Chapter 3 Europeans reach the Americas
Section1:
Middle Ages: period from 500- 1350 A.D.
- Many Europeans thought of the world as a disk floating on a
great ocean.
-They thought the world was made up of three continents:
Europe, Africa &Asia.
-Mapmakers called the sea bordering Europe the “sea of
darkness”.
-Feudalism: Weak European Kings and Queens divided their
land between powerful nobles. Each noble would have their
own armies and courts but still owed loyalty to their king.
Manor: Lords castle, peasants’ huts, and surrounding villages/
fields.
-Most people on the manor were serfs and bound to the land
for life or could not leave the land without the lord’s
permission. Manors produced nearly everything, even a place
to worship were serfs and lords heard teaching of the Roman
Catholic Church.
Crusades:
Western Europe: Roman Catholic, they referred to the Middle
East as the holy land, as well as the Muslims. The Roman
Catholic Church fought a series of religious wars to gain control
of the holy land from Turkish Muslims.
Effects of the crusades: large numbers of Europeans traveled
beyond their small towns. Arab traders now traded with Asia
and new food became part of the Middle Eastern diet. Arabs
taught the Italians how to navigate the Mediterranean Sea by
using the magnetic compass.
Renaissance: (rebirth) burst of learning from Europeans making
discoveries in medicine, astronomy and chemistry.
Printing press: invented in the mid 1400’s by Johannes
Guttenberg of Germany. The invention of the press allowed
large numbers of books to be printed at a low cost. More
people learned to read and learn about the world.
-New rulers looked for ways to increase their wealth; France,
Portugal and Spain wanted to trade with China and other Asian
countries to make a profit. However the Arab & Italian
merchants controlled the Mediterranean Sea.
Portuguese slave trade: in 1441 the Portuguese raided an African
village; they captured a dozen Africans and sold them as slaves. Trading
along the West African coast marked the turning point in slavery. Soon
11 million Africans will be enslaved.
Christopher Columbus: set sail August 1492 with 3 vessels and a crew
of 90 men. He commanded the largest ship, the Santa Maria. The
other ships were the Nina and the Pinta. On October 12 he planted
the banner of Spain in what he believed to be the West Indies, he
called the people Indians. He brought back pearls and parrots to King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. They agreed to finance future
voyages.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) made four voyages to the New
World.
1) 1492-1493 : Bahamas, Hispaniola, and Cuba
2) 1493-1494 : Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica
3) 1498 : Trinidad and Venezuela
4) 1502-1504 : Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, marooned on Jamaica
for a year
(tropical storms and then ship worms destroyed his ships)
- People of Hispaniola complained of Columbus’s harsh rule, when
Queen Isabella went there to investigate, they sent Columbus back to
Spain in chains. Isabella pardoned Columbus, he died in 1506 still
convinced he had reached Asia.
Section 2:
Conquistadors: “conquerors” came to the Americas in search
for glory and gold who made Spain one of the richest empires
in Europe.
By 1511 the Spanish had conquered Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and
Cuba.
Ferdinand Magellan: sailed across the Pacific from Spain in
1519. Magellan was later killed by Philippine people off the
coast of Asia. Out of 250 crew members, only 18 returned
back to Spain in 1522.Their voyage around the world made
Europeans aware of the size of the earth.
Hernando Cortez : November 8, 1519 Spanish leader marched
into the Aztecs capital Tenochtitlan, held their leader
Montezuma captive for 6 months. The Aztecs drove out the
Spanish but Cortez soon returned with help and captured and
destroyed most of Tenochtitlan. The Aztec Empire had fallen.
Francisco Pizarro: invaded/ captured the Incan empire. By
1535 he controlled much of the empire.
How did the Spanish conquer great empires?
1st: Spanish fought w/ iron swords, guns and cannons and the
Native Americans fought with bows, arrows and spears.
2nd: the Aztecs/ Incas had never seen horses.
3rd: they had no resistance to Spanish diseases. Many died
from chickenpox, measles &influenza.
Juan Ponce de Leon: traveled through parts of Florida in1513
looking for the fountain of youth.
Hernando De Soto: arrived in Florida in 1539 looking for gold/
treasure.
Panfilo de Narvaez: landed in Florida and unwisely attacked
the Native Americans for their food, they struck back and he
was then blown off course in his boat never to be seen again.
Only 4 men from the expedition survived.
Laws of the Indies: Set up laws how colonies should be
organized.
-3 settlements in New Spain were allowed: Pueblos, Presidios
and Missions.
Missions: religious settlements run by a Catholic priest and
friars. The Spanish believed they had a duty to convert Indians
to the Catholic religion.
Class System:
Peninsulares: Born in Spain and sent by the Spanish gov. to
rule the colonies.
Creoles: people born in America with Spanish parents
Mestizos: people of mixed Spanish and Indian background
Encomiedas: The government gave Settlers that came to New
Spain the right to demand labor or taxes from Native
Americans living on the land.
Section 3: Staking Claims in North America
John Cabot: reached a “new-found” land he thought was Asia.
In fact, it was North America. It is now called Newfoundland
and is in the most eastern province of Canada.
Giovanni de Verrazano: an Italian captain who sailed for the
French in 1524, he journeyed along the North American coast
from the Carolinas to Canada.
Jaques Cartier: Claimed the land in North America and named
it Canada (taken from an Iroquois name Kanata.)
Henry Hudson: Sailed for the Dutch in 1609, his ship named Half
Moon entered todays NY harbor and continued 150 miles up the river
that now bears his name. He then spent the following year on a
voyage far north spending a winter in the Hudson Bay. His sailors
rebelled and put Hudson, his son and 7 sailors on a small boat. They
were never seen again.
Martin Luther: A German Monk, he challenged many practices of the
Catholic Church. He believed the church had become too greedy and
worldly. He also objected that believers had to perform good works in
order to be granted eternal life and people could only be saved by
their faith in God. His supporters became known as Protestants.
Protestant Reformation: “Faith alone” movement that divided
Christian in Europe.
Samuel de Champlain: sailor/ mapmaker. He promoted French Fur
trade and founded settlements known as New France. It took port at
Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1605. He built a trading post known as
Quebec.
-Most French colonist were trappers &traders because they lived in
the woods and learned how to survive from Native Americans.
-Catholic Missionaries traveled with trappers and were determined to
convert Native Americans.
Section 4:
Richard Hakluyt: Wrote a pamphlet convincing Queen Elizabeth I of
England to set up colonies in North America. In 1585 7 ships and 100
men set out across the Atlantic. They landed on present day North
Carolina and within a year sailed back to England because colonists
quarreled with neighboring Indians.
2nd Attempt: colonists came with women, when supplies ran low, one
settler sailed back and left behind 117 people. It was 3 years before
he ever could come back.
Virginia Company of London: received a charted (legal document)
giving them the right to settle in North America. In 1607 105 colonists
arrived in Virginia. They named their tiny outpost Jamestown.
-the Virginia Company chose 13 men to rule the settlement.
Captain John Smith: saved the Jamestown settlement he began to
trade with Indian villages. The economy in Jamestown improved
when colonists began to grow tobacco. Soon England was importing
30,000 pounds of tobacco a year; they had found a way to make
money.
-In 1619 a Dutch ship landed in Jamestown with 20 Africans. The
Dutch sold them to the Virginians who needed them for labor. By
1644 300 Africans lived in Virginia, some free planters. Early 1600’s
Africans could own land, vote and testify in court.
House of Burgesses: representatives chosen to meet in an assembly
and together with the governor they set laws for the colony. This
marked the beginning of the representative government.
Magna Carta: “Great Charter” said the king could not raise taxes
without first consulting the Great Council of nobles and church
leaders. (This soon grew in to what we know as parliament)
Women in Virginia: leaders soon realized if Jamestown were to last it
needed more families. In 1619 investors send 100 women to
Jamestown each man who married one of these women had to give
the Virginia Company 150 pounds of tobacco.
Pilgrims: English settlers who sought to practice their own religion
freely. They belonged to a group called seperatests.