European Explorers

Country Dates Sailed Goal of Exploration Length of Voyage Explored Notes

Henry the Navigator

Vasco da Gama

Pedro Cabral

Christopher Columbus

Ferdinand Magellan

Sir Francis Drake

Henry Hudson

Jacques Cartier

European Colonies in the Americas and New Patterns of Trade

Objectives: • Students will discover how the Spanish built an Empire

in the Americas and its characteristics.• Students will explore how the French and English

colonies differed in the New World and the consequences of conflict.

• Students will discover how exploration resulted in a new exchange of plants and animals.

• Students will investigate mercantilism, and how this theory pushed the drive to establish colonies.

• Scramble to establish colonies and empires in new lands• Spain first to successfully settle in the Americas • Eventually conquered native empires, the Aztecs and Incas

• First areas settled by Spanish, Caribbean islands, Hispaniola, Cuba

• Columbus hoped to find gold, did not

• Spanish introduced encomienda system there

Spain in Caribbean • Colonist given land and

Native Americans to work the land

• Required to teach native workers about Christianity

Encomienda• Disastrous system for

Native Americans• Mistreatment,

overwork took toll on population

• Europeans spread new diseases

Millions Died

Spain Builds an Empire

Conquistador• Some Spaniards moved from Caribbean to mainland to set up colonies• Hernán Cortés led expedition to Mexico, ended with conquest of Aztecs• Cortés a conquistador, military leader who fought against Native Americans

Pizarro and the Inca• 10 years after conquest of Aztecs, Francisco Pizarro led expedition to Peru• Inca Empire already weakened by smallpox; many killed, including emperor• 1532, new ruler, Atahualpa, agreed to meet with Spanish• Spanish killed Atahualpa, destroyed Inca army, took over empire

• ADVANTAGE GUNS, GERMS and STEEL

Cortes Marches on Capital• Moctezuma II, Aztec emperor at time of Spanish arrival in Mexico• Aztecs powerful, ruled much of Mexico; unpopular with those they conquered• Cortés joined by thousands of those who wanted to defeat Aztecs

The Conquest of Mexico and South America

Beginnings of Slavery• Disease, mistreatment took toll on native population• Some appalled at treatment• One reformer, Bartolomé de Las Casas recommended replacing Native Americans

as laborers with imported African slaves• Slave labor soon became common practice in Americas

Spanish Colonies Exports

Spanish goal for colonies was to export gold and precious metals back to Europe

Summarize

How did the Spanish create an empire in the Americas?

Answer(s): conquered Aztec and Inca empires

Portuguese built an empire in the AmericasBecause of treaty, their empire was not as large as the Spanish one

• 1494, Treaty of Tordesillas drew imaginary line through Atlantic Ocean– Everything west, including most of

then-undiscovered Americas, would belong to Spain

– Everything to east would be Portuguese

– Only Brazil remained as Portuguese colony

• Heavy Brazilian jungles made mining, farming difficult

• Portuguese in no hurry to settle• First used Native American, then

African slave, labor to work on farms

Treaty

The Portuguese in Brazil

Native American hunters were the French traders’ main source of furs.Many traders married Native American women, intermingling the two cultures.

Silver and gold from American colonies began to circulate in Europe; other European countries paid close attention. Leaders in France, England, and the Netherlands decided that they needed to establish colonies in the Americas.

• French explorers established colonies in New France, or Canada

• Hoped this would be a rich source for gold, silver

• Did not find riches, but found other potentially valuable trade goods

New France

French, Dutch, and English Colonies in the Americas

• Waters of North Atlantic swarming with fish, staple of European diet

• Forests yielded valuable furs• French did not send large numbers of

colonists; small groups of traders• Did not enslave Native Americans

Trade and Colonization

• 1682, René-Robert La Salle canoed down entire Mississippi River to Gulf of Mexico

• Claimed enormous Mississippi region, tributaries for France

• Named huge, fertile area Louisiana, after King Louis XIV

Mississippi to Gulf of Mexico

• A few French explorers headed south to seek more lands to claim

• 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded city of Quebec

• French also explored Mississippi River

• Thought it flowed to Pacific, would provide route to Asia

South from New France

Further Explorations

• 1607, first English colony established at Jamestown• Settlers hoped to find gold, silver, river route to Pacific• Instead found marshy ground, impure water• 80 percent of settlers died during first winter in America• Colony still endured

• 1620, Pilgrims sailed from England• Pilgrims had been persecuted in

England for religious beliefs• Established colony at Plymouth,

Massachusetts• Persevered despite difficulties• Colony self-sufficient within 5 years

Pilgrims• English settlers did not share same

relationship with Native Americans as French, Dutch

• Jamestown, Plymouth colonies received aid from local peoples

• Still, colonists viewed Native Americans with distrust, anger

Native Americans

The English Colonies

Problems• English ran into conflict with French settlers in Americas• Mid-1700s, English colonists attempted to settle in French territory, upper Ohio

River valley; tension in region grew; war broke out, 1754

Costly War• Eventually French surrendered, yielded Canada, all French territory east of

Mississippi• War costly for British; king tried to place costs of war on colonists• Led to resentment, which eventually brought about American Revolution

French and Indian War• Both had Native American allies; English called it French and Indian War

• Also Called the Seven Years War• War began badly for British; French had more soldiers than English• British turned tide, took city of Quebec

British-French Conflict

• Voyages launched large-scale contact between Europe and Americas. • Interaction with Native Americans led to sweeping cultural changes. • Contact between the two groups led to the widespread exchange of plants,

animals, and disease—the Columbian Exchange.

• Plants, animals developed in very different ways in hemispheres

• Europeans—no potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, turkeys

• People in Americas—no coffee, oranges, rice, wheat, sheep, cattle

The Exchange of Goods

The Columbian Exchange

• Arrival of Europeans in Americas changed all this

• Previously unknown foods taken back to Europe

• Familiar foods brought to Americas by colonists

Sharing Discoveries

http://youtu.be/2qFYmsuC01c

Increasing trade between Europe and colonies created new business and trade practices during the 1500s and 1600s. These practices would have a great impact on the economies of European nations.

• During this time, capitalism expanded

• In capitalism, most economic activity carried on by private individuals, organizations in order to seek profit

Capitalism Emerges

• Individuals amassed great trade fortunes

• Merchants supplied colonists with European goods

• Returned products, raw materials

Overseas Trade

• Overseas trade made many merchants rich

• Wealth enabled them to invest in more business ventures

• Business activity in Europe increased greatly

Increased Business Activity

The Rise of Capitalism

New Ventures• Overseas business ventures often

too expensive for individual investors

• Investors began pooling money in joint-stock companies

Shares• Profit, loss based on number of

shares owned• If company failed, investors lost

only amount invested

Joint-Stock Companies• Investors bought shares of stock in

company• If company made profit, each

shareholder received portion

Financing Colonies• British East India Company, one of

first joint-stock companies • 1600, imported spices from Asia• Others formed to bear cost of

establishing colonies

A New Business Organization

The chart shows the average annual rate at which earnings rose for full-time working men (in dark blue) and women (in light blue) in each 10 percent bracket from 1980 to 2005. So the poorest men and women are on the left of each chart, and the richest are on the right.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/why-us-income-inequality-is-more-frightening-than-europes/272529/

• Slavery has existed in many parts of the world• People forced into slavery came from different walks of life• Farmers, merchants, priests, soldiers, or musicians; fathers and mothers, sons and

daughters.

• Shortage of labor in Americas led to beginning of Atlantic slave trade

• European planters needed workers on sugar, tobacco plantations

Beginnings• Planters first used

Native Americans; European diseases killed millions

• 1600s, used indentured servants

• Expensive to support workers

Native Americans• Millions forcibly taken

to Americas• Most from coast of

West Africa• Some exchanged for

firearms, goods• Others kidnapped on

raids by traders

African Slaves

Origins of the Slave Trade

Trade Network

Captured Africans became part of network called the triangular trade

• First leg of triangle, ships carrying European goods to Africa to be exchanged for slaves

• Second leg, Middle Passage, brought Africans to Americas to be sold

• Third leg carried American products to Europe

• Some slave traders from Americas sailed directly to Africa, not following triangular route

• Olaudah Equiano wrote about conditions on slave ship:

• “The stench of the hold…was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time…

• “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable.”

Horrific Conditions• Middle Passage, terrifying ordeal

• Captive Africans chained together, forced into dark, cramped quarters below ship’s decks

• Could neither sit nor stand

• Journey lasted three to six weeks, ten to twenty percent did not survive

Ordeal

Middle Passage