CHAPTER 20 - The Atlantic World (1492-1800) - World History: Patterns of Interaction (Atlas by Rand McNally 2009)

CHAPTER 20.1: Spain Builds an American Empire

• Columbus didn’t reach the East Indies

• Scholars believe he landed instead on an island in the Bahamas in the Caribbean Sea
• The natives there were not Indians, but a group who called themselves the Taino

• Columbus claimed the island for Spain and named it San Salvador (“Holy Savior”)
• Columbus was also interested in gold and explored other islands for it since San Salvador didn’t have any
• Early 1493: Columbus returned to Spain
• Spain’s rulers, who had funded his first voyage, agreed to finance three more trips
• 1493: Columbus went on his 2nd voyage to the Americas with the intent of empire-building
• The Spanish intended to transform the islands of the Caribbean into colonies, or lands that are controlled by another nation
• 1500: Pedro Álvares Cabral reached the shores of modern-day Brazil/claimed the land for his country
• A year later, Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian in the service of Portugal, also traveled along the eastern coast of South America

• He claimed that the land was not part of Asia, but a new world entirely

• 1507: a German mapmaker named the new continent “America” in honor of Vespucci
• 1519: Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the southern end of South America/into the Pacific

• He eventually reached the Philippines
• Unfortunately, Magellan became involved in a local war there/was killed
• Out of Magellan’s original crew, only 18 men and one ship arrived back in Spain in 1522, nearly three years after they had left
• They were the first persons to circumnavigate, or sail around, the world

• Several years earlier, Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa marched through modern-day Panama/had become the first European to gaze upon the Pacific Ocean
• 1519: Hernando Cortés landed in Mexico
• After colonizing several Caribbean islands, the Spanish had turned their attention to the American mainland
• Cortés and the many other Spanish explorers who followed him were known as conquistadors (conquerors)
• Conquistadors created colonies in regions that would become Mexico, South America, and the United States, lured by rumors of vast lands of gold/silver
• The Spanish were the 1st European settlers in the Americas
• Soon after landing in Mexico, Cortés learned of the vast and wealthy Aztec Empire in the region’s interior
• The Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, was convinced at first that Cortés was a god wearing armor
• He agreed to give the Spanish explorer a share of the empire’s existing gold supply, but the Conquistadors weren’t satisfied, claiming that they had a disease only gold can cure
• In the late spring of 1520, some of Cortés’s men killed many Aztec warriors and chiefs while they were celebrating a religious festival
• June 1520: the Aztecs rebelled against the Spanish intruders and drove out Cortés’s forces
• Despite being greatly outnumbered, Cortés and his men conquered the Aztecs in 1521

• The Spanish had the advantage of superior weaponry

• Aztec arrows were no match for the Spaniards’ muskets and cannons

• Cortés was able to enlist the help of various native groups

• With the aid of a native woman translator named Malinche, Cortés learned that some natives resented the Aztecs because of their harsh practices (human sacrifice, etc.)

• The natives could do little against disease

• Measles, mumps, smallpox, and typhus were just some of the diseases Europeans were to bring with them to the Americas
• Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases/had no natural immunity
• They died by the hundreds-thousands

• By the time Cortés launched his counterattack, the Aztec population had been greatly reduced by smallpox and measles

• 1532: Francis Pizarro marched a small force into South America/conquered the Incan Empire
• Pizzaro/his army met the Incan ruler, Atahualpa near the city of Cajamarca/his force of 30,000 (mostly unarmed)
• The Spaniards waited in ambush, crushed the Incan force, and kidnapped Atahualpa

• Atahualpa offered to fill a room once with gold and twice with silver in exchange for his release
• However, after receiving the ransom, the Spanish strangled the Incan king

• Demoralized by their leader’s death, the remaining Incan force retreated from Cajamarca
• Pizarro then marched on the Incan capital, Cuzco/captured it easily in 1533
• Spanish explorers also conquered the Maya in Yucatan and Guatemala
• By the middle of the 16th century, Spain had created an American empire

• It included New Spain (Mexico and parts of Guatemala), as well as other lands in Central and South America and the Caribbean

• When conquering the Muslims, the Spanish lived among them and imposed their Spanish culture upon them

• (Similar to the techniques from the reconquista)

• The Spanish settlers to the Americas, known as peninsulares, were mostly men
• As a result, relationships between Spanish settlers and native women were common

• These relationships created a large mestizo, or mixed Spanish and Native American population

•  In their effort to exploit the land for its precious resources, the Spanish forced Native Americans to work within a system known as encomienda

• Under this system, natives farmed, ranched, or mined for Spanish landlords
• These landlords had received the rights to the natives’ labor from Spanish authorities

• The holders of encomiendas promised the Spanish rulers that they would act fairly/ respect the workers

• However, many abused the natives/worked many laborers to death, especially inside mines

• One area of South America that remained outside of Spanish control was Brazil
• 1500: Cabral claimed the land for Portugal
• During the 1530s, colonists began settling Brazil’s coastal region

• Finding little gold or silver, the settlers began growing sugar
• The Portuguese built giant sugar plantations

• The demand for sugar in Europe was great, and the colony soon enriched Portugal
• In time, the colonists pushed farther west into Brazil for sugar production
• Newfound wealth → a golden age of art/culture in Spain
• Throughout the 16th century, Spain also increased its military strength

• Spain built a powerful navy to protect their treasure-filled ships
• The Spanish also strengthened their other military forces, creating a skillful and determined army

• 1513: Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León landed on the coast of modern-day Florida and claimed it for Spain
• 1540–1541: Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led an expedition throughout much of present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas

• He was searching for a wealthy empire to conquer/found little gold in the Southwest
• As a result, the Spanish monarchy assigned mostly priests to explore and colonize the future United States

• Catholic priests had accompanied conquistadors from the very beginning of American colonization

• The priests who accompanied them had come in search of converts

• 1609–1610: Pedro de Peralta, governor of Spain’s northern holdings, called New Mexico, led settlers to a tributary on the upper Rio Grande

• They built a capital called Santa Fe (“Holy Faith”)

• In the next two decades, a string of Christian missions arose among the Pueblo, the native inhabitants of the region
• Spanish priests worked to spread Christianity in the Americas/pushed for better treatment of Native Americans
• Priests spoke out against the cruel treatment of natives, especially the encomienda system
• Dominican monk Bartolomé de Las Casas is a prominent figure that criticized the abusive treatment against Native Americans
• 1542: The Spanish government abolished the encomienda system
• To meet the colonies need for labor, Las Casas suggested Africans, later changing his view/denouncing African slavery

• Others promoted it

• Opposition to the Spanish method of colonization came not only from Spanish priests, but also from the natives themselves
• Resistance to Spain’s attempt at domination began shortly after the Spanish arrived in the Caribbean
• November 1493: Columbus encountered resistance in his attempt to conquer the present-day island of St. Croix
• As late as the end of the 17th century, natives in New Mexico fought Spanish rule
• In converting the natives, Spanish priests/soldiers burned their sacred objects/prohibited native rituals

• The Spanish also forced natives to work for them and sometimes abused them physically

• 1680: Popé, a Pueblo ruler, led a well-organized rebellion against the Spanish

• The rebellion involved more than 8,000 warriors from villages all over New Mexico
• The native fighters drove the Spanish back into New Spain

• For the next 12 years, until the Spanish regained control, the southwest region of the future United States once again belonged to the Natives

CHAPTER 20.2: European Nations Settle North America

• 1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian in service of France, sailed to North America in search of a sea route to the Pacific

• He was hoping to find the East Indies, like other early French explorers
• While he did not find the route, Verrazzano did discover what is today New York harbor

• Ten years later, the Frenchman Jacques Cartier reached a gulf off the eastern coast of Canada that led to a broad river (he named it St. Lawrence)
• He followed it inward until he reached a large island dominated by a mountain (which he named Mount Real)
• 1608: Samuel de Champlain, sailed up the St. Lawrence with about 32 colonists/found Quebec

• Quebec became the base of France’s colonial empire in North America, known as New France

• 1673: French Jesuit priest Jacques Marquette/trader Louis Joliet explored the Great Lakes/the upper Mississippi River
• Nearly 10 years later, Sieur de La Salle explored the lower Mississippi/claimed the entire river valley for France
• By the early 1700s, New France covered much of what is now the midwestern United States and eastern Canada
• France’s North American empire was immense but sparsely populated
•  By 1760, the European population of New France had grown to only about 65,000
• A large number of French colonists had no desire to build towns or raise families

• These settlers included Catholic priests who sought to convert Native Americans
• They also included young, single men engaged in what had become New France’s main economic activity, the fur trade

• The French were less interested in occupying territories than they were making money off the land
• The explorations of the Spanish and French inspired the English
• 1606: a company of London investors received from King James a charter to found a colony in North America

• In late 1606, the company’s three ships, and more than 100 settlers, pushed out of an English harbor
• About four months later, in 1607, they reached the coast of Virginia/claimed it
• They named the settlement Jamestown in honor of their king

• The colony had a disastrous start:

• The settlers were more interested in finding gold than in planting crops
• During the 1st few years, 7/10 people died of hunger, disease, or battles w/ Native Americans

• Eventually, the colonists gained a foothold/Jamestown became England’s 1st permanent settlement in North America
• The colony’s outlook greatly improved after farmers discovered tobacco

• High demand in England for tobacco turned it into a profitable cash crop

• 1620: a group known as Pilgrims founded a second English colony, Plymouth, in Massachusetts

• They were persecuted for their religious beliefs in England/sought religious freedom

• Ten years later, Puritans also sought religious freedom from England’s Anglican Church/established a larger colony at nearby Massachusetts Bay
• The Puritans wanted to build a model community that would set an example for other Christians to follow

• Although the colony experienced early trouble, it eventually took hold partly due to numerous families unlike in Jamestown (mostly single/male)

• The Dutch followed after
• 1609: Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Netherlands was searching for a northwest sea route to Asia

• He didn’t find a route but explored 3 waterways that were later named for him:

• Hudson River
• Hudson Bay
• Hudson Strait

• The Dutch claimed the region along these waterways/established fur trade w/ the Iroquois Indians
• They built trading posts along the Hudson River at Fort Orange (now Albany) and on Manhattan Island
• Dutch merchants formed the Dutch West India Company
• 1621: The Dutch government granted the company permission to colonize the region/expand the fur trade
• The Dutch holdings in North America became known as New Netherland
• Although the Dutch company profited from its fur trade, it was slow to attract Dutch colonists
• To encourage settlers, the colony opened its doors to a variety of peoples

• Gradually more Dutch, Germans, French, Scandinavians, and other Europeans, settled the area

• During the 1600s, the nations of Europe also colonized the Caribbean

• The French seized control of present-day Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique
• The English had Barbados/Jamaica

• 1634: The Dutch captured what are now the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba from Spain
• Europeans built huge cotton/sugar plantations on the islands
• These products, although profitable, demanded a large and steady supply of labor → eventual demand for African slave labor
• 1664: English King Charles II granted his brother, the Duke of York, permission to drive out the Dutch

• The Dutch surrendered as soon as he came and the Duke of York claimed the colony for England (renamed it New York)

• The English colonized the Atlantic coast of North America
• They pushed farther west into the continent, wanting more land

• They collided with France’s North American holdings

• As their colonies expanded, France/England began to interfere with each other
• 1754: a dispute over land claims in the Ohio Valley led to a war between the British and French (the French and Indian War)

• The war became part of a larger conflict known as the Seven Years’ War
• Britain and France, along with their European allies, also battled for supremacy in Europe, the West Indies, and India

• 1763: The British colonists, with the help of the British Army, defeated the French
• The French surrendered their North American holdings

• As a result of the war, the British seized control of the eastern half of North America

• French/Dutch settlers developed a mostly cooperative relationship with the Native Americans

• This was due mainly to the mutual benefits of the fur trade
• Native Americans did most of the trapping and then traded the furs to the French for such items as guns, hatchets, mirrors, and beads
• The Dutch also cooperated with Native Americans in order to establish a fur-trading enterprise

• Dutch settlers fought with various Native American groups over land claims and trading rights
• Mostly, the French and Dutch colonists lived together peacefully with their North American hosts
• Early relations between English settlers/Native Americans were cooperative but quickly worsened over land/religion

• Unlike the French and Dutch, the English sought to populate their colonies in North America, which meant pushing natives off their land
• The English took more land for population/tobacco

• The English settlers considered Native Americans heathens, people without a faith

• Over time, many Puritans viewed Native Americans as agents of the devil/a threat to their godly society
• Native Americans developed a similarly harsh view of the European invaders

• Hostility b/t the English/natives led to warfare

• As early as 1622, the Powhatan tribe attacked colonial villages around Jamestown and killed about 350 settlers
• During the next few years, the colonists struck back and massacred hundreds of Powhatan

• King Philip’s War (Metacom’s War):

• Began in 1675 when the Native American ruler Metacom (also known as King Philip) led an attack on colonial villages throughout Massachusetts
•  In the months that followed, both sides massacred hundreds of victims
• After a year of fierce fighting, the colonists defeated the natives

• Diseases were more destructive than European weapons

• Disease devastated native population in North America

• 1616: Epidemic of smallpox ravaged Native Americans living along the New England coast
• One of the effects of this loss was a severe shortage of labor in the colonies

• European colonists soon turned to Africans for their labor needs

CHAPTER 20.3: The Atlantic Slave Trade

• The spread of Islam in the 7th century → an increase of slavery/the slave trade
• Muslim rulers in Africa justified enslavement with the Muslim belief that nonMuslim prisoners of war could be bought/sold as slaves

• Between 650-1600, Muslims transported about 17 million Africans to North Africa/Southwest Asia

• In most African/Muslim societies, slaves had some legal rights/an opportunity for social mobility
•  In the Muslim world, a few slaves even occupied positions of influence/power

• Some served as generals in the army

• In African societies, slaves can escape their bondage in many ways (ex. Marrying into the family they served)
• Europeans saw advantages in using Africans in the Americas:

• Many Africans had been exposed to European diseases/built up some immunity
• Many Africans had experience in farming/could be taught plantation work
• Africans were less likely to escape b/c they didn’t know their away around new land
• Their skin color made them easier to identify/catch if they escaped → they were less likely to escape

• Atlantic slave trade: the buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas

• Became a massive enterprise

• B/t 1500-1600, nearly 300k Africans were transported to the Americas
• The Spanish took an early lead in importing Africans to the Americas

• Spain moved on from the Caribbean/began to colonize the American mainland

• By around 1650, the Portuguese had surpassed the Spanish in the importation of Africans to the Americas
• During the 1600s, Brazil dominated the European sugar market
• As the colony’s sugar industry grew, so too did European colonists’ demand for cheap labor
• During the 17th century, more than 40% of all Africans brought to the Americas went to Brazil
• As England’s presence in the Americas grew, it came to dominate the Atlantic slave trade

• From 1690 until England abolished the slave trade in 1807, it was the leading carrier of enslaved Africans

• African slaves were also brought to what is now the United States

• In all, nearly 400,000 Africans were sold to Britain’s North American colonies

• Many African rulers/merchants played a willing role in the Atlantic slave trade
• African merchants, with the help of local rulers, captured Africans to be enslaved

• They then delivered them to the Europeans in exchange for gold, guns, and other goods

• As the slave trade grew, some African rulers voiced their opposition to the practice, but the slave trade steadily grew regardless
• African merchants developed new trade routes to avoid rulers who refused to cooperate
• Africans transported to the Americas were part of a transatlantic trading network known as the triangular trade
• Over one trade route, Europeans transported manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa

• Traders exchanged these goods for captured Africans
• The Africans were then transported across the Atlantic and sold in the West Indies

• Merchants bought sugar, coffee, and tobacco in the West Indies and sailed to Europe with these products
• On another triangular route, merchants carried rum and other goods from the New England colonies to Africa

• They exchanged their goods for Africans

• The traders transported the Africans to the West Indies and sold them for sugar and molasses

• They then sold these goods to rum producers in New England

• The “triangular” trade encompassed a network of trade routes crisscrossing the northern and southern colonies, the West Indies, England, Europe, and Africa
• The voyage that brought captured Africans to the West Indies and later to North and South America was known as the middle passage

• In African ports, European traders packed Africans into the dark holds of large ships
• Africans endured whippings and beatings from merchants, as well as diseases
• Numerous Africans died from disease or physical abuse aboard the slave ships
• Many others committed suicide by drowning
• Scholars estimate that roughly 20% of the Africans aboard each slave ship died during the trip

• Upon arriving in the Americas, captured Africans usually were auctioned off to the highest bidder
• After being sold, slaves worked in mines/fields or as domestic servants
• Many lived on little food in small, dreary huts/worked long days/suffered beatings
• In much of the Americas, slavery was a lifelong condition, as well as a hereditary one
• To cope with the horrors of slavery, Africans developed a way of life based on their cultural heritage

• They kept alive such things as their musical traditions as well as the stories of their ancestors

• Slaves also found ways to resist:

• They made themselves less productive by breaking tools, uprooting plants, and working slowly
• Thousands also ran away

• Some slaves pushed their resistance to open revolt
• Larger revolts occurred throughout Spanish settlements during the 16th century
• In Africa, numerous culture lost generations of their fittest to European traders/plantation owners
• Countless African families were torn apart/never reunited
• The slave trade devastated African societies by introducing guns into the continent
• African slaves contributed greatly to the economic and cultural development of the Americas

• Their greatest contribution was labor
• Colonies such as Haiti/Barbados may not have survived w/o slave labor
• Enslaved Africans brought their expertise (especially in agriculture) and their culture

• Their art, music, religion, and food continue to influence American societies

• From the United States to Brazil, many of the nations of the Western Hemisphere today have substantial African-American populations
• Many Latin American countries have sizable mixed-race populations

CHAPTER 20.4: The Columbian Exchange and Global Trade

• The global transfer of foods, plants, and animals during the colonization of the Americas is known as the Columbian Exchange

• The Americas brought tomatoes, squash, pineapples, tobacco, and cacao beans/animals such as the turkey

• The most important items from the Americas: corn/potatoes

• Supplied many essential vitamins/minerals
• Both crops became an important/steady part of diets worldwide/were inexpensive to grow/nutritious
• These foods helped people live longer → helped boost world population

• Europeans introduced various livestock animals into the Americas:

• Horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs

• Foods from Africa (including some that originated in Asia) migrated west in European ships:

• Bananas, black-eyed peas, and yams

• Grains introduced to the Americas included wheat, rice, barley, and oats
• Disease was just as much a part of the Columbian Exchange as goods/food
• The diseases Europeans brought with them, which included smallpox and measles, led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans
• New wealth from the Americas was coupled with a dramatic growth in overseas trade → a wave of new business/trade practices in Europe during the 16th-17th centuries
• Capitalism: an economic system based on private ownership and the investment of resources, such as money, for profit

• Governments were no longer the sole owners of great wealth, merchants were able to attain it through overseas colonization/trade
• These merchants continued to invest their money in trade and overseas exploration
• Profits from these investments enabled merchants/traders to reinvest even more money in other enterprises, causing businesses across Europe to grow/flourish

• The increase in economic activity in Europe →  an overall increase in many nations’ money supply
• This in turn brought on inflation, or the steady rise in the price of goods

•  Inflation occurs when people have more money to spend/thus demand more goods and services
• Because the supply of goods is less than the demand for them, the goods become both scarce and more valuable → prices rise

• At this time in Europe, the costs of many goods rose
• The joint-stock company worked much like the modern-day corporation, with investors buying shares of stock in a company/involved a number of people combining their wealth for a common purpose

• For Europe during the 1500-1600s that common purpose was American colonization

•  It took large amounts of money to establish overseas colonies
• Because joint-stock companies involved numerous investors, the individual members paid only a fraction of the total colonization cost
• If the colony failed, investors lost only their small share

• If the colony thrived, the investors shared in the profits

• During this time, the nations of Europe adopted a new economic policy known as mercantilism
• Mercantilism: held that a country’s power depended mainly on its wealth

• As a result, the goal of every nation became the attainment of as much wealth as possible

• According to the theory of mercantilism, a nation could increase its wealth and power in two ways:

• It could obtain as much gold and silver as possible
• It could establish a favorable balance of trade, in which it sold more goods than it bought

• A nation’s ultimate goal under mercantilism was to become self-sufficient, not dependent on other countries for goods
• Mercantilism went hand in hand with colonization, for colonies played a vital role in this new economic practice
• Aside from providing silver and gold, colonies provided raw materials that could not be found in the home country (wood/furs)
• Colonies also provided a market
• The economic revolution spurred the growth of towns and the rise of a class of merchants who controlled great wealth
• While towns and cities grew in size, much of Europe’s population continued to live in rural areas
• The majority of Europeans remained poor