AP World History Notes European Empires in the Americas

Time PeriodEuropean Power(s)Destinations 15 th – 16 th centuriesSpainCaribbean, mainland Central & South America 16 th centuryPortugalPresent-day Brazil 17 th centuryEngland, France, the Netherlands Eastern coast of North America

 Aware of their low position in the world of Eurasian commerce and wanted to change this  European rulers driven by competition and rivalries with other countries  Merchants wanted direct access to Asian wealth; no Muslim intermediaries

 Poor European nobles and commoners thought they could gain wealth and status in the colonies  Christian missionaries wanted to spread their faith  Persecuted minorities wanted to start a new life with more freedoms

 Intense competition between competing European states for resources and land  Desire of European powers to grow their economies: both by acquiring resources and markets in which to sell their manufactured goods  Islam (Ottoman Empire) controlled land and ocean trading routes in the middle east and north Africa Italian commerce city of Venice had a monopoly on trade with Islam through north Africa  Christian missionary veal: desire of the Catholic church to convert and spread Christianity  Renaissance and Humanist philosophy and its new wealth and technologies Southern: Italy before 1497 Northern: North of the Alps in Europe after 1497

1. Astrolabe: tool used by ship navigators that measured the locations of stars and celestial bodies to calculate a ships position 2. Revised Maps: new and better mapping technology 3. Caravels: is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward (into and against the wind).

 Ironworking technology  Gunpowder weapons  Horses

 Germs and diseases! Major ones = Smallpox, measles, typhus, influenza, malaria, yellow fever Native Americans had no immunity to these diseases

 Belief held by all European powers  Mercantilism = governments served their countries’ economic interests best by exporting more than they import and by accumulating bullion Bullion = precious metals like silver and gold  Roles of the colonies: 1) Supplied resources for European factories 2) Provided closed markets = they could only buy products from their “mother country”

 The Columbian Exchange = the enormous network, migration, trade, spread of disease, and transfer of plants of animals between Europe and the Americas

 Connected four continents—North America, South America, Europe, and Africa  Large-scale exchanges of plants and animals transformed agriculture and animal domestication around the world as well as the global environment  Need for plantation workers for sugar and cotton trade created lasting global links  Large scale exploitation, murder, and extermination of native workers and Africans  Enriched Europe and began to change the global balance of power in Europe’s favor  Extended European civilization into new parts of the world  Increased product and goods availability in other locations in the world, especially Europe

 New information flooded into Europe Led to the Scientific Revolution  Gained wealth from the colonies  precious metals, natural resources, new food crops, slave labor, financial profits, colonial markets Led to the Industrial Revolution  Colonies provided an outlet for Europe’s growing population

 Result of European conquest = large-scale decimation of Native American populations and societies  In many cases, up to 90% of the population in a region would die  Central Mexico = population went from about 20 million people to 1 million people by 1650

 Settler-dominated commercial agriculture  Slave-based plantations  Ranching  Mining

AZTECS = CONQUERED BY HERNAN CORTES IN 1519 INCAS = CONQUERED BY FRANCISCO PIZARRO IN 1532 In modern-day MexicoIn modern-day Peru

 Economic foundations for these colonial societies: Commercial agriculture on large rural estates Silver and gold mining  Both = used native peoples as forced laborers

Spanish Settlers Mestizo Population = mixed-race population Native Peoples (Primary labor force; slaves) Creoles = Spaniards born in the Americas Peninsulares = Spaniards born in Spain Started from unions between native women and Spanish men Spanish immigration = 1 woman for every 7 men

 Largely Hispanic in culture  Many looked down upon by “pure” Spaniards  Worked as artisans, clerks, supervisors of workers, and lower-level officials in church and government organizations  Ethnic and racial mixing due because many colonizers outside of North America did not bring European women with them

LocationControlled By BrazilPortugal CaribbeanSpanish, British, French, and Dutch Learned from the Arabs Uses for sugar in Europe: A Medicine A Spice A Sweetener A Preservative In sculptured forms as a decoration  indicated high status and wealth

 Involved growing the sugarcane AND processing it into usable sugar  Very labor-intensive  Most profitable if done on a large-scale  Massive use of slave labor  imported Africans (80% of African slaves transported across the pacific went to sugar production Brazil and Caribbean Native population had been wiped out

 Worked under horrendous conditions  These conditions + diseases = very high death rate About 5-10% of slave population died per year Required the continuous importation of fresh slaves from Africa

 Considerable amount of racial mixing also took place in the Caribbean and Brazil  Ex: By 1790 = 93% of the population of Haiti was either partially or wholly of African descent  Ex: Mulattoes = became a major group in Brazil Product of Portuguese- African unions

 Existed in the southern colonies of North America  Controlled by the British  Major crops grown = tobacco, rice, cotton, and indigo Painting of a Tobacco Plantation in Colonial Virginia

 Very uncommon  Major reason = many European women had migrated to North America along with men, unlike in Central and South America  Result = evolution of sharply defined racial system  Offspring of mixed-race unions = viewed as illegitimate  Any African ancestry made a person “black,” not some other mixed-race category

 Somewhat less harsh than in the sugar colonies  Result = slave population was able to sustain itself and reproduce No need to constantly import fresh slaves, like in the sugar colonies By the time of the Civil War = almost all North American slaves had been born in the Americas

 Colonies = in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania  Controlled mainly by the British  British settlers sought to escape aspects of the old European society, not to recreate it like the Portuguese and Spanish Wanted religious freedom Wanted opportunities for wealth Colonial Pilgrims on Thanksgiving

 Agricultural economies run by small-scale independent farmers working their own land  No slaves needed; though sometimes present occasionally in the households of the wealthy  Pure settler colonies; no racial mixing

 Established traditions of local self- government  In Britain = King and parliament involved in a long power struggle So they paid little attention to the internal affairs of the colonies Colonies set up their own assemblies