European Exploration

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European Exploration
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Background

• Europeans traveled to the Americas in the late
  15th century.
• Conditions there were harsh.
• Many Europeans died of disease or starvation.
• Others were killed by Native Americans.
• In turn, Europeans carried with them tools,
  goods, and diseases that would change Native
  Americans way of life forever.

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Background

• Europeans brought horses and guns to the
  Americas.
• These tools helped them travel across large areas
  and conquer people.
• With horses, Native Americans were able to travel
  and trade more easily.
• Guns also became important for native people.
• They made hunting easier and could be used as
  protection, too.

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Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each
Others Culture

• Many European countries believed it was their
  duty to spread Christianity.
• Various Christian missionaries created
  settlements in the Americas to convert Native
  Americans.
• A missionary is someone sent by a church to a
  foreign country to spread its faith.

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Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each
Others Culture

• The main functions of these mission settlements
  were to teach Native Americans the arts of
  civilization and to convert them to
  Christianity.
• For the Native Americans, the missions
  represented a means to help them learn European
  languages in order to trade and negotiate in an
  increasingly white world.

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Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each
Others Culture

• Soon after the arrival of Europeans, slavery
  began in the Americas.
• Native Americans were enslaved to work on the
  sugar plantations in the West Indies.
• Diseases such as smallpox and measles, brought by
  European settlers, killed many native people.
• The Native American population was too small for
  the large amount of work on the plantations.
• Europeans had to look to another source of
  workers to enslave.

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Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each
Others Culture

• It was hard for Europeans to live in the
  Americas.
• They were not familiar with local food crops.
  Supplies from Europe took months to arrive.
• Some Europeans were friendly with Native
  Americans.
• They learned how to farm crops such as maize from
  the Native Americans.
• Many European colonies would not have survived
  without help from Native Americans.

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Early Spanish Missions

• Most early European exploration of the American
  Southeast was done by the Spanish.
• They launched ships from bases in the Caribbean,
  Mexico, and Florida.
• They explored the coastline of the Southeast.

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Early Spanish Missions

• They observed the barrier islands that line the
  coast of Georgia.
• These islands were easier for ships to access
  than the mainland was.
• Early missions were built on these islands.
• From those missions, the Spanish then explored
  the coast.

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Early Spanish Missions

• The purpose of the missions was to convert Native
  Americans to Catholicism.
• Natives Americans used the missions to help
  integrate themselves into the European world.
• Mission settlements usually were located in
  chiefdoms and contained at least one church, and
  a house for the missionary.

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Hernando de Soto

• Hernando de Soto of Spain was the first European
  to see the interior of the American Southeast,
  including Georgia.
• De Soto landed on the coast of Florida in 1539.
• His party was large and well-equipped. He met
  many Native Americans along his way.
• De Soto was looking for gold.

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Hernando de Soto

• He exploited many Native Americans in his attempt
  to find it.
• At times, this exploitation meant befriending
  them.
• Other times, it meant robbing or killing Native
  Americans.
• After a three-year campaign, de Soto died without
  finding any gold.

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Hernando de Soto

• De Soto and his party were the only Europeans to
  see many Native American cultures before they
  declined.
• De Soto wrote of his contact with the native
  peoples.
• Today, historians benefit from de Sotos
  writings, Ironically, his party spread disease
  throughout the Native American culture,
  contributing to its collapse.

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Causes of European Exploration

• Europeans needed spices from East Asia. Asian
  trade goods were sold by Arab traders.
• Since spices were very expensive, Europeans
  wanted to find a safe and fast way to reach Asia
  and acquire the spices directly.
• They spent a lot of money to find this passage.
• The country that found the western passage to
  Asia would control trade between Europe and Asia.
  
• As a result of the Asian trade route
  explorations, the Americas were discovered.

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Causes of European Exploration

• After Christopher Columbus reached the Americas
  in 1492, rumors of the New Worlds wealth spread.
  
• The stories spoke of cities where the streets
  were paved with gold.
• The possibility of wealth and the power to
  control trade led all European countries that
  could afford it to spend money exploring the
  Americas.

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France

• In 1562, France sent explorers to North America
  in search of gold.
• The French explorers made their way to South
  Carolina.
• There, they started a colony called Charlesfort.
  
• Soon, the explorers ran out of supplies and food.

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France

• A ship returned to France to get more supplies,
  but did not return to Charlesfort until 1565.
• By that time, the settlers had left.
• The French also founded a colony in 1564 called
  Fort Caroline, in Florida.

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Spain

• The Spanish, like all Europeans, were looking for
  wealth in North America.
• They destroyed Fort Caroline to stop competition
  with the French over the wealth of the Americas.
• In 1568, they built the first missions in the
  area of Florida where Fort Caroline had been.
• This was the beginning of the mission period in
  the Southeast.

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Spain

• The missions were built to spread Catholicism.
• Missions were also used to integrate Native
  Americans as members of a new form of society
  ruled by the Spanish colonial government.
• This helped the Spanish control them.

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Spain

• Local chiefs still led Native Americans, but the
  chiefs were ruled by the Spanish colonial
  government.
• The Spanish colonial government used the missions
  to communicate with the Native Americans.
• Native Americans and Europeans also traded goods
  at missions.
• Eventually, the mission system declined.

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Spain

• Native populations in the Southeast were
  shrinking due to deaths.
• Many missions were left empty.
• Slave revolts and English raids destroyed the
  rest.
• The mission period ended in 1684.

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England

• Queen Elizabeth I ruled Great Britain from 1558
  to 1603.
• She was a Protestant, which is a Christian
  religion that differs from Catholicism in its
  practice.
• Great Britain was the enemy of Spain, a Catholic
  state.
• Philip II, the ruler of Spain, built the Spanish
  Armada, a large and powerful naval fleet, to
  attack the British.

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England

• In 1588, the British defeated the Spanish Armada.
  
• British naval dominance enabled it to explore the
  Americas.
• It also signaled the decline of Spanish power in
  the Americas.

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England

• The British came to the Americas hoping to find
  gold.
• They also realized they could make money by
  trading other items such as copper and furs.
• They also traded enslaved Native Americans.
• Many British slaves came from Georgias Native
  American population.

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England

• The slave trade resulted in the deaths of many
  Native Americans.
• Many became involved in trading slaves
  themselves.
• Others moved away from the region.
• There are few records of what happened to most of
  the Native Americans who once lived in Georgia.

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Summary

• Describe why Europeans wanted to explore.
• What impact did Native Americans and Europeans
  have on each other? (Include both positive and
  negative)