Europe and the New Worlds of the Americas

Summary

The colonization of the Americas was a violent and exploitative affair. While the European colonial project turned out a success in certain areas, from the view of the conqueror, the colonial process in general was difficult. There was substantial resistance in different forms, and the results of the efforts at colonize turned out quite different from the colonizers scenario. With varied examples, but mainly from areas not fully under colonial control in two regions, i.e. today’s Northwestern Argentina and Caribean Mexico, such “unexpected” cases will be addressed. These developments have been seen as anomalies, but the argument put forward in this paper is that they actually form part of the historical process. They may be seen as the truly New Worlds of the 16th and the 17th centuries. Such experiments, made by the indigenous population, is a counterpart to other Utopian experiments in the Americas, initiated by Europeans.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Questions that Will Count in the Future: Global Perspectives on Historical Archaeology

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-7,19