1. The Americas in the early colonial period:

2. Hernan Cortez conquered Aztec Empire (1519), founded the colony of New Spain. Destroyed Tenochtitlan and built Mexico City on its ruins.

3. Francisco Pizarro conquered Inca empire (1533). Created colony of New Castile, capital Lima Peru.

4. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided the Americas between Spain in Portugal. Spain got all lands west of the Meridian and Portugal the lands east of it.

5. Pedro Menendez de Aviles established a fort in St. Augustine, Florida (1565). Oldest continuous settlement in the United States.

6. Colonial Administration: Viceroys were administrators and representatives of the Spanish crown. Audiencias, royal courts, kept viceroys from acting independently of the crown. Spanish settlers used to appeal viceroy’s decisions or policies. Slow transportation and communication between Europe and the Americas made it difficult for the Spanish crown to exercise direct control over New Spain.

7. By 1750, those born in America of Spanish origins dominated colonial politics. Began to call for independence from Spain.

8. Columbian Exchange; a period of cultural and biological exchanges between the New and Old Worlds.

9. Dramatic decrease in indigenous populations, due to disease. Smallpox, measles and influenza were major killers. Over 50 percent of native populations died.

10. Before the exchange Mesoamericans consumed very little meat. Pigs, and cows were introduced. Along with wheat and grapes, became staples of the American diet. The horse transformed plains Indian cultures. Europeans also brought mosquitoes and rats.

11. Europe received maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peppers, and cacao. Caused big population growth in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

12. Triangular Trade; trade route between the Americas, Europe, and Africa, during the Atlantic slave trade. The number of Africans shipped across the Atlantic peaked in the 1700s.

13. Enslaved Africans to the Americas brought biological and demographic changes. They brought Okra and rice. The map shows that the most common destinations in the Americas for West African slaves was Brazil and the Caribbean.

14. Once consequence of the slave trade was the African diaspora, as whole villages were left depopulated. While some became dependent on the revenue slave trade.

15. But some African rulers condemned the slave trade. In his letters to King Jao of Portugal, King Affonso I of Kongo objected to the capture and enslavement of free men.

16. Spanish and Portuguese transplanted their languages and religions into the Americas. Catholic missionaries successfully converted most of Latin America to Christianity, Catholicism. Church orders sent to convert; Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans.

17. Catholic saints’ days were linked with indigenous holidays. In Mexico, a cult developed around the dark-complexioned Virgin of Guadalupe. Revered for ability to perform miracles.

18. New religions developed that combined indigenous and Christian practices. Vodun, West African animist, is practiced in Haiti and includes some elements of Catholicism. Called Voodoo.

19. Spanish established a coercive labor system called the encomienda. Encomenderos, or landowners, compelled indigenous people to work for them in return for food and shelter. Led to brutality and harsh living conditions.

20. Mercury was used to separate silver from its ore. Led to environmental damage. Cities of Zacatecas, in Mexico, and Potosi in the Andes Mountains, became thriving centers of silver mining.

21. Spanish transformed the Inca mit’a system of labor obligation. Villages forced to send their male population to the mines.

22. Mercantilism; system of government control of the economy. A nation power is determined by the amount of gold and silver in its treasury. The silver trade enabled Spanish rulers to pursue military and political ambitions in Europe and the Americas.

23. China was a major consumer of American silver. Silver became China’s currency.

24. Spanish galleons, heavily-armed ships, sailed from Mexico to the Philippines. In Manila, Spanish exchanged silver for luxury goods such as silk, spices, and china. Silver became the dominant force in the global economic system.

25. Slave labor was necessary in order to make sugar production possible in Brazil and the Caribbean.

26. So many African in Brazil that their descendants became the majority population. Plantations lost from 5 to 10 percent of their labor force per year.

27. Cash crop cultivation, crops grown for sale rather than subsistence, were common in the colonies. By 1700s, sugar, not silver, became the main moneymaker in the Americas.

28. The Spanish and Portuguese erased the social structure and cultural traditions of the indigenous peoples within a century of conquest.

29. In Mexico, native books were burned. Thought to be unholy. Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec, barely exist today. Information about the Aztec comes from documents written by Spanish priest. Bias to the Spanish point of view.

30. The combination of European settlers, Africans, and indigenous peoples led to the development of a new social hierarchy based on race and ancestry.

31. Peninsulares, born in Europe. Creoles, European ancestry, born in the New World. Castas, people of mixed-race ancestry. Mestizos, mixed European and indigenous ancestry. Mulattoes, mixed European and African ancestry. Zambos, mixed indigenous and African ancestry. Indigenous peoples and African slaves, bottom ranks. Skin color was a signifier of power and status in the Americas.

32. That concludes the early colonial period.