Topics 14 & 15- Europe in America

• The main "winners"

  • The Spaniards
  • The British

  Impacts

  • Demographic catastrophe
  • Spread of European Culture (modified)
• Native America c. 1500

  South of the Rio Grande

  • 45 Million
  • Horticultural/sedentary
  • Densely populated/urbanized
  • Tenochtitlan (Mexico) - pop. 200,000 (3x Seville, Spain)
  • "Tenochtitlan Marketplace" (Diego Rivera)
• The Making of New Spain - Conquests

  • Caribbean (1492 - 1512)
  • Mexico (1519 - 21), Peru (1532)
  • Rich, populous native kingdoms
  • The Arrival of Cortes (Diego Rivera)

  Spanish Gains

  • Rule over 20m Indians
  • Indian labor + tribute
  • Towns/cities
  • Silver/gold
  • Conversion opportunities
  • Mexican Silver, 1776
• Northern New Spain

  • No rich native kingdoms north of the Rio Grande
  • Would-be "conquistadors" become only "explorers"
  • Conquest of Mexico
  • 1519 - 1521
  • Spaniards and Indian allies vs. Aztecs
  • Tenochititan becomes Mexico City
• Aztec Sacrifice

  Basics

  • Almost always humans
  • Captives of war
  • Feeding the gods (tribute)
  • Corpses ritually cannibalized (public)

  How many victims?

  • 18 ceremonies/yr
  • Special occasions
  • 20,000-50,000 yr
• Valladolid Debate (1550-1551)

  Las Casas

  • No right to conquest (They were not barbaric, and did not need to resort to war)
  • No right to Indian Property
  • No compulsion in religion (Faith cannot be forced)
• Juan Gines de Sepuveda, Second Democrates

  Aimed to justify Spanish colonial rule by arguing for the natural superiority of Europeans over indigenous peoples. It claimed that European colonization was necessary to civilize and educate indigenous populations.
• Juan Gines de Sepulveda, In Defense of the Indians

  He argued against Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda that the Indians were fully human and that forcefully subjugating them was unjustifiable. Casas starts off by identifying that even before the arrival of Spaniards, the Indians had a proper way of living, where they had laws, religion, and unique customs. Moreover, the Indians are skillful in various kinds of arts, where amazing buildings, paintings and needleworks have been produced.
• Sepulveda

  • Indians "natural slaves" (believed that the Spaniards were the ones who needed to lead them)
  • Human Sacrifice shows lack of reason or humanity
• Demographic Catastrophe, C. 1500 - 1600

  Basics

  • Indian population decline
  • War
  • Abuse
  • Disease - lack of immunity

  The numbers..

  • Hispaniola - 300,000 to 500
  • Mexico - 15m to 700,000
  • Peru - 10m to 1m
• Juan Diego and the Apparitions

  • 1531
  • Juan Diego - Christian Indian
  • 3 Apparitions of Blessed Virgin
  • Her image on Juan's Tilma
• Our Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe

  Juan Diego saw a glowing figure on the hill. After she had identified herself to him, Our Lady asked that Juan build her a shrine in that same spot, for her to show and share her love.

  Afterward, Juan Diego visited Juan de Zumárraga, who was Archbishop of Mexico City. He dismissed him in disbelief and asked that the future Saint provide proof of his story and proof of the Lady’s identity.

  He returned to the hill and encountered Our Lady again. The Virgin told him to climb to the top of the hill and pick some flowers to present to the Archbishop.
• Our Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe continued

  Although it was winter and nothing should have been in bloom, Juan Diego found an abundance of flowers of a type he had never seen before. The Virgin bundled the flowers into Juan's cloak, known as a tilma. When Juan Diego presented the tilma of exotic flowers to Zumárraga, the flowers fell out and he recognized them as Castilian roses, which are not found in Mexico.

  What was even more significant, however, was that the tilma had been miraculously imprinted with a colorful image of the Virgin herself.
• New Spain in Retrospect

  "Black Legend"

  • Record (exaggerated) of Spanish (Catholic) cruelty to Indians
  • English say: "We can do better"
• "Cortes Overthrows the Idols"

  "He and his men removed and destroyed the pagan idols, and replaced them with crosses and figures of the Virgin Mary." Cortés' force then continued sailing west to Tabasco, where it encountered resistance from Native warriors. The Spanish force overpowered them, and the Natives surrendered.
• "An Aztec Account of the Spanish Attack"

  Hernan Cortes came for the first time to Tenochtitlan (nowadays Mexico City). The Aztecs believed that when Hernan Cortes arrived they believe he was Quetzalcoatl, the main god in the Aztec culture. Cortes was a friendly invite to the Aztec city as the most important guest, the Aztec people made a big party to celebrate the return of their god, but the Aztec people did not know Cortes's intentions to conquer the empire. Later the Aztecs were betrayed by Hernan Cortes. Cortes’s army began to attack the city and in the end, they took over the city.
• Slavery in English Colonies

  • Little Slavery in English Colonies for most of 1600s
  • Then, late 1600s rise of slavery: 1st, West Indies (Caribbean), then to the thirteen colonies
  • Ultimately, 360,000+ Slaves to the Thirteen colonies
  • 4m slaves in US by 1860
• Reasons for the Rise in Slavery

  • Transatlantic Slave trade already existed
  • Legal in every colony
  • Considered morally permissible
  • Huge need for workers
  • Lack of Indian and White Slaves
• Building Block: English West Indies

  • 1st English Colony to adapt African Slavery
  • Barbados
  • 166 Sqm. (Houston: 600 sq mi)
  • At first, tobacco/indentured servants
  • 1640s, switch to sugar/slaves
• "An African is sold to slavery" (Life of Olaudah Equiano)

  Olaudah Equiano was born in a small village in Northwestern Africa. He knew little to nothing about the Transatlantic slave trade before he and his sister were kidnapped and he was placed on a slave ship and taken to America. His narrative follows his journey to Europe, the West Indies, working on plantations in America and ships throughout Europe, and eventually to freedom.
• Building block: South Carolina

  • Founding, 1663
  • Slavery intended as main source of labor
  • Heavy settlement from West Indies
  • Becomes Rice region
  • Charleston - slave port
  • 2/3 African Slaves by 1750
• Building Block: Chesapeake (VA and MD)

  • Begins c. 1680
  • Causes:
  • Reduced supply of English youth, Drop in Slave prices vs. Indentured slaves, Increased life expectancy
  • Chesapeake: 40% African by mid-1700s
• Slavery and European America

  • New Societies, not replicas of Europe
  • Caste, not class
  • Foundation or Contraction?