European Arrival, Exploration, and Conquest

Causes Of Looking outwards- mercantilism

• Mercantilism- economic theory

  • only way to be successful is to export more than import

  • see world economy as zero sum- if someone is winning someone is also losing

    • competition

• Competition

  • best trade routes to Asia

  • Ottoman Empire takes control of silk road

  • restrict the access of Christians to this trade route

    • forces them to find different ways

Renaissance And tech

• more tech that enables them to explore

  • compass

  • lanteen sail

• better access to sea trade routes- more naval exploration

Early Explorers

• Portuguese/Italian- explore Africa while trying to get to china

• Spanish Conquista senorial- 1402

  • canaries precedent that conquest

Columbus

• italian explorer

  • bad at math

• thinks that japan is closer than it actually is

• able to convince Spanish monarchy that he will bring spices, gold, and convert a ton of people to christianity

• Ends up sponsoring the first journey- Caribbean islands

  • encounters natives that he calls indians- because he thinks he is in asia

  • sees gold and makes an attempt to find gold

  • thinks the “indians” are much less than he is

• comes up with plans for settlements and enslavement

• Pinta shipwrecks and leaves 39 men behind

  • settlement La Navidad

• dispute with indians to the point they burn down the settlement

  • and killed the people

• died blind and broke

Conquistadores

• use precedent to claim land for spain

  • sometimes without blessing from king

  • want POWER- land, gold, spread christianity

  • spanish view them as epic figures due to them expanding spanish rule

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

• first major one

• moves to hispaniola in 1500- failed pig farmer

• crown declares the new world as the “Land to be conquered”

• sneaks on ship that lands in central america

• assembles small army

• establishes settlement in coastal colombia

• leads 500 spanish warriors in expedition against natives

  • has to go on medical leave- comes back to s sacked city

• founds several permanent settlements

• made governor of terra firma because of his success

• “discovers” isthmus of panama- leads to spanish access of the pacific

Hernan Cortes

• bureaucrat in cuba colony

  • until rivalry lead to him losing power

  • creates an army

• army lands in yucatan

  • spanish priests help

• leads campaigns against Aztecs

• Cortes claims that the natives see him as a god because they burn incense

  • turns out they were burning stuff to get rid of smell

Cortes in Mexico

• demands to meet with king Moctezuma and Moctezuma refuses

  • sends people to talk to Cortes

• allies with indigenous tribes

• raise an army of 1000 to work with his 500 men

• Sacking of Cholula- terror campaign

  • claims that he will negotiate but when people come out they execute him

• Marches Tenochtitlan and takes the king hostage

• rules through previous king

• chaos afterwards results in the king being killed

• city was sacked

• Cortes becomes new governor of spain

Francisco Pizarro

• member of balboa’s army

• led 2 expeditions into peru where there was wealth

  • prompted interest

• 3rd expedition had the goal of conquest

• took advantage of civil war to play factions against one another

• rewarded with governorship of Modern Peru

• war with inca went on for 3 years due to the size of Incan Empire

More Explorers

• Pedro Menendez de Aviles

  • spanish

  • established foothold in florida- 1565

  • starts fleet voyages- organized system of sending treasure back

  • gets silver and sends it back to spain but then sends it to other places

• Pedro Alvares Cabral

  • spanish

  • accidentally lands in Brazil and establishes colony- 1500

• Ferdinand Magellan

  • Portuguese expedition makes it around the world

  • he doesn’t because he was killed in the Philippines

Columbian Exchange

• unification of isolated Americas

  • sharing of species, inventions, and other things

  • essentially series of trade routes

• required new methods of commerce