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Chapter Outline After a difficult journey of over two hundred miles, the exhausted man arrived at the royal palace in the grand city Native American Societies before 1492 of Tenochtitlán. He had hurried all the way from the Gulf Hunters, Harvesters, and Traders Coast with important news for the Aztec leader, The Development of Agriculture Moctezuma. Nonfarming Societies Our lord and , forgive my boldness. I am from Mictlancuauhtla. Mesoamerican Civilizations When I went to the shores of the great sea, there was a mountain range or North America’s Diverse Cultures The Caribbean Islanders small mountain floating in the midst of the water, and moving here and there without touching the shore. My lord, we have never seen the like of this, West African Societies although we guard the coast and are always on watch. Geographical and Political Differences [When Moctezuma sent some officials to check on the messenger’s story, they Family Structure and Religion confirmed his report.] European Merchants in West Africa and Our lord and king, it is true that strange people have come to the shores the Slave Trade of the great sea. They were fishing from a small boat, some with rods and Western Europe on the Eve of Exploration others with a net. They fished until late and then they went back to their two The Consolidation of Political and great towers and climbed up into them....They have very light skin,much Military Authority lighter than ours. They all have long beards, and their hair comes only to Religious Conflict and the Protestant their ears. Reformation Miguel Leon–Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston, 1962). Contact The Lure of Discovery Read the Document at www.myhistorylab.com and the Westward Route to Asia Personal Journeys Online The Spanish Conquest and Colonization ■ Christopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage, October 12, 1492. The Columbian Exchange Account of his first meeting with Caribbean islanders. Cultural Perceptions and Misperceptions ■ Martin Frobisher, Account of First Voyage to the New World, 1576. Competition for a Continent Description of his arrival in Canada and his encounter with native people. Early French Efforts in North America English Attempts in the New World

Conclusion

Hear the Audio Hear the audio files for Chapter 1 at www.myhistorylab.com.

Worlds Apart M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:13 AM Page 3

Mexico: Hernán Cortés is greeted by Montezuma’s messenger in 1519: Mexican Indian painting, 16th century. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:13 AM Page 4

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Moctezuma was filled with foreboding when he belonged to hundreds of groups, each with its own language received the messenger’s initial report. Aztec religion placed or dialect, history, and way of life. In their own languages, many native groups called themselves “the original people” great emphasis on omens and prophecies, which were or “the true men.” Europeans called them “Indians,” follow- thought to foreshadow coming events. Several unusual ing Columbus’s mistaken first impression that he had omens had recently occurred—blazing lights in the sky, one arrived in the when his ships reached an island temple struck by lightning, and another that spontaneously in . burst into flames. Now light-skinned strangers appeared From the start, the original inhabitants of the Americas offshore. Aztec spiritual leaders regarded these signs as were peoples in motion. The first migrants may have arrived over 40,000 years ago, traveling from central Siberia and unfavorable and warned that trouble lay ahead. slowly making their way to south- The messenger’s journey to Tenochtitlán occurred in ern South America. These people, Read the Document 1519. The “mountains” he saw were in fact the sails of and subsequent migrants from at www.myhistorylab.com European ships, and the strange men were Spanish soldiers Eurasia, probably traveled across Pima Creation Story under the command of Hernán Cortés. Like Columbus’s a land bridge that emerged across voyage to the Caribbean in 1492, Cortés’s arrival in Mexico is what is now the Bering Strait. During the last Ice Age, much of the earth’s water was frozen in huge glaciers. This process considered a key episode in the European discovery of the lowered ocean levels, exposing a 600-mile-wide land bridge “New World.” But we might just as accurately view the mes- between Asia and America. Recent research examining senger’s entry into the Aztec capital as announcing the native genetic and linguistic similarities between Asian and Na- Mexicans’ discovery of a New World to the east, from which tive American populations suggests that there may also the strangers must have come. Neither the Aztecs nor the have been later migrations. Asian seafarers may have could have foreseen the far-reaching consequences crossed the Pacific to settle portions of western North and South America, while as recently as 8,000 years ago, a final of these twin discoveries. Before long, a variety of peoples— migration may have brought Siberians to what is now Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans—who had Alaska and northern Canada. previously lived worlds apart would come together to create a world that was new to all of them. Hunters, Harvesters, and Traders This new world reflected the diverse experiences of the The earliest Americans adapted to an amazing range of environmental conditions, from the frozen Arctic to south- many peoples who built it. Improving economic conditions western deserts to dense eastern woodlands. At first, they in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries propelled mainly subsisted by hunting the mammoths, bison, and Europeans overseas to seek new opportunities for trade other large game that roamed throughout North America. and settlement. , , France, and England com- Archaeologists working near present-day Clovis, New peted for political, economic, and religious domination Mexico, have found carefully crafted spear points—some of within Europe, and their conflict carried over into the which may be over 13,000 years old. Such efficient tools possibly contributed to overhunting, which, along with Americas. Native Americans drew upon their familiarity climate change, led to the extinction of many large game with the land and its resources, patterns of political and re- species. By about 9000 B.C.E., the world’s climate began to ligious authority, and systems of trade and warfare to deal grow warmer, turning grasslands into deserts and reducing with the European newcomers. Africans did not come vol- the animals’ food supply. Humans too had to find other food untarily to the Americas but were brought by the Euro- sources. peans to work as slaves. They too would draw on their Between roughly 8000 B.C.E. and 1500 B.C.E., Native American societies changed in important ways. Native pop- cultural heritage to cope with a new land and a new, harsh ulations steadily increased, and men and women assumed condition of life. more specialized roles in their villages. Men did most of the hunting and fishing, activities that required travel. Women remained closer to home, harvesting and preparing wild Native American Societies plant foods and caring for children. Before 1492 Across the continent, native communities also devel- In 1492, the year Columbus landed on a tiny Caribbean oped complex networks of trade. They not only exchanged island, perhaps 70 million people—nearly equal to the pop- material goods, but also marriage partners, laborers, ideas, ulation of Europe at that time—lived on the continents of and religious practices. Trade networks sometimes ex- North and South America, most of them south of the pres- tended over great distances. Valuable goods, such as copper ent border between the United States and Mexico. They from the Great Lakes area and shells from the Gulf of M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 5

Worlds Apart Chapter 1 5 KEY TOPICS ◆ How did geography shape the develop- CHRONOLOGY ment of regional cultures in North America prior to 1492? ◆ c. 40,000– Ancestors of Native Americans cross from What were the key characteristics of 8000 B.C.E. Asia to the Americas. West African society? c. 9000 B.C.E. Extinction of large land mammals in North America. ◆ How did events in Europe both shape c. 8000 B.C.E. Beginnings of agriculture in the Peruvian and inspire exploration of the Americas? Andes and Mesoamerica. ◆ What were the biological consequences c. 1500 B.C.E. Earliest mound-building culture begins. of contact between Europeans and c. 500 B.C.E.– Adena-Hopewell mound-building Native Americans? 400 C.E. culture. c. 700–1600 Rise of West African empires. ◆ Why did early French and English C.E. efforts at colonization falter? c. 900 First mounds built at Cahokia. Ancestral Puebloan expansion. c. 1000 Spread of in West Africa. c. 1000–1015 First Viking voyages to North America. Mexico, have been discovered at archaeological sites far c. 1000–1500 Last mound-building culture, the from their places of origin. Ideas about death and the after- Mississippian. life also passed between groups. So too did certain burial c. 1290s Ancestral Puebloan dispersal into smaller practices, such as the placing of valued possessions in the villages. grave along with the deceased person’s body. In some areas, 1400–1600 Renaissance in Europe. the increasing complexity of exchange networks, as well as Beginnings of Portuguese slave trade in competition for resources, encouraged concentrations of West Africa. political power. Chiefs might manage trade relations and 1492 End of in Spain. conduct diplomacy for groups of villages rather than for a Columbus’s first voyage. single community. 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. 1497 John Cabot visits Nova Scotia and The Development of Agriculture Newfoundland. No Native American adaptation was more momentous than 1497–1499 sails around Africa to the domestication of certain plants and the development of reach India. farming. Scientists working in northern Peru have discov- 1517 Protestant Reformation begins in ered seeds from domesticated squash that are almost Germany. 10,000 years old. Inhabitants of central Mexico began 1519–1521 Hernán Cortés conquers the Aztec growing squash and corn between 9,000 and 10,000 years empire. ago. Agriculture in the Americas may thus have developed 1532–1533 Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca as early as it did in the Middle East, , China, empire. and India. Native Americans may have turned to farming 1534–1542 Jacques Cartier explores eastern Canada when population growth threatened to outrun the wild for France. food supply. Women, with their knowledge of wild plants, 1540–1542 Coronado explores southwestern North probably discovered how to save seeds and cultivate them, America. becoming the world’s first farmers. 1542–1543 Roberval’s failed colony in Canada. Farming in the Americas initially supplemented a diet 1558 Elizabeth I becomes queen of England. still largely dependent on hunting and gathering, but 1565 Spanish establish outpost at St. Augustine gradually assumed a greater role. In addition to maize, the in Florida. main crop in both South and North America, farmers in 1560s–1580s English renew attempts to conquer Mexico, Central America, and the Peruvian Andes culti- Ireland. vated peppers, beans, pumpkins, squash, avocados, sweet 1587 Founding of “Lost Colony” of Roanoke. and white potatoes (native to the Peruvian highlands), and 1598 Spanish found colony at New Mexico. tomatoes. Mexican farmers also grew cotton. Maize and M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 6

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wild berries. Farther inland, the Crees and other peoples followed migrating herds of caribou and moose. Along the Northwest Coast and the Columbia River Plateau, one of the most densely populated areas of North America, abundant natural resources permitted na- tive peoples to prosper without farming. Local rivers teemed with salmon and other fish, while the forests abounded in game and edible plants. Among such groups as the Kwakiutls and Chinooks, extended families lived in large communal houses lo- cated in villages of up to several hundred residents. Rulers displayed their promi- nence most conspicuously during pot- latches, or ceremonies in which wealth was distributed among guests in order to cele- brate the power of the hosts. Farther south, in present-day California, Women were the principal farmers in most Native American societies, growing corn, beans, hunter-gatherers once lived in smaller vil- and other crops in fields cleared by Indian men. Many of these New World foods would be transported across the Atlantic to become important to Old World diets. lages, which usually adjoined oak groves where Indians gathered acorns as an important food source. Nomadic hunting bean cultivation spread from Mexico in a wide arc to the bands in the Great Basin, where the climate was warm and dry, north and east. Peoples in what is now the southwestern learned to survive on the region’s limited resources. In what is United States began farming between 1500 and 500 B.C.E., now Utah and western Colorado, the Utes and other groups and by 200 C.E., farmers were tilling the soil in present-day fished; hunted large game such as elk, bison, and mountain Georgia and Florida. sheep; and gathered pinyon nuts, seeds, and wild berries. Wherever agriculture took hold, important social changes followed. Populations grew, because farming pro- Mesoamerican Civilizations duced a more secure food supply than did hunting and gath- Mesoamerica, the birthplace of agriculture in North America, ering. Permanent villages appeared as farmers settled near extends from central Mexico into Central America. A series their fields. In central Mexico, agriculture eventually sus- of complex, literate, urban cultures emerged in this region tained the populations of large cities. Trade in agricultural beginning around 1200 B.C.E. The Olmecs, who flourished surpluses flowed through networks of exchange. In many on Mexico’s Gulf Coast from about 1200 to 400 B.C.E., and Indian societies, women’s status improved because of their their successors in the region, built cities featuring large role as the principal farmers. Even religious beliefs adapted pyramids, developed religious practices that included to the increasing importance of farming. In describing the human sacrifice, and devised calendars and writing systems. origins of their people, Pueblo Indians of the Southwest Two of the most prominent Mesoamerican civilizations compared their emergence from the underworld to a maize that followed the Olmecs were the Mayans in the Yucatán plant sprouting from the earth. and Guatemala and the Aztecs of Teotihuacán in central The adoption of agriculture further enhanced the diver- Mexico. sity of Native American societies that developed over cen- turies within broad regions, or culture areas (see Map 1–1). The Mayans. Mayan civilization reached its greatest Within each area, inhabitants shared basic patterns of glory between about 150 and 900 C.E. in the southern Yu- subsistence and social organization, largely reflecting the catán, creating Mesoamerica’s most advanced writing and natural environment to which they had adapted. Most, but calendrical systems and developing a sophisticated mathe- not all, of them eventually relied upon farming. matics that included the concept of zero. The Mayans of the southern Yucatán suffered a decline after 900, but there Nonfarming Societies were still many thriving Mayan centers in the northern Yu- Agriculture was impossible in the challenging environment catán when Europeans arrived in the Americas. The great of the Arctic and subarctic. There, nomadic bands of Inuits city of Teotihuacán dominated central Mexico from the and Aleuts moved seasonally to fish or hunt whales, seals, first century to the eighth century C.E., and influenced and other sea animals and, in the brief summers, gather much of Mesoamerica through trade and conquest. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 7

Bering Strait

KUTCHINS TANANAS ESKIMOS INGALIKS HANS HARES

TUTCHONES ESKIMOS DOGRIBS KASKAS

S N ESKIMOS IA CHIPEWYANS H S SLAVEYS IM S T

BEAVERS IS AP HAIDAS CARRIERS CREES SK -NA S AIS BEOTHUKS A GN R TA C MON E E SHUSWAPS S KWAKIUTLS THOMPSONS NOOTKAS BLACKFEET MICMACS SALISHES SANPOILS GROS ABENAKIS VENTRES ASSINIBOINS CHINOOKS YAKIMAS Columbia River NEZ MASSACHUSETTS PERCÉS MANDANS n NS a O WAMPANOAGS g CROWS SAUKS i R FLATHEADS M h U ARIKARAS is c H NARRAGANSETTS si i PACIFIC ss ip M p KAROKS PEQUOTS i IROQUOIS

MODOCSS CHEYENNES SIOUX POTAWATOMIS

e

I k OCEAN YUROKS E ES SUSQUEHANNOCKS ON a FOXES

R H

S L O

R SH ERIES DELAWARES POMOS A PAWNEES

N WASHOS MIAMIS E ILLINOIS iver V ARAPAHOS R A io UTES R h POWHATANS YOKUTS D O A iv PAIUTES e M r TUSCARORAS CHUMASHES T S SHAWNEES . HOPIS KIOWAS WALAPAIS CHEROKEESCATAWBAS NAVAJOS OSAGES CHICKASAWS LUISEÑOS MOHAVES PUEBLOS ATLANTIC ZUNIS PAPAGOS CREEKS OCEAN CADDOS APACHES COMANCHES CHOCTAWS C O HEZ TC APALACHEES Arctic C A H P T N I A IM M R TIMUCUAS R io Subarctic A IS A G S r H a n T U d TAINOS Northwest Coast E M e CALUSAS P GULF E A H R COAHUILTECS Plateau A OF U S A N MEXICO Great Basin S I S L A N D LS A HO C R A R IC A California O U HUASTECS CIBONEYS W A K S C I H R B A YUCATÁN CIBONEYS Southwest S GUANAHATABEYS OTOMÍS S Lake Texcoco S N Plains TARASCOS TOTONACS A NAHUATLS Y C A R I B E A Eastern Woodlands (Northeast) MIXTECS A B E A N S AZTECS M ZAPOTECS Eastern Woodlands (Southeast) PAYAS

LENCAS S Mesoamerica MISKITOS O IR J A Circum-Caribbean U NICARAOS G

G CU 0 500 1,000 Miles U NA

A S Y S

M O IS

C

0 500 1,000 Kilometers O

H

C

MAP 1–1 North American Culture Areas, c. 1500 Over the course of centuries, Indian peoples in North America developed distinctive cultures suited to the environments in which they lived. Inhabitants of each culture area shared basic patterns of subsistence, craft work, and social organization. Most, but not all, Indian peoples combined farming with hunting and gathering.

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The Aztecs. Some 200 years after the fall of Teotihuacán, emerge. Beginning about 300 B.C.E., the Hohokams settled the Toltecs, a warrior people, rose to prominence, dominat- in southern Arizona and devised elaborate irrigation sys- ing central Mexico from about 900 to 1100. In the wake of tems that allowed them to harvest two crops of corn, beans, the Toltec collapse, the Aztecs migrated from the north and squash each year. Artisans wove cotton cloth and made into the Valley of Mexico and built a great empire that soon goods reflecting Mesoamerican artistic styles out of shell, controlled much of Mesoamerica. The magnificent Aztec turquoise, and clay. Trade networks linked the Hohokams to capital, Tenochtitlán, was a city of great plazas, magnificent people living as far away as California and Mexico. Their temples and palaces, and busy marketplaces. Built on is- culture endured for over a thousand years but mysteriously lands in the middle of Lake Texcoco, it was connected to the disappeared by 1450. mainland by four causeways. In 1492, Tenochtitlán was home to some 200,000 people, making it one of the largest Ancestral Puebloans. Early in the first century C.E., cities in the world at the time. Ancestral Puebloan peoples (sometimes called Anasazis) The great pyramid in Tenochtitlán’s principal temple began to settle in farming communities where the borders complex was the center of Aztec religious life. Here Aztec of present-day Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico priests sacrificed human victims—by cutting open their chests meet. Scarce rainfall, routed through dams and hillside ter- and removing their still-beating hearts—to offer to the gods. races, watered the crops. Ancestral Puebloans originally Human sacrifice had been part of Mesoamerican religion since lived in villages, or pueblos (pueblo is the Spanish word for the time of the Olmecs. People believed that such ceremonies “village”) built on mesas and canyon floors. In New pleased the gods and prevented them from destroying the Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, perhaps as many as 15,000 people earth. The Aztecs, however, practiced sacrifice on a much dwelled in a dozen large towns and hundreds of outlying larger scale than ever before. Hundreds, even thousands, of villages. The largest town, Pueblo Bonito, covered three victims died in ceremonies that sometimes lasted for days. acres and contained about 1,200 inhabitants. Its main The Aztec empire expanded through military conquest, structure, a four-story-tall complex of over 800 rooms and driven by a quest for sacrificial victims and tribute payments numerous kivas, or ceremonial chambers, served as one of of gold, food, and handcrafted goods from hundreds of sub- several centers of production and exchange throughout ject communities. But as the empire grew, it became increas- the area. But after about 1200, villagers began carving ingly vulnerable to internal division. Neighboring peoples multistoried stone houses into canyon walls, dwellings submitted to the Aztecs out of fear rather than loyalty. that could only be reached by difficult climbs up steep cliffs and along narrow ledges. Warfareand climate change North America’s Diverse Cultures may have worked together to force the Puebloans into North of Mexico, the development of a drought-resistant these precarious homes. type of maize around 400 B.C.E. enabled a series of cultures Around 1200, the climate of the Southwest grew colder, sharing certain characteristics with Mesoamerica to making it more difficult to grow enough to feed the large

Acoma Pueblo has perched atop this 300-foot-tall mesa since the twelfth century.Now used mainly for ceremonial purposes,Acoma was once a thriving Ancestral Puebloan village. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 9

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population. Food scarcity may have set village against coordinated trade and diplomacy, and mobilized laborers to village and encouraged attacks by outsiders. Villagers build large structures and earthworks. Cahokia dominated probably resorted to cliff dwellings for protection as the Mississippi Valley, linked by trade to dozens of villages violence spread in the region. By in the midwestern region. Read the Document 1300, survivors abandoned the Mississippian culture began to decline in the thirteenth at www.myhistorylab.com cliff dwellings and dispersed into century, perhaps due to an ecological crisis. Cahokia’s pop- Indians of the Rio Grande (1528–1536) smaller villages along the Rio ulation may have outstripped its food supply, and a series of Grande. Their descendants in- hot, dry summers created further hardship. By 1400, most clude the Hopis and Zunis, as well as other Puebloan peo- of Cahokia’s residents had dispersed into scattered farming ples in the desert Southwest. In many of these villages, men villages. farmed—in contrast to the predominant pattern of women What followed in the Eastern Woodlands region was a farmers elsewhere in Native America—raising corn, beans, century or more of warfare and political instability. In the squash, and sunflowers. They established new trade links vacuum left by Cahokia’s decline, other groups sought to ex- with nomadic hunting peoples, including the Apaches and ert more power. In the Northeast, the Iroquois and Hurons Navajos, who exchanged buffalo meat and hides for Pueblo moved from dispersed settlements into fortified villages. corn, cotton blankets, pottery, and other goods. Both the Hurons and the Iroquois formed confederacies that were intended to diminish internal conflicts and Plains Indians. The Great Plains of the continent’s inte- increase their collective spiritual strength. Among the rior were much less densely settled than the desert South- Iroquois, five separate nations—the Mohawks, Oneidas, west. Mandans, Pawnees, and other groups settled along Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas—joined to create the river valleys, where women farmed and men hunted bison. Great League of Peace and Power around the year 1450. Plains Indians moved frequently, seeking more fertile land Similar developments occurred in the Southeast, where or better hunting. Wherever they went, they traded skins, chronic instability led to regional alliances and shifting cen- food, and obsidian (a volcanic glass used for tools and ters of trade and political power. One such center at weapons) with other native peoples. Etowah, in northwestern Georgia, prospered until about 1400, at which point it gave way to a new chiefdom at Coosa. Mound-building cultures. As agriculture spread to the Eastern Woodlandspeoples were the first to encounter Eastern Woodlands, a vast territory extending from the English explorers, and later, English settlers, at the start of Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic seaboard, several “mound- the seventeenth century.By that point these native peoples building” societies—named for the large earthworks their relied on a mixture of agriculture and hunting, fishing, and members constructed—developed in the Ohio and Missis- gathering for their subsistence. They lived in villages with a sippi Valleys. The oldest flourished in Louisiana between few hundred residents, with greater densities of settlement 1500 and 700 B.C.E. The members of the Adena-Hopewell culture, which appeared in the Ohio Valley between 500 B.C.E. and 400 C.E., built hundreds of mounds, often in the shapes of humans, birds, and ser- pents. Most were grave sites, where people were buried with valuable goods, including objects made from materials obtained through long-distance trade. The last mound-building culture, the Mississippian, emerged between 1000 and 1500 in the Mississippi Valley. Mississip- pian farmers raised enough food to support sizable populations and major urban cen- ters. The largest city by far was Cahokia, located near present-day St. Louis in a fer- tile floodplain with access to the major river systems of the continent’s interior. By 1250, Cahokia had perhaps 20,000 residents, making it nearly as large as me- dieval London and the largest American This artist’s rendering, based on archaeological evidence, suggests the size and magnificence of city north of Mexico. Its political leaders the Mississippian city of Cahokia. By the thirteenth century,it was as populous as medieval collected tribute, redistributed goods, London and served as a center of trade for the vast interior of North America. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 10

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in the south (where a warmer climate and longer growing continent and the one with the longest record of human season prevailed) than in the north.Although early colonists habitation, where the ancestors of modern humans (Homo sometimes described these Indian groups as nomadic, they sapiens) appeared 130,000 or more years ago. Like the Amer- in fact inhabited semipermanent villages and moved only icas, Africa had witnessed the rise of many ancient and di- when declining soil fertility or, in some instances, warfare verse cultures (see Map 1–2). They ranged from the compelled them to shift location. For the most part, their sophisticated Egyptian civilization that developed in the principal villages were near the coast or along rivers, where Nile Valley over 5,000 years ago to the powerful twelfth- the greatest diversity of natural resources could be found. century chiefdoms of Zimbabwe to the West African em- pires that flourished in the time of Columbus and Cortés. The Caribbean Islanders The vast majority of Africans who came to the Americas The Caribbean islands were peopled by mainland dwellers after 1492 arrived as slaves, transported by Europeans eager who began moving to the islands around 5000 B.C.E. Ances- to exploit their labor. Although they were involuntary im- tors of the Tainos probably came from what is now migrants, Africans could draw upon their ancient cultural Venezuela. The Guanahatabeys of western Cuba originated heritages to help shape the New World in which they found in Florida, and the Caribs of the easternmost islands moved themselves. from Brazil’s Orinoco Valley. Surviving at first by hunting and gathering, island peoples began farming perhaps in the Geographical and Political Differences first century C.E. They raised manioc, sweet potatoes, Most African immigrants to the Americas came from the maize, squash, beans, peppers, peanuts, and pineapple on continent’s western regions. Extending from the southern clearings made in the tropical forests. Canoes carried trade edge of the Sahara Desert toward goods throughout the Caribbean, as well as to Mesoamerica the equator and inland for nearly See the Map and coastal South America. 1,000 miles, West Africa was an at www.myhistorylab.com Africa Climate Regions and By 1492, as many as 4 million people may have inhabited area of contrasts. On the whole a Early Sites the Caribbean islands. Powerful chiefs ruled over villages, sparsely settled region, West conducted war and diplomacy, and controlled the distribu- Africa nevertheless contained numerous densely inhabited tion of food and other goods obtained as tribute from vil- communities. Many of these settlements clung to the lagers. Elite islanders were easily recognized by their fine coast, but several important cities lay well inland. Perhaps clothing, bright feather headdresses, and golden ear and the greatest of these metropolises was Timbuktu, which nose ornaments—items that eventually attracted the atten- had as many as 70,000 residents in the fifteenth century. tion of European visitors. At that time, Timbuktu served as the seat of the powerful Long before Europeans reached North America, the Songhai empire and was an important center of trade and continent’s inhabitants had witnessed centuries of dynamic government. change. Empires rose and fell, and new ones took their The Songhai empire was only the latest in a series of place. Large cities flourished and disappeared. Periods of powerful West African states. One of the earliest, Ghana, warfare occasionally disrupted the lives of thousands of in- rose to prominence in the eighth century and dominated the dividuals. The Europeans’ arrival, at the end of the fifteenth area for nearly 300 years. Its successor, Mali, emerged around century, coincided with a period of particular instability, as 1200 and lasted another three cen- various Native American groups competed for dominance turies until a power struggle Read the Document in the wake of the collapse of the centralized societies at among its rulers led to its decline. at www.myhistorylab.com Ghana and Its People in the Cahokia and Chaco Canyon. Yet at the same time, Native Songhai, larger and wealthier than Mid-Eleventh Century American societies experienced important continuities. its predecessors, flourished from These included an ability to adapt to widely varying envi- around 1450 until it fell to a Moroccan invasion in 1591. ronmental conditions, the preservation of religious and cer- Equivalently large empires did not appear in coastal West emonial traditions, and an eagerness to forge relationships Africa, although the Asante, Dahomey, Oyo, and Bini king- of exchange with neighboring peoples. Both continuities doms there grew to be quite powerful.And farther south, be- with past experience and more recent circumstances of low the Equator, the powerful Kingdom of Kongo expanded political change would shape the ways native peoples through the fifteenth century to dominate a large area. responded to the European newcomers. Geographical as well as political differences marked the inland and coastal regions. In the vast grasslands of the in- terior, people raised livestock and cultivated millet and West African Societies sorghum. Rice also served as an important food crop. In the In the three centuries after 1492, six out of seven people , Europeans brought an Asian variety to add to indige- who crossed the Atlantic to the Americas were not Europeans nous African rice strains. On the coast—where rain falls but Africans. They came from the world’s second-largest nearly every day—people grew yams, bananas, and various M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 11

Ibos Tribes Kingdoms ICELAND Sahel SWEDEN Trans-Saharan trade routes NORTH Venice-India trade route A SEA E S RUSSIA Boundaries of the SCOTLAND I C DENMARK T Holy Roman Empire L IRELAND B A NETHERLANDS PRUSSIA Dublin ENGLAND Amsterdam POLAND London GERMAN STATES HOLY Paris ROMAN EMPIRE FRANCE SWITZ. HUNGARY Geneva Venice Genoa ITALIAN ATLANTIC BLACK SEA STATES O T OCEAN ARAGON Rome T O Constantinople M A SPAIN N PORTUGAL E M CASTILE M P E D I R Granada I T E Palos E R R A N E A N ALGIERS N S E O A Fez R O T C C Wargla H O Alexandria R Sijilmassa O Ghadames A M F Cairo R Canary S A H A R A I EGYPT Tuat Murzuk Islands C N A i le

R

i Terhazza Ghat v

e

r

Tamanrasset

T o

I n I C d H A I T ia G O N L A Suakin N I D Cape Verde N U Bilma S Islands O Timbuktu SENEGAMBIA GHANA S MALI Agades Wolofs Gao W E S T C E N T R A L S U D A N TEKRUR E R N S U D Lake W A N i Katsina Sennar n SEGU Djenné Chad d HAUSA FUNJ w WADAI r Kano DARFUR a e BORNU r v MOSSI STATES d i R r C e ig STATES o N a NUPE s t G U Yorubas Mendes I N OYO E ASANTE G C O A DAHOMEY ra A Ibos in BENIN C S o T AKAN Benin as S t Elmina ast l Co av Coast ld e C ory Go oa Iv st

0 250 500 750 1,000 Miles

0 500 1,000 Kilometers São Tomé

MAP 1–2 West Africa and Europe in 1492 Before Columbus’s voyage, Europeans knew little about the world beyond the Mediterranean basin and the coast of West Africa. Muslim merchants from North Africa largely controlled European traders’ access to African gold and other materials.

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kinds of beans and peas in forest clearings. They also kept sheep, goats, and poultry.

Artisans and merchants. West Africans excelled as skilled artisans and metalworkers. Smiths in Benin pro- duced intricate bronze sculptures, and Asante craftsmen designed distinctive miniature gold weights. West African smiths also used their skills to forge weapons, attesting to the frequent warfare between West African states. Trade networks linked inland and coastal states, and long-distance commercial connections tied WestAfrica to southern Europe and the Middle East. West African mer- chants exchanged locally mined gold with traders from North Africa for salt, a commodity so rare in West Africa that it was sometimes literally worth its weight in gold. North African merchants also bought WestAfrican pepper, leather, and ivory. The wealth generated by this trans- Saharan trade contributed to the rise of the Songhai and earlier empires.

Farming and gender roles. Most West Africans were farmers, whose lives were defined by a daily round of work, family duties, and worship. West African men and women shared agricultural tasks. Men prepared fields for planting, while women cultivated and harvested the crops. Men also hunted and, in the grassland regions, herded cattle. Women in the coastal areas owned and cared for other livestock, in- Craftsmen from the West African kingdom of Benin were cluding goats and sheep. West African women regularly renowned for their remarkable bronze sculptures.This intricate traded goods, including the crops they grew,in local markets bronze plaque depicts four African warriors in full military dress. and were thus essential to the vitality of local economies. The two tiny figures in the background may be Portuguese soldiers, who first arrived in Benin in the late fifteenth century. Family Structure and Religion Benin bronze plaque. National Museum of African Art, Family connections were exceedingly important to West Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, U.S.A. Aldo Africans, helping to define each person’s place in society.Chil- Tutino/Art Resource, NY. dren were especially cherished; one Yoruba proverb stated that “Without children you are naked.” High rates of infant and child mortality—attributable in large part to a harsh dis- ease environment—made offspring all the more precious, for parents depended on their children for labor and for support in old age. In some regions, men who could afford to do so had West Africans believed that spiritual forces suffused more than one wife, thus increasing their chances of having the natural world, and they performed ceremonies to ensure surviving offspring. While ties between parents and children the spirits’ goodwill. Medicine men and women used rituals were of central importance, West Africans also emphasized to protect people from evil spirits and sorcerers. Religious their links with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. ceremonies were held in sacred places—often near water— Groups of families formed clans that further extended an in- but not in buildings that Europeans recognized as churches. dividual’s kin ties within the village. West Africans preserved their faith through oral traditions, Religious beliefs magnified the powerful influence of not written texts. family on African life. Ideas and practices focused on Islam began to take root in West Africa as early as themes of fertility, prosperity, health, and social harmony. the tenth century, introduced by Muslim traders and Because many West Africans believed that their ancestors soldiers from North Africa. By the fifteenth century, acted as mediators between the worlds of the living and the the cities of Timbuktu and Djenné had become cen- dead, they held elaborate funerals for deceased members ters of Islamic learning, at- Read the Document and performed public rituals at their grave sites. Such ritu- tracting students from as far at www.myhistorylab.com als helped keep the memory of ancestors alive for younger away as southern Europe. Urban Muslim Reform in Songhai generations. dwellers, especially merchants, (1500) M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 13

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were more likely to convert to the new religion, as were southern Europe since the middle of the fourteenth century, some rulers. Farmers, however, accustomed to religious and within West Africa itself for centuries. Chronic under- rituals that focused on agricultural fertility, tended to resist population in many parts of West Africa had led to the devel- Islamic influence more strongly or adopt religious practices opment of slavery as a way to maintain control over scarce that mingled Islamic and traditional beliefs. and valuable laborers. African law recognized slaves, rather than land, as the main form of private property. Most slaves European Merchants in West Africa within Africa lost their freedom because they were captured and the Slave Trade in war, but others had been kidnapped or were enslaved as Before the fifteenth century, Europeans knew little about punishment for a crime. First the Portuguese, and later other Africa beyond its Mediterranean coast. Spain, parts of Europeans, exploited rivalries among various West African which had been under Islamic rule since the eighth century, states to encourage them to take war captives who could be had stronger ties to North Africa than did most of Europe. sold into an expanding transatlantic slave trade. Virtually all But Christian merchants from other European lands had of the African slaves who ended up in the New World had traded for centuries with Muslims in the North African first been enslaved by fellow Africans. ports. When stories of West African gold reached European European visitors who observed African slaves in their traders, they tried to move deeper into the continent. But homeland often described them as “slaves in name only” be- they encountered powerful Muslim merchants intent on cause they were subject to so little coercion.African slaves at monopolizing the gold trade. work in the fields appeared little different from other farm- The kingdom of Portugal sought to circumvent this ers. Slaves were also employed as soldiers and administra- Muslim monopoly. Portuguese forces conquered Ceuta in tors, fulfilling important duties and enjoying considerable Morocco and gained a foothold on the continent in 1415. Be- freedom in their daily routines. Slavery in Africa was not cause this outpost did not provide direct access to the necessarily a permanent status and did not automatically ap- sources of gold, Portuguese mariners began exploring the ply to the slaves’ children.African merchants who sold slaves West African coast. They established trading posts along to European purchasers had no reason to suspect that those the way, where they exchanged horses, clothing, wine, lead, slaves would be treated any differently by their new owners. iron, and steel for African gold, grain, animal skins, cotton, Africans caught in the web of the transatlantic slave pepper, and camels. trade, however, entered a much harsher world. Separated By the 1430s, the Portuguese had discovered perhaps the from the kinfolk who meant so much to them, isolated from greatest source of wealth they could extract from Africa— a familiar landscape, and hard-pressed to sustain spiritual slaves. A vigorous market in African slaves had existed in and cultural traditions in a new environment, Africans faced daunting challenges as they journeyed across the ocean and entered into the his- tory of the New World.

Western Europe on the Eve of Exploration When Columbus sailed from Spain in 1492, he left a continent that was recover- ing from the devastating warfare and dis- ease of the fourteenth century and was about to embark on the devastating reli- gious conflicts of the sixteenth. Between 1337 and 1453, England and France had ex- hausted each other in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years’ War. And be- tween 1347 and 1351, an epidemic known as the Black Death (bubonic plague, and per- haps in some areas a pneumonic form of the disease as well) wreaked havoc on a European population already suffering Elmina Castle, located on the coast of what is now Ghana, was founded by the Portuguese in from persistent malnutrition. Perhaps a 1482 as a trading post. In 1637, the Dutch West India Company seized the castle and converted third of all Europeans died, with results for use in the slave trade. that were felt for more than a century. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 14

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The plague left Europe with far fewer workers, a result control political rivals. They gave special trading privileges that contributed to southern Europeans’ interest in the to merchants to gain their support, creating links that African slave trade. To help the economy recover, the sur- would later prove important in financing overseas expedi- vivors learned to be more efficient and rely on technological tions. Spain and Portugal negotiated an end to a long- improvements. Farmers tilled their most fertile land, and arti- running dispute about the succession to the throne of sans adopted labor-saving techniques to increase productivity. Castile, one of Spain’s largest kingdoms. Metalworkers built larger furnaces with bellows driven by The consolidation of military power went hand in hand water power. Shipbuilders redesigned vessels with steering with the strengthening of political authority. Portugal de- mechanisms that could be managed by smaller crews. Innova- veloped a strong navy to defend its seaborne merchants. tions in banking, accounting, and insurance also fostered eco- Louis XI of France commanded a standing army, and Ferdi- nomic recovery. Although prosperity was distributed nand of Spain created a palace guard to use against potential unevenly among social classes, on the whole, Europe had a opponents. Before overseas expansion began, European stronger, more productive economy in 1500 than ever before. monarchs exerted military force to extend their authority In much of Western Europe, economic improvement closer to home. Louis XI and his successors used warfare encouraged an extraordinary cultural movement known as and intermarriage with the ruling families of nearby the Renaissance, a “rebirth” of interest in the classical civi- provinces to extend French influence. In the early sixteenth lizations of ancient Greece and Rome. The Renaissance century, England’s Henry VIII sent soldiers to conquer originated in the city-states of Italy, where a prosperous and Ireland. And the Spain of 1492 was forged from the successful educated urban class promoted learning and artistic expres- conclusion of the reconquista (“reconquest”) of territory sion. Wealthy townspeople joined princes in becoming pa- from Muslim control. trons of the arts, offering financial support to painters, Muslim invaders from North Africa first entered Spain sculptors, architects, writers, and musicians. in 711 and their descendants ruled much of the Iberian The daily lives of most Europeans, however, remained Peninsula (which includes Spain and Portugal) for centuries. untouched by intellectual and artistic developments. Most Beginning in the mid-eleventh century, Christian armies Europeans resided in agricultural communities that often embarked on a long effort to reclaim the region. By 1450, differed in important ways from Native American and West only the southern tip of Spain remained under Muslim con- African societies. In European societies, men performed trol. After the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella most of the heavy work of farming, while women focused of Castile in 1469 united Spain’s two principal kingdoms, on household production of such goods as butter, cheese, their combined forces completed the reconquista. Granada, and cloth, as well as on caring for the family. Europeans the last Muslim stronghold, fell in 1492, shortly before lived in states organized into more rigid hierarchies than Columbus set out on his first voyage. could be found in most parts of North America or West Africa, with the population divided into distinct classes. At the top were the monarchs who, along with the next rank of Religious Conflict and the aristocrats, dominated government and owned most of the Protestant Reformation land, receiving rents and labor services from farmers and Even as these rulers sought to unify their realms, religious rural artisans. Next, in descending order, came prosperous conflicts began to tear Europe apart. For more than gentry families, independent landowners, and, at the bot- 1,000 years, Catholic Christianity had united Western tom, landless peasants and laborers. Europeans in one faith. By the sixteenth century, the European society was also patriarchal, with men domi- had accumulated enormous wealth and nating political and economic life. Europe’s rulers were, power. The pope wielded influence not only as the church’s with few exceptions, men, and men controlled the Catholic spiritual leader but also as the political ruler of parts of Italy. Church. Only men (or, in rare instances, widows) could The church owned considerable property throughout own property. According to an ideal not always upheld, Europe. In reaction to this growing influence, many Chris- Europeans thought that every man should be “as a king in tians, especially in northern Europe, began to criticize the his own house,” ruling over his wife, children, and servants. popes and the church itself for worldliness and abuse of power. In 1517, a German monk, Martin Luther, invited open debate on a set of propositions critical of church practices The Consolidation of Political and doctrines. Luther believed that the church had become and Military Authority too insistent on the performance of good works, such as By the end of the fifteenth century, a measure of stability re- charitable donations or other actions intended to please turned to the countries about to embark on overseas ex- God. He called for a return to what he understood to be the pansion. The monarchs of Spain, France, and England purer beliefs of the early church, emphasizing that salvation successfully asserted royal authority over their previously came not by good deeds but only by faith in God. With the fragmented realms, creating strong state bureaucracies to help of the newly invented printing press, his ideas spread M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 15

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The Reformation fractured the religious unity of Western Europe and spawned a century of warfare unprecedented in its bloody destructiveness. Protestants fought Catholics in France and the German states. Popes initiated a “Counter-Reformation” to strengthen the Catholic Church—in part by internal reform and in part by persecuting its opponents and reimposing religious con- formity. Europe thus fragmented into war- ring camps just at the moment when Europeans were coming to terms with their discovery of America. Some of the key par- ticipants in exploration, such as Spain and Portugal, rejected Protestantism, while oth- ers, including England and the Netherlands, embraced religious reform.

Contact Religious fervor, political ambition, and This illustration shows Martin Luther and his Protestant supporters burning the papal decree the desire for wealth propelled European that announced Luther’s excommunication from the Catholic Church. nations into overseas expansion as well as conflict at home. Portugal, Spain, France, and England com- peted to establish footholds on other continents in an in- widely, inspiring a challenge to the Catholic Church that tense scramble for riches and dominance. The success of came to be known as the Reformation. these endeavors reflected Europe’s prosperity and a series When the Catholic Church refused to compromise, of technological breakthroughs that enabled its mariners to Luther and other critics withdrew to form their own reli- navigate beyond familiar waters. gious organizations. Luther urged people to take responsi- By 1600, Spain had emerged as the apparent winner bility for their own spiritual growth by reading the Bible, among the European competitors for New World domi- which he translated for the first time into German. What nance. Its astonishingly wealthy empire included vast territo- started as a religious movement, however, quickly acquired ries in Central and South America. The conquerors of this an important political dimension. empire attributed their success to their military superiority Sixteenth-century Germany was a fragmented region and God’s approval of their imperial ambitions. In reality, it of small kingdoms and principalities. They were officially was the result of a complex set of interactions with native part of a larger Catholic political entity known as the Holy peoples as well as an unanticipated demographic catastrophe. Roman Empire, but many German princes were discon- tented with imperial authority. Many of these princes also The Lure of Discovery supported Luther. When the Holy Roman Empire under The potential rewards of overseas exploration captured the Charles V(who was also king of Spain) tried to silence them, imaginations of a small but powerful segment of European the reformist princes protested. From that point on, these society.Most people, busy making a living, cared little about princes—and all Europeans who supported religious distant lands. But certain princes and merchants anticipated reform—became known as Protestants. spiritual and material benefits from voyages of discovery. The Protestant movement took a more radical turn un- The spiritual advantages included making new Christian der the influence of the French reformer John Calvin, who converts and blocking Islam’s expansion—a Christian goal emphasized the doctrine of predestination. Calvin main- that dated back to the eleventh-century against tained that an all-powerful and all-knowing God chose at the Muslims in the Middle East and continued with the the moment of creation which humans would be saved and reconquista. On the material side, the voyages would con- which would be damned. Nothing a person could do would tribute to Europe’s prosperity by increasing trade. alter that spiritual destiny. Once the ideas of Luther and Merchants especially sought access to Asian spices like Calvin began to spread in Europe, no one could contain the pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg that added interest to powerful Protestant impulse. In succeeding years, other an otherwise monotonous diet and helped preserve foods. groups formed, split, and split again, increasing Europe’s re- Wealthy Europeans paid handsomely for small quantities ligious fragmentation. of spices, making it worthwhile to transport them great M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 16

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distances. But the overland spice trade—and the trade in Spanish eventually prevailing. Portugal acquired Madeira other luxury goods such as silk and furs—spanned thousands and the Cape Verde Islands, along with a group of tiny of miles, involved many middlemen, and was controlled at islands off Africa’s Guinea Coast. key points by Muslim merchants. One critical center was Sugar, like Asian spices, commanded high prices in Constantinople, the bastion of Christianity in the eastern Europe, so the conquerors of the Atlantic islands began to Mediterranean. When that city fell to the Ottomans— cultivate sugar cane on them, on large plantations worked Muslim rulers of Turkey—in 1453, Europeans feared that by slave labor. In the Canaries, the Spanish first enslaved the caravan routes to Asia would be disrupted. This encouraged native inhabitants. When disease and exhaustion reduced merchants to turn westward and seek alternative routes. their numbers, the Spanish brought in African slaves, often The reorientation of European trade benefited western purchased from Portuguese traders. Elsewhere Europeans Italian cities such as Genoa as well as Portugal and Spain, imported African slaves from the start. São Tomé and the whose ports gave access to the Mediterranean and the other small islands off the Guinea Coast eventually became Atlantic Ocean. Mariners ventured farther into ocean important waystations in the transatlantic slave trade. waters, seeking direct access to the African gold trade and, eventually, a sea route around Africa to Asia. Had it not been for a set of technological developments that reduced the Christopher Columbus risks of ocean sailing, such lengthy voyages into unexplored and the Westward Route to Asia areas would have been impossible. Christopher Columbus was but one of many European mariners excited by the prospect of tapping into the Advances in navigation and shipbuilding. Ocean voy- wealth of Asia. Born in Genoa in ages required sturdier ships than those that plied the 1451, he later lived in Portugal Read the Document Mediterranean. Because oceangoing mariners traveled be- and Spain, where he read widely at www.myhistorylab.com yond sight of coastal features, they also needed reliable nav- From The Journal of Christopher in geographical treatises and lis- igational tools. In the early fifteenth century, Prince Henry Columbus (1492) tened closely to the stories and of Portugal sponsored the efforts of shipbuilders, mapmak- rumors that circulated among mariners. As a young man, ers, and other workers to solve these practical problems. By Columbus gained considerable experience with ocean 1500, enterprising artisans had made several important ad- travel, visiting Africa’s Guinea Coast and Madeira, and vances. Iberian shipbuilders perfected the caravel, a ship perhaps even voyaging to Iceland. whose narrow shape and steering rudder suited it for ocean Columbus was not the first European to reach the New travel. Ship designers combined square sails (good for World. Several centuries earlier, Norse explorers from Scan- speed) with triangular lateen sails, which increased maneu- dinavia sailed and raided around the North Atlantic. These verability. European mariners adopted two important navi- Vikings, as they were known, occupied Iceland by the late gational devices—the magnetic compass (first developed in ninth century C.E. and later moved on to Greenland. Be- China) and the astrolabe (introduced to Europe by Muslims tween 1001 and 1014, Leif Erikson made several voyages to from Spain)—that allowed mariners to determine their po- the northern coast of Newfoundland, where he helped to sition in relation to a star’s known location in the sky. As establish a short-lived Viking colony at Vinland and became sailors acquired practical experience on the high seas, map- one of the first Europeans to encounter Native Americans. makers recorded their observations of landfalls, wind pat- After the Viking colony disappeared, European fishermen terns, and ocean currents. Long-distance voyages remained continued to make seasonal voyages to the area, but it risky, however, in part because mariners had no accurate would be several centuries before Columbus initiated an- way to measure longitude until the eighteenth century. other attempt at settlement. Portuguese mariners slowly worked their way along Neither was Columbus the first European to believe Africa’s western coast, establishing trading posts where that he could reach Asia by sailing westward. The idea de- they exchanged European goods for gold, ivory, and slaves veloped logically during the fifteenth century as mariners (see Map 1–3). Bartolomeu Días reached the southern tip of gained knowledge and experience from their exploits in the Africa in 1488. Eleven years later, Vasco da Gama brought a Atlantic and around Africa. Most Europeans knew that the Portuguese fleet around Africa to India, opening a sea route world was round, but scoffed at the idea of a westward to Asia. These initiatives gave Portugal a virtual monopoly voyage to Asia in the belief that no ship could carry enough on Far Eastern trade for some time. provisions for such a long trip. Columbus’s confidence that The Atlantic islands and the slave trade. The new At- he could succeed grew from a mathematical error. He lantic trade routes gave strategic importance to the islands mistakenly calculated the earth’s circumference as 18,000 that lie off the west coast of Africa and Europe. Spain and (rather than 24,000) miles and so concluded that Asia lay Portugal vied for control of the , located just 3,500 miles west of the Canary Islands. Columbus first 800 miles southwest of the , with the sought financial support for a westward voyage from the M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 17

GREENLAND

Hudson Frobisher 1576–1578 Bay

ENGLAND

Cabot 1497 Bristol Cartier 1534

Cartier 1535, 1541 4 3 5 NEWFOUNDLAND EUROPE St. Lawrence 1 River FRANCE

ATLANTIC PORTUGAL NORTH SPAIN Azores Palos OCEAN AMERICA Ver razano 152 4 Madeira

Canary Islands GULF Bahamas 2 OF Columbus 149 MEXICO 93 Cuba s 14 mbu Colu Hispaniola

Puerto Rico 502 Jamaica Columbus 1 Cape Verde Islands AFRICA CARIBBEAN SEA 498 bus 1 Colum

Isthmus of Panama

São Tomé

A

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A 1 Spanish voyages Good Hope – 97

I 4 a 1

N da Gam

S 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 Miles

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 Kilometers

MAP 1–3 European Voyages of Discovery in the Atlantic in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Europeans embarked on voyages of discovery that carried them to both Asia and the Americas. Portugal dominated the ocean trade with Asia for most of this period. In the New World, reports of Spain’s acquisition of vast wealth soon led France and England to attempt to establish their own territorial claims.

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king of Portugal, whose advisers disputed his calculations for the precious nuggets. But Caribbean gold reserves, and warned him that he would starve at sea before reaching found mainly on Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, were Asia. Undaunted, he turned to Portugal’s rival, Spain. not extensive. Dissatisfied with the meager results, Columbus tried to convince Ferdinand and Isabella that Columbus sought to transform the Indians themselves into his plan suited Spain’s national goals. If he succeeded, Spain a source of wealth. could grow rich from Asian trade, send Christian missionar- In 1494, Columbus suggested to the Spanish monarchs ies to Asia (a goal in keeping with the religious ideals of the that the Indies could yield a profit if islanders were sold as reconquista), and perhaps enlist the Great Khan of China as an slaves. His plan earned him a sharp rebuke from Queen ally in the long struggle with Islam. If he failed, the “enter- Isabella, who opposed enslaving people she considered to prise of the Indies” would cost little. The Spanish monarchs be new Spanish subjects. This royal fastidiousness was nonetheless kept Columbus waiting nearly seven years— short-lived, however. Within a year, the queen agreed that until 1492, when the last Muslim stronghold at Granada fell native war captives could be enslaved. In succeeding to Spanish forces—before they gave him their support. decades, the Spanish government periodically called for fair After 33 days at sea, Columbus and his men were carried treatment of Indians and prohibited their enslavement, but by prevailing ocean currents to the Bahamas, probably such measures were ignored by colonists on the other side landing on what is now called Watling Island. They spent of the Atlantic. four months exploring the Caribbean and visiting several Columbus died in Spain in Watch the Video islands, including Hispaniola (now the site of Haiti and the 1506, still convinced he had found at www.myhistorylab.com Dominican Republic) and Cuba. Although puzzled by Asia. What he had done was to set What is Columbus’s Legacy? his failure to find the fabled cities of China and Japan, in motion a process that would Columbus believed that he had reached Asia. Three more transform both sides of the Atlantic. It would eventually voyages between 1493 and 1504, however, failed to yield clear bring wealth to many Europeans and immense suffering to evidence of an Asian landfall or Asian riches. Columbus re- Native Americans and Africans. ported that the islands he encountered contained “great mines of gold and other metals” and spices in abundance, The Spanish Conquest and Colonization yet all he brought back to Isabella and Ferdinand were Of all European nations, Spain was best suited to take ad- strange plants and animals, some gold ornaments, and vantage of Columbus’s discovery. Its experience with the several kidnapped Taino Indians. reconquista gave it a religious justification for conquest Frustrated in their search for wealth, Columbus and his (bringing Christianity to nonbelievers) and an army of sea- men turned violent, sacking native villages and demanding soned soldiers—conquistadores—eager to seek their fortunes tribute in gold. They forced gangs of Indians to pan rivers in America now that the last Muslims had been expelled from Spain. In addition, during the reconquista and the con- quest of the Canary Islands, Spain’s rulers developed effi- cient techniques for controlling newly conquered lands that could be applied to New World colonies. The Spanish first consolidated their control of the Caribbean, establishing outposts on Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica (see Map 1–4). The conquistadores were more interested in finding gold and slaves than in creating permanent settlements. Leaving a trail of destruction, they attacked native villages and killed or captured the inhabi- tants. By 1524, the Tainos had all but died out; the Caribs survived on more isolated islands until the eighteenth century. Spanish soldiers then ventured to the mainland. In 1513, Juan Ponce de León led an expedition to Florida look- ing for the legendary fountain of youth. In that same year, Vasco Núñez de Balboa arrived in Central America, cross- ing the isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean.

A decidedly European view of Columbus’s landing appears in this The end of the Aztec Empire. In 1519, Hernán Cortés late sixteenth-century print. Columbus and his men, armed with and 600 soldiers—the light-skinned strangers who inspired guns and swords, are resplendent in European attire, while nearly the Indian messenger to rush to Moctezuma—landed on naked Indians offer them gifts.To the left, Spaniards erect a cross to the coast of Mexico. Their subsequent actions more than claim the land for Christianity.In the upper right, frightened natives fulfilled the Aztec king’s belief that the Spaniards’ arrival flee into the woods. was an evil omen. “I and my companions,” Cortés M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 19

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NEWFOUNDLAND

4

3 5 Cartier 1 1535,

1541 r e iv R e c n re w a L . t S

87 15 85, , 15 Coronado 584 es 1 1540–1542 voyag Roanoke de Soto Roanoke 1539 ATLANTIC OCEAN Charlesfort

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R FLORIDA Island io G r a Cabe ca Cabeza de Vaca n za de Va d e 1528 P –1536 o 1528–1536 nce Coronado de 1540–1542 Le ón 15 GULF OF MEXICO 13 San NEW Havana Cuba Juan PACIFIC SPAIN 19 Hispaniola 15 Puerto s Santiago OCEAN é rt Rico o C Vera Cruz Jamaica S E A Tenochtitlán C A English explorations (Mexico City) R I B B E A N

French explorations 3 1 Caracas Spanish explorations 5 1 a English settlements o lb a French settlements B

Spanish settlements Panama City

Spanish Empire 0 500 Miles

Aztec Empire 0 500 Kilometers Isthmus of Panama

MAP 1–4 Spanish, English, and French Settlements in North America in the Sixteenth Century By the end of the sixteenth century, only Spain had established permanent settlements in North America. French outposts in Canada and at Fort Caroline, as well as the English settlement at Roanoke, failed to thrive. European rivalries for North America, however,would intensify after 1600.

announced, “suffer from a disease of the heart which can be more numerous enemy, capable of absorbing far higher cured only with gold.” By 1521, Cortés and his men had losses in combat. conquered the powerful Aztec empire, discovering riches Cortés benefited from two other factors. First, he beyond their wildest dreams. They “picked up the gold and exploited divisions within the Aztec empire. The Spanish fingered it like monkeys,” reported one Aztec witness. acquired indispensable allies among subject Indians who The swift, decisive Spanish victory depended on several resented Aztec domination, tribute demands, and seizure of factors. In part, the Spanish enjoyed certain technological captives for religious sacrifice. Cortés received invaluable advantages. Their guns and horses often enabled them to help in communicating with these peoples from Malinche, overwhelm larger groups of Aztec foot soldiers armed with a captive native woman who served as a translator (and who spears and wooden swords edged with obsidian. But tech- also bore him a son). He eventually gained 200,000 Indian nology alone cannot account for the conquest of a vastly allies eager to throw off Aztec rule. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 20

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To conquer Tenochtitlán, Spanish soldiers had to gain control of the narrow causeways that led to the center of this distinctively designed city.

A second and more important factor was disease. One The fall of the Inca Empire. In 1532, Francisco Pizarro of Cortés’s men was infected with smallpox, which soon and 180 men, following rumors of even greater riches than devastated the native population. European diseases had those of Mexico, discovered the Inca empire high in the been unknown in the Americas before 1492, and Indians Peruvian Andes. It was the largest empire in the Americas, lacked resistance to them. Historians estimate that nearly stretching more than 2,000 miles from what is now Ecuador 40 percent of the inhabitants of central Mexico died of to Chile. An excellent network of roads and bridges linked smallpox within a year. Other diseases followed, including this extensive territory to the imperial capital of Cuzco. typhus, measles, and influenza. By 1600, the population of Economically prosperous from trade and agriculture based Mexico may have declined from over 15 million to less than on complex irrigation systems, the empire was also prone to a million people. political division. The Spaniards arrived at a moment of Aztec society and culture collapsed in the face of ap- weakness for the empire. A few years before, the Inca ruler palling mortality. “The illness was so dreadful,” one survivor had died, probably from smallpox, and civil war had broken recalled, “that no one could walk or move. The sick were so out between two of his sons. The victor, Atahualpa, was on utterly helpless that they could only lie on their beds like his way from the empire’s northern provinces to claim his corpses, unable to move their limbs or even their heads. . . . throne in Cuzco when Pizarro intercepted him. Pizarro took If they did move their bodies, they screamed with pain.” Atahualpa hostage and despite receiving a colossal ransom— The epidemic ravaged families, wiped out villages, and de- a roomful of gold and silver—had him killed. The Spaniards stroyed traditional political authority. Early in their bid to then captured Cuzco, eventually extended control over the gain control of the Aztec empire, the Spanish seized whole empire, and established a new capital at Lima. Moctezuma, and eventually put him to death. They did not By 1550, Spain’s New World empire stretched from the have to kill his successor, however, for he died of disease not Caribbean through Mexico to Peru. It was administered long after gaining the throne. from Spain by the Council of the Indies, which enacted laws M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 21

Learning about Chocolate Long before Europeans arrived in After the conquest of Mexico, the peppers, and spices used in Mesoamerica Mesoamerica, native peoples throughout Spanish likewise received cacao as trib- were unavailable in Spain. So they the region—especially elite inhabitants— ute. They also developed a taste for improvised by using products obtained enjoyed beverages made with cacao.Those chocolate when the Indian women whom from Asia, such as cinnamon, cloves, and who prepared the drinks removed the they employed as cooks served it to them. black pepper, to approximate the flavors nibs, or “beans,”from cacao fruit, dried and To learn how cacao was processed, of New World ingredients. Thus the toasted them, then ground them to make Spaniards visited Indian villages and chocolate consumed in wealthy homes chocolate paste. They blended the paste markets to watch chocolate being made. across Spain was a truly global beverage. with water, flavored the mixture with chili By the early seventeenth century, colonial A mixture of products obtained from all peppers or dried flowers, and sometimes merchants and clergy who returned to over the world, it testified to the vast ex- sweetened it with honey.The aromatic liq- Spain introduced their countrymen to pansion of trade networks and served as uid would then be poured at a height from what had become a favorite drink. an important example of the transfer of one container to another to produce a Spaniards who had learned to drink knowledge and skills from Native Amer- foamy, often somewhat bitter, drink. Suffi- chocolate in the New World did their icans to European colonists. ciently valuable to circulate as currency best to replicate the familiar taste and ■ How did the Indians’ knowledge throughout the region,cacao beans formed appearance of the beverage in their Old of chocolate affect their relations an important part of the tribute that sub- World kitchens. But they found it with the Spanish? ject peoples owed to their Aztec overlords. difficult to do so, as the native flowers,

for the empire and supervised an elaborate bureaucracy that the interior of North America contained a fabulously charged with their enforcement. The council aimed to wealthy empire (see “American Views: Cabeza de Vaca project royal authority into every village in New Spain in Among the Indians”). order to maintain political control and extract as much This report inspired other Spaniards to seek such wealth as possible from the land and its people. treasures. In 1539, Hernán de Soto—who tried unsuccess- For more than a century, Spanish ships crossed the fully to get Cabeza de Vaca to serve as a guide—led an Atlantic carrying seemingly limitless amounts of treasure expedition from Florida to the Mississippi River. Along from the colonies. To extract this wealth, the colonial the way, the Spaniards harassed the native peoples, rulers subjected the native inhabitants of New Spain demanding provisions, burning villages, and capturing to compulsory tribute payments and forced labor. Tens women to be servants and concubines. De Soto, who of thousands of Indians toiled in silver mines in Peru reportedly enjoyed “the sport of hunting Indians on and Bolivia and on sugar plantations in the Caribbean. horseback,” ordered natives who resisted him to be muti- When necessary, Spaniards imported African slaves to lated, thrown to dogs, or burned alive. He and his men supplement a native labor force ravaged by disease and also exposed the Indians to deadly European diseases. exhaustion. Although weakened by native resistance, the expedition kept up its rampage for three years, turning toward Spanish incursions to the north. The desire for gold Mexico only after de Soto died in 1542. In these same eventually lured Spaniards farther into North America. In years, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led 300 troops on 1528, an expedition to Florida ended in disaster when the an equally destructive expedition through present-day Spanish intruders provoked an attack by Apalachee Indi- Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado on a futile search for ans. Most of the Spanish survivors eventually perished, but the mythical Seven Cities of Cíbola, rumored to contain Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three other men (includ- hoards of gold and precious stones. ing an African slave) escaped from their captors and man- The failure to find gold and silver halted Spain’s aged to reach Mexico after a grueling eight-year journey. In attempt to extend its empire to the north. By the end of a published account of his ordeal, Cabeza de Vaca insisted the sixteenth century, the Spanish maintained just two 21 M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 22

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precarious footholds north of Mexico. One was at St. Au- Compounding the problem, the flood of American gustine, on Florida’s Atlantic coast. Founded in 1565, this gold and silver contributed to what historians have called fortified outpost served as a naval base to defend Spanish a “price revolution” in Europe. Beginning in the late treasure fleets from raids by English and French privateers. fifteenth century, as Europe’s population recovered from The other settlement was located far to the west in what is the Black Death, demographic and economic factors led now New Mexico. Juan de Oñate, on a futile search for sil- to a rise in prices. This inflationary cycle was made worse ver mines, claimed the region for Spain in 1598. He and his by the influx of New World gold and silver. Workers, men proceeded to antagonize the area’s inhabitants. In one whose wages failed to rise as fast as prices, suffered, as did surprise attack, the Spaniards destroyed the ancient town some aristocrats dependent on fixed rents from their of Acoma, killing or enslaving most of the residents. Having estates. At the same time, Spain’s monarchs wasted earned the enmity of the Pueblo people—astonishing even their American wealth fighting expensive wars against his own superiors with his brutality—Oñate barely man- their European enemies that ultimately weakened the aged to keep his tiny colony together. nation. By 1600, some disillusioned Spaniards were argu- Almost from the start of the conquest, the bloody tac- ing that the conquest had brought more problems than tics of men such as Oñate aroused protest back in Spain. benefits to their country. The Indians’ most eloquent advocate was Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Dominican priest shamed by his own role (as a lay- The Columbian Exchange man) in the conquest of Hispaniola. In 1516, the Spanish Spain’s long-term economic decline was just one of many king appointed him to the newly consequences of the conquest of the New World. In the Read the Document created office of Protector of the long run, the biological consequences of contact—what one at www.myhistorylab.com Indians, but his efforts had little Of the Island of Hispaniola historian has called the Columbian exchange—proved to (1542) effect. To publicize the horrors he be the most momentous (see the Overview table, The saw, Las Casas wrote In Defense of Columbian Exchange). the Indians, including graphic descriptions of native suffer- ings. Instead of eliciting Spanish reforms, however, his work inspired Protestant Europeans to create the “Black Legend,” an exaggerated story according to which a 180 fanatical Catholic Spain sought to spread its control at any cost. 160

The seeds of economic decline. Mean- 140 while, the vast riches of Central and South America glutted Spain’s treasury. Between 120 1500 and 1650, an estimated 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver were shipped 100 from the New World to Spain, making it the richest and most powerful state in 80 Europe (see Figure 1–1). But this influx of American treasure had unforeseen conse- 60 quences that would soon undermine Span- Treasure (millions of ducats) ish predominance. 40 In 1492, the Spanish crown, deter- mined to impose religious conformity after 20 the reconquista, expelled from Spain all Jews who refused to become Christians. The 0 refugees included many leading merchants 1506–1530 1531–1555 1556–1580 1581–1605 1606–1630 1631–1655 who had contributed significantly to Period Spain’s economy. The remaining Christian merchants, now awash in American riches, saw little reason to invest in new trade or FIGURE 1–1 Value of New World Treasure Imported into Spain, 1506–1655 productive enterprises that might have During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Spain was the only European power to sustained the economy once the flow of reap great wealth from North America. The influx of New World treasure, however, slowed New World treasure diminished. As a re- the development of Spain’s economy in the long run. [Note: A ducat was a gold coin.] sult, Spain’s economy eventually stagnated. Data Source: J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469–1716 (1964), p. 175. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 23

OVERVIEWOVERVIEW The Columbian Exchange

From Old World to New World From New World to Old World

DISEASES Smallpox, measles, plague, typhus, influenza, yellow Sexually transmitted strain of syphilis fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, whooping cough

ANIMALS Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, mules, Turkeys black rats, honeybees, cockroaches

PLANTS Wheat, sugar, barley, apples, pears, peaches, plums, Maize, beans, peanuts, potatoes, sweet potatoes, manioc, squash, cherries, coffee, rice, dandelions, and other weeds papayas, guavas, tomatoes, avocadoes, pineapple, chili pepper, cacao

The most catastrophic result of the exchange was the Columbus introduced such European crops as wheat, exposure of Native Americans to Old World diseases. chickpeas, melons, onions, and fruit trees to the Caribbean. Europeans and Africans, long exposed to these diseases, had Native Americans, in turn, introduced Europeans to corn, developed some immunity to them. Native Americans, tomatoes, squash, beans, cacao, peppers, and potatoes, as lacking such contact, had not. The Black Death of 1347–1351, well as nonfood plants such as tobacco and cotton. New Europe’s worst epidemic, killed perhaps a third of its World food crops were transported back to Europe, where population. Epidemics of smallpox, measles, typhus, and they enriched Old World diets and, due to their nutritional influenza struck Native Americans with far greater force, benefits, eventually contributed to a sharp rise in Europe’s killing half, and sometimes as many as 90 percent, of population. Over time, many of these more numerous the people in communities exposed to them. The only Europeans chose to leave their overcrowded communities American disease that may have infected Old World for the New World. populations was a sexually transmitted form of syphilis, which appeared in Spain just after Columbus returned from his first voyage. Another important aspect of the Columbian exchange was the introduction of Old World livestock to the New World,which began when Columbus brought horses, sheep, cattle, pigs, and goats with him on his second voyage in 1493. Native Americans had few domesticated animals of their own (mainly dogs, and, in the PeruvianAndes, llamas and al- pacas). The large European beasts created problems as well as opportunities for native peoples. With few natural pred- ators to limit their numbers, livestock populations boomed in the New World, competing with native mammals for grazing. At least at first, the Indians’ unfamiliarity with the use of horses in warfare often gave mounted European sol- diers a decisive military advantage. But some native groups adopted these animals for their own purposes. Yaquis, Pueblos, and other peoples in the Southwest began to raise cattle and sheep. By the eighteenth century, Plains Indians had reoriented their culture around the use of horses, which had become essential for travel and hunting buffalo. Horses also became a primary object for trading and raiding among Plains peoples. European ships carried unintentional passengers too. The black rat, a carrier of disease, arrived on the first voyages. So did insects, including honeybees, previously Cacao, from which chocolate is made, was one of many unknown in the New World. Ships also brought weeds such New World foods that entered Old World diets as part as thistles and dandelions, whose seeds were often embed- of the Columbian exchange.This sixteenth-century ded in hay for animal fodder. illustration shows a native Mexican woman pouring chocolate from a great height to produce a frothy drink. 23 M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 24

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Cultural Perceptions In order for Indians and Europeans to get along peace- and Misperceptions ably, each side would have to look past these and other Curiosity and confusion often marked early encounters be- cultural differences and adapt to the new circumstances un- tween Europeans and Native Americans. Even simple trans- der which both groups now lived. At first, such harmony actions produced unexpected results. When Columbus seemed possible. But it soon became clear that Europeans showed swords to Caribbean islanders, for example, “they intended to dominate the lands they discovered. Only three took them by the edge and through ignorance cut them- days after he arrived in America, Columbus announced his selves” because they had never touched metal weapons. The intention “not to pass by any island of which I did not take first Indians whom Cortés allowed aboard a Spanish ship possession.” Such claims to dominance sparked vigorous re- fainted at the sound of a large cannon being fired. French sistance from native peoples everywhere who strove to explorers were similarly taken by surprise when they maintain their autonomy in a changed world. choked while smoking Iroquois tobacco, which they thought tasted like “powdered pepper.” These relatively mi- nor mishaps were soon overshadowed by more substantial Competition for a Continent interactions that highlighted cultural differences between Spain’s New World bonanza attracted the attention of other Indians and Europeans. European states eager to share in the wealth. Portugal Most Indians believed that the universe contained soon acquired its own profitable piece of South America. In friendly and hostile spiritual forces in human and other- 1494, the conflicting claims of Portugal and Spain were than-human forms (such as plants, animals, and stars). Peo- resolved by the Treaty of Tordesillas. The treaty drew a ple interacted with the spirit world through ceremonies north–south line approximately 1,100 miles west of the that often involved exchanging gifts. North of Mexico, In- Cape Verde Islands. Spain received all lands west of the line, dians (like West Africans) passed on religious beliefs while Portugal held sway to the east. This limited Portugal’s through oral traditions, not in writing. To Europeans accus- New World empire to Brazil, where settlers established tomed to worshiping one God in an organized church and sugar plantations worked by slave labor. But the treaty also preserving their beliefs in a written Bible, Indian spiritual protected Portugal’s claims in Africa and Asia, which lay traditions were incomprehensible. Columbus noted that east of the line. the Tainos had no churches and erroneously concluded that France and England, of course, rejected this division of they had no religion. Many Europeans went further, assum- the Western Hemisphere between Spain and Portugal. ing that Indians worshiped the Devil. Indians, in turn, often Their initial challenges to Spanish dominance in the New found Christianity confusing and at first rejected European World, however, proved quite feeble. Domestic troubles— pressure to convert. As some Iroquois explained to largely sparked by the Protestant Reformation—distracted colonists, “We do not know that God, we have never seen the two countries from the pursuit of empire. By the close him, we know not who he is.” of the sixteenth century, both France and England insisted Different understandings of gender roles provided an- on their rights to New World lands, but neither had created other source of confusion. Europeans regarded men as su- a permanent settlement to support its claim. perior to women and thus the natural rulers of society. They disapproved of the less restrictive gender divisions among Early French Efforts in North America Native Americans. Wampanoags and Powhatans sometimes France was a relative latecomer to New World explo- accepted female leaders, for instance, and Huron women ration. In 1494, French troops invaded Italy, beginning a helped to select male chiefs. Many Indian societies were long and ultimately unsuccessful war with the Holy Ro- matrilineal, tracing descent through the mother’s family in- man Empire. Preoccupied with European affairs, France’s stead of the father’s, as Europeans did. In matrilineal soci- rulers paid little attention to America. But when news of eties, married couples lived with the wife’s family, children Cortés’s exploits in Mexico arrived in the , King inherited property from their mother’s brother, and rulers Francis I wanted his own New World empire to enrich succeeded to their positions through their mother’s family France and block further Spanish expansion. In 1524, line. Europeans, accustomed to societies in which men did Francis sponsored a voyage by Giovanni da Verrazano, an most agricultural work, objected to Indian women’s domi- Italian navigator, who mapped the North American coast nant role in farming and assumed that men’s hunting was from present-day South Carolina to Maine. During the more for recreation than subsistence. They concluded that and 1540s, the French mariner Jacques Cartier made Indian women lived “a most slavish life.” Indians, in turn, three voyages in search of rich mines to rival those of thought that European men failed to make good use of their Mexico and Peru. He explored the St. Lawrence River up wives. In Massachusetts, native men ridiculed colonists “for to what is now Montreal, hoping to discover a water route spoiling good working creatures” by not making their through the continent to Asia (the so-called Northwest women work in the fields. Passage). M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 25 25 Chapter 1 Worlds Apart

Cabeza de Vaca among the Indians (1530) Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca came to the and physical endurance. Instead of enter- the many peoples who inhabited it. It is New World in 1527 in search of riches, ing Indian villages as proud conquista- equally interesting, as this extract sug- not suffering. But the Spanish expedition dors,Cabeza de Vaca and his companions gests, for what it reveals about Cabeza de of which he was a member met disaster encountered native peoples from a posi- Vaca himself and the changes he made in shortly after it arrived in Florida on a mis- tion of weakness. In order to survive, they the interest of survival. sion to conquer the region north of the had to adapt to the ways of the peoples ■ While living among the Capoques, Gulf of Mexico. Of an original group of across whose land they passed. After what sort of work did Cabeza de 300 soldiers, only Cabeza de Vaca and Cabeza de Vaca made it back to Mexico Vaca have to do, and why? three other men (including one African City, he described his experiences in an ■ Why did Cabeza de Vaca decide to slave) survived. They did so by walking official report to the king of Spain. This become a merchant? What advan- thousands of miles overland from the remarkable document offers vivid de- tages did this way of life offer him? ■ Gulf Coast to northern Mexico, an eight- scriptions of the territory extending from Why did the Indians welcome Cabeza de Vaca into their commu- year-long ordeal that tested the men’s wits northern Florida to northern Mexico and nities even though he was a stranger?

[I remained with the Capoques] for more than a year, and went along the coast for forty or fifty leagues. The mainstay of because of the great labors they forced me to perform and the my trade was pieces of snail shell and the hearts of them; and bad treatment they gave me, I resolved to flee from them and go conch shells with which they cut a fruit that is like frijoles to those who live in the forests and on the mainland, who are [beans], with which they perform cures and do their dances called those of Charruco, because I was unable to endure the and make celebrations. . . . And in exchange and as barter for life that I had with these others; because among many other it, I brought forth hides and red ocher with which they smear tasks, I had to dig the roots to eat out from under the water and themselves and dye their faces and hair, flints to make the among the rushes where they grew in the ground. And because points of arrows, paste, and stiff canes to make them, and some of this, my fingers were so worn that when a reed touched them tassels made from deer hair which they dye red. And this it caused them to bleed, and the reeds cut me in many places. . . . occupation served me well, because practicing it, I had the And because of this, I set to the task of going over to the freedom to go wherever I wanted, and I was not constrained in others, and with them things were somewhat better for me. any way nor enslaved, and wherever I went they treated me well And because I became a merchant, I tried to exercise the and gave me food out of want for my wares, and most vocation as best I knew how. And because of this they gave me importantly because doing that, I was able to seek out the way food to eat and treated me well, and they importuned me to go by which I would go forward. And among them I was very well from one place to another to obtain the things they needed, known; when they saw me and I brought them the things they because on account of the continual warfare in the land, there is needed, they were greatly pleased.

little traffic or communication among them. And with my Source: Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz, eds., The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca dealings and wares I entered inland as far as I desired, and I (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), pp. 96–97.

On his third voyage, in 1541, Cartier was to serve un- what he thought were gold and diamonds, and returned der the command of a nobleman, Jean-François de la to France. Rocque, Sieur de Roberval, who was commissioned by This first attempt to found a permanent French colony the king to establish a permanent settlement in Canada. failed miserably.Roberval’s expedition was poorly organized, Troubles in recruiting colonists delayed Roberval, who— and his cruel treatment of the convicts provoked several up- when he finally set sail in 1542—ended up taking convicts risings. The Iroquois, suspicious of repeated French intru- as his settlers. Cartier sailed ahead, gathered samples of sions on their lands, saw no reason to help them. A year after

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they arrived in Canada, Roberval and the surviving colonists bring the island under English control in the 1530s and were back in France. Their return coincided with news that 1540s. Elizabeth renewed the attempt in the 1560s with a the gold brought back by Cartier was iron pyrite (“fool’s series of brutal expeditions that destroyed Irish villages and gold”), and the diamonds were worthless quartz crystals. slaughtered the inhabitants. Several veterans of these Disappointed with their Canadian expeditions, the campaigns later took part in New World colonization and French made a few forays to the south, establishing out- drew on their Irish experience for guidance. posts in what is now South Carolina in 1562, and Florida in Two aspects of that experience were particularly impor- 1564. They soon abandoned the Carolina colony, and Span- tant. First, the English transferred their assumptions about ish forces captured the Florida fort. Then, back in France, a Irish “savages” to NativeAmericans. Englishmen inAmerica prolonged civil war broke out between Catholics and frequently observed similarities between Indians and the Protestants. Renewed interest in colonization would have Irish. “When they [the Indians] have their apparel on they to await the return of peace at home. look like Irish,” noted one Englishman. “The natives of New England,” he added, “are accustomed to build their houses English Attempts in the New World much like the wild Irish.” Because the English held the “wild The English were quicker than the French to stake a claim Irish” in contempt, these observations encouraged them to to the New World but no more successful at colonization. scorn the Indians. When Indians resisted their attempts at In 1497, King Henry VII sent John Cabot, an Italian conquest, the English recalled the Irish example, claiming mariner, to explore eastern Canada on England’s behalf. But that native “savagery” required brutal suppression. neither Henry nor any of his wealthy subjects would invest Second, the Irish experience influenced English ideas the funds necessary to follow up on Cabot’s discoveries. For about colonial settlement. English conquerors set up “plan- nearly half a century, English contact with America was tations” surrounded by palisades on seized Irish lands.These limited to the seasonal voyages of fishermen who lived each plantations were meant to be civilized outposts in a savage summer in Newfoundland, fished for cod offshore, and land. Their aristocratic owners imported Protestant tenants returned to England in autumn. from England and Scotland to farm the land. Native Irish The lapse in English activity in the New World people, considered too wild to join proper Christian com- stemmed from religious troubles at home. Between 1534 munities, were excluded. English colonists in America fol- and 1558, England changed its official religion several times. lowed this precedent when they established plantations that King Henry VIII, who had once defended the Catholic separated English and native peoples. Church against its critics, took up the Protestant cause when the pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine Expeditions to the New World. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, of Aragon. In 1534, Henry declared himself the head of a a notoriously cruel veteran of the Irish campaigns, became separate Church of England and seized the Catholic fascinated with the idea of New World colonization. He Church’s English property. Because many English people composed a treatise to persuade Queen Elizabeth to sup- sympathized with the Protestant cause, there was relatively port such an endeavor. The queen, who counted Gilbert little opposition to Henry’s actions. But in 1553, Mary— among her favorite courtiers, authorized several ex- daughter of the spurned Catherine of Aragon—became ploratory voyages, including Martin Frobisher’s three trips queen and tried to bring England back to Catholicism. She in 1576–1578 in search of the Northwest Passage to Asia. had nearly 300 Protestants burned at the stake for their Frobisher failed to find the elusive passage and sent back beliefs (earning her the nickname “Bloody Mary”), and shiploads of glittering ore that proved to be fool’s gold. many others went into exile in Europe. Elizabeth had better luck in allowing privateers, such as Mary’s brief but destructive reign ended in 1558, and her John Hawkins and Francis Drake, to raid Spanish ships and half-sister Elizabeth, a committed Protestant, became New World ports for gold and silver. The plunder taken queen. Elizabeth ruled for 45 years (1558–1603), restoring during these raids enriched both the sailors and their Protestantism as the state religion, bringing stability to the investors—one of whom was the queen herself. nation, and renewing England’s interest in the New World. Meanwhile, Gilbert continued to promote New World She and her subjects saw colonization not only as a way to settlement, arguing that it would increase England’s trade gain wealth and political advantage but also as a Protestant and provide a place to send unemployed Englishmen. Like crusade against Catholic domination. many of his contemporaries, Gilbert believed that England’s “surplus” population threatened social order.The The colonization of Ireland. England’s first target for population was indeed growing, and economic changes colonization, however, was not America but Ireland. often made it difficult for people to support themselves. Many Located less than 60 miles west of England and populated landlords had been converting farmland into sheep pastures by Catholics, Ireland threatened to become a base from in order to profit from the wool trade, but in doing so threw which Spain or another Catholic power might invade tenant families off the land. Gilbert suggested offering free England. Henry VIII had tried, with limited success, to land in America to English families willing to emigrate. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 27

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In 1578, Gilbert received permission to set up a colony the area, hoping that some might prove to be profitable along the North American coast. It took him five years to commodities. John White drew maps and painted a series of organize an expedition to Newfoundland, which he claimed watercolors depicting the natives and the coastal landscape. for England. After sailing southward seeking a more favor- When Raleigh tried once more, in 1587, to found a colony, he able site for a colony, Gilbert headed home, only to be lost chose White to be its leader. This attempt also failed. The at sea during an Atlantic storm. The impetus for English ship captain dumped the settlers—who, for the first time, colonization did not die with him, however, for his half- included women and children—on Roanoke Island so that brother, Sir Walter Raleigh (another veteran of the Irish he could pursue Spanish treasure ships. White waited until wars), took up the cause. his granddaughter, Virginia Dare (the first English child The Roanoke Colony. In 1584, Raleigh sent an expedi- born in America), was born and then sailed to England for tion to find a suitable location for a colony. The Carolina supplies. But the outbreak of war with Spain delayed his coast seemed promising, so Raleigh sent men in 1585 to return for three years. Spain had gathered an immense fleet build a settlement on Roanoke Island. Most of the colonists to invade England, and all English ships were needed for were soldiers fresh from Ireland who refused to grow their defense. Although England defeated the Armada in 1588, own food, insisting that the Roanoke Indians should feed White could not obtain a relief ship for Roanoke until 1590. them. When the local chief, Wingina, organized native re- White found the colony deserted. Digging through the sistance, they killed him. Eventually, the colonists, disap- ruins of the village, he found “my books torn from the pointed not to have found any treasure and exhausted by a covers, the frames of some of my pictures and Maps rotten harsh winter, returned to England in 1586. and spoiled with rain.” He also saw the word CROATOAN Two members of these early expeditions, however, left carved on a post and assumed that the colonists had moved a more positive legacy. Thomas Hariot studied the Roanoke to nearby Croatoan Island. But bad weather prevented him and Croatoan Indians and identified plants and animals in from searching there. For years, English and Spanish mariners Read the Document reported seeing white people at www.myhistorylab.com A Brief and True Report of the along the coast of Chesapeake Bay. New Found Land of Virginia But no Roanoke colonists were (1588) ever found. They may have moved to the mainland and intermarried with local Indians. One his- torian has speculated that they survived until 1607 when Powhatan Indians, angered by the appearance of more English settlers, killed them. The actual fate of the “Lost Colony” at Roanoke will probably never be known. At this point, Raleigh gave up on North America and turned his attention to his Irish plantations. But England’s interest in colonization did not wane. In 1584, Richard Hak- luyt had aroused enthusiasm for America by writing the Discourse on the Western Planting for the queen and her advis- ers. He argued that England would prosper from trade and the sale of New World commodities. Once the Indians were civilized, Hakluyt added, they would eagerly purchase En- glish goods. Equally important, England could plant “sin- cere religion” (that is, Protestant Christianity) in the New World and block Spanish expansion. Hakluyt’s arguments fired the imaginations of many people, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada emboldened England to challenge Spain’s New World dominance. The experience of Roanoke should John White’s picture of the village of Pomeiooc offers a rare glimpse of a sixteenth-century Eastern Woodlands Indian community.The village is have tempered that enthusiasm, illustrating the difficulty of surrounded by a palisade with two entrances; evidence suggests that establishing colonies. Roanoke’s fate underscored the need White exaggerated the spacing of the poles in order to depict the houses for adequate funding, the unsuitability of soldiers as inside. Eighteen dwellings constructed of poles and mats are clustered colonists, and the need to maintain good relations with the around the village circumference; inside some of them raised sleeping Indians. But the English were slow to learn these lessons; platforms can be seen. Many of the villagers are clustered around a cen- when they resumed colonization efforts in 1607, they re- tral fire, while others are working or conversing. peated Roanoke’s mistakes, with disastrous results for the Algonquian Indian village of Pomeiooc, North Carolina: Watercolor, people involved. As it was, the sixteenth century ended with c. 1585 by John White. no permanent English settlement in the New World. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 28

The Disappearance of Cod off the Grand Banks Not long after John Cabot returned from his voyage to America in 1497, rumors circulated that he had found astonishingly rich fishing grounds off the coast of Newfoundland. As it happened, Basque fishermen sailing from ports in northern Spain and southwestern France already knew about this bonanza. But Cabot’s discovery spread the news, and by the 1550s, over a hundred ships a year traveled from Europe to fish in the waters of the Grand Banks in the northern Atlantic. By the early sixteenth century, 60 percent of the fish eaten in Europe was cod, and most of it came from the Grand Banks. But now, 500 years later, cod stocks are at an all-time low due in part to ocean warming but also because of overfishing. Up until the early nineteenth century, most fishermen used handlines—single baited hooks fastened to a weight— dropped in the water from sailing vessels. Now commercial fishermen use enormous nets, harvesting their catch from motorized vessels. Experts differ on whether cod populations can recover. Canadian officials have established a moratorium on fishing in the area in order to see if recovery is possible. The long-term legacy of John Cabot’s voyage may well be the disappearance of the resource that drew him and many other European adventurers to North Hand-lining for cod, the fishing method depicted in America in the first place. this eighteenth-century engraving, produced ample ■ catches but did not reduce cod populations to What does the story of the Grand Banks tell us about the long-run dangerously low levels. environmental consequences of Europeans’ contact with the New World?

Read the Document at www.myhistorylab.com From Then to Now Online 1-1 Raimondo di Soncino to the duke of By the twentieth century,commercial fishermen using enormous nets and Milan, December 18, 1497. Letter from motorized boats helped to shrink cod stocks to an all-time low. Milan’s ambassador in London describing John Cabot’s discovery of Grand Banks.

1-2 Nicolas Denys, The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America (Acadia). Description of Grand Banks fishery and fishing techniques.

1-3 John Smith, A Description of New England, 1672. Description of fishing grounds off Cape Cod.

1-4 Map of Newfoundland and Grand Banks, 1977. Shows the 200-mile limit within which foreign boats could not fish. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 29

Worlds Apart Chapter 1 29

Conclusion And yet, conditions in 1600 bore clearer witness to the Dramatic changes occurred in North America during the cen- past than to the future. Despite all that had happened, tury after the Aztec messenger spotted Spanish ships off the North America was still Indian country. Only Spain had es- Mexican coast and made his journey to tell Moctezuma about tablished North American colonies, and even its soldiers his discovery. The conquistadores were only the first trickle in struggled to expand north of Mexico. Spain’s outposts in what became a flood of Old World immigrants. Europeans, ea- Florida and New Mexico staked claims to territory that it ger for wealth and power, set out to claim a continent that just did not really control. Except in Mexico and the Caribbean, 100 years earlier they had not dreamed existed. African slaves Europeans had merely touched the continent’s shores. In were brought to the Caribbean, Mexico, and Brazil, and 1600, despite the virulent epidemics, native peoples (even forced to labor under extremely harsh conditions for white in Mexico) still greatly outnumbered European and African masters. The Aztec and Incan empires collapsed in the wake immigrants. The next century, however, brought many pow- of the Spanish conquest. In the Caribbean and parts of Mex- erful challenges both to native control and to the Spanish ico and Peru, untold numbers of native peoples succumbed to monopoly of settlement. European diseases they had never before encountered.

Review Questions 1. How did the Aztecs who first glimpsed Spanish ships off 4. Why did Spain so quickly become the dominant colonial the coast of Mexico describe to Moctezuma what they power in North America? What advantages did it enjoy had seen? What details most captured their attention? over France and England? 2. Compare men’s and women’s roles in Native American, 5. What role did religion play in early European efforts at West African, and European societies. What were the overseas colonization? Did religious factors always en- similarities and differences? How did differences be- courage colonization, or did they occasionally interfere tween European and Native American gender roles lead with European expansion? to misunderstandings? 6. In what ways were trade networks important in linking 3. Many of the first European colonizers in North America different groups of people in the Old and New Worlds? were military veterans. What impact did this have on their relations with Indian peoples?

Key Terms Aztecs (p. 4) Great League of Peace and Power (p. 9) Reformation (p. 15) Cahokia (p. 9) Predestination (p. 15) Songhai Empire (p. 10) Columbian Exchange (p. 22) Protestants (p. 15) Tordesillas, Treaty of (p. 24) Culture areas (p. 6) Reconquista (p. 14)

Recommended Reading Leon-Portillo, Miguel. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of Native American societies had larger populations and the Conquest of Mexico (1962; new edition, 1992). Reprints more sophisticated cultures than previously assumed. of translated Indian chronicles, providing a moving ac- Norton, Marcy. Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of count of the Aztec experience of the Spanish conquest. Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World (2008). An Mann, Charles. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before intriguing account of European colonists’ introduction Columbus (2006). Based on recent archaeological and to two New World products and their adoption by ecological research, this study argues that pre-contact consumers in Europe. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 30

30 Chapter 1 Worlds Apart

Phillips, William D., Jr., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds movement of Africans throughout the Atlantic world of Christopher Columbus (1992). A judicious biography of and the rise of the slave trade. Columbus that places him firmly in the context of Townsend, Camilla. Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Woman in fifteenth-century European culture. the Conquest of Mexico (2006). A fascinating account of Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the the native woman whose translating skills helped Atlantic World, 1400–1680, 2nd ed. (1998). A thorough Cortés in the conquest of the Aztec empire. examination of the causes and consequences of the

Where to Learn More ■ Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Collinsville, ■ Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Occupied by Illinois. This site, occupied from A.D. 600 to 1500, was Ancestral Puebloan peoples as early as A.D. 550, the area the largest Mississippian community in eastern North contains a variety of sites, from early pithouses to America. It now includes numerous exhibits, and archae- spectacular cliff dwellings. The official National Park ological excavations continue in the vicinity. The web- webpage for Mesa Verde is http://www.nps.gov/meve/ site, http://cahokiamounds.org/, contains a wealth of index.htm. information and an interactive map. ■ St. Augustine, Florida. Founded in 1565, St. Augustine ■ Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Mashantucket, Con- is the site of the first permanent Spanish settlement in necticut. This tribally owned and operated complex North America. Today the restored community resem- offers a view of Eastern Woodlands Indian life, focusing bles a Spanish colonial town, with narrow, winding on the Pequots of eastern Connecticut. Exhibits include streets and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century build- dioramas, films, interactive programs, and a reconstructed ings. The site also contains the restored Castillo de San sixteenth-century Pequot village. The homepage for the Marcos, now a national park. There is an informational Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center is website at http://www.augustine.com/history/. http://www.pequotmuseum.org/. M01_GOLD0585_06_SE_CH01.QXD 8/17/10 9:14 AM Page 31

Worlds Apart Chapter 1 31 Connections Reinforce what you learned in this chapter by studying the many documents, im- ages, maps, review tools, and videos available at www.myhistorylab.com.

Read and Review Research and Explore

Study and Review Study Plan, Chapter 1 Read the Document Personal Journeys Online Read the Document From Then to Now Online: Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Indians of the Rio Grande The Disappearance of Cod Off The Grand Banks (1528–1536) Exploring America: America and the Horse Bartolomè de Las Casas, Of the Island of Hispaniola (1542) Cultures Meet: Europeans View the New World From The Journal of Christopher Columbus (1492) Ghana and Its People in the Mid-Eleventh Century Muslim Reform in Songhai (1500) Pima Creation Story Thomas Hariot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588)

See the Map Pre-Columbian Societies of the Americas Hear the Audio Ghana: Ewe-Atsiagbekor Africa Climate Regions and Early Sites Watch the Video

How should we think of Columbus? What is Columbus’s Legacy?

Hear the Audio Hear the audio files for Chapter 1 at www.myhistorylab.com