The Origins of the Euro-American World

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The Origins of the Euro-American World

• Intro
• Geo-Political Position of Europe in the 15th
  Century
• Imagining Geographies
• Mastering the Atlantic
• Ecological Imperialism
• Note http//www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/jamesm

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Seminar Question for Week 6

• What are the "different approaches to the term
  landscape" (193) that Seymour identifies? What
  complications does she point to in interpreting
  the meaning of landscapes?

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Geo-Political Position of Europe

• Fall of Constantinople, 1453
• Sense of geographic and religious claustrophobia
• Reconquista
• Union of Aragorn and Castille (Ferdinand and
  Isabella), 1469

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Major Trade Routes Muslim World, 1500
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Imagining Geographies

• Popular press
• Henry the Navigator
• Norse colonies
• Antilia Hy-Brazil
• Columbus the size of the world

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North Atlantic Basin
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LAnse aux Meadows
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Techniques, Technology, and Knowledge

• Spanish Portugese Navigators
• Caravel
• Navigation
• Trade Winds Westerlies
• Volta de mar
• Canaries
• Azores
• Madeira
• Guanches

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Ocean Winds - January
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Ocean Winds - July
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Columbus

• Distance to Asia
• Everyone 10,000-12,000 miles
• Columbus 3,500 miles
• Indians
• Hispaniola
• 300,000 in 1492
• 33,000 in 1510
• 500 in 1548
• John Cabot Newfoundland
• Amerigo Vespucci

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Ecological Imperialism

• 50 million people in Americas 1492
• Virgin soil epidemics
• 50 right away
• 90 over time
• Smallpox
• Why?
• Trade
• Urbanization
• Domesticated animals
• Weeds, rats, livestock