1. Chapter 2 Exploring the Americas 1400-1625
US HISTORY
Chapter 2
Exploring the Americas

2. Lesson 3: Spain in America
Learning Objectives:
Compare and contrast information about European explorers and explorations.
Analyze relationships between European explorers and Native Americans.
Do Now:
Answer the following questions in your notebook:
What were the three main reasons explorers made ocean voyages in the late 1400s and early 1500s?
What new technology made exploration possible?

3. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Spanish Conquistadors
Stories of gold, silver, and rich kingdoms attracted conquistadors to the Americas.
Conquistador – Spanish explorers who received grants from Spanish rulers.
Could explore and establish settlements.
Had to give up 1/5 of any gold or treasure discovered to Spain.
This allowed expeditions with little risk. 
If a conquistador failed, the conquistador lost more than Spain.
If successful, both would become rich. 

4. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Famous Spanish Conquistadors:
Hernán Cortés
Francisco Pizzaro
Juan Ponce de León
Hernando de Soto
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado

5. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Hernan Cortes
Arrives at Tenochtitlan, Aztec’s capital city, in 1519.
Montezuma (Aztec leader) believes Cortes is Quetzalcoatl (Aztec god returning to take back the throne)
Montezuma becomes prisoner of the Spanish.
Spanish steal millions in gold.
Cortes leaves, returns 10 months later.
Aztec surrender on August 13, 1521.

6. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Francisco Pizarro
arrived in Incan Empire in 1531.
captured Incan leader (Atahualpa).
Spanish held Atahualpa ransom, forced Incans to fill a room with gold & silver.
Incans fill the room ($65 million value).
Pizarro kills him anyway.

7. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
How were the Spanish able to defeat Native American empires?
The Spanish had many weapons.
Many Native Americans helped the Spanish fight their Aztec rulers.
Native Americans were weakened by European diseases.
Mexico and Peru were lands rich in silver and gold. Hoping to find similar wealth to the north, conquistadors explored the southeastern and southwestern parts of what is today the United States.

8. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Juan Ponce de Leon
First Spanish landing in North American mainland (east coast of Florida) in 1513.
Searched for gold & mythical Fountain of Youth”.
Named “Florida”- Spanish word means “full of flowers”.
His journey led to the first settlement in what is now the US – St. Augustine, FL (1565)

9. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Hernando de Soto
Led Spanish expedition throughout the American Southeast in search of the “Seven Cities of Cibola” or Seven Cities of Gold.
First European expedition to reach Mississippi River.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Searched throughout American Southwest for the Seven Cities of Cibola.

10. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Spanish law set up three kinds of settlements in the Americas:
Pueblos- or towns that were centers of trade.
Missions- religious communities.
Presidio- type of fort, usually built near a mission.

11. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Juan de Oñate:
-Traveled up from Mexico to establish a Spanish presence in the lands to the north.
-He was assigned to convert the native people to Christianity.
-In 1598, founded, or established, the province of New Mexico.
-Introduced cattle & horses to the Pueblo people.
-1st Spanish city in the southwest, Santa Fe, was established in 1607.

12. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Social Classes
Peninsulares – born in Spain, but living in the New World
Creoles – born in New World to Spanish parents
Mestizos – people of mixed Spanish & Native American descent
Native Americans
African slaves

13. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Spanish gov’t granted conquistadors who settled in the Americas the right to demand taxes or labor from Native Americans living on the land.
This system forced the Native Americans into a form of slavery.
Spanish priest Bartolome de Las Casas spoke out against the cruel treatment. He convinced Spanish leaders to pass the New Laws in 1542 which forbade enslaving Native Americans.

14. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
The Plantation System:
-Spanish colonists set up plantations, large farms, to raise sugar cane and tobacco.
-Native American labor used to work plantations, then Las Casas suggested that they be replaced by enslaved Africans who were brought from West Africa.
-By the late 1500s, slave labor was an essential part of the economy of the colonies.

15. Lesson 3 – Spain in America
Spanish Settlement in the Southwest:
-In the 1600s and 1700s, the Spanish settled in present-day New Mexico, Texas, and California.
-Juan Cabrillo sighted California in 1542.
-Spain needed a large number of colonists to solidify its hold on the region.
-Spain also wanted to convert more natives to Christianity.
-Spanish settlement in California consisted mostly of mission building.
The arrival of the Spanish disrupted the Native American way of life.