Transcript Exploring the Americas

1400 - 1625
Terms
Circumnavigate – to sail around the world
Astrolabe – an instrument used by sailors to observe positions of stars
Strait – a narrow passageway connecting two larger bodies of water
Conquistadors – Spanish explorer in the Americas in the 1500s
Mission – a religious settlement
Encomienda – System of rewarding conquistadors with tracts of land and
the right to tax and demand labor from Native Americans who lived on the
land.
Columbian Exchange – exchange of goods, ideas, and people between
Europe and the Americas
Mercantilism – the theory that a state’s or nation’s power depended on its
wealth
Northwest Passage – water route to Asia through North America sought
by European explorers
Technology – the application of scientific discoveries to practical use
1519 – 1522
Ferdinand
Magellan first to
sail around the
world
1492 – 1504
Christopher Columbus
explored Caribbean Islands
1610 – 1611
Henry Hudson
explored the
Hudson Strait and
Hudson Bay
1524
Giovanni da Verrazano
explored the east coast of
North America including
New York Harbor
1540 – 1542
Francisco Coronado
explored southwestern
North America
1498
Vasco da Gama
reaches India
1400
1500
1600
1539 – 1543
Hernando de Soto
led expedition to the
Mississippi River
1497 – 1501
John Cabot
rediscovered
Newfoundland (east
coast of America)
1542 – 1543
Juan Cabrillo explored the
west coast of North
America
1534 – 1542
Jacques Cartier explored the St.
Lawrence River
1508 – 1509, 1513
Ponce de Leon
explored Puerto Rico
and Florida
Spain
Portugal
England
Netherlands
1673
Jacques Marquette/
Louis Joliet explored the
Mississippi River
1603 – 1615
Samuel de Champlain
explored the St. Lawrence
River and Founded Quebec
Canada
France
1609
Henry Hudson
explored the Hudson
River
1666 – 1682
Robert de La Salle explored the
Great Lakes and founded
Louisiana after reaching the
mouth of the Mississippi River
POLO
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The Growth of Trade
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
The Growth of Ideas
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Merchants could make a fortune selling goods from
the Orient.
The pursuit of new ideas, theories, skills, and
religion
The Renaissance “re-birth”

age of exploration and discovery

Powerful Nations Emerge


Spain, Portugal, England, and France
Improved Technology
Better Maps
 Astrolabe
 Better Ships


African Kingdoms
Ghana
 Mali
 Songhai

European Voyages of Exploration
Cause and Effect
Causes
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Europeans desired new trade routes and gold
New Spirit of adventure
Power and wealth of new European nations
Competition among European nations
Missionaries’ desire to convert others to Christianity
Effects
Effects
•
•
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New knowledge of Africa, Asia, and the
Americas
Clash of European and Native American cultures
Enslavement of Africans
New plants and animals in Europe and the
Americas
Rivalry of European nations in the Americas
Eriksson vs Columbus
Several centuries before
Columbus, northern
Europeans called Vikings
had sailed west and
reached North America
landing in present day
Newfoundland.
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August 3, 1492, Columbus
set out from Palos, Spain
with three ships. Nina,
Pinta, and Santa Maria
carried about 90 sailors.
(Ships)
October 12, 1492, “Tierra!
Tierra!” – “Land! Land!”
Columbus landed in the
Bahamas and claimed the
islands for Spain. He named
it San Salvador. He called
the natives there Indians
believing he had reached the
East Indies.
March 1493, Columbus
returned to Spain victorious.
Columbus made three more voyages from Spain in
1493, 1498, and 1502. He explored the Caribbean
Islands of present day Haiti and Dominican
Republic, Cuba, Jamaica. Columbus sailed along
the coasts of Central America and South America
claiming the new lands for Spain and establishing
settlements. In the following years, the Spanish
explored most of the Caribbean region leading to
the establishment of the Spanish Empire in the
Americas.
Conquistadors – explorers that
received grants from the
Spanish rulers. They had the
right to explore and establish
settlements in the Americas. In
exchange they agreed to give
the Spanish crown 1/5th of any
gold or treasure discovered.
Conquistadors were relentless
in their pursuit for wealth and
power. They brutally
eliminated the Aztec and Incan
tribes.
The Spanish governed their colonies the way they
governed their own country – from the top down.
They divided their new lands into 5 provinces. The
wealthiest were New Spain (Mexico) and Peru. A
Viceroy was appointed to govern the provinces.
In the 1500’s the Spanish government granted each
conquistador who settled in the Americas an
encomienda, the right to demand taxes or labor from
Native Americans living on the land.
To raise crops, Spanish developed the plantation
system. A plantation was a large estate run by the
owner or a manager and farmed by workers or slaves.
The exchange of plants,
animals, slaves and
diseases altered life on
both sides of the Atlantic.
This is referred to as the
Columbian Exchange.
In 1492, when Columbus
landed on Hispaniola,
more than 3 million
Native Americans lived
there. Fifty years later
only about 500 remained.
Mercantilism is an economic theory stating, a
nation’s power was based on its wealth.
Other European countries watched Spain draw
riches from its colonies. There was now a new
goal to increase wealth by establishing colonies in
the New World. Competition over territories
became fierce.
New colonies would provided the mother country
with valuable resources, such as gold and silver, or
raw materials. The colonies also served as a place
to sell European products.
The voyage to Asia –
either around the
southern tip of Africa or
South America was long
and difficult. England,
France, and the
Netherlands pushed to
discover a Northwest
Passage to Asia.
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