Transcript Age of Early European Explorations & Conquests

A Map of the Known World,
pre- 1492
What reasons could justify taking
control of another’s land?
Motives for European Exploration
1. Crusades  by-pass intermediaries
to get to Asia.
2. Renaissance  curiosity about other
lands and peoples.
3. Reformation  refugees &
missionaries.
4. Monarchs seeking new sources of
revenue.
5. Technological advances.
6. Fame and fortune.
New Maritime Technologies
Better Maps
[Portulan]
Hartman Astrolabe
(1532)
Mariner’s Compass
Sextant
New Weapons Technology
Portuguese Maritime Empire
1. Exploring the west coast of
Africa.
2. Bartolomeo Dias, 1487.
3. Vasco da Gama, 1498.
Calicut.
4. Admiral Alfonso de
Albuquerque (Goa, 1510;
Malacca, 1511).
Portuguese
Exploration
Economic Motive
•Sought an all-water
route to Asia
•Find Spices, Gold &
Slaves
Religious Motive
• Desire to Christianize
Muslims
Prince Henry the Navigator
(1394-1460)
• Rich supporter of navigation
• Est a school for navigation
• Financed many expeditions
along the West African
coastline in hopes of finding
gold
Bartholomew Diaz
• 1488 Rounded the
southern tip of
Africa
Vasco da Gama
• 1498 Completed
an all-water
expedition to
India
• Ruined Italy’s monopoly
over trade w/ Asia
• Another cause of the
decline of Italian city-states
Amerigo Vespucci
• 1497 Explored Brazil & Venezuela
Brazil
• Portugal’s major colony in the New
World
• Large #s of slaves were taken
from Africa & used in Brazil to
produce
–Coffee
–Cotton
–Sugar
Spanish
Exploration
Christopher Columbus
• Italian Navigator
• Dreamed of an all ocean
trading route to Asia
• Rejected by Portugal (da Gama
had just returned from India) &
Spain until 1492
• Ferdinand & Isabella finances
his voyage
Christofo Colon [1451-1506]

Vyage
Significance
•Ushered in an era of
European exploration
& the domination of
the new world
Bartolome de las Casas
• Priest & former conquistador
whose father had accompanied
Columbus on his 2nd voyage
• Publicly criticized the
ruthlessness w/ which
Columbus & his successors
treated the Amerindians.
• His writings helped
spread the “black legend”
in Protestant countries
where Spain was accused
of using Christianity to kill
natives
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
• Discovered the Pacific Ocean after crossing
the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 & claimed it
for Spain.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521)
Ferdinand Magellan & the First
Circumnavigation of the World:
Early 16c
Other Voyages of Exploration
Atlantic Explorations
Looking for “El Dorado”
The First Spanish Conquests:
The Aztecs
vs.
Hernan Cortez
Montezuma II
The Death of Montezuma II
Mexico Surrenders to Cortez
The First Spanish Conquests:
The Incas
vs.
Francisco Pizarro
Atahualpa
Slaves Working in a
Brazilian Sugar Mill
1. Do you think there is ever only
one person to blame for events?
2. Do good intentions change your
attitude toward the person or
consequences of his/her actions?
Dutch Republic (Netherlands)
Dutch East India Company
• Major force behind Dutch
imperialism
• By 1650, began challenging
Spain in the New World &
controlled much of the
American & African trade
Dutch East India Company
France
Jacques Cartier
• In search of the Northwest
Passage, explored the St.
Lawrence River region of
Canada
• Quebec, France’s 1st
settlement in the New World,
founded in 1608.
England
John Cabot
• Explored northeast coast of
North America;
• 1st permanent
settlement not
founded until
1607 in
Jamestown (VA)
• Tens of thousands of Englishmen
came to the eastern coast of North
America in the 17th & 18th
centuries
• Far more English came to the New
World than France, Spain &
Portugal
The
Slave Trade
Asiento
Portugal
• 1st introduced slavery in
Brazil to farm the sugar
plantations
Dutch West India Company
•After 1621,
transported thousands
of slaves to the New
World
England
• Royal African Co. entered the
slave trade in the late 17th
century
• Facilitated a huge influx of
African slaves into the
Caribbean & North America.
Growth of the Slave Trade
• Millions of slaves were brought to
the New World
The “Columbian Exchange”

Squash

Avocado

Peppers

Sweet Potatoes

Turkey

Pumpkin

Tobacco

Quinine

Cocoa

Pineapple

Cassava

POTATO

Peanut

TOMATO

Vanilla

MAIZE

Syphilis

Trinkets

Liquor

GUNS

Olive

COFFEE BEAN
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Banana
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Rice

Onion
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Turnip

Honeybee
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Barley

Grape

Peach

SUGAR CANE

Oats

Citrus Fruits

Pear

Wheat

HORSE

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs
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Smallpox

Flu
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Typhus
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Measles

Malaria

Diptheria

Whooping Cough
Cycle of Conquest &
Colonization
Explorers
Official
European
Colony!
Treasures
from the Americas!
European Empires in the Americas
The Colonial Class System
Peninsulares
Mestizos
Native Indians
Creoles
Mulattos
Black Slaves
Administration of the Spanish
Empire in the New World
1. Encomienda
or forced
labor.
2. Council of
the Indies.
Viceroy.
New Spain and Peru.
3. Papal agreement.
The Influence of the Colonial
Catholic Church
Guadalajara
Cathedral
Spanish Mission
Our Lady of
Guadalupe
The Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 &
The Pope’s Line of Demarcation
Father Bartolome de Las Casas
New Laws  1542
New Colonial Rivals
1. Portugal lacked the numbers
and wealth to dominate trade in
the Indian Ocean.
2. Spain in Asia  consolidated its
holdings in the Philippines.
3. First English expedition to the
Indies in 1591.
Surat in NW India in 1608.
4. Dutch arrive in India in 1595.
New Colonial Rivals
Impact of European Expansion
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.
5. New Patterns of World Trade
Life in the 16 and 17th
Centuries
Social Hierarchy
• Countryside
Manorial lords
Peasants who own land
Landless
Peasants
Social Hierarchy
• Towns
Wealthy
merchants
artisans
Low skilled
laborers
Education or wealth were
the means by rising the
social hierarchy
Demographics
• Population growth until about 1650 when it
stabilized
• Patriarchal nuclear family
• Short lifespan
1650
Witch Hunts
• Causes
– Belief in magic
– Catholic Church reinforces belief of Devil
– Women more prone to the powers of the Devil
– War time created chaos and need for a
scapegoat
End of Witch Hunts
• Scientific revolution
less superstition
• Medical advances
• Witch trials got out of hand