1. Exploring the Americas

2. Exploring the Americas
Essential Question
What events and technological advances paved the way for European Exploration?

3. The Renaissance and the Growth of Ideas
The Renaissance “re-birth” changed the way Europeans thought about themselves and the world.
Period of intellectual and artistic creativity
Merchants, bankers and monarchs sought greater profits through foreign trade
Wanted to make their countries stronger and wealthier
Paved the way for an age of exploration and discovery

4. Technologies Impact
Advances in technology paved the way for European voyages and exploration.
Better maps and instruments: Cartographers improved their map making skills as they acquired techniques and information from Arab map makers.
Astrolabe
Magnetic Compass

5. Better Ships Based on Arab designs, European ships improved greatly.
Bigger
Stronger
Could sail into the wind
With increased competition for foreign trade, countries like Portugal and Spain worked hard to better their ships and launched an era of exploration!

6. Making Connections
Answer the Essential Question: What events and technological advances paved the way for European Exploration?
European interest in Asia due to growth of trade
Increased wealth
Improved maps and navigation instruments
Advances in ship design
Desire for gold and slaves from Africa

7. Early Exploration Essential Question:
Why did Spain and Portugal want to find a sea route to Asia?

8. Early Portuguese Voyages
Prince Henry the Navigator helped lay the groundwork for the era of exploration in the early 1400s.
Portuguese ships travelled along the coast of West Africa trading for gold and ivory.
Area became known as the “Gold Coast”
Vasco da Gama
Sailed around Cape of Good
Hope (tip of Africa)
Explored east coast of Africa
Discovered eastern sea route to
Asia

9. Portuguese Trading Empire
Six months after da Gama’s return, 13 ships left Portugal for the east.
Course swung so wide around Africa, they reached Brazil.
Gave Portugal a stake in the Americas.
Eventually reached India and returned with spices, porcelain and other goods that helped them set up a trading empire.

10. The Viking Voyages
Centuries before Columbus, northern Europeans called Vikings sailed to North America.
800s and 900s – Established settlements in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland.
Viking voyages to other lands were not well known.

11. Spain Backs Columbus
Spanish were envious of Portugal’s trading success with India and Asia.
Columbus sought sponsorship from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain who agreed for 2 reasons.
Promised to bring Christianity to any lands he found
Spain would become wealthy through any trade Columbus opened up

12. Columbus’s First Voyage
August 3, 1492 – sets out with ships the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
October 12, 1492 – “Tierra! Tierra!” Finds small group of Islands (Bahamas)
Convinced he has found the East Indies (Islands off coast of Asia)

13. Columbus’s Later Voyages
Explored Caribbean islands of Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica.
Claimed lands for Spain and mapped Central American coastline.
Eventually realized he had found new lands (America) and began to set up settlements.

14. Dividing the World
Both Spain and Portugal want to protect their claims in America.
Line of demarcation (1493)
Imaginary line running down the middle of the Atlantic from North Pole to South Pole
Spain got everything to the west
Portugal got everything to the east

15. Other Explorers Amerigo Vespucci Ferdinand Magellan
Sailed along South America’s coast – came to the conclusion that it was not part of Asia
Ferdinand Magellan
Reached tip of South America and sailed through a strait to the Pacific Ocean
His crew was first to circumnavigate, or sail around the world

16. Making Connections How did Henry the Navigator further exploration?
Answer the Essential Question: Why did Portugal and Spain want to find a sea route to Asia?
If the Portuguese and Spanish could find a sea route directly to Asia, they could trade directly with India and China.

17. Spain in America Essential Question:
How did Spain’s conquests affect the economic and social development of the Americas?

18. Spain in America Main Idea!
Spanish explorers conquered Native American empires and found new lands.

19. Cortes Conquers the Aztecs
Hernan Cortes formed alliances with many of the people the Aztecs had conquered.
Cortes enters Tenochtitlan with over 500 soldiers, horses, cannons and Native American allies.
Emperor Montezuma welcomed them to the city but is taken prisoner.
Aztec capital is destroyed in 1521 and Spanish take over the region.

20. Pizarro Conquers the Inca
Francisco Pizarro (conquistador) sailed down coast of South America.
1532 – Captures and executes the Incan ruler Atahualpa.
Without their ruler, Incans could not fight effectively.
Pizarro gained most of the Incan empire for Spain.

21. Why Spain Succeeded
The conquistadors victories over the Aztec and Inca were quick and lasting. How could Cortes and Pizarro, with only their small armies conquer such mighty empires?
Weapons (Guns, Cannons)
Horses
Spanish seemed godlike
Dislike of Aztec overlords
Disease! No immunity to European diseases!

22. Spanish Rule
Throughout the early 1500s, more and more settlements were set up by the Spanish. Spanish law called for 3 kinds of settlements in the Americas…
Pueblos – towns established as centers of trade
Missions – religious communities including a small town, farmland and a church
Presidios – Forts usually built near missions

23. Social Classes
*In the 1500s, the Spanish government granted conquistadors the right to demand taxes or labor from Native Americans - Encomienda

24. Bartolome de las Casas
Spanish priest who condemned cruel treatment of Native Americans.
Claimed that millions had died because the Spanish “made gold their ultimate aim, seeking to load themselves with riches in the shortest amount of time.”
Reports influenced Spanish government to forbid making slaves of the Native Americans.
Not always enforced, but helped correct some of the worst abuses.

25. The Plantation System
Main exports from the Americas became tobacco and sugarcane.
Spanish developed plantations and used Native Americans for labor.
Las Casas suggested replacing the Native Americans with Africans.
By the end of the 1500s, plantation slave labor was an essential part of the economy of the colonies.

26. Making Connections
How did Spain’s conquests affect the economic and social development of the Americas?
Spanish destroyed the Aztec and Inca Empires
Settled in pueblos, missions and presidios
Introduced Catholicism, horses and cattle
Relegated Native Americans to lower classes
Introduced slaves to support plantations
How did slavery begin in the Americas?
Las Casas suggested replacing natives with Africans
Slave labor became important to the colonial economy

27. Exploring North America
Essential Question:
Why did European nations establish colonies in North America?

28. Columbian Exchange
Era of exploration brought America together with Europe, Asia and Africa.
Contacts led to an exchange in plants, animals and diseases.

29. Hudson’s Discoveries
Netherlands (Dutch) want to find a passage through the Americas
1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Hudson River
1610 – Sent by England
Discovered the Hudson Bay

30. Dutch Settlements Eager to explore North America
Set up New Netherland colony
New Amsterdam as center on tip of Manhattan Island

31. French Trading Posts Showed little interest in building an empire
Focused on
Fishing
Fur trading
1608 – Sent Samuel de Champlain to found a settlement in Quebec

32. Making Connections
How did France’s goals in North America differ from those of other European nations?
Answering the Essential Question: Why did European nations establish colonies in North America?
To become wealthy and powerful
Obtain resources
To trade and sell European products