Period 1: 1491 - 1607
★ The Western Hemisphere had 5-100
million people inhabiting before
Columbus (1492)
○ Tenochtitlan had 250,000 ->
bigger than London or Paris in
1500
★ Earthen mounds bigger than Egypt
(e.g. Monks Mound at Cahokia)
○ Used for religious temples,
burial sites, house for chief
★ Maize was a revolutionary crop. It
was made through domesticating a
wild grass and selectively breeding it
to produce more ears and multi
rowed kernels
★ Created terra preta (“black earth”):
fertile human made soil
○ Charcoal, compost, plant
waste
○ Shows native people weren’t
just living off the land, they
actively shaped it to become
complex
★ The Great Dying
○ 90% died from smallpox and
measles. They couldn’t store
their own history because of
this.
, FRENCH AND SPANISH ○ Got horses, pigs, cattle, goats,
sheeps, etc
COLONIZATION ○ Also guns, metal tools, and
Spanish Colonization (~ 1493) cloth
● Hernan Cortes (1519): conquered the ● EUROPE: Population growth here.
Aztec Empire. Released smallpox ○ Earned sugarcane, potatoes,
epidemic that wiped a lot of the maize, cacao, tobacco,
people in Tenochtitlan cassava etc
● Francisco Pizzaro: conquered the ○ Earned fur pelts from trade
Inca Empire. ○ Lots of slaves
● Hernando de Soto (1541): first white Encomieda System **
man who crossed the Mississippi ● Was the right to demand forced
River, but was on the hunt for silver, labor of the indigenous people in
gold, and jewels. exchange for “protection” and
● Purpose: Christian missionaries, converting them to Catholicism. Led
desire for extracting resources, to severe abuse.
Native American labor, acquiring Franciscans and Missions
land, maritime tech (e.g. ● From St. Francis of Assisi’s teachings
compasses). Profitable agricultural ● Spread Christianity to ordinary
economy, people -> “serving the poor”
Columbus in the West Indies (1492) ● Embraced poverty, humility, and
● Encountered Caribbean Islands, detachment from material goods
which he called “West Indies” Jesuits
● Cruel to the natives -> cut off fingers ● Founded by Ignatius of Loyola
of people if they didn't bring gold in ● Focus on education and justice,
fast enough, indigenous women as more intellectual teachings of
sex slaves, Taino people in Hispaniola Christianity
abused. Racial caste system-mestizo etc
Columbian Exchange ** ● Social structure based on a person’s
● The trade of disease, animals, and racial ancestry. Allowed them to
plants among the Americas, Europe, justify exploitation of labor
and Africa ○
● AMERICAS: had no infectious
diseases Europe + Africa did, but
once Europeans entered, they
brought smallpox and measles.
From Africa came malaria and
yellow fever.
○ Especially because the Native
Americans didn’t have
domestic herd animals, they Las Casas vs Sepulveda**
didn’t have that type of ● The Valladolid Debates (1550-1551)
disease
★ The Western Hemisphere had 5-100
million people inhabiting before
Columbus (1492)
○ Tenochtitlan had 250,000 ->
bigger than London or Paris in
1500
★ Earthen mounds bigger than Egypt
(e.g. Monks Mound at Cahokia)
○ Used for religious temples,
burial sites, house for chief
★ Maize was a revolutionary crop. It
was made through domesticating a
wild grass and selectively breeding it
to produce more ears and multi
rowed kernels
★ Created terra preta (“black earth”):
fertile human made soil
○ Charcoal, compost, plant
waste
○ Shows native people weren’t
just living off the land, they
actively shaped it to become
complex
★ The Great Dying
○ 90% died from smallpox and
measles. They couldn’t store
their own history because of
this.
, FRENCH AND SPANISH ○ Got horses, pigs, cattle, goats,
sheeps, etc
COLONIZATION ○ Also guns, metal tools, and
Spanish Colonization (~ 1493) cloth
● Hernan Cortes (1519): conquered the ● EUROPE: Population growth here.
Aztec Empire. Released smallpox ○ Earned sugarcane, potatoes,
epidemic that wiped a lot of the maize, cacao, tobacco,
people in Tenochtitlan cassava etc
● Francisco Pizzaro: conquered the ○ Earned fur pelts from trade
Inca Empire. ○ Lots of slaves
● Hernando de Soto (1541): first white Encomieda System **
man who crossed the Mississippi ● Was the right to demand forced
River, but was on the hunt for silver, labor of the indigenous people in
gold, and jewels. exchange for “protection” and
● Purpose: Christian missionaries, converting them to Catholicism. Led
desire for extracting resources, to severe abuse.
Native American labor, acquiring Franciscans and Missions
land, maritime tech (e.g. ● From St. Francis of Assisi’s teachings
compasses). Profitable agricultural ● Spread Christianity to ordinary
economy, people -> “serving the poor”
Columbus in the West Indies (1492) ● Embraced poverty, humility, and
● Encountered Caribbean Islands, detachment from material goods
which he called “West Indies” Jesuits
● Cruel to the natives -> cut off fingers ● Founded by Ignatius of Loyola
of people if they didn't bring gold in ● Focus on education and justice,
fast enough, indigenous women as more intellectual teachings of
sex slaves, Taino people in Hispaniola Christianity
abused. Racial caste system-mestizo etc
Columbian Exchange ** ● Social structure based on a person’s
● The trade of disease, animals, and racial ancestry. Allowed them to
plants among the Americas, Europe, justify exploitation of labor
and Africa ○
● AMERICAS: had no infectious
diseases Europe + Africa did, but
once Europeans entered, they
brought smallpox and measles.
From Africa came malaria and
yellow fever.
○ Especially because the Native
Americans didn’t have
domestic herd animals, they Las Casas vs Sepulveda**
didn’t have that type of ● The Valladolid Debates (1550-1551)
disease
