Essay Review Questions

Review Questions for Mid-Term 1) What constitutional clause allows laws enacted by the federal government to take priority over conflicting state laws?

This section highlights that history has created a false narrative depicting the natives as a victimized people, which they were to some extent but only in the fashion that they did not possess the same technology for warfare, immunity of communal diseases transmitted, and they were not anticipating combat. All other factors considered, the natives stood to be a potential threat. In regards to knowledge obtained by Spaniards prior to arrival and knowledge gained from observation, it would be remiss had they not prepared for battle. This argument is not to be misconstrued in approving their actions; I do recognize colonization as an evil for both the reasons employed and its damaging effects, but rather to change the narrative surrounding that of the native people. While they did experience a tragedy, I feel that it is erroneous to write them into history as being incompetent resulting from their

In Bartolome De Las Casas’s ‘A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies’,De Las Casas brazenly criticizes the persecution of the inhabitants of the Americas by the Spanish colonizers- and makes it clear what he believes are the motivations behind their actions. De Las Casas effectively molds his language to provoke compassion towards the natives while establishing a feeling of animosity toward the colonizers. Making sure to not go as far as to alienate the king, he never argues for equal rights for the natives, but instead uses his positon as a priest to advocate for the saving of the natives lives to convert them to Christianity, and then uses this rationale to persuade the king to intervene.

I think homemade bomb crime scenes are increasing because of the opportunities we now have. This includes the internet, which tells us how to make the bomb, and stores that sell and/or produce the supplies for making the bombs.

When the Europeans arrived in the New World, they brought along a host of diseases which were devastating to the Native American population. Due to the adaptations that the Native people had undergone to adapt to North America, they no longer had any natural defense towards these diseases. Because of this, about ninety percent of the Native American population was wiped out, with much of them never meeting a single European. The elimination of so many Natives would benefit the Europeans by eliminating any potential resistance towards their eventual conquest of America. In addition to disease, the Europeans also subjected the Native Americans to slavery, in attempts to “Christianize” them. Both of these contributed to the “black legend” attributed to the Spanish explorers, which detailed a “legacy” of misery and destruction. With so many accounts of torture and murder, this black legend fit the Spaniards well. Though they did provide many contributions to their new lands, the amount of human life that was lost in order for the Spanish to take control of said lands outweighs their contributions. Even though a whole new culture of people may have been created, multiple cultures were lost in the process. The amount of death and destruction caused by the Spaniards outweighs their final contributions, which shows that the Spanish did deserve being part of the “black legend”.

The Spanish were said to have unleashed unspeakable cruelty on the Indians, which spawned the term “The Black Legend”. The Black Legend was a portrayal of the Spaniards that accused them of

WEEK 2: Forging a New World: how contact with natives made Englishmen into Americans READINGS: Boyer, Ch. 1 and 2; Steven W. Hackel, “Facing East, or Looking Outward and Inward” (Review of Daniel K. Richter’s Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America) Reviews in American History 31, No. 2 (June 2003): 184-91; Boyer, Ch. 1 & 2. 1) Use these sources and this documentary or your Boyer readings to paint a picture of native society in the parts of the present-day United States where first European contact took place.

By describing the Indians as most innocent, exposing a genocide being committed against them, and revealing the egocentric goals of their oppressors, Bartolomé Las Casas generates empathy for American Indians. Las Casas not only exposes that there is a genocide occurring in the New World, he also states the motivations of those who were committing genocide. Las Casas generates empathy for American Indians by revealing the greedy, egocentric goals of the Spaniards who are committing heinous crimes upon the American Indians who inhabit the New World. Las Casas dedicates an entire paragraph to illustrating the egocentric goals of the “Spaniards who call themselves Christian”. Las Casas repeatedly refers to the Spaniards as Christian, especially when illustrating their crimes.

The major Native American patterns in North America seemed to be endurable, in the sense that they may have not been as technology advanced, but they were able to build their own civilization, cities, roadways and live off their agriculture.The Native Americans also must have been quick thinkers and problem solvers since western Indians were able to “perfect the techniques of desert farming” after migrating to the south & east after droughts ruined their living conditions. The Women would do most of the field work while the men would usually fish and hunt, which the Europeans found very uncivilized when they first arrived.

In some ways, the Black Legend, the idea that Spanish Conquistadores only tortured and killed the natives, was accurate. The Conquistadores needed workers to help them mine for gold and silver, which was used to maintain 16th and 17th century Spain as a world power. One way that the Spanish controlled the Indians was through the encomienda system, where people living on a certain plot of land provided the landowner with free labor. The landowner, or encomendero, would in turn provide protection and welfare, and was also responsible for the Christianization of the Indians, as well as their assimilation into Spanish culture. This forced assimilation was something the Spanish were succesful at--intermarrying between the cultures created a new race of people, the Mestizos. The Spanish shared their language as well as

The process of colonization in the Americas was a complex and complicated series of events, each driven by the varied interests of an array of European empires. For some, the Americas were a world of untold riches, while for others, this discovery allowed for missionary efforts to convert Native Americans to their faith. Regardless of the reason, violence against the many Native Americans who inhabited this “new land” was a common colonization tool to achieve these means. Direct violence is the most well-known approach, one that Spain wielded so effectively that the Black Legend was created to attest to their cruelty. Yet, the violence used was not all direct in nature. Cultural violence, which England employed itself, was used just as often. Overall, though the Black Legend has led to Spain being viewed as the most violent colonizer in the Americas, England’s use of indirect violence through engagement in the fur trade and missionary efforts was just as destructive to Native Americans.

Perhaps no figure in the history of the Spanish conquest and the Latin American region it so traumatically birthed has been more polarizing than Friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, the prolific theologian, scholar, and a tireless leading critic of Spanish colonialism. Revered as a fierce champion of indigenous rights in the opening decades of the conquest, Las Casas has been mythologized as a paragon of humanistic virtue combating the extreme cruelty of the encomienda system in a time of apocalyptic consequence for the indigenous peoples of America. His heroic figure and all it symbolizes, invoked by many ranging from anti-colonial revolutionary leaders in the 19th century to proponents of Liberation Theology in the late 20th century, exerts a far-reaching

The Crusades whetted western Europe's appetite for trade items like silk and spices from the East. The discovery of America was a mistake. Columbus, sailing for Spain, was looking for a trade route to the East. Portugal controlled the route around Africa. Columbus did not believe the earth was as big around as it is. He sailed west hoping to find a route to the Indies (East Indies), not knowing there was a barrier (the continents of North and South America) preventing him from reaching his destination. Another example that shows that The Crusades whetted western Europe's appetite for trade items like silk and spices from the East. The discovery of America was a mistake. Columbus, sailing for Spain, was looking for a trade route to the East. Portugal controlled the route around Africa. Columbus did not believe the earth was as big around as it is. He sailed west hoping to find a route to the Indies (East Indies), not knowing

Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Mathew Restall provides a new direction in the history of the Spanish Conquest. Restall proved how history is determined by those interpreting it, its consequences, and the possible reinvention of any event in history. Justification, if not glorification, once endorsed the Spanish’s mission to civilize natives, but today, many heroes of the conquest, such as Columbus and Cortes, are rewritten on the negative side of history. Rewriting history, or at least its outlook, includes the vast and evident knowledge of historians such as Restall and his ability to identify and reanalyze essential sources. Restall incorporated various types of sources into his research, some of the same past historians used, but

Explain the religious, economic and political motivations for European exploration and colonization of the Americas in the 16th Century.