Transcript Exploring the Americas

1400-1625
 Essential Question
 What events and technological advances paved the way
for European Exploration?
 The Renaissance “re-birth” changed the way
Europeans thought about themselves and the world.
 Period of intellectual and artistic creativity
 Merchants, bankers and monarchs sought greater
profits through foreign trade
 Wanted to make their countries stronger and wealthier
 Paved the way for an age of exploration and discovery
 Advances in technology paved the way for European
voyages and exploration.
 Better maps and instruments: Cartographers improved
their map making skills as they acquired techniques
and information from Arab map makers.
 Astrolabe
 Magnetic Compass
 Based on Arab designs, European ships improved
greatly.
 Bigger
 Stronger
 Could sail into the wind
 With increased competition for foreign trade,
countries like Portugal and Spain worked hard to
better their ships and launched an era of exploration!
 Answer the Essential Question: What events and
technological advances paved the way for European
Exploration?
 European interest in Asia due to growth of trade
 Increased wealth
 Improved maps and navigation instruments
 Advances in ship design
 Desire for gold and slaves from Africa
 Essential Question:
 Why did Spain and Portugal want to find a sea route to
Asia?
 Prince Henry the Navigator helped lay the groundwork for
the era of exploration in the early 1400s.
 Portuguese ships travelled along the coast of West Africa
trading for gold and ivory.
 Area became known as the “Gold Coast”
 Vasco da Gama
 Sailed around Cape of Good
Hope (tip of Africa)
 Explored east coast of Africa
 Discovered eastern sea route to
Asia
 Six months after da Gama’s return, 13 ships left
Portugal for the east.
 Course swung so wide around Africa, they reached
Brazil.
 Gave Portugal a stake in the Americas.
 Eventually reached India and returned with spices,
porcelain and other goods that helped them set up a
trading empire.
 Centuries before Columbus, northern Europeans
called Vikings sailed to North America.
 800s and 900s – Established settlements in Iceland,
Greenland and Newfoundland.
 Viking voyages to other lands were not well known.
 Spanish were envious of Portugal’s trading success
with India and Asia.
 Columbus sought sponsorship from Queen Isabella
and King Ferdinand of Spain who agreed for 2 reasons.
 Promised to bring Christianity to any lands he found
 Spain would become wealthy through any trade
Columbus opened up
 August 3, 1492 – sets out with ships the Nina, the Pinta
and the Santa Maria.
 October 12, 1492 – “Tierra! Tierra!” Finds small group
of Islands (Bahamas)
 Convinced he has found the East Indies (Islands off
coast of Asia)
 Explored Caribbean islands of Hispaniola, Cuba and
Jamaica.
 Claimed lands for Spain and mapped Central
American coastline.
 Eventually realized he had found new lands (America)
and began to set up settlements.
 Both Spain and Portugal want to protect their claims
in America.
 Line of demarcation (1493)
 Imaginary line running down the middle of the Atlantic
from North Pole to South Pole
 Spain got everything to the west
 Portugal got everything to the east
 Amerigo Vespucci
 Sailed along South America’s coast – came to the
conclusion that it was not part of Asia
 Ferdinand Magellan
 Reached tip of South America and sailed through a strait
to the Pacific Ocean
 His crew was first to circumnavigate, or sail around the
world
 How did Henry the Navigator further exploration?
 Answer the Essential Question: Why did Portugal and
Spain want to find a sea route to Asia?
 If the Portuguese and Spanish could find a sea route
directly to Asia, they could trade directly with India and
China.
 Essential Question:
 How did Spain’s conquests affect the economic and
social development of the Americas?
 Main Idea!
 Spanish explorers conquered Native American empires
and found new lands.
 Hernan Cortes formed alliances with many of the
people the Aztecs had conquered.
 Cortes enters Tenochtitlan with over 500 soldiers,
horses, cannons and Native American allies.
 Emperor Montezuma welcomed them to the city but is
taken prisoner.
 Aztec capital is destroyed in 1521 and Spanish take over
the region.
 Francisco Pizarro (conquistador) sailed down coast of
South America.
 1532 – Captures and executes the Incan ruler
Atahualpa.
 Without their ruler, Incans could not fight effectively.
 Pizarro gained most of the Incan empire for Spain.
 The conquistadors victories over the Aztec and Inca
were quick and lasting. How could Cortes and Pizarro,
with only their small armies conquer such mighty
empires?
 Weapons (Guns, Cannons)
 Horses
 Spanish seemed godlike
 Dislike of Aztec overlords
 Disease! No immunity to European diseases!
 Throughout the early 1500s, more and more
settlements were set up by the Spanish. Spanish law
called for 3 kinds of settlements in the Americas…
 Pueblos – towns established as centers of trade
 Missions – religious communities including a small
town, farmland and a church
 Presidios – Forts usually built near missions
 *In the 1500s, the Spanish government granted
conquistadors the right to demand taxes or labor from
Native Americans - Encomienda
 Spanish priest who condemned cruel treatment of
Native Americans.
 Claimed that millions had died because the Spanish
“made gold their ultimate aim, seeking to load
themselves with riches in the shortest amount of
time.”
 Reports influenced Spanish government to forbid
making slaves of the Native Americans.
 Not always enforced, but helped correct some of the
worst abuses.
 Main exports from the Americas became tobacco and
sugarcane.
 Spanish developed plantations and used Native
Americans for labor.
 Las Casas suggested replacing the Native Americans
with Africans.
 By the end of the 1500s, plantation slave labor was an
essential part of the economy of the colonies.
 How did Spain’s conquests affect the economic and
social development of the Americas?
 Spanish destroyed the Aztec and Inca Empires
 Settled in pueblos, missions and presidios
 Introduced Catholicism, horses and cattle
 Relegated Native Americans to lower classes
 Introduced slaves to support plantations
 How did slavery begin in the Americas?
 Las Casas suggested replacing natives with Africans
 Slave labor became important to the colonial economy
 Essential Question:
 Why did European nations establish colonies in North
America?
 Era of exploration brought America together with
Europe, Asia and Africa.
 Contacts led to an exchange in plants, animals and
diseases.
 Netherlands (Dutch) want to find a passage through
the Americas
 1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Hudson River
 1610 – Sent by England
 Discovered the Hudson Bay
 Eager to explore North America
 Set up New Netherland colony
 New Amsterdam as center on tip of Manhattan Island
 Showed little interest in building an empire
 Focused on
 Fishing
 Fur trading
 1608 – Sent Samuel de Champlain to found a
settlement in Quebec
 How did France’s goals in North America differ from
those of other European nations?
 Answering the Essential Question: Why did European
nations establish colonies in North America?
 To become wealthy and powerful
 Obtain resources
 To trade and sell European products