APUSH - Topic 1.3 European Exploration in the Americas

Explain the causes of exploration and conquest of the New World by various European nations

How did the Renaissance contribute to the European voyages to North America

• new developments in technology

  • shipbuilding, mapmaking

  • printing press aided spread of knowledge

What religious conflict in Europe led to the exploration of the New World

• victory of Catholics in Spain

  • Spanish Christians reconquered majority of Spain

  • funded Christopher Columbus’s journey

• Protestant revolt in Northern Europe

  • Protestant Reformation (Catholics vs. Protestants)

  • Northern Europe revolted against Pope

  • many deaths

  • people wanted to spread their own religion to other parts of the world

How did the expansion of trade lead to increased voyages to the West?

• wanted to find new routes to Asia (where there was good trade)

How did territorial changes in Europe lead to the exploration of the New World?

• small kingdoms uniting into larger ones, large kingdoms splitting into smaller ones

• nation-states

  • countries sharing common culture and loyalty to a central government

  • depended on trade for revenue

Where were the Spanish and Portuguese claims to the Americas

• overlapping claims decided by the Pope

• line of demarcation drawing in 1493

  • West → Spain; East → Portugal

• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

  • moved line a few degrees to the West

What were the French and English claims to North America

• slow to develop colonies in the Americas (busy dealing with inner conflict)

• English → began to attack Spanish ships and settlements (late 1500s)

• French → wanted to find passage to Asia through Americas