Unit 1: Topic 6 - Cultural Interactions Between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans

Question 1

Give some examples of the different views that Natives and Europeans had regarding issues such as religion, gender, roles, family, land use, and power.

Answer 1

Land
- Natives - land was for common use and regarded it as a source of life, not as a commodity to be sold.
- Europeans - believed that the land should be tamed and should be bought and sold.

Gender Roles
- Natives - gender roles were fluid and the men and women did somewhat equal jobs.
- Europeans - men and women had very specific roles in a patriarchal system. Men generally did most of the field labor and herded livestock and women took care of children and household labor.

Trade
- Natives - trade was usually ceremonial or gift-giving.
- Europeans - more of a business transaction and a form of accumulating wealth.

Question 2

Give some examples of Europeans and Native Americans adopting useful aspects of each other’s culture.

Answer 2

Native Americans
- traded with Europeans to get access to metal implements for cooking and farming
- also used guns for war/hunting and horses for transportation.

Europeans
- sometimes married Native Americans to gain access to fur trade and become allies with Native Americans

Question 3

How did Native Americans try to fight the encroachments made by Europeans and maintain their sovereignty?

Answer 3

Native Americans fought encroachments made by Europeans with diplomatic negotiations and military resistance.

• One example was the Iroquois Confederacy which played the British and French against each other for a century for their own benefit.
• Another example is when the Aztecs tried to bribe Cortés to send him away (it didn’t work) before fighting against him

Question 4

What were some debates and justifications that occurred regarding the subjugation of Africans and Native Americans in the period 1491-1607?

Answer 4

Some justifications and debates were:

Juan de Sepúlveda
- wrote a book called “Just Causes for War Against the Indians” justifying Spanish colonization of the Americas.
- Claimed that natives were “natural slaves” and that Europeans would bring them “civilization”

Bartolomé de las Casas
- Spanish priest who published “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” which criticized the Spanish treatment of the indigenous people (but he suggested switching to Africans for slavery).
- Helped influence the King of Spain to institute the New Law of 1542 (abolished Indian slavery and ended the encomienda system).

Question 5

What was the Acoma Massacre?

Answer 5

• a violent massacre at the Acoma Pueblo (in present day New Mexico) in 1599
• Juan de Oñate led Spaniards in killing nearly 1,000 people and mutilating the survivors