US History Lecture 09 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hello and welcome to today's lecture.
2. 0:02Last time we were talking about slavery.
3. 0:05Today we are going to be jumping into
4. 0:06something else.
5. 0:09Switching from slavery to a different
6. 0:11story. Uh, one thing I should mention in
7. 0:14regard to European presence in the
8. 0:16Americas.
9. 0:17In the 1700s, the Spaniards began to
10. 0:21make their presence felt in what's today
11. 0:24California.
12. 0:26uh they had visited California some 200
13. 0:28years earlier but they decided there was
14. 0:31nothing in it for them. You know most of
15. 0:33the natives in California they were all
16. 0:35hunters and gatherers so there was not
17. 0:37much wealth to be gained. So the
18. 0:40Spaniards didn't really care for
19. 0:41California much initially. They decided
20. 0:44that California was interesting in the
21. 0:471700s and they started planting a whole
22. 0:51system of missions from San Diego to San
23. 0:54Francisco. a total of 21 missions.
24. 0:58Why so suddenly, you know, why after 200
25. 1:01years of having zero interest in
26. 1:03California, suddenly being into it and
27. 1:06deciding that you had to save the souls
28. 1:09of the natives? Well, you know, the
29. 1:11missions are very little to do with
30. 1:13religion. The main goal of the mission
31. 1:15was about planting the Spanish flag in
32. 1:19order to claim the land before the
33. 1:22Russians could. Now what do the Russians
34. 1:24have to do with these stories? Well,
35. 1:26Russians having heard of the profits
36. 1:28that could be made with the for trade
37. 1:31decided to travel across the bearing
38. 1:33straight into Alaska into what's today
39. 1:36the coast of Canada and places like
40. 1:38Washington State or Oregon set up
41. 1:41trading posts along the coast and
42. 1:44claimed the land for Russia. Now,
43. 1:47European powers did not recognize native
44. 1:50title to the land, but they did
45. 1:51recognize the title of other Christian
46. 1:53powers. So, by planting a flag, you
47. 1:57could make a claim to a piece of land
48. 1:59before any other European could. And as
49. 2:02the Russians were moving further and
50. 2:04further south, the Spaniards decided,
51. 2:06let's put up some missions so that we
52. 2:09can claim the land and create a buffer
53. 2:11zone between the area of Russian
54. 2:13influence and our own possessions in
55. 2:15Mexico.
56. 2:16So the missions were created for this
57. 2:18purpose and in fact the one most
58. 2:21northern mission is within just a few
59. 2:24miles of the one most southern Russian
60. 2:27trading post. They basically met each
61. 2:29other and that was the spot where each
62. 2:32one had to stop.
63. 2:34The missions were you know today they
64. 2:37they are kind of glamorized. They in
65. 2:40fourth grade kids in California they do
66. 2:43a mission project where they build the
67. 2:45mission and explore the history of the
68. 2:47missions. If you go to the missions they
69. 2:50are presented as these quaint cute uh
70. 2:54ancient uh historical remains.
71. 2:59So much so that and by the way the
72. 3:01architecture of the mission is usually
73. 3:02very beautiful. So some people
74. 3:05considering these romantic ancient
75. 3:07places, they even have their wedding as
76. 3:09admissions.
77. 3:12But if you know the history of what was
78. 3:13going on inside,
79. 3:15it's kind of like having your wedding at
80. 3:19Hwitz
81. 3:21except that the Nazis had ugly
82. 3:23architecture whereas the missions are
83. 3:25pretty. Because let's look at the very
84. 3:28unpleasant side of mission life. start
85. 3:31out with the whole mission system was
86. 3:32built on slavery. You know, Spaniards
87. 3:35would invite natives to trade. When they
88. 3:37would show up, they would take them in.
89. 3:39They would become slaves. Whether they
90. 3:40felt like it or not, well, clearly
91. 3:42nobody feels like becoming a slaves.
92. 3:45They had to participate in building the
93. 3:47mission, their work, build the mission
94. 3:49and run the mission. The mission
95. 3:50survived thanks to Indian slave labor.
96. 3:53Of course, slavery means violence and
97. 3:56violence came in two forms. from Spanish
98. 3:59soldiers who inflicted violence just
99. 4:01because they could. So lots of rape of
100. 4:03native women and things like that and
101. 4:06also at the ends of the priests who you
102. 4:09know the priest was different whereas
103. 4:10this the soldiers violence was straight
104. 4:13up abuse. The priest in many cases did
105. 4:16it as I'm doing it because I love you.
106. 4:18I'm trying to correct your sinful
107. 4:20behavior and I'm helping you and
108. 4:22physical punishment is a tool to help
109. 4:24you. So, you know, from a native
110. 4:26standpoint, the span the Spanish
111. 4:29soldiers were violent toward you because
112. 4:31they are mean. The priests are violent
113. 4:35toward you because they love you. Kind
114. 4:38of hard to appreciate the difference
115. 4:39when you are on the receiving end of
116. 4:41beating all the time.
117. 4:43So in any case, slavery, violence and
118. 4:46the other fact of course was diseases
119. 4:48that as people are being worked heavily
120. 4:50to run the missions usually on little
121. 4:53food in close quarters with Europeans
122. 4:56then European diseases just mow down the
123. 4:59native population killing lots and lots
124. 5:02of people. And so to sustain themselves
125. 5:05the mission the soldier would have to go
126. 5:07out enslave new natives bring them in
127. 5:10and the same cycle will repeat itself
128. 5:12over and over. So the general pattern of
129. 5:16life in the mission was it's a really
130. 5:19ugly one you know no one that's very
131. 5:22common when you know commonly if you go
132. 5:25to the missions today there's hardly any
133. 5:27mention of the ugliness of what was
134. 5:29going on inside
135. 5:31but that's the reality of it you know
136. 5:34that is what was going on in these
137. 5:36places so uh you know they have done a
138. 5:38good PR work of making it sound a lot
139. 5:41more pleasant than it really was
140. 5:45now in addition to the missions other
141. 5:48things that I should mention to you
142. 5:52the in terms of religion one thing that
143. 5:55began happening starting in the 1600s
144. 5:58and much more so in the 1700s
145. 6:01was a phenomenon that became known as
146. 6:03the enlightenment. This started out in
147. 6:06Europe but will have an effect on the
148. 6:07Americas.
149. 6:09A series of scientific discoveries by
150. 6:12people like Galileo and Copernicus
151. 6:14started creating a crisis for the church
152. 6:17since they always said that they had all
153. 6:19the truth
154. 6:21and yet science was beginning to reveal
155. 6:23some of the errors of what the church
156. 6:27had been passing off as knowledge.
157. 6:30Add to this the fact that the religious
158. 6:32wars of the 16 and 1700s were making
159. 6:35people a little more cynical
160. 6:38about the impact their religion was
161. 6:40having.
162. 6:41So more and more you start seeing a
163. 6:44growth of a philosophy that begin to
164. 6:46preach that people
165. 6:50people maybe should be free to hold
166. 6:53whatever religious belief they want to.
167. 6:56I know radical concept right? But in the
168. 6:5816 and 1700s, this was a very radical
169. 7:01concept. And yet it's one that as many
170. 7:05different version of Christianity are
171. 7:07all claiming to be the true one. And
172. 7:09people are killing each other over this
173. 7:10for hundreds of years. A few people
174. 7:13figure maybe we should just let people
175. 7:15be and you can have whatever religion
176. 7:18you want and we should learn how to
177. 7:20coexist with one another.
178. 7:23This was um you know clearly not
179. 7:26everybody was on board with it. But the
180. 7:29more the negative consequences of the
181. 7:31religious wars, the more you saw
182. 7:33evidence that scientific knowledge was
183. 7:35delivering
184. 7:38was revealing that the church hadn't
185. 7:40always been right in its conclusions.
186. 7:43the more there was this emphasis that
187. 7:45the enlightenment favor all individual
188. 7:47rights of things like freedom of
189. 7:50religion, freedom of speech, all those
190. 7:53basic freedoms that were not usually
191. 7:55endorsed by the church.
192. 7:59They made this phenomenon much more
193. 8:01popular and this phenomenon was
194. 8:03characterized by increased separation of
195. 8:05church and state, emphasis on individual
196. 8:08rights,
197. 8:10emphasis on the relying on reason more
198. 8:13than faith.
199. 8:15All of those things in some way they are
200. 8:17what will give birth to American
201. 8:19democracy and democracy in Europe. And
202. 8:22they really begin to revolutionarize
203. 8:25radically life in Europe. And this in
204. 8:28turn will have an impact in the Americas
205. 8:32in terms of something happening in
206. 8:35United States. Well, it's not United
207. 8:37States yet. It's still the British
208. 8:38colony, but what will become United
209. 8:40States in North America.
210. 8:43Something known as the Great Awakening
211. 8:47began taking place in the 1700s in um
212. 8:52starting out in places like
213. 8:53Massachusetts.
214. 8:55This was a reaction to to the
215. 9:00enlightenment. You know, many of
216. 9:04many early American leaders, some of the
217. 9:07people who become the founding fathers
218. 9:09and some of the generation before them,
219. 9:11they were very much influenced by the
220. 9:12idea of the enlightenment.
221. 9:15and they were kind of Christian but
222. 9:18Christian in their own way often
223. 9:19referred to as dism
224. 9:22which was not the traditional kind of
225. 9:26Christianity embraced by Puritans and
226. 9:29people like that.
227. 9:31So what you see happening in the 1700s,
228. 9:34starting in the 1730s in Massachusetts,
229. 9:37is
230. 9:39charismatic preachers beginning to go
231. 9:42around and preach the notion that
232. 9:47the oldtime values still held true. Uh
233. 9:50threatening people with the fires of
234. 9:53hell if they sinned. you know, this was
235. 9:56a style that relied on a much more
236. 9:58emotional appeal rather than a rational
237. 10:01one. So, it was the technique was kind
238. 10:04of to chastise people as horrible
239. 10:06sinners, but that God could forgive them
240. 10:09if only they repented.
241. 10:12And in many ways the appeal was to to
242. 10:14people who are stressed out by the
243. 10:16uncertainty of the times you know the
244. 10:18poor economy not sure if they would be
245. 10:20able to find land and marry and so on to
246. 10:24give them some kind of relief first by
247. 10:26scaring them and by then by giving them
248. 10:28a way out. And the great awakening was
249. 10:31seen kind of as a counter to the
250. 10:33enlightenment was for whereas the
251. 10:35enlightenment was becoming popular among
252. 10:38more literate upper classes, the great
253. 10:41awakening appealed to lower classes uh
254. 10:44and to
255. 10:46you know that emotional style scored
256. 10:49points with them more so than
257. 10:50sophisticated theological arguments. So
258. 10:53that was one division that was taking
259. 10:55place in terms of popularity of religion
260. 10:58in uh in the 1700s in the colonies.
261. 11:02With that we are going to wrap this
262. 11:05lecture up and in the meantime I wish
263. 11:08you a good day and we'll continue on
264. 11:11with the next one.