Exploration & Expansion

3.04 Examine European exploration and analyze the forces that caused and allowed the acquisition of colonial

possessions and trading privileges in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

3.05 Cite the effects of European expansion on Africans, pre-Columbian Americans, Asians, and Europeans.

Motives & Means• Five European powers, led by Portugal

and Spain, engaged in an age of exploration. All rose to new economic heights.

• Motives for European exploration include “God, glory, and gold”– God/Religious zeal – Explorers such as

Hernán Cortés were interested in sharing the Catholic faith with native peoples.

– Glory/There was an increased desire for grandeur, glory, and the spirit of adventure.

– Gold/Economic interests – Europeans wanted to expand trade and locate spices and precious metals.

A Race for Riches• Portugal took the lead in

European exploration under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator.

• Portuguese ships traveled along the western coast of Africa, finding gold and other goods.

• Vasco de Gama traveled around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, and landed in India in 1498.

A Race for Riches• The Portuguese captured the

important port city of Melaka on the Malay Peninsula, which enabled the Portuguese to control the spice trade that had been dominated by Arab traders.

• The Portuguese used seamanship, guns, and treaties to control the spice trade. However, they did not have the people, wealth, or desire to expand their empire in Asia.

A Race for Riches• Christopher Columbus was

an explorer who sailed for Spain. Columbus searched for a western route to Asia and landed at Cuba and Hispaniola in 1492.

• The Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the tip of South America and into the Pacific Ocean. Magellan is credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

A Race for Riches• In 1494, Portugal and Spain

signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, separating control of the newly discovered lands.

• John Cabot, a Venetian, explored the New England coastline of the Americas for England.

• The writings of Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine mapmaker, led to the use of the name “America” for the newly discovered lands in the western hemisphere.

The Spanish Empire• The Spanish conquistadors

established an overseas empire in the Americas.

• In 1519 Hernán Cortés and his Spanish allies were welcomed into Tenochtitlán by the Aztec monarch Montezuma. The Spanish were expelled from the city one year later.

• When the Spaniards left, smallpox devastated the Aztec capital. The Spanish returned and captured the city, and the Aztec Empire was destroyed.

• http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp

The Spanish Empire• In 1530 Francisco Pizarro led an

expedition into the Inca Empire. Like the Aztec, the Incas were no match for Spanish disease, guns, and horses.

• Pizarro established a new capital for the Spanish colony at Lima.

• The Spanish used a system of colonial administration called the encomienda system— the right of landowners to use Native Americans as laborers.

The Spanish Empire• Spanish landowners could use

Native Americans for labor in return for protection and converting them to Christianity.

• Native American political and social structures were torn apart and replaced by European systems of religion, language, and government.

• The exchange of plants, animals, and disease between Europe and the Americas is known as the Columbian Exchange.

European Rivals• The Dutch formed the East

India Company to compete with the English and Portuguese for the Indian Ocean trade.

• The Dutch also formed the West India Company to compete with the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas.

• By the early seventeen century, the Dutch established settlements in North America such as New Netherland.

European Rivals• In the 1600s, the French

colonized parts of present-day Louisiana and regions of Canada.

• The English began to settle the eastern seaboard of North America and islands in the Caribbean Sea.

• In 1664, the English seized the harbor of New Netherland from the Dutch and renamed it New York.

The Colonies & Trade• The nations of Europe

created trading empires and established colonies in the Americas and in the East.

• Colonies were an integral part of mercantilism, an economic theory based on gold and a limited amount of wealth inthe world.

Mercantilism• Colonies provided raw

materials and markets for finished goods.

• To bring in more gold, nations tried to have a favorable balance of trade and export more goods than they imported.

• To encourage exports, governments granted subsidies and improved transportation systems.

The Slave Trade

• Slavery had existed since ancient times, and African slaves served as domestic servants in Southwest Asia.

• The demand for slaves changed dramatically with the introduction of sugarcane. Labor was needed to work the plantations where sugarcane was grown.

The Slave Trade

• Slaves became an important commodity in the triangular trade that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

• As many as 10 million African slaves may have been brought to the Americas between 1500 and the late 1800s.

The Slave Trade• One reason for the high number

of exported slaves was the high mortality rate, especially during the Middle Passage, the journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

• The slave trade devastated the population of African communities near the coastal regions.

• Some African rulers, such as King Afonso, protested but were ignored by African and European slave traders.

Video Clips – Middle Passage

• Scenes from Amistad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nePOpkYwjY

Effects of the Slave Trade

• Effects of the slave trade in Africa:

– depopulated areas

– increased warfare

– loss of the strongest and youngest men and women

The Effects of the Slave Trade• The use of enslaved

Africans was widely accepted until the Society of Friends began to condemn it in the 1770s.

• The French abolished slavery in the 1790s; the English abolished slavery in 1807; and slavery continued in the United States until the 1860s.

Colonial Empires in Latin America

• In the 1500s, Portugal controlled Brazil, while Spain’s colonial possessions included parts of North America, Central America, and most of South America.

• The area of Central and South America became known as Latin America, and a unique social class system emerged.

Colonial Empires in Latin America• Colonial Latin America Social Order: – Peninsulares: Spanish and Portuguese

officials born in Europe; they held all important government positions.

– Creoles: Descendants of Europeans who were born in Latin America; they controlled business and land.

– Mestizos: The offspring of European and Native American intermarriage.

– Mulattoes: The offspring of Africans and Europeans.

– Conquered Native Americans and enslaved Africans.

Colonial Empires in Latin America• Europeans utilized the

Native Americans as labor.

• Gold and silver from the colonies offered immediate wealth to the Europeans. Products, such as tobacco, sugar, and animal hides were traded to Europe in return for finished products.

Colonial Empires in Latin America• To control their colonial

possessions in the Americas, Portugal and Spain used governor-generals to develop a bureaucracy and carry out imperial policies.

• Catholic missionaries were also instrumental in converting and maintaining order within the colonial territories.

• The Catholic Church provided an outlet other than marriage for women. Many nuns like Juana Inés de la Cruz, urged convents to educate women on subjects beyond religion.

Vocabulary 1

• Colony: a settlement of people living in a new territory, linked with the parent country by trade and direct government control

Vocabulary 2

• Mercantilism: a set of principles that dominated economic thought in the seventeenth century; it held that the prosperity of a nation depended on a large supply of gold and silver

Vocabulary 3

• triangular trade: a pattern of trade that connected Europe, Africa and Asia, and the American continents; typically, manufactured goods from Europe were sent to Africa, where they were exchanged for enslaved persons, who were sent to the Americas, where they were exchanged for raw materials that were then sent to Europe

Vocabulary 4

• Middle Passage: the journey of enslaved persons from Africa to the Americas, so called because it was the middle portion of the triangular trade route