Ch. 2: Colonization

Question 1

Colonization

Answer 1

Colonus (La.) – farmer
• action, process
• “the action or process of settling among and establishing political and economic control over the indigenous people of an area.”

Question 2

Colonialism

Answer 2

philosophy, policy
• “a political philosophy in which a self-appointed ‘superior’ nation is seemingly entitled to the people, lands, and resources of the ‘inferior’”

Question 3

Imperialism

Answer 3

• imperium (La.) – to command

• “the practice, the theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory”

Question 4

4 reasons for colonialism and colonization

Answer 4

1) Economic
• resources and raw materials, wealth and capital
2) Religious
• proseltyze “heathens,” “pagans,” and “infidels”
3) Moral Duty
• “Civilizing Mission” – as superior humans, it was
their duty to spread civilization by assimilating non-westerners
4) Geopolitics
• strategic footholds in various places across the globe

Question 5

Verrazano

Answer 5

First documented European encounter with indigenous
communities
• 1524 – sailed into what is now New York Harbor • Describes Lenape as:
• “dark in color, not unlike the Ethiopians”
• “sharp cunning, and agile and swift swimmers”
• “the resemble the Orientals”
• “[they] marvelled at our clothes, appearance, and our
whiteness.”

Question 6

Henry Hudson

Answer 6

Entered New York Harbor in 1609
• Sailed as far North as present-day Albany • Described the local Natives as:
• “friendly people, but have a great propensity to steal, are exceedingly adroit in carrying away whatever they take fancy to.”
• Violent encounters ensued

Question 7

Adriaen van der Donck

Answer 7

of lowest nobility – Jonkheer
• 1641 – Arrived in New Netherland
• Worked as “sheriff” in Rensselaerswyck • Published his work in 1650

Question 8

The great debate

Answer 8

Debated weather or not Lenape were people
1) Bartolomé de las Casas: argued on behalf of all Indigenous Americans
• “all the races of the world are men, and the definition of all men, and of each of
them, is only one, and that is reason.”
2) Juan Gines de Sepúlveda (1494-1573)
• argued indigenous Americans were slaves by nature
• “barbarous and inhuman peoples abhorring all civil life, customs and virtue”

Question 9

Othering

Answer 9

• The reductive action of labeling a person or people as belonging to a subordinate social category defined as the “Other.”
• Excludes people who do not fit expectations and norms