What's up APUSH people? Today we're taking a look at Native American life, pre-contact, and early colonization. No matter which APUSH book you are using, this video is going to help you out for the AP exam.
And keep in mind, over 10,000 years before Columbus quote-unquote discovered America, people came to the Americas via the Bering Strait. and these individuals we are going to know as Native Americans. Native Americans developed a wide variety of social, political, and economic structures based upon interactions with each other. Very often they were involved with trade, with nearby tribes, and their interactions with the environment. Although Native American culture was very diverse, many Native American religions were very often connected to their relationship with nature, and this idea was known as animism.
the belief that non-human things, plants, animals, possess a spiritual essence. So Native American religion was going to be very different than the Europeans that were going to come over to conquer. In fact, the diversity of Native American culture is an important point to keep in mind as Native Americans developed different and complex societies that both transformed and adapted to their diverse environments.
And as you can see in these two graphics, the different Native American economic activity as well as environmental regions. Some examples to kind of keep in mind, you could see the southwest Native American culture seen in the example of the Pueblo Indians. They lived in arid land. It was very dry and they relied on irrigation to grow maize or corn and other agricultural products.
In fact, maize cultivation spread from present-day Mexico and headed north and allowed for large population growth in the American Southwest. You also have the great Basin and Great Plains region, circled in the blue. And you could see this in the lifestyle of the Lakota Sioux Native American tribes.
There was a lack of natural resources in this region, which led to the growth of a nomadic lifestyle. Native Americans in this region very often moved aground searching for buffalo or the bison. And then, of course, you have the Atlantic Coast and the Northeast Native American cultures represented with the Iroquois tribe. In this region, you see a mix of...
agricultural and a hunter-gatherer society. There is going to be the establishment of permanent villages in many of these areas and you could see the influence of Native American tribes such as the Iroquois Confederation in the relationship with the French, the English, and the Dutch in the years to come. So why do these Europeans come to this supposed new world?
Well you could break it down into the three G's. Gold, Glory, and God. Many countries such as Spain and others were looking for new sources of wealth, new trade routes to places such as Asia. But you also have glory wanting to increase the power and the status of not just individuals, but also of countries. And of course, God.
There was a desire amongst many individuals and countries to convert the native population to Christianity. And you need to understand the religious motives of colonization. Make sure you know about 1492 and how it is a big turning point in history with the arrival of Columbus under the Spanish flag and other Europeans that follow.
This leads to a massive demographic and social changes on both sides of the Atlantic. Both the Western Hemisphere and Europe and Africa are never going to be the same again. In fact, the arrival of Columbus sets off something known as the Columbian Exchange and you can see it in this graphic right there. It is the transit.
Atlantic exchange of not only people but diseases, food, trade, ideas between the Western Hemisphere, Africa and Europe. Some examples to keep in mind are horses brought over from Europe by the Spaniards. These are going to dramatically change life for Native Americans, especially on the Great Plains. It's going to make people more mobile than ever before. It's going to lead to new contact with new tribes and a whole host of other consequences.
Diseases such as smallpox brought over from Europe are going to lead to a massive population decline as deadly epidemics spread. The lack of immunity to these diseases is going to lead to an up to 90% death rate amongst Native American people in some areas. And food is also going to play a big role here. Maize or corn from the Americas is going to be brought over to Europe for the first time.
And this is going to fuel a huge population increase in parts of Europe. It's important to note the first countries to colonize the Western Hemisphere are going to be Spain and Portugal. They are going to divide... up the New World with the help of the Pope with the Treaty of Tornesillas.
Spain and Portugal agreed to divide up the Western Hemisphere. Everything on the west of that line will be Spain's and everything to the east will be Portugal's. Spain's the first to colonize what will become the United States.
In fact, they established the colony, the first permanent settlement in North America at St. Augustine in 1565, what will become Florida. In much of the Spanish Empire, you're going to see the introduction of the encomienda system, where Spanish colonists receive land with native people. And basically, this is going to be a form of native slave labor. Whether it be in mining, looking for resources such as silver, or agriculture, and especially in the Caribbean for sugar, the encomienda system is going to be a very profitable yet harsh economic system in the Spanish Empire. Another part of this system was the Spanish shot.
to convert native people to Catholicism and this was a huge part of Spanish colonization and this would be very different than what the British will do. And throughout the Spanish Empire you are going to see the emergence of racially mixed populations of European, native and African descent. You're going to get the rise of mestizos, people of mixed Indian and European heritage, and the rise of mulattoes, people of mixed white and black ancestry. Another important point to note is attempts to change Native American beliefs led to resistance and conflict. And on this map, you can see later on the missions that are going to be established throughout the coast of California, but also in places such as present-day New Mexico.
Native Americans are going to resist this colonization, and in what is today New Mexico, a Native American leader by the name of Popeye is going to lead a revolt known as the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. This revolt leads to the death of hundreds of Spanish colonists and the destruction of Catholic churches in the area as Native Americans are rejecting this colonization. This colonization was very often brought on by a belief in white superiority in order to justify their subjugation of Native Americans, but under Pope's Revolt or the Pueblo Revolt, this forces the Spanish out temporarily. And this revolt really shows that native people strove to maintain their political and cultural autonomy. And when the Spanish eventually returned to the region, they are forced to accommodate some aspects of native culture. They don't come back to the region until 1692. They are forced to allow Native Americans to continue some of their cultural practices.
Debates occurred over how Native Americans should be treated and how civilized they were compared to European standards. and these debates actually occurred amongst the Spanish themselves. You have Juan de Sepulveda, who wrote Just Causes for War Against the Indians, and in his writing, he justified Spanish colonization of the Americas.
He said that this was a good thing, and obviously, if you're a Native American, you're not feeling these ideas. Another Spaniard in 1552, de la Casas, wrote a short account of the destruction of the Indies. and he criticized the Spanish treatment of the indigenous people and condemned some of the things done in the name of Spanish colonization. Although Spain and Portugal are the first ones to arrive, other European countries are going to arrive, and the one we're really going to get into in video two is Protestant England will soon challenge Spanish colonization of North America.
You can see on the map a variety of European powers are going to colonize present-day North America. However, unlike the English colonists, the Spanish, the French, and Dutch are going to attempt to exploit New World resources and form more complex relationships with indigenous people. So although Spain and Portugal were the first to form colonies that use Native American and later on African slave labor in areas such as agricultural and mining, it's important to note that France, Holland, or the Dutch, Spain will trade and intermarry with Native Americans, whereas England will not be interested in these much more complex relationships.
Finally, all European countries are going to be seeking to colonize the New World because of these ideas known as mercantilism. And mercantilism is an economic theory that states colonies exist to enrich the mother country, to send that money over to the mama. And so this could be in the form of... access to cheap raw materials such as sugar or tobacco and also to provide gold and silver so whether or not we're talking about Spanish French or English colonization it's important to know mercantilism is driving them to expand that's gonna do it for this video if the video helped you out make sure you click like tell all your friends about Joe's productions and if you haven't already done so subscribe to the channel if you have any questions or comments put them below Have a beautiful day.
Peace.