7000 BC Agriculture developed in

Mexico and Andes

900 Hopi and Zuni tribes build
1200 AD planned towns
1200 Cahokia city-empire along
the Mississippi
1400s Iroquois League
established
1434 Portuguese explore subSaharan African Coast
1487 Bartolomeu Dias reaches
the Cape of Good Hope
1492 Reconquista of Spain
Columbuss first voyage to
the Americas
1498 Vasco da Gama sails to the
Indian Ocean
1500 Pedro Cabral claims Brazil
for Portugal
1502 First African slaves transported to the Caribbean
islands
1517 Martin Luthers Ninety-Five
Theses
1519 Hernn Corts arrives in
Mexico
1528 Las Casass History of the
Indies
1530s Pizarros conquest of Peru
1542 Spain promulgates the New
Laws
1608 Champlain establishes
Quebec
1609 Hudson claims New
Netherland
1610 Santa Fe established
1680 Pueblo Revolt
First peoples, c. 11,000

Tenochtitlan and Peru

Justifications for conquest
Mound Builders of Cahokia
Hopi and Zuni in Arizona
Northeastern Indians had foreign relations wars and diplomacy between each other
Southeast: Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw
PA and New York: Iroquois peoplesMohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga
formed Great League of Peace
Main point he makes: diversity of Native Americans
The goes back to trying to find similarities
-Religion based around agrarianism
-Makes the point that the religions werent really that different from
Europeans, but Europeans still thought they needed Christianity.
-Land. No market in real estate.
-Economics of gift giving
-Gender premarital sex okay. Indian societies matrilineal: children become
members of the mothers family line, not the fathers. Women work.
-Worldview of nature: nature as something with spirits and souls for Indians, a
potential commodity for Europeans.
-in English law, a married man controlled the familys property and wife
had not legal identity.
-Freedom. Indian perspective was not one of individual freedom. Indians saw
freedom through the perspective of the group.
European vision: one of extremes, either noble savage or barbaric.
-Overtime, the negative visions overtook the idealized ones.
-Europeans saw weak men and mistreated and unnatural women.
Ties this in to Christian liberty.
Christian liberty was about embracing obedience to God.
Even though Europeans had ideas of liberty, they also had hierarchy and chain of being.
In the family, hierarchy expressed in idea of coverture: the woman surrendering her
legal identity.
-woman could not own property or sign contracts in her name, control wages if
she worked, write a separate will, orexcept in rare casesgo to court seeking a
divorce.
-Patriarchy: in religion, in politics, in the family
European idea of liberty during this time was still very much influenced (still bore the
imprint of) the Middle Ages

-Liberty came from knowing ones social place and fulfilling the duties
appropriate to ones rank.
Portuguese ships known as caravels, and new navigational devices such as the
compass and quadrant made it possible to sail down African coast and return to
Portugal.
1485: Portuguese ships reach Benin.
-Portugal established armed trading posts on the western coast of Africa.
-also colonized Madeira, Azores, Canary and Cape Verde Islands.
-established plantations on these Atlantic islands, replacing native populations
with slaves.
Slavery in Africa
Long predated Europeans. African slaves were typically criminals, debtors, captives in
war.
-slaves worked within households of owners and had rights, such as possessing
property and marrying free persons.
-could acquire freedom
Slavery one of several forms of labor, not the basis of the economy.
Arrival of Portuguese and Europeans accelerated buying and selling of slaves in Africa.
Columbus
-had religious and commercial motives. Wanted to Christianize Asians and use
them in a crusade to redeem Jerusalem from Muslim control.
Funded by King Ferdinand and Isabelle of Spain, who had recently completed the
reconquista of Spain from Moors.
Columbus lands in Bahamas, Hispaniola, and Cuba.
Hispaniola became the first center of Spanish empire in America.
Columbus died thinking he found Asia.
It wasnt until Amerigo Vespucci explored South America (1499 - 1502) that Europeans
realized a new continent had been found.
Gutenbergs printing press (1430) allowed for news of Columbuss achievement to
travel quickly among educated minority.
John Cabot reached Newfoundland in 1497.
Pedro Cabal claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500.
Spanish take lead, though
-motivated by wealth, glory, desire to spread Catholicism.
-Conquistadors and missionaries radiate out from Hispaniola.
1513: Vasco Nunez de Balboa makes it across Panama to be the first European to see

the Pacific Ocean.

1519 - 1522: Magellan leads first expedition around the world.
1519: Corts arrives in Aztec Tenochtitlan.
Aztecs power relied on domination and violenceled to alienation of neighbors,
room for Spanish alliances.
Cortes was able to conquer Tenochitlan
-smallpox
-iron weapons
-gunpowder
-alliances with subject peoples
1520s: Pizarro conquers Incan kingdom.
Columbian Exchange
-plants, animals, cultures
-Europe gets from Americas: corn, tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, tobacco
-Americas gets from Europe: wheat, rice, sugarcane, horses, cattle, pigs, and
sheep, and germs.
Death of est. 80 million people in the first 150 years after contact with Europeans. Thats
almost 1/5 of humankind!
Spanish Empire
Authority started with the king, flowed down through the Council of the Indies, then
viceroys in Mexico and Peru and other local officials in America.
But also have to recognize power of the Catholic church.
Colonists and Indians
Except for in their West Indies colonies, no slaves used at first.
Haciendas (large-scale farms) and mines used forced Indian labor.
Aristocratic culture motivated many Spanish to move to Americas, because they had the
opportunity to not work and have Indians or slaves do the work for them, which was a
sign of nobility.
Some Indians were granted rights by Spanish authorities.
Not a lot of women leads to mestizos Spanish government condones it partially as a
way of spreading Christianity.
1493: Pope divides non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal
1517: Protestant Reformation both sides motivated to now out-evangelize the other.
1537: Pope Paul III outlawed Indians enslavement.
1550: Spain issues the New Laws, saying Indians no longer enslaved. Abolishes
encomienda system. Establishes repartimiento system, whereby residents of Indian
villages remained legally free and entitled to wages, but were still required to perform a

fixed amount of labor each year.

1552: Bartolom de Las Casas, A Very Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies
-Las Casas said using African slaves might help protect the Indians.
-One result of this is the Black LegendSpain as a uniquely brutal and
exploitative colonizer.
Spain in Florida and the Southwest
Spain established base in Florida to combat pirates who tried to intercept Spanish ships
loaded with gold and silver sailing from Havan for Europe.
1565: Philip II allowed Pedro Melendez de Aviles to lead a colonizing expedition to
Florida, and Avils exterminates a Huguenots (French Protestant) outpost at Fort
Caroline.
1598: Juan de Oate led group of 400 north from Mexico into American southwest. Is
brutal in his conquering. Later punished by the crown, but not before he could do what
he did.
1610: Santa Fe established as capital of New Mexico.
1680: Pueblo revolt in New Mexico. It was the most complete victory for Native
Americans over Europeans and the wholesale expulsion of settles in the history of North
America.
1692: Spain reasserts itself in New Mexico, but is more tolerant of indigenous.