The Atlantic WorldThe Atlantic World

Objectives:

• Know who Christopher Columbus was and what he did.

• Know who Cortes was and what he did.

• Know who Pizarro was and what he did.

• Describe how the English and the French split up North America and how the English won the French and Indian War.

• Know the effect of colonization on the Native Americans.

• Know what the nature of the slave trade was and how horrific it was.

This will be one powerpoint for all of chapter 20. We’ll hit the highlights.

Christopher Columbus

• You may have heard how in 1492, he sailed the ocean blue.

• He also sailed it in 1493, 1498, and 1502.

• While he was Italian (and may even have been Jewish), he was working for the Spanish, specifically the monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

• He was trying to find a western passage to the Indies that would compete with Portugal’s route around Africa.

• It’s a myth that people thought the earth was flat. Most everyone educated thought it was a sphere.

• The resistance to Columbus was because they thought he had severely miscalculated the distance between Europe and the Indies (he had) and that a ship would be unable to traverse the vast body of water between the two (if it really was all water, it couldn’t).

• Columbus calculated the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan as 3,000 km. It’s actually 19,600 km.

• Spain was desperate to compete with Portugal, however, and approved Columbus’s plan.

• So Columbus accidentally lands on a Caribbean island, trades with natives, and claims every island he finds for Spain despite the fact there were already people living there.

• Was Columbus the first to discover the Americas? No, the ancient nomads from Asia did that. The Vikings found it around 1000. Columbus’s rediscovery, though, was a spark that set off an exploration explosion.

• Yes, I did just use that phrase.

Both Spain and Portugal start exploring the Americas in earnest.

• Spain claims a bunch.

• Portugal takes modern-day Brazil. As we know, the Treaty of Tordesillas settles out their claims.

Cortes

• The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes conquers the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1521.

Aztecs

• Existed from the 1300’s to the 1500’s.

• Based their empire in the city of Tenochtitlan – modern day Mexico City.

• It was at this location that the Aztecs supposedly saw a vision of an eagle holding a snake while perched on a prickly pear cactus. Sound familiar?

• Tenochtitlan was located in the middle of Lake Texcoco.

• This made a for nice defensive position as it was connected to the mainland by causeways and bridges that could be withdrawn.

• Was an imperial system with an emperor.

• Engaged in human sacrifice at the temples. Those sacrificed were typically prisoners of war or from subjugated people.

• One account says they once sacrificed 84,000 people in four days.

• That’s probably overstated. Most accounts come to us from the Spanish, who likely exaggerated what they saw as atrocities.

• There is plenty of evidence supporting the human sacrifice, however.

• The Aztec cities were immense, clean, and well-ordered. They were actually more impressive than the European cities at the time (most of which were, frankly, pits).

• Had tremendous architecture and arts. Especially the temples.

• The Aztecs are conquered by the Spanish in 1519-1521, specifically the conquistador Hernando Cortez.

• With the support of local tribes that the Aztecs had conquered, he took over Tenochtitlan, captured the emperor Montezuma.

• When he and his force originally landed, they were thought to be gods. One of the main Aztec gods, Quetzalcoatl, was light-skinned. This made the Aztecs interested, but wary of the new visitors.

• Once Cortez’s intentions became clear, they revolted and nearly wiped out his entire force. Cortez came back, though, and won with reinforcements and the help of native tribes that didn’t like being used as human sacrifices by the Aztecs.

• Much of the city was destroyed in the process and Mexico City was built on top of it.

The Cathedral of Mexico City is built

atop older Aztec temples.

There was something in the air that nightThe stars were bright, Hernando

They were shining there for you and meFor liberty, Hernando

Though I never thought that we could loseThere’s no regret

If I had to do the same againI would, my friend, Hernando

Pizarro

• In 1532, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas in modern-day Peru.

• He met with the Incan ruler Atahualpa at Cajamarca.

• Atahualpa (a god in his own right) was not impressed with the dirty smelly Spanish and was not intimidated.

• Though he had an 80,000 strong army at his disposal, he met with Pizarro with an unarmed force of 4,000 to 6,000 as per Incan decorum.

• A friar attempts converting Atahualpa and gives him a bible, which Atahualpa disdainfully casts aside.

• The 170 strong Spanish (which included 62 cavalry) spring from their hiding spots and massacred all 4,000 Incas, save Atahualpa. Only 2 Spaniards were wounded.

• Some other events happen, but Pizarro captures the Incan capital of Cuzco. He obtains immense amounts of gold.

The Incas

• The Incan civilization was located in modern-day Peru.

• They lasted from about 1200 to 1550.

• It was a fairly powerful civilization (for the time and area, anyway) that dominated the area.

• Among the more interesting points about the Incas:

• They spoke Quechua. This came to be the standard language of the area and there are still around 12 million people who still speak some version of it.

• Their record-keeping method was called quipu.

• This was a system of knotted strings.

• It may resemble an old mop, but it practically amounted to a system writing. The sort of knots used and their placement determined what they said.

• They had an alcoholic beverage called chicha that was made by fermenting maize (corn) that was essentially corn beer.

• Machu Picchu.

• Cute little guinea pigs are indigenous (native) to this area and they were domesticated and bred by the Incas.

• Errr… here’s the thing, though.

• They ate them.

• Guinea pig is actually still a staple food of the Peruvian people and they eat around 65 million of them each year.

• Apparently, they taste like rabbit and are delicious.

• They’re actually a good food source since they’re high in protein, low in fat and cholesterol, require less food than livestock, take up a lot space than livestock, reproduce quickly, and can be raised in urban environments.

• It was and is so important to Peru that paintings of the Last Supper show them eating guinea pig.

Spanish Conquest

• The Incas are eventually conquered by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1532, not long after Cortez took out the Aztecs.

• The main “battle” was the Battle of Cajamarca.

• The Incan emperor was simply known as The Inca. He had absolute power and was considered divine.

• The emperor at the time was Atahualpa. By the time Pizarro came along, he had just won a civil war against his brother Huascar who was now imprisoned.

• Nearly 100,000 people died in this civil war and when he won, Atahualpa exercised terrible retribution on the opposition.

Atahualpa

• Atahualpa had agreed to meet with Pizarro at Cajamarca.

• This was in the interior and he had an overwhelming force. He had little to fear from Pizarro whom he figured couldn’t get out of the country anyway.

• In an encounter with Hernan de Soto, de Soto does some equestrian tricks, including running straight at Atahualpa and stopping just inches from him. Others were scared, but Atahualpa didn’t even blink. He was tough.

• At Cajamarca, Atahualpa had an army of 80,000. The Spaniards had an army of 168.

• Most of the 80,000 stayed encamped outside the city. Atahualpa entered with only 4,000 of his entourage who were unarmed as a show of good faith.

• Pizarro, though, had stationed his men, cavalry and 3 small cannons around the plaza.

• After some talking, the Spaniards attacked, slaughtered all 4,000 Incas and took Atahualpa hostage.

• Only 2 Spaniards were injured and they were accidents.

• Incan authority was highly centralized and they were nearly paralyzed without Atahualpa.

• Atahualpa agrees to buy his freedom by filling a room once with gold and twice with silver. He does, but he’s not released. The Spaniards eventually execute him.

• The Spaniards continue conquering the Incan empire. It takes nearly 40 years to completely stamp out resistance.

Other conquistadors push into North America and claim territory there.

North America

• The English and the French just ignored the Treaty of Tordesillas and started colonizing in what was supposed to be Spanish land.

• The French mainly colonized up in the Canada region, hence founding Montreal and Quebec.

• They also claimed land down the Mississippi River.

English

• They founded the colony of Jamestown in Virginia that was nearly a complete disaster.

• The English Puritans/Pilgrims founded Plymouth in now Massachusetts.

• It’s often said they were looking for religious freedom. Kinda true… they were looking for religious freedom for themselves, not for anyone else. They weren’t pluralists and weren’t religiously tolerant.

Dutch

• The Dutch founded New Amsterdam.

• New Amsterdam is now New York, which was renamed such by the Duke of York after he took it from the Dutch.

As the English and French colonies expanded, they started interfering with each other.

• The French and Indian War resulted which gave England France’s territories in Canada and east of the Mississippi in 1763.

• The F&I War was really an extension of the Seven Years’ War being fought in Europe.

Relations with the Indians were strained. Like everywhere in the Americas, European diseases like smallpox, measles, and mumps nearly eradicated the populations. They killed tens of millions and were far more destructive than weapons and armies.

Slave trade

• Lasted from about the 1500’s until 1870, when it was officially ended.

• Some estimates say the Atlantic slave trade transported up to 40 million Africans to places elsewhere.

• Generally what happened is that the Europeans or African tribes would capture other Africans. They would then sell the captured people to the Europeans. They’d get guns or some such in return.

• Slavery was fairly common in both Africa and the world at the time. The institution had a long tradition in world history. Therefore, it wasn’t seen for being as abhorrent as it actually was.

• Making the journey was extremely hazardous.

• Slaves were packed shoulder to shoulder in tightly-packed compartments.

• They were treated like bulk cargo. They were chained down and couldn’t move.

• They would defecate, urinate, and vomit where they were and the filth would slide around on the decks and where they were laying.

• Combine that with the humidity and heat of the hold along with body odor and it would have been hellish.

• Sores could become infected. It could be a few days before dead bodies were removed.

• Sometimes slaves were tossed overboard either to lighten the load or to commit insurance fraud.

• The Atlantic trade is sometimes known as the triangle trade.

• Slaves were used as manual labor in the European colonies. They were often not well treated.