CHAPTER 1
Alien Encounters: Europe in the Americas
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Columbus’s Great Triumph—and Error. Although Columbus failed to grasp the
true significance of the discovery (he believed that he had reached Asia), he had
reached two continents that Europeans had not known existed. Europeans had long
valued Asian products such as spices, tropical fruits, silk, and cotton; and Columbus
had hoped to find a western route to China, Japan, and the Indies, which would
eliminate both the danger and expense of overland travel, as well as Italian
middlemen. By the fifteenth century, western Europeans set about discovering
direct routes to the East. Prince Henry of Portugal sponsored improvements in
navigation and voyages of exploration. Columbus intended to reach China by sailing
west into the Atlantic. About two o’clock in the morning of October 12, 1492, a sailor
on the Pinta spotted land. He had spied an island in the West Indies called
Guanahani by its inhabitants. The ship’s master, Christopher Columbus, went ashore
bearing the flag of Spain and named the land San Salvador. Columbus did not know
it, but he had landed on islands off the coast of two continents. His voyage opened
up a new world to exploitation by the people of Western Europe.
When he touched land, he refused to accept the overwhelming evidence that he
had encountered not Asia but a world unknown to either Europe or Asia. He called the
natives Indians, because he believed that he had reached the Indies. Columbus returned
to Spain convinced that he had explored the edge of Asia. Three subsequent voyages
failed to shake his conviction.
Spain’s American Empire. By the time Columbus died in 1506, other captains had
embarked on ventures of discovery and conquest. In 1493, the Pope had divided the
non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. Portugal concentrated on Africa,
leaving the western hemisphere, except for what would eventually become Brazil, to
Spain. Fifty years after Columbus’s first landfall, Spain held a huge American empire
covering all of South America, except Brazil, and extending to the southern fringe of
North America. Explorers such as Vasco Nuñez de Balboa and Ferdinand Magellan
,expanded geographic knowledge. Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro subdued the
Aztec empire in Mexico and the Inca empire in Peru. A distinct civilization emerged in
the Spanish Americas. The Spanish founded cities, set up printing presses,
constructed cathedrals, and established universities. The Spanish and other
Europeans encountered natives in the course of their voyages of exploration. Greed
and cultural arrogance led them to cheat and abuse those peoples with whom they
came in contact; European technological superiority, particularly in instruments of
war, provided the tools of domination. Even some contemporary observers, such as
Bartolome de Las Casas (a Dominican missionary who arrived in Hispaniola roughly a
decade after Columbus), were appalled by the barbarity of the conquistadores. While
Spanish military leaders and administrators imposed an economic and social system
based on Spanish feudalism, Catholic missionaries attempted to impose Christianity
and obliterate native religious practices.
Extending Spain’s Empire to the North. Within two decades after Columbus’s first
voyage to the Americas, Spanish explorers had fanned out through the Caribbean
and over large parts of the two continents that bordered it. Hernando de Soto
traveled north from Florida to the Carolinas, then west to the Mississippi River.
Francisco Vasquez do Coronado ventured as far north as Kansas and as far west as
the Grand Canyon.
By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards learned that it was more
profitable to acquire the crops and labor of Indians than search for rumored cities of
gold.
Don Juan de Onate led an expedition of Spanish colonists and soldiers across
the Rio Grande into the territory of the Pueblo Indians, a farming people. Onate
proved especially savage in his attempts to subdue the Pueblo. Franciscan
missionaries baptized thousands of Indians and instructed them in the rudiments of
the Catholic faith. They also taught Indians to use European tools, to grow wheat
and other European crops, and to raise chickens and pigs. In the 1670s, a massive
uprising by the Pueblo drove the Spanish back to El Paso. In the mid-1690s, the
Spanish regained control of most of the upper Rio Grande. By the early 1700s, Spain
had established a vast empire, but the population of the people they had subjected
declined rapidly.
Disease and Population Losses. Native American populations declined disastrously
after the arrival of Columbus. Europeans brought diseases, such as smallpox, measles,
,bubonic plague, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, yellow fever, and typhoid, to the
western hemisphere. These diseases had ravaged the populations of Europe, Africa,
and Asia for centuries; by the 1500s, the populations of those continents had
developed resistance to those diseases. American Indians, however, had evolved
without contact with these diseases and therefore lacked biological defenses. When
exposed to these diseases, whole communities of Indians died. It is impossible to
calculate the mortality from disease among Indians, but the lowest estimates begin in
the millions.
Ecological Imperialism. So many Indians succumbed to Eurasian microbes, at least in
part, because they were already suffering from malnutrition. Unconstrained by
microbes or predators that had checked their populations in Europe, animals brought
by the Europeans reproduced rapidly. They devoured crops grown by the Indians.
Europeans also brought plants and with them weeds that choked out Indian crops.
This left the Indian population even more vulnerable to disease.
Though harmful to Indians, the biological exchange also brought benefits.
Horses originated in the Americas but had become extinct in the western
hemisphere by the time Europeans arrived. The animals thrived in the grasslands of
North America, and the Plains Indians quickly adapted their lifestyles to take
advantage of the horse. Some Indians raised sheep and wove woolen cloth.
The biological exchange went both ways. Europeans contracted syphilis, a
disease native to the western hemisphere, and brought it back to Europe. Plants
native to the Americas, such as maize and potatoes, produced half as many calories
per acre as traditional European crops like wheat, barley, and oats.
Spain’s European Rivals. Spanish colonization reaped an enormous harvest of
precious metals. Spain dominated exploration of the Americas during the sixteenth
century, largely because it had established internal stability, whereas other
countries were still torn by religious and political conflicts. Moreover, Spain seized
those areas in the Americas best suited to producing quick returns. Spanish power
seemed beyond challenge, but, in fact, the great empire was in trouble. Corruption,
dependence on gold and silver from its colonies, and the disruption of the Catholic
Church undermined Spanish power.
The Protestant Reformation. Corruption in the form of the sale of indulgences and
, the luxurious lifestyles of the popes led to a challenge by reformers such as Martin
Luther and John Calvin. Political and economic motives led German princes and
Swiss cities to support the reformers. In England, Henry VIII’s search for a male heir
led him to split from Rome when the Pope refused him a divorce.
Alien Encounters: Europe in the Americas
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Columbus’s Great Triumph—and Error. Although Columbus failed to grasp the
true significance of the discovery (he believed that he had reached Asia), he had
reached two continents that Europeans had not known existed. Europeans had long
valued Asian products such as spices, tropical fruits, silk, and cotton; and Columbus
had hoped to find a western route to China, Japan, and the Indies, which would
eliminate both the danger and expense of overland travel, as well as Italian
middlemen. By the fifteenth century, western Europeans set about discovering
direct routes to the East. Prince Henry of Portugal sponsored improvements in
navigation and voyages of exploration. Columbus intended to reach China by sailing
west into the Atlantic. About two o’clock in the morning of October 12, 1492, a sailor
on the Pinta spotted land. He had spied an island in the West Indies called
Guanahani by its inhabitants. The ship’s master, Christopher Columbus, went ashore
bearing the flag of Spain and named the land San Salvador. Columbus did not know
it, but he had landed on islands off the coast of two continents. His voyage opened
up a new world to exploitation by the people of Western Europe.
When he touched land, he refused to accept the overwhelming evidence that he
had encountered not Asia but a world unknown to either Europe or Asia. He called the
natives Indians, because he believed that he had reached the Indies. Columbus returned
to Spain convinced that he had explored the edge of Asia. Three subsequent voyages
failed to shake his conviction.
Spain’s American Empire. By the time Columbus died in 1506, other captains had
embarked on ventures of discovery and conquest. In 1493, the Pope had divided the
non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. Portugal concentrated on Africa,
leaving the western hemisphere, except for what would eventually become Brazil, to
Spain. Fifty years after Columbus’s first landfall, Spain held a huge American empire
covering all of South America, except Brazil, and extending to the southern fringe of
North America. Explorers such as Vasco Nuñez de Balboa and Ferdinand Magellan
,expanded geographic knowledge. Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro subdued the
Aztec empire in Mexico and the Inca empire in Peru. A distinct civilization emerged in
the Spanish Americas. The Spanish founded cities, set up printing presses,
constructed cathedrals, and established universities. The Spanish and other
Europeans encountered natives in the course of their voyages of exploration. Greed
and cultural arrogance led them to cheat and abuse those peoples with whom they
came in contact; European technological superiority, particularly in instruments of
war, provided the tools of domination. Even some contemporary observers, such as
Bartolome de Las Casas (a Dominican missionary who arrived in Hispaniola roughly a
decade after Columbus), were appalled by the barbarity of the conquistadores. While
Spanish military leaders and administrators imposed an economic and social system
based on Spanish feudalism, Catholic missionaries attempted to impose Christianity
and obliterate native religious practices.
Extending Spain’s Empire to the North. Within two decades after Columbus’s first
voyage to the Americas, Spanish explorers had fanned out through the Caribbean
and over large parts of the two continents that bordered it. Hernando de Soto
traveled north from Florida to the Carolinas, then west to the Mississippi River.
Francisco Vasquez do Coronado ventured as far north as Kansas and as far west as
the Grand Canyon.
By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards learned that it was more
profitable to acquire the crops and labor of Indians than search for rumored cities of
gold.
Don Juan de Onate led an expedition of Spanish colonists and soldiers across
the Rio Grande into the territory of the Pueblo Indians, a farming people. Onate
proved especially savage in his attempts to subdue the Pueblo. Franciscan
missionaries baptized thousands of Indians and instructed them in the rudiments of
the Catholic faith. They also taught Indians to use European tools, to grow wheat
and other European crops, and to raise chickens and pigs. In the 1670s, a massive
uprising by the Pueblo drove the Spanish back to El Paso. In the mid-1690s, the
Spanish regained control of most of the upper Rio Grande. By the early 1700s, Spain
had established a vast empire, but the population of the people they had subjected
declined rapidly.
Disease and Population Losses. Native American populations declined disastrously
after the arrival of Columbus. Europeans brought diseases, such as smallpox, measles,
,bubonic plague, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, yellow fever, and typhoid, to the
western hemisphere. These diseases had ravaged the populations of Europe, Africa,
and Asia for centuries; by the 1500s, the populations of those continents had
developed resistance to those diseases. American Indians, however, had evolved
without contact with these diseases and therefore lacked biological defenses. When
exposed to these diseases, whole communities of Indians died. It is impossible to
calculate the mortality from disease among Indians, but the lowest estimates begin in
the millions.
Ecological Imperialism. So many Indians succumbed to Eurasian microbes, at least in
part, because they were already suffering from malnutrition. Unconstrained by
microbes or predators that had checked their populations in Europe, animals brought
by the Europeans reproduced rapidly. They devoured crops grown by the Indians.
Europeans also brought plants and with them weeds that choked out Indian crops.
This left the Indian population even more vulnerable to disease.
Though harmful to Indians, the biological exchange also brought benefits.
Horses originated in the Americas but had become extinct in the western
hemisphere by the time Europeans arrived. The animals thrived in the grasslands of
North America, and the Plains Indians quickly adapted their lifestyles to take
advantage of the horse. Some Indians raised sheep and wove woolen cloth.
The biological exchange went both ways. Europeans contracted syphilis, a
disease native to the western hemisphere, and brought it back to Europe. Plants
native to the Americas, such as maize and potatoes, produced half as many calories
per acre as traditional European crops like wheat, barley, and oats.
Spain’s European Rivals. Spanish colonization reaped an enormous harvest of
precious metals. Spain dominated exploration of the Americas during the sixteenth
century, largely because it had established internal stability, whereas other
countries were still torn by religious and political conflicts. Moreover, Spain seized
those areas in the Americas best suited to producing quick returns. Spanish power
seemed beyond challenge, but, in fact, the great empire was in trouble. Corruption,
dependence on gold and silver from its colonies, and the disruption of the Catholic
Church undermined Spanish power.
The Protestant Reformation. Corruption in the form of the sale of indulgences and
, the luxurious lifestyles of the popes led to a challenge by reformers such as Martin
Luther and John Calvin. Political and economic motives led German princes and
Swiss cities to support the reformers. In England, Henry VIII’s search for a male heir
led him to split from Rome when the Pope refused him a divorce.
