COLONIZATION OF THE AMERICAS
Theodoor Galle after Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, Allegory of America, from New Inventions of Modern Times (Nova Reperta), plate 1 of 19, ca. 1600
After Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, Allegory of America, from "The Four Continents", ca. 1590-1600
NATURE AND HISTORY
During the Renaissance, European artists and thinkers became increasingly interested in speculating about the early history of civilization. How had forms of life and social customs developed following the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden? Given the ambivalent role nature plays in the Christian Renaissance imagination as both paradisiacal garden and hostile place of exile, the earliest history of humankind was seen as corresponding to an idealized and innocent state of being in proximity to nature and thereby God, but also as a lawless state of chaos, sin, and violence. This ambivalence towards nature and history also informed ways Europeans tended to think about and represent Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Piero di Cosimo, An Allegory of Civilization, ca. 1490
Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Close of the Silver Age, ca. 1530
THE COLONIAL GAZE
In the summer of 1585, the mathematician and scientist Thomas Harriot docked with a few dozen men in an area they called Virginia (today known as North Carolina’s Roanoke Island and Outer Banks). These reconnaissance missions to Virginia were financed by Walter Raleigh, who now employed Harriot and the artist John White to map this area and its inhabitants in preparation for establishing one of the earliest English colonies in America. Subsequently, watercolor sketches made by White, who was also the governor of the colony, served to illustrate Harriot's Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia published in 1590.
From Benjamin Breen, Painting the New World (https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/painting-the-new-world/)
John White, Cheife Herowan's wyie of Pomeoc and her daughter of the age of 8 or 10 years, 1585
John White, "The flyer" (A Secotan man), 1585
Theodore de Bry (after John White), A Weroan or great lord of Virginia, from Thomas Harriot's Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, 1590
CODEX MENDOZA
Around 1541, the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, commissioned a codex to record information about the Aztec empire. The codex, now known as the Codex Mendoza, contained information about the lords of Tenochtitlan, the tribute paid to the Aztecs, and an account of life “from year to year.” The artist or artists were indigenous, and the images were often annotated in Spanish by a priest that spoke Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Nahuas (the ethnic group to whom the Aztecs belonged).
From Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank, "Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza" (www.khanacademy.org)
The Founding of Tenochtitlan, frontispiece for the Codex Mondoza, Aztec, ca. 1541-42
CODEX TEPETLAOZTOC
The Codex Tepetlaoztoc, also known as the Codex Kingsborough, is named after the town (whose name means 'stone mat cave') to the east of Lake Tetzcoco where it was produced. This stunning pictorial document was painted in the Tetzcocan style, with some European innovations, by an indigenous tlacuilo (painter-scribe) whose original tracings are still visible beneath the rich pigments. The Spanish alphabetic glosses and commentary are probably by more than one native hand and the information is organised horizontally across the breadth of two facing pages, instead of vertically down their length.
The codex was commissioned by the inhabitants of Tepetlaoztoc and its indigenous governor, Luis de Tepada, probably for the Council of the Indies in Spain, which dealt with the affairs of New Spain. It undoubtedly formed part of a lawsuit brought by Tepetlaoztoc against the town's Spanish encomenderors, overlords entrusted with converting the native inhabitants to Christianity in return for tribute in the form of services and goods. The Spanish abuse of this system led to many complaints by native communities from the mid-sixteenth century.
From Joanne Harwood (www.britishmuseum.org)
From Codex Tepetlaoztoc, Aztec, 16th century
Unknown Nahua artist, Manuscrito del appereamiento (Munuscript of the Dogging), 1560
VISUAL DOCUMENTATION AND PROPAGANDA
Among the earliest representations of colonial encounters between Europeans and Idigenous peoples of the Americas are Theodore de Bry’s engravings produced for the late 16th century publication, Collected Travels in the East Indies and West Indies (1594). Although de Bry’s engravings are highly detailed and naturalistic, we must be careful, as the art historian Craig Harbison warns, not to conflate naturalism with reportage. Just because an image appears lifelike doesn’t guarantee it is also a faithful representation of the way things are or were. While de Bry’s engravings were informed by eyewitness accounts of events in the Americas (like the Spanish clergyman, Bartholomé de las Casas’ description of atrocities committed by Spanish conquistadores against Indigenous peoples), he himself never traveled to the Americas, and his work helped promote what came to be known as the Black Legend -- a smear campaign designed to undermine the Spanish and to bolster the colonial ambitions of Protestant nations like the Dutch and English instead.
Theodore de Bry, Christopher Columbus arrives in America, from Collected Travels in the East Indies and West Indies, 1594
Theodore de Bry, Indians pour liquid gold into the mouth of a Spaniard, from Collected Travels in the East Indies and West Indies, 1594
Theodore de Bry, Balboa casts the Indians brought together for the unspeakable sin of sodomy to be torn to pieces by dogs, 1594
DEATH, DESTRUCTION, AND SOCIETAL COLLAPSE
Around the time of contact with Europeans in 1492, the city of Tenochtitlan (the capital of the Aztec Empire) was probably the largest city in the entire world, and the city of Aspero in Peru may have been the oldest. The pyramids of the sun and moon in Teotihuacan (the empire preceding the Mexicas in central Mexico during the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE) are both bigger and taller than the great pyramids of Egypt. Aztec, Olmec, Mayan, Incan, and Native Americans had all developed extensive and sophisticated civilizations and cultural traditions prior to contact.
One enduring myth about the Americas is that prior to colonization the continents were relatively unpopulated and uncultivated, and that there were no enduring civilizations or complex cultures located there. In fact, agricultural production of corn, manioc, potatoes, squash, and beans was extensive throughout the Americas. Raised bed farming, irrigation, fish trapping, and clam gardening were widely practiced, as was silviculture and forest management. Prior to contact with Europeans, about one quarter of the entire Amazon forest (equivalent to all of France and Spain combined) was reconfigured through clearing, replanting, and intensive soil management.
Historians estimate that at the start of the 16th century there were around 500 million people living worldwide. Prior to contact, it’s estimated that as many as 110 million Indigenous people were living in the Americas – more than one fifth of the world’s population at that time (Charles C. Mann). Over the next hundred years, as many as 80 to 100 million Indigenous people died or were killed due to disease, war, violence, and general societal collapse. Some recent researchers have even proposed that the scale of death among Indigenous peoples was so great as to have had a direct impact on the global climate as previously cultivated agricultural land was reclaimed by natural vegetation, lowering CO₂ in the atmosphere, and thus contributing to what’s known as the “Little Ice Age” (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379118307261).
Seated hollow figure with helmet, Olmec, ca. 1200–800 BCE
Yoke in the form of a human head, Olmec, 10th–4th century BCE
Vessel with mythological scene, Mayan, ca. 600–800 CE
Pendant with Serpent Design, Mississipian, 13th-14th Century
Portrait of a queen regent trampling a captive (Stela 24). Unrecorded Maya artists, Sa’aal (Naranjo, Guatemala). January 22, A.D. 702, Maya date: 9.13.10.0.0 7 Ajaw 3 K’umk’u
Coatlicue Sculpture, Mexico-Tetlochtitlan, before 1519
TRANSATLANTIC SLAVERY
For European colonizers fixated on “God, glory, and gold,” the rapid and mass dying of Indigenous peoples was experienced as an “economic crisis” (Woodrow Borah), a sudden shortage in labor power. The response of European colonizers and settlers was the transatlantic slave trade, which would bring 12 to 13 million African slaves to the Americas over the next 400 years.
Queen Mother Pendant Mask, Iyoba, 16th century
Head of an Oba (King), Benin (Nigeria), 16th century
Plaque: Equestrian Oba and Attendants, Benin (Nigeria), ca. 1550-1680
