Christopher Columbus and motivations for European conquest
How did technology help fuel European colonization?
The new innovations of the compass, the carvel, and the astrolabes made it substantially easier for Europeans to network from the Old World over to the New World Affected economic development, making it possible for large scale trade networks between the Old World to the New World.
Causes of European migration:
After 1492, the motivations for European migration to the Americas centered around the three G's: God, gold, and glory. Gold refers to the desire to extract natural resources like gold and sugar from the New World. European colonizers also had a desire to spread Christianity to the New World. Glory refers to the desire for European colonizers to increase their nation's status as a world power and gain military strength through colonization.
Triangle trade of the Columbian Exchange
Chart showing the triangle trade, in which: Europe sent textiles, rum, and manufactured goods to Africa Africa sent slaves to the Americas The Americas sent sugar and tobacco to Europe Chart showing the triangle trade, in which: Europe sent textiles, rum, and manufactured goods to Africa Africa sent slaves to the Americas The Americas sent sugar and tobacco to Europe The triangle trade, in which merchants on each continent sent commodities and people between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Served cold and frothy by the Mesoamerican elite, which New World beverage began a craze in Europe that coincided with the growing European desire for sugar?
Chocolate As Europeans first tasted chocolate, the demand for sugar ballooned.
In what way did religious intolerance contribute to global unrest during the Age of Discovery?
Christian colonists in the New World had a great desire to convert Native Americans to their faith. When Christian colonists arrived in the New World, they aimed to "civilize" the native people by forcing them to convert to Christianity.
Technological innovation:
European colonization of the Americas was made substantially easier through several technological innovations like compasses, caravels, and astrolabes. It affected economic development by making it possible for large scale trade networks between the Old World and the New World to develop.
When the Spanish colonized the Americas, they utilized the encomienda system, in which colonial settlers
set themselves up as wards for Native American laborers, extracting labor in exchange for feudal 'protection' The encomienda system allowed Spanish settlers to claim the labor of Native Americans.
What was Christopher Columbus looking to find on his first transatlantic voyage?
A new sea route to the Spice Islands of what is today Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia. As Columbus regarded the Silk Road as inefficient and laborious, he hoped to find a sea route to trade with Asia.
Key Terms
Caravel- A small, fast ship used by the Spanish and Portuguese, which made exploration easier. Epidemic- The spread of a disease to a large group of people within a population in a short period of time. Mercantilism- An economic theory that was designed to maximize trade for a nation and especially maximize the amount of gold and silver a country had. Columbian Exchange- The process by which commodities (horses, tomatoes, sugar, etc.), people, and diseases crossed the Atlantic.
What was traded between Europe, West Africa, and the Americas in the Columbian Exchange?
Cash crops, finished goods, diseases, and human beings. Spanish colonizers called encomenderos would divide up labor between Native American groups.
How was the relatively small Conquistador army of Hernan Cortés able to conquer the great Aztec imperial city of Tenochtitlàn?
Cortés leveraged the discontentment felt by the tributary city-states of the Aztec Empire, like the Tlaxcaltecas and the Texcocans, and allied his army with theirs Specifically, a Nahu woman named Malintzin or "La Malinche" translated for Cortés.
"Into this land of meek outcasts there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts . . . killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated to be more than three million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons." -Bartolomé de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542. *Which of the following practices did the ideas expressed in the excerpt most directly challenge?*
Enslaving Native Americans as laborers in the encomienda system. The encomienda system promised conquistadores land in return for the labor of Native Americans.
Despite having a basis in religious and ethnic intolerance, in what way did the Crusades increase cultural interaction between Europe and the Middle East?
European Crusaders developed a taste for trade goods from India, China, and Central Asia, which spurred trade with the East along the Silk Road. After Crusaders felt the silk and tasted spices they wanted more, leading to the formation of new markets between the East and West.
During the period known as the Reconquista, Spanish forces
Expelled North African and Arab Muslims—known as Moors— from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. The Reconquista was a period of about 800 years of violence against Muslims in Spain and Portugal.
Lesson Summary: *The Columbian Exchange*
In 1492, Columbus landed in the Americas, starting a period of exploration and colonization.
Cultural exchanges and trade networks:
Initial contact between Native Americans and European colonizers began a process of cultural and biological exchanges between the Old World and the New known as the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange caused population growth in Europe by bringing new crops from the Americas and started Europe's economic shift towards capitalism. Colonization disrupted ecosytems, bringing in new organisms like pigs, while completely eliminating others like beavers.
How did New World colonization, enabled by the vessel above, affect the economy of Europe?
It brought a great deal of gold and silver into Europe, stimulating the banking industry and promoting Europe's transition to capitalism. The European banking industry expanded to deal with the influx of New World gold and silver.
What were the goals of Spanish colonization?
Spanish colonization goals consisted of extracting natural resources like gold and sugar from the Americas and bringing them back over to Europe. And to convert as many native people to Christianity as possible, by force is necessary. Which most times, it was necessary.
*Francisco Vasquez de Coronado* found neither gold nor silver on his expeditions into what is today Mexico and the American Southwest. What wonders did he find, however?
The Grand Canyon and the Colorado River; members of his expedition were the first Europeans to see either of them. Rather than finding lots of gold and silver, the expedition left Coronado completely bankrupt.
"Asked for what reason they so blindly burned the images, temples, crosses, and other things of divine worship, he stated that the said Indian, Pope . . . ordered in all the pueblos through which he passed that they instantly break up and burn the images of the holy Christ, the Virgin Mary and the other saints, the crosses, and everything pertaining to Christianity . . . . They thereby returned to the state of their antiquity . . ." -Pedro Narajo, Native American prisoner in New Mexico, 1680 *Which event is the excerpt describing?*
The Pueblo Revolt The Pueblo people rose up against Spanish conquistadores in the wake of religious persecution, violence, and drought.
Which group of foods originated in the New World?
Corn, chocolate, tomatoes, and potatoes. Cash crops went from the New World to Europe, finished goods went from Europe to Africa, human beings went from Africa to the New World, and diseases went from Europe to the New World.
*pic of painting* This painting could best be used as evidence of which of the following historical developments?
How Spanish colonization led to a racial hierarchy in the New World based on an individual's percentage of Spanish blood. Any person with Native American or African blood was systemically devalued in Spanish colonial society.
Let's say you're an Englishman of the planter class in 17th-century Virginia. How would you grow tobacco if you were cultivating it as a cash crop?
I'd grow nothing but tobacco and prepare it for export. A cash crop is a crop cultivated for trade instead of personal consumption.
Read the passage below and answer the question. "Colón [Columbus] and his crew did not voyage alone. They were accompanied by a menagerie of insects, plants, mammals, and microorganisms . . . European expeditions brought cattle, sheep, and horses, along with crops like sugarcane (originally from New Guinea), wheat (from the Middle East), bananas (from Africa), and coffee (also from Africa) . . . " -From Charles C. Mann, historian, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, 2011. *How was the population of the Old World affected by the process Mann describes?*
Population increased as new crops were introduced, improving diets and increasing life expectancy. New World crops like the potato and manioc were very nutritious.
Can you name two positive and two negative effects of the Columbian Exchange?
Positive effect of Columbian Exchange: - The Columbian Exchange brought over new crops Positive effect of Columbian Exchange: - Technology innovations such as the compass, the carvel and astro Made it possible for large scale trade network Negative effect of Columbian Exchange: - one negative effect of the Columbian exchange is all of the diseases that European colonizers brought over to the New World. By disrupting ecosystems when colonizing and bringing new animals like pigs over. Negative effect of Columbian Exchange:
Read the passage and answer the question below. "By virtue of the said ransom, let ships go there and bring away as many male and female Negroes as possible, newly imported and between the ages of fifteen to eighteen or twenty years. . . .The burden of work of the Indians will be eased and unlimited amounts of gold will be mined. This is the best land in the world for Negroes, women and old men, and it is very rarely that one of these people die." *Alonso de Zuazo, Spanish colonial judge, 1518 This excerpt best reflects which of the following historical developments?*
Responses to the change in Native American population after exposure to European diseases. After the Native American labor force was decimated, the Europeans started to explore other options for labor, like African slavery.
Read the passage below and answer the question. "Wherefore . . . you have purposed with the favor of divine clemency to bring under your sway the said mainlands and islands with their residents and inhabitants and to bring them to the Catholic faith. Hence . . . [we] give, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon . . . all islands and mainlands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, by drawing and establishing a line from the Arctic pole, namely the north, to the Antarctic pole, namely the south . . . " -Pope Alexander VI's Demarcation Bull, May 4, 1493 *According to the passage, what was the main reason that Pope Alexander VI sanctioned Spanish colonization in the Americas?*
Spreading Catholicism to Native Americans. Pope Alexander begins this passage by mentioning explorers' desire to "bring [native people] to the Catholic faith."
The Incan Empire was a civilization with a powerful federal government, located in
The Andean Mountains of South America. The Incas lived in modern-day Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, and Columbia.
Read the passage below and answer the question. "Wherefore . . . you have purposed with the favor of divine clemency to bring under your sway the said mainlands and islands with their residents and inhabitants and to bring them to the Catholic faith. Hence . . . [we] give, grant, and assign to you and your heirs and successors, kings of Castile and Leon . . . all islands and mainlands found and to be found, discovered and to be discovered towards the west and south, by drawing and establishing a line from the Arctic pole, namely the north, to the Antarctic pole, namely the south . . . " -Pope Alexander VI's Demarcation Bull, May 4, 1493 *What was Pope Alexander's purpose in establishing the demarcation line he describes in this passage?*
To stave off competition from Portuguese explorers. In this Papal Bull, and the Treaty of Tordesillas negotiated soon afterward, Spain and Portugal split the world between themselves.
