Transcript European Colonisations in the Americas

European Colonisations in the
Americas
Major phases of
colonisation
• 16c: Spanish and
Portuguese
• 17c: Dutch, French,
English
• 18c: Russian
Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta
• Genesis: The Search for the
Indies
• Europeans in Asia: the spice
routes
• Travels of Niccolo and Matteo
Polo, 1256
• Marco Polo, 1275
• Closure of land routes in 14c:
Black Death; end of Tartar
empire; conversion of Ottoman
Turks
Europeans in Africa
• Portuguese
explorations in 15c:
• myth of Prester John
• gold and slaves;
• conquest in North
Africa)
Prester John
Exploration into the Atlantic
• Portugal and Castille (Azores, Madeira,
Canary Islands)
• Why Spanish and Portuguese Expansion?
• Westward route to the Indies: the voyages
of Columbus
Spain and America
•
•
•
•
•
•
Columbus’s ‘Discovery of America’
Columbus’s Aims
Columbus’s Ideas about the Indies
First Settlements: Hispaniola and Cuba
Role of the Spanish Crown
Significance of Spanish settlements in
Caribbean
• Impact on ‘Indians’
The Nina
Cantino map, 1503
Explorations and discoveries on the
American continents
• Expeditions in the Caribbean and circumCaribbean
• Towards the Pacific and South America
• Towards Mexico: the Yucatán Peninsula
and beyond
• Impulses behind exploration
• Conquest of Aztecs, 1519-21
• Conquest of Incas, 1533-36
Spaniards and settlement
• Organisation of the conquering bands
• Social composition: who were the
‘conquistadores’?
• Motives of conquistadores
• Role of religion
• Connections with Reconquista in Spain?
Preconquest America
Conquest of Mexico
• Aztec Civilisation: Strengths and
Weaknesses.
• Spanish Encounter with Mexicans, 1519
• Victory at Tenochtitlan, 1521
• Establishment of Spanish Dominance
• The conundrum of conquest: explanations
Native American responses to European
contact
• Why were the Aztec and Inca empires
vulnerable to Spanish conquest?
• Technology
• Disease
• Cultural differences
• Political divisions among native peoples
The Portuguese in America
• Discovery of the ‘land of the true cross’:
Cabral (1500)
• Portuguese and Indians: brasil wood;
Indian enslavement; sugar.
• Differences between Spanish and
Portuguese settlements
• Why Portuguese neglect of America in first
half of 16c?