First Contacts, 1492-1609

Documents Exercise

Read the documents linked below and answer the following questions:

1. How would you describe the lives of Indians at the time of their first contacts with Europeans?
2. How did Spanish Conquistadors and French traders view the Indians they encountered?
3. What role did religion play in the encounters of Indians and Europeans?
4. Based on these documents, how do you explain the differences in Spanish and French first contacts with Indians?
5. Compare the accounts of Columbus and Cortés. What did their encounters have in common? How did they differ? What were their initial impressions of the Indians they met?
6. How do Spanish and Aztec accounts of the Conquest of Mexico differ? How did each group view their own religion, and the religion of the people they encountered?
7. What was the basis for Indian political organization in the Great Lakes region? What role did women play in the Iroquois confederacy? How do you imagine the introduction of firearms altered the balance of power?

• Columbus's Description of the Discovery of America
• Hernan Cortés Describes Tenochtitlán
• Flowers and Songs of Sorrow
• Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
• Constitution of the Iroquois Nations
• Samuel de Champlain Introduces Firearms to Native Warfare, 1609

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