20 - The Atlantic World

The Atlantic WorldThe Atlantic World

Objectives:

• Know who Christopher Columbus was and what he did.

• Know who Cortes was and what he did.

• Know who Pizarro was and what he did.

• Describe how the English and the French split up North America and how the English won the French and Indian War.

• Know the effect of colonization on the Native Americans.

• Know what the nature of the slave trade was and how horrific it was.

This will be one powerpoint for all of chapter 20. We’ll hit the highlights.

Christopher Columbus

• You may have heard how in 1492, he sailed the ocean blue.

• He also sailed it in 1493, 1498, and 1502.

• While he was Italian (and may even have been Jewish), he was working for the Spanish, specifically the monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

• He was trying to find a western passage to the Indies that would compete with Portugal’s route around Africa.

• It’s a myth that people thought the earth was flat. Most everyone educated thought it was a sphere.

• The resistance to Columbus was because they thought he had severely miscalculated the distance between Europe and the Indies (he had) and that a ship would be unable to traverse the vast body of water between the two (if it really was all water, it couldn’t).

• Columbus calculated the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan as 3,000 km. It’s actually 19,600 km.

• Spain was desperate to compete with Portugal, however, and approved Columbus’s plan.

• So Columbus accidentally lands on a Caribbean island, trades with natives, and claims every island he finds for Spain despite the fact there were already people living there.

• Was Columbus the first to discover the Americas? No, the ancient nomads from Asia did that. The Vikings found it around 1000. Columbus’s rediscovery, though, was a spark that set off an exploration explosion.

• Yes, I did just use that phrase.

Both Spain and Portugal start exploring the Americas in earnest.

• Spain claims a bunch.

• Portugal takes modern-day Brazil. As we know, the Treaty of Tordesillas settles out their claims.

The Olmec (1200 B.C. - A.D. 100The Olmec (1200 B.C. - A.D. 100))

• Considered "mother culture" of Mesoamerican peoples

• Key gods, Tlaloc (rain god) and Quetzalcoatl (plumed serpent), adapted throughout Mesoamerica

• Earliest site: San Lorenzo; latest site, Tres Zapote

• Developed sophisticated systems of: – Mathematics – Writing – Time-keeping– Architecture and engineering

• Carved large stone heads (possibly depicting rulers) and constructed ritual ball game courts in Olmec cities

Who They Were What They Did

• Lived in the tropical areas of south-central Mexico.

• First pop up around 1100 BC

• Developed the first writing system in the western hemisphere.

• Decline around 500 BC. Not clear what happened to them.

The Cascajal Block

• Possibly the oldest writing in Mesoamerica.

Gigantic Olmec heads carved out of single boulders.

• It’s thought they represent ball players or kings. Or kings dressed as ball players.

• 17 have been uncovered.

They also came up with the Mesoamerican ball game.

• Different versions of the game existed among the cultures and the exact rules for any are not known (except kinda for the Aztecs due to Spanish chroniclers).

• Modern version has rules a bit like netless volleyball where you have to return the ball and avoid letting it go off court.

• The Mayan version added stone hoops, which the Toltec and Aztecs used.

• With the Aztecs, you’d lose points if you let the ball bounce twice before returning to the other team, letting it go out of bounds, or trying to get the ball through a stone hoop and failing.

• You got points for hitting the opposing team’s end wall.

• A decisive victory was gotten for getting the ball through a stone hoop… which was 6 meters off the ground! Would’ve been rare.

Try using your hips to get a 9 pound solid rubber ball through that!

He’s a superhero!

Could it be?

Superfriends’ El Dorado?

• The game would be played with that 9 pound solid rubber ball and players would bounce it off their hips.

• The ball would have been about the size of a volleyball.

• Players wore specialized gear, but it was still pretty brutal.

• According to a Spanish chronicler, some bruises had to be lanced open and a person could get killed if it whacked the head, mouth, or gut just right.

• The ballgame may have served as a way to defuse conflicts between states.

• Ritual human sacrifice was also a result for some games.

• Some games were purely for sport or recreation. There were apparently women leagues too.

• Betting was also common. According to the Spanish, those with bad gambling habits would sell their kids or themselves into slavery to settle a debt.

Olmecs also gave Mesoamerica the gods Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl.

• Q was a god of wind and creation.

• Quetzalcoatl was also called the Feathered Serpent

Quetzal

+

coatl

=

Quetzalcoatl

• Tlaloc was a rain god and feared. The Aztecs drowned children as a sacrifice to him.

The Mayan Classical Period (c. 250-The Mayan Classical Period (c. 250-900)900)

• Three sub-periods: – Early Classic (c. 250-600),– Late Classic (c. 600-800)– Terminal Classic (c. 800-900)

• Tikal, Calakmul, Caracol, and Copan were Classical city-states, – So were rivals Palenque and Tonina

• During the Terminal Classic, city-states began declining due to overpopulation, drought, and war

Mayan Postclassical Period (c. 900-Mayan Postclassical Period (c. 900-1500)1500)

• The Yucatan peninsula became center of Mayan society

• Coastal trade and salt production marked the area

• Chichen Itza dominated the early Postclassical Period (850-1100) due to: – Economics and trade– Decentralized political system– Unifying cult of K’uk’ulkan

• Mayapán League ruled from 1200 until the Spanish Conquest for similar reasons

Reference: DemiDec Resource p. 24-26

Mayan AchievementsMayan Achievements

• Understood astronomy– Venus especially important

• Elaborate calendrical system

• Developed vigesimal numeral system– Bar-and-dot notation

– Use of zero (shell)

– Head-variant system

• Great Plaza of Tikal

• Terraces and staircases of Quirigua

• Monuments of Calakmul

• Hereditary kings

• History recorded on stela

• War captives taken as laborers

Science and Math Cultural and Political

• Rather advanced math. They developed the concept of zero around 357. Europeans imported it from India in the 1100’s.

• Incredibly advanced and accurate astronomy. Fixed the length of the solar year better than others, for example.

Mayan Calendar

• A complex affair based on earlier cultures, especially the Olmec but the Mayans greatly expanded and refined it.

• There were 260 and 365 day cycles. The 260 was sacred and the 365 was solar.

• There were also twenty 13 day cycles within the sacred 260.

• “An example might be in order to better illustrate this interesting calendar. Let's say that our day signs are the first 20 letters in the English alphabet, namely A, B, C, D, and so on, until T, and our coefficients are from 1 to 13. If today is A-1, then tomorrow is B-2, followed by C-3, and so on and so forth. When we get to M-13, at which point we have depleted all coefficients, we turn the coefficients cycle back to 1, and therefore the day after M-13 is N-1. And when we have exhausted all day signs, on day T-7, we recycle the sign cycle back to A, so the day after T-7 is A-8. When both signs and coefficients have exhausted (so that A-1 reappears), 260 days have elapsed. “

A-1

B-2

C-3

D-4

E-5

F-6

G-7

H-8

I-9

J-10

K-11

L-12

M-13

N-1

O-2

P-3

Q-4

R-5

S-6

T-7

A-8

B-9

C-10

D-11

E-12

F-13

G-1

H-2

I-3

J-4

K-5

L-6

M-7

N-8

O-9

P-10

Q-11

R-12

S-13

T-1

A-2

B-3

C-4

D-5

E-6

F-7

G-8

H-9

I-10

J-11

K-12

L-13

M-1

N-2

O-3

P-4

Q-5

R-6

S-7

T-8

A-9

B-10

C-11

D-12

E-13

F-1

G-2

H-3

I-4

J-5

K-6

L-7

M-8

N-9

O-10

P-11

Q-12

R-13

• The two sacred and solar cycles interacted such that the pattern would last 52 solar cycles before repeating. This was a calendar round.

• Dates were given in both sacred and solar terms.Worked fine for most people since they wouldn’t live much

longer than 52 years.

• For other dates, they used the Long Count calendar.

• The Long Count calendar counts the days from August 11, 3114 BC on the Gregorian calendar, which is when the Maya thought was the beginning of creation.

So look at this stele. Note the numbers at the left.

• The numbers are 7.16.6.16.18

• 7× 144000= 1,008,000 days

• 16× 7200= 115,200 days

• 6× 360= 2,160 days

• 16× 20= 320 days

• 18× 1= 18 days

• Total days= 1,125,698 days

• (the second level only goes to 18 instead of 20)

• 1,125,698 days from 8/11/3114 BC is 9/1/32 BC

• The long count only goes for about 5,000 years.

• The previous creation lasted for 12.19.19.17.19 and started over again at the 13.0.0.0.0.

• The end of the current long count will be December 20, 2012.

• Some have tried to say this was doomsday, the end of the world. The Maya, though, tried indicating dates beyond this and there’s no indication they took this to be the end of the world.

• They also had a Venus cycle and were highly accurate in calculating its position in the sky. Its placement dictated coronations, when wars would be fought, etc.

• This is from the Dresden codex, which has 6 pages devoted to calculating Venus’s sky placement.

• Also had very intricate art.

• And great architecture.

Teotihuacán (c. 100-750)Teotihuacán (c. 100-750)

• City-state reached its height around 200 – Covered 8 square miles

– Population 125-250K

– Among world’s largest

• Grew into manufacturing center

• Central religious complex was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl

• Violent collapse came after decline began in 650

Pyramid of the Moon

Pyramid of the Sun

738 feet across and 246 feet high. World’s third largest pyramid.

• Decline may be because of climate-based famine.

• Used to be thought city was invaded. New theories say it may have been internal revolt since only structures used by elites suffered burn damage.

The ToltecThe Toltec

• Migrated from northwest Mexico in 9th century

• Established capital of Tula in 968

• Toltec armies brought Central Mexico into a tributary relationship

• Toltec civilization fell violently

• Tribal origins

• Self-proclaimed heirs of the Teotihuacános

• Quetzalcoatl exile legend may reflect Toltec domestic conflicts

Major Events Key Points

The Mexica-Nahua CivilizationThe Mexica-Nahua Civilization

Ok… the Mexica are the Aztecs. Or at least the rulers of the Aztec empire.

• The Nahua were an ethnicity that dominated the region when the Mexica came along and conquered ‘em.

• Arrived in central Mexico in 1253– Hired as mercenaries by

Azcapotzalco

– Founded Tenochtitlan in 1325

• Triple alliance emerged: Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan – Alliance allowed expansion

• Tribute connected 15 million subjects and 38 cities by 1500

Cortes

• The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes conquers the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1521.

Aztecs

• Existed from the 1300’s to the 1500’s.

• Based their empire in the city of Tenochtitlan – modern day Mexico City.

• It was at this location that the Aztecs supposedly saw a vision of an eagle holding a snake while perched on a prickly pear cactus. Sound familiar?

• Tenochtitlan was located in the middle of Lake Texcoco.

• This made a for nice defensive position as it was connected to the mainland by causeways and bridges that could be withdrawn.

• The Aztec cities were immense, clean, and well-ordered. They were actually more impressive than the European cities at the time (most of which were, frankly, pits).

Religion, War, and Human Sacrifice Religion, War, and Human Sacrifice under the Mexica-Nahuaunder the Mexica-Nahua

Select Religious Beliefs• Human blood necessary to

nourish the gods• Human-god relation therefore

required blood sacrifices

Role of War• Successful military exploits

displayed strength to tributaries• 1502: Moctezuma II defeated

Nopallin and Icpatepec– Took 5,000 prisoners for

sacrifice

Human Sacrifice• Victims were sometimes part

of tribute agreement• The large numbers needed

were usually captured in war• Prisoners were taken to top

of pyramid, where:– Their beating hearts were

cut out

– Their bodies were rolled down the steps

• Engaged in human sacrifice at the temples. Those sacrificed were typically prisoners of war or from subjugated people.

• One account says they once sacrificed 84,000 people in four days.

• That’s probably overstated. Most accounts come to us from the Spanish, who likely exaggerated what they saw as atrocities.

• There is plenty of evidence supporting the human sacrifice, however.

The sacrificial victim would be marched up to the top of the pyramid, held down by four priests (one to a limb) and the head priest would use an obsidian blade to cut open the chest and remove the heart, which would be held up to the sun.

• This wasn’t the only form of sacrifice. The Aztecs were actually quite creative.

Social & Political Structure of the Social & Political Structure of the MexicaMexica

• Paramount ruler– 4 lesser rulers under him– Vice ruler (woman-serpent)

• Three branches of office-holders– Civil authorities– Military officers– Priests

• Merchant caste

• Noblemen and commoners

• Had tremendous architecture and arts. Especially the temples.

• The Aztecs are conquered by the Spanish in 1519-1521, specifically the conquistador Hernando Cortez.

• With the support of local tribes that the Aztecs had conquered, he took over Tenochtitlan, captured the emperor Montezuma.

• When he and his force originally landed, they were thought to be gods. One of the main Aztec gods, Quetzalcoatl, was light-skinned. This made the Aztecs interested, but wary of the new visitors.

• Once Cortez’s intentions became clear, they revolted and nearly wiped out his entire force. Cortez came back, though, and won with reinforcements and the help of native tribes that didn’t like being used as human sacrifices by the Aztecs.

• Much of the city was destroyed in the process and Mexico City was built on top of it.

The Cathedral of Mexico City is built

atop older Aztec temples.

There was something in the air that nightThe stars were bright, Hernando

They were shining there for you and meFor liberty, Hernando

Though I never thought that we could loseThere’s no regret

If I had to do the same againI would, my friend, Hernando

Cortez was helped by La Malinche, aka Marina.

• Cortez would talk to an officer who translated to Mayan and then La Malinche would translate from Mayan to Nahautl.

• This allowed Cortez to communicate with the locals.

• She was also Cortez’s lover and had a son by him.

• La Malinche is also seen by some as a traitor to Mexico.

• A nickname is La Chingada. Oh no, they didn’t!

• She’s also sometimes with La Llorona.

• It’s like Six Degrees of Antonio Marez.

The Incas

• The Incan civilization was located in modern-day Peru.

• They lasted from about 1200 to 1550.

• It was a fairly powerful civilization (for the time and area, anyway) that dominated the area.

• Among the more interesting points about the Incas:

• They spoke Quechua. This came to be the standard language of the area and there are still around 12 million people who still speak some version of it.

• Their record-keeping method was called quipu.

• This was a system of knotted strings.

• It may resemble an old mop, but it practically amounted to a system writing. The sort of knots used and their placement determined what they said.

• They had an alcoholic beverage called chicha that was made by fermenting maize (corn) that was essentially corn beer.

• Machu Picchu.

• Cute little guinea pigs are indigenous (native) to this area and they were domesticated and bred by the Incas.

• Errr… here’s the thing, though.

• They ate them.

• Guinea pig is actually still a staple food of the Peruvian people and they eat around 65 million of them each year.

• Apparently, they taste like rabbit and are delicious.

• They’re actually a good food source since they’re high in protein, low in fat and cholesterol, require less food than livestock, take up a lot space than livestock, reproduce quickly, and can be raised in urban environments.

• It was and is so important to Peru that paintings of the Last Supper show them eating guinea pig.

Spanish Conquest

• The Incas are eventually conquered by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532, not long after Cortez took out the Aztecs.

• The main “battle” was the Battle of Cajamarca.

• The Incan emperor was simply known as The Inca. He had absolute power and was considered divine.

• The emperor at the time was Atahualpa. By the time Pizarro came along, he had just won a civil war against his brother Huascar who was now imprisoned.

• Nearly 100,000 people died in this civil war and when he won, Atahualpa exercised terrible retribution on the opposition.

Atahualpa

• Atahualpa had agreed to meet with Pizarro at Cajamarca.

• This was in the interior and he had an overwhelming force. He had little to fear from Pizarro whom he figured couldn’t get out of the country anyway.

• In an encounter with Hernan de Soto, de Soto does some equestrian tricks, including running straight at Atahualpa and stopping just inches from him. Others were scared, but Atahualpa didn’t even blink. He was tough.

• At Cajamarca, Atahualpa had an army of 80,000. The Spaniards had an army of 168.

• Most of the 80,000 stayed encamped outside the city. Atahualpa entered with only 4,000 of his entourage who were unarmed as a show of good faith.

• Pizarro, though, had stationed his men, cavalry and 3 small cannons around the plaza.

• After some talking, the Spaniards attacked, slaughtered all 4,000 Incas and took Atahualpa hostage.

• Only 2 Spaniards were injured and they were accidents.

• Incan authority was highly centralized and they were nearly paralyzed without Atahualpa.

• Atahualpa agrees to buy his freedom by filling a room once with gold and twice with silver. He does, but he’s not released. The Spaniards eventually execute him.

• The Spaniards continue conquering the Incan empire. It takes nearly 40 years to completely stamp out resistance.

Other conquistadors push into North America and claim territory there.

North America

• The English and the French just ignored the Treaty of Tordesillas and started colonizing in what was supposed to be Spanish land.

• The French mainly colonized up in the Canada region, hence founding Montreal and Quebec.

• They also claimed land down the Mississippi River.

English

• They founded the colony of Jamestown in Virginia that was nearly a complete disaster.

• The English Puritans/Pilgrims founded Plymouth in now Massachusetts.

• It’s often said they were looking for religious freedom. Kinda true… they were looking for religious freedom for themselves, not for anyone else. They weren’t pluralists and weren’t religiously tolerant.

Dutch

• The Dutch founded New Amsterdam.

• New Amsterdam is now New York, which was renamed such by the Duke of York after he took it from the Dutch.

As the English and French colonies expanded, they started interfering with each other.

• The French and Indian War resulted which gave England France’s territories in Canada and east of the Mississippi in 1763.

• The F&I War was really an extension of the Seven Years’ War being fought in Europe.

Relations with the Indians were strained. Like everywhere in the Americas, European diseases like smallpox, measles, and mumps nearly eradicated the populations. They killed tens of millions and were far more destructive than weapons and armies.

Slave trade

• Lasted from about the 1500’s until 1870, when it was officially ended.

• Some estimates say the Atlantic slave trade transported up to 40 million Africans to places elsewhere.

• Generally what happened is that the Europeans or African tribes would capture other Africans. They would then sell the captured people to the Europeans. They’d get guns or some such in return.

• Slavery was fairly common in both Africa and the world at the time. The institution had a long tradition in world history. Therefore, it wasn’t seen for being as abhorrent as it actually was.

• Making the journey was extremely hazardous.

• Slaves were packed shoulder to shoulder in tightly-packed compartments.

• They were treated like bulk cargo. They were chained down and couldn’t move.

• They would defecate, urinate, and vomit where they were and the filth would slide around on the decks and where they were laying.

• Combine that with the humidity and heat of the hold along with body odor and it would have been hellish.

• Sores could become infected. It could be a few days before dead bodies were removed.

• Sometimes slaves were tossed overboard either to lighten the load or to commit insurance fraud.

• The Atlantic trade is sometimes known as the triangle trade.

• Slaves were used as manual labor in the European colonies. They were often not well treated.