The Black Legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards: Crash Course US History #1

In which John Green kicks off Crash Course US History! Why, you may ask, are we covering US History, and not more World History, or the history of some other country, or the very specific history of your home region? Well, the reasons are many. But, like it or not, the United States has probably meddled in your country to some degree in the last 236 years or so, and that means US History is relevant all over the world. In episode 1, John talks about the Native Americans who lived in what is now the US prior to European contact. This is a history class, not archaeology, so we're mainly going to cover written history. That means we start with the first sustained European settlement in North America, and that means the Spanish. The Spanish have a long history with the natives of the Americas, and not all of it was positive. The Spanish were definitely not peaceful colonizers, but what colonizers are peaceful? Colonization pretty much always results in an antagonistic relationship with the locals. John teaches you about early Spanish explorers, settlements, and what happened when they didn't get along with the indigenous people. The story of their rocky relations has been called the Black Legend. Which is not a positive legend.

Turn on the captions. You'll like it!

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  Education

[ShowMeHowToSizzle]

anyone else just finding and watching this, when the ap test is tomorrow?

[Lalalalavender]

ITS OVER GUYS! CONGRATULATIONS!!! APUSH TEST DONE! :D

[HappyForBreakfast]

did anyone notice the baby about to be smashed into the tree at 9:34??? europeans.

[leyah rigues]

Me! I'm not even in U.S History yet, I'm still a sophomore. ^_^ I just love U.S History!

[DOCTORKHANblog]

Who watching this because they just like watching it or just learning and NOT AP tests?

[glamedrehl]

that is interesting. I did not know this thank you for sharing (I have more problems with the things he said about africa in world history bevause I study african history in university)

[glamedrehl]

but why the word tribe? isn't nation a better word to use? tribe sounds primitive or at least it has this connotation.

[Luis López]

Mesoamerica starts at the tropic of cancer and finishes roughly in Panama, so part of Mesoamerica is in North America and part of it is in Central America.

[collegekid805]

he could have at least said could of least said some do, without explaining it. It doesnt really take long to say "some natives knew of metal working," instead of flat out lying. I Just dont like when people (mostly people of european decent) try to portray my brothers and sisters as being a bunch of dumb, simple-minded hippies. There is also many videos made by native americans that show ancient native american metal artifacts, there really is no need for me to make a video.

[collegekid805]

/watch?v=kGCglUBHhW0

[collegekid805]

there has been tribes in the US that had knowledge of metal working before europeans like the indigenous poeple near the Mississippian river, some tribes in washington state, pueblo natives and so on .

[collegekid805]

mesoamerica starts in mexico and mexico is located in north america.