Early Exploration and Colonization

Objective #1

• Analyze the changing world situation and its impact on the colonization effort in America.

Objective #2

• Identify and explain reasons for European exploration.

Objective #3

• Explain the changes and conflicts that occurred when the diverse worlds of Europe, Africa, and the Americans collided after 1492.

What motivated Spanish and Portuguese Expansion?

• Gold– Look in Africa– Money for industrial advancement– Renaissance: Science and technology– The royal coffers/wealth– 15th c.: European mines running low– Eastward trade routes blocked by Ottoman

Turks

What motivated Spanish and Portuguese Expansion?

• Glory– Fierce competition to add to empire– Nationalism– Renaissance inspired many people to

explore and seek individual glory

What motivated Spanish and Portuguese Expansion?

• Spices– Food preservation– Luxuries (sugar)– Bathing?– Columbus looked for

western trade route to Asia

• Muslim middlemen would charge tolls

• Long, dangerous routes

What motivated Spanish and Portuguese Expansion?

• Christianity– Catholic Spain and

Portugal– Christianize the

Asians

Portugal Took Early Lead

• Superior technology– Examples: caravel, compass, schools

• Prince Henry the Navigator

Portugal and Africa

• Trade in gold, ivory and slaves– 40,000 slaves taken from Africa before

discovery of America• Millions more after discovery of America• Will be established as a source of “cheap labor”

– Work Portuguese sugar plantations

• Modern plantation system

Christopher Columbus

• Convinced he could reach Indies by sailing West.

• Landed in the Bahamas in 1492.

• Brought cinnamon, gold, coconuts, slaves back to Spain

Early Triangle Trade

Native Americans

• 1492: 50 million people inhabited North and South America

• Very diverse– Incas– Mayans– Aztecs

• Agricultural advancements• Complex irrigation systems• Some alliances (more so in the South)

Colonization (15th-17th c.)

• Spain and Portugal• Treaty of Tordesillas• Line of Demarcation• Europeans bring

disease to N. America

• 90% of Natives wiped out.