Transcript Age of Exploration

•Lack of natural resources – foresting and mining in Europe
no longer possible
•National pride – England, France, Spain & Portugal arise as
nations instead of kingdoms, are competing to be the strongest
power and need resources to do so
•Cash economy – Rulers want cash, not land or products, and
need new sources of precious metals and raw materials
•Rise of merchant class – men wealthy from trade (not
inheriting land/titles) are gaining more power and influence
within their countries – everyone wants to get rich quick
•New technology for boats and weaponry make it possible to
get to new places and defend yourself once you’re there
• Spain – Mexico/Central America, South America,
south and southwestern North America, Caribbean
• France – interior and northern North America,
Haiti
• England – coastal North America, northern North
America
Spanish:
• Motivation: “God, Gold, Glory” (spread Catholic faith, send
gold to Spain, make Spain more powerful than other countries)
• Conquistadores – explorer/soldiers used military strength to
overwhelm natives and take valuables (gold & silver)
• Pattern of settlement: Intermixed with local population;
converted many to Catholicism; created class called mestizos
(mixed). Highest class – Spanish; middle class – mixed
Spanish/locals; lowest class - natives
English:
• Motivation: Private profit for explorers, taxes for the Crown; claim raw
materials to sell to the government and on the market; personal freedoms
• Joint-stock companies were formed by investors to fund explorations and
split any profits (like owning stock in a business). They were granted
charters by the King to explore and set up settlements in certain regions
claimed by England.
• Pattern of settlement: Create settlements and colonies populated with
English settlers; pushed out natives or lived around them without
integrating with them.
France:
• Motivation: profit primarily from fur trade; defeat British efforts at
expansion; priests wanted to convert Native Americans
• Pattern of settlement: Few permanent settlements in the interior; mostly
concentrated on St. Lawrence River (Quebec) area. More tolerant of Native
American population than most European countries. Tolerated more easily
by Native Americans because the French were (generally) not interested in
creating settlements or claiming land for colonization. Single male trappers
& explorers married into tribes.