Transcript Exploration and Absolutism - Fort Thomas Independent Schools

Treatment of Native
Peoples
• Europeans believed in white supremacy –
European culture, religion, language was
better than that of the natives
• Forced natives to become Christians
• Enslaved natives
Native Americans did not
make good slaves
• Contracted diseases
easily; millions died
from epidemics of small
pox, measles, influenza
• Could not work in hot,
dry conditions; many
died from heat
exhaustion,
overexposure
Slavery
Slavery
• Natives knew the area well so they could
escape easily
• Portugal already had factories on the
West Coast of Africa
• As a result, Spain began to import
Africans as forced labor on sugar cane
plantations in the Caribbean
Triangular Trade
• Ships sailed between Europe,
Africa, and the Americas
• European ships carried
manufactured goods, such as
knives, swords, guns, cloth,
and rum
• African ships carried enslaved
people
• American ships carried raw
materials, such as sugar,
molasses, cotton, and tobacco
Triangula
Trad
Middle Passage
• Journey from the west coast of Africa to
the Americas = Middle Passage
• 10-24 million Africans brought on slave
ships (12 million estimate in textbook)
• 10%-20% Africans did not survive the
journey
Middle Passage:
pg. 450-451
African Captives
Thrown Overboard
Sharks followed the slave ships!
Consequences of the Age of
Exploration/Columbian
Exchange
1. Native populations ravaged by disease.
2. Influx of gold, and especially silver,
into Europe created an inflationary
economic climate.
[“Price Revolution”]
3. New products introduced across the
continents [“Columbian Exchange”].
4. Deepened colonial rivalries.
Effects in Africa
• Coastal Kingdoms gain power, but
Europeans ensure limited power
• Coastal kingdoms use European
tech to expand over neighbors
(more slaves)
• Asante (Ashanti) example of a
Kingdom which rose to power
through European aid.