Cultural Heritage II

Age of Exploration

Age of Exploration (c. 1450-1700)

Pieter Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus (c. 1558)

Why did this happen when and where it did?

Religious

Economic

Sociological

Geographic

Technological

Scientific

Political

Literary

Other Factors? Discussion?

The Spanish and Portuguese (1492-1550):

Discussion?: Why did the Europeans think it was their right to claim any land they found, even if others were living there? Does this belief persist? Could they have done otherwise? How?

Christopher Columbus (1446-1522):

Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512):

Ferdinand Magellan (1480?-1521):

Native Americans and the “Conquest”

Native Americans:

The Aztecs:

Discussion?: Should we be tolerant of cultural practices that we find morally offensive, such as human sacrifice? Or should we stamp them out if we can (not that genocide can ever be justified on these terms)? Are there contemporary examples of this dilemma?

Hernando Cortés (1485-1547) and Montezuma II (1502-1520)

Francisco Pizarro (1475-1541):

Discussion?: Do Europeans “owe” anything to the descendants of the native peoples they nearly exterminated? Was it the fault of the Europeans, or an “act of God” as the insurance companies say? What could they have done differently?

Slavery:

Middle Passage:

Discussion?: How did Europeans (and Christians) manage to justify what they did to Africans during the slave trade? How does it compare with the conquest of the Americas and the Native-American genocide? How does it compare with labor exploitation in the developing world today?

Ivory Coast, Slave Castles, Role of Europeans and Africans

Triangular Trade

“Seasoning” in the Caribbean

Slavery in the Americas (by 1610 in Virginia, before the Pilgrims)

The Labor Shortage (Indentured Servitude and Racist Ideology)

Plantation System (replicating feudalism in Americas):

Discussion?: The American economy was founded, in part, on links between slavery-colonialism-proletarianization-guns-and addictive products (tobacco, alcohol)? How does this legacy continue to impact our contemporary culture and position in the world?

Paternalism

Abolitionism

Slave Uprisings (Amistad, Haiti, Nat Turner, John Brown’s attempt)

Slave Narratives (Olaudah Equiano, 1789, Frederick Douglass’s Narrative, 1845)

As American Genre

Christianity and Slavery (justified by Biblical precendent? Or refuted by spirit of New Testament?

Humanism and Slavery (against human feelings, belief in human equality/dignity)

Reason and Slavery (Looking ahead to Locke, Kant, and Declaration of Independence vs. profit, political power, and racism)

Discussion?: What are some of the lasting legacies of slavery in the United States and the world, particularly Africa? What should be done about it, if anything? (Consider the role of slavery in industrialization and colonialization.)

Puritan Separatists/Plymouth (Pilgrims, Mayflower, 1620; William Bradford Of Plymouth Plantation):

Massachusetts Bay Colony (Non-Separating Puritans, Arbella, 1630)

Puritan Culture (Architecture, Art, Family Life, Literature):

The Plain Style

New Israel/New Canaan/Promised Land/Religious Origins of American National Identity

“Errand into the Wilderness”

“Virgin Land” (later “Manifest Destiny”)

Covenant/Covenantal Outlook

Self-Examination, Diary Tradition/American Autobiography, Success=God’s Blessing

Decline/Declension (Backsliding and Revivalism):

Portents:

The Jeremiad Tradition:

Discussion?: Do you recognize any elements of the Puritan tradition in contemporary American culture?

Other Colonies:

Roger Williams and Providence, Rhode Island (1644); Freedom of Conscience, Peaceful Relations with Native Peoples)

Dutch and English in New York (1620s, annexed by English, 1664)

Pennsylvania (William Penn and Daniel Francis Pastorius in 1680s)

English in Virginia (Jamestown, 1610, beginning of slavery)

French in Canada and Mississippi River Valley (from 1540s, later found New Orleans)

Spanish in Florida and American Southwest since mid-1500s.

North vs. South (Cultural Background, Land Usage, Population Distribution, Reading Practices)—cultural conflict leading up to Civil War, 1861-65.

Discussion?: Which North American colonies do we remember? Which have been largely forgotten? How have these acts of remembering and forgetting defined what in means to be an “American”?