Bell Work

• What do you think was the most important item exchanged in the Columbian Exchange from each side and why?

Spain Builds an Empire

Objectives

• Students will identify reasons for European exploration and colonization of North America.[2A]

• Students will identify selected racial, ethnic, and religious groups that settled in the United States and explain their reasons for immigration.[23A]

Spain gets a Head Start

• Because of Columbus, the Spanish had a head start in getting to the new world. Spain sent Conquistadors to conquer parts of North and South America.

• Spain had three main goals in conquering the Americas. These goals are known as the three G’s. They were God, Gold, and Glory.

Spain

Cortez & Natives are SHOCKED!

• A Spaniard by the name of Cortez was one of the first Conquistadors to make it to the new world. He had heard stories of a wealthy native American tribe in Mexico. They were the Aztecs.

• As Cortez approached, the Aztecs had no idea what to think. They had never seen ships like the Spanish had, and they had never seen horses. Montezuma, the leader of the Aztecs, thought Cortez was a God.

• Cortez was then able to kill Montezuma and conquer the Aztecs.

Pizzaro and the Incas

• Meanwhile, another conquistador named Francisco Pizarro set his sights on the Incan Enpire. Pizarro and his men, only numbering about 200, were able to capture the Incan Emperor and execute him. The rest of the Incans quickly collapsed.

Why so easy?• So why did two great empires like

the Aztecs and the Incas fall so easily? Well, one reason was that the Spanish had superior weapons and other military equipment. Another reason is that both empires were scared of the Spanish. Neither the Aztecs nor the Incas had ever seen a white man. Neither really knew if the Spanish were gods or not. Lastly, many of the Incas and Aztecs were dying from the European diseases. Many historians think that diseases alone would have conquered all of Mexico.

• Once we had killed off most of the Native Americans in Mexico, Spain began to send over settlers to make colonies. They built pueblos (towns), presidios (military housing), and missions (churches).

Review

• Why were the Spanish able to conquer the Americas so easily?

Spanish Social Classes• The new Colonies in Spain had a

very strict social class system. Having social classes means that people judge how good or valuable you are just by who your parents are. There were four social classes. The highest were the Peninsulares. They were people who were actually born in Spain. The Peninsulares had the best jobs. The next highest were the creoles. These were people born in the Americas, but their parents were both Spanish. Next came the mestizos. These were people who had one Spanish parent and one Native American Parent. The lowest were the Native Americans. These were people with both parents being Native Americans.

Slavery Begins in North America

• The Native Americans endured a hard life. They were forced into hard labor and slavery. Native Americans made poor slaves, though. They just kept dying from the European diseases. The Spanish had to come up with another way to get slave labor.

• As more and more Spanish moved to the Americas, and as the King of Spain demanded more and more gold, the Spanish had to figure out a way to get the slave labor that they needed. The Spanish solution was to import slaves from Africa. These Spanish knew that the Africans would be immune to European diseases, and they also thought that the Africans wouldn’t mind slavery so much since they were so used to hard labor.

• This was the beginning of the slave trade in the Americas. Before it was over, more than 10 million enslaved Africans would be transported here.

Review

• Why weren’t Native Americans good slaves?

• Who did the Spanish turn to as a labor source?

Notebook Assignment

• Pretend you are an Aztec and have just witnessed the arrival of Cortez and the Spanish. Write a letter to Moctezuma describing what you see. Be very descriptive because Moctezuma doesn’t know what a gun, horse, armor, sword, ships,etc are.