This must be John Winthrop's plea to his fellow Englishman. The true covenant he's seeking.

What is a covenant? All social relationships were in an agreement based on mutual responsibilities to each other. It is a pursued ideal to establish peace and prosperity among God and people and people to people.

What agreement are the Puritans entering in and who are they entering it with? I believe that although John Winthrop was asking people to be in a covenant with God, he was really asking them to be in a covenant with each other. He’s pleading for the rich and the poor to get along with each other and treat one another with respect. Seeing the social destruction of English society, he’s seemingly asking the people to come together as a community.

How, generally, do the colonists view people of the Powhatan Confederacy? They believed the Powhatans owed them respect and should be thankful for “allowing” them to live among the English and for the opportunity to be converted to Christianity. The colonist felt betrayed by the Native Americans for fighting and waging war.

After the attack, what does Waterhouse feel the colonists are free to do? Waterhouse feels that the colonist have a right to essentially destroy the Powhatans and take everything they have.

How did these people wait 10 years to start discovering that outside where they lived was good for something? Did they just wait around then finally decide to explore?

I wonder if the Powhatan would have conquered the English too if they had stayed this weak.

Why on earth would you build a settlement in a known areas like this?

The thought of high class Englishmen waiting around for food because they felt entitled is amazingly unbelievable.

The irony of this is amazing. While Powatan kept them alive, they still felt superior.

The driving force for Dutch controlled slavery.

Trading partners rather than conquerers.

I wonder how they tried to enforce this "law". I'm sure the Portuguese greatly outnumbered and out powered them.

This is an act of desperation. At this point I can see even the King knows it's a lost cause. What will a law do without consequence.

This King was trying to make the poor and prisoners someone else's problem.

Why do you think that King Affonso let the Portuguese enslave his subjects at first? It's quite obvious that King Affonso was trying to get rid of who he thought were low class citizens and not important in his eyes. There were probably a great number of poor people and prisoners that he did not know what to do with and therefore believed someone else could solve his problem.

In the letter below, why does the king now request regulations? The King requested regulations because the Portuguese were not caring who they were taking for slavery. Over time, Portugal probably just thought of King Affonso's territory as a breeding ground for laborers. Seeing his kingdom being ravaged by foreigners, enslaving everyone without prejudice, the King was acting out of fear and desperation.

I wonder if the Spanish supported interracial marriage as another way of expanding their empire. Possibly encouraging a form of Eugenics? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

One of the main diseases that devastated Native American Society.

This is first I've heard of this. I'm surprised that some of the Native Americans would have believed this, especially with the amount of abuse and destruction his people brought.

600 men just doesn't seem like a lot in comparison to the Native American numbers. I wonder how history would have changed if the Native Americans were immune to the diseases that struck them.

How does internal tension in the Native American empires of the Americas aid Spanish attempts to create their empire? Native American empires such as the Aztecs consisted of fragile alliances of city states that wanted to break from their rule. This aided the Spanish by allowing them to enlist these native allies to fight and overthrow the empires.

What racial system is established by the Spanish in the New World? The Spanish established a racial system called the Sistema de Castas. Rooted in medieval practices, this classified people into various racial groups based upon their supposed “purity of blood.”

Why is it established and how does it operate? It was established to rank people social and political advancement in Spanish colonial society. It provided an excuse to empower Spaniards by their definition of superiority. The blood line ranking was dominated first by the Iberian-born Spaniards known as the Peninulares or Espanoles. These individuals held the highest administration positions and estates. The descendants, called Criollos, were next in line for opportunities. Then the mixed Spanish and Indians were considered the lowest on the scale.

I would like to learn more about the importance of facing West. This narrative does not explain it too thoroughly and makes the story seem odd. How does one become pregnant digging potatoes while facing East?

I found it interesting that this sentence shows how nature does not question whether a life should be saved or not. It is just saved with no questions asked.

The respect for nature is first seen here.

1. According to this story, humans arrived in the world by the fall of the daughter of the Chief of heaven. It does not explain pregnancies, but she gave birth to a girl who in turn gave birth to 2 sons because she had faced the east while digging for potatoes.

2. The animals saved the chief’s daughter as she fell to earth, cared for her, and created land from the soil of the bottom of the oceans. In essence, they had sacrificed themselves for her life.

3. The island was getting too small so the twins separated and decided to create lands of their own with different resources and their custom animals/insects. When they rejoined both were displeased with each other’s creations and altered what each other had made. In the end, one killed the other over the dispute.

This story differs from the Christian origin story in that animals have a more respectful place among humans. The animals of this narrative sacrificed themselves on their own free will rather than by God dictating their purpose. I can see why the Native Americans honor and respect animals even when hunting for food.

Does this passage give the Yoruba tribe an explanation for deformities and suggest those people are descendants of this creation mistake by the God Obatala?

It's interesting how the Bible and this story contain a Flood theory. It makes me wonder if this provides some eye witness evidence and reasoning for a flood that occurred.

How does this creation story differ from the others you have read this week?<br> This story contains multiple Gods where creation was due to the contribution of several deities. Man nor nature were the focus of creation where as the other readings placed one above the other.

Might the presence of multiple Gods change the structure of a society which flows from this story? The presence of multiple Gods in this story takes away any importance of man or nature. It seems as though the existence of humanity and nature were an after thought or a hobby to please the Gods.

How does the behavior of the Gods in this story differ from other creation stories? What might this mean? Creation is solely concentrated on the desires and relationships between Gods. It differs from the Book of Genesis in that God created man in his own image and provided the earth to him so man may live and thrive. The relationship between mankind and God is explicitly described whereas this story details humans and animals as pets.

This explicitly explains the hierarchy of nature to man.

How would hand tools yield more efficient farming?

I'd like to know how the title "three sisters" was first coined. Also, was wheat harvested as well.

Since they had established such complex relationships and trading, I've wondered why their technology didn't advance as much as fast as the Europeans. Could it have been influenced by cultural values or environmental conditions?

It seems to me that global warming has existed and progressed in some fashion for a very long time. With all this historical evidence, it's beyond me why people still attempt to refute this climate change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megafauna