What was the public issue?
Europeans arrived and claimed land where millions of Indigenous people already lived.
Who has the right to claim and rule land already occupied by Indigenous peoples?
He sailed for Spain in 1492.
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Individual
This document demanded Indigenous peoples obey the Spanish Crown
Requerimiento
Before Europeans arrived, they already lived throughout the Americas
Indigenous peoples (Native Americans)
The Spanish forced Indigenous people to work and treated them as property.
The forced labor and enslavement of Indigenous peoples
This friar publicly condemned the treatment of Indigenous peoples in 1511
Antonio de Montesinos
Dominican Friars
Group
This agreement created a self-governing community aboard a ship.
Mayflower Compact
This happened in 1492?
Columbus arrived in the Americas
The Spanish government said Native people had to obey the Church and Crown or face war.
Whether Indigenous peoples had the right to govern themselves and keep their own land.
This leader asked, "Why should you take by force what you can have by love?
Powhatan
The Spanish Crown
Government
This document banned Indigenous slavery in 1542
New Laws of the Indies
They paid for Columbus's voyage
Spanish Crown
English colonies began creating their own governments.
Who should govern the colonies—the king or the people who lived there?
This English colonist wrote about the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia
John Rolfe
Mayflower Pilgrims
Group
This document gave permission to settle Virginia
Virginia Charter
This colony created the House of Burgesses
Virginia
Colonists, Native nations, and later enslaved Africans all responded to broken promises, unfair treatment, and violence.
How people should respond to injustice and abuse of power.
This king granted the Virginia Charter and gave colonists permission to settle Virginia.
King James I
House of Burgesses
Government
This document announced Columbus's first voyage to Spain.
Columbus Letter (1493)
This happened in Virginia in the same year the House of Burgesses first met
First enslaved Africans arrived