Patterns of Conquest and Demographic Collapse

Bulliet et. al., the Earth and its Peoples Ch. 18 1. What plants and animals came with the

Europeans to the Americas? 2. What demographic change followed the

European arrival in the Americas? 3. Why did Spain and Portugal take their

religion with them to the Americas? 4. What European powers created colonies in

North America? 5. What trade drew France to settle Canada?

Who were the Europeans that traveled to the Americas?

Why were the Americas already populated?

1492 Chris Columbus contract with Catholic monarchs: Pope (Alex. VI, from Spain) entrusted a missionary task

Inherent Contradiction of the charge???

Two European waves settled the American continent by 1540

1. From Cuba (1516-1518) to Mexico (1519) Central America (1522)

Hernan Cortés landed at Veracruz in March, 1519-Aztec (Moctezuma) waiting for return of Quetzalcoatl, finery and

gifts

“A thing like a ball of stone comes out of its entrails, it comes out shooting sparks and raining fire. The smoke that comes out with it has a pestilent odor, like that of rotten mud… If the cannon is aimed against a mountain, the mountain splits and cracks open. It is is aimed against a tree, it shatters the tree into splinters.”

“Their dogs are enormous, with flat ears and long dangling tongues. the color of their eyes is burning yellow. Their eyes flash fire and shoot off sparks. Their bellies are hollow, their flanks long and narrow. They are tireless and very powerful. They bound here and there, panting, with their tongues hanging out. And they are spotted like an ocelot.”

The Earth and its Peoples, Ch. 18

The Diversity of American Colonial Societies 1530-1770What surprised you about interaction between different cultures in the Americas?

How did the Columbian Exchange alter the natural environment of the Americas?

How did these changes alter both European and indigenous cultures?

Francisco Pizarro led expedition in 1531 180 men and 30 horses

Conquest of Inca Empire, AtahualpaThen north to Quito (1534), Bogota

(1536)Spain used existing empire structure

to own advantage

Atahualpa

Small group discussions: Why did Spain occupy the Americas so quickly?

90% in 16th C. Sherbourne Cook, Woodrow Borah

How does such a demographic collapse affect a population?

Class collapse simulation: Number off by 10Virgin Soil Epidemics: no built-up immunity

Small Pox 1-3Measles 4-5Mumps 6Chicken Pox 7Influenza 8-9

Who is left? 10

Implications for Indigenous Cultures in the Americas?And then come the European colonists: demanding labor & gold

• The Columbian Exchange in Early Modern P.• What Plants and Animals came to Americas?• What returned to Europe?• What types of sources used to describe the

use of maize and potatoes?• Diseases went both ways

Find someone with something to trade No talking to simulate challenging cross-

cultural communication… Make a mutually-agreeable exchange Class: Process the encounter What were the stakes in the Americas?