Chapter 2: Exploring the Americas

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Chapter 2 Exploring the Americas
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I. A Changing World

• A. Expanding Horizons
• Marco Polo and the Crusades published Travels
  after returning 1295
• Would inspire Columbus
• 1. Growing Interest
• goods and his book fuel this
• 2. Growth of Trade
• Pope Urban II called a Crusade in 1095
• Merchants bringing back spices cinnamon, pepper,
  cloves
• Merchant cities of Genoa, Venice, and Pisa
  prospered
• Called Commercial Rev. to pay for goods, farmers
  produced more for a surplus, granted more
  liberties by owners
• Broke down feudalism

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Expanding Horizons Cont.

• 3. Growth of Ideas and the Renaissance
• Italian city-states wealthy, had free time, began
  exploring its history
• New interest in Classics
• Humanism explore and question ideas.
• Apply many subjects
• People think critically about everything, thirst
  for knowledge
• Paves way for age of exploration and discovery
• It spread to rest of Europe

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B. Powerful Nations Emerge

• Population increasing in 1400s
• Monarchs also expanding power and getting rid of
  feudalism
• Want to cut out middle men in trade
• Spain, Portugal, France, and England

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C. Technology

• Printing press in 1456 gets Polos story out to
  more people
• 1. Maps, Navigation Instruments, and Ships
• Improved maps, the astrolabe, improved compasses,
  and better and faster ships allow explorers to
  travel farther away from home and shore
• Portuguese caravel an excellent ship, could go in
  shallow water and handle rough seas
• Spain and Portugal look for sea routes to Asia

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II. Early Exploration Vikings

• Leif Eriksson landed in Newfoundland, called it
  Vinland
• Founded a colony
• Erikssons brother Thorvald went and got in a
  skirmish with natives and was killed around 1000
• After 1010, voyages stopped, too many problems
  with natives
• It didnt last and the legend of the new land
  stayed alive only in Norse sagas

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A. Seeking New Trade Routes

• Maps only had three continents Europe, Asia and
  Africa
• No knowledge of other landmasses or size of
  oceans
• 1. Portuguese Exploration
• Took lead to fund voyages to China and India
• Prince Henry the Navigator funded and center for
  exploration in 1420
• Ships explored west coast of Africa
• Traded for gold, ivory, and slaves
• Became known as Gold Coast

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Seeking New Trade Routes Cont.

• 2. Dias and da Gama
• Bartholomeau Dias reached Cape of Good Hope in
  1488 but turned around because of a storm
• Vasco da Gama went around the Cape (1497) made it
  to Calicut in 1498
• Cabral swung so wide going around Africa that he
  hit Brazil 1500, claimed for Portugal

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B. Christopher Columbus

• Born in Genoa, Italy in 1451 Cristoforo Colombo
• Sailed for Portugal early years
• Most educated people believed earth was round
• Most underestimated the world was smaller
• He believed Asia was 2,400 miles to the west

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1. Spain Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand

• Reconquista over in 1492
• They will fund Columbus voyage
• He tried for years to get money
• 2. Columbuss First Voyage
• Left Aug. 3, 1492 in the Nina, Pinta, and Santa
  Maria with about 90 sailors
• Tierra! Tierra! sighted on Oct. 12, 1492 after
  crew was getting testy
• Landed on San Salvador in the Bahamas
• Claimed land for Spain and thought he was in the
  East Indies
• Estimated about 50 million natives in 1400
• Returned to Spain a great hero

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3. Later Voyages

• Went back in 1493, 1498, 1502
• Explored the Caribbean and parts of South and
  Central America
• Died thinking he found the Indies
• 4. Dividing the World Line of Demarcation
• 1493 Pope Alexander VI drew line in Atlantic to
  divide new lands Spain west of the line,
  Portugal east
• Later line mover farther west
• By then New World named America after the
  explorer Amerigo Vespucci

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5. Exploring the Pacific and the World

• Vasco Nunez de Balboa
• Saw the Pacific from Panama
• Ferdinand Magellan
• 1519 explored South America, finally rounds the
  Tierra del Fuego to see Pacific
• Sailed to Asia
• Took four months ate rats, sawdust, and leather
  to survive
• Magellan killed in Philippines
• Crew finally made it back to Spain, only one of
  the five ships and 18 of the 237 crew members
  made it
• First crew to circumnavigate the globe

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III. Spain in America

• A. Conquistadores Gold, Glory, and God
• Explorers had right to explore and establish
  settlements in Americas
• Had to give 1/5 of gold to the Spanish crown
• Greedy and ruthless, many times the second and
  third sons of estates
• Harsher to natives than other nations

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1. Cortes and the Aztecs

• Came to Tenochtitlan in 1519
• Invited to live there with Montezuma
• Cortes took him prisoner when he feared a
  rebellion
• Kicked out, got reinforcements and took the city
  in 1521 with only 500 men
• Reasons why
• Allies
• Horses
• Gunpowder
• Aztecs thought he was long lost god Quetzalcoatl
• Disease
• 2. Pizarro Conquers Peru
• 180 soldiers captured Atahualpa in 1532
• Destroyed much of their army and took over the
  empire
• Moved the capital to Lima

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B. Spain in North America

• 1. Seven Cities of Gold, Garden of Eden, and the
  Fountain of Youth
• Juan Ponce de Leon
• Explored Florida for fountain
• His exploration led to first permanent settlement
  in 1565, St. Augustine
• Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
• Explored Florida, sailed to Texas and lost most
  of the expedition
• Had to live with Natives to survive
• Finally made it to Mexico and told tales of
  cities of gold

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1. Seven Cities of Gold, Garden of Eden, and the
Fountain of Youth cont.

• Hernando de Soto
• Explored southeastern U.S., first to cross the
  Mississippi, died of fever
• Francisco Coronado
• Explored southwestern part of U.S
• No one ever found the cities of gold

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C. Spanish Rule

• Started pueblos, missions, and presidios
• Social Classes
• Peninsulares Spanish born, owned land, worked
  for church and ran the govt.
• Creoles Spanish descent born in America
• Mestizos Spanish and Indian mix
• Mullatoes African and White mix
• Natives usually slaves, had no rights
• Encomiendas
• Right to demand taxes and labor from Native
  Americans living on the land
• Made them slaves
• Plantation System
• Sugarcane and tobacco huge profits
• Indians dying so theyre replaced by Africans
• Portuguese do the same thing in Brazil

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IV. Exploring North America

• A. Divided Church
• Martin Luther and 95 Theses
• 1. Protestant Reformation and Rivalries
• John Calvin, Henry VIII
• Nations divided among Catholics and Protestants
• French and Spanish vs. Dutch and English
• Settled different regions

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B. Economic Rivalry

• Mercantilism
• A nations power was based on wealth
• Try to increase the amount of gold and silver in
  a country
• Compete for overseas territory
• 1. Columbian Exchange
• European Invasion
• Exchange goods, people, ideas between two
  continents

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2. Northwest Passage

• Look for quicker route to China
• England sends John Cabot to explore in 1497
• Lands on Newfoundland
• 1524 France sent Giovanni da Verrazano
• Lands in Nova Scotia, Jacques Cartier explores
  the St. Lawrence River
• Henry Hudson
• Sent by Dutch first, finds the Hudson River
• Later English sent him and he finds Hudson Bay,
• Sailors kicked him off, never seen again

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Northwest Passage cont.

• French Open Trading Post
• Didnt want an empire, wanted trade
• Set up trading posts for furs
• 1608 Quebec founded by Samuel de Champlains
  group
• Trappers called coureurs de bois
• Dutch Settlements
• Big fleet of merchant ships
• Dutch West Indies Co. set up in 1621 and New
  Netherlands
• New Amsterdam bought in 1624 for 24 dollars in
  beads, knives, trading goods for the island

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The 13 Colonies UnitRegions in Review

• Main Idea Each colonial region had
  characteristics that made the area unique when
  compared to the other colonies.

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NEW ENGLAND

• Climate Long winters and rocky soil
• People English settlers made up the largest
  group in the regions population
• Agriculture Subsistence Farming
• Trade/Industry Timber and Fishing (part of the
  Triangular Trade system) success led to the
  Navigation Acts
• Slavery Not economical for the region, but
  slaves that did reside in N.E. worked in stables,
  as servants, cooks, and gardeners.
• Religion Mainly Puritan/Anglican

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Middle Colonies

• Climate Short winters and fertile soil
• People Immigrants from all over Europe (i.e
  German, Dutch, English, French, Irish)
• Agriculture Grew cash crops the Breadbasket
  colonies
• Trade/Industry Excellent harbors and trade led
  to the growth of large coastal cities
  (Philadelphia and New York)
• Slavery 7 of enslaved people lived with in the
  region- racial tensions led to some problems.
• Religion Climate of tolerance no single
  religious group dominated another

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Southern Colonies (Plantations and Slavery)

• Climate Warm climate and good soil (year round
  growing season)
• People German, English, enslaved Africans
• Agriculture Mass production of indigo, rice,
  tobacco, and cotton- on PLANTATIONS
• Trade/Industry Plantation economy- planter class
  (white plantation owners) top social latter, poor
  whites enslaved Africans have little power
• Slavery 85 of enslaved Africans lived in the
  region (40 of total population)
• Religion Fairly tolerant

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Important Vocab Words to define and apply

• Subsistence Farming
• Navigation Acts
• Cash Crops
• Conestoga Wagon
• Plantation system (define the economic system)
• Overseer
• Stono Rebellion
• Fallline
• Piedmont
• Clans

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Final Thoughts

• Each colonial region was distinct, factors that
  influenced their unique development include the
  following
• Climate
• People
• Agriculture
• Trade/Industry
• Views on and usage of slavery
• Religion