Contact and Colonization Essential Questions: Exploration, Exchange, Colonization, Slavery
- What historical developments allowed Europeans to be the first people to usher in sustained contact between Eurasia-Africa and the Americas?
- Why were Native societies, despite their large populations and developed political/cultural institutions, so readily dominated by relatively small numbers of Europeans?
- What was the importance of the flora and fauna exchange between Eurasia-Africa and the Americas?
- What impact did the European colonization of the Americas have on Africa?
- How did European colonization of the Americas lead Europe to achieve power over its neighbors in Asia and the Middle East?
Contact and Colonization
Why Europe?
Why does Europe rise to global domination beginning in the 1500s, while older, more powerful civilizations fall behind? The Middle East, India, China, and others are eclipsed by Europe's rising power and prestige, a power, which reigned unchallenged until the 20th century and remains potent even through to today.
Why Didn't China Rule the World?
Regardless, during the 1400s, it was not at all clear that Europe, a poor backwater region since the collapse of the Roman Empire, would soon be on the rise.
Assignments
Powerpoint:Why Europe, Part I
Notes: Why Europe, Part I Notes
Powerpoint: Why Europe, Part II
Notes: Why Europe, Part II Notes
Powerpoint: Why Europe?
Powerpoint: Why Europe II?
Powerpoint: Why Not China?
Guns, Germs, and Steel: Episode 1
Jared Diamond’s journey of discovery began on the island of Papua New Guinea. There, in 1974, a local named Yali asked Diamond a deceptively simple question:
“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”
(Note: 'Cargo' is a general term used by Papua New Guineans to describe goods.) Diamond realized that Yali’s question penetrated the heart of a great mystery of human history -- the roots of global inequality.
Why were Europeans the ones with all the cargo? Why had they taken over so much of the world, instead of the native people of New Guinea? How did Europeans end up with what Diamond terms the agents of conquest: guns, germs and steel? It was these agents of conquest that allowed 168 Spanish conquistadors to defeat an Imperial Inca army of 80,000 in 1532, and set a pattern of European conquest which would continue right up to the present day.
Diamond knew that the answer had little to do with ingenuity or individual skill. From his own experience in the jungles of New Guinea, he had observed that native hunter-gatherers were just as intelligent as people of European descent -- and far more resourceful. Their lives were tough, and it seemed a terrible paradox of history that these extraordinary people should be the conquered, and not the conquerors.
To examine the reasons for European success, Jared realized he had to peel back the layers of history and begin his search at a time of equality – a time when all the peoples of the world lived in exactly the same way.
Assignment: Guns, Germs, and Steel Ep. 1 Viewing Guide
Jared Diamond’s journey of discovery began on the island of Papua New Guinea. There, in 1974, a local named Yali asked Diamond a deceptively simple question:
“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”
(Note: 'Cargo' is a general term used by Papua New Guineans to describe goods.) Diamond realized that Yali’s question penetrated the heart of a great mystery of human history -- the roots of global inequality.
Why were Europeans the ones with all the cargo? Why had they taken over so much of the world, instead of the native people of New Guinea? How did Europeans end up with what Diamond terms the agents of conquest: guns, germs and steel? It was these agents of conquest that allowed 168 Spanish conquistadors to defeat an Imperial Inca army of 80,000 in 1532, and set a pattern of European conquest which would continue right up to the present day.
Diamond knew that the answer had little to do with ingenuity or individual skill. From his own experience in the jungles of New Guinea, he had observed that native hunter-gatherers were just as intelligent as people of European descent -- and far more resourceful. Their lives were tough, and it seemed a terrible paradox of history that these extraordinary people should be the conquered, and not the conquerors.
To examine the reasons for European success, Jared realized he had to peel back the layers of history and begin his search at a time of equality – a time when all the peoples of the world lived in exactly the same way.
Assignment: Guns, Germs, and Steel Ep. 1 Viewing Guide
ho Are the American Indians?
The people who would eventually become what we know as American Indians originally crossed from Siberia to North America 17,000 years ago, across the Beringia Land Bridge. During that time, North America and Asia were connected, due to low sea levels. Hunter-gatherer tribes from Siberia, hunting mammoths and other types of large mammals, crossed the land bridge.
Later, as sea levels began to rise, the land bridge "sank," effectively cutting off the Americas from Eurasia and Africa. Overtime, these small bands of hunter-gatherer (possibly including small numbers of Solutrian peoples from Europe) would develop the myriad of cultures found amongst the Americas.
Despite a number of largely accidental contacts between Eurasia-Africa and the Americas, it would not be until Christopher Columbus's voyages that sustained contact would be maintained between the hemispheres.
The people who would eventually become what we know as American Indians originally crossed from Siberia to North America 17,000 years ago, across the Beringia Land Bridge. During that time, North America and Asia were connected, due to low sea levels. Hunter-gatherer tribes from Siberia, hunting mammoths and other types of large mammals, crossed the land bridge.
Later, as sea levels began to rise, the land bridge "sank," effectively cutting off the Americas from Eurasia and Africa. Overtime, these small bands of hunter-gatherer (possibly including small numbers of Solutrian peoples from Europe) would develop the myriad of cultures found amongst the Americas.
Despite a number of largely accidental contacts between Eurasia-Africa and the Americas, it would not be until Christopher Columbus's voyages that sustained contact would be maintained between the hemispheres.
Spain
In the 1400s, Spanish Christian Princes were fighting a series of wars with the Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula. These wars had raged for 770 years, before Spanish forces, led by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, won the Battle of Grenada, expelling Muslim forces from Iberia once-and-for-all in the year 1492.
After the battle, the Spanish captured a large amount of Muslim gold from the Al-Andalus treasury. A portion of this wealth would be spent paying for the explorations of Christopher Columbus, who sought to expand European trade with Asia. Instead, Columbus made contact with the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Once there, Columbus set about exploiting the local population and pillaging its natural resources with terrible efficiency.
When word of the easy occupation and large amounts of natural resources to be had were available, many Spanish moved to the new world to make their fortunes.
European Explorations
After Columbus establishes sustained contact with the Western Hemisphere, Europe will launch many different exploration missions across the globe. Through this contact, Europeans are able to achieve enormous resources and begin a long-term process which will culminate in Europe rising to global dominance.
Assignments
Reading: European Explorer Notes
Assignment: Explorer Chart- Spanish and Portuguese
Age of Exploration
The above map depicts the voyages of Henry Hudson, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Giozanni de Verrazano, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco de Gama, Bartholomew Dias, Juan Sebastian Elcano, Hernan Cortes, and Francisco Pizarro. The conditions under which these explorers sailed could only be described as unpleasant.
The above map depicts the voyages of Henry Hudson, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Giozanni de Verrazano, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco de Gama, Bartholomew Dias, Juan Sebastian Elcano, Hernan Cortes, and Francisco Pizarro. The conditions under which these explorers sailed could only be described as unpleasant.
Contact: Europeans and American Indians
"They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will...they took great delight in pleasing us...They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal...Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people...They love their neighbours as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing." --Christopher Columbus, describing the Taino peoples of the Caribbean to King Ferdinand
Contact between Columbus's crew and the Indians of the Americas is one the most important events in the history of the world. This contact was between very different civilizations who had had no idea that the other had even existed. It was a clash of cultures unlike anything before or since in world history.
Conquest: The Collision at Cajamarca
Armed with a small number of Spanish soldiers, but well-equipped with technologically advanced weaponry, the Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro was able to defeat the vastly larger Incan army in battle, capture their emperor, and conquer the whole of the Incan Empire.
While Indian resistance would continue for centuries, the most powerful states in the Americas were crushed beneath the weight of European guns, germs, and steel in a relatively brief time period.
Assignments
Reading: The Collision at Cajamarca
Assignment: The Collision at Cajamarca Reading Guide
Assignment: Conquistadors Assignment
Assignment: De Las Casas Accuses the Conquistadors
Project: Farcebook, Contact and Colonization
Project: Gallery Walk Contact and Colonization
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Episode 2: Contact
On November 15th 1532, 168 Spanish conquistadors arrive in the holy city of Cajamarca, at the heart of the Inca Empire, in Peru.
They are exhausted, outnumbered and terrified – ahead of them are camped 80,000 Inca troops and the entourage of the Emperor himself.
Yet, within just 24 hours, more than 7,000 Inca warriors lie slaughtered; the Emperor languishes in chains; and the victorious Europeans begin a reign of colonial terror which will sweep through the entire American continent.
Why was the balance of power so unequal between the Old World, and the New?
Can Jared Diamond explain how America fell to guns, germs and steel?
Assignments
Assignment: Guns, Germs, and Steel Episode 2 Viewing Guide
Assignment: Guns, Germs, and Steel, episode 2: Conquest (Alternate)
On November 15th 1532, 168 Spanish conquistadors arrive in the holy city of Cajamarca, at the heart of the Inca Empire, in Peru.
They are exhausted, outnumbered and terrified – ahead of them are camped 80,000 Inca troops and the entourage of the Emperor himself.
Yet, within just 24 hours, more than 7,000 Inca warriors lie slaughtered; the Emperor languishes in chains; and the victorious Europeans begin a reign of colonial terror which will sweep through the entire American continent.
Why was the balance of power so unequal between the Old World, and the New?
Can Jared Diamond explain how America fell to guns, germs and steel?
Assignments
Assignment: Guns, Germs, and Steel Episode 2 Viewing Guide
Assignment: Guns, Germs, and Steel, episode 2: Conquest (Alternate)
Colombian Exchange
The Colombian Exchange (also sometimes referred to as the Triangular Trade) was the exchange of plants, animals, people, minerals, and ideas between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The general path of the trade moved slaves from Africa to the Americas, Raw Materials from the Americas to Europe, and Manufactured Goods from Europe to both the Americas and Africa.
This movement of materials and people had a profound impact on all regions. New crops quickly flourished on different continents and previously held beliefs were challenged, and new patterns of settlement were created.
The indigenous peoples were largely killed off, displaced, or relegated to second-class citizenship, while African slaves were brought to the Americas to work in resource-gathering industries like farming and mining. Europeans came to the Americas as either colonists seeking to make their fortunes or as indentured servants, who were often treated little better than slaves themselves.
Assignments
Assignment: The Colombian Exchange
Assignment: Europe, Africa, and the Americas
Assignment: Point of View: The Conquistadors
The Colombian Exchange (also sometimes referred to as the Triangular Trade) was the exchange of plants, animals, people, minerals, and ideas between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The general path of the trade moved slaves from Africa to the Americas, Raw Materials from the Americas to Europe, and Manufactured Goods from Europe to both the Americas and Africa.
This movement of materials and people had a profound impact on all regions. New crops quickly flourished on different continents and previously held beliefs were challenged, and new patterns of settlement were created.
The indigenous peoples were largely killed off, displaced, or relegated to second-class citizenship, while African slaves were brought to the Americas to work in resource-gathering industries like farming and mining. Europeans came to the Americas as either colonists seeking to make their fortunes or as indentured servants, who were often treated little better than slaves themselves.
Assignments
Assignment: The Colombian Exchange
Assignment: Europe, Africa, and the Americas
Assignment: Point of View: The Conquistadors
Exchange of Flora/Fauna
The Columbian Exchange has been one of the most significant events in the history of world ecology, agriculture, and culture. The term is used to describe the enormous widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres that occurred after 1492. Many new and different goods were exchanged between the two hemispheres of the Earth, and it began a new revolution in the Americas and in Europe. In 1492, Christopher Columbus' first voyage launched an era of large-scale contact between the Old and the New World that resulted in this ecological revolution: hence the name "Columbian" Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every society on earth, bringing destructive diseases that depopulated many cultures, and also circulating a wide variety of new crops and livestock that, in the long term, increased rather than diminished the world human population. Corn and potatoes became very important crops in Eurasia by the 1700s. Peanuts and manoic flourished in tropical Southeast Asian and West African soils that otherwise would not produce large yields of support large populations.
The Columbian Exchange has been one of the most significant events in the history of world ecology, agriculture, and culture. The term is used to describe the enormous widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and ideas between the Eastern and Western hemispheres that occurred after 1492. Many new and different goods were exchanged between the two hemispheres of the Earth, and it began a new revolution in the Americas and in Europe. In 1492, Christopher Columbus' first voyage launched an era of large-scale contact between the Old and the New World that resulted in this ecological revolution: hence the name "Columbian" Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every society on earth, bringing destructive diseases that depopulated many cultures, and also circulating a wide variety of new crops and livestock that, in the long term, increased rather than diminished the world human population. Corn and potatoes became very important crops in Eurasia by the 1700s. Peanuts and manoic flourished in tropical Southeast Asian and West African soils that otherwise would not produce large yields of support large populations.
The Slave Trade
"Before the horrific trade in human ‘goods' began between Europe and west Africa, Europeans, particularly the Dutch and the Portuguese, had already begun trading items such as cloth and metal ware with west African countries as early as the fifteenth century. In return they received spices such as pepper as well as raw materials including ivory and gold." --Dr. Emma Poulter
Africa's relationship with Europe changed dramatically after the European conquest of the Americas. Before the rise of the slave trade, Africa and Europe had engaged in a roughly equal relationship as trade partners, often through Muslim merchants. African gold, in particular, was highly regarded by Europeans.
However, with the European conquest of the Americas, the need for trade with Africa was dramatically reduced. The Americans provided vast amounts of natural resources- including gold- and so equitable trade with Africa was no longer necessary. Africa had to find another trade good if it wanted to continue its valuable trade relationship with Europe and the Middle East.
Given the genocidal rate at which smallpox and other diseases decimated the Americas, European colonial officials were desperate to find additional sources of labor. Indentured servants were too few and Indian servants/slaves died from diseases at terribly high rates. In response to this need, African slavery was born.
The slave trade would ultimately move between 10 and 15 million Africans from their homes in Africa to the Americas. This trade was marked with horrific abuse and inhuman conditions.
Assignment:
Reading: The Creation of the Global Economy
Reading: The Atlantic World, Frontiers, and Boundaries
Reading: Big Picture- Coersive Labor Systems in the Early Modern Period
Powerpoint: Africa and the Atlantic World
Assignment: Africa, Gold, and Slavery
Assignment: Statistics of the Slave Trade
Assignment: African View of the Slave Trade
"Before the horrific trade in human ‘goods' began between Europe and west Africa, Europeans, particularly the Dutch and the Portuguese, had already begun trading items such as cloth and metal ware with west African countries as early as the fifteenth century. In return they received spices such as pepper as well as raw materials including ivory and gold." --Dr. Emma Poulter
Africa's relationship with Europe changed dramatically after the European conquest of the Americas. Before the rise of the slave trade, Africa and Europe had engaged in a roughly equal relationship as trade partners, often through Muslim merchants. African gold, in particular, was highly regarded by Europeans.
However, with the European conquest of the Americas, the need for trade with Africa was dramatically reduced. The Americans provided vast amounts of natural resources- including gold- and so equitable trade with Africa was no longer necessary. Africa had to find another trade good if it wanted to continue its valuable trade relationship with Europe and the Middle East.
Given the genocidal rate at which smallpox and other diseases decimated the Americas, European colonial officials were desperate to find additional sources of labor. Indentured servants were too few and Indian servants/slaves died from diseases at terribly high rates. In response to this need, African slavery was born.
The slave trade would ultimately move between 10 and 15 million Africans from their homes in Africa to the Americas. This trade was marked with horrific abuse and inhuman conditions.
Assignment:
Reading: The Creation of the Global Economy
Reading: The Atlantic World, Frontiers, and Boundaries
Reading: Big Picture- Coersive Labor Systems in the Early Modern Period
Powerpoint: Africa and the Atlantic World
Assignment: Africa, Gold, and Slavery
Assignment: Statistics of the Slave Trade
Assignment: African View of the Slave Trade
European Coastal Slave Forts
As a way to ensure an on-going supply of slave labor for their American territories, European Empires began to establish coastal fortresses along the West African Coast, starting with the Portuguese. Soon, all of the great powers of Europe became involved in transporting African slaves to work in the Americas.
To ensure that their supply lines could not be disrupted, European nations often built castles and fortresses along the coast, to protect against local uprisings, pirates/raiders, and other European nations, as well as having a place to store their slaves while they awaited transport to the Americas. The flow of slaves to the Americas would eventually top 14 million people.
Assignments
Assignment: Compare and Contrast Portugal and Spain's Responses to the Transatlantic Slave Trade
As a way to ensure an on-going supply of slave labor for their American territories, European Empires began to establish coastal fortresses along the West African Coast, starting with the Portuguese. Soon, all of the great powers of Europe became involved in transporting African slaves to work in the Americas.
To ensure that their supply lines could not be disrupted, European nations often built castles and fortresses along the coast, to protect against local uprisings, pirates/raiders, and other European nations, as well as having a place to store their slaves while they awaited transport to the Americas. The flow of slaves to the Americas would eventually top 14 million people.
Assignments
Assignment: Compare and Contrast Portugal and Spain's Responses to the Transatlantic Slave Trade
The Spanish Empire
The Spanish established many plantations in Latin America, worked by enslaved Indians and, later, African slaves. In addition to agriculture, the Spanish began mining for gold and silver in modern-day Mexico and Peru.
The Spanish in Latin America led to an exchange of culture that hadn't been seen since the Roman and Islamic Empires. The Spanish language, Catholicism, and social structures were spread to both the natives of Latin America as well as immigrants who arrived from Europe.
The Silver Trade
The Global Silver Trade linked the worldwide economy together in a completely new way. In the Americas, silver mining at Potosi led to widespread human misery, including the deaths of 8 million slaves. However, a half a billion silver Spanish pesos were used for currency in China, India, and West Africa.
In West Africa, Europeans were were involved in global trade networks that brought a number of goods to the region. Soon the whole region was oriented towards lucrative trading with European sea-based merchants, leading to a decline in the interior empires of Africa.
In China, silver drove the global economy. China had traditionally been the world's most prosperous nation and the influx of silver drove it to new heights. However, by 1750, the price of silver collapsed, leading to crippling inflation. This devaluation of silver crippled the Chinese economy.
With the collapse of silver in China, the Spanish economy suffered as well. As Spain struggled, new empires stepped in to dominate global trade, this time focusing on sugar, tobacco, gold, and slaves.
Assignments
Reading: The Chinese Silver Trade
Assignment: Chinese Silver Trade Questions
Powerpoint: The Early Spanish Empire
Reading: Spanish Empire Quick Notes
Reading: Potosi, Mountains of Silver
The Spanish established many plantations in Latin America, worked by enslaved Indians and, later, African slaves. In addition to agriculture, the Spanish began mining for gold and silver in modern-day Mexico and Peru.
The Spanish in Latin America led to an exchange of culture that hadn't been seen since the Roman and Islamic Empires. The Spanish language, Catholicism, and social structures were spread to both the natives of Latin America as well as immigrants who arrived from Europe.
The Silver Trade
The Global Silver Trade linked the worldwide economy together in a completely new way. In the Americas, silver mining at Potosi led to widespread human misery, including the deaths of 8 million slaves. However, a half a billion silver Spanish pesos were used for currency in China, India, and West Africa.
In West Africa, Europeans were were involved in global trade networks that brought a number of goods to the region. Soon the whole region was oriented towards lucrative trading with European sea-based merchants, leading to a decline in the interior empires of Africa.
In China, silver drove the global economy. China had traditionally been the world's most prosperous nation and the influx of silver drove it to new heights. However, by 1750, the price of silver collapsed, leading to crippling inflation. This devaluation of silver crippled the Chinese economy.
With the collapse of silver in China, the Spanish economy suffered as well. As Spain struggled, new empires stepped in to dominate global trade, this time focusing on sugar, tobacco, gold, and slaves.
Assignments
Reading: The Chinese Silver Trade
Assignment: Chinese Silver Trade Questions
Powerpoint: The Early Spanish Empire
Reading: Spanish Empire Quick Notes
Reading: Potosi, Mountains of Silver