America, he returned to Spain in 1515 to plead for their better treatment.
Algonquin
Algonquin, North American Indian tribe of closely related Algonquian-speaking bands originally living in the dense forest regions of the valley of the Ottawa River and its tributaries in present-day Quebec and Ontario, Can. The tribe should be differentiated from the Algonquian language family, as the latter term refers to a much larger entity composed of at least 24 tribes of Northeast Indians and Plains Indians. Before colonization by the French, Dutch, and English, the Algonquin were probably organized in bands of patrilineal extended families. Each band resided in a semipermanent longhouse village during the summer, tending gardens of corn (maize), fishing, and collecting wild plant foods. During the winter, bands dispersed across the landscape to hunt terrestrial mammals. In the spring, some Algonquin bands tapped maple trees to make syrup. Military activities, particularly skirmishes with warriors from the Iroquois Confederacy, occurred throughout the year. During colonization, the Algonquin became heavily involved in the fur trade. As the first tribe upriver from Montreal, they had a strategic market advantage as fur trade intermediaries; in addition to trading pelts they obtained directly from the hunt, the Algonquin traded corn and furs from tribes in the North American interior for French manufactured goods.
Joint Stock Companies
Ancestors of the modern corporation, in which stockholders shared the risks and profits for single ventures or on a permanent basis. Some of the larger companies managed to get royal charters that entitled them to monopolies in certain areas and even governmental powers in their outposts. An association of individuals in a business enterprise with transferable shares of stock, much like a corporation except that stockholders are liable for the debts of the business. During this period, a lot of people went in on these things in order to maybe gain profit especially when concerning expansion. Lots of people did this for the expansion to settlements in the Americas. 1/2 the profits, 1/2 the risk.
Juan Ponce de León
Born in Spain in 1460, Juan Ponce de León led a European expedition to discover the mythical fountain of youth, instead finding the southeast coast of what would become the United States. He gave Florida its name and went on to become the first governor of Puerto Rico. The Spanish crown soon encouraged Ponce de León to continue searching for new lands, in hopes of finding yet more gold and expanding the Spanish empire. Also around this time, he learned of a Caribbean island called Bimini, on which there were rumored to be miraculous waters that could rejuvenate those who drank from them (the fountain of youth). His interest piqued, in 1513 Ponce de León led a private expedition to Bimini from Puerto Rico. In a month's time, he and his men landed on the coast of Florida instead. He did not initially realize that he was on the mainland of North America and instead thought he had landed on another island. He named the region Florida because he discovered it at Easter time (Spanish: Pascua Florida) and because its vegetation was lush and floral. After exploring the coast, he returned to Puerto Rico, which he found roiling with a native uprising. Ponce de León soon left for Spain, where he was named military governor of Bimini and Florida and secured permission to colonize those regions. He was also ordered to organize an army to subdue the native uprising on Puerto Rico, which had continued in his absence. He left for Puerto Rico in May 1515 with his small fleet.
Christopher Columbus
Columbus participated in several other expeditions to Africa gaining knowledge of the Atlantic currents flowing east and west from the Canary Islands. Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East makes travel to India and China difficult. Believing a route sailing west across the Atlantic would be quicker and safer, Columbus devised a plan to sail west to get reach the East. He estimated the earth to be a sphere approximately 63% its actual size and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles. Many contemporary nautical experts disagreed, adhering to the second century BC estimate of the earth's circumference at 25,000 miles. This made the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan about 12,200 statute miles. While experts disagreed with Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a westward voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route. olumbus continued to lobby the royal court and soon after the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January of 1492, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition. In August of 1492, Columbus left Spain in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña along side. After 36 days of sailing, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in the present day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain. There he encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors exchanging glass beads, cotton balls, parrots and spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of gold the natives wore for adornment.
Roanoke
Established in 1587. Called the Lost Colony. It was financed by Sir Walter Raleigh, and its leader in the New World was John White. All the settlers disappeared, and historians still don't know what became of them.
Smallpox
In Europe and Asia, mortality rates from smallpox were approximately 30%. In the Americas, mortality rates were higher due to the virgin soil phenomenon, in which indigenous populations were at a higher risk of being affected by epidemics because there had been no previous contact with the disease, preventing them from gaining some form of immunity. Estimates of mortality rates resulting from smallpox epidemics range between 38.5% for the Aztecs, 50% for the Piegan, Huron, Catawba, Cherokee, and Iroquois, 66% for the Omaha and Blackfeet, 90% for the Mandan, and 100% for the Taino. Smallpox epidemics affected the demography of the stricken populations for 100 to 150 years after the initial first infection. However simple these polar arguments may seem, indigenous responses to the smallpox epidemics varied considerably by region and time. This paper reviews the ethnohistorical evidence concerning Native American ideas concerning smallpox's origin and cause, medical treatments, changes in cultural traditions, methods of coping, patterns of sociocultural change, and religion. Kelton's views on self-preservational behaviors during smallpox epidemics are tested in the details. Each section was written in rough chronological order while reviewing different geographical regions within the United States.
Enconmienda System
In the 1500's, Spain systematically conquered parts of North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. With native governments such as the efficient Inca Empire in ruins, the Spanish conquistadors needed to find a way to rule their new subjects. The encomienda system was put in place in several areas, most importantly in Peru. Under the encomienda system, prominent Spaniards were entrusted with native communities. In exchange for native labor and tribute, the Spanish lord would provide protection and education. In reality, however, the encomienda system was thinly-masked slavery and led to some of the worst horrors of the colonial era. The word encomienda comes from the Spanish word encomendar, "to entrust." The encomienda system had been used in feudal Spain during the reconquest and had survived in some form ever since. In the Americas, the first encomiendas were handed out by Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. Spanish conquistadors, settlers, priests or colonial officials were given a repartimiento, or grant of land. These lands were often quite vast. The land included any native cities, towns, communities or families that lived there.
Iroquois
Iroquois Confederacy, also called Iroquois League, Five Nations, or (from 1722) Six Nations, confederation of five (later six) Indian tribes across upper New York state that during the 17th and 18th centuries played a strategic role in the struggle between the French and British for mastery of North America. The five Iroquois nations, characterizing themselves as "the people of the longhouse," were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. After the Tuscarora joined in 1722, the confederacy became known to the English as the Six Nations and was recognized as such at Albany, New York (1722). The Iroquois Confederacy differed from other American Indian confederacies in the northeastern woodlands primarily in being better organized, more consciously defined, and more effective. The Iroquois used elaborately ritualized systems for choosing leaders and making important decisions. They persuaded colonial governments to use these rituals in their joint negotiations, and they fostered a tradition of political sagacity based on ceremonial sanction rather than on the occasional outstanding individual leader. Because the league lacked administrative control, the nations did not always act in unison; but spectacular successes in warfare compensated for this and were possible because of security at home. The Iroquois also came into conflict with the French in the later 17th century. The French were allies of their enemies, the Algonquins and Hurons, and after the Iroquois had destroyed the Huron confederacy in 1648-50, they launched devastating raids on New France for the next decade and a half.
St Augustine
King Phillip II of Spain named Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Spain's most experienced admiral, Governor of Florida, and instructed him to explore and to colonize the territory. When Menendez arrived off the coast of Florida, it was August 28, 1565, the Feast Day of St. Augustine. Eleven days later, he and his 600 soldiers and settlers came ashore at the site of the Timucuan Indian village of Seloy with banners flying and trumpets sounding. He hastily fortified the fledgling village and named it St. Augustine.
Sextant
Navigation tool used to determine a ship's latitude and longitude.
Columbian Exchange
One of the most important links between ecological history and world history is the so-called Columbian exchange, through which pathogens from the Americas entered Europe and those from Europe devastated the indigenous populations of the Americas. The Native Americans got much the worse of this exchange; the population of Mexico suffered catastrophic losses, and that of some Caribbean islands was totally destroyed. The effect on Europeans was much less severe. It is now thought that syphilis entered Europe from Asia, not the Americas. The plants involved in the Columbian Exchange changed both the economy and the culture of the New and Old Worlds. There was an abundance of new plants discovered in the Americas (including beans, squash, chili peppers, sunflowers, chenopods, peanuts, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, manioc, avocado, pineapple, and cacao), but the two most important were the potato and maize. These New World crops dominated the total number of crops that the Old World had almost 3 to 1.
Walter Raleigh
Received a charter from Queen Elizabeth I to explore the American coastline. His ships landed on Roanoke, which became a "lost colony." A Sea Dog for England, he paved to way for English colonization in the New World with the failed settlement of Roanoke. Popularized tobacco smoking in England and was eventually beheaded by the English to appease the Spanish whose outpost Raleigh's men had ransacked in their search for El Dorado(a city of gold).
Spanish Mission System
Set up in California where many of 30,000 Indians were forced to work on vast tracts of land owned by Spanish missions. At the beginning of the 1830s a chain of 21 mission stations, from San Diego to Sonoma (well north of San Fran), controlled most of the province's land and wealth. The history of Spain's missions in the American South and Southwest reveals much about Spain's strategy, contributions, and failures in these regions. The expeditions of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1540 42) and Juan de Oñate (1598) convinced Spanish authorities that no wealthy Indian empires like that of the Aztecs were to be found north of Mexico. Consequently the Spanish came to view the northern frontier of their empire as a defensive barrier and as a place where pagan souls might be saved. In what are now the states of Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, missions were founded to propagate the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. To protect these missions as well as the mines and ranches of Mexico from attack from the north, the Spanish established presidios fortified garrisons of troops.
Chinook
The Chinook were famous as traders, with connections stretching as far as the Great Plains. The Columbia was a major indigenous thoroughfare, and the Chinooks' location facilitated contact with northern and southern coastal peoples as well as with interior groups. The river was a rich source of salmon, the basis of the regional economy, and many groups traded with the Chinook for dried fish. Other important trade items were slaves from California, Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) canoes, and dentalium shells, which were highly valued as hair and clothing ornaments. The Chinook were first described ethnographically by the American explorers Lewis and Clark in 1805. Because American colonialism severely disrupted Chinook culture, ultimately removing the people to reservations, most information about traditional Chinook life is based on the records of these and other traders and explorers, together with what is known of neighbouring groups. The tribe's basic social unit was probably a local group consisting of close relatives and headed by a senior member. Traditional Chinook religion focused on the first-salmon rite, a ritual in which each group welcomed the annual salmon run. Another important ritual was the individual vision quest, an ordeal undertaken by all male and some female adolescents to acquire a guardian spirit that would give them hunting, curing, or other powers, bring them good luck, or teach them songs and dances. Singing ceremonies were public demonstrations of these gifts. The Chinook also had potlatches, which were ceremonial distributions of property.
Maroons
The Maroons were escaped slaves. They ran away from their Spanish-owned plantations when the British took the Caribbean island of Jamaica from Spain in 1655. The word maroon comes from the Spanish word 'cimarrones', which meant 'mountaineers'. They fled to the mountainous areas of Jamaica, where it was difficult for their owners to follow and catch them, and formed independent communities as free men and women.
Juan de Sepúlveda
The Spanish priest Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda is best remembered as a participant in what must be among the most important debates in history, at least with regard to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America. The debate at Valladolid, Spain, took place in 1550; Bartolome de las Casas argued that the Native Americans should be treated as other loyal colonists, Sepúlveda argued that Native Americans were natural slaves and violence was needed to make them be amenable to conversion. ("Natural slaves" was a concept of Aristotle.) This didn't mean the end of the Spanish Inquisition in the New World, of course. Today Sepúlveda is known as the 'father of modern racism". He was the adversary of Bartolomé de las Casas in the Valladolid Controversy in 1550 concerning the justification of the Spanish Conquest of the Indies. Sepúlveda was the defender of the Spanish Empire's right of conquest, of colonization, and of evangelization in the so-called New World. (European Expansion)
Mestizo
any person of mixed blood. In Central and South America it denotes a person of combined Indian and European extraction. In some countries—e.g., Ecuador—it has acquired social and cultural connotations; a pure-blooded Indian who has adopted European dress and customs is called a mestizo (or cholo). In Mexico the description has been found so variable in meaning that it has been abandoned in census reports. In the Philippines "mestizo" denotes a person of mixed foreign (e.g., Chinese) and native ancestry.
Juan de Oñate
conquistador who established the colony of New Mexico for Spain. During his despotic governorship, he vainly sought the mythical riches of North America and succeeded instead in unlocking the geographical secrets of what is now the southwestern United States. The son of wealthy parents in Zacatecas, New Spain, Oñate gained added status when he married a granddaughter of Hernán Cortés. His request to conquer and govern New Mexico was approved in 1595, but it was not until three years later (January 1598) that his expedition of 400 settlers finally began its northern journey. They crossed the Rio Grande at El Paso in July 1598, and Oñate established headquarters at that river's confluence with the Chama at San Juan. From there he sent out small parties in all directions to search for treasure—which did not exist. Disillusioned, many settlers wanted to return to New Spain, but Oñate refused to let them go and executed several of the leading malcontents. His treatment of the Indians was even more brutal.
Pueblo
known for living in compact permanent settlements known as pueblos. Representative of the Southwest Indian culture area, most live in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. Each of the 70 or more Pueblo villages extant before Spanish colonization was politically autonomous, governed by a council composed of the heads of religious societies. These societies were centered in the kivas, subterranean ceremonial chambers that also functioned as private clubs and lounging rooms for men. Traditionally, Pueblo peoples were farmers, with the types of farming and associated traditions of property ownership varying among the groups. Along the Rio Grande and its tributaries corn (maize) and cotton were cultivated in irrigated fields in river bottoms; among the western Pueblos, especially the Hopi, farming was less reliable because there were few permanent water sources. Traditionally, women did most of the farming, but as hunting has diminished in importance, men have also become responsible for agricultural work. Many of the Rio Grande Pueblos had special hunting societies that hunted deer and antelope in the mountains, and easterly Pueblos such as the Taos and Picuris sometimes sent hunters to the Plains for bison. Among all Pueblos communal rabbit hunts were held, and women gathered wild plants to eat.
Zambo
usually referred to a person of African and European descent. Labels multiplied as time went on, as with zambo (black-indigenous mix) and pardo (literally, "brown person," commonly used to denote a person of African and European descent)
