Chapter Two - New Empires in the Americas (1450 - 1750)

Section One - Early Voyages of Exploration

The Search for a Sea Route

• Monopoly - when one company or group controls trade of a product
• Italy gained power by trading with the Middle East
• Other countries looked to find ways to get involved
• Portugal, under Prince Henry the Navigator, sends ships around Africa to Middle East
• Portugal establishes trade in Middle East and Africa

Columbus' Bold Idea

• Christopher Columbus was an Italian sailor
• Columbus gets King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to fund his trip across the Atlantic to try to get to China/India
• Columbus lands in West Indies - reviously unknown territory to the Europeans
• Mistakenly thinks he is in India and called the Native Americans "Indians"
• Returns to Spain with local treasures and some gold
• Also created a colony of his men called Hispaniola in West Indies

Europeans Learn of Columbus' Journey

• Excited crowds greet Columbus as a hero in Spain
• Columbus had claimed all lands he found for Spain
• Columbus makes three more voyages, but King becomes disenchanted with him
• Dies after two year sickness a lonely, poor man

Section Two - Europe Looks to the Americas

Early Explorations

• Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci lands in South America with a Spanish expedition
• A German mapmaker creates a map on Vespucci's exaggerated descriptions of the area and calls the new land "America" after Amerigo Vespucci
• Europeans began to realize that Columbus had not found Asia, but a new area.
• Europeans then tried to find an all water route to the Pacific Ocean through or around America
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa is the first European to see the Pacific looking west

Sailing Around the World

• Ferdinand Magellan sailed for Portugal around South America and into the Pacific
• Weather bad and supplies were low, two of five ships were lost
• Trip across Pacific took 100 days - no food left
• Landed on the Phillipnes and killed by natives
• Only one of the ships makes it back to Portugal
• Magellan gets credit for being the first to circumnavigate the globe
• 40,000 mile journey

A Shift in Trade

• Spain and Portugal make money on new trade routes
• Other Eurpean countries want a piece of the action

The Columbian Exchange

• In their travels, explorers transferred plants, animals, and diseases btween Europe, Africa, and the Americas
• New plants and animals were found in the Americas that were helpful, such as potatoes, corn and tomatoes
• Europeans brought cattle, horses, wheat and pigs to the Americas
• Disease such as smallpox and measles were brought to the Americas where Natives had no immunities to them
• Millions of Native Americans died as a result of these diseases

Section Three - The Spanish in America

The Conquistadores

• Conquistadores - Spanish soldiers in the Americas who looked for riches, fame
• Cortes - conquers the Aztec Empire with 500 men and guns
• Spanish steal Aztec gold to send to Spain and enslave the Aztecs
• Pizarro - coquers the Inca Empire and claimed their gold and silver for Spain
• Coranado - searches for "Seven Cities of Gold" in what is now California and Arizona, claiming the area for Spain

Governing New Spain

• Pueblos -towns Spain set up in the Americas for trading
• Missions - Churches built to convert Native Americans to Catholicism
• Presidios - Forts run by the conquistadors to control land in the Americas

Colonial Economy and Class Structure

• By 1650, 3 to 4 million people lived in Spain's American empire - 80% were Native Americans
• Many Native Americans were forced into slave labor

Section Four - The Race for Empires

Conflict between Spain and England

• Martin Luther - Spilts the Catholic Church by posting 95 Theses on his church door in Germany
• Proitestant Reformation - Effort to reform (change) the Catholic Church that result in creating new religions in Europe
• Fighting between Catholics and Protestants leads to many civil wars and wars between countries in Europe
• England (Protestant) defeats Spain (Catholic) and shows Spains power is declining

Searching for a Northwest Passage

• European nations send explorers to North America to find the Northwest Passage - an all water route to the Pacific
• There isn't a Northwest Passage until the construction of the Panama Canal in the early 1900's
• Henry Hudson - explores Hudson River for Netherlands and claim New York area for Dutch
• Jaques Cartier - explores modern day Candian coastline and claims it for France
• John Cabot - explores modern day east coast of US and claims it for England

Early French Settlements

• Established fur trade with Native Americans
• Got along well with Indians
• Travelled down the Mississippi River looking for Northwest Passage
• Settled in modern day Canada and the Mississippi River Valley
• French colony is called New France

Dutch and English Settlements

• New Netherlands - Dutch colony started in modern day New York for fur trading and trapping
• Roanoke - first settlement of the British disappears