• the permanent establishment, settlements, and evolution of Native American societies due to reliable technological, agricultural, and political developments.

Causes:

• agricultural revolution

  • crop systems

  • domestication of animals

  • development of more advanced tools

• stable and more permanent settlements were able to form because reliable irrigation and farming systems were set up

  • population increased

• Horticulture

  • small plots of land were cultivated using basic tools

    • widely used in modern-day Mexico

• Three sisters

  • corn, beans, and squash

  • grew and were farmed together because of their compatibility

    • balanced diet

    • could last if dried

Effects:

• came to know math and astronomy

  • developed hieroglyphic writing and their own version of a calendar

• built wealth and complex political structures such as bureaucracies

• other native societies were able to build off of their previous developments and evolve even more

• empires challenged and threatened European colonizers

Theme: Geography and the Environment + American and National Identity

• The Aztecs built the capital of their empire and named it Tenochtitlán, which is where present-day Mexico City is located.

Causes:

• maya civilization failed as economy faced a major decline

  • surviving communities turned to work and do business with the Aztecs

• huge economic and societal prosperity

• well-off, reliable trade networks were already a part of their society

Effects:

• semi-nomadic peoples settled down

• were able to build off of knowledge of locals on how to prosper agriculturally and economically

• societal classes were established

  • laborers

  • nobility

• were able to offer many nice items for trade such as pottery, cloth, and buckskin to get tool/weapon-making items

  • slaves played a major role in being part of these trades/ being the objects that were exchanged

• IN THE FUTURE, Cortés traveled to Tenochtitlan

  • Aztecs were not very liked by people living around them

  • Cortés was able to gain supporters, ~20,000 Native Americans, who wanted the Aztecs ot be brought down

• Moctezuma II, the ruler of the Aztec Empire a the time, originally showed hospitality to the spanish

  • Spanish brought many new and helpful goods like dogs, cannons, and horses

• He kidnapped Moctezuma 

  • Proceeded to kill many high-status Mexica when they had a religious festival

    • People of the city were outraged and drove the spanish out

• Used the lack of cohesiveness, unity, and general outrage against the Aztecs to garner support and take the city once and for all

• Cortés’ wife, Malintzin, was originally a tribute brought by the people of Tabasco for him, but soon became his partner

  • Aided him in bringing the downfall of the Aztecs

• Ultimately, spanish destroyed Aztec population with disease

  • Smallpox

  • Also infected tribes around the empire

Theme: Politics and Power

• A civilization of people that inhabited the costal Andes Mountains, that had power over millions of Natives and thousands of miles. Additionally, this empire was advanced in the sense that they had a formed system of transportation, military, trade, and food, throughout the capital and surrounding communities.

Causes:

• society was able to build on the previous developments of the Maya and Aztec societies

• fertile land and ability to cultivate it for farming

  • potatoes and other crops mass produced on terraces

    • complex irrigation systems created to accommodate for farming techniques/environment situation

• Very organized society

  • miners dug up riches

  • artisans created jewelry and art (wow. how novel.)

  • labor was used to build large scale buildings, palaces, and religious temples

• Religious aspect

  • believed that human sacrifice could be practiced to achieve military success and avoid inclement weather or disasters

Effects:

• Impacted the formation of Native societies in the future

• were rich

Theme: America in the World

• The foundation of main, Portuguese, trade hubs along the coast of Africa to facilitate more trade, not only with African goods, but with Asian goods too.

Causes:

• navigation and sailing technology improves

  • caravels

    • ship

  • astrolabe

    • navigation device

• want to avoid large tariffs and monopoly that the Silk Road had

  • all asian goods were incredibly expensive and took a while to arrive in Europe when trading by land

• wanted goods (ivory), gold, and labor (enslaved peoples)

• Wanted to further expeditions down the continent

  • Elmina Castle built as a trading post and fort + was the place from which many explorations were sent from

• wanted to reach the Indian Ocean and access spice trade by going around the tip of African continent

  • Bartolomeu Dias got the most southern point of Africa before turning around

  • Vasco De Gama in 1497

Effects:

• led Portuguese economy to become incredibly successful in international trade

  • Spanish want to compete and find riches of their own, but in the "New World"

• trading posts were established in many asian countries such as India, China, Japan, and even Indonesia

  • Asian good were able to be dispersed throughout Europe

• the Silk Trade Route and Arab fleet lost their monopoly on spice and even ceramic trade

Theme: Work, Exchange, and Technology

• A movement in Spain that sought to eradicate muslims from the Iberian Peninsula.

Causes:

• Spain reunites as Ferdinand and Isabella come together, marry, and rule Spain as one whole country

  • solidified "Christian Spain"

• Crusades

  • Failed domination and eradication of Muslims from the Holy Lands

  • helped form religious ideology, intolerance, and beliefs of Reconquista --> only Catholicism should remain

• promotion of Catholicism and a united national identity by Isabella and Ferdinand

Effects:

• want to spread their religions to all corners of the globe and convert everyoen to be a unified peoples under God

• colonization and the religious "conquest" of the Americas

  • pushing out Native American religions that surround Natural environment and spiritual practices

  • conquistadors claiming land for Catholicism and the Pope --> Requerimiento

    • idea of "Divine Right"

• Religious intolerance --> only room for Christianity or Catholicism

  • syncretism rejected along with ideologies of more than one God

• Conversion was pushed on many Native Nations

  • Pueblo Revolt (1680)

    • destructive rejection of Christianity from Native American society in New Mexico

Theme: Politics and Power

• The first European, and specifically Spanish, voyage made across the Atlantic Ocean, landing in the Caribbean.

Causes:

• Need to find ways of attaining riches and goods by not using Silk Road (a.k.a. trade route controlled by Muslim and Italian traders + getting goods from there takes long and is very dangerous)

• development and improvement of navigation systems in Spain and Portugal

  • Ships known as Caravels that could sail no matter which way the wind was blowing

• Competition between Spain and Portugal on economic success

• God, Glory, and Gold

  • Reconquista and aiming ot spread Catholicism around the world

Effects:

• wipes out Native population(80 - 90 percent)

  • enslaved or die of new diseases brought in by Europeans

• Cash crops discovered (sugar cane and tobacco)

  • Establishment of first plantations

• influx of conquistadors to explore more of the "New World"

  • colonization skyrockets

• Columbian Exchange set up to facilitate the trade of goods and livestock between the "Old World" and "New World"

Theme: Migration and Settlements

• a treaty that demarcated where Spain and Portugal could colonize by drawing a straight, vertical line on the world map

Causes:

• return of Columbus from his first mission to the Americas

• Spanish and Portuguese have competition for colonies

  • Spanish worried about Portuguese dominance and ask Pope for help

• Portugese believed Africa to be more valuable than the "New World" during this time

Effects:

• Spain thought that everything on their side of the line was their property

  • diverging world views of what it means to inhabit the land

    • Requerimiento (1513) justifying abuse and enslavement against natives + Encomienda System

• Spain will accrue lots of wealth through the establishment of colonies in the "new world", Mexico, the Caribbean, and even Florida

Theme: America In the World

• The exchange of materials, goods, disease, and ideas between the Americas, the "New World" and Europe, the "Old World".

Causes:

• New materials and goods being found in Americas that could benefit Europe

  • gold, maize, tobacco, sugar cane, tomatoes

• more colonizers making their way to the Americas to see what's up

• establishment of settlement and colonies in the "New World"

Effects:

• "The Great Dying"

• nutrient-rich/calorically dense foods sent to Europe

  • helped with poverty and famines ravishing the continent

• wheat becomes major source of food for communities and nations in the Americas

• livestock changes diets

  • pigs and cattle

• Horses become integral to life of hunter-gatherers in the plains

  • new ways of transporting, fighting, and even farming

• Lots of gold and silver to Spain

  • Capitalism and inflation is introduced in European society

• HELPED END FEUDALISM IN EUROPE

  • HELPED LEAD TO PLANTATION SYSTEM AND THEN RACE-BASED SLAVERY

• encouraged other european nations, such as England, France, and the Netherlands to begin to find their own ways to the Americas

  • then came Jamestown and Plymouth + first voyages of British colonizers to the modern-day U.S.

Theme: Work, Exchange, and Technology

• A system of labor that exploited the Natives to work for the Europeans in order to do intensive jobs such as farm and mine.

Causes:

• needed to extract valuable goods like ores and crops

  • labor needed because Spanish weren't going to do that themselves

• land grants given to conquistadors

  • intensive mines and plantations

  • with that came labor

    
    

Effects:

• De las Casa (1542) --> first "human-rights" activist

  • suspension of the system, but it reimplemented shortly after

• Debates at Villanean (1550)

  • Sepulveda

    • saying Spanish are justified in their actions & superiority

      • dehumanizing them --> "beasts" and "contaminated"

    • Not first-hand accounts

  • De Las Casas

    • they aren't all barbaric

    • they have capacity, religion, and their own laws

    • had been in the "New World"/ was a conquistador

    • in favor of sending Spanish people --> colonization and settlement

• race-based slavery

• harsh conditions

  • maltreatment

  • overworking

  • disease

    • malaria

      • leads to African salves coming over who are more resistant to malaria

      • creation of trans-Atlantic slave trade

• Idea of race

  • social construct

    • specifically made to justify slavery

  • Chattel slavery

    • that person and their offspring are considered PROPERTY

    • created also because of major need for labor in Americas

• Slavery

  • first considered ILLEGAL for the European Christians because it was a "MORAL ATROCITY"

  • justifications were introduced in order to permit slaves

    • overtime they categorized Africans as less than humans, that their "race" was inferior to White people

  
  

• Caste System

  • system of taxation

  • social classism

  • racial hierarchy introduced based on how "pure" you are

Theme: Social Structures

• Supplying the demand for more disease resistant labor in the Americas.

Causes:

• Began in late 1400s

• Needed labor in colonies as natives continued to die from disease (80% - 90%)or resisted enslavement

  • Before, african slavery were seen through indentured servitude, serfdom, and even in a status in which they could climb the social/wealth hierarchy

    • During slave trade, people who were sold were known as P.O.W.s, felons, and general criminals

    • Not even considered African anymore

    • The africans in the new world were dehumanized and demeaned

    
    

Effects:

• In Africa

  • greedy tribes turned against each other as competition for the Europeans goods and trade rose

    • All of them wanted to do business with Europeans, so they began to look for slaves or citizens in other tribes

  
  

• In Americas

  • race-based slavery established

  • dehumanization in order to justify enslavement by Christians

    • seen as savage and biologically "less than"

      
      

Theme: Migration and Settlement