AP US HISTORY


God, Glory, Gold

most trade route that was notable at the time and crucial was land routes


economic motives:

  1. Demand for Eastern luxury goods.

  2. Improved banking systems.

  3. Portugal was first.


God:

Europe was going through religious crisis in 15th and 16th centuries

Religious motives:

  1. Specifically Roman Catholic Christianity:

*played a significant role in creating European culture

  1. Simony:

*buying and selling of important church positions

  1. Sale of Indulgences:

*the exchange of money for forgiveness of sins

  1. Catholic Christianity v. Protestant Christianity

*no separation of church and state

*also led to political feuds and power struggles

  1. Spains Kingdoms Combine

*marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon

*led to Spanish Inquisition

*eliminated religious dissent In Spain

* expelled 200K Jews from Spain


This helped the elite maintain positions of power

In 1570 a reformer named Martin Luther stood up. He made the document known as the 95 theses. Nailed it to a church door in some place. = Pushed the protestant reformation.


Political Motives:


  1. Competition for colonial possessions

*wanted to shift balance of power in their favor

  1. New Political Reality: The Nation-State

*A political entity that governs a single, unified people

  1. Spain v. Portugal

*Because they were both Catholic states, pope settled dispute. Drew line of demarcation to settle New World territory questions


Columbian Exchange and Spanish Conquistadors

Increased Trade: Causes

  1. Improvements in Maritime technology

*Caravel: fast and highly navigable ship

  1. Joint-Stock companies “British East India Company”

*limited liability businesses

*money came from pool of investors that shared risk


The Colombian exchange refers to the transfer of diseases, plants, animals, minerals, and people

between the old world and the new world.


*Charted by state and funded by investors

*States had limited funds to invest in such risky ventures

Magnetic compass = gave accurate reckoning of direction

Astrolabe = gave accurate reckoning of lines of latitude




1607 = founding of Jamestown

1754 = French and Indian War begins

1763 = Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War, marking a significant shift in colonial power.

Spanish Goals

  1. Wealth Extraction

Minerals: Gold and Silver

Cash Crops: Sugar and Tobacco

Attempted to impose new social order

  • Encomienda system

- Subjugated native populations into slave labor. did not own land and were often forced to work on plantations for the benefit of European landowners, leading to a significant shift in the agricultural landscape.

  • Hacienda system

-Replaced encomienda system, economenderos owned large tracts of land

  1. Conversion to Christianity

  • Indigenous Resistance: Pueblo Revolt (1680)

-Killed hundreds of Spaniards

-Destroyed churches

-Reestablished their own cultural customs

  • Spanish returned later and subdued the pueblo tribes, leading to a significant decline in indigenous autonomy and cultural practices.

  1. Spanish Caste System

  • Alternatively: Casta System

  • A hierarchical structure that categorized individuals based on their race and ancestry, influencing social status and economic opportunities within the colonies.


The Spanish developed social systems to meet their labor needs and to consolidate their control over indigenous people , leading to the establishment of the hacienda system which allowed for large estates to be worked by native laborers under harsh conditions.


Don Juan de Onate : A Spanish explorer and colonial governor known for his brutal treatment of Native Americans and his establishment of settlements in present-day New Mexico.


The French emphasis in the Americas was not on establishing permanent settlements but rather on growing wealthy through trade partnerships with the various indigenous people groups, especially trade in fur


French / Dutch Partnership

  1. Negotiated alliances

  2. Missionaries

  3. Wealth was the goal

  • Were not interested in reshaping indigenous societies

  • New Amsterdam became significant trading port

Attracted merchants from all over the world


Joint stock companies were crucial in funding the exploration and colonization efforts, allowing investors to pool resources and share risks associated with new ventures. The establishment of New Amsterdam as a diverse commercial hub fostered cultural exchanges and economic growth, which would later influence the development of other colonial cities.


French/ Dutch Goals

  1. Few colonists in New World

  2. Build trading posts



Economienda system


Spanish Empire

  1. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued requirements - Legal document claiming Spain possessed biblical authority to rule in the Americas

legal document claiming Spain possessed biblical authority to rule in the Americas

  • Threatened violence to indigenous groups that defied the order

  • Read in Spanish rebukes any challenges to this edict, emphasizing the divine right granted to them to govern and convert the native populations to Christianity.

  • Hernan cortez destroyed Spain

  • Cortes Two Advantages

  • Spanish diseases weakened Aztecs (Ex. smallpox

Allied with indigenous groups under aztec rule

Francisco Pizarro - Incas destroyed by Spanish conquistadors due to similar strategies used by Hernán Cortés, including exploiting rivalries and advanced military technology.


Encomienda System: a system of coerced labor in which the Spanish crown granted tracts of land to Spanish encomenderos who forced the indigenous people within its borders into mining and plantation based agriculture

Enconmienda = slavery , as it forced native populations into harsh labor conditions without compensation, often leading to significant population decline due to disease and brutal treatment.


  1. Encomienda System

  2. Two sources of Wealth

  • Mining for gold and silver

  • Export of cash crops

  • sugar cane, tobacco, and cotton

  1. Indigenous Labor Breaks Down

  • Enslaved workers knew the land much better than Spanish

  • Allowed for frequent escapes

  • Enslaved workers died from Spanish diseases.

enslaved Africans = guns traded for them.

Africans had been incontact with european diseases so they were immune


Casta system was the spanish way of the econmienda system. Bottom was the untouchables = disposable - no social power and top was powerful


Spanish Caste

  1. No traditional spanish nobility in new world

  • Spanish conquistadors imposed new social hierarchy on the people of the new world

  1. Casta System

  • Organized colonial society into a ranked social hierarchy based on race and ancestry, where individuals were classified into categories such as peninsulares, criollos, mestizos, and indigenous people, each with varying rights, privileges, and responsibilities.

  • More “White” blood = more social power

  • Less “white” blood = less social power and increased marginalization within society, often resulting in limited access to education, employment opportunities, and legal protections.

  • Caste System erased cultural complexity

  • ordered society by standards of small minority

  • Category dictated education, occupation, tax payments, etc

  • Altered spatial makeup of towns and villages

  • people on lower level live outside of settlement while higher live in