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Give Me Liberty!An American History
Eric Foner
Norton Media Library
Chapter 1
A New World
Norton Media Library
Eric Foner
I. Columbian Exchange
II. The Expansion of Europe
A. Portugal and West Africa 1. Caravelle, compass, and quadrant made travel along African coast
possible for the Portuguese in the early fifteenth century 2. The search for African gold drove the early explorers 3. Portugal began colonizing Atlantic islands and established sugar
plantations worked by slaves
B. Slavery and Africa 1. Slavery was already one form of labor in Africa before the Europeans
came 2. Europeans traded textiles and guns for African slaves, which greatly
disrupted African society 3. By the time Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1498, Portugal had
established a vast trading empire
II. The Expansion of Europe (con’t)
C. The Voyages of Columbus 1. Christopher Columbus, an Italian, received financial
support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
2. Columbus landed on Hispaniola in 1492 and colonization began the next year
3. Amerigo Vespucci sailed along the coast of South America between 1498 and 1502, and the New World came to be called America based on Vespucci’s name
III. Peoples of the Americas
A. The Settling of America 1. “Indians” settled the New World between 15,000 and 40,000
years ago, before the glaciers melted and submerged the land bridge between Asia and North America
B. Conquering the Americas 1. The native populations were significantly depleted through
wars, enslavement, and diseases 2. The Spanish conquistadores Hernán Cortés and Francisco
Pizarro conquered the Aztec and Inca empires respectively
IV. The Spanish Empire
A. Spain in America 1. Spain established a more stable government modeled
after Spanish home rule a. Power flowed from the King to Council of the Indies to
Viceroys to local officials
2. Gold and silver mines were the primary economies in Spanish America
a. Mines were worked by Indians b. Many Spaniards came to the New World for easier social
mobility
3. Spanish America evolved into a hybrid culture
IV. The Spanish Empire (con’t)
B. Justifications for Conquest 1. To justify their claims to land that belonged to someone else, the
Spanish relied on: a. cultural superiority b. violence c. missionaries d. the Pope
2. National glory and religious mission went hand in hand, with the primary aim of the Spaniards to transform Indians into obedient, Catholic subjects of the Crown
IV. The Spanish Empire (con’t)
C. Spain and the Indians 1. Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote about the injustices of
Spanish rule toward the Indians a. He believed that “the entire human race is one,” but
supported African slavery b. His writings encouraged the 1542 New Laws, which forbade
the enslavement of Indians c. Black Legend was an image put forth, in part, by Las Casas
that Spain was an uniquely brutal and exploitive colonizer
IV. The Spanish Empire (con’t)
D. Spain in North America 1. Spanish explorers migrated north in search of gold
a. Florida was the first region within the present United States to be colonized by the Spanish
2. Juan de Oñate led settlers into present-day New Mexico
a. Oñate’s methods toward the native Acoma were brutal
V. The First North Americans
A. Native American Societies 1. Indians in North America did not resemble
the empires of the Aztec or Inca civilizations 2. Indians were very diverse and lived a variety
of ways, some settling villages and some wandering as hunters
3. By the fifteenth century some Indian tribes united into leagues or confederations in an effort to bring peace to local regions
V. The First North Americans (con’t)
B. Religion, Land, and Gender 1. Despite some similarities between Indian and European religious
beliefs, Europeans still sought to “Christianize” the Indians 2. The idea of private property was foreign to Indians 3. Wealth and material goods were not sought after by Indians as
compared to Europeans 4. Many Indian societies were matrilineal
C. Europeans and the Indians 1. Europeans felt that Indians lacked genuine religion 2. Europeans claimed that Indians did not “use” the land and thus had no
claim to it 3. Europeans viewed Indian men as weak and Indian women as mistreated
V. The First North Americans (con’t)
D. Indians and Freedom 1. Europeans concluded that the notion of “freedom”
was alien to Indian societies 2. Indians were barbaric to the Europeans because they
were too free 3. European understanding of freedom was based upon
ideas of personal independence and the ownership of private property, foreign ideas to Indians
VI. England and the New World
A. Unifying the English Nation 1. England’s stability in the sixteenth century
was undermined by religious conflicts
2. England’s methods to subdue Ireland in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries established patterns that would be repeated in America
VI. England and the New World (con’t)
B. England and New World Colonization 1. The English crown issued charters for individuals to
colonize America at their own expense, but they failed
2. National glory, profit, and a missionary zeal motivated the English crown to settle America
a. A Discourse Concerning Western Planting argued that settlement would strike a blow at England’s enemy: Spain
b. It was also argued that trade, not mineral wealth, would be the basis of England’s empire
VI. England and the New World (con’t)
C. The Social Crisis 1. A worsening economy and the enclosure movement
led to an increase of the poor and a social crisis 2. Unruly poor were encouraged to leave England for
the New World
D. Masterless Men 1. The English increasingly viewed America as a land
where a man could control his own labor and thus gain independence, particularly through ownership of land
VII. The Freeborn Englishman
A. Christian Freedom 1. To embrace Christ was believed to provide a
freedom from sin
2. “Christian liberty” had no connection to later ideas of religious tolerance
VII. The Freeborn Englishman (con’t)
B. Freedom and Authority 1. Obedience to law was another definition of freedom
—law was liberty’s “salvation” 2. Under English law, a woman held very few rights and
was submissive to her husband 3. Freedom was a function of social class and as such a
well-ordered society depended on obedience a. Liberty was often understood as formal privileges enjoyed
by only a few
VII. The Freeborn Englishman (con’t)
C. The Rights of Englishmen 1. The Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215
a. It identified a series of liberties, which barons found to be the most beneficial
2. The Magna Carta embodied the idea of English freedom a. habeas corpus b. the right to face one’s accuser c. trial by jury
3. English Civil War of the 1640s illuminated debates about liberty and what it meant to be a “freeborn Englishman”
VII. The Freeborn Englishman (con’t)
D. England’s Debate over Freedom 1. The Levellers called for an even greater expansion of liberty,
moving away from a definition based on social class 2. Diggers were another political group attempting to give freedom
an economic underpinning3. After the Civil War, there emerged a more general definition of
freedom grounded in the common rights of all individuals within the English realm
a. a belief in freedom as the common heritage of all Englishmen b. a belief that England was the world’s guardian of liberty
The Old World on the Eve of American Colonization, ca. 1500
Voyages of Discovery
Spanish Conquests and Explorations in the New
World, 1500–1600
Indians of North America, ca. 1500
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W. W. Norton & CompanyIndependent and Employee-Owned
This concludes the Norton Media LibrarySlide Set for Chapter 1
Give Me Liberty!An American History
byEric Foner
