1.9 Notes: Europeans in America IUnit 1: Three Worlds Collide (c. 982-1784)

I. IntroductionIn previous classes, you learned about the push-pull factors that motivated

governments and individuals to explore and settle new lands. In the Age of Discovery, Europeans would set sail to find shorter trade routes to Asia. In doing so, an entirely new landmass was discovered, and regular contact between Europe, Africa, and the Americas was established for the first time in history. Today we will begin to learn in chronological order about the arrival of these Europeans in the Americas. Where they first explored, claimed, and settled, and the cultural systems they established in their colonies, will continue to impact American history for the remainder of this course.A. Preview Video: Expedition Unknown - S2.E8 - Secrets of Columbus (Introduction) (Presentation Only)

II. The VikingsA. Vikings - a seafaring people from Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) who raided and colonized Northern Europe, including Iceland, in the late first

millenniumB. Explorations and Settlements:

1. Erik the Red and Greenland:a) c. 982 - Erik the Red is credited with being the first European to

discover Greenland after he was banished from Iceland.b) c. 985 – He returns to Iceland to recruit other settlers, naming his

discovery Greenland in order to make it sound more attractive.

c) Two Settlements:(1) Eastern Settlement(2) Western Settlement

d) Map of Greenland Settlements:

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2. Leif Eriksson and Continental North America:a) c. 1000 - Leif Erikson, the son of Erik the Red, is credited with

being the first European to discover continental North America

b) He named three distinct areas:(1) Helluland = Land of Flat Stones (possibly Baffin Island)(2) Marklund = Land of Forests (possibly Labrador)(3) Vinland = Land of Vines (possibly Newfoundland)

c) In 1963, archaeologists discovered a Viking settlement on Newfoundland they named L’Anse aux Meadows, which may have been one of Leif’s original settlements he built in Vinland.

d) It is not known how far south Leif or other Vikings may have travelled.

3. Map of Viking Explorations and Settlements:

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C. These Viking settlements in Greenland and continental North America lasted into the 1400s when they died out, possibly due to the Little Ice Age. It is not known if Christopher Columbus or other European explorers were aware of these Viking discoveries when they set sail later that century.

III. The SpanishA. Portugal kicked off the Age of Discovery with their explorations of the west coast of Africa and were the first to round the southern tip of the continent in 1488 and sail east for Asia.B. In the meantime, an Italian sailor named Christopher Columbus came up with a plan to reach Asia by sailing west. He finally found backers in the form of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Spain.C. The Four Voyages of Columbus:

1. First Voyage (1492-1493):a) 3 AUG 1492 – Columbus sets sail in three ships named:

(1) Niña(2) Pinta(3) Santa Maria

b) 12 OCT 1492 – Columbus makes landfall on an island he names San Salvador (Bahamas), convinced he had reached Asia.

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c) 25 DEC 1492 – Santa Maria runs aground on an island Columbus named Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), so he builds a fort called La Navidad from the timbers, and leaves men behind to man the fort.

d) Columbus arrives back in Spain and is named Governor of the Indies.

2. Second Voyage (1493-1496):a) Columbus returns to La Navidad, only to find the fort destroyed

and the men he left behind dead or missing.b) He builds another settlement called La Isabela (Hispaniola),

places his brother Bartholomew in charge, and then returns to Spain.

c) Bartholomew abandons La Isabela, and builds a new settlement called Santo Domingo (Hispaniola), which will be the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the Americas.

3. Third Voyage (1498-1500):a) Columbus is accused of mismanaging the colony, replaced as

governor, and he and his brothers are arrested in Santo Domingo and returned to Spain in chains.

4. Fourth Voyage (1502-1504)a) Ferdinand and Isabella eventually release Columbus and agree to

fund one more voyage.5. Maps of the Four Voyages of Columbus:

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Fourth Voyage (1502-1504):

Third Voyage (1498-1500):

Second Voyage (1493-1496):

First Voyage (1492-1493):

D. Other Spanish Explorations and Conquests:1. Terms:

a) Spanish Main – name given to the mainland coast of the Spanish territory surrounding the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea

(i) Map of Spanish Main:

b) conquistadors – Spanish and Portuguese soldiers and explorers who used military tactics to conquer territory and native peoples in newly discovered lands

2. Explorers and Conquistadors in the Service of Spain:a) Vasco Núñez de Balboa – Spanish conquistador who crossed the

Isthmus of Panama and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean (1513)

b) Juan Ponce de León – Spanish conquistador who explored the east coast of Florida and became the first European to set foot in what is today the United States, allegedly in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth (1513)

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c) Hernán Cortés – Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico (1519-1521)

d) Ferdinand Magellan – Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southern tip of South America and west across the

Pacific and Indian Oceans, and is credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the globe (he died in the Philippines in a battle with natives, but survivors of his crew carried on) (1519-1522)

e) Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico (African slave) – surviving members of a Spanish expedition to the west coast of Florida that was attacked by Indians and spent eight years in captivity and wandering the American Southwest and Mexico, and returned to tell tales of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold (1527-1536)

f) Francisco Pizarro - Spanish conquistador who conquered the Incan Empire in Peru (1531-1533)

g) Hernando de Soto – Spanish conquistador who explored the American Southeast and became the first European to cross the Mississippi River, (he died from an illness on the expedition) (1539-1543)

h) Francisco Vásquez de Coronado – Spanish conquistador who explored the American Southwest in search of the Seven Cities of Gold and is credited with being the first European to see the Grand Canyon (he personally never saw it, but members of his expedition did) (1540-1542)

(i) Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo – Portuguese conquistador who explored the Pacific Coast of North America as far north as Oregon (he died from an illness on the expedition) (1542-1543)

3. How were small groups of conquistadors able to defeat much greater numbers of Indians?

a) Indian populations were wiped out by European diseases they had no immunity to.

b) The conquistadors had technological advantages in the form of better weapons, armor, and horses.

c) Some Indians believed the conquistadors were gods.F. Spanish America:

1. The Spanish Empire in the Americas was tightly governed by the monarchy and was organized into political units called either viceroyalties or captaincy generals.

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2. The most important of these for this course was the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Central America, Mexico, and the American Southwest).G. Spanish Economic Activities:

1. Slave labor (first Indians, then Africans) was used for the following main economic activities:

a) mining (mostly gold and silver)b) ranching (mostly cattle)c) plantation agriculture (mostly sugarcane, tobacco)

2. Spanish treasure fleets – convoys of ships laden with gold, silver, and other goods that would sail from the Spanish Main back to SpainH. Spanish Religious Influence:

1. The Spanish monarchy was the strongest supporter of Roman Catholicism in Europe and the spreading of Catholicism and conversion of Indians through the building of missions was an important motivation for their colonization of the Americas.

a) mission – a Catholic church and its surrounding settlement begun by Spanish priests where Indians were converted to Catholicism and lived and worked (sometimes under brutal conditions)I. Spanish Colonial Society:

1. The Spanish prevented foreigners, Protestants, and single women from going to the Americas; therefore colonial society was not very diverse and was comprised mostly of government officials, soldiers, priests, large landowners, and Indian and African slaves.

2. Colonial society was hierarchically organized along racial lines:

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mulattos – Spanish colonists with mixed Spanish and African heritage

mestizos – Spanish colonists with mixed Spanish and Indian heritage

creoles – Spanish colonists that were born in the Americas to two Spanish parents

peninsulares – Spanish colonists that were born in Spain

3. encomienda – system of forced labor where Spanish colonists were awarded the labor of certain Indians by the monarchy in exchange for the duty to be responsible for their care

4. Some Spanish protested the treatment of the Indians.a) Bartolomé de Las Casas was Spanish priest and former

conquistador who wrote the famous book A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552), detailing Spanish atrocities against the Indians.J. The Legacy of Columbus:

1. The Spanish would build the largest European empire in the Americas, and one of the largest in world history.

a) Map of Spanish Empire:

2. Believing he was in the Southeast Asian islands known as the Indies, Columbus called the natives Indians, a term which was then applied to all Native Americans, and has come down through history.

3. Columbian Exchange – name given to the exchange of plants, animals, diseases, products, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World

4. virgin soil epidemics – new diseases spread by Europeans to Indians who had no immunity and reduced native populations by as much as 90 percent

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a) This has been called the single worst loss of human life in history.

5. Black Legend – the impression put forth by other Europeans that the Spanish were cruel toward the Indians and used to justify their own (often just as cruel) conquest and treatment of Indians in order to save them from the Spanish

IV. The Treaty of TordesillasA. Portugal began the Age of Discovery by sailing east in search of Asia, and Spain followed close behind, but sailed west instead.B. With Columbus’s discovery of new lands to the west, Portugal and Spain agreed to divide the world (any territory that was not already Christian) between the two of them.C. Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) – treaty between Spain and Portugal that divided the world along a north-south line running from pole to pole, roughly corresponding to 46° W longitude, and gave Spain the right to colonize any new lands to the west of the line, while Portugal was given the right to colonize any new lands to the east of the lineD. Although not strictly enforced, Spain and Portugal mostly respected the treaty, but no other European power did.E. Map of Treaty of Tordesillas:

V. The Portuguese

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A. Explorers in the Service of Portugal:1. João Fernadandes Lavrador – Portuguese explorer who sailed along the

coasts of Greenland and Eastern Canada (1499)2. Pedro Álvarez Cabral – Portuguese explorer who sailed far enough west

into the Atlantic en route to Asia and landed on the coast of Brazil (1500-1501)

3. Amerigo Vespucci – Italian explorer who was part of a Portuguese expedition that sailed far south down the Atlantic Coast of South America, and is credited with being among the first to realize it was a new continent and not Asia (1501- 1502)B. Portuguese America:

1. Based on the Treaty of Tordesillas, and the exploration of Cabral, the Portuguese Empire established and maintained colonies in

Brazil until 1822.a) Map of Portuguese Empire:

VI. ConclusionThe Vikings were the first Europeans to explore and settle the Americas five

hundred years before Columbus. However, their settlements had died out by the time the Spanish arrived in 1492. The Spanish and Portuguese explorations of the 1400s and 1500s would lead the world into the Age of Discovery, and both kingdoms would establish huge empires. Although Portugal did establish colonies in Brazil, most of their explorations were directed to the East and they therefore had little influence on the history of North America. Spain directed their explorations to the West however, and being the first to rediscover the Americas, they would establish the largest European presence in the New World, and go on to play an important role in the future of American history.

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