AP Unit #10Chapter 20

(1451-1506) Born into a merchant family in Genoa, Italy, Columbus studied at Prince Henry’s school of navigation in Portugal and, from the age of 14, sailed in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1492 Columbus convinced Isabella and Ferdinand to fund an expedition west into the Atlantic to discover a route to China and convert the Chinese to Christianity. In October 1492, Columbus reached the Bahamas. In all, Columbus led 4 expeditions to the Americas, exploring the Caribbean Islands and the Gulf Coast of Mexico while claiming the territory for Spain.

To pursue the western dream, Spain relied on an Italian mariner from the city of Genoa named Christopher Columbus. He sought a route to China as a means of reviving the Christian struggle against Islam. By converting the Chinese to Christianity, he hoped to recruit their people and use their wealth to assist Europeans in a new crusade. Columbus dared the westward trip because he underestimated the size of Earth. He believed the planet was 18,000 miles around – almost 7,000 miles smaller than it actually is. An experienced Atlantic mariner, as a young man, Columbus had investigated stories about mysterious lands to the west. He may have sailed to Iceland. If so, he probably heard about the western discoveries by the Vikings from Scandinavia. During the ninth and tenth centuries, Viking mariners had probed the North Atlantic to discover and colonize Iceland and then Greenland. From Greenland, some mariners reached the northeastern coast of North America. About the year 1000, they founded a little settlement on the northern tip of Newfoundland. But they soon abandoned it because of the isolation and because of resistance by American Indians.

In 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain provided 3 ships, 90 men, and most of the funding for Columbus’ voyage west in search of China. After 33 days at sea, he reached what we now call the Bahamas. Turning south, Columbus found another set of islands. He supposed that these belonged to the East Indies, which lay near the mainland of Asia. Based on his mistaken notion, he referred to the people living on the islands as Indians, a name that has endured to this day. The presence of native people did not stop Columbus from claiming the land for Spain. As the representative of a Christian nation, Columbus believed that he had the right and duty to dominate the people he found.

Closure Question #1: Why were most of the Spanish explorers drawn to the Americas?

Settlements of people living in a new territory, linked with a parent country by trade and direct government control. During the 1500s and 1600s Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands all established colonies in the New World (North and South America).

Enriched by conquests in the Americas, Spain financed an aggressive military policy in Europe. This aggression alarmed the Dutch, French, and English, who sought their own share of the riches in the Americas. These nations probed the coast of North America, seeking places where they might establish their own colonies. They also encouraged pirates to rob Spanish treasure ships. Religious divisions added to the conflict among nations in Europe. In 1517, a movement called the Protestant Reformation began in Germany when a monk named Martin Luther challenged the authority of the Catholic Church. Luther and other dissenters became known as Protestants because they protested against the power of the pope and against the Church, which they viewed as corrupt and materialistic.

Protestants favored the individual’s right to seek God by reading the Bible and by heeding ministers who delivered evangelical sermons. Without the unifying power of the pope, Protestants soon divided into many different denominations, including Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, Anglicans, and Quakers. The Protestant movement spread throughout northern Europe, including the Netherlands and England. The French divided into hostile Protestant and Catholic camps, but the Spanish remained Catholic. Indeed, Spanish monarchs led the Catholic effort to suppress Protestantism. Rival nations carred the conflict across the Atlantic to their new colonies in the Americas.

Although the conquistadors were successful at conquering territory and establishing colonies for Spain, they were not effective at running the colonies. Under Spanish rule, Indians were enslaved and forced to labor on encomiendas. They were also forced to mine for silver and gold. They suffered harsh treatment and were often beaten or worked to death. The Spanish king worried that the conquistadors killed to many Indians, who might otherwise have become tax-paying subjects. Eager to stabilize the new conquests, the king heeded priests such as Bartolome de Las Casas who urged the royal government to adopt laws protecting Indians.

Conquistadors – Spanish soldiers who explored central and south America and defeated the Indian civilizations there, such as the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas. In their conquest the Spaniards were aided by superior weaponry (gunpowder/steel), speed (domesticated horses), and the impact of European diseases on Native Americans (such as small pox and the bubonic plague).

Hernando Cortes – Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec empire. With only 600 Spanish soldiers, Cortes was at first welcomed into the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City) by Moctezuma in 1519. Lusting after the riches of the Aztecs, Cortes’ men killed Moctezuma and fled the city, only to return with a larger army to conquer the city in 1520.

In 1519 Cortes landed at Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. Cortes marched to Tenochtitlan with 550 soldiers and 16 horses. As he went he made alliances with city-states that were tired of the oppressive rule of the Aztecs, especially that of Tlaxcala. Initially Cortes was received as a god, as Aztec tradition held that a white god would come from the east to rule. In the fall of 1520, one year after Cortes arrived, the local population revolted and drove the invaders from the city, killing many of the Spaniards. However, as one Aztec related, “But at about the time that the Spaniards had fled from Mexico, there came a great sickness, a pestilence, the smallpox.” While many of the Aztecs were sick, Cortes received fresh soldiers from new allies, 50,000 of which came from Tlaxcala. After four months the city surrendered.

Francisco Pizarro – Spanish Conqueror of the Incan Empire; In 1535 established the city of Lima as the capital of the Spanish Empire in South America.

In December 1530 Pizarro landed on the Pacific coast of South America with only 180 men. However, he brought steel weapons, gunpowder, and horses. The Inca had seen none of these. The Inca Empire experienced an epidemic of smallpox. They had no immunity to European diseases &, as a result, smallpox devastated entire villages and killed their emperor. After the death of the emperor, two of his sons fought each other for power. Atahualpa defeated his brother’s forces. Taking advantage of the situation, Pizarro captured Atahualpa. After executing him Pizarro marched to Cuzco and captured the Inca capital. Spain’s American colonies helped make it the richest, most powerful nation in the world during much of the 16 th century. Ships filled with treasures from the Americas continually sailed into Spanish harbors. This newfound wealth helped usher in a golden age of art and culture in Spain. Throughout the 16 th century, Spain also increased in military might. To protect its treasure-filled ships, Spain built a powerful navy.

The Spanish also strengthened their other military forces, creating a skillful and determined army. For a century and a half, Spain’s army seldom lost a battle. Meanwhile, Spain enlarged its American empire by settling in parts of what is now the United States. Dreams of new conquests prompted Spain to back a series of expeditions into the southwestern United States. The Spanish actually had settled in parts of the United States before they even dreamed of building an empire in the American mainland. In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed on the coast of modern-day Florida and claimed it for Spain. By 1540, after building an empire that stretched from Mexico to Peru, the Spanish once again looked to the land that is now the United States. In 1540-1541, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led an expedition throughout much of present-day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. He was searching for another wealthy empire to conquer, but found little gold amidst the dry deserts of the Southwest.

Closure Question #2: What might have been some similarities in character between Cortes and Pizarro?

A child born out of a relationship between a Native American and a European. Mestizos increasingly grew in importance due to their increasing numbers in Latin America. Some mestizos became artisans and small merchants in cities, while others became small-scale farmers or ranchers. Mestizos eventually came to be seen as socially superior to other multiracial groups.

Mulattoes are the children born out of relationships between Africans and Europeans. Other groups emerged as a result of unions between mestizos and mulattoes and between Native Americans and Africans. The coexistence of these various groups produced a unique multiracial society in Latin America. The groups at the very bottom of the social scale were imported enslaved persons and conquered Native Americans.

Peninsulares were Spanish and Portuguese officials who had been born in Europe and held all important government positions in Latin America. Creoles were the descendants of Europeans born in Latin America; Creoles controlled land and business in Latin America.

Colonial Latin America was divided by social classes that were based on privilege. The Peninsulares were at the top, followed by the Creoles. Creoles deeply resented the Peninsulares, who regarded the creoles as second-class citizens. Beneath the Peninsulares and Creoles were numerous multiracial groups. The Spanish and Portuguese who moved into Latin America lived with both Native Americans and African peoples brought in for labor. Spanish rulers permitted intermarriage between Europeans and Native Americans.

Closure Question #3: Writing from either the perspective of a Native American or a conquistador, explain why the Spanish should or should not have established colonies in the Americas.

Economic system in the Spanish American colonies in which Spanish-elites were given stewardship by the King over large plantations; Under the encomienda system , Spanish rulers were also given control over all of the Native Americans living on their plot of land and were expected to use them as slave labor in growing crops or mining for precious metals.

During the 1530s and 1540s, the Spanish Crown divided the American empire into two immense regions, known as viceroyalties, each ruled by a viceroy appointed by the king. The viceroyalty of New Spain consisted of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean islands. The viceroyalty of Peru included all of South America except Portuguese Brazil. To control the viceroys, the Spanish Crown forced them to share power with a Crown-appointed council and an archbishop. The Spanish did not permit elected assemblies in their colonies.

During the sixteenth century, about 250,000 Spanish people, mostly men, immigrated across the Atlantic to the American empire. The male colonists generally took Indian wives. Children of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry became known as mestizos. As the Native American population declined from diseases, the mestizos became the largest segment of Spain’s colonial population by the 18th century. Next in proportion were enslaved Africans, especially in the Caribbean region. To maintain their authority, colonial officials developed a complex system of racial hierarchy known as the castas. At the bottom lay the pure Africans and Indians, while Spaniards were at the pinnacle. The higher castas enjoyed superior status and greater legal privileges at the expense of those of lower status. In both New Spain and Peru, the Spanish developed an urban and cosmopolitan culture. Carefully planned towns possessed a spacious grid of streets, with the town hall and a church arranged around a central plaza. The wealthiest families dwelled near the central plaza. The common people lived in the outer districts of the towns. Cortes’ success in conquering and plundering Mexico inspired later conquistadors. Seeking their own golden empires, Hernando de Soto and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led expeditions into the land north of Mexico. In 1539, de Soto’s conquistadors crossed present-day Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Frustrated in their search for riches, the conquistadors massacred Indian villages, ravaged fields, emptied storehouses, and burned towns. After de Soto died of disease in 1542, his men gave up and fled to Mexico in boats.

Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 20, Section 1:

1. Why were most of the Spanish explorers drawn to the Americas?

2. What might have been some similarities in character between Cortes and Pizarro?

3. Writing from either the perspective of a Native American or a conquistador, explain why the Spanish should or should not have established colonies in the Americas.

The French claimed the region of the St. Lawrence River (the east coast of modern Canada) as New France. At the mouth of the St. Lawrence French mariners fished for cod and hunted for whales and seals. The mariners met Indian hunters who offered furs in trade. Rendered scarce in Europe by excessive hunting, furs, especially beaver fur, commanded high prices. Few in number, the French took little land, coming into little conflict with Canada’s Native Americans. To survive and prosper in an Indian world, the French had to adopt some of the Indians’ ways. Known as coureurs de bois, many fur traders married Indian women. The children of these marriages became known as the metis.

Indians eagerly traded fur for metal arrowheads, hoes, axes, knives, and hatchets, all useful both as tools and weapons, and for iron or brass kettles, which made it easier to boil their meals. A Montagnais Indian explained, “The Beaver does everything perfectly well, it makes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread: in short, it makes everything.” Increasingly, the Indians hunted for a foreign market rather than just for their own subsistence. Unlike the Spanish in Mexico, the Canadian French could not afford to intimidate, dispossess, or enslave the Indians. The French needed them as hunters and suppliers of furs – roles that the Indians eagerly performed.

The first successful English colony established in North America. Founded on May 13th, 1607, the British settlers made an alliance with the Algonquian Indians and survived off of the food provided by the Indians for the first few years of the colonies. With the discovery, production and popularity of Tobacco, Jamestown eventually became a profitable colony. An increase in European settlers hoping to get rich of tobacco led to a land war with the Algonquian Indians in 1622.

The first promoters of English colonies were wealthy gentlemen from southwestern England. They included Sir Walter Raleigh, a special favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. English patriots and devout Protestants, these men wanted to advance their fortunes and increase the power of England. They promised that an American colony would solve England’s problems: a growing population and increased poverty due to a stagnant economy. The promoters proposed shipping poor people across the Atlantic to work in a new colony. By mining for gold and silver and by raising plantation crops, these workers would generate new wealth for England. After obtaining a charter, or certificate of permission, from the king, the group formed a joint-stock company. This was a business venture founded and run by a group of investors who were to share in the company’s profits and losses. During the 1580s, Raleigh twice tried to colonize Roanoke, a small island on the North Carolina coast (then considered part of Virginia). But English ships struggled to land supplies, and the sandy, infertile soil produced scanty crops. Raleigh’s first colonists returned home; The 2nd set mysteriously vanished.

The Chesapeake offered many good harbors and navigable rivers – as well as more fertile land. But the colonists also had to deal with especially powerful Indians. Although divided into 30 tribes, the regions 24,000 Indians shared an Algonquian language. They were also united by the rule of an unusually powerful chief named Powhatan. Rather than confront the colonists at the risk of heavy casualties, Powhatan hoped to contain them and to use them against his own enemies, the Indians of the interior. He especially wanted to trade with the colonists for their metal weapons.

Closure Question #2: In what ways did the colonies of Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay Differ? (At least 1 sentence)

Puritans – English Protestants inspired by John Calvin’s ideas, similar to the French Huguenots; Puritans controlled the House of Commons in Parliament during the early 1600s and opposed the King’s leadership of the Church of England.

While Puritans were members of the Church of England, they wanted to make the church more Protestant. Many of England’s gentry, mostly well-to-do landowners, had become Puritans. Charles I was a son of James I and King of England from 1625 to his execution in 1649; A devout Anglican, Charles was overthrown by a Puritan army led by Oliver Cromwell. In 1628, Parliament passed a petition that prohibited the passing of any taxes without Parliament’s consent. Although Charles I initially accepted this petition, he later changed his mind. Charles realized that the petition would put limits on the king’s power. Charles also tried to impose more ritual on the Church of England. When he tried to force Puritans to accept this policy, thousands chose to go to America.

Pilgrims - The first Puritan emigrants to North America; in 1620 the first pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in the ship the Mayflower to found the Plymouth Colony on the south shore of Massachusetts Bay. Before they disembarked, the group of about 100 made an agreement called the Mayflower Compact. The settlers agreed to form a government and obey its laws. This idea of self-government would later become one of the founding principles of the United States.

Territory controlled by the Dutch in North America; The Dutch claimed three waterways – the Hudson River, Hudson Bay, and Hudson Strait – and the territory surrounding them, which included much of modern day New York. Although the Dutch profited from trade with the Iroquois, their colony was slow to attract Dutch colonists. As a result, they invited colonists from other Protestant European nations.

The Middle Colonies developed an ethnic and religious diversity greater than either the Chesapeake area or New England, where almost all of the white colonists came from England. The Middle Colonies included Dutch, Swedes, Finns, French Protestants, Germans, Norwegians, and Scots – as well as English. By faith, they were Quakers, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed, and Jews. No single ethinc group or specific religious denomination possessed a majority in any Middle Colony. The diversity of the Middle Colonies violated the traditional belief that political order depended on ethnic and religious uniformity. Thrown together in unexpected combinations, the various colonists had to learn how to tolerate their differences. In their diversity, the Middle Colonies anticipated the American future.

As they expanded their settlements in North America, the nations of France, England, and the Netherlands battled each other for colonial supremacy. To the English, New Netherland separated their northern and southern colonies. In 1664, the English king, Charles II, granted his brother, the Duke of York, permission to drive out the Dutch. When the duke’s fleet arrived at New Netherland, the Dutch surrendered without firing a shot. The Duke of York claimed the colony for England and renamed it New York. With the Dutch gone, the English colonized the Atlantic coast of North America. By 1750, about 1.2 million English settlers lived in 13 colonies from Maine to Georgia.

Colonial North and South America in 1750

The last major colonial war between the French and British.

The war was fought around the World, not just in the Americas

At the end of the war the French gave up control of Canada and all of North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River

During the war colonists fought along side British soldiers, and many gained a hatred for them because of their behavior.

After the war colonists were forced to pay the cost of the war in the Americas, further increasing their anger with England

Closure Question #3: Why do you think French and British colonists in the Americas fought in the wars of their home countries? (At least 1 sentence)

By the mid-eighteenth century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands were locked in a worldwide struggle for empire. In North America, Britain’s greatest rival was France. While Britain controlled the 13 colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, France controlled a vast territory that extended from the St. Lawrence River to the Gulf of Mexico. Between 1689 and 1748, the British and the French fought a series of wars. Most of the fighting took place in Europe, but some spilled over into North America. Before long, British colonists were drawn into the war.

One point of conflict between France and Great Britain was the fertile Ohio River valley, which was claimed by both countries but was largely unsettled. To discourage British colonists from moving into this area, the French built Fort Duquesne in what is now western Pennsylvania. The new fort angered the British governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie. In 1754, he sent colonial troops to evict the French. Dinwiddie entrusted the command to a young, ambitious Virginian named George Washington. His troops attacked and defeated a small French force. But Washington had to surrender when the French counterattacked. His defeat touched off a world war that eventually spread from America to Europe, Asia, Africa and the West Indies.

(AKA King Philip) Native American ruler who, in 1675, led an attack on colonial villages throughout Massachusetts, sparking a conflict known as King Philip’s War. In the months that followed, both sides massacred hundreds of victims. In the end, the colonists defeated the natives. To celebrate their victory over Metacom, the Puritans cut off his head and displayed it at Plymouth for many years.

French and Dutch settlers developed a mostly cooperative relationship with 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 cooperated with Native Americans in an effort to establish a fur-trading enterprise. The groups did not live together in complete harmony. Dutch settlers fought with various Native American groups over land claims and trading rights. For the most part, however, the French and Dutch colonists lived together peacefully with Native Americans.

The same could not be said of the English. Early relations between English settlers and Native Americans were cooperative. However, they quickly worsened over the issues of land and religion. Unlike the French and Dutch, the English sought to populate their colonies in North America. This meant pushing the natives off their land. The English colonists seized more land for their population – and to grow tobacco. Religious differences also heightened tensions. The English settlers considered Native Americans heathens, people without a faith. Over time, many Puritans viewed Native Americans as agents of the devil and as a threat to their godly society. Native Americans developed a similarly harsh view of the European invaders.

Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 20, Section 2:

1. Why did the economy of the French in the Americas depend on good relationships with Native Americans? (At least 1 sentence)

2. In what ways did the colonies of Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay Differ? (At least 1 sentence)

3. Why do you think French and British colonists in the Americas fought in the wars of their home countries? (At least 1 sentence)

The buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas; Between 1500 and 1870, Europeans imported about 9.5 million Africans as slave laborers.

Beginning around 1500, European colonists in the Americas who needed cheap labor began using enslaved Africans on plantations and farms. Slavery had existed in African for centuries. In most regions, it was a relatively minor institution. The spread of Islam into African during the seventh century, however, ushered in an increase in slavery and the slave trade. Muslims rulers in Africa justified enslavement with the Muslim belief that non-Muslim prisoners of war could be bought and sold as slaves. As a result, between 650 and 1600, Muslims transported about 17 million Africans to the Muslim lands of North Africa and Southwest Asia. In most African and Muslim societies, slaves had some legal rights and an opportunity for social mobility. In the Muslim world, a few slaves even occupied positions of influence and power. Some served as generals in the army. In African societies, slaves could escape their bondage in numerous ways, including marrying into the family they served.

The first Europeans to explore Africa were the Portuguese during the 1400s. Initially, Portuguese traders were more interested in trading for gold than for captured Africans. That changed with the colonization of the Americas, as native began dying by the millions. Europeans saw advantages in using Africans in the Americas. First, many Africans had been exposed to European diseases and had built up some immunity. Second, many Africans had experience in farming and could be taught plantation work. Third, Africans were less likely to escape because they did not know their way around the new land. Fourth, their skin color made it easier to catch them if they escaped and tried to live among others.

Closure Question #1: How was slavery in the Americas different from slavery in Africa?

Trade route between Europe, Africa, and the Americas from 1500 to 1800. European ships carried manufactured goods, such as guns and cloths, to Africa. African slaves were then carried from Africa to the Americas. Finally, unmanufactured resources, such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton were taken from the Americas to Europe.

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. By the time the slave trade ended, the English had transported nearly 1.7 million Africans to their colonies in the West Indies. 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. Once in North America, however, the slave population steadily grew. By 1830, roughly 2 million slaves toiled in the United States.

Many African rulers and merchants played a willing role in the Atlantic slave trade. Most European traders, rather than travel inland, waited in ports along the coasts of Africa. African merchants, with the help of local rulers, captured Africans to be enslaved. They then delivered them to he Europeans in exchange for gold, guns, and other goods. As the slave trade grew, some African rulers voiced their opposition to the practice. Nonetheless, the slave trade steadily grew. Lured by its profits, many African rulers continued to participate. African merchants developed new trade routes to avoid rulers who refused to cooperate.

Middle Passage – The middle portion of the Triangular Trade in which slaves were taken from Africa to the Americas.

Plantations were large agricultural estates; Plantations were frequently established in European colonies that used slave labor to produce labor-intensive crops, such as sugarcane and cotton. Traffic of enslaved people was not new. As in other areas of the world, slavery had been practiced in Africa since ancient times. The primary market for enslaved Africans was Southwest Asia where most served as domestic servants as in some European countries like Portugal.

The demand for enslaved Africans changed dramatically with the discovery of the Americas. Plantations were established in the 1500s along the coast of Brazil and on Caribbean islands to grow sugarcane. The small Native American population, much of which had died of European diseases, could not provide the labor needed. Thus, enslaved Africans were shipped to Brazil and the Caribbean to work on plantations.

An estimated 275,000 enslaved Africans were exported to the Americas during the 1500s. In the 1600s, the total climbed to over 1 million and jumped to 6 million in the 1700s. Altogether, as many as 10 million enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas. One reason for the high number of exported slaves was the high death rate. Along the journey many Africans died from disease, malnourishment, and beating.

King Afonso, Christian Ruler of the west African Kingdom of Congo, wrote several letters to King Joao of Portugal requesting that the slavery and exportation of African slaves be stopped. In one of his letters Afonso wrote, “We beg Your Highness to help and assist us in this matter… because it is our will that in these Kingdoms there should not be any trade of slaves nor outlet for them.” Ignoring Afonso’s pleas, the Portuguese made more and more raids to capture and enslave Africans and even attempted to assassinate King Afonso when they thought he was hiding gold from them.

During the 1600s, landowning colonists in the Chesapeake region needed workers to raise crops. Indentured servants filled this need, and most early indentured servants were English. Yet, as English immigration began to decline in the late 1600s, the demand for labor in the colonies grew. As a result, many colonists began to turn to another source of labor: enslaved Africans.

Early in the 1600s, colonists often treated African workers just as they treated indentured servants, giving them their freedom after several years of service. Freed blacks could own land, vote, and even buy enslaved Africans of their own. By the mid-1600s, however, most colonies began to pass laws that supported the permanent enslavement of Africans. In 1705, Virginia’s General Assembly declared that “All servants imported… who were not Christians in their native Country… shall be accounted and be slaves.” Other laws stated that the children of enslaved African Americans were also enslaved. This change in legal status promoted the racist idea that people of African origin were inferior to whites.

Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 20, Section 3:

1. How was slavery in the Americas different from slavery in Africa?

2. Why did slavery become a permanent condition in the British colonies of North America?

3. Imagine that you are an African ruler. Write a paragraph to a European leader in which you try to convince him or her to stop participating in the slave trade.

The mixing and spread of the world’s plants, animals, and microorganisms between the Old World (Europe, Africa, and Asia) and the New World (North and South America) in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The Europeans who began arriving in the Americas in the late 1400s brought more than weapons, diseases, and a thirst for wealth and power. The colonizers also brought plants and animals that were new to the Americas. Indeed, the European arrival brought about an ecological revolution. Never before in human history had so many of the world’s plants, animals, and microorganisms been so thoroughly and so abruptly mixed and dispersed. Determined to farm the American land in a European manner, the colonists introduced their domesticated livestock: pigs, horses, mules, sheep, and cattle. They also brought seeds for their domesticated plants. These included wheat, barley, rye, oats, grasses, and grapes.

In a land where large mammals such as cattle and horses did not live, the new plants and animals brought drastic changes to the environment. Ranging cattle and pigs consumed wild plants and the shellfish that the Indians needed for their own diet. The livestock also invaded the Indians’ fields to consume maize, beans, and squashes. The Indians proved remarkably resilient as they adapted to the new plants and animals. In time, the Indians learned to raise and consume European cattle. On the Great Plains, the Indians acquired runaway horses. Once mounted, the Indians could more easily hunt bison and could more forcefully resist efforts to colonize their land.

While exporting domesticated plants and livestock to the Americas, the Europeans imported productive plants cultivated by the Indians. Maize and potatoes from the Americas produced more food per acre than traditional European crops such as wheat. European farmers enjoyed larger harvests by adding, or switching to, the American plants. Europeans also adopted tomatoes, beans, peppers, and peanuts. The great European killers included smallpox, typhus, diphtheria, bubonic plague, and cholera. These were diseases that had existed in Europe for centuries. As a result, the European population over generations had developed some natural defenses against them. That is, among the population there was a percentage of people whose bodies were able to fight off the diseases before they became fatal. The native populations of the Americas had not built up such natural defenses. The European diseases hit with devastating effect. In some cases, entire villages simply disappeared.

The Columbian Exchange helped trigger enormous population shifts around the world. Larger harvests aided by new American crops fueled European population growth. From about 80 million in 1492, Europe’s population grew to 180 million by 1800. That growth nearly doubled Europe’s share of the world population from about 11% in 1492 to 20% in 1800. Meanwhile, the Native American proportion of the global population collapsed from about 7% in 1492 to less than 1% in 1800.

The European surplus population flowed westward across the Atlantic to replace the Indians in the Americas. Those colonizers brought along millions of Africans as slaves. Never before had so many people moved so far with such a powerful impact. As a result, maritime trade and migration integrated four great continents: Europe, Africa, South America, and North America.

An economic system based on private ownership and the investment of resources, such as money, for profit. During the Age of Exploration, European economies transitioned from a system in which monarchs had controlled all wealth to capitalism.

Balance of Trade is the difference in value between what a nation imports and what it exports over time. The goal of European nations during the exploration era was to have more money coming in for goods exported than going out for goods imported. Subsidies are government payments to new industries; the government invested this money to encourage greater production and exports. European nations also improved transportation systems within their countries by building roads, bridges, and canals to increase production. They placed high tariffs, or taxes, on foreign goods to keep them out of their own countries. Colonies were considered important both as sources of raw materials and markets for finished goods.

The establishment of colonial empires in the Americas influenced the nations of Europe in still other ways. New wealth from the Americas was coupled with a dramatic growth in overseas trade. The two factors together prompted a wave of new business and trade practices in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. These practices, many of which served as the root of today’s financial dealings, dramatically changed the economic atmosphere of Europe. Due to overseas colonization and trade, numerous merchants had obtained great wealth. These merchants continued to invest their money in trade and overseas exploration. Profits from these investments enabled merchants and traders to reinvest even more money in other enterprises. As a result, businesses across Europe grew and flourished.

A business venture founded and run by a group of investors who share in the company’s profits and losses. The first British colony in the new world, Jamestown, was established by Joint-Stock companies.

The first promoters of English colonies were wealthy gentlemen from southwestern England. They included Sir Walter Raleigh, a special favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. English patriots and devout Protestants, these men wanted to advance their fortunes and increase the power of England. They promised that an American colony would solve England’s problems: a growing population and increased poverty due to a stagnant economy. The promoters proposed shipping poor people across the Atlantic to work in a new colony. By mining for gold and silver and by raising plantation crops, these workers would generate new wealth for England.

The increase in economic activity in Europe led to an overall increase in many nation’s 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 and 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. Price then rise. At this time in Europe, the costs of many goods rose. Spain, for example, endured a crushing bout of inflation during the 1600s, as boatloads of gold and silver from the Americas greatly increased the nation’s money supply.

The joint-stock company worked much like the modern-day corporation, with investors buying shares of stock in a company. It involved a number of people combining their wealth for a common purpose. In Europe during the 1500s and 1600s, that common purpose was American colonization. It took large amounts of money to establish overseas colonies. Moreover, while profits may have been great, so were risks. Many ships, for instance, never completed the long and dangerous ocean voyage. 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.

Closure Question #2: Why might establishing overseas colonies have justified high profits for those who financed the colonies?

A set of economic principles followed by European nations from 1500 to 1800; Mercantilists believed that the prosperity of a nation depends on a large supply of gold and silver and to bring in gold and silver payments nations must have a favorable balance of trade.

The increase in the volume and area of European trade as a result of European expansionism led to a new age of commercial capitalism. This is one of the first steps in the development of the world economy. The nations of Europe created trading empires. The theory of mercantilism held that country’s power depended mainly on its wealth. Wealth, after all, allowed nations to build strong navies and purchase vital goods. As a result, the goal of every nation became the attainment of as much wealth as possible. A country would do everything possible to acquire more gold, preferably at the expense of its rivals. A mercantilist country primarily sought gold in two ways: establishing and exploiting colonies, and establishing a favorable balance of trade with a rival country.

The economic changes that swept through much of Europe during the age of American colonization also led to changes in European society. The economic revolution spurred the growth of towns and the rise of a class of merchants who controlled great wealth. The changes in European society, however, only went so far. While towns and cities grew in size, much of Europe’s population continued to live in rural areas. And although merchants and traders enjoyed social mobility, the majority of Europeans remained poor. More than anything else, the economic revolution increased the wealth of European nations.

An economic condition in which a country sells more goods to other countries than it buys from them. 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, such as wood or furs. In addition to playing the role of supplier, the colonies also provided a market. The home country could sell its goods to its colonies. Colonies were considered, in part, a dumping ground for Europeans who did not fit in at home. The British poet John Donne told the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company, in 1622, “Jamestown shall redeem many a wretch from the jaws of death, from the hands of the executioner… It shall sweep your streets and wash your doors from idle persons and the children of idle persons, and employ them.”

Perhaps the most important items to travel from the Americas to the rest of the world were corn and potatoes. Both were inexpensive to grow and nutritious. Potatoes, especially, supplied many essential vitamins and minerals. Over time, both crops became an important and steady part of diets throughout the world. These foods helped people live longer. Thus they played a significant role in boosting the world’s population. The planting of the first white potato in Ireland and the first sweet potato in China probably changed more lives that the deeds of 100 kings. Traffic across the Atlantic did not flow in just one direction, however. Europeans introduced various livestock animals into the Americas. These included horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs. Foods from Africa (including some that originated in Asia) migrated west in European ships. They included bananas, black-eyed peas, and yams. Grains introduced to the Americas included wheat, rice, barley, and oats.

Closure Question #3: Why were colonies considered so important to European nations?

Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from Chapter 20, Section 4:

1. How did the Columbian Exchange affect population size and movement?

2. Why might establishing overseas colonies have justified high profits for those who financed the colonies?

3. Why were colonies considered so important to European nations?