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| A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
America, also called the Western Continent or the New World, consists of three main divisions: North America, Central America, and South America. The first of these extends from (about) 70° to 15° north latitude. Central America forms an isthmus running from northwest to southeast and narrowing to a strip of thirty miles in width atPanama; this isthmus extends from 15° to 8° north latitude, where it connects with the western coast of South America. South America begins in latitude 12° north, terminating in latitude 55° south. Hence North America approximately extends over 3,800 English miles from north to south, South America 4,500, and Central America constitutes a diagonal running between the two larger masses, from northwest to southeast and is approximately a thousand miles in length.
As the object of this article is to compile the data which will help the reader appreciate theChristian settlement and civilization of America, we omit here the geography, geology, and other topics usually treated in general encyclopedias, and confine ourselves to the ethnography and colonization of the Americas. The so-called aborigines of North America are, with the exception of the so-calledEskimo, generally regarded as belonging to one and the same branch of the humanfamily, physically as well as ethnically. From the physical standpoint, they have been classified with the type called Mongolian, but sincedoubts have arisen as to the existence of such a type, it is safer to state that, anthropologically, the American, and especially theNorth American Indians, resemble some of the most easterlyAsiatic tribes more closely than any other group of the humanfamily. The South American Indian is more nearly allied to the northern than to any extra-American stock. As to theEskimo, his skull is decidedly an Arctic type, corresponding in that respect to theAsiatic, and evenEuropean peoples living inside of the Arctic Circle. But these generalizations may have to be modified, with the rapid strides anthropology is making in the field of detailed and local investigation, and it will hereafter be advisable to consider the characteristics of every linguistic stock (and even of its subdivisions) by themselves, allowing for changes wrought in the physical condition by diversity of environment after long residence.
The distribution of the American population at the time ofColumbus is, of course, not known from personal observation, but it may be approximately reconstructed from information gathered after America began to be visited byEuropeans. TheEskimo held most of the Arctic belt, whereas the so-called Indians swayed the rest of the continent to its southernmost extremity. The population was not nearly so numerous as had long been thought, even where it was most dense, but there are no materials even for an approximate estimate. The great northern and western plains were not settled, although there are traces of pre-Columbian permanent abodes, or at least of some settlements made during a slow shifting along the streams; tribes preying on the buffalo roamed with that quadruped over the steppes. The northwest, on the Pacific, was more densely inhabited by tribes, who subsisted by fishing (salmon), limited agriculture, and hunting. This was also the case along the Mississippi (on both banks), and in the timbered basin of the Alleghenies, along the Atlantic from St. Lawrence toFlorida, whereas southernTexas was sparsely inhabited, and in parts but temporarily, as the buffalo led the Indian on its southward wanderings. The aboriginal population ofCalifornia was not large and lived partly on seafood. The great northern plateau of Mexico, with the mountains along the Rio Grande, was too arid and consequently destitute of means of subsistence, to allow permanent occupation in numbers; but theNew MexicoPueblos formed a group of sedentary inhabitants clustering along the Rio Grande and settled in the mountains as far as Arizona, surrounded on all sides by roving Indians, some of whom, however, like the Navajos, had turned to land-tilling also, on a modest scale. The same conditions may be said to have obtained inArizona. Western Mexico presented a similar aspect, modified by a different climate. While there are within theUnited States tribes that in the fifteenth century displayed a higher degree of culture than their surroundings (the Natchez, for instance, and in the development ofideas of government and extension of sway, theIroquois) the culture of the Indian seems to have reached its highest degree in Central Mexico andYucatán,Guatemala andHonduras, and, we may add, Nicaragua. It is as if the tribal wanderings from north to south, which sometimes took other directions, had been arrested by the narrowing of the continent at the Isthmus of Panama. While the abundance of natural resources invited man to remain, geographic features compelled him, and thus arose Indian communities that excelled in culture Indians in every other part of the continent. South of Panama, nature was too exuberant, and the territory too small to favour similar progress; hence the Indians, while still quite proficient in certain arts, could not compare with their northern neighbors. In South America the exuberance of tropical life north of theArgentine plains, was as unfavorable to cultural growth as barrenness would have been. Hence the Amazonian basin,Brazil, theGuyanas, and Venezuela, as well as the eastern declivity of the Andes in general, were thinly inhabited by tribes, few of which had risen above the stage of roving savages. On the western slope of the Andes, in Columbia, the population was somewhat more dense and the houses, though still of wood and canes, were larger, and more substantially reared. Sedentary tribes of a lesser degree of culture also dwelt in northernArgentine, limited in numbers, and scattered in and between savage groups. The highest development attained in South America before its discovery was along the backbone of the Andes from 15° north to near the Tropic of Capricorn, or 23° south. This was also the case on the Pacific shore to latitude 20° south, beginning at 2° south. In this zone the cultural growth of the Indian attained a level equal in many ways, superior in some, inferior in others (as for instance in plastic work in stone), to the culture of the most advanced tribes ofYucatán and Central America. The tribes ofChile were comparatively numerous and fairly advanced, mostly given to land-tillage and hunting; the Patagonians stood on a lower level, and the people of Tierra del Fuego were perhaps on the lowest round of the scale of humanity in America.
Not even the most advanced among theAmerican Indians had risen to the conception of a Nation or State; their organization was merely tribal, and their conquests or raids were made, not with the view of assimilating subjected enemies, but for booty (includingfemales, and human victims for sacrifice) or, at best, for the purpose of exacting tribute and assistance inwarfare. Hence America was an irregular check-board of tribes, independent and always autonomous, even when overawed or overpowered by others. Those tribes whose sway were most extensive when America was first discovered were:
It has not yet been established, however, that the Inca had confederates, or if they belonged to the class of sedentary tribes that then overran large expanses of territory, either alone or with the aid of subjugated tribes. Traces of confederacies appeared on thePeruvian coasts among the sedentary clusters that were partly wiped out by the Inca not a century previous to the advent of theSpaniards. Of the sedentary Indians that held or overawed a considerable extent of territory by their own single efforts, the various independent groups ofGuatemala and Tarascans in western central Mexico were most conspicuous. In North America, the Muskogees, the Natchez, the Choctaws, and further north theDakotas and the Pawnees displayed considerable aggressive power.
The system of social organization was the same in principle throughout the entire continent, differences being, as in general culture, in degree but not in kind. The clan, orgens, was the unit, and descent was sometimes in the male, sometimes in thefemale, line. But the clan system had not everywhere fully developed; the prairie tribes of North America, for instance, were not all composed of clans. Various causes have been assigned for this exception, but no satisfactory explanation has yet been suggested. The general characteristics of American Indiansociety were: communal tenure of lands, no hereditary estates, titles, or offices, and segregation or exclusion of the different clusters from each other. Definite boundaries nowhere divided one cluster from another; uninhabited zones or neutral belts intervened between the settlements of the tribes; where the population was denser, the belt was narrower, though still devoid of villages. Civil and military administrations were merged into each other, and behind and above both, though partly occult, the power of religious creed and ceremonial determined every action. The shamans or sorcerers, by means of oracular utterances or magic, were the real leaders. These so-calledpriests also had their organization, the principles of which were the same all over primitive America, as they are the same today. Esotericsocieties, based upon empiricalknowledge and its application to spiritual and material wants, constituted the divisions and classifications of the wizards. Whoever practiced the rites and artifices held indispensable for religious ends, without belonging to one or the other of these clusters of official magicians, exposed himself to dire chastisement. Such were and are the chief features of religious organization among the more advanced tribes; the lesser the degree of culture, the more imperfect the system and the less complicated in detail.
Animism is the principle underlying the creed of the Indian everywhere, andFetishism is its tangible manifestation.Monotheism, theidea of a personal and all-creating and rulingGod, nowhere existed among the Indians. The whole world was pervaded by a spiritual essence which could at will take individual shape in special localities. The Indian feels himself surrounded everywhere by numberless spiritual agencies, in the presence of which he is helpless, and which he feels constrained incessantly to propitiate or appease. This fear underlies the system of his magic and gives the wizard a hold upon him which he cannot shake off. His every action is therefore preceded byprayer and offerings, the latter are sometimes quite complicated. Among his fetishes, there is little or no hierarchic gradation of idols. Phenomena that seem to exert a greater influence upon man than others are the object of more elaborate cult, but they are not supposed to act beyond their sphere. Thus there was and is no sun-worship as commonly believed. The sun, as well as the moon, was looked upon as a heavenly body which is the abode of powerful (but not all-powerful) spirits; in many tribes, little attention is paid to them. Historicdeities also arose among them as a result ofbelief of mighty wizards who spirit dwelt in their fetishes. Sacrifices were made to the fetishes, and the most precious objects offered up, human victims being looked upon as the most desirable. Even the practice of scalping was based upon abelief that, by securing that part of the enemy's body nearest to the brain, the captor came into possession of themental faculties of the deceased, and thus added so much more to his ownmental and physical power. Anthropophagy, or cannibalism, so widely distributed through the tropics, rested on the same conception.
The Indian had no writtenlaws. Custom ruled; the decisions of tribal councils and oracular utterances determined the questions at issue. The council was the chief authority in temporal matters; the chiefs executed its decrees, which were first sanctioned, or modified, by the oracles of the shamans. There was no writing, no letters, but some of the more advanced tribes used pictographs by means of which they could, to a limited extent, record historic events, preserve the records of tribute, and represent thecalendars, bothastronomical (in a rude way) and ritual. The knotted strings, orquippus, ofPeru were a more imperfect method, and their use, in a simpler form, was much more extended than generally thought. The aboriginal languages of America are divided into stocks, and again divided into dialects. The number of these stocks is becoming gradually reduced as a result of philological study. There is an affinity between some of the idioms of western North America and some of easternAsia, but further than that resemblances do not go. It is safer to follow the example set by Brinton and subdivide the American idioms into geographical groups, each of which embraces a certain number of stocks. There is, however, an objection to this plan, in that, in some cases, one stock is scattered and dispersed over more than one geographic section. There are, for instance, indications that the Shoshones ofOregon, the Pimas, Opatats, Yaqui of Arizona and Sonora, and Mexicans (Aztecs, Tezcucans, etc.) and a part of the Indians ofNicaragua belong to one linguisticfamily which is thus represented both among the North Pacific and Central groups.
Leaving aside theEskimo, whose language may be classed as specifically Arctic, the most import groups are: in British America the Athapascans, or Tinné; the Navajos or Dinné, inArizona andNew Mexico, with their relatives theApaches or N'dé; theAlgonquins, ranging fromNova Scotia in the north-east, on the Atlantic, to New York Bay in the south, and from the headwaters of the Missouri River in the west, across the basin of the Great Lakes; of these Indians the Arapahoes, Blackfeet, Cheyennes,Chippewas, Delawares, Sacs and Foxes, and Shawnees are the most generally known. Many tribes of this group (like those of New England, for instance) are practically extinct; theIroquois in northern New York, embracing theHurons, Eries, Cherokees, etc.; the Muskogees comprising the tribes along the southern Atlantic coast to part ofFlorida; the Catawbas,Natchez, and some of the Indians of Florida and Coahuila in Mexico; the Pawnees,Dakotas and Kiowas. mostly Indians from the plains and of the watershed west of the Mississippi; in the West, on the Pacific coast, the north Pacific group extends fromAlaska to southernCalifornia. The Yumas are scattered from the mouth of the Colorado through portions ofArizona, and a branch of them is said to live in the Mexican state ofOaxaca. The Pueblos ofNew Mexico and Arizona are looked upon as a separate linguistic cluster also. Of the great Shoshone group, mention has already been made. Mexico further contains a number of clusters linguistically distinct, like the Taoascans, the Otomis, the Totonacos, Zapotecos, Mijes, Mixtecos, Mayas, Zendales, some of which have been grouped into onefamily. The Maya, for instance, embrace some of the more highly developed tribes ofGuatemala, and the Huaxtecos of the State ofVera Cruz, far to the north ofYucatán. The farther south we go, the more indefinite become linguistic classifications, for the reason that the material at hand has not been sufficiently investigated, and also that there is, especially in regard to South America, much material still to be collected. It follows, therefore, that the idioms of the Isthmus can hardly be regarded as classified. A number are recognized as apparently related, but that relationship is but imperfectly understood. In South America, we here merely mention the Chibchas, or Muyscas, of Columbia, the extensive Arawak stock, and the Caribs, the former widely scattered, the latter limited toVenezuela, the Orinoco, and Guyana. Of the idioms ofEcuador little is known except that the Quicha language ofPeru (mountains) may have supplanted a number of other languages before the Spanish conquest. South of the Quicha, the great Aymara stock occupies the central plateau, but in primitive times it extended much farther north. InBrazil, the Tupi (Guarani) and Tapuya were, on the coast, the most widely diffused languages. We may further mention the idioms ofChile, which may form onefamily, the tribes of the Grand Chaco (of which the Calchaquis were the most advanced) and the unclassified idioms of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. This sketch of the distribution of American languages cannot here be carried into greater detail. American linguists are constantly progressing, and much of what now appears well-established is liable to be over thrown in the future.
The question of the origin of the Indians is as yet a matter of conjecture. Affinities with theAsiatic groups have been observed on the northwestern and western coast of North America, and certain similarities between the Peruvian-coast Indians and Polynesian tribes seem striking, but decisive evidence is still wanting. The numberless hypotheses on the origin of the primitive Americans that have flooded literature since the days ofColumbus have no proper place here. The existence of man in America during the glacial period is still a matter of research. Neither is there anyproof of the coming ofChristian missionaries in pre-Columbian times. There may be indications, but these lack, so far, the support of documentary evidence. If, however, we consider Greenland as an island belonging to the North American Continent,Christianity was introduced into America in the tenth century of our era. The tale of the voyage to "Vinland," attributed to Bishop Jon, or John, in the fourteenth century, rests on slender foundations. In regard to visits of Asiatics to the west coast of America, nothing is known, the Fu-Sang tale having been long ago shown to apply to theJapanese archipelago.Martin Behaim placed on his map of 1492 a note according to which seven Portuguesebishops in the ninth century fled from theMoors to a western island called Antilia and there founded seven towns. Other than this, there is no authority for the story. Finally, there is the story of Atlantis, told byPlato in his "Timaeus" and his "Critias", which is equally unsupported. Though the subject of much speculation, no trace of a submerged continent, or part of the American Continent of which Antilles would be the remnant, has so far been discovered. The attempts to establish traces of the Atlantis catastrophe in the folklore of American tribes have met with indifferent success.
The name "America" is the outcome not so much of an accident as of an incident. For nearly a century afterColumbus, theSpaniards who had first right tobaptize the continent, having been its firstEuropean occupants, persisted in calling their vast American possessions the "Western Indies." That name was justifiable in so far as the discovery occurred when they were in search ofAsia. Thebelief that America was a part of that continent was dispelled only byBalboa's journey across the Isthmus in 1513. Six years previous to that feat, however, the nameAmerica had been applied by some German scholars to the New World. It was not done with the object of diminishing the glory ofColumbus, nor of endorsing the claims of other explorers, but simply inignorance of the facts.Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine pilot, first in the service ofSpain, then ofPortugal, and then again in Spanish employ, had made at least two voyages to the Western seas. It is not the purpose here to discuss the voyages Vespucci claimed to have made to the American coast, or have been attributed to him. For these still somewhat enigmatic tales, and the documents relating thereto, seeAMERIGO VESPUCCI. It suffices to state that at least some of his letters were published as early as 1504. As in one of them his first voyage is placed in 1497-98, and he there claims to have touched the American continent, it would give him the priority overColumbus (a claim, however,Vespucci never advanced). It is easy to see how the perusal of these reports might induce scholars living remote from the Peninsula and America to attribute to him the real discovery of the New World and to suggest that it be named after him. Out of achapel founded by St. Deodatus, in the seventh century, in what is now French Lorraine, acollege had sprung up at St. Dié, Vosges, in the eleventh century. Among its professors was Martin Waldseemüller (Hylacomylus) who occupied the chair of cosmography. Struck by the alleged date of 1497 forVespucci's first trip to the new continent, he concluded that to the Florentine belonged thehonour of the first discovery, and that the New World should hence be named after him. So when, in 1507, a printing press was established at St. Die, through the efforts, chiefly, of the secretary of the Duke of Lorraine, he published, together with Mathias Ringmann, professor of Latin, a geographical work of small compass, entitled "Cosmographiae Introductio" in which he inserted the following passage: I do not see why it may not be permitted to call this fourth part after Americus, the discoverer, a man of sagacious mind, by the name of Amerige — that is to say, the land of Americus — or America, since bothEurope andAsia have a feminine form of the name, from the names ofwomen".
This suggestion might have had no further consequence, had not the name of America been placed on a map published byHylacomylus in the same year, whether to designate only that part of the discovery which was credited or the whole continent as far as known, is not certain. As the "Cosmographiae Introductio" was a geographical treatise, it was gradually accepted by cosmographers outside ofSpain, althoughLas Casas protested against the name America, as a misnomer and a slur on the name ofColumbus. Foreign nations successfully adopted the name proposed byWaldseemuller. EvenSpain finally yielded, substituting "America" for "Occidental Indies" and "New World" as late as the middle of the eighteenth century. As far as known,Vespucci himself took no interest in the use of the name America. He never laid any claim to being the first discoverer of the continent, except as far as the (doubtful) date of his first voyage seems to do so. He was a personal friend ofColumbus as long as the latter lived, and died (1512) with the fame of having been a useful and honorable man. Neither canWaldseemuller be charged with rashly givingVespucci's name to America. More blame for not investigating the matter with care, and for blindly following a suggestion thrown out byWaldseemuller, attaches to subsequent students of cosmography like Mercator andOrtelius, especially to the latter, for he had at his command the original Spanish documents, having been for a time the royal cosmographer. An attempt to trace the origin of the name to some obscureIndian tribe, said to have been calledAmerique, has met with no favor.
TheEuropean nations which settled the continent of America after its discovery byColumbus, and exerted the greatest influence on the civilization of the New World, were principally five. They rank, in point of date, as follows:Spain,Portugal,France,England,Holland. Sweden made an attempt at colonization, but, as theSwedish colony was limited to a very small fraction of the area of eastern North America and endured not more than seventeen years, it need not be mentioned here. Russian colonization ofAlaska, andDanish occupation of one of the Lesser Antilles may also be passed over as unimportant.
Spain began to colonize the larger Antilles in 1493. The rapidity with which she explored and conquered the territories discovered was amazing. Not sixty years after the landing ofColumbus, Spanish colonies dotted the continent, from northern Mexico as far south as central and southernChile. Not only were they along the coast, but in Mexico and Central America they were scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in South America from the Pacific coast eastward to the crest of the Andes and to the La Plata River. Vast unsettled stretches of land intervened between the colonies in many sections, but these sections could be, and were, transversed from time to time so that intercourse could be kept up. The entire northeastern coast of South America was under Spanish sway, and explorations had been carried on, approximately, as far as lat. 42° north along the Pacific; the interior as far as lat 40° the southernUnited States had been traversed beyond the Mississippi, and Florida,Alabama, and Georgia taken possession of along the Atlantic shore. The whole Pacific coast, from lat. 42° to the southern extremity of Tierra del Fuego, was already known, settled in places, and frequently visited, and while the Oronoco River had been explored both from its mouth and from the west, expeditions fromVenezuela penetrated to the Amazon and explored the whole length of its course from the side ofEcuador. These extraordinary achievements were accomplished by a nation that, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, counted, so far as we can estimate, not ten millions of people.
Such extraordinary activity, energy and, it cannot be denied, in many cases sagacity also, was the outcome of the character of the Spanish people, and of their formation. In the first place, theSpaniards are a much mixed race. Since the times of Roman domination, nearly every people of any consequence that overranEurope (Huns and Northern Germans excepted) occupied, for a while at least, parts of Spanish soil, and left traces of their presence in language, customs, and in some cases (theVisigoths) inlaws and organization. Southern invaders fromAfrica, theMoors, had contributed still further to the mixture. Defense of the Spanish soil, and particularly,salvation of theChristian faith, the people's dearest patrimony, against theseMohammedan conquerors, had made of theSpaniards, above all, a warrior people. But seven centuries of incessantwarfare neither fashioned a very tender-hearted race nor contributed to enrich the country.Spain had once been rich in precious metals, but the Romans impoverished the land by draining the mines. Still the tradition remained, and with the tradition, the longing for a return of the golden age. Until the discovery of America,Europe looked to the far East for the wealth that was denied it by nature. When the discovery of the Antilles revealed the existence of gold,Spain neglected the East, and turned her eyes to the West. The fever for gold seized all who couldemigrate, and the desire for gold and silver became a powerful incentive to seek and grasp the wealth of the New World. The thirst for gold was neither more or less intense in the sixteenth century than it is now, but it was directed to much vaster regions. Furthermore, the precious metals were found among people to whom they were of no commercial value, much less standards of wealth. To deprive the Indian of gold and silver was, to him, a much less serious matter than to deprive him of his gathered maize or any other staple food. The earliest periods of Spanish colonization were spent in attempts to establish amodus vivendi with the aborigines and, like all epochs of that kind,proved disastrous to the weaker--namely, to the Indian.Doubts as to whether the natives werehuman beings or not were soon disposed of by a royal decree asserting their essentialhumannature and certainrights flowing therefrom. They were, however, (and justly, too) declared to be minors who required a stage of tutelage, before they might be made to assume theduties andrights of the white population. Before practically reaching this conclusion, one which once for all determined the condition of the Indians in most South American Republics, and partly in theUnited States andCanada, much experimenting had to be done.
The primitive condition of man in the New World was a problem whichEuropean culture four centuries ago was not yet capable of solving. While inSpain the old communalrights of the original components of the realm were for a long time maintained, and a kind of provisional autonomy prevailed, which acted as a check upon growing absolutism, Spanish America was from the outset a domain of the crown. Discovery, by land and sea, and colonization, were under the exclusive control of the monarch; only with his permission explorations could be made, and settlements established. Personal initiative was thus placed ostensibly under a wholesome control, but it was also unfavorably hampered in many instances. Not so much, however, in the first century followingColumbus as in the two following centuries. The royal patronage, at first indispensable, resulted in securing for Spanish interests anunjust ascendancy over those of the colonists. It was often, and not improperly, contended that the Creoles were in a worse position than the Indians, the latter, as special wards of the Government ofSpain, enjoying more protection and privileges than the Spanish Americans. The latter complained particularly of theinjustice of assigning all lucrative offices to nativeSpaniards, to the exclusion of Creoles. It insured the home Government a strong position in the colonies, but only too often its administration was entrusted to men unfit for the positions through want of practical acquaintance with country and people. It istrue that the system ofresidencia, or final account at the expiration of the terms of office, and thevisita, or investigation with, sometimes, discretionary faculties, were a check upon abuses, but by no means sufficient. A code of law for the Indies, asSpain called its American possessions for a long time, had been in contemplation since the middle of the sixteenth century, but it only became a fact at the end of the seventeenth. Much of the delay was occasioned by the enormous number of royal Decrees on which legislation had to be based. These decrees continued to bepromulgated as occasion demanded, along with the Code, and they bear testimony to the solicitous attention given by the Spanish monarchs to the most minute details of their trans-oceanic possessions. It was a so-called paternal autocracy, well-intended, but most unfavorable, in the end, to the free development of the individual and of the colonies in general.
In the middle of the seventeenth century,Spain definitively closed its colonies to the outer world, the mother-country excepted, and even the intercourse with that was severely controlled. It was asuicidal measure, and thereafter the American colonies began to decline, to the great detriment ofSpain itself. Still it should not be overlooked that the measure had, to a great extent, been forced uponSpain by the unrelenting attacks of other nations upon her colonies and her commerce with them, in times of peace as well aswar. Instruction andeducation were almost completely under the control of theCatholicChurch. Secular institutions of learning sprang up later, although theJesuits had taken the initiative in that direction. Considering the means at hand, much was done to study the geography of the new continent, its natural history, and other branches ofscience. In the eighteenth century, scientific explorations were made on a large scale. Previous to that time, most investigations were due to individual efforts, especially byecclesiastics. In the sixteenth century, however, Philip the Second sent to Mexico his own physician Hernandez to study specially the medicinal and alimentary plants of that country. Nutritive plants were imported fromEurope andAsia, as well as domestic animals, and it is to theSpaniards that the planting and cultivation of fruit and shade trees in South America is due. But all these improvements did not satisfy the legitimate aspirations of Spanish-Americans, for they were made for the benefit of nativeSpaniards. Add to this a vacillating and heavy system of taxation that weighed almost exclusively on the Creoles, heavy custom-houseduties, stringently exacted, and the arbitrary conduct of officials high and low, and we are not surprised that the colonies took advantage of the opportunity afforded by the weakening ofSpain during theNapoleonic period to secure their independence. The exploitation of the abundant mines of precious metals, discovered everywhere in consequence of Spanish exploration, was carried out in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, according to methods that were certainly progressive, though the mines began to give out. At the same time, in the great mining centres, the Creoles became so rich that luxury and corruption rapidly spread amongst them. The great bulk of the treasure went toEurope without any profit for Spanish America. The statement that forced labour in the mines diminished the number of Indians is greatly exaggerated. Individual and local abuses are undeniable, but the system established after the sad experiences of the first colonistsproved wise and salutary when properly carried out. In general, the Indian policy of the Spanish government was based upon theidea that the Indian should in time supply the labour needed in the colonies; it was a policy of solicitous preservation and slow patienteducation through theCatholicChurch.
AsSpain was securing its foothold in the New World,Portugal was rapidly pushing forward in its path of exploration. The outcome was rivalry between the two nations, and disputes about therights and limits of discovery. Both crowns, Portuguese and Spanish, appealed to thePope, who accepted the task of arbitrator. His verdict resulted in establishing a line of demarcation, the right of discovery on one side being allotted toSpain, on the other side toPortugal. Thepapal bulls from 1493, while issued, according to the time, in the form of grants by Divinerights, are in fact acts of arbitration. The Pope,Alexander VI, had not sought, but merely accepted by request of the parties the office of umpire, and his decisions were modified several times before both claimants declared themselves satisfied. The methods of colonization pursued by the Portuguese, were in the main similar to those ofSpain, with the difference that thePortuguese inclined more toutilitarianism and to commercial pursuits. Again, the territory discovered and occupied (Brazil) was difficult uniformly of access, being mostly covered by vast forests and furrowed by gigantic watercourses, not always favorable to the penetration of the interior. Therefore thePortuguese reached the interior much less rapidly than theSpaniards, and confined their settlements mostly to the coast. The Indian population, thinly scattered and on a much lower level of culture than the sedentary natives in part of Spanish America, was of little service for the exploration of the vast and almost impenetrable land. In the beginning of the seventeenth century,Brazil became Spanish, only to be conquered by theDutch. The domination of the latter left no permanent stamp on the country, as it was brought to a close thirty years after its beginning.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, thePortuguese were the most dangerous neighbors of theJesuit missions, in the Amazonian Basin, as well as inParaguay. Their policy of enslaving the Indians caused the ruin of more than one mission and it was only with great effort that the littleJesuit state of Paraguay, so beneficial to the aborigines, for a time held it own. The separation ofBrazil fromPortugal was due more to political disturbances in the latter country than to other causes. An empire was created with a scion of the royal house ofPortugal at its head. It is chiefly to the last emperor, Pedro II, thatBrazil owes its interior development, and to him was due the emancipation of the slaves. The Federal Republic since created has had to deal with many difficulties.
The French occupied three regions of the New World: (1) EasternCanada, (2) Louisiana and the Mississippi Valley, some of the lesser Antilles and Guiana in eastern South America. The Antilles (Haiti,Martinique, Guadaloupe, etc.), became French in the course of the incessant piraticalwarfare carried on againstSpain in the sixteenth century. Guiana as a French possession was the fruit ofEuropeanwars and treaties. Neither of the last two French colonies have exerted and marked influence on American civilization. The French occupation of a part ofHaiti had more serious consequences. The uprising of thenegroes on that island resulted in the establishment of anegro republic, an isolated phenomena in the annals of American history. The French occupation ofCanada lasted two centuries, that of the Valley of the Mississippi a little more than one, and was of the highest importance in the exploration of the North American Continent. It is to the French that we owe the earliest acquaintance with these regions. French colonization was different from Spanish, inasmuch as it was attempted on a much smaller scale and with less dependence on the home government. Like Spanish and Portuguese colonization, however, it was essentiallyCatholic. The attempts to foundFrenchHuguenot settlements inBrazil,Florida, and Georgia in the sixteenth century all failed; inBrazil because of mismanagement; in the latter countries because of Spanish conquest. French colonization began on the banks near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence. The first colonizers were adventuresome mariners who afterward applied to the crown for authority as well as for aid and military assistance. But it was personal initiative that laid the foundation. Strange as it may seem,Catherine de Medicis gave more support toCatholic than toProtestant undertakings. Political reasons on her part, chiefly the desire to supplantSpain in the American possessions, dictated this anomalous policy. The French settlements remained comparatively few, and hugged the shores of the Saint Lawrence, occupying points of the Lake basin and isolated posts among the Indians and on the seaboard. The necessity of military protection, and the limited immigration led to a governmental organization of the colony controlled by the crown, but for the most part indifferently supported. The French people had little confidence in the future of a domain that promised only furs and wood, showed no traces of precious metal, and where the climate was as forbidding as its Indian inhabitants. It is likely that owing to the antipathy against theCanadian enterprise prevailing at court,Canada would have been abandoned, had not two pertinent reasons prevailed: one, the secret hope of checking the growing influence ofEngland on the new continent and of eventually annexing the English colonies in North America; the other, the missionary labours of theJesuits. Both went hand in hand, for while theJesuits weretrue to their religious mission, they were nonethelessFrenchmen and patriotic. They soon discovered that the key to the political and military situation was in the hands of theIroquois Indians, or Six Nations, and theEuropean power that gained their permanent friendship would eventually secure the balance of power. To induce theIroquois to becomeChristians and thereby allies ofFrance, theJesuits spared no sacrifice, nomartyrdom, no efforts. Had the rulers ofFrance been as sagacious as those ofSpain in their appreciation of theJesuit missions, and had they adequately supported them, the outcome might have been favorable. But, while both countries were equally autocratic, the French government was as unsystematic and careless inCanada as the Spanish was careful and methodical in administering its American possessions. The few governors, like Frontenac, capable of controlling the situation were poorly assisted by the mother-country, and inefficiency too often alternated with good administration. Even military aid was sparingly granted at the most crucial periods. It istrue, however, that the moral and material decay ofFrance, and her exhaustingwars, may be urged in excuse of this neglect. The result was the establishment, in the French possessions, of a spare population, scattered over so vast a territory that communication was frequently interrupted. That population, with the exception of the inhabitants of the official centres at Quebec andMontreal, where social conditions were partly modeled on those of the motherland, was rude and uneducated by reason of its isolation, though individually hardy and energetic, and their dispersion through such vast territory prevented joint effort. The missionaries had their hands too full, in attending to the Indian missions, to serve adequately the wants of the colonists, who moreover, from the nature of their occupations, were often compelled to lead an almost migratory life. Thanks to the efforts of a trader and of aJesuit, the connection between the Lakes and the Mississippi River was established in the latter part of the seventeenth century. After the establishment of the French settlements inLouisiana and Illinois, the English colonies were encompassed by a semi-circle of French possessions. La Salle did for the mouth of the Mississippi River and part ofTexas whatChamplain had done for the mouth of the Saint Lawrence. Individual enterprise began to make significant approaches to the Spanish outposts in northern Mexico. The conduct ofFrance in its North American dominions toward otherEuropean nations was of course guided largely byEuropean political conditions, and theCanadians more than once anticipated the outbreak of internationalwarfare. To a certain extent the French imitated the Indian policy ofSpain by utilizing the resources afforded by friendlyIndian tribes, but these were always fickle and unstable. In the north, on the borders of the arctic zone, the main element of stability--agriculture--played but a secondary role.
While the occupation of the French colonists should haveproved an element of strength to the French inCanada, it turned to their disadvantage in the end. The incomparably more abundant resources of southern latitudes in a moist climate formed such a contrast with the cold, northern dominion that the tendency to neglect the latter grew stronger. When Voltaire pronounced himself in favor of the Louisiana colony, a marked leaning to abandonCanada made itself manifest inFrance. The concentrated power of the English colonies, assisted byEngland's naval supremacy, renderedvoluntary abandonment unnecessary.
The methods of English colonization are so widely known, and its literature so extensive, that the matter may here be treated with comparative brevity. While in the Southern Atlantic States discoveries and settlements were made with the assent of the Crown, under its patronage, and mostly by enterprising members of the nobility, the northern sections, New England especially, were colonized by personal initiative. There was no desire for independence, though political, and especially religious, autonomy were the ideals of thePuritan colonists. That religious autonomy has usually been regarded as synonymous with religious liberty. But it took long years of struggle and experimenting before the latter became established in New England. The English system of colonial expression depended much more on individual enterprise than the Spanish; but there was much less regard for authority unless the latter was represented bylaw. English colonization was more akin to thePortuguese in its commercial tendency, and superior to the French in the faculty of combining and organizing for a given purpose. Independence of character was an heirloom of northern origin in general, respect for law a specifically English tradition. There is nodoubt that the influence of New England has greatly contributed to the remarkable growth of theUnited States. The unparalelled rise and expansion of theUnited States was due chiefly to personal initiative in the beginning, that afterwardsvoluntarily submitted to the requirements of organization and to a political and (subsequently) religious tolerance which opened the country to all outside elements thought to be beneficial. These features, however, were not so much due to the English as to the American character that developed after the North American colonies had achieved their independence, and the Northern and Southern types of the people came into closer contact. There was a marked contrast between the position assumed by theCatholicChurch towards the Indians and the attitude ofProtestantism. The former, as soon as the administration of the Spanish dominions in America began to assume a character of stability, instituted concerted efforts for theeducation and civilization of the Indians. The introduction of the printing press in Mexico (about 1536) was brought about specially to promote Indianeducation. Theclergy, particularly the regular orders (Franciscans,Dominicans, and others, and later on, on a still larger scale, theJesuits) became not only teachers but then protectors of the natives. It was the aim of theChurch (in harmony with the crown) to preserve the Indian and defend him from the inevitable abuses of lesser officials and of settlers. Hence in Spanish America, the Indian has held his own more than anywhere else, and has come to be a moderately useful element. Attempts to create Indian communities under the exclusive control ofecclesiasticsproved very successful until the expulsion of theJesuits, when all the beneficial results were irretrievably lost. The efforts ofProtestants were mostly individual, and received little or no support from the State. From the English standpoint, the Indian was and is looked upon as an obstruction to civilization, and the expediency of his removal, forceful or otherwise, has dictated a policy sometimes completely at variance with the principles of forbearance and toleration so loudly proclaimed. But it must also be acknowledged that the Indian himself is largely at fault. His extreme conservatism in refusing to adopt a mode of life consistent with progress exasperates, and provokes aggressive measures on the part of, the whites. The cause of this conservatism lies largely in the religiousideas of the Indians, as yet imperfectly understood.
Thenegro has assimilated himself much better than the American aborigine to post-Columbian conditions. Though his condition of life was for centuries deplorable, and though we absolutely condemn slavery in every form, it cannot be denied that through it he was slowly introduced to civilized life and became acquainted withideas to which the Indian has remained a stranger. Of thenegro republic,Haiti, we have already spoken.
The emancipation of the American colonies fromEuropean control changed the political configuration of the continent, both north and south. Of the British possessions in North America as they existed in 1776 only theDominion of Canada still belongs to the British Crown. The other colonies have become theUnited States of America. Spanish America has severed its connection with the mother-country and had been divided into the republic of Mexico, the central American republics ofGuatemala,Honduras,San Salvador,Nicaragua,Costa Rica,Leon, and Panama; the Antillian republics ofHaiti,Santo Domingo, and Cuba, and the South American republics ofVenezuela, Columbia,Brazil,Ecuador,Peru,Bolivia,Paraguay, theArgentine, andChile. Jamaica remains a British possession; Porto Rico is a possession of theUnited States. The Lesser Antilles still belong to the powers which owned them prior to 1776, namely:England,France,Holland,Denmark, and Sweden. On the continent, British Honduras andBritish Guiana;Holland,Dutch Guiana or Surinam; andFrance, French Guiana or Cayenne. Changes like these in the political aspects of a continent might be expected to have had considerable influence on the status of theCatholicChurch. which is so intimately related with the history of civilization in the New World. Nevertheless, the independence of theEuropean colonies has not greatly affected the position of theChurch in America. In theUnited States, theChurch has flourished under the republican form of government. In Spanish America, the new conditions have affected theChurch more markedly, and not always beneficially, The lack of stability in political conditions of South American States has so often influenced the deportment of their governments towards theChurch that sometimespersecution has resulted, as in Mexico. Attempts to give the Indian a share in the government, for which he was not prepared, have in some instances not only loosened the ties that bound him to his former protector and teacher, theChurch, but have also fostered a racial desire to return to primitive uncivilized conditions. Happily, the material development of many of these countries has counteracted these tendencies, and to a considerable extent holds them in check today. The break withSpain brought the Spanish Americanclergy into direct relations with theHoly See, andproved greatly advantageous to religion. The regular orders, especially theJesuits, have suffered in some South American countries. In Mexico they have been officially suppressed, but such extreme measures last only as long as their authors remain in power.
We have not sufficient data to determine theCatholic population of America. Even in theUnited States the number usually given, "about 14,000,000" is a conjecture more or less accurate. Spanish-American peoples may be classified as at least officiallyCatholics. The same applies to the Indians, but the numbers of the aborigines are but very imperfectly ascertained. Still, we will probably not go far astray if we assume that nearly one-half the population of America areCatholics at least in name, TheUnited States of America alone contains fourteen archbishoprics, eighty-ninebishoprics, and two vicariates-Apostolic. The remainder of America divides into 159dioceses, 54 of which are seats ofmetropolitans. There are today [1907] two Americancardinals: John Gibbons,Archbishop ofBaltimore (created in 1886), and Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti,Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro,Brazil (created in 1905). (For the achievements of the famousCatholic missionaries and explorers of the New World, see articles under their respective names. The alleged pre-Columbian discovery is also treated in a separate article.
Only general works on American ethnography and linguistics can find place here. The literature on these subjects embodied in monographs finds place in the articles on Indian tribes, languages, and in the bibliographic articles. The great collection of special monographs initiated by the great Major Powell, under the title Reports of the Bureau of Ethnography (Washington) now embraces some twenty-five volumes, and their contents are not restricted to North American topics, This collection should be carefully consulted. The Dominican Fray Gregorio Garcia presented more fully than any of his predecessors, and in the form of an inquiry into the origin of the Indians, a general "apercu" of American ethnography, with references to linguistics. The first edition of the Origen de los Indios appeared at Madrid in 1607, and a second edition was published by Barcia in 1729, much enlarged. In the sixteenth century, a number of works on cosmography contains notices of the customs of the American aborigines, but the information is scanty and mostly and mostly procured at second-hand (except on Spanish America). The compilation of Lopez de Velasco, from 1571-1574, Geografia y descripcion universal de las Indias (Madrid, 1894) was made without critical judgment and is superficial. In the seventeenth century, the great work of Cobo, Historia Del Nuevo Mundo (1653, but printed only at the end of the past century) is highly important for the ethnology of Spanish America; the book was of de Horn De Originibus Americanis is mostly controversial. The rare work of the Rabbi Manasse ben Israel On the Aborigines of the New Continent, is devoted to establishing the descent of the Indians from the Hebrews, and James Adair's History of the American Indians (London 1775) even improves upon his Jewish predecessor, as does Boudinot, An Inquiry into the Language of the American Indians (Trenton, 1816). While such books are dedicated to the expounding of a favorite theory, they embrace a more extensive field of scattered data, and are not limited to specific tribes or regions. Systematic investigation of American ethnography and linguistics was begun in the past century (Paris, 1724). It was soon seen that real progress could only be made by special research and a division of the whole field. So linguistics were separated from ethnography as early as the close of the eighteenth century. In 1773-82 Court de Greblin published the Essai sur kes Rapports des Mots, in nine volumes. About the same time, Abbat Hervas wrote the Idea del Universo (21 volumes, cesena, 1778-81) the 22nd volume of which (Foligno, 1792) gave a catalog of the languages known at the time, philologic dissection, polyglot vocabulary, arithmetics (numerals), etc. Vater's Mithridates (1809-17) continued the work begun by Adelung in 1806 under the same title. In 1815 he published also Linguarium totius orbis Index Alphabeticus quarum Grammaticam Lexica etc. (Berlin, 1815) a German edition of which appeared in 1847, Literatur der Grammatiken Lexica und Wortersammlungen aller Sprachen der Erde (2d edition, Berlin, 1847). In 1826, Adrian Balbi published Atlas Ethnographique du Globe (Paris) in which the then known American languages are classified and tabulated. Not as complete as the preceding works but still of a general character are Worsley, A View of the American Indians (London, 1828); McCullah, Jr., Researches, etc.(1829); Pickering, Remarks on the Indian Languages of North America (Philadelphia, 1836). With the rapid increase in material in modern times, general works on American languages became more and more hazardous and monographic treatment of special subjects and groups are, very properly, taking their place. This is also true of American ethnography. Systematic study of this branch, including, of course, linguistics, was begun in the United states by limiting it to tribes or groups. By degrees is has been combined with practical observation. Albert Galatin, A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes in the United States East of the Rocky Mountains and in the British and Russian Possessions of North America (Cambridge, 1836) was the first to initiate this systematic study; the Archaeologia (Worcester, 1820, Cambridge, 1836) and the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society (new York, 1845 and 1848) contain the early results of the improved method of study. The works of Schoolcraft, especially The Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (Philadelphia 1851-55) extended the field. On Mexico, the work of Orozco y Berra, Geografia de la Lenguas y carta Etnografica de Mexico (Mexico, 1864) is the most comprehensive and general work extant, and Alcide de Orbigny, L'homme americain (Paris, 1839), has treated of the Indians of the vast South-American regions and of their idioms, as far as was possible in his time. American anthropology as a whole is treated in but few works. Waite, Anthropologie der Naturvolker; Pascal, Volkerkunde (Leipzig, 1877, 4th edition; English tr. London and New York, 1876); and Ratzel, history of Mankind (English translation, London, 1896 and 1898); Anthropogeographie (Stuttgart, 1889 and 1891) show a lack of practical acquaintance with the countries and the people they describe. The most important recent general works on the American aborigines are: Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in the Human Family (Washington, 1871); Ancient Society (New York, 1878); and especially Brinton, The American Race (New York, 1891). The student as well as the general reader will do well, however, to check these comprehensive works by a perusal of the constantly growing monographic literature on the various groups and tribes of American Indians.
APA citation.Bandelier, A.F.(1907).America. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01409c.htm
MLA citation.Bandelier, Adolph Francis."America."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 1.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1907.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01409c.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael Donahue.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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