1491 - 1607 (Convergence of the People)

Question 1

Pre-Columbian Peoples of the American Southwest

Answer 1

• Era Before 1492
• The Ancestral Pueblo lived in areas of the current Southwestern United States
• They were named by the Spanish because many lived in small towns (pueblos); they are sometimes called the Anasazi people
• They developed complex, technologically advanced societies and architecture
• They became increasingly dependent on the cultivation of maize
• Climate change and regional conflicts led them to abandon the civilizations they had developed over hundreds of years and join other Southwest groups
• The pre-Columbian peoples of the American Southwest were agriculturally focused groups that developed complex and powerful societies.
• They created multistory stone houses consisting of hundreds of rooms.
• The Chinook people of the Pacific Northwest subsisted on hunting and foraging.

Question 2

Pre-Columbian Peoples of the Great Basin and Great Plains

Answer 2

• Era Before 1492
• The Great Basin is a 400,000 square-mile area between the Rocky and Sierra Mountains.
• Peoples of the Great Basin include the Shoshone, Piute, and Ute.
• The Great Plains is a large area between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
• Peoples of the Great Plains include the Sioux, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Osage, Wichita, and Omaha.
• The pre-Columbian peoples in the Great Basin and Great Plains were migratory because of limited resources.

Question 3

Pre-Columbian Peoples of the American Atlantic Seaboard

Answer 3

• Era Before 1492
• Hundreds of tribes along the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes made up of the Algonquian people.
• Another group of tribes in present-day New York State formed the Iroquois Great League of Peace.
• Over time, the Iroquois grew more cohesive and became a powerful force in the pre-Columbian period.
• The pre-Columbian peoples of the American Atlantic Seaboard cultivated crops and participated in foraging and hunting, often creating lasting settlements.

Question 4

Christopher Columbus

Answer 4

• 1451 - 1506
• Columbus was an Italian-born navigator who found fame when he landed in the Americas on October 12, 1492.
• He set sail on behalf of Spain with three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and his flagship, the Santa Maria.
• Originally, he had sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean to find a water route to Asia.
• Columbus was convinces that he had found the waterway that he sought and that the Americas were actually an extension of China.
• He returned from his expedition with gold, encouraging future exploration.
• The conquest of the New World produced a more ethnically diverse population and led to a new social system that often exploited native peoples and slave labor.

Question 5

Columbian Exchange

Answer 5

• 1492 - 1500s
• The Columbian Exchange was the transfer of new crops, livestock, culture, disease, technology, and ideas between Europe and the New World after Spanish settlement (named after Christopher Columbus).
• Europeans brought horses, goats, cows, chickens, coffee, and wheat, among other goods.
• Germs caused widespread disease and death in the New World.
• Europe’s population grew and its economy suffered from inflation during this time.
• The goods and technologies that colonists brought changed the migration pattern and social practices of the New World.

Question 6

Treaty of Tordesillas

Answer 6

• 1493
• The Treaty of Tordesillas was a commitment between Spain and Portugal.
• The treaty created a Papal Line of Demarcation, which divided the New World: east of the line for Portugal and west of it for Spain.
• Portugal also received the easternmost part of what is currently Brazil.
• Later, the Papal Line affected colonization in Africa and Asia.
• European exploration and colonization in the Western World created significant conflict between European nations.

Question 7

New Spain

Answer 7

• 1400s and 1500s
• New Spain was Spain’s tightly controlled empire in the New World.
• Mainly located in North and Central America, New Spain included the Caribbean and Spanish East Indies
• To deal with labor shortages, the Spanish developed a system of large manors (encomiendas) using American Indian slaves under conquistadors.
• With the death of American Indian slaves, Spain began importing African slaves to supply their labor needs.
• Spain closely managed its settlements in the New World and often maintained these colonies with native and slave laborers, who were at the bottom of the Spanish social pyramid.

Question 8

Encomienda System

Answer 8

• Formalized in 1503
• Spain developed the encomienda system to exploit, often brutally, American Indian labor.
• Spain granted tracts of land to Spanish settlers in the New World.
• It gave settlers the right to use inhabitants for agriculture and for mining precious metals, a portion of which they sent back to the monarchy.
• Spain eventually reformed the governance of its colonies with the repartimiento and took direct control over their management.
• Spain closely managed its settlements in the New World and often maintained these colonies with native and slave laborers, who were at the bottom of the Spanish social pyramid.

Question 9

Social Structure of Spanish America

Answer 9

• 1500s - 1700s
• Some Spaniards held traditional notions of the superiority of “pure blood.”
• This ideology was at odds with regular intermarriage in the colonial world.
• The Spanish casta system defined the variety of mixed race people in the New World.
• Peninsulares (born in Spain) and creoles (born in the New World of Spanish parents) had the highest social status.
• Next were mestizos (children of Spanish men and American Indian women) and mulattos (children of Spanish men and African women).
• Spain closely managed its settlements in the New World and often maintained these colonies with native and slave laborers, who were at the bottom of the Spanish social pyramid.

Question 10

Bartolome de las Casas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda

Answer 10

• Repartimiento Instated in 1542
• Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas criticized Spain’s brutal encomienda system and reported on atrocities against native peoples.
• He initially advocated for using African slave labor instead but later came to believe that all slavery was morally wrong.
• Spanish theologian Juan Gines de Sepulveda defended Spanish treatment of the native peoples; he claimed that they were “natural slaves” and that “natural law” and Catholic theology dictated that Spain should master and civilize them.
• This debate led to limits on the encomienda system within the repartimiento system though the only lasting impact was a growth of the African slave trade.
• The rights and treatment of native peoples was a point of contention among some Spanish and Portuguese colonizers,

Question 11

St. Augustine, Florida

Answer 11

• 1598
• French Protestants (Huguenots) went to the New World to practice their religion freely, and they formed a colony near modern-day St. Augustine, Florida.
• Spain, which oversaw Florida, reacted violently to the Huguenots because they were trespassers and because the Catholic Church viewed them as heretics.
• Spain sent a force to the settlement and massacred the inhabitants.
• The settlement at St. Augustine, Florida is considered to be the first permanent European settlement in what would become the United States.
• Spain closely managed its settlements in the New World and often maintained these colonies with native and slave laborers, who were at the bottom of the Spanish social pyramid.

Question 12

Juan de Onate and the Acoma War

Answer 12

• 1598
• Juan de Onate was a Spanish conquistador.
• His soldiers occupied Western New World lands where the Acoma Pueblo people lived.
• The Acoma resisted an order to hand over supplies they needed to survive the winter.
• The Acoma killed several of the Spanish soldiers including Onate’s nephew.
• Onate’s forces responded by killing more than 800 native people, putting the survivors on trial, and enslaving the remaining Acoma.
• As European demands on native peoples grew, these peoples sought to protect their beliefs, practices, resources, and independence.

Question 13

Maroon Communities

Answer 13

• 1500s - 1700s
• Maroons were Africans who escaped from slavery in the New World and established independent communities (many of them in the Caribbean and Brazil).
• Maroons tried to preserve memories of Africa by continuing certain traditions.
• One significant community was Palmares, established in Brazil.
• Other enslaved Africans fled and joined communities of Arawak Indians.
• Maroons came to control large areas of the Jamaican interior.
• Many African slaves kept their traditions or adapted their culture to the New World to maintain their identity.