CF3333 Clash of Cultures
“EUROPE MEETS THE AMERICAS”
I. BACKGROUND
Europe
The Americas
II. VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION AND CONQUEST
Columbus (1492-93; 1493-96; 1498-1500; 1502-04) – West Indies
Da Gama (1497-98) – Africa / India
Cabral (1500) – Brazil
Magellan (1502-) - Brazil
Balboa (1513) – Isthmus of Panama - Pacific
Cortés (1519-21) – Mexico
Pizarro (1530-1534) – Perú
DeSoto (1539) – Florida, etc.
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) --
III. THE PROBLEM OF THE INDIAN
Indians as "Human"; Origin Myths
Slavery / Forced Labor
Disease
IV. INSTITUTIONS AND CONQUEST
Variability of Indian Societies
Kinship-oriented modes of production
Tributary modes of production
Aztec empire
Inca empire
V. INDIAN CULTURES
Population Loss: "The Great Dying"
Central Mexico: 25 million to 150,000!
Dispersal / Disruption of Kin-based Communities
Ecological / Economic Upsets
Religious Transformations
VI. IMPOSITION OF SPANISH SYSTEM
Political Institutions
Council of the Indies / King
Laws of the Indies (1542)
Viceroyalties: Mexico (New Spain) and Perú
Audiencias: 10 units
Cabildos (cities)
Assimilation of Indian nobility
"indirect rule" of Indian communities
Economic Institutions
Encomiendas (land grants)
forced labor (mita – Perú)
taxes
Mining – silver/gold
the royal fifth: Potosi (1545); Zacatecas (1546)
House of Trade (Seville)
control of all imports/exports
growing foreign role in trade
mercantilism: system of colonial exploitation
Slavery – Africans
- especially post-1542
Haciendas / Plantations
- agriculture, stockraising, sugar, cocoa, etc.
Social Institutions
"Caste" system and feudal order
- Spaniards, criollos, mestizos, indios, slaves
Demise of calpulli and ayllu descent groups / communities
Rise of Cities
- merchant classes
Cultural Institutions: Religion
Goal: to Christianize Indians (Papal Bull of 1537)
Missionaries and Humanists / Scholars
Church as Repressive Force
Church as "Syncretic" Force
VI. CONCLUSION: "DIA DE LA RAZA”
