Introduction to the Arctic

1
Introduction to the Arctic

• Brief History of the Circumpolar North

2
Expansion of Homo-Sapiens

• From origins in Africa, the new breed of Homo
  Sapien emerged predominantly in Europe where
  Cro-Magnon humans quickly usurped the previously
  dominant Neanderthals
• Human population expansion began rapidly around
  50,000-40,000 BCE ago
• Humans were already in Australia by 50,000 BCE,
  but did not begin full-scale migration into the
  Eurasian North until 30,000-BCE
• This expansion coincided with the decline of a
  major glaciation period 40,000-70,000 BCE
  (Wisconsin Glaciation 75,000-14,000 years ago)
• Population expansion followed the retreating ice,
  likely pursuing better hunting grounds in the
  North

3
Archaeological Evidence of First Siberians

• First Siberians can be traced archaeologically to
  populations around Lake Baikal, Altai and Sayan
  Mountains, and the Amur Region
• Most sites are found along major Siberian river
  systems, such as Ob' and the Yenisei and their
  tributaries, expanding from river systems that
  feed into Lake Baikal, suggesting migrations
  along major river systems, though there is no
  evidence of the use of water craft
• Oldest tools found are not similar to those found
  in Europe in the same period, suggesting a
  separate population/culture, but later sites do
  show connections with European material culture
• Finds show a hunting culture based on large
  megafauna such as the mammoth, wooly
  rhinoceros, reindeer, and antelope.
• Lived in semi-subterranean dwellings often ringed
  with mammoth bones and roofed with reindeer
  antlers that supported a hide covering
• No evidence of needles for sewing before 25,000
  BCE, but must have had some means for working
  with hides/furs for clothing
• Evidence of cultural artefacts such as carved
  figures, jewellery, and human burial sites
• Little evidence of population expansion in what
  is today northern European Russia in this period,
  though recent archaeological finds possibly
  indicate earlier settlement in this region than
  previously believed.
• By 25,000 BCE we see the first sites north of the
  Arctic Circle

4
Siberian Expansion from Central Asia
5
Siberian Ice Age Culture
6
Early Peopling of Northern Eurasia
7
Last Glacial Maximum
8
Circumpolarice cover
9
Possible Migration Routes to the Americas
10
Retreat of the Last Ice Age

• By 15,000 BCE, most of Siberia is populated even
  some evidence of temporary settlements along the
  Arctic coast, and deglaciation begins to
  accelerate across the globe
• It is also likely that by this time people had
  moved into North America
• Due to the amount of water trapped in glaciers,
  sea levels at that time were about 100m lower
  than today, creating a land bridge up to 2000km
  wide between the Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska
• Most archaeological and genetic/biological
  evidence points to Siberian origins of first
  North American peoples
• Common explanations that the migrations occurred
  in a series of three or four migration waves
• First wave expanded into Eastern Canada and down
  into South America, either by moving along the
  Pacific coast, or inland through a gap between
  the major ice sheets (Alberta corridor).
• According to theories, a second wave brought
  mammal hunting groups into northern Canada,
  perhaps the ancestors of the Athapaskan peoples,
  while a third or fourth wave brought coastal
  marine mammal hunting groups across the Arctic
  coastline as far as baffin and Greenland, known
  as Thule culture, the forbearers of Inuit
• Following the arrival of humans in the Americas,
  the continent experienced a massive depletion of
  its fauna, particularly major mammal species. The
  population explosion that occurred in the
  Americas supports theories that early peoples
  overhunted existing fauna to the point of
  extinction, before settling into more stable
  modes of settlement, and early agriculture.
  Climate changes in this period also likely played
  some role in these massive extinctions.

11
Beringia
12
Peopling of Americas and Megafauna Extinction

• Correlations of retreating glaciation, expansion
  of human settlement, and extinct fauna in North
  America

13
Competing Theories to Beringia

• Belief that first humans came to the Americas
  through a land bridge across the Bering Strait,
  25,000 to 40,000 years ago
• Beringia Theory is the most widely accepted
  explanation of how North America was populated
• Scientific explanations disagree with First
  Nations views that they had originated in the
  Americas and always lived there. No oral history
  of migrations.
• Difficult to explain the rapid expansion of human
  population from Alaska to South America,
  compounded by the fact that some South American
  sites seem to be contemporary or even older than
  sites further north
• Earliest reliably dated evidence of human
  settlement in the Americas is from Clovis, New
  Mexico, approx. 11,500 years ago, supporting an
  interior route or Clovis First theory
• Recent evidence from Chile shows human habitation
  1000 years before Clovis
• In 1995, Deloria disputed the fact that ocean
  levels could have dropped by such an amount, and
  that the resulting landscape would have been
  barren in any case. Demanded an alternative
  explanation.
• While prehistoric oversea voyages are hotly
  disputed, there is some room for a compromise
  explanation that early migrations used both land
  and sea, as evidenced by the mix of land and sea
  animals that formed their diet. New evidence
  suggests that instead of a straight-line coast,
  the southern coastline of Beringia was comprised
  of hundreds of islands, shallow bays, and inlets.
  Such coastal topography would have facilitated
  coastal living and migration.
• Sea-based voyages could have continued after
  Beringia was submerged, and the currents in the
  North Pacific are favourable for West-East
  crossings
• The first settlers to Australia must have arrived
  by boat, and did so as long ago as 50,000 years
  ago, which would support views that maritime
  travel was more possible than we may imagine
• Lack of archaeological evidence of first arrivals
  by sea may be because those sites are all
  underwater thanks to rising sea levels.
• Most likely that there were many different waves
  of migration over both land and sea.

14
Expansion of Settlement and Culture

• 11,000-8500 BCE
• Gradual warming of the climate, seeing the return
  of forests in the Russian/Siberian plains. Growth
  of forests saw decline in the hunting of large
  plain/steppes-dwelling mammals. Moose/elk hunting
  became dominant until about 5000 BCE
• Real northern habitation and settlement begins to
  emerge all across the circumpolar world
• Early agriculture and fishing communities in the
  south coast of Sweden, and around Gulf of Finland
• Expansion of American Plains Indians into
  Alberta, and further north and east
• Settlements across Siberia, Kamchatka, and inland
  and coastal Alaska
• Beginnings of cultural differentiation among
  Siberian and coastal peoples Chukchi, Eskimo,
  Koryak and Yukagir, etc
• 8000-5000 BCE
• Early settlements around great northern lakes
  Slave, Bear, likely from Alaska
• Gradual retreat of glaciers from NE Canada and
  Fennoscandia sees settlement of Torne Valley,
  Barren Grounds of northern Canada, and further
  expansion into Siberia, Small-tool culture
  present in Kluane region
• Sea levels are nearing modern levels, settled
  marine cultures have become established in
  Aleutian Is, and coastal Alaska, and increasingly
  in NW Pacific Coast
• Glacial Lake Agaziz, west of the Great Lakes
  retreats and settlement moves into northern
  regions west of Hudsons Bay
• 5000-2000 BCE
• Finno-Ugric peoples in the Kola region and
  Karelia, coming into contact with expanding
  Germanic and Baltic peoples
• People have reached Greenland, suggesting
  migration from Baffin region and northern Canada

15
Expansion of Settlement and Culture
16
Other Major Milestones in Arctic Settlement

• Dorset peoples move from northern Canada into
  Greenland and Labrador, perhaps overtaking
  earlier Independence culture, by about 500 BCE
• Finnish ancestors are pushing Sami further
  north into present home area
• Around 500-300 BCE major Yakut migration from
  area around Lake Baikal towards the Lena river
• Athabaskan peoples are consolidating in the taiga
  region from Yukon basin to Hudson Bay,
  reoccupying territories abandoned by Dorset
  paleo-Eskimo
• By 100 BCE, Germanic peoples predominate in
  northern Europe, including Scandinavia

17
Early Modern Age

• 0-500 AD although the known world in Western
  imagination consisted only of the Roman Empire,
  although there was considerable trade in
  minerals, furs, timber, and other goods between
  the North and the civilized world through
  mostly Germanic tribes between them
• By 500 AD, cultural landscape of modern began to
  emerge, with early central European kingdoms

18
Viking Age 800-1000 AD

• Despite being a relatively short historic period,
  and occurred only on the periphery of Europe the
  Viking Age occupies a considerable place in the
  popular imagination of the history of the North
• It is important to see the Vikings as not a new
  vicious race of marauders, but a continuation of
  this earlier trade culture
• The Vikings were not a united culture, but
  included predecessors of what are now Danish and
  Norwegian cultures, as well as an eastern group
  known as Svear (Swedish) that had extensive trade
  routes as far as the Black and Caspian seas
• Viking exploration brought the first settlement
  to Iceland, the first European settlement to
  Greenland, and were the first Europeans to visit
  North America (vinland, Lanse-aux-Meadows)
• Vikings also established permanent settlements in
  Novgorod, Britain, and northern France (Normandy)
  that laid the basis for the modern Russian,
  British, and French empires and states
• Viking Age declines around 1066 with the
  expansion of Christianity and the Norman invasion
  of Britain. Norse kingdom emerges and
  incorporates Finland.
• Major power rivalries between Sweden (Uppsala),
  Denmark (Jutland) and Russia (Novgorod) in the
  following centuries for control of the region

19
Iron and Viking Ages
20
Russian Settlement of Siberia

• By the 14th C, the power of Novgorod in this
  period was soon eclipsed by Moscow, which began
  to consolidate Russian control in region from the
  Kola peninsula to the Caucuses
• By the 15th C, Russia and indeed much of Europe
  was threatened by continued Mongol expansion,
  which peaked in the 13th C, under Ghengis Khan
  and Kublai Khan
• The siege mentality of Russia and Europe in this
  time dominated political thought, and by the 16th
  C, Russia under Czar Ivan IV (the Terrible) was
  ready to mount an offensive to crush the remnants
  of the Mongol empire
• Indeed, the political, social, and military
  modernization and organization undertaken by
  Muscovy in order to repel Mongol invasion has
  been linked to its ability to consolidate power
  over Novgorod and Kiev

21
Mongol Dominions
22
Russian Settlement of Siberia

• The defeat of the last Mongol khanate left Moscow
  in control of rich trade routes to the east and
  south
• Much of this trade was in private hands, under
  the blessing of the Tsar, and defence and
  expansion of those trade routes, and primarily
  the fur trade, was conducted by private armies of
  Cossacks, and later imperial troops
• In 1585 a Cossack army defeated the Khanate of
  Sibir, and established its first outpost across
  the Urals. From this point on the Russian
  conquest of Siberia took place with astonishing
  speed.
• 1595 Obdorsk (now Salekhard)
• 1602 Yenisey River
• 1607 Turukhansk
• 1628 Lena River Annexation of Yakutia (1632)
• 1639 Podshiversk, on Indirgirka R., north of
  Arctic Circle
• 1648 Okhotsk and Chukchi Peninsula
• 1697 Kamchatka Peninsula
• 1741/1766 Alaska
• In this sense, the Russian expansion into Alaska
  should be seen as a natural extension of its
  eastward conquest of Siberia, rather than any
  separate policy to forestall British/American
  expansion into the region, which was not evident
  at the time

23
Russian Conquest and Expansion
24
European Exploration of America and the North Seas

• While the Spanish and Portuguese began the
  European discovery of the Americas, British,
  French as well as Dutch, Danish/Norwegian
  explorers began the exploration of the north seas
  seeking other routes to Asia fabled northwest
  and northeast passages
• In 1497, John Cabot claims Newfoundland for
  England
• 1530, Jacques Cartier explores the Gulf of St.
  Lawrence while looking for the NW Passage
• A private British company called the Muscovy
  Company, seek the NE Passage, and begin sea trade
  routes in northern Russia (Arkhangelsk) and
  whaling around Spitzbergen
• 1576-1587, English expeditions under Martin
  Frobisher and John Davis seek the NW passage and
  encounter Inuit in Baffin and Hudsons Bay region
• 1594-96, Willem Barents (Dutch) seeking NE
  Passage sights Novaya Zemlya, Jan Mayen, Bear
  Island, and Spitzbergen

25
European Exploration of America and the North Seas
26
Exploration Timetable

• 330 B.C. Greek navigator Pytheas sails near
  vicinity of Iceland.
• 850 A.D. Norse people settle in Iceland
• 981 A.D. Eric the Red visits Northwest coast of
  Greenland
• 1490 John Cabot first proposes existence of a
  Northwest Passage
• 1500's Whalers explore from Baffin Island to
  Novaya Zemlya
• 1534 Jacques Courtier explores St. Lawrence for
  NW Passage
• 1576 Martin Frobisher discovers Frobisher Bay
• 1586 John Davis explores western shores of
  Greenland
• 1596 William Barents discovers Spitsbergen and
  seeks NE Passage
• 1610-11 Henry Hudson expedition survives Arctic
  winter
• 1612 William Baffin explores Hudson Baffin Bays
• 1648 Semyon Dezhnev finds Northeast Passage
• 1728 Vitus Bering discovers Bering Strait while
  seeking NE Passage
• Semyon Chelyuskin reaches most northern point in
  Asia
• 1770 Ivan Lyakhov explores Novosibersky Ostrova
  in Siberia
• 1822 William Parry sails through Hudson Hecla
  Straits
• 1831 John Ross reaches magnetic North Pole
• 1845 John Franklin's lost expedition proves
  existence of NW Passage

• 1854 Robert McClure makes 1st successful transit
  of NW Passage
• 1878-79 Nils Nordenskjold completes NE Passage
  from west to east
• 1888 Fridtjof Nansen makes overland crossing of
  Greenland
• 1893 Nansen's ship 'The Fram' proves the
  existence of Arctic current
• 1903-06 Roald Amundsen successfully navigates NW
  Passage by ship
• 1909 Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach North
  Pole
• 1912 Knud Rasmussen completes NW Passage by
  dogsled
• 1913-18 Vilhjalmur Stefansson lives among Inuit
  of Northern Canada
• 1926 Richard Byrd Floyd Bennet fly 1st Airplane
  to North Pole
• 1968-69 Wally Herbert completes first surface
  crossing of Arctic Ocean
• 1958 U.S. Nuclear submarine Nautilus passes under
  Arctic Ice cap
• 1977 Icebreaker Arktika reaches North Pole
• 1978 Naomi Uemura completes 1st one man
  expedition to North Pole
• 1986 Will Steger completes 1st dogsled expedition
  to North Pole

27
The Fur Trade European Expansion in North America

• 1670 Hudsons Bay Co. est. in Canada, given
  royal charter to conduct trade and settlement (as
  well as seeking NW Passage)
• Charter gave HBC exclusive trading rights, as
  well as sovereignty over the territories that
  covered the region specified as that drained by
  rivers flowing into Hudson Bay
• By 1840, HBC traders had reached Yukon River in
  Alaska
• HBCs claim was disputed by French traders, which
  created not only rivalry, but open warfare
  between French and English. This warfare occurred
  both independently, and as a consequence of
  French-English imperial wars throughout the
  17th-19th centuries.
• Each side had Indian allies, through which both
  trade and warfare were conducted
• The Beaver was by far the most lucrative product,
  and in the 18th century had an economic status
  that could be compared to oil today
• HBC spent little time exploring NW passage, and
  little effort exploring inland beyond its posts
  in Hudson Bay
• 1763 peace between France and English gave
  sovereignty over Canada to England, but new
  rivalry created through the establishment of the
  Northwest Company, by Montreal traders and
  businessmen, many of Scottish origin.
• The trading posts established by both companies
  became centres of settlement for both natives and
  European settlers.
• The HBC declined, and the two companies
  eventually amalgamated in 1821, but retained the
  HBC name.
• At that time all of Canada, beyond the settled
  eastern provinces, were under the domain of the
  company
• After Canadian confederation (1867-1869), all
  company territory was annexed to the Dominion of
  Canada
• Coinciding with Canadian Confederation was the
  Alaska purchase in 1868, by which it was
  incorporated into the United States from Russia

28
Hudsons Bay Company
29
(No Transcript)
30
Colonization 1800-200

• By 1800s governments had established sovereignty
  over all of the territories of the circumpolar
  North, and began imposing administrative control,
  accelerating resource exploitation, and
  initiating settlement of European-based settlers
  from the South
• The discovery of large quantities of gold in the
  Yukon River basin in 1896, sparking the world
  famous Klondike Gold Rush, hastened the
  development of the Canadian North and
  neighbouring Alaska
• As 19th C whaling exhausted southern stocks,
  whalers continued to press north in the Arctic,
  Canadian Archipelago, and North Atlantic
• The new resource opportunities discovered in the
  North began to change southern perceptions of the
  region as an inhospitable, isolated, frozen
  wasteland, to a vast resource frontier of nearly
  unlimited potential
• The economic potential of the North, spurred
  governments to establish their administrative
  control over the regions, bringing the usual
  forms of state control such as surveyors, tax
  collectors, teachers, doctors, police and
  military, etc.
• The North continued to be treated as a resource
  frontier for southern industrial and population
  centres. Nearly all of the current eight Arctic
  states (with the possible exception of the US)
  established themselves as modern industrialized
  countries through the exploitation of northern
  resources

31
Indigenous Reactions to Colonization

• Unlike other colonial encounters, such as the
  warfare that marked Spanish, Portuguese, and
  later American contact in the Americas, the
  expansion of southern settlers and political
  control in the North was relatively peaceful
• Although the relationship between indigenous
  peoples and southern settlers had harmful, but
  perhaps unforseen consequences, on indigenous
  culture and livelihoods, the impacts were not
  entirely negative.
• Settlers and their new goods and technologies
  were often welcomed by indigenous peoples, who
  quickly adapted to their use. The adoption of the
  horse and rifle in North America by plains
  Indians is one such example, while the role of
  Canadian natives in the fur trade shows the
  degree of cooperation
• The Inuit, in particular were notably cooperative
  with European explorers, traders, and settlers,
  enthusiastically learning the new technologies
  introduced to them and helping the newcomers
  explore their lands, teaching them how to hunt
  local wildlife and survival skills.
• The assumption that indigenous peoples were
  outsmarted by cunning European traders does
  simply not stand up to examination. Indigenous
  peoples actively engaged in trade with the
  Europeans to gain access to new technologies, and
  goods that were simply not available in their
  home areas, and demanded fair value for in return
• Indigenous peoples also adapted creatively to the
  introduction of Christianity, mixing it with
  traditional beliefs and values, adopting portions
  that fit with their cultures, and adapting it to
  make it relevant to their societies
• European settlers, particularly in the Americas,
  however also brought endemic diseases, which
  killed up to 90 of the indigenous population of
  the Americas after European contact, and spread
  as settlement expanded northwards
• The introduction of alcohol as a trading good had
  a particularly destructive effect on indigenous
  populations who had no previous tolerance
• The economic changes that occurred with the
  commodification and accelerated harvest of
  natural resources as trading goods also had
  significant negative impacts through
  over-harvesting, and the transformation of
  traditional systems of resource management, and
  community economic practices of sharing and
  support

32
20th Century

• The 20th century accelerated the colonization of
  northern areas, whereby social, political, and
  military interests joined increasing economic
  interests to drive government and other southern
  activity
• The social mission, particularly in Scandinavia
  and North America brought schooling to indigenous
  peoples in order to civilize them and nationalize
  them
• Major infrastructure projects such as roads
  supported increased industrial activity, as well
  as bringing the north closer to southern
  administration, and facilitating military
  surveillance and control
• In nearly all of the Arctic countries, northern
  regions were directly administered by the
  capitals and had little or no regional
  decision-making Alaskan Statehood (1959)
  Greenland Home Rule (1979) Territorial
  Devolution and Nunavut (1999), continued
  autonomic status of certain subjects of Russian
  Federation

33
What drove southern exploration of the North?

• Resources Furs, fish, whales, forests, gold
• Myths, adventure, romance Images of the north is
  mythology and literature, rumours of exotic
  peoples, places (Ultima Thule), and wealth
• Navigation Routes NW and NE passages offered
  possibilities of reaching the Asia from Europe
• Civilizing Mission Colonial motivation to bring
  European civilization to the northern savages
  encountered
• Sovereignty National rivalries Increases in
  European naval power brought competition for new
  claims to land and demonstrations of naval
  supremacy