Key Vocab: Imperialism Conquistador General Crisis Mercantilism
| Key Ideas: Introduction Empire building and imperialism have fallen out of favor, and the word imperialist is seen as an insult. However, in the past, this was a global process, and countries like Türkiye and Russia are trying to rebuild the glories of former empires that existed within their histories. Imperialism in the Americas was introduced in the Americas by European powers. The introduction of this new form of authority fundamentally reshaped their societies. In Asia, the Russians, Chinese, Mughals, and the Ottomans were also rising rapidly and beginning to practice imperialism.
European Empires in the Americas: Following the huge voyages of Columbus across the Atlantic, the Spanish formed empires in the Caribbean and by the early 16th century, they began conquering the Aztecs and Incas. The Portuguese began their conquest of Brazil, and by the mid-18th century, they had conquered most of the Americas. The European Advantage: Europe’s western kingdoms were located along the Atlantic coast, which already put them closer to the Americas than Asia. Asia was also rich because of the Indian Ocean trade network, meaning they had no motivation to conquer.
After 1200, the Europeans realized that they were kind of poor. Fueled by regional power struggles, stories of riches in the Americas, and the desire of independence from Muslim intermediaries whose trade routes they used to get to Asia were major reasons for expansion. Innovations in map-making, navigation, sailing and ship design based on designs from the Chinese and Mediterranean and Indian Ocean also helped. Europeans also brought along diseases that the native populations were never exposed to, which also helped their cause. In the case of the Spanish, many tribes such as the Aztecs and Incas actually willingly joined their cause because they saw Europeans as liberators. One such case was seen when the resented Mexica domination joined the conquistador Hernán Cortés to defeat Tenochtitlan.
The Great Dying and the Little Ice Age: The Great Dying was the eradication of native American tribes because of the diseases introduced by the Old World. However, there was a global phenomenon that exacerbated this extremely. This was called the Little Ice Age, when global temperatures dropped by a lot. The entire world was affected by this, and scholars call this the General Crisis. In Africa the Sahara grew, civil war in the Mughals sprouted, the Ming Dynasty collapsed and Europe was thrown into near constant war. This only ended in the eighteenth century, and it started in the mid-1600s.
The Colombian Exchange: A huge exchange of animals, crops and people across the Old and New worlds. This changed cultures profoundly. In the North American West, the Pawnee tribe abandoned farming to hunt bison on horseback. Women also lost a lot of say in society as a warrior-culture began to take hold. Lumber and timer also began making its way to Europe because almost all of the forests of Europe had been felled.
Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas: Europeans generated completely new societies, and this was based in the an economic theory called mercantilism which said that governments supported their economies by encouraging exports and accumulating precious metals. In the colonies, the empires took shape in different ways. The Meso-american and Andean civilizations were highly urbanized, whereas North America was mostly populated by small, sparse, and rural villages.
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