The Collision of Cultures

Education.Chapter 1 The Collision of Cultures Learning Objectives •Describe the precontact peoples of America.•Contrast Spanish settlement in the Americas with that of the English, Dutch, and French.•Explain how contact between European arrivals and the native peoples of the Americas affected both groups.•Describe the effects of the importation of African slaves into the Americas.•Explain how the English experience in colonization of Ireland affected their efforts to c olonize in America.Chapter Overview Many thousands of years before Christopher Columbus, human beings crossed into the American

continents and began to people them. In South America and Central America, some formed

elaborate civilizations. In the North, the many nomadic and seminomadic civilizations were less elaborate but still substantial. All would be dramatically affected by the arrival of Europeans. For

the newcomers, this New World meant a new source of gold and silver, new land to exploit for agriculture, and new converts to the Christian religion; for some, it also meant new lives as

settlers, and new freedoms. Through the end of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, Spain, Portugal, France, Holland, and England had all laid claim to rich resources in the New World. They brought with them diseases against which natives had no immunity. It was not long before they also brought African slaves.Themes •The colonization of the Americas included a collision of European and Native American cultures that had been developing along very different lines for thousands of years.•A variety of ambitions and impulses (political, personal, financial) moved individuals and nations to colonize the New World.•The motives of the colonizers, their experiences before immigrating, and their limited knowledge of the New World shaped their attitudes toward Native American cultures.American History Connecting with the Past 15e (Volume 1 +2) Alan Brinkley (Instructor Manual All Chapters, 100% Original Verified, A+ Grade) (Lecture Notes Only)

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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.Lecture Strategies Reciprocal Relationships An important theme to develop at the beginning of the course is the reciprocal relationship between Europe and America. Lecturing on Spain and its New World Empire in the sixteenth century is an ideal way of emphasizing not only that Europe affected American development but that America affected European development. While discovery transformed the ecology, population, economy, and culture of regions that became Spanish America, the development of that colonial empire hastened the pace at which political authority in Europe became more centralized and economies in Europe became more monetarized and interdependent. The best source on the ecological impact of discovery is the work of Alfred Crosby, both The Columbian Exchange and Ecological Imperialism.England in Ireland and America England’s first attempt at conquest, of course, took place in Ireland rather than America, and Chapter 1 discusses the ways in which the colonization of Ireland served as a model for the subsequent settlement of America. In fact, many of the same men who served with the English army in Ireland were also involved in the earliest schemes for American colonization, lending to those designs their military—and often quasi-feudal—character. The Irish experience also shaped subsequent relations between the English and the natives of Roanoke and the Chesapeake. The connection between Ireland and America will probably be unfamiliar to most students, and its importance may warrant a lecture, one that addresses the differences as well as the similarities of English adventuring in Ireland and America. Nicholas Canny’s work, especially Kingdom and Colony, does an excellent job of describing the English conquest of Ireland and of drawing comparisons between Ireland under English rule and early Jamestown.Comparison of European Contact in the New World and Africa It could be helpful to point to the differences in the initial contact experience between Europeans and the peoples they encountered in the New World and in Africa. Generally, on the West African coast, the African kingdoms possessed enough military power to negotiate on a level of relative equality with the European explorers and traders. By contrast, the Taino, whom the Spanish first encountered in the Caribbean, did not have the same capacities and were thus more easily dominated. Later, the Aztecs and Incas, while formidable warriors, found it difficult to fight the conquistadores, since their power had been weakened by the outbreak of smallpox. In addition, both Aztecs and Incas were unpopular rulers, and thus found it difficult to mobilize the peoples under their rule to come to their defense.Teaching Suggestions The Aztec Perspective on Spanish Conquest On the issue of Indian attitudes toward invading Spaniards, an invaluable source is Miguel León-Portilla’s The Broken Spears, which offers vivid accounts of the Spanish conquest set down by Aztec scribes. It also sheds light on the question of how the conquistadores succeeded in supplanting Aztec rulers by illustrating both the importance of Indian disunity and the 2 / 4

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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.catastrophic consequences of their first exposure to European diseases. Students should understand that although Spanish weaponry was important, it was not the deciding factor.

Motivations for Colonization Students might also be asked to assess the relative importance of “ideal” as opposed to “material” goals in fostering colonization ventures. Most students are inclined to opt for the primacy of economic and political motives and tend to dismiss the colonizers’ professed concerns for religion and social justice as legitimizers of baser incentives. Arguing against the grain of these inclinations can stir up some valuable exchanges that will lend complexity to their view of overseas enterprise. For an effective collateral reading that illustrates the ideals informing colonization, see Thomas More’s Utopia. Discussion might also usefully emphasize the crusading mentality of the sixteenth-century Spanish and the militant Protestantism of the English, who felt a keen need to define themselves as something other than the “tyrannical” Spaniards of the “Black Legend.” You may also want to introduce the attitudes of ordinary people in Europe toward colonization, as opposed to those of the explorers and monarchs. How did they regard exploration and colonization? What stake might fisherfolk and peasants, sailors and tradespeople, have had in the opening of the Americas to Europe?

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Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.Chapter 2 Transplantations and Borderlands

Learning Objectives

• Contrast patterns of settlement and expansion in the Chesapeake with those in New England.• Analyze the reasons for and explain the outcomes of rebellion in the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York in the period 1660 to 1700.• Describe and explain the differences between the institution of slavery in England’s Atlantic seaboard colonies and the Caribbean.• Identify the region called the “middle grounds,” and describe how conditions there differed from conditions in the Atlantic seaboard colonies.• Analyze the influence of England’s Glorious Revolution on the North American colonies.

Chapter Overview

During the seventeenth century, two colonial systems existed in North America and in the Caribbean. Island and southwestern borderland provinces governed by Spain continued to flourish and provide an interesting counterpoint to colonies established by the British. Before 1660, most British provinces began as private ventures (with charters from the king), but the motives that brought them into being were as varied as the sociopolitical systems they developed. After 1660, proprietary colonies became the norm, and charters indicated a closer tie between the “owners” of the colony and the king, who granted them. As a result of this colonization effort, by the 1680s England had an unbroken string of provinces stretching from Canada to the Savannah River and holdings in the West Indies. As the colonies matured, their inhabitants began to exhibit a concern for control of local affairs and an independence of interests that eventually came to trouble the British Empire. It was a time when colonists began to sense that they were both English and American, a dual personality that was to lead to trouble and confusion on both sides of the Atlantic. The problem was that at the time, the American colonists were developing their own attitudes and institutions. England, fully aware of the potential of its colonies, began to tighten its control of its possessions.

Themes

• The origins and objectives of England’s first settlements in the New World • How and why English colonies—mainland and Caribbean—differed from one another in purpose and administration • The problems that arose as colonies matured and expanded, and how colonists attempted to solve them

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