Chapter 1

New World Beginnings

The Earliest Americans

• Agriculture, especially corn, was very important to the size and sophistication of Mexico and S. America.

• Corn became the “staff of life” for the Aztec and Incan civilizations.

The Earliest Americans

• Corn planting spread to the modern day American Southwest as early as 2000 B.C.E.

• Corn planting also led to what are considered societal values in America for the first time.

Indirect Discoveries of the New World • Europeans, were unaware of the existence of the Americas.

• Scandinavian seafarers landed in present day Newfoundland around 1000 C.E.

Indirect Discoveries of the New World • Christian Crusaders, who were unsuccessful in their power struggle with the Muslims, gained a taste for Asian goods.

• They looked for easier routes back to Europe and eventually found it in North America.

Columbus Come Upon a New World • Europeans clamored for more and cheaper products from lands beyond the Mediterranean.

• 1. African slave labor was cheap for agricultural plantations.

• 2. Portuguese voyages proved the feasibility of long-range ocean navigation.

Columbus Come Upon a New World • 3. The modern nation state of Spain had the unity, wealth, and power needed for discovery, conquest, and colonization.

• 4. The start of the Renaissance in the 14 th Century nurtured an ambitious spirit of optimism and adventure.

• 5. The printing press introduced in 1450 spread scientific knowledge.

• 6. The Mariner’s compass helped make sea travel easier.

Columbus Come Upon a New World • Italian seafarer Christopher Columbus persuaded Spanish monarchs (Ferdinand II and Isabella I) to give him 3 ships.

• After 6 weeks at sea, the crew spotted a tiny island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492.

Columbus Come Upon a New World • Looking for a new way to get to India, Columbus made one of the most successful failures in history as it became obvious that he had discovered a new, massive land barrier.

• Columbus was convinced that he had reached India, so he called the native peoples Indians.

Columbian Exchange

Europe: Provided markets, capital, and technology Africa: Furnished the labor New World: Raw materials, precious metals, fertile soil

The Spanish Conquistadores

• Over time, Europeans realized that the American continents held rich prizes, especially the gold and silver of the advanced Indian civilizations in Mexico and Peru.

• The flood of precious metals from Spanish conquistadores (de Leon, Coronado, de Soto, Pizzaro, etc.) touched off price revolution in Europe that increased consumer costs by as much as 500% in the 100 years after the mid sixteenth century.

The Spanish Conquistadores

• Scholars saw this ballooning of the European money supply as the fuel that fed the growth of the economic system known as capitalism.

The Spanish Conquistadores

New World bullion swelled the vaults of bankers in Europe, which led to the start of the commercial banking system In France and Holland it stimulated the spread of commerce and manufacturing Gold and silver paid for the trade with Asia, who had little use for any European good except silver

The Spread of Spanish America

• Along with the spread of colonization for trade and securing bullion, the Spanish were also concerned with the Christianization of the Natives.

• Father Junipero Serra and his Franciscan Friars set up 21 missions along the California coast from San Diego to Sonoma (near San Francisco)

The Spread of Spanish America

• The 300,000 native Californians were put into missions and taught horticulture and basic crafts.

• The “Mission Indians” did adopt Christianity, but they also lost contact with native cultures and sometimes lives due to diseases brought by the white men.

The Spread of Spanish America

• This led to the birth of the Black Legend, the false concept that the conquerors merely tortured and butchered the Indians (“Killing for Christ”), stole their gold, infected them with smallpox, and left misery behind.

• Along with the negative views, there was also positives; large empires in California and Florida, gave culture, laws, religion, and language to ‘savages’.