Section 1

The BIG Idea

Competition Among Countries Europeans began exploring the world in the 1400s, and several nations experienced economic

heights through worldwide trade.

• Five European powers, led by Portugal and Spain, engaged in an age of exploration. All rose to new economic heights.

• Motives for European exploration include “God, glory, and gold”

Motives and Means

–Religious zeal – Explorers such as Hernán Cortés were interested in sharing the Catholic faith with native peoples.

–Economic interests – Europeans wanted to expand trade and locate spices and precious metals

–There was an increased desire for grandeur, glory, and the spirit of adventure.

• Portugal took the lead in European exploration under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator.

• Portuguese ships traveled along the western coast of Africa, finding gold and other goods.

A Race for Riches

• The Portuguese captured the important port city of Melaka on the Malay Peninsula, which enabled the Portuguese to control the spice trade that had been dominated by Arab traders.

• Vasco de Gama traveled around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, and landed in India in 1498

• The Portuguese used seamanship, guns, and treaties to control the spice trade. However, they did not have the people, wealth, or desire to expand their empire in Asia.

• Christopher Columbus was an explorer who sailed for Spain. Columbus searched for a western route to Asia and landed at Cuba and Hispaniola in 1492.

• The Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the tip of South America and into the Pacific Ocean. Magellan is credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

• In 1494, Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, separating control of the newly discovered lands.

• John Cabot, a Venetian, explored the New England coastline of the Americas for England.

• The writings of Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine mapmaker, led to the use of the name “America” for the newly discovered lands in the western hemisphere.

• The Spanish conquistadors established an overseas empire in the Americas.

• In 1519 Hernán Cortés and his Spanish allies were welcomed into Tenochtitlán by the Aztec monarch Montezuma. The Spanish were expelled from the city one year later.

The Spanish Empire

• When the Spaniards left, smallpox devastated the Aztec capital. The Spanish returned and captured the city, and the Aztec Empire was destroyed.

The Spanish Empire

• In 1530 Francisco Pizarro led an expedition into the Inca Empire. Like the Aztec, the Incas were no match for Spanish disease, guns, and horses.

The Spanish EmpirePizarro established a new capital for the Spanish colony at Lima.

• The Spanish used a system of colonial administration called the encomienda system— the right of landowners to use Native Americans as laborers.

• Spanish landowners could use Native Americans for labor in return for protection and converting them to Christianity.

• Native American political and social structures were torn apart and replaced by European systems of religion, language, and government.

• The exchange of plants, animals, and disease between Europe and the Americas is known as the Columbian Exchange.

• The Dutch formed the East India Company to compete with the English and Portuguese for the Indian Ocean trade.

• The Dutch also formed the West India Company to compete with the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas.

European Rivals

• By the early seventeen century, the Dutch established settlements in North America such as New Netherland.

European Rivals

• In the 1600s, the French colonized parts of present-day Louisiana and regions of Canada.

• The English began to settle the eastern seaboard of North America and islands in the Caribbean Sea.

• In 1664, the English seized the harbor of New Netherland from the Dutch and renamed it New York.

Section 2

The BIG Idea

Human Rights European expansion affected Africa with the

dramatic increase of the slave trade.

• The nations of Europe created trading empires and established colonies in the Americas and in the East.

• Colonies were an integral part of mercantilism, an economic theory based on gold and a limited amount of wealth in the world.

Trade, Colonies, and Mercantilism

• Colonies provided raw materials and markets for finished goods.

To bring in more gold, nations tried to have a favorable balance of trade and export more goods than they imported.

To encourage exports, governments granted subsidies and improved transportation systems.

Trade, Colonies, and Mercantilism

• Slavery had existed since ancient times, and African slaves served as domestic servants in Southwest Asia.

• The demand for slaves changed dramatically with the introduction of sugarcane. Labor was needed to work the plantations where sugarcane was grown.

• Slaves became an important commodity in the triangular trade that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

• As many as 10 million African slaves may have been brought to the Americas between 1500 and the late 1800s.

• One reason for the high number of exported slaves was the high mortality rate, especially during the Middle Passage, the journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

• The slave trade devastated the population of African communities near the coastal regions.

• Some African rulers, such as King Afonso, protested but were ignored by African and European slave traders.

Figure 2

• Effects of the slave trade in Africa: –depopulated areas

– increased warfare

– loss of the strongest and youngest men and women

Effects of the Slave Trade

• Benin was transformed from a brilliant society into a brutal, war-ravaged region following the introduction of slavery.

Effects of the Slave Trade

• The use of enslaved Africans was widely accepted until the Society of Friends began to condemn it in the 1770s.

• The French abolished slavery in the 1790s; the English abolished slavery in 1807; and slavery continued in the United States until the 1860s.

Section 3

The BIG Idea

Competition Among Countries Portugal and Spain reaped profits

from the natural resources and products of their Latin American

colonies.

• In the 1500s, Portugal controlled Brazil, while Spain’s colonial possessions included parts of North America, Central America, and most of South America.

• The area of Central and South America became known as Latin America, and a unique social class system emerged.

Colonial Empires in Latin America

• Colonial Latin America Social Order:

–Peninsulares: Spanish and Portuguese officials born in Europe; they held all important government positions.

–Creoles: Descendants of Europeans who were born in Latin America; they controlled business and land.

–Mestizos: The offspring of European and Native American intermarriage.

–Mulattoes: The offspring of Africans and Europeans.

–Conquered Native Americans and enslaved Africans.

• Europeans utilized the Native Americans as labor. They used the encomienda system and mita to sustain a viable labor force.

• Gold and silver from the colonies offered immediate wealth to the Europeans. Products, such as tobacco, sugar, and animal hides were traded to Europe in return for finished products.

• To control their colonial possessions in the Americas, Portugal and Spain used governor-generals to develop a bureaucracy and carry out imperial policies.

• Catholic missionaries were also instrumental in converting and maintaining order within the colonial territories.

• The Catholic Church provided an outlet other than marriage for women. Many nuns like Juana Inés de la Cruz, urged convents to educate women on subjects beyond religion.