History essay 1
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NorthAmericapre-colonies1301week1.pptxNorth America pre-colonies
… and post invasion.
We already touched on this a bit in our first class, but US history, is hyper focused on North America from the perspective of the European.
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Source Types
Primary Source: created by a witness to history
Types: Journals, Correspondence, contemporary newspaper articles, photos, artwork, material culture, census data, oral histories
Secondary Source: created through analyzing primary sources
Types: textbook, other books, modern journals or newspapers, some websites
Eurocentrism: worldview centered on Western civilization; privileging Europeans as the only actors in history.
Not bad, but incomplete
GET ALL THE THINGS!
This is called eurocentrism
Who is left out of this conversation?
We tend to only focus on white people taking over other lands
In a lame attempt to correct this, history books, this textbook, often begin with some sort of tip of the hat to Native Americas and the societies that existed prior to colonization.
What is rarely understood is that the “pre-history” of North America (which again is euro-centric. You don’t think that these civilizations
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Mayan Glyphs in Palenque, Mexico
had methods of recording history?) is in it of itself long and complicated enough to warrant its own introduction class. The reason we don’t study that is because it directly conflicts with the narrative we like to learn about in US History.
That is the “exciting” world during the age of exploration, where brave men sailed into the unknown facing what they were about 45% sure would end in death, either by drowning, scurvy, or sea monster
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(tbh though, you’d probably freak out too if you saw a whale for the first time)
For better or worse, though, US Historians, myself included, unfortunately, can’t find the time to teach you all about how awesome North America was before Europeans.
Long before Europeans “discovered” North America, native peoples occupied the land where they established languages, religions, systems of government and in some cases massive cities.
But the massive cities were either gone by the time that Europeans reached them, like Cahokia which peaked around 1100 AD and some estimate had anywhere from 15,000 people in one city and almost 2 million spread across the Mississippi River Valley, or they were viewed as too “barbaric” to equate to anything of value for Europeans
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In other cases, the societies were too “uncivilized” for Europeans to be of value. For Europeans, a civilization had paved roads, buildings of brick and wood, settled crops, and were fully clothed. Society was organized through the male and religion worshiped one god alone.
Consider some of the first native americans they encountered, the Lenapes who occupied modern Manhattan island and Delaware. They didn’t live in villages, but in seasonal campsites moving from shore in the summer to inland in the fall. They also organized society through kinship not class. They didn’t believe in private ownership of land, and families were traced matrilineally. Women also worked in the fields and were responsible for 90% of the food supply, which scandalized the Europeans. Eventually, though, the Lenapes became more involved with the new European settlers, abandoning their old societal practices, and taking up commercial hunting animals for their pelts to trade for more European goods. Eventually this started to destroy their society.
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Effects of exploration
Columbian Exchange: exchange resulting from the interaction of Native Americans and Europeans on a biological and cultural level
Societal loss
Ecological destruction
Religion
Death
Disease
Slavery
For the native societies, the Columbian exchange was devastating.
Europeans got potatoes, corn, tobacco, and mink.
Native Americans got smallpox and tuberculosis, booze and firearms.
Societal loss Like we discussed with the Lenape, the presence and interaction with Europeans slowly eroded NA culture. One of the biggest factors in this was the change from substance existence to commercial farming and hunting. Europeans also introduced new ways of farming to the NA, especially with the inclusion of domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, and chickens
Ecological destruction The change in farming practices and technology along and new animals led to the extinction of some native species and plants.
Religion Europeans also brought a new religion. Many natives were open to the idea of Jesus and adopted him into their lexicon of gods, much to the condemnation of Europeans. Others, largely those who came into interaction with the Spanish, were frequently forced or coerced native americans to convert to Christianity. With the more gentle conversions, priests and missions would incentivize conversion with food, metal goods, and firearms. For other instances, largely committed by Spanish conquistadors, they would often threaten conversion or death, viewing death as a positive alternative to save heathen souls (because you can pray for them after their death).
In each case, Christianity often became a scapegoat for the cruel treatment of Native Americans. Because they were not Christians, they were not “civilized” and they could be treated as such. It should be noted that this same argument, was used to justify enslaving African peoples, and conquering the Irish as well.
Death was obviously an effect of exploration, but not from murder and warfare with Europeans. Europeans quickly found it advantageous to become entangled with tribal disputes and often picked a side, giving their allies advanced weaponry. Whereas previous warfare would result in minor casualties, after Europeans, they often resulted in mass murder.
Disease also played a part in the death of NA. It is no secret that Europeans quickly noticed that the Natives died from the simplest of European colds. Without hundreds of years of evolved immunity to the flu or small pox, killing off an entire tribe only needed one infected blanket.
Lastly, Slavery played a huge part in changing Native Americans and the land. Not only did Europeans start to import slaves from Africa (which we will talk about later) but they also enslaved the native americans there, particularly in the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Consider this Columbus’s first thoughts when meeting the Arawaks of the Bahama islands
QUESTION: what kind of damage would these things cause for Native societies?
Kind of a jerk, huh? Let’s break down this primary source. How does he view the Native population? How does this jive with what you read and we just discussed? What can we infer from Columbus’s intentions for exploration? Why was it so easy for him to see the natives not as people but as sources of income? What sort of foreshadowing do we see from Columbus’s journal entry regarding Native/Euro relations to come?
Columbus and many other explorers came soley to make money.
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Christopher Columbus’s Diary descriptions of the Arawaks on Bahama Islands
“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beds and hawk’s bells. They willingly traded everything they owned. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… They would make fine servants… with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
