Early colonization of North America can be categorized by three distinct groups: English French and Spanish. Between the years 1598 and 1763, all three of these groups settled into new territory in the hopes of gaining wealth and power. Each group had an approach to the problems faced in the New World. Factors such as native relations or religion played their role in shaping each colony. However, when the French decided to compromise with the Natives over land, their colonies failed; as opposed to the British and Spanish who exploited their Native populations and achieved successful settlements. From the moment English settlers arrived in America, there were conflicts between them and the natives. One of the earliest examples was the mystery …show more content…
When Hernan Cortes set out to conquer the Aztecs in 1521, he had help from surrounding kingdoms. Both the English and the Spanish also had a secret upper hand during their conquests. “The smallpox epidemic, which killed more then 40% of [the Aztecs] population” was a crucial instrument in ensuring European conquest of the Americas (Herman, lecture). The Spanish then bound the native peoples to the encomienda system. The encomiendas “oblig[ate] the natives to the encomiendero, they are essential his servants” (Herman, lecture). In exchange for a land grant, the natives had to work on the fields, pay a tax and serve as soldiers for the landowner. Theoretically, the owner was supposed to establish schools and have a priest minister and convert the natives. However, “there are all sorts of abuse. It 's a very horrific system of labor exploitation” (Herman, lecture). Conclusively the encomienda system was the Spanish method of exploiting native labor and land for their personal wealth. This was not their only means of prosperity, “Spanish colonization was a success by one measure: wealth--in the form of precious metals. By 1650, over 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver had been shipped from the Americas to Spain.” (Chapter 2, Section 1.4). Through conquest and looting, American metals soon made up a quarter of Spain 's
Due to the different natural resources (ranging from beaver fur to medicinal herbs) available in the colonies, the patterns of interaction greatly varied between the European settlers and the Native Americans depending on the location. Before 1775, in New York, the interactions centered primarily around trading fur or war weapons. However, although the settlers and natives in the New Spain region traded herbs for manufactured herbal medicine, the settlers mainly focused their time on spreading their religion and starting mission trails throughout California. In the eighteenth century, the interactions between the Europeans settlers and the Native Americans in New York and New Spain developed in the same manner overtime since every group wanted to strengthen their regions politically and economically by creating alliances and promoting trade to increase their mother country’s global footprint; however, they did differ due to how the Europeans in the west mainly came to North America in pursuit of independence while the settlers of New Spain wanted to spread their religion and the Spanish Empire to the new lands.
For this project, my group researched the Southern colonies. These colonies were divided into two regions, the Chesapeake colonies, which included Virginia and Maryland, and the Southern colonies, which included the Carolinas and later Georgia. These Southern colonies emerged around the early 1600 's when the Europeans came to the New World and later had an abundance of cash crops which allowed their economy to thrive. The Europeans, specifically the British, arrived in the New World in the 1600 's. They made relations with the natives who helped them to survive.
Christopher Columbus's discovery of the “New World” in 1492 was the stimulant for change that European society, at the time, had been waiting for. European society, for hundreds of years, was living in the deep shadows of Asia. The discovery of America opened a whole new world of riches and opportunities to the explorers. However, beyond these new goods and opportunities lied horrific effects of European contact to the indigenous people; the Aztecs. Contact with the European explorers did not lead to prosperity; it led to death and fall of the great empire where it was decapitated and left unrecognizable.
In the 17th century England, sent ships to North America to try and colonize North America. There were three regions of colonies set up in the England colonies. There were the New England Colonies, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies. Each region was different in many ways. Settlers brought their values with them, and their personal reasons for coming over to North America.
The development of agriculture and the rise of industrialization generated new cultures and innovations in the new world. Native people in early America developed cultural distinct , men were in charge of the fishing, hunting, jobs that were more exposed to violence, and the women stayed closed to the village, farming, and child bearing. The way of life possessed by natives Americans did not compel them to conquer and transform new land. As opposed to European colonizers, Native Americans subscribed to a more “animistic” understanding of nature. In which they believed that plants and animals are not commodities, they are something to be respected rather than used.
The Cubans wanted independence from Spain because they believe that they were under control of an imperial master, also foreign affairs such as the Wilson-Gorman Tarriff sent Cuban economy spiraling into turmoil. The Wilson-Gorman Tarriff Act put restrictions on sugar imports to the United States to meet the congressional demands for free sugar. Sadly, this hurt Cubans because they relied heavily on producing and selling sugar to the United States. The on rising violence of the Cuban rebellion between Spain and Cuba during 1898 lead to president McKinley trying to get Spain to agree to a diplomatic solution but ended up requesting American intervention when the situation worsened. This called for naval intervention so the government sent over
In the 16th Century, Spain became one of the European forces to reckon with. To expand even further globally, Spanish conquistadors were sent abroad to discover lands, riches, and North America and its civilizations. When the Spanish and Native American groups met one another, they judged each other, as they were both unfamiliar with the people that stood before them. The Native American and Spanish views and opinions of one another are more similar than different because when meeting and getting to know each other, neither the Spaniards nor the Native Americans saw the other group of people as human. Both groups of people thought of one another as barbaric monsters and were confused and amazed by each other’s cultures.
Differences Between the Spanish and the New England colonies in the New World. New Spain was controlled by spain, and covered from the bottom of South America to what is now the Southern United States. New England was a collection of a few different English colonies and took up what is the modern day Northeast United States. Even though the Spanish and English colonies were colonies of powerful European countries, the colonies developed very differently. The Spanish colonies and the New England colonies were significantly different in the their roles of religion, economic bases, and their treatment of indigenous people.
A major factor that I had learned when perusing the articles in module two and chapter two was that in the Spanish conquest of America, labor had played a significant role to the Spaniards. Any of the gold that had been discovered in the Spanish conquest was proportioned to the monarchy, then leaders and administrators, and lastly the conquistadors. This had left the conquistadors with minuscule amounts gold and disappointed, in correspondence, the conquistadors were given encomiedas. The Spaniards had presumed they were superior to the Indians and had the right to possess them because they had been situated on the monarchs’ property. The Spaniards confronted the Native Americans with guns, germs, and steel.
Architecture has the ability to remark and reflect any region, give a feeling and a sense of a place, and present thoughts and creativity. Across the world, especially in the United States, there are many cities that are distinguished by its architecture and unique styles: The skyline of New York City is defined by it’s skyscrapers; San Francisco’s mixture of Victorian and modern colored houses; New Orleans’ iconic Creole townhouses; and Miami’s modernist architecture. Los Angeles, San Diego and some of the cities in the same region are no different from the previous appreciable cities all around America. These cities are located in the state of California which is on the West Coast. They share some significant architectural characteristics
The Spanish, English, and French would all agree that the New World was a bountiful land, and a place where they could all potentially make a profit. These three groups began colonizing so they could gain profits off the land. The Spanish were mining for gold and silver, the English were harvesting agriculture, and the French were trading for fur skins, and through their attempts to gain money and power they all interacted with Native Americans. During colonization, the Spanish, English, and French treated the Native Americans they encountered with varying degrees of severity, and little kindness in most cases; consequently, their treatment heavily impacted relations with Native Americans.
Their policies and methods of colonization were consistent in every region they conquered because of this fact. The British colonies were inconsistent because the they were controlled by both the king and stock companies, which meant that different colonies had different incentives to settle. This hybrid of authority in each region meant that the North American colonies cannot be studied thematically as a whole, rather they must be analyzed as individual cases. These differences were determined by the motivations to settle the colonies and what environment the people lived
In contrast, the Spanish were able to conquer the Aztecs and Incas much quicker. Some of this was due to help they received from other groups of Natives and the situations that were present in these societies when the Spanish arrived. Most of this was due to the debilitating effects European diseases had on Native Americans. Another difference between the two groups’ interactions is the different ways the Africans and Native Americans reacted to the Europeans’ presence. Since the Americas had been isolated from the rest of the world before 1492, they did not know how to react to the arrival of the Europeans and were frightened by how different they were.
In Spain, the royalty and the venturesome citizens had something in common; a desire for gold and power. The conquistadors of the Spanish Conquest obliterated ancient Native American nations in The Americas using weapons, strategies, and other occurrences. Whilst the goals of the Spaniards may not have been remarkably vicious, they ended up completely leveling progressive nations and spoiling decades or more of advancements in everything from mathematics to philosophy. My research has brought upon three topics: the goals of the Spanish Conquest, the stories of the Native American empires, and the destruction of said empires. As has been noted, the Spanish conquistadors wanted gold and exorbitant commodities.
European colonialism in Africa was a violent process of exploitation and dominance in the political, social, and cultural sphere of native society. Pop culture music and dance are dynamic social products that provide insight into the shifting sociocultural formations of a society. Through this analysis of pop culture I will discuss the classist social hierarchies established by colonialism and defined power by proximity to whiteness. I will explore native actors’ response to colonial social hierarchies in their alliances or resistance to colonialism and their influence on music and dance styles. Finally, we will evaluate ways in which music and dance are forms of resistance that challenge the status quo in colonial societies.