Spanish

After Christopher Columbus encountered the inhabitants of the New World, Spain (the country
for which he was traveling) solidified their claim to the New World with the Treaty of
Tordesillas which divided the lands of the New World between Spain and its neighboring
country Portugal. In this agreement, Spain would later conquer most of the land in South and
Central America while Portugal got Brazil and significant claims in Africa and Asia.

With this land secured by the Treaty of Tordesillas (under the authority of the Catholic Church),
Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) set out to the New World in the name of the three Gs
(God, Gold and Glory). Since Spain had the authority of the Catholic Church to colonize the
New World, a major motivating force was to convert the natives to Christianity. Gold was also a
motivating force since anyone who volunteered to go find gold would almost certainly get rich,
since the metal was so valuable. Glory was the final driving factor for Spanish conquistadors
since victory in battle and the prizes that could be taken would give people the opportunity to
rise in social status in Spanish culture.

Since the Spanish conquistadors were among the first people from the Old World
(Europe, Asia and Africa) to visit the New World, they are credited with being the first to
bring diseases. In the ruins of the civilization, a new culture took form. Surviving native
inhabitants of the New World often married Spanish conquistadors, in an action known in
Spanish as el mestizaje (the mixing). The children born from these marriages were known as
mestizos (half European/half indigenous).

As Spanish rule solidified, the Spaniards enslaved the majority of the surviving natives and
mestizos through the encomienda system in which conquistadors were given plots of land
and employed the natives into slave labor tending mines and working in the fields as
tribute. This new culture which blended Spanish Old World customs with Aztec New World
customs, would stay under Spanish rule for three hundred years. While some Indian uprisings
such as Pope’s (Po-pay) Rebellion did succeed in temporarily pushing the Spanish out of the
American Southwest (where New Mexico is today), the Spanish returned and maintained a
massive stronghold from South America to Central to the American Southwest where the states
of Arizona, California and New Mexico are today.

Questions:
1. What is the Treaty of Tordesillas and what did it do?
2. What were the three motivating factors for Spanish colonization? Why?
3. What is el mestizaje?
4. How did the Spanish set up their labor system? Was it popular with the natives?
Why/why not?
French:
In the 1530s, French explorer Jacques Cartier ventured up the St. Lawrence River (north of
modern day New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine) and claimed it for France.
Cartier’s claim languished for three quarters of a century (his claim was not backed up nor was
it challenged) but in 1608 Samuel de Champlain returned and founded the fur trading post of
Quebec. Unlike the Spanish, the French did not use the same destructive methods of
conquest and enslaving the natives. Instead, the French adopted a more cooperative
stance with the native tribes.

In exchange for Old World technology such as kettles, hatchets, swords, knives and bread, the
native Micmac, Huron and Ottawa tribes helped the French settlers catch minks, otters and
beavers so their furs could be sold in Europe for massive profits. From this agreement, a
stronger cooperative relationship began to grow between the French and the natives. Like the
Spanish, the French were also a Catholic country and the conversion of native souls was also a
major priority. The customs and cultures of the native tribes, especially the Hurons, became a
point of interest for the French Jesuit priests. These Jesuits learned the language and the
culture of the native peoples and used that fluency as a way to cooperate with the natives while
also hoping to save their souls. The natives of the French New World followed animism or the
belief that every physical object in the world (including plants, animals, people and land) had a
soul.

While the intentions behind these efforts were good, the French did experience some
resistance. At first the Jesuits, known as Black Robes, were welcomed by the natives as
spiritually powerful beings. However, after prayers to the Christian god did not yield rain, a
bountiful harvest or protection from disease, the natives grew skeptical. A Peoria chief once
charged that the priests’ “fables are good only in his country; we have our own [beliefs] which do
not make us die as his do.” Nevertheless, relations between the French and the Natives
remained cooperative, never escalating to the level of institutional conquest and slavery that the
Spanish accomplished in the South.

The cooperative efforts between the French and the Natives led to the creation of New France.
WIth the blessing of King Louis XIV, most French citizens were allowed to travel to New France.
The cold climate and its long distance were unappealing to most French citizens, who referred
to New France as “the end of the world.” Huguenots (Protestant Christians) were outright
banned from travel to New France since France was a Catholic country and allowing
Protestants to travel its colony would risk losing control.

Questions:
1. How were the French different from other Europeans concerning the Natives?
2. How did religion influence French colonial policy?
3. Could any French citizen go to the New World? Why/why not?
British:
While the Treaty of Tordesillas did give Spain the authority from the Catholic Church to claim
the entire New World, Protestant countries such as England ignored it. Compared to Spain and
France, England was slow to embrace the prospect of planting colonies in the Americas.
There were fumbling attempts in the 1580s in Newfoundland and Maine, privately organized and
poorly funded. Sir Walter Raleigh’s three expeditions to North Carolina ended in disaster when
117 settlers on Roanoke Island, left unsupplied for several years, vanished. The fate of
Roanoke ---the “lost colony”---- remains a compelling puzzle for modern historians.

Merchants eventually joined forces to make effective and permanent settlements in the New
World. The first successful permanent English settlement was Jamestown. In 1606, James I
granted to the Virginia Company of London all lands stretching from present day North Carolina
to southern New York. Influenced by the Spanish example, in 1607, the Virginia Company
dispatched an all-male group with no ability to support itself: no women, farmers, or
ministers were among the first arrivals. The first travelers expected to extract tribute from the
region’s Indian population while it searched out valuable commodities like pearls and
gold.

Some of the settlers were young gentlemen with personal ties to the company’s shareholders: a
bunch of “unruly Spars, packed off by their Friends to escape worse Destinies at home.” Others
hoped to make a quick profit. All they wanted, one of them said, was to “dig gold, refine gold,
load gold.” But there was no gold, and the men fared poorly in their new environment.

Their plan to dominate the local Indian population ran up against the presence of Powhatan, the
powerful chief who oversaw some thirty tribal chiefdoms. He was willing to treat the English
traders as potential allies who could provide valuable goods, but ---just as the Englishmen
expected tribute from the Indians--- the Powhatan expected tribute from the English.

Powhatan provided the British settlers with corn, in return for “hatchets… bells, beads and
copper [and] two great guns” and expected Jamestown to become a dependent community
to his chiefdom. Tensions rose as motivations between the English and the Powhatan clashed.
Relations slowly normalized with the marriage of Pocahontas (Powhatan’s daughter) with
English gentleman John Rolfe. With the discovery of tobacco, which could be sold for a
high price back in England, the British wanted a greater portion of land to grow the cash
crop. When the Powhatan refused, the Indian War of 1622 occurred setting a major precedent
for British and Native tribes. While the Spanish conquered and enslaved the Natives and the
French embraced, cooperated and intermarried with the tribes they encountered; the British
excluded the Natives in future dealings. When their attempt at following the Spanish model
failed, the British made general agreements with the Natives where land would be split
between British and Native control.
Questions on the back.
Questions:
1. What was the name of the first British colony? Was it successful?
2. Why did the British experience problems at first with their colonization model? What
discovery “saved” their efforts, as is the case with Jamestown?
3. How did the British deal with Native Americans such as the Powhattan?