Topic: European and Native American Worlds Collide I: 1492 and Its Aftermath
The assigned reading for Topic 1 is listed on p. 6 of your syllabus. In addition to your textbook reading (Out of Many to p. 32), you will be reading a secondary source, "The Gulf Coast: Naked in the New World", by Tony Horwitz. "The Gulf Coast" is a chapter in Howritz's book A Voyage Long and Strange. In A Voyage Long and Strange Horwitz recounts his travels across the Caribbean and North America as he attempted to retrace the steps of the earliest Europeans to venture across the Atlantic. In particular, Horwitz was interested in why Americans know so little about the almost 150 years between Columbus' first voyage across the Atlantic (in 1492) and the founding of the colony of Plymouth by the Pilgrims (in 1620). Why, for instance, do we think of the Pilgrims as founding figures for America, but not the Spanish conquistadores (explorers) who came before them, or the Native Americans whose civilizations Europeans encountered?
A couple of reminders:
• Before attempting to answer one of the focus questions carefully read the handout Discussion Forum Basics. In particular: remember that your answer needs to be at least 300 words long and should clearly demonstrate to me that you have done the assigned reading.
• Remember to indicate which question you are answering in the subject-line of your post.
• The focus questions and key terms on this overview handout cover all of the material you should learn for this topic. Even if no one posts an answer to a question, you are still responsible for the material covered in that question. Therefore, as a class, you want to ensure that every focus question is answered at least once. So if a couple of questions have been answered many times but other questions have not been answered at all, choose one of the latter for your post. (And remember: if all of the focus questions do get answered at least once, everyone who posted answers gets a point of extra credit!)
Key Terms (Discuss relevant terms in your answer.)
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Cahokia
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encomiendas
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Mesoamerica
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Hernán Cortés and the Aztec
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foraging vs. farming
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virgin soil epidemic
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forest efficiency
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Columbian Exchange
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the Pueblo
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Hernando De Soto
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Haudenosaunee (the Iroquois Confederacy)
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frontier of inclusion
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Roanoke
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Cabeza de Vaca
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Christopher Columbus
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Estevanico
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Taínos
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Cíbola
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the debate between Sepulveda and Las Casas
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Focus Questions
Tying the Readings Together (Tie together information from the textbook and Horwitz's "The Gulf Coast".)
1. What motivated early European exploration of the Western Hemisphere?
2. In what ways do the experiences of Cabeza de Vaca and Estavanico reflect the popular image of early European explorers in the Western Hemisphere? In what ways do they differ?
Out of Many, Chapters 1 and 2 (to p. 32)
3. Discuss the origins of farming in the Americas and the impact that farming had on Native American societies.
4. What peoples lived in the Southwest, South, and Northeast of what is now the United States on the eve of Columbus' arrival? What common features did these Native American societies share? In what ways did they differ?
5. Discuss the impact of the Columbian exchange, and in particular disease, on the history of the Americas after 1492.
Tony Horwitz, "The Gulf Coast: Naked in the New World"
6. How did Cabeza de Vaca and Estavanico survive after washing up on the Gulf Coast?
7. Why does Horwitz think it is important to tell the story of Cabeza de Vaca and Estavanico? Do you agree? Why or why not?