1st motive: Monetary

2nd motive: Religious zeal

3rd motive: grandeur, glory and adventure

1488 – Bartholomeu Dias rounded the

southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)

1498 – Vasco da Gama went around the cape, across the

Indian Ocean to coast of India (HUGE profit on spices)

Christopher Columbus (Italian)

1492 – Queen Isabella of Spain financed

Hispaniola, coastline of Cuba

Treaty of Tordesillas

1519 Ferdinand Magellan

John Cabot: Venetian, explored New England coastline

for England

Pedro Cabral: Portuguese, 1500, South America

Amerigo Vespucci: Florentine, wrote letters describing

new land (“America”)

Hernan Cortes: overthrew Aztec Empire in Mexico

Francisco Pizarro: Incan Empire, Peruvian Andes

Forced labor, starvation and disease

1595 Dutch formed East India Company

English – trading posts in India and SE Asia, founded

Virginia and Massachusetts Bay Colony

French – colonized what is now Canada & Louisiana

(1608 – Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec)

Mercantilism: a set of principles that dominated

economic thought in 17th century

Colonies were sources of raw materials and markets

for finished goods

Slavery not new – existed since ancient times (usually

domestic slavery)

16th century Americas, chattel slavery on plantations

Sugarcane: Brazil and Caribbean islands

Natives, then imported slaves

Triangular Trade

Middle Passage

Deadly ocean journey

Slave Trade

Increased conflict and war

POW became slaves

Raided towns and villages for slaves

Devastated African states

Internal trading empires destroyed

Songhai Empire