APUSH Talking Points The Age of European Exploration

Native Civilizations a. Existing Environmental Destruction: Often exploited the environment by burning

areas, planting fields, gathering seeds, berries and harvesting vast numbers of games animals, fish, etc.

b. Native Adaption: villages, nature centered religions, fire, spear points, basketry, mills for griding, domesticated dog and turkey, potter making, fishing, farming (agri revolution around 5000BC with maize, beans, squash, avocados, pumpkins, peppers

1. Mayans, Aztecs, Incas 2000-1500 BC permanent farming towns and cities in Mexico and Northern Guatemala. Had a sophisticated calendar system, using math and astronomy, government, terraced farms, pyramids. By 900 AD, Mayans collapsed (overuse of the land, overpopulation, civil wars 2. Aztecs: Tenochtitlan in 1300s AD. Gold, Silver, copper and pearls drove economy as well as agriculture.5 million people by the time Spanish arrive in 1519AD 3. Incas: 12 million people, 2,500 miles of military conquests, sophisticated like Aztecs, 2500 miles along the Andes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9jLxKPnSN8 (5 min to 16:30)

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Native Civilizations (North America) Show video, highlight Pueblos, take notes of main

ideas of each

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BIG PICTURE THEMES AROUND EXPLORATION 1. Nomads chasing food, invention of spears came looking for large game animals. (18K to 40K years ago)Climate warms over next 500 years and land bridge is submerged. The New World, before Columbus, there were many different Native American tribes. These people were very diverse. In what’s today the U.S., there were an estimated 400 tribes, 10 million Indians, often speaking different languages. It’s inaccurate to think of “Indians” as a homogeneous group. They were more than passive victims of European power, they were also trading partners and often allies in rivals of transatlantic newcomers.

2. Factors pushing European exploration:

Crusades (1095 to 1295) opened Empire up to the possibility of organized state sponsored exploration and expedition AND the tremendous possibilities of the Middle East and the Orient trough trade and cultural exchange (arts, ideas, and technology)

THEN…(15th century)

Technology: full rigged ships (caravels), astrolabe (finds ships latitude)(, printing press spread global learning (1440), first modern corporations, better weapons, better maps

Culture: decline of feudalism, formation of new nations (Europe now Spain, England, Portugal and France by 1490)

Stuff!: spices, gold, silver, silk, jewels, herbal medicines, rugs, money money! Safer water route to Asia, avoiding Muslim world across N. Africa, into Central Asia

3. Columbus (Italian) came to America looking for a trade route to the East Indies (Spice Islands). Financed by Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella (united Catholic Spain by marriage) Other explorers quickly realized this was an entirely New World and came to lay claim to the new lands for their host countries. Spain and Portugal (land divided by Treaty of Tortesellis) had the head start on France and then England. Reasons to come to New World: “God, gold, glory”..spices, silver, many were convicts, indentured servants, religious exiles, etc. Seeking land, higher wages (3x in England)…Irony! Columbus refused to believe he discovered an entire new continent, and America is named after Amerigo Vespucci in 1499 who declared a “New World”

4. Columbian Exchange: (diseases, animals, plants, people) The coming together of the two world had world changing effects. The biological exchange cannot be underestimated. Food was swapped back and forth and truly revolutionized what people ate. On the bad side, European diseases wiped out an estimated 90% of Native Americans (15-30 million reduced to 500,000 by 1600s) SEE PRIMARY SOURCE

5. Demand for labor in new world started with captive Indians, often ungovernable, ran away, mass suicides, etc. 1619 Dutch ship brought 20 African slaves to Jamestown

6. TWO GREAT SOCIAL INJUSTICES IN AMERICA’S HISTORY: conquest and displacement of Indians and enslavement of Africans

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7. Struggle for New World land made rivals of Spain, French, English and Dutch…in British colonies, as long as control was loose, no issues, with salutary neglect…tightening control led to rebellions.

All of these came together to encourage long voyage of discoveryColumbus’s voyage for Spain marked the most important economic intersection of people and places in human history, leading to more!

Name Nation Year AchievementDiaz Portuga

l1487 Rounded the tip of Africa

Columbus Spain 1492 North America; the New WorldPope Alexander 1494 Treaty of TordesillasDe Gamma Portuga

l1497 East and West coast of Africa; India

Cabot England 1497 Northeast coast of North AmericaCabral Portuga

l1500 Portugal’s claims on Brazil

Magellan Spain 1521 Philippines; circumnavigates globe Cortes Spain 1519 Conquered Mexico (Aztec empire)Pizarro Spain 1531 Conquered Peru (Inca Empire)Cartier France 1534 St. LawrenceVerrazano France 1524 East Coast of North AmericaCartier France 1535 Explores St. Lawrence riverdeSoto Spain 1539 Explores lower MississippiCoronado Spain 1540 Explores the Southwest

1588 Defeat of the Spanish ArmadaChamplain France 1608 CanadaDrake England 1577 Circumnavigation of globeHudson Holland 1620 New York

Who sponsored these voyages? Joint-Stock companies, entrepreneurs, and wealthy Monarchs

IMPACT = GLOBAL INTERACTION

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) Spain and Portugal, with pope’s approval, divides claims by a line of demarcation in the Atlantic Ocean. Southeast of line = Portuguese; southwest of line = Spanish. The Dutch, English, and French refuse to accept it. Spain secured its claim to Columbus’s discovery in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), dividing with Portugal the “heathen lands” of the New World.

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The lion’s share went to Spain, but Portugal received compensating territory in Africa and Asia, as well as title to lands that one day would be Brazil,

Spanish Armada (1588) failed in its attempt to invade England. 130 ships + 30,000 are defeated by the English (VIDEO CLIP!)

Impact of explorationExchange ultimately benefits Europeans at expense of indigenous people

Redistribution of wealthDiffusion of values and religionTriangular slave trade 1500-1800 - “African Diaspora” Redistribution of world’s population (voluntary and involuntary)Redistribution of plants and animals - “Columbian Exchange”Disease: Indians are unprepared and unexposed to European disease

Spain’s effects:Encomienda system: favored officers become priviledged landowners controlling Indian Villages. Mistreatment…(see Zinn!)Indian population goes from 50 million to 4 million by 1600’sBartolome de Las Casas: Catholic priest in Cuba spends 20 years documenting and advocating for better treatment of indigenous

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Everyone is arrives!

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FRANCE in the New WORLD

France emerged from a Civil War in the 16th century to European masters in the 17th century - Emergence of Protestant vs. Catholic majority

Attempted to emulate profitability of early Spanish settlement by subsidizing their own voyages of exploration

1608 Champlain first significant settlement. St. Lawrence tries to exploit the fur trade

1862 deLaSalle explores the Gulf coast and the mouth of the Mississippi

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French did not succeed in creating strong settler society WHY NOT? Primary activity was religious

DUTCH SETTLEMENT in the NEW WORLD (MAP OF EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT)

17th century became a major world commercial power

Dutch East India Company organizes exploration of Hudson River in 1609 leads to the settlement of New Netherlands

Immediate Goal: Exploitation of the fur trade in the woodland interior

New Netherlands become the most culturally and ethnically diverse settlement in North America (Immigrants, religious toleration, and women’s rights)

Henry Hudson was a veteran English navigator whose goal was to search for the Northwest Passage

1644: 18 different languages spoke on the streets of North America

English Settlement of the New World

England joins the European pattern of extract and settlement a little later than their Spanish and French counterparts WHY? …Districted by Civil War and religious instability in early 1500, English ventured into the Atlantic only as a means of preying on Spanish Shipping

Early interest shown by wealthy individuals like Sir Walter Raleigh to establish based along the coast to ambush Spanish trade

WHY WOULD ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS BECOME MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN THEIR SPANISH COUNTERPARTS IN THE NEW WORLD?1. Luck2. New business practices3. Culture of technological inquisitiveness4. Climate receptive to political and economic risk tasking

EARLY SETTLEMENT PATTERNSLesson from the lost colony of Roanoke ?The first American history mystery 1590 – Two years after leaving Roanoke Island is deserted and “Croatan” carved into the forts gatewaySir Walter Raleigh loses interest in expensive and risky new world settlement

New Idea – if individual entrepreneurs couldn’t /wouldn’t finance settlements, pooling resources is an option

Joint Stock Company (Virginia Company) pursues the settlement of Jamestown (1607) +/-

Even with corporate backing the settlers nearly made no money

Freedom to experiment with government

England sent the unemployable and unwanted to the new world8

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