2.1 Portuguese Exploration and Spanish Conquest
The traditional European narrative of exploration presents the victory of the Spanish over the Aztec as an example of the superiority of the Europeans over the "savage Indians." However, the reality is far more complex. When Cortés explored central Mexico, he encountered a region simmering with conflict. Far from being unified and content under Aztec rule, many peoples in Mexico resented it and were ready to rebel. One group in particular, the Tlaxcalan, threw their lot in with the Spanish, providing as many as 200,000 fighters in the siege of Tenochtitlán. The Spanish also brought smallpox into the valley of Mexico. The disease took a heavy toll on the people in Tenochtitlán, playing a much greater role in the city's demise than did Spanish force of arms.
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Unlike Columbus, he realized that the Americas were not part of Asia but lands unknown to Europeans.
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Using the explorer's first name as a label for the new landmass, Waldseemuller attached "America" to his map of the New World in 1507, and the name stuck.
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Vespucci's widely published accounts of his voyages fueled speculation and intense interest in the New World among Europeans.
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While they are filled with distortions and fabrications, probanzas de méritos are still useful in illustrating the expectation of wealth among the explorers as well as their view that native peoples would not pose a serious obstacle to colonization.
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Portugal also established trading posts with what 2 Asian countries?
China and Japan
Who are the most famous Spanish adventurers?
Christopher Columbus (who, though Italian himself, explored on behalf of the Spanish monarchs), Hernàn Cortés, and Francisco Pizarro
Where was Christopher Columbus originally from even though he is Spain's most famous explorer?
Genoa, Italy
Starting in 1485, he approached which monarchs, asking for ships and funding to explore this westward route?
Genoese, Venetian, Portuguese, English, and Spanish
What did Columbus name the island he landed on?
Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti)
In 1492, they completed the Reconquista: the centuries-long Christian conquest of the ____ ____
Iberian Peninsula
The Spanish monarchs knew that Portuguese mariners had reached the southern tip of Africa and sailed which ocean?
Indian Ocean
What were Columbus's three ships?
Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria
During the 15th century, Spain hoped to gain advantage over its rival...
Portugal
Which country did Spain surpass as the dominant European power in the 1500s?
Portugal
Today they highlight the difficult task of historical work; while the letters are primary sources, historians need to understand the context and the culture in which the conquistadors, as the Spanish adventurers came to be called, wrote them and distinguish their bias and subjective nature
Probanzas de méritos
From these strategic points, Portugal spread its empire down the western coast of Africa to the Congo, along the western coast of India, and eventually to Brazil on the eastern coast of ___
South America
The Reconquista marked another step forward in the process of making what?
Spain an imperial power, and Ferdinand and Isabella were now ready to look further afield
With Prince Henry's support, Portuguese mariners successfully navigated an eastward route to Africa, establishing what?
a foothold there that became a foundation of their nation's trade empire in the 15th and 16th centuries
Why and when did Ferdinand and Isabella agree to finance Columbus's expedition in 1492?
after 3 years of entreaties, and, more important, the completion of the Reconquista, supplying him with 3 ships
What kind of era did the Portuguese colonization of Atlantic islands in the 1400s inaugurate?
an era of aggressive European expansion across the Atlantic
Merchants would use these Atlantic outposts as what?
debarkation points for subsequent journeys
Columbus's 1493 letter—or probanza de mérito (proof of merit)—describing his "discovery" of a New World did much to inspire ___ in Europe.
excitement
Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator started which movement for his country?
exploration of Africa and the Atlantic in the 1400s
To those ends, Ferdinand and Isabella sponsored what?
extensive Atlantic exploration
Upon Columbus's return to Spain, the Spanish crown bestowed on him the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and named him ____ and ___ of the lands he had discovered.
governor and viceroy
What did Columbus believe about the Earth?
he believed it was much smaller than its actual size and, since he did not know the existence of the Americas, he fully expected to land in Asia
The Portuguese also traded these enslaved people, which introduced what to other European nations?
much-needed human capital
While the Portuguese didn't rule over an immense landmass, their strategic holdings of islands and coastal ports gave them almost unrivaled control of ____ ___ ___ and a global empire of ____ ___ during the 1400s
nautical trade routes; trading posts
What was Probanzas de méritos
reports and letters written by Spaniards in the New World to the Spanish crown, designed to win royal patronage
In the following years, as European exploration spread, what also spread?
slavery
Seeing the value of this source of labor in growing the profitable crop of ___ on their Atlantic islands, the Portuguese soon began exporting enslaved Africans along with African ivory and gold
sugar
What fueled the Atlantic slave trade?
sugar
What did the Portuguese islands quickly become home to?
sugar plantations
The travels of Portuguese traders to western Africa introduced them to what?
the African slave trade, already brisk among African states
Portuguese mariners built an Atlantic empire by colonizing what islands?
the Canary, Cape Verde, Azores, and the island of Madeira
Where did Columbus think he landed?
the East Indies and he called the native Taínos "Indios" which gave rise to the term Indian for any native people of the New World
What marked the earliest phase of globalization?
this age of exploration and the subsequent creation of an Atlantic World, in which previously isolated groups--Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans--first came into contact with each other, sometimes with disastrous results
What was Ferdinand and Isabella's goal?
to expand Catholicism and to gain a commercial advantage over Portugal
All those he petitioned--including Ferdinand and Isabella at first--rebuffed him; their nautical experts all concurred that Columbus's estimates of the width of the Atlantic Ocean were far too low. True or False?
true
As a devoted Catholic, Columbus had agreed with Ferdinand and Isabella prior to sailing west that part of the expected wealth from his voyage would be used to continue the fight against Islam. True or False?
true
Columbus held erroneous views that shaped his thinking about what he would encounter as he sailed west. True or False?
true
Columbus's discovery opened a floodgate of Spanish exploration. True or False?
true
In time, much of the Atlantic World would become a gargantuan sugar-plantation complex in which Africans labored to produce the highly profitable commodity for European consumers
true
On October 12, 1492, however, he made landfall on an island in the Bahamas
true
Since the 700s, much of Spain had been under Islamic rule, and King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I, arch-defenders of the Catholic Church against Islam, were determined to defeat the Muslims in Granada, the last Islamic stronghold in Spain. True or False?
true
The history of Spanish exploration begins with the history of Spain itself. True or False?
true
They understood that the Portuguese would soon reach Asia and, in this competitive race to reach the Far East, the Spanish rulers decided to act. True or False?
true
The Spanish established the first European settlements in America. True or False?
true; beginning in the Caribbean and, by 1600, extending throughout Central and South America
What came with the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469?
unified Catholic Spain and began the process of building a nation that could compete for worldwide power
What did Christopher Columbus believe in?
using calculations based on other mariners' journeys, he could chart a westward route to India, which could be used to expand European trade and spread Christianity
1000s of Spaniards flocked to the Americas seeking what?
wealth and status
Among those who read Vespucci's reports was the German mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller.
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Another Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for the Portuguese crown, explored the South American coastline between 1499 and 1502.
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Columbus would make three more voyages over the next decade, establishing Spain's first settlement in the New World on the island of Hispaniola.
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Copies of the letter were soon circulating all over Europe, spreading news of the wondrous new land that Columbus had "discovered."
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Cortés arrived on Hispaniola in 1504 and took part in the conquest of that island.
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The exploits of European explorers had a profound impact both in the Americas and back in Europe. An exchange of ideas, fueled and financed in part by New World commodities, began to connect European nations and, in turn, to touch the parts of the world that Europeans conquered. In Spain, gold and silver from the Americas helped to fuel a golden age, the Siglo de Oro, when Spanish art and literature flourished. Riches poured in from the colonies, and new ideas poured in from other countries and new lands. The Hapsburg dynasty, which ruled a collection of territories including Austria, the Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, and Spain, encouraged and financed the work of painters, sculptors, musicians, architects, and writers, resulting in a blooming of Spanish Renaissance culture. One of this period's most famous works is the novel The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes. This two-volume book (1605 and 1618) told a colorful tale of an hidalgo (gentleman) who reads so many tales of chivalry and knighthood that he becomes unable to tell reality from fiction. With his faithful sidekick Sancho Panza, Don Quixote leaves reality behind and sets out to revive chivalry by doing battle with what he perceives as the enemies of Spain.
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Above all else, the Aztec wealth in gold fascinated the Spanish adventurers.
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Cortés was also aided by a Nahua woman called Malintzin (also known as La Malinche or Doña Marina, her Spanish name), whom the natives of Tabasco gave him as tribute. Malintzin translated for Cortés in his dealings with Moctezuma and, whether willingly or under pressure, entered into a physical relationship with him. Their son, Martín, may have been the first mestizo (person of mixed indigenous American and European descent). Malintzin remains a controversial figure in the history of the Atlantic World; some people view her as a traitor because she helped Cortés conquer the Aztecs, while others see her as a victim of European expansion. In either case, she demonstrates one way in which native peoples responded to the arrival of the Spanish. Without her, Cortés would not have been able to communicate, and without the language bridge, he surely would have been less successful in destabilizing the Aztec Empire. By this and other means, native people helped shape the conquest of the Americas.
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Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was born into a noble family and went to Mexico, then called New Spain, in 1535. He presided as governor over the province of Nueva Galicia, where he heard rumors of wealth to the north: a golden city called Quivira. Between 1540 and 1542, Coronado led a large expedition of Spaniards and native allies to the lands north of Mexico City, and for the next several years, they explored the area that is now the southwestern United States (Figure 2.6). During the winter of 1540-41, the explorers waged war against the Tiwa in present-day New Mexico. Rather than leading to the discovery of gold and silver, however, the expedition simply left Coronado bankrupt.
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He and his men were astonished by the incredibly sophisticated causeways, gardens, and temples in the city, but they were horrified by the practice of human sacrifice that was part of the Aztec religion.
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Hernán Cortés hoped to gain hereditary privilege for his family, tribute payments and labor from natives, and an annual pension for his service to the crown.
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Hoping to gain power over the city, Cortés took Moctezuma, the Aztec ruler, hostage. The Spanish then murdered hundreds of high-ranking Mexica during a festival to celebrate Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. This angered the people of Tenochtitlán, who rose up against the interlopers in their city. Cortés and his people fled for their lives, running down one of Tenochtitlán's causeways to safety on the shore. Smarting from their defeat at the hands of the Aztec, Cortés slowly created alliances with native peoples who resented Aztec rule. It took nearly a year for the Spanish and the tens of thousands of native allies who joined them to defeat the Mexica in Tenochtitlán, which they did by laying siege to the city. Only by playing upon the disunity among the diverse groups in the Aztec Empire were the Spanish able to capture the grand city of Tenochtitlán. In August 1521, having successfully fomented civil war as well as fended off rival Spanish explorers, Cortés claimed Tenochtitlán for Spain and renamed it Mexico City.
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Hoping to salvage Portugal's Atlantic holdings, King João II began negotiations with Spain.
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In 1493, Columbus sent two copies of a probanza de mérito to the Spanish king and queen and their minister of finance, Luis de Santángel.
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In 1519, he entered Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec (Mexica) Empire.
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In the 1480s, Pope Sixtus IV had granted Portugal the right to all land south of the Cape Verde islands, leading the Portuguese king to claim that the lands discovered by Columbus belonged to Portugal, not Spain. Seeking to ensure that Columbus's finds would remain Spanish, Spain's monarchs turned to the Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI, who issued two papal decrees in 1493 that gave legitimacy to Spain's Atlantic claims at the expense of Portugal.
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Inspired by tales of rivers of gold and timid, malleable natives, later Spanish explorers were relentless in their quest for land and gold.
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Many other Europeans followed in Columbus's footsteps, drawn by dreams of winning wealth by sailing west.
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Santángel had supported Columbus's voyage, helping him to obtain funding from Ferdinand and Isabella.
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Spain attracted innovative foreign painters such as El Greco, a Greek who had studied with Italian Renaissance masters like Titian and Michelangelo before moving to Toledo. Native Spaniards created equally enduring works. Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), painted by Diego Velázquez in 1656, is one of the best-known paintings in history. Velázquez painted himself into this imposingly large royal portrait (he's shown holding his brush and easel on the left) and boldly placed the viewer where the king and queen would stand in the scene
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Spain's acquisitiveness seemingly knew no bounds as groups of its explorers searched for the next trove of instant riches. One such explorer, Francisco Pizarro, made his way to the Spanish Caribbean in 1509, drawn by the promise of wealth and titles. He participated in successful expeditions in Panama before following rumors of Inca wealth to the south. Although his first efforts against the Inca Empire in the 1520s failed, Pizarro captured the Inca emperor Atahualpa in 1532 and executed him one year later. In 1533, Pizarro founded Lima, Peru. Like Cortés, Pizarro had to combat not only the natives of the new worlds he was conquering, but also competitors from his own country; a Spanish rival assassinated him in 1541.
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Spain's drive to enlarge its empire led other hopeful conquistadors to push further into the Americas, hoping to replicate the success of Cortés and Pizarro. Hernando de Soto had participated in Pizarro's conquest of the Inca, and from 1539 to 1542 he led expeditions to what is today the southeastern United States, looking for gold. He and his followers explored what is now Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas. Everywhere they traveled, they brought European diseases, which claimed thousands of native lives as well as the lives of the explorers. In 1542, de Soto himself died during the expedition. The surviving Spaniards, numbering a little over three hundred, returned to Mexico City without finding the much-anticipated mountains of gold and silver.
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The 1492 Columbus landfall accelerated the rivalry between Spain and Portugal, and the two powers vied for domination through the acquisition of new lands.
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The resulting Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 drew a north-to-south line through South America (Figure 2.5); Spain gained territory west of the line, while Portugal retained the lands east of the line, including the east coast of Brazil.
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