Here are the notes I took on the textbook chapter that we are teaching our Bishop Dunn Memorial School fifth graders about! I hope you enjoy the highlighted key points from the chapter!
Unit 2, Lesson 3: Life in New Spain
Places: Hispaniola
Main Idea: Spain gained great wealth from the settlement and growth of New Spain.
Chapter Subtitles:
- The Search for Gold
- Society in New Spain
- More Changes for Native Peoples
- Slavery in the Americas
- Summarization of the lesson
The Search for Gold
Spanish Explorers
Hernando de Soto
- A Spanish Conquistador who traveled through what is now Georgia in search for Cofitachiqui (a rich American Indian city)
- De Soto and the soldiers met a young Native American woman (Lady of Cofitachiqui) who has fresh pearls and takes the men to a building that has more pearls.
- De Soto hopes that this land may hold as much gold as Corest found in Mexico. The Spaniards demand that the woman help them find gold but the “Lady of Cofitachiqui” escapes and de Soto continues his explorations without finding the treasure he seeks
- Became the first European to reach the Mississippi River in 1540
Esteban
- An African sailor who had been enslaved and survived a shipwreck off of the coast of Texas with Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (conquistador) in 1528.
- They traveled for 8 years through what is now the Southwest region of the United States.
- Esteban joined another expedition to find Cibola but he did not find the kingdom.
- Killed by the Zuni people in what is now New Mexico
- Travels in the Southwest
- Is shipwrecked
- Is killed by the Zuni people
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
- Survived a shipwreck off the coast of Texas with Esteban( African sailor who was enslaved)
- Traveled for 8 years with Esteban through what is now the Southwest region of the United States
- Explored what is now Texas in 1528
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
- Sent by the governor of New Spain to din the cities. He did not find the cities of Cibola either, because they did not exist.
- Explored the American Southwest in 1540
Juan Ponce de Leon
- Landed on the Florida peninsula in 1513
Bartolome de Las Casas
- 1474-1566
- A Spanish priest who left the encomienda (where he lived) in the spring of 1514
- He paid a visit to the governor of SPanish Cuba
- Las Casas had come to announce that he wanted to free all of the native peoples enslaved on his encomienda and said he was going to preach against the enslavement and mistreatment of the native peoples
- Las Casas would NOT be rich and successful if he did what he said he was going to do, but he made his decision anyways
- He did not believe in the cruelty that he was seeing
- Kept his word and freed the native peoples on his encomienda that day and spent the rest of his life working to change the way Spanish treated the native peoples in the Americas
- AGAINST SLAVERY
Society in New Spain
Key Terms
Society
- A group of people forming a community.
Plantations
- Large farms with many workers who lived on the land they worked.
Encomienda
- Granted a peninsulare control of all the native peoples who lived on an area of land. Encomienda owners could put the native people to work and were supposed to care for the native peoples and convert them to Christianity. In return the native peoples had to give the encomienda owners crops that they grew and other goods.
Missionary
- Teaches his or her religion to others who have different beliefs. They also taught them some European farming practices such as raising cattle and sheep because the Native people had to give up their traditional ways of life and become Christians.
Mission
- A religious settlement where missionaries live and work. THe purpose of these missions was to teach native peoples about Christianity.
Society in New Spain Notes:
- End of 1500s- most fighting between native peoples and conquistadors north and south of Mexico City ended
- Spanish gained enough control to move colonists into these lands
- A new way of life and a new society was developing in Spain
Spanish Society Setup
- Peninsulares
- People born in Spain (there name was based on the geography of Spain)
- Wealthy & powerful
- Some owned plantations or encomiendas
- Encomienda owners put natives to work while the natives had to give the comienda owners the crops that they grew & other goods
- Creoles
- People of spanish background, born in the Americas
3. Mestizos
- Largest group in New Spain society who were people of INdian and Spanish background
*People who had NO spanish ancestors such as Indians & Africans held the lowest position in the society*
More Changes for Native Peoples
- Many encomienda owners put native peoples to work as farm workers, miners and servants
- The native peoples had to work without pay and did not always have enough to eat-they would be beaten and forced to work long hours
- Missionary- One type of encomienda that was run by Roman Catholic missionaries to teach his or her religion to others who have different beliefs.
- The priest built missions throughout Spain
- The purpose of the missionaries was to teach native peoples about Christianity
- Missonaries also taught them some European farming practices, such as raising cattle and sheep
- The Native peoples had to give up their traditional ways of life and become Christians
- On some missions they were treated cruelly
- Bartolome de Las Casas: Spoke out against the mistreatment of native peoples under the care of the church. In 1527 Las Casas wrote angrily about what he had aseen in the encomiendas and he persuaded Spain the pass laws in 1542 saying that native peoples must be paid for their work-the laws were not enforced and later cancelled.
Slavery in the Americas
- Even though Las Casas fought to end it, slavery did NOT end in the Americas
- The Spanish first brought enslaved Africans to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1512
- The Spanish enslaved Africans to replace the native peoples who were dying in large numbers from disease and overwork.
- At first, Las Casas supported bringing Africans to new Spain to work in the place of native peoples, but later he wrote that Africans should NOT be enslaved either!
- Gradually the enslavement of captured Africans became an important part of the colonial economy
- There were 12,000 enslaved Africans in Hispaniola alone by 1574
- African slaves on the encomiendas and plantations died from overwork & mistreatment
- The profits from colonial plantations & mines created great wealth for Spain
- 1600s- These riches helped make Spain one of the most powerful countries in the world
Summarize the Lesson
- 1512: The Spanish took the first African slaves to Hispaniola
- 1527: Roman Catholic priest Bartolome de Las Casas defended the rights of native peoples
- 1540: Francisco Vasquez de Coronado began a search for gold through the southwest part of what is today the United States
Lesson Review Notes & Ideas
Check facts and main ideas
- On a seperate sheet of paper, fill in either the missing dates or the missing events from this timeline.
Date Event
1512 First Africans arrive in Hispaniola
1513 de Leon’s first expedition to Florida
1527 Roman Catholic priest Bartolome de Las Casas defended the rights of native peoples
1540 de Soto reaches the Mississippi River
2. How did stories about Cibola affect Spanish explorers?
3. How did the structure of society in New Spain benefit the Spanish?
4. How did the conquest by the Spanish change life for native people?
5. Critical thinking point: Summarize the point of view of Las Casas about native peoples on the encomiendas.
Chapter 4 OVERVIEW Review Questions
- Sequence the following events:
- Columbus reaches the Americas
- Cortes conquers the Aztecs
- Coronado explores the Southwest
- Pizzaro conquers the Incas
- Vespucci calls the Americas a “new world”
2. Vocabulary Review
Match each word with the correct definition.
- Expedition: journey made for a special purpose
- Colony: Settlement far from the country that rules it
- Conquistador: Spanish conqueror
- Encomienda: granted someone control of Indians on an area of land
- Missionary: person who teaches his or her religion to people of different beliefs
3. Facts and main idea
- What did Columbus think he would find by sailing west across the Atlantic ocean?
- How diseases affect the conquest of the Americas?
- What were the four levels of society in New Spain?
- What was the Columbian Exchange?
- What were the goals of the colonists who came to New Spain?
4. Write about history
- Write a “what if” story in which you describe the world today if the peoples of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres had never had contact with one another.
- Write a story telling about one of the sights that a conquistador saw in the Americas.
- Write a letter home describing for people in Spanish what is was like to live in New Spain in the 1500s.
5. Map Skills
- What do we all the parallel lines that circle the globe?
- What is the name for the lines that meet at the north and south poles?
- What is the name for the east-west line labeled 0 degrees?
