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Chapter 01 - A New World

  1. First Americans
    1. Arrival of Native Americans
      1. Gradual settlement across Americas
      2. Environmental change and rise of agriculture
    2. Aztec and Inca empires
    3. North American Indians
      1. Wide-ranging and evolving societies
        1. Mississippi Valley
        2. Ohio River Valley
        3. Southwest
        4. West Coast
        5. Great Plains
        6. Southeast
        7. Northeast
      2. Interrelations among Indian societies
        1. Trade
        2. Diplomacy
        3. War
      3. Distinguishing factors among Indian societies
        1. Political organization
        2. Religious beliefs
        3. Language
        4. Absence of shared identity
      4. Common characteristics among Indian societies
        1. Spiritual outlook
          1. Place of ritual
          2. Views on natural and supernatural
          3. Views on secular and religious
        2. Conceptions of property
        3. Relative lack of material inequality
        4. Systems of gender relations
      5. European disdain for Indian customs and values
  2. Indian Freedom, European Freedom
    1. Indian conceptions of freedom
      1. Basis in collective belonging, self-determination, mutuality
      2. Absence of basis in individual autonomy, private property
      3. European incomprehension of
    2. European conceptions of freedom
      1. Christian liberty
        1. Freedom from sin
        2. No freedom of religious choice
      2. Freedom and inequality in early modern England
        1. Emphasis on ordered, hierarchical society
          1. Gender hierarchies
          2. Class hierarchies
        2. Unequal distribution of freedoms
  3. Start of European expansion
    1. Initial aims
      1. Commercial sea route to Asia
      2. Circumvention of Islamic middlemen
    2. Eastward expansion
      1. Portugal's exploration, extension of trading empire
        1. West Africa
        2. Cape of Good Hope
        3. India
        4. Far East
      2. Portugal's colonization of Atlantic islands
        1. Sugar plantations
        2. Slaves from Africa
    3. Slavery and Africa
      1. Traditional patterns of African slavery
      2. Acceleration of slave trade following European arrival
    4. Westward expansion
      1. Voyages of Christopher Columbus
        1. Quest for westward route to Asia
        2. Sponsorship of Spain
      2. First Spanish presence in New World
        1. Settlements at Hispaniola
        2. Explorations by Amerigo Vespucci
      3. First English and Portuguese presence in New World
        1. John Cabot (Newfoundland)
        2. Pedro Cabral (Brazil)
  4. Spanish conquest of New World
    1. Motivations
      1. Acquisition of wealth
      2. National glory
      3. Spread of Catholicism
    2. The Conquistadores
      1. Vasco Núñez de Balboa's expedition to Panama, the Pacific
      2. Ferdinand Magellan's expedition around the world
      3. Hernán Cortés's conquest of the Aztecs
        1. Background on Aztec empire
        2. Defeat, devastation, subjugation of the Aztecs
      4. Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Incas
        1. Background on Inca empire
        2. Defeat, devastation, subjugation of the Incas
  5. Demographic consequences of European arrival in the Americas
    1. "Columbian Exchange" of goods and people
    2. Devastation of Indian population
      1. Breadth and magnitude
      2. Causes
        1. War
        2. Enslavement
        3. Disease
  6. The Spanish Empire (sixteenth century)
    1. Breadth
    2. System of colonial government
      1. Curbing of conquistador aggression
      2. Establishment of top-down royal governance
      3. Emergence of locally based governance
    3. Exploitation of Indian labor
      1. Gold and silver mines
      2. Large-scale farms (haciendas)
    4. Emigration from Spain
      1. Volume
      2. Social composition
    5. Impact of native societies on empire's prospects
    6. Gestation of a hybrid culture; Mestizos
    7. Justifications for conquest
      1. Perception of cultural superiority
      2. Old-World precedent for violent crusades
      3. Papal bull dividing New World between Spain and Portugal
      4. Imperative to spread Catholicism
        1. Versus heathenism
        2. Versus Protestantism
    8. Spain and the Indians
      1. Dual agenda of saving souls and exploiting labor
      2. External restraints on brutalization of Indians
        1. Pope Paul III's ban on Indian enslavement
        2. Bartolomé de Las Casas's Destruction of the Indies
        3. Spanish reforms of colonist–Indian relations
          1. Abolition of Indian enslavement
          2. Abolition of encomienda system
          3. Implementation of repartimiento system
      3. Continuing abuse of Indians
    9. Colonial labor system at end of sixteenth century
      1. Involuntary wage labor by Indians
      2. Slave labor by Africans
    10. Emergence of Black Legend image of Spanish colonizers
    11. Spanish explorations of North America
      1. Motivations
        1. Riches
        2. Strategic bases
        3. Religious conversion
      2. Exploratory expeditions
        1. Juan Ponce de León
        2. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
        3. Hernando de Soto
        4. Cabeza de Vaca
        5. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
      3. Devastation of Indian communities
      4. Establishment of Spanish settlements
        1. In present-day Southeast
        2. In present-day Southwest
    12. Pueblo revolt
      1. Sources of Pueblo resentment of colonial authorities
        1. Labor exploitation
        2. Pressure to convert to Catholicism
        3. Assault on Pueblo religious traditions
        4. Failure to protect Pueblos from drought, external attacks
      2. The 1680 revolt
        1. Popé
          1. Background
          2. Leadership
        2. Unity of Pueblo rebels
        3. Defeat and ouster of Spanish colonizers
      3. Aftermath of revolt
        1. Eradication of Spanish cultural presence
        2. Collapse of Pueblo unity
        3. Return of Spanish colonial rule
        4. Easing of colonial practices toward Pueblos
  7. The French and Dutch empires
    1. Overall significance
      1. As part of Atlantic rivalry with Spain
      2. Modesty of, compared to Spanish empire
    2. The French empire
      1. Initial aims
      2. Initial obstacles
      3. Establishment and scope of
      4. Relations with Indians
      5. Social and economic arrangements
      6. Limits of growth
    3. The Dutch empire
      1. Establishment and scope of
      2. Place within Dutch commercial empire
      3. Conceptions of liberty and toleration
      4. Social and economic arrangements
      5. Limits of growth
      6. Relations with Indians

 

Subject: 
US History
Subject X2: 
US History

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