Introduction to Period 1 1491-1607 Themes: Contact, Commerce and Competing Philosophies

The “New World” questions (PEO) Did Columbus discover a “New World?” (WOR) What was the Columbian Exchange? (WXT) What were the benefits and consequences of contact and commerce? (CUL) Did Columbus create a “New World?”

Corn Culture This statue of a corn goddess from the Moche culture of present-day coastal Peru, made between 200 and 600 B.C.E. vividly illustrates the centrality of corn to native American peoples, a thousand years before the rise of the great Incan and Aztec empires that the Europeans later encountered.

Cahokia: Mississippian Mound Builders Circa 900-1100 AD Archeological finds, supported by oral traditions of show North American Indians could have been very complex.

Pueblo – Great Basin Indians. Iroquois – Longhouse typical of E. Woodlands Indians.

Mesa Verde – Great Basin (desert of NM) Navajo had to develop “dry farming” techniques. The environment greatly affected each Indian tribe.

Columbus “discovers” a “New World.” October, 1492

NEW WORLD OLD WORLD

Sebastian Munster

New Maritime Technologies Better Maps [Portulan] Hartman Astrolabe (1532) Mariner’s Compass Astrolabe = calculates latitude Compass = magnetized pointer that shows north, south, west, & east Sextant = measures angular distances between objects & altitudes in navigation Sextant

New Weapons Technology

Columbian Exchange or the transfer of goods involved 3 continents, Americas, Europe and Africa * Squash * Avocado * Peppers * Sweet Potatoes * Turkey * Pumpkin * Tobacco * Quinine * Cocoa * Pineapple * Cassava * POTATO * Peanut * Tomato * Vanilla * MAIZE * Syphillis * Olive * Coffee Beans * Banana * Rice * Onion * Turnip * Honeybee * Barley * Grape * Peach * Sugar Cane * Oats * Citrus Fruits * Pear * Wheat * HORSE * Cattle * Sheep * Pig * Smallpox * Flu * Typhus * Measles * Malaria * Diptheria * Whooping Cough

Spanish empire by the 1600’s consisted of Southern part of North America Central America Caribbean Islands Most of outer South America

The Scourge of Smallpox This Peruvian infant, depicted about 1700, was ravaged by the dread European disease and placed in a crude quarantine.

Between 1492 – 1592 the Indian population was reduced by 90%.

Gorée Island Slave Fortress From this holding station off the coast of Senegal, thousands of African captives passed through the “Door of No Return” into a lifetime of slavery in the New World.

The Spanish Colonial Caste System Peninsulares Spanish ancestory Creoles Spanish and Black mixture. Mestizos Spanish and Indian mixture Mulattos White American and Black mixture Black Slaves Native Indians

ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM This is the Spanish practice of securing an adequate and cheap labor supply Very similar to European feudalism 2. Conquistador controlled Indian populations Required Indians to pay tribute from their lands Indians often rendered personal services as well. 3. In return the conquistador was obligated to protect his wards instruct them in the Christian faith defend their right to use the to live off the land 4. Encomienda system eventually decimated Indian population. 5. The King prevented the encomienda with the New Laws (1542) supported by de Las Casas, the system gradually died out.

Father Bartolomé de Las Casas Believed Native Americans had been treated harshly by the Spanish. Indians could be educated and converted to Christianized. Believed Indian culture was advanced as European but in different ways. New Laws --> 1542

Indian Resistance to Spanish Pueblo Indians (NM) revolt against Spanish rule in 1680 known as Pope’s Rebellion.

The Creation of the Atlantic World

Thematic Essential Questions (PEO) and (GEO): Where did the pre-Columbian people (AKA Indians) settle in the Americas and how did they live?   (POL) and (GEO): Which European Empires were the first to make contact and colonize the Americas? How and why? (WXT) and (WOR): What is the “Columbian Exchange?” “Who” exchanged “ what” and how did it specifically impact the “new” world? (ID) and (CUL): What was life like in Spanish America or “New Spain? How did the cultural contact with the Spanish change the native America cultures?