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Garedakis,M.LectureNotesfromSeptember10,2013.History103,QueensCollege.

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9/10 – LECTURE NOTES: THE ORIGINS OF AMERICA & THE JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT The origins of settlement in North America are not entirely clear, but it is believed through archaeological data that it occurred during the last Ice Age when the water between Russia and Alaska froze over, in an area we call the Bering Strait. This allowed people from regions currently in Russia to cross over into North America and to settle. Some later crossed by boat. They were big game hunters, and did not take part in settlement agriculture. In 3500 BCE they migrated down into Mexico. By this time these people had developed semi-advanced agriculture. This happens all around the world around the same time; people begin to raise crops, engage in semi-organized agriculture, etc.

• And this allows people to transition from a Hunter-Gatherer society into a

society that raises its own food, and thus has extra time to devote to things such as trade, building temples and buildings, developing a written language and a religion, and an economic system.

• Small farming villages eventually evolve into large cities, over time. (This happens over the course of hundreds or even thousands of years.)

Between 1000 BCE and 1500 BCE several prominent societies grow in Mexico, Peru, and other areas of South America

• They develop advanced mathematics, astronomy, and a written calendar. • The two groups that we look at here are the Maya in the Yucatan peninsula,

which is in present day Central America, and the Aztecs of Central Mexico.

THE MAYA The Maya lived as a society from approx. 317CE to 900 CE. They established a very complex society in the Yucatan, near modern-day Guatemala. They had a great impact on North American tribes.

• The Maya population lived in scattered communities with no central government with a society ruled by priests.

• Religion revolved around the worship of animals and human sacrifice to ensure high crop yields and other benefits from the gods. (Such as luck in war, longevity for rulers, etc.)

• The Maya achieve great advancements in astronomy o They developed a calendar that was far more advanced than the

European calendars of the same period o They made accurate calculations of the seasons, lunar events, solar

eclipses, and planetary movements.


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o They were very advanced mathematicians, which led to advances in architecture.

Soon, they utilized this math and architectural talent to build large buildings that were very complex and better than many architecture found in Western Europe at the same time. They produced books, a system of writing, and communication in writing during a time where this was not the norm. 900 CE - civilization went into decline. No one is sure why this happened – but we do know that their cities were abandoned.

(Theories include civil war, famine, or plague.) CENTRAL MEXICO – THE AZTECS From 1325 to 1521 we see the rise of the Aztec civilization, centered on what is present day Mexico City. Their capital, called Tenochtitlan, was founded in 1325. Tenochtitlan was the capital of what would become a prominent and vast Aztec empire.

• By 1500, the Aztec Empire was around the same size as the present day state of Arizona.

• The Aztecs were warlike, aggressive, and they conquered many other areas and peoples and brought them into their empire.

• They demanded tribute from these captured areas; they wanted both financial gain and captives for human sacrifice.

o Many of these sacrifices took place in temples shaped like pyramids; thisiss most visible in the capital city of Tenochtitlan.

• Tenochtitlan was in the middle of a lake in Mexico City. It featured and a sizeable, man-made floating island which they used for agriculture – very advanced in terms of architecture and engineering. Mathematics, astronomy and art all flourished in this city.

The Spanish first arrived in the area now known as Mexico City in 1519 and over the course of the next 2 years they conquered, brutally subjugated, and essentially captured or wiped out Aztec populations.

• The Spanish enslaved those who survived. • Entire Aztec cites were destroyed and the buildings were either knocked down or

converted into Spanish structures. Mexico would remain a Spanish colony until the 19th century.


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THE PRESENT-DAY UNITED STATES The groups of people whom we call Native Americans or American Indians are not one culture. They comprised numerous different tribes each with its own distinct cultural patterns, behavior, language, etc. (How do we get the term Indian for these people? The term “Indian” of course comes from Christopher Columbus who mistook the New World for India.) There were approximately two thousand native tribes or groups in the present-day U.S., and each were very different from those whom Columbus encountered. Here is brief look at a few examples of these American cultural groups, arranged geographically across the country, moving from the west and going eastward. THE SOUTHWEST Areas in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado had native peoples with elaborate irrigation systems that allowed them to farm in a largely arid desert climate. They borrowed these irrigation ideas from the natives of Mexico (such as the Aztec or the Maya). Unlike the native groups in Mexico, however, the groups in these four states did not have a class system and, for the large part, they were peaceful and not warrior-oriented. They are called the Pueblo Indians, with structures carved out of rock like the structure from today’s PowerPoint, structures that resemble a modern-day apartment building. By the time the Spanish explorers arrived in the Southwest these dwellings had been abandoned and it is not known why. They are still around today and are very remarkable in terms of their advanced architecture and usage of survey. THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND PACIFIC PLATEAU In the Pacific Northwest, Native Americans were primarily fisherman and relied heavily on the Pacific for their livelihood. They made simple tools and were also quite peaceful. The Ohlone tribe is an example of a Pacific Northwest tribe. Here is a website which contains a multitude of archaeological resources for these indigenous groups: http://content.lib.washington.edu/aipnw/ THE GREAT PLAINS In the Great Plains – Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, the so-called Plains Indians comprised of several distinct cultures. They relied heavily on the buffalo, and used every part of the animal for their dwellings, tools, clothing, etc. These tribes were partly nomadic with mobile housing. They followed the buffalo herds through the plains and often had a very religious view of the animal as evidenced through art and ceremonial objects. Among the tribes situated here are the Blackfoot, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Cheyenne,


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Comanche, Crow, Lakota, Sioux, Lipan, Plains Apache (or Kiowa Apache), Plains Cree, and Tonkawa. There are several more. Although native groups in the plains region will be discussed later in this course, here is an interactive resource for additional information: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/tcrr-interview/ [See also: Carlson, Paul Howard, The Plains Indians. College Station: Texas A & M Univ. Press., 1999; Santella, Andrew, Plains Indians. Chicago, Ill: Heinemann Library, 2012.] THE SOUTHEAST Moving on to the southeastern United States – areas like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. These native groups actually built pyramid-like structures very similar to the native groups in Mexico. This suggests there may have been a trade relationship between these two groups of Native Americans.


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THE NORTHEAST Finally, moving up the Northeast where we are, in present day New England, New York, and areas near Pennsylvania, you have tribes that focus on game hunting for shelter, they build wigwams out of bark and wood. One of the most prominent of these groups was the Iroquois who lived in New York State. They lived in large villages in very large shelters that housed numerous families together, all living under one roof. The Iroquois society was matriarchal, meaning that women were the chief overseers of the bloodline that property and goods passed down through the female line, rather than the male line as it did in many native societies and in societies in Europe at this time.

• In the 1400s, the League of the Iroquois Nations was founded and it bound together many tribes in the area

o This comes into play later when European contact and settlement in the Northeast takes hold

Europeans actually landed in North America much earlier than we typically thought.

• The first Europeans to make contact in North America were the Vikings, who made contact in Newfoundland in the 980s.

• They did not make permanent settlements in North America, although one Viking – Leif Ericsson – attempted to set up colonies. These failed by 1013 and were abandoned. (During 20th century archaeology found evidence of these settlements.)

In 1492, Spain was becoming the primary world power; and they were looking to expand its trade to Asia, and to the East in general. The reasons for this were: cost, the arduous journey to the East, and changing markets and demand for luxury goods. Problem? This caused the goods that came back to be very expensive, because you are trying to make up for the money you invested in the expedition when you’re selling the goods. It caused for inflation in luxury goods markets seen throughout Spain.

• Spain was a very wealthy country at this time and its inhabitants wanted more luxury goods.

• What they really wanted from Asia were spices, mainly because refrigeration had not been invented yet, and meat was cured in salt to preserve it from rotting.. Spices made food more edible.

• Another contributing factor? The Crusades (many centuries prior) and the subsequent increased contact with the East.

o Europeans had acquired a taste for Eastern luxury goods such as linen textiles and silks, spices, and other precious items such as perfume

• One of the most important commodities, however, was gold and silver: o By the late middle ages the gold and silver supply in Europe had begun

to run dry, so there was a need for these items from other places. (These are also economies based on gold or silver as currency, so the state needed precious metals as well.)


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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS Christopher Columbus was an explorer who believed that the fastest way to reach India was to sail west. (At this time, the way to get to India was to sail around the Horn of Africa and through to the Indian Ocean. It was a long and treacherous journey.)

• Columbus believed that if he sailed west, he could reach Asia by essentially going in a straight line.

• Columbus himself was Italian, from Genoa, but he needed funding from Spain. Genoa had been dealt a difficult economic blow after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 which made trade even more difficult; Italy as a whole lost its control of the Mediterranean (especially in the East where they had to pay inflated head tax to the Ottoman Empire), so Columbus moved to Spain to acquire funding.

• He tried numerous times and was rejected, but eventually, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave him three vessels. He sailed west and ended up not running into Asia, but what is now the present-day Bahamas

• He also finds El Salvador, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. He goes back and forth from these areas to Spain, and he continues to believe that he found India, not a new continent.

• It is not until another explorer – Amerigo Vespucci – another Italian who makes several journeys that people begin to realize this is not Asia. In 1499 Vespucci travels to Brazil and Argentina. When he returns to Europe he puts forth the idea that this is a new continent. (Amerigo is whom America is named for.)

The Spanish continue to settle into South America where they subdue and often enslave entire native groups. Nearly all of South America (with the exception of Brazil which is taken over by the Portuguese) was under Spanish control during this period. They gradually move up north into Central America and Mexico.

• So, other regions and principalities in Europe want to profit from the West, but the problem is that Spain is the dominant world power at the time. Everyone else essentially needed to find another place to settle. So, they begin to settle in the north. (Ex: The French during the 17th century explore Louisiana and Mississippi, and sail up the Mississippi River and embark on journeys into present-day Canada.

• The English also want to be involved. John Cabot, an Italian explorer (born: Zuan Chabotto), made the journey to what is now North America in 1497, landing in Newfoundland. He eventually gets lost as sea, and the first English attempt at colonization is a failure.

• The 1500s is a difficult time for the English. They are developing as a nation; this is the time of the Tudor dynasty, right after a period of bloody civil war (The War of the Roses). Henry VII and Henry VIII rule, followed by Queen Mary. This is a very tumultuous time, so England does not regularly launch expeditions.

• By the late 1500s/very early 1600s, Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII’s daughter, gained control of England. Under Elizabeth, (r. 1558-1603), we see a general period of internal peace (with notable exceptions) and a strengthening of the


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English Navy. As such, Elizabeth sends Francis Drake and sends Sir Walter Raleigh on naval expeditions.

• Elizabeth I sent Raleigh to found a colony north of Spanish territory. He lands on Roanoke Island off the coast of present day North Carolina.

o He names the area “Virginia”, after the Virgin Queen, Queen Elizabeth, of England. He makes his first attempt in 1585; then, in 1587, he tries again with more success.

o By 1590, however, the colony is in bad shape, and he is forced to return to England to get supplies. And when Sir Walter Raleigh returns, the entire colony on Roanoke has vanished.

o No sign of them remained. It is still not entirely known what happened to these people, although there are numerous theories.

Among the theories of Roanoke are that they died of starvation or disease, that native tribes had killed them, or that they assimilated into the Native tribes nearby when the conditions in their own camp became too much for them to handle.

• By 1600, the face of North America had radically changed. English attempts at colonization had initially failed, and many native groups had died through a combination of diseases introduced by the new settlers and killings by the explorers (mainly the Spanish). So by 1600, little more than 10% of the native population of the Americas had survived.

o Think about that for a moment – 90% of the Native Population of the Americas had died within about a 100-year period. This is astounding.

European nations practiced a policy called mercantilism: an economic system where the goods and resources of an area are used to support the Mother Country.

• For example, the best resources – copper, gold, etc. – were sent back to the Mother Country, Spain, which was used for the benefit for Spain and not for the benefit of Mexico. The colonies were a supplier for the Mother Country.

• In other words, things that are produced in Spain would be sold in Mexico, and the same thing would happen in North America. So the raw materials would be sent home, turned into goods, and then purchased by colonies and citizens back in the colonies.

By the 1600s Spain owned most of Florida, the American West, South America, Central America, and Mexico. But the Northeast and Southeast remained relatively unexplored. In 1607, the English make one more attempt at establishing a colony in North America. This time they settle in North America in an area they named Jamestown, after English King James I, Elizabeth’s successor. The government did not fund this Jamestown attempt, and this is what makes it significant. Jamestown was funded by a joint stock company, which is a private venture were many people donate money for a percentage of the company.

• Joint stock companies were one of the reasons why the English were so successful at colonizing in America.


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[Many of the people who volunteered to come to America were under the belief that there was a lot of gold in North America. While there was a lot of gold in the areas where Spain was developing, the Northeast did not have a lot of gold.]

• Not only did they not find gold in abundance, the settlement itself was very difficult to sustain. Additionally, those who volunteered to come to the New World were not of the highest ranks of society. They were largely people who had failed in business, people with a lot of debt, and those displaced by what was called The Enclosure Movement where, in the 1500s, a large group of landowners began to fence off their property with hedges so that small-time farmers and those with herds of sheep could not graze on lands which had largely been open to the public.

o This meant that a lot of small-time subsistence farmers were starved out of farming and had to go to the cities that, in turn, could not accommodate this large influx of people who suddenly found themselves landless. These individuals, in essence, had nowhere to go, so an offer to settle in a new place was tempting.

The Virginia Company of London created a charter for this territory and at the time it appeared to be like any other business document or charter. However, this was important because in the Charter of the Virginia Company it guarantees the settlers of the Virginia Company the same rights as Englishmen. This is something that had not been done before, and it is going to be something that the colonists will continuously reference – this idea to the British colonists that they had the same rights as the British living in England. This is not something that was widely practiced throughout the empire with other colonies. (Most colonists did not have the same rights as those who lived in the Mother Country. In many ways, this would lead to the American concept of Liberty.) In 1607, 100 men and boys sailing from England landed in present-day Virginia and founded the colony of Jamestown. Inspired by the success of Spanish explorers who had found gold in South America, these adventurers hoped to get rich. Instead of gold, however, they found a very hostile environment that probably would have destroyed the colony. If it weren’t for the resourcefulness of Captain John Smith, who managed to organize and motivate the settlers and essentially save them from starvation, the colony would have failed.

Smith traded with the native population, learned their languages and agricultural techniques, and allowed the Jamestown settlement to thrive.

The native group in what is now called Jamestown was the Powhatan tribe. The Powhatan were Algonquian-speaking natives who lived in the Tidewater region of eastern Virginia, a region which they called Tsenacomoco.

• They prospered on fertile riverfront lands rich in fish and game. • Their villages were small, but their warriors – joined together – could readily

form a powerful army. • By 1607 when the English arrived, the Powhatan chiefdom included more than

14,000 people and 30 different groups, and encompassed 8,000 square miles.


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It is almost impossible for us to guess how many people lived in the Chesapeake region. (Nobody took Censuses back then!) We have to rely on the data from John Smith. John Smith’s Map of Virginia

His map of 1612 is significant for a variety of reasons:

• There is a figure on the map that is unknown, but appears to be a docile native American

• There is a double letter “D” – it is dividing the site into two portions – one to the west is the village portion, second area is an area of sacred meaning.

o This is important because it could reflect that Powhatan had a secular ruler who also served as a religious leader. Secular/sacred iconography. Evidence is also found in the descriptions of Powhatan temples with a doorway to the east of the temple with a sacred fire.

• Archaeological evidence suggests that people had settled in the area for up to 8-10 thousand years. Perhaps the Powhatan chose this location as the capital of his chiefdom based on pre-existing political and religious significance

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