Period 1: 1491-1607
Curriculum Outline Day 4 Lecture Notes
European Exploration and Conquest
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Age of Discovery begins in 15th century
Traditional 3 G’s / Distribute PDF chart
God, Glory, Gold
Teacher selected examples to further investigate concept
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Portugal was first of among the Europeans to reach and maintain outposts and settlements
in sub-Saharan Africa
- Portugal was smallest and poorest
- Interaction with Arabs via trade & Moors = caravel & navigation tools
- Moors = Muslims/Berbers/Arabs; conquered Iberian Peninsula in 711
- King John I reign 1385-1433 (post Moors) wanted gold = compete w/ others
- trans-Saharan routes were dangerous (bandits) & rumors of gold shortage
- Prince Henry (son to Kong John) sponsored voyages along west coast Africa
- this patronage earned him the title Prince Henry the Navigator;
- he never actually boarding a ship for said explorations
- motivations: gold, route to Asia, geographic knowledge, Christian allies
- Established forts along coast to protect trading stations from rivals
- Cape Blanco, Sierra Leone, Elmina (see map of Africa)
- Portuguese established a near monopoly on the trade of gold and slaves by
avoiding the traditional land routes = increased wealth for Portugal
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Portugal makes contact with the Congo Kingdom in 1480s (modern day north Angola)
- the Congo Kingdom was well organized and powerful
- Portugal allies itself with the Congo king and begin trading guns for slaves
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1490s sugar plantations established on islands of Sao Tome and Principle
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- In time Sao Tome became largest producer of sugar for Europe
- settlements versus forts are established
- slaves bought from the Congo worked on the plantations
- 1530s Brazil becomes a Portuguese colony = more slaves for sugar plantations
- as the demand for slaves increases = go further south to Luanda and Benguela
- guns, cloth, & other European goods traded for slaves
**Examine Letter to the King of Portugal** to show shifting attitudes of Congo king
Spain Enters the Race. With Portugal in Africa, Spain heads West
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1492 Moors are ousted from Spain and new monarch sends Columbus to seek a route to
Asia
- Columbus reaches the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic (Hispaniola)
- In Haiti he sees natives wearing gold ornaments. Natives allow him to establish
a fort and settlement “La Navidad”
- Effects of Columbus’ voyages & Later European contact
- Epidemics: small pox, bubonic plague, influenza, TB, typhus, & cholera kills
80- 100% of natives = Europeans face no real challenge when begin to come in
mass
- estimated native population prior to contact = 10-20 million
- estimated native population after contact = 2 million (90% less)
- Racially mixed societies = Mestizos
- Queen Isabella of Spain decreed all natives were here subjects and were
morally equal, to be treated humanly, and Christianized (Requeirmento)
(Columbus didn’t listen)
- Priests develop communities for natives = brought whites and natives
Together = intermarrying and intermingling = new class = mestizos
(mostly single white males from Spain came to New World)
- today mestizos represent the majority in Latin America
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Period 1: 1491-1607
Curriculum Outline Day 5 Lecture Notes
Big Ideas:
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Interactions b/w Europeans and natives: Columbian Exchange, Triangle Trade
Economic shift in Europe to capitalism
Interactions
1) Columbian Exchange (diagram pg 15 in textbook)
o Cultural and biological exchange b/w “new” and “old” world
o Impact on New World
- Horses from Spain to Great Plains = natives have more mobility and hunt
buffalo on horseback also causes conflict b/w tribes for hunting grounds
- Cows, pigs, sheep = ranching economies develop in new world
- Crops from old world flourish in new = plantations = slavery
o Impact on Old World
- Goods and raw materials from new world = wealth for old = empire
building = competition and conflict among Europeans
- Potato from new = improved food supply = population boom in Europe =
industrial revolution = imperialism
- Corn from new is successful in Africa = increase in population = more
slaves
2) Encomienda System and African Slavery
o Encomienda – to commend or give natives to certain Spanish colonists in
exchange for a promise to Christianize them. In actuality it was a system of
slavery and used to regulate and control native behaviors (1512-1542)
- Native slaves had to provide a tribute in form of gold or labor
- Each encomienda contained b/w 50-100 natives
- 1542 new laws, too many death and runaways of natives lead to end of the
system
- African slaves used to replace natives
3) Triangular Trade/Slave Trade/ Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
o 11,000,000 enslaved Africans – alive – made it to the Americas b/w 15th century
and 1807
o Manufactured goods from Europe to Africa; Slaves from Africa to Americas;
Plantation Crops from Americas to Europe
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Capitalism
Industry controlled by private owners for profit = emergence of the wealthy merchant class and
joint-stock companies
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Joint-stock companies forerunner to modern corporations. stocks sold to investors
who put up money – returns on the investment were quick and profitable
European countries begin to amass wealth through subjugation of others
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Period 1: 1491-1607
Curriculum Outline Day 6 Lecture Notes
Big Ideas:
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Contact among groups challenged worldviews; white superiority
European attempts to change native culture lead to conflict; despite slavery African’s
cultural adaptions to Western culture lead to some preservation and autonomy
Challenging Worldviews in 1550 Las Casas and Sepulveda have a debate in a Spanish court
over the treatment of natives
Bartolome de Las Casas
Spanish
Priest & Missionary
Against slavery
Views encomienda system as the work
of the devil himself
Leaves the new world mission work
and returns to Spain to persuade
monarchy to reform the system
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Juan Gines de Sepulveda
Spanish
Humanist lawyer
Just Causes for War Against the
Indians (used to support conquest)
Supporter of natural slavery = inferior
natives had no ruler & no laws; so any
civilized man could legitimately
appropriate them
Natives are pre-social men w/ no
rights or property
Treaty of Tordesillas
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a secret treaty proposed by the pope in 1494 b/w Spain and Portugal = divided the new
world between the two
demonstrates the European mentality that the land was theirs for the taking and had no
regard for the native inhabitants
o Expansionist View = material growth is necessary for happiness, wealth,
technology = power is an inherent right of individuals
Conflict
Pueblo Revolt (Pope’s Rebellion)
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1680 after 80 years of terrorizing Spanish rule the Pueblo Indians of the American
Southwest drove the Spanish out and kept them out for 12 years
o Why: priests & govt. suppressed native practices; tribute and deaths
o What happened: Pope (Pueblo leader) lead rebellion and killed many Spaniards
o Impact: 12 years later Spanish reconquer but are more accommodating
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New African Culture
Marron Communities
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Escaped Africa slaves go into the American wilderness and set up small communities
Some practice guerilla warfare and provide a base for other runaways
Practice their transplanted African culture as much as possible but often slaves in the
same company are not from the same ethnic background = new identity
o All African, all slaves, all survivors, all have same problem
o Mixed ethnic backgrounds and new experiences = new culture
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