American exceptionalism is defined as the idea that the creation of American was widely different and unique than the creation of other nations. This story of american uplift excludes many people. At this time in history women were viewed as useless except for home life, Indians were viewed as a threatening people that were too animalistic to behave the same as the white men, and African slaves were not included when it came time to distribute the freedoms of the new world.
Colonials diverged from their mother country by following different interests wether is was an accident is beside the point. All the colonists mixed with many different types of people which was not a normal thing in the mother country. This mixing pot of people created the biggest intermingling of animals, plants, microbes, and people in global history. They also diverged in a sense of language and culture, they developed different dialects and new identities for themselves.
Scholars used to think of the native population and its cultures as unchanging pre-Columbus. Studies of natives are fraught with controversy due to the fact that some scholars paint a picture of natives as perfect saints that never had conflict with one another and also caused no harm to the environment. While on the other hand natives were generalized as savages that had their fair share of violence and harm to each other and the environment.
Europe’s superior power had allowed them to develop a greater capacity to conduct wars from their home. Europe’s superior power also helped them inflict misery on the natives due to their forceful ideologies and rivalries that encouraged Europeans to search for new l ands and people to conquer.
Early Europeans described native religion as something in-between the divine and the diabolical. They referred to the native’s beliefs as being the devil’s word and considered their shamans the same as witches. Early Europeans believed the native shamans possessed a supernatural power to cause harm on other natives but not European Christians.
A combination of science, technology, and commerce helped Europe master the Americas. These things allowed innovations in mathematics, geology, astronomy, weaponry, and medicine. Discoveries of tobacco, vital foods such as maize and potatoes, precious metals, and new sources of slave labor. These advances financed further explorations and conquests that led them to master the Americas. The environmental revolution worked in favor of the Europeans. The colonizers alienated land from the native inhabitants and accidentally introduced deadly microbes, plants, and vermin. In European exploration Islam played a factor.
Popular history describes Columbus differently than how in reality he should be viewed. Popular history says that Christopher Columbus was a secular man who was dedicated to humanism and scientific rationalism. In reality he was a militant Catholic who pulled his geographic theories from the bible.
Epidemics were devastating on natives. For example, Indian numbers were depleting because of pneumonia and whooping cough. Villages at a time would get sick so there weren't many to care for the sick. There were three factors that helped develop powerful pathogens in the old world. The first was that long distance trade and invasions were more common in Asia and Europe. This provided opportunity for diseases to mutate and/or be exchanged between many people. The second was that the Old world was developing more and more permanent settlements. When an area becomes crowded diseases routinely cycle through and affect many and the crowdedness of a place determines how much waste is accumulated which then can create breeding ground for deadly microbes. Lastly, the people in the old world lived amongst domesticated animals which includes pigs, goats, cattle, and sheep. These animals can share microscopic parasites with humans. This is why a particular strain of influenza is called the swine flu because pigs share these microscopic parasites with humans.
The aztecs were apart of a rich and populous empire in central Mexico. Hernan Cortes led an unauthorized expedition of many men and gained support from the native people subordinated by the Aztecs. The arrival of his army frightened the Aztec emperor because of the guns, cannons, steel armor, swords, and other things unfamiliar to Montezuma. The emperor mistook Cortes for a returning god and invited him and his men into the city as honored guests. The Spanish marveled at the city and it’s wealth brought a desire inside them to enslave the people, conquer the city, and plunder the wealth. Montezuma quickly became an imprisoned hostage and later part of the dead. After four months of fighting the city was reduced to blood stained rubble. The Spanish killed their priests, tortured the nobles to locate their hidden gold, and later executing “traitors” of the new king. Cortes died the wealthiest man in Spain. Conquistador is defined as a conqueror, more specifically a Spanish conquerer of the 16th century. An encomienda is a grant by the Spanish Crown to a colonist in America giving the right to demand labor and tribute from the Indian inhabitant of an area. A barrio is a district of a town in Spain and/or a Spanish-speaking country. Lastly, a cabildo is a town council or a sort of local government council in Spain or a Spanish-speaking country. It can also be called a town hall.
The concept of Indian trade dependency includes the Europeans needing the Indians as hunters and allies because the northern traders could not afford them as enemies of theirs. Instead of risking a breakdown in the trade between them, the northern traders unwilling accepted the Indian’s trade protocols, and kept their prices reasonable. Although this idea of “dependency” can be seen as controversial because some believe that the relationship between the traders and native was irreversible and quickly destructive to the natives. The natives became depend on the cloth, alcohol, and metals from the Europeans. Others believe that natives weren't negatively affected because they had the upper hand. Meaning that they could easily return to their stone tools and animal skin attire. The fur trade was important because in northern north america there were only two things that could create profit to those settled there. One was fishing and the other was furs. The Europeans saw the natives wearing furs of beavers, foxes, and other animals. The Europeans traded manufactured goods in exchange for the furs. The Indians were eager to help the Europeans and this saved them money since the natives hunted for free. The fur trade was important because it sparked a relationship between europeans and the natives and it also allowed them to permanently settle in northern north america.
The Five Nations Iroquois included the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. These peoples were determined to take trading goods, captives, and exact revenge. They raided in the north which was where the Montagnais, Algonkin, and the Huron peoples were. These three were the natives that assisted in the fur trade with the French. When the Five Nations committed a raid they also hurt the French.
The role the dutch played in exploration was that they came later and made a settlement. The Dutch ascended the river five weeks after Champlain helped defeat the Iroquois. The Dutch set up a year round fur trading post in 1614. The Dutch could supply metal tools and weapons that were better quality for a lower price. This pleased the natives. Later, the tensions between the French and the Iroquois rose and keeping each others as enemies meant that the Iroquois had to do business (or steal) from the French because they could not pass them to visit the Dutch a little bit farther south.
Queen Elizabeth couldn't financially support exploration because she was in charge of a small and poor realm. Without a comfortable financial status, Queen Elizabeth was unable to govern and finance an overseas colony. The West Country promoters convinced others to explore overseas. They did this by saying that the hierarchical system of 16th century England was eroding and would soon be nonexistent. The promoters encouraged overseas colonization due to the fact they believed that if England did not expand it would collapse from within.
The Powhatan people were Indians that were divided into 30 tribes and were all united under two things, the first being that they all spoke an Algonquian language and under the rule of the chief named Powhatan. Powhatan treated conquered natives by leaving the conquered subordinate chiefs to govern their villages but they had to ay a tribute. This tribute went toward the fund for Powhatan’s wives, warriors, shamans, staging feasts, and trading with outsiders.
A peace treaty between Spain and England allowed sailors that had been on ships attacking the Spanish to go back home. Now unable to invest in the privateers, the merchants and lawyers of England decided to take an interest in colonizing Virginia. Since the new king who succeeded Queen Elizabeth was named James, the colony was names Jamestown. In December of 1606 three ships left for Virginia and later ascended the James River and established their settlement. The first group of colonist were looking for precious metals. Jamestown’s initial relationship with Powhatan was neutral until they began to put pressure on Indian to give them their surpluses of food. They pushed too hard and the Indians lashed out and killed 17 colonists. Captain John Smith was taken captive by Powhatan and ritually adopted when Powhatan’s daughter “stopped” John Smith’s execution. When in actuality this was the ritual to make Smith a subordinate chief of Powhatan. Upon his release Smith continued to bully the natives to receive corn and Powhatan continued to trade with Jamestown.
Tobacco affected society in Virginia. Before this the settlers had created and sent to England things to be sold. The issue was that these items sold for a very small price that was far below the immense costs that needed to be paid to ship people, equipment, and provisions across the ocean. The Virginia Company was headed towards bankruptcy until the headright system was adopted by the Virginia Company as part of two adjustments they made. This system awarded land to men for free only if they had to the means to pay for their own passage across the Atlantic. King James originally hated tobacco but he learned to love the large revenue it brought in. The profit of tobacco increased the value of an indentured servant. An indentured servant was a person who was under contract to work for a certain period of time without pay, the case was usually work in exchange for passage to the new world.
Maryland was founded when the king gave it to a political ally named Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore to own and govern as a “proprietary colony.” A proprietary colony is any colony that was granted by the British crown to a group or an individual that was then given full rights to self govern said colony. Because Lord Baltimore owned and governed the colony known as Maryland he decided to use it to gain additional wealth and provide refuge for other Catholics.
Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion in Virginia when the frustrated servants and freedman blamed their unfortunate predicament of economic and other problems on Governor William Berkeley. The tobacco was selling for low prices but their taxes kept increasing. There was no way for them to catch up to the amount they were supposed to be paying. Other problems included the Indians attacking the colonists and the colonists believing their governor was not doing anything to help stop these attacks. The men led by Bacon defeated the Indians themselves without government help and later won an election held the year after. Bacon and the men who were close to him changed some laws and set up a militia. They also burned Jamestown, Virginia’s state capital, and defeated Berkeley’s troops. The rebellion ended when Bacon was overcome with sickness and died. Berkeley regained power after but it’s effect is that the rebellion was one of the first times in the history of America that people had a say in government.