Exploration and the Colonial Era

For nine days I was as one lost, without hope of life. Eyes never beheld the sea so angry, so high, so covered with foam. The wind not only prevented our progress, but offered no opportunity to run behind any headland for shelter; hence we were forced to keep out in this bloody ocean, seething like a pot on a hot fire. Never did the sky look more terrible…

-Columbus (4th Voyage)

European Societies of the 1400’s:

• Based on Social Hierarchy (Ranks) • Top of the Hierarchy were monarchs and the

aristocracy • Landowners• Members of the Clergy (Christianity)• Artisans and Merchants• Agricultural laborers or peasants

European Nations take shape in 1400’s:

• Four Major Nations Take Shape in Europe:

Portugal SpainFranceEngland• Strong Governments form • The raising of powerful armies• Collecting new taxes for

exploration and expansion • New allies were the growing

merchant class

European Expansion:

Renaissance or Cultural Rebirth

• Philosophers• Mathematicians • Geographers• Scientists • Sailing Technology

Improves• Introduction of the Caravel • Usage of the Compass and

astrolabe (Helped plot direction at sea)

• Navigation increases

Spanish North America:

• 1492 Christopher Columbus leaves Spain with a small fleet of ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

• Went ashore in the Caribbean Islands

• Encountered the Taino people• Claimed the area for Spain and

renamed the surrounding two larger islands, known today as Cuba and Hispaniola

European Exploration on Native Americans:

• Usage of native people for forced labor• Economic exploitation through the plantation

system• European advanced weapons dominate Native

Americans• Disease (Measles, Mumps, Chickenpox,

Smallpox, Typhus)

The Columbian Exchange:

• The global transfer of living things begin with Columbus’s first voyage

• Americas sends to Europe, Africa, and Asia

• Corn, potatoes, tobacco, peanut, turkey

• Europe, Africa, Asia sends to Americas

• Coffee, Grapes, grains, livestock• Disease

New World native plants. Clockwise, from top left: 1. Maize 2. Tomato 3. Potato 4. Vanilla 5. Pará rubber tree 6. Cacao 7. Tobacco

Old World native plants. Clockwise, from top left: 1. Citrus 2. Apple 3. Banana 4. Mango 5. Onion 6. Coffee 7. Wheat 8. Rice

Spanish Claim a New Empire:

• Hernán Cortés(Conquistador) subdues the Aztec Empire

• 508 men, 16 horses, 10 cannons Numerous dogs

• The Aztec Emperor Montezuma agrees to share gold with Cortez

• Cortez desires all and forces Aztecs to mine more gold and silver

• Aztecs rebel and force Cortez and the Spanish army to leave

• Disease sets in the populace of the Aztec Empire from Spanish exposure

• Cortez launches a counterstrike in 1521 with the help of some native allies

• Aztecs surrender

The Spanish Pattern of Conquest:

• Mestizo or mixed Spanish and Native American (population in Spanish colonies)

• Encomienda System: under this system, Natives farmed, ranched, or mined for Spanish landlords, who received rights to their labor

Picture from Códice Kingsborough showing an encomendero abusing an Indian.

Spain Explores the Southwest and West:

• Francisco Pizarro plunders the wealthy Incan empire in 1532

• In 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado travels through much of what is now Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, and Kansas in search of another wealthy empire to conquer

• He finds none and goes home empty handed

• Spanish open missions

Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado

The Coronado Expedition 1540–1542

Coronado Sets Out to the North, painted by Frederic Remington