Native American Societies Before 1942 & European Exploration

1.2: Native American Societies Before 1942 Aztecs/The Mexica People: Central America 1. Written language, complex irrigation systems, human sacrifice Maya: Yucatan Peninsula 1. Also developed large cities with complex irrigation & water storage systems 2. Large stone temples & palaces In...

1.2: Native American Societies Before 1942 Aztecs/The Mexica People: Central America 1. Written language, complex irrigation systems, human sacrifice Maya: Yucatan Peninsula 1. Also developed large cities with complex irrigation & water storage systems 2. Large stone temples & palaces Inca: Andes Mountains (South America) 1. Massive empire 2. Cultivation of fertile land & irrigation systems Maize: Corn 1. Nutritious crop that facilitated economic development, settlement of people, irrigation, social diversification, etc. 2. As maize spread North, so did we Pueblo people: Sedentary population in the Northwest 1. Highly organized 3. Nomadic people: Great planes & basin a. Hunter-gatherers b. Ute people: lived in small bands Pacific Northwest 1. Coastal villages a. Fishing villages b. Also relied on elk 2. Chinook people: cedar trees used to construct giant houses 3. Chumash people: hunter-gatherers, but lived in permanent settlements Mississippi River Valleys 1. Hopewell: traded with other regions 2. Cahokia people: Largest settlement in the region Iroquois: Northeast 1. Longhouses There were many different diverse groups of native Americans in the Americas before we got there 1.3: European Exploration in the Americas Reasons for exploration 1. Population increase after the black plague 2. Political unification → centralized governments 3. Desire for luxury goods imported from Asia a. Land-based trade routes were controlled by Muslims, so western europe didn’t use them very much Portugal: Trading post empire all along the African coast 1. Maritime technology: caravels (trading ships), navigation (astrolabe, stern-post rudder)  b. Spain wanted to try this too Spreading Christianity: Isabella & Ferdinand of Spain 1. Funded Christopher Columbus in 1492 a. Columbus saw that the Natives were wearing gold, so he brought all the riches back to Europe European states wanted to find a new way to Asia, but Spain found the Americas and that started a chain reaction of other European countries going there too 1.4: The Columbian Exchange, Spanish Exploration, & Conquest Columbian Exchange: Transfer of food, animals, minerals, people, & diseases between Africa, Europe, & the Americas 1. Transformed the societies, economies, & environments of all these countries Transfer of disease 1. Tenochtitlan: Capital of the Aztec, LOTS of inhabitants a. Hernan Cortez: Spanish conquistador, only about 1,000 men with him b. Tenochtitlan quickly fell to Cortez because of smallpox 2. Disease fundamentally altered society in the Americas a. Incas: population dropped from 9 million to 500,000 in 100 years b. All tribes had a combined 40 million people in 1530, 150 years later = 3 million Transfer of food 1. Americas → Europe a. Maize, tomatoes, potatoes, cacao, tobacco 2. Europe/Africa → Americas a. Rice, wheat, soybeans, rye, oats, lemons, oranges b. Grain crops changed native American societies Transfer of Animals 1. Europe/Africa → Americas a. Horses, pigs, cattle, chicken b. Pigs & cattle changed Native American diets c. Horses changed farming & warfare Minerals: Gold & silver 1. Native societies were plundered for gold & silver, making Spain incredibly wealthy 2. Kept colonizers coming back 3. Western Europe experienced economic growth a. Used to be feudalism, but after economic growth it became capitalism Transfer of People 1. Native americans were enslaved & transferred to Europe a. Not a lot of people, but still 2. Transfer of enslaved Africans to the Americas a. Middle Passage: many died before even getting to the Americas How did the Spanish finance colonization 1. Mercantilism: depended on governmental direction & intervention 2. Joint-Stock companies: Change, more present in unit 2 How the columbian exchange transformed Europe, Africa, & the Americas 1.5: Labor, Slavery, & Caste in Spanish America African Slave Trade: African systems of slavery had been going on for a while, but only now did it become permanent, inheritable, and human right-less 1. Trading goods (especially guns) for people 2. Europeans began to think of Africans as inferior and non-human to try to justify enslaving them (biblically okay to enslave Africans) Encomienda system 1. Encomenderos were granted a piece of land, and any people on the land became laborers for the Encomenderos a. Spanish wanted to spread Christianity 2. Requerimento: monarchs had the authority to claim lands & convert the people that lived there a. If Natives submitted to conversion, they received protection from the crown, but if they didn’t, they could be killed or enslaved 3. Native Americans didn’t make good slaves though a. They kept dying from diseases b. They knew the land better, so they kept escaping c. Therefore colonizers imported African people 4. All wealth coming into Spain from the Americas transformed the economy a. Really only helped the wealthy, created a bigger wealth gap Caste System: Spanish government needed a way to tax people, more taxes go to the bottom 1. Peninsulares: born in spain 2. Criollos: Spanish people born in the Americas 3. Mestizos: Spanish + Native American 4. Mulattos: Spanish + African 5. Africans 6. Native Americans Europeans found very creative ways to justify enslaving other human beings 1.6: Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, & Africans Hegemony: Domination of one nation/group by another nation/group Spanish Expansion 1. Mission System: Instead of sending soldiers to conquer Native people, they started sending missionaries to convert them to christianity 2. Native Americans: Pantheist/animist (natural world) a. Land was not a commodity to be carved up & bought/sold b. Kinship networks  3. Spanish: Catholic (single deity) a. Land existed for private ownership b. Nuclear family: parents & children c. Arranged marriages with native american women to secure trading rights (north american fur trade) Pueblo: converted to christianity 1. However, the Pueblo people just brought Christ into their gods and worshipped him as well, but Christianity was “supposed to be” the worshipping of just one single god a. Became Christian, but retained some religious practices 2. Pueblo Revolts: They resisted full conversion a. Rose up, killed colonizers & burned churches, many Spanish fled b. The Spanish came back later and conquered them anyway Moral & Legal fallout of Spanish Conquest 1. Many argued the Natives were inferior, and by conquering them they were bringing them riches from Western Europe 2. Bartolomé de las Casas: Argued for the Natives a. He argued that the spanish colonizers would make Natives grow to hate Christianity b. He argued against the encomienda system i. He didn’t share these sentiments for Africans though, so they replaced the Natives as slave labor The Spanish brutally tried to converted Native people to Christianity, not always with full success though