WHY DID EUROPEANS GO
EXPLORING?
Making Contact
Contact Continues
Why did the “Age of Exploration” Occur?
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End of the “Dark Ages”
Renaissance
Printing Press
Gun powder
What was the motivation of the individual explorer,
conquistador, monarch?
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Materialism, personal wealth
Glory, personal fame
Religion, conversion of the “heathens” to Christianity
Nationalism, promoting the wealth and power of the nation
Scientific Curiosity
• Leads to fierce competition among leading
European nation-states
What made the “Age of Exploration” Possible?
• Major innovations allow for more adventurous exploring
• Technology - Sextant
• Used for measuring accurate distances
• Economics - Joint-Stock Companies
• Early versions of corporations
COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
The Exchange
The Columbian Exchange
How did the European Colonization
affect Native Culture?
• Settlement patterns
• Political
• Introduction of horses, cows, and oxen
allow for greater movement among
indigenous societies
• Social
• Intermarriage (more on that later)
• Religious conversion
• Diminishing language, customs, religions
• 90% death rate in some areas
• Disease (swine flu, small pox, whooping
cough, chicken pox)
• War
• Economic
• Forced labor
• Loss of Land
• New loyalty to Spanish Crown (see Las
Casas)
• Indigenous society authority largely
disregarded
• Loss of Liberty
How did Native American Culture affect
Old World civilizations?
Food
• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Chocolate
• Pineapples
• Sweet Potatoes
• Potatoes ***
• Health,
• Nutrition
• Economic
All of this spurs rapid population
growth in Europe, pushing more
individuals into the marketplace!
Medicine
• Vitamins
• Anesthetics for Surgery and
Dentistry
• Cocaine and derivatives
• Muscle relaxants
• Curare
• Expectorants for cold remedies
• Guafenisen
• Poison treatment
• Ipecac
• Malaria
• “Fever Bark” - Quinine
• Analgesics
• Aspirin
How did Native American Culture affect
Old World civilizations?
• Money
Three times the gold and silver in Europe
Inflation
More money in more hands …
… More People wanting more goods …
… More People making more goods …
… Industrial Revolution
Shifts Europe from feudalism to capitalism!
How did Native American Culture affect
Old World civilizations?
• Shift to capitalism and more open markets hence
opportunities for wealth building leads to the “First
Great Divergence”
• This theory suggests that all old world regions (European, Asian,
Russian, Middle Eastern, etc.) were on a relatively level playing
field
• Opening of exchange with the Western Hemisphere allows for the
first real jump of one of the regions, Europe, and allowing for a
massive acceleration of one group overs
• Also known as the European Miracle
• Within Europe, the competition nations push outward toward
Empire Building
LABOR IN THE NEW
WORLD
Ruling Colonial Territory
• Why spend so much time talking about
Spanish conquistadors/explorers? 
• Audiencias had authority under the
general Counsel of the India, all under the
Spanish royal authority
• Audencias had legislative, executive, and
judicial functions to try and bring the
conquistadors under Spanish royal authority
• Viceroyalty of Spain, a Spanish colonial
administrative court, names this territory
New Spain
• Viceroyalty of Peru, also a Spanish
administrative body, runs most of South
America
Encomienda System
• Roots in the feudal system of Europe, conqueror wins territory and tax
paying tributes in exchange for defense
• Encomiendas were formal tracts of land paid to Spanish citizens and
the Repartmento system was the process of assigning native labor to
each encomiendor
• Natives were to provide goods, metals, money, and labor
• Spanish were to provide protection, Christian religion, defense of the
area, taxes to the Crown
• Most Encomiendas had a church and organized the surrounding land into
parishes
• Native population declines so drastically that Native labor is replaced
by African labor
• Intended to be for conversion to Catholism (and were only supposed to
be in charge until natives became Catholics), but later economically
exploited
• Spanish Crown encouraged intermarrying, as a means to assimilation
• Crown will try to intervene, partially because of the urging of Las
Casas
http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=633
Controversy of Treatment: Valladolid Debate
• August 1550, 5 day debate in Valladolid,
Spain
• De Las Casas, arguing Amerindians
were free and Catholic doctrine argued
for equal treatment, and scholar Juan
Gines de Sepulveda, arguing that
Catholic doctrine supported punishing
natives for ‘committing crimes against
nature’ and slavery was appropriate
• Official Council of the Indies never
declared winner. However, both men
claimed victory
“New Laws” of 1542
• New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of
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the Indians passed in 1542
Intended to drastically limit the power of the Encomendors
Laws said: no enslavement of Indians, formally stated Indians were
free persons, encomiendors could no longer require tributes, if
Indians worked, they needed to be paid, encomienda grants could
not be passed down upon death, Indians shouldn’t work in mines
unless ‘absolutely necessary’
When the Viceroy of Peru tried to enforce, the Encomendors rebelled
and killed Viceroy chair, so the Viceroy of New Spain decided not to
enforce them
All of these laws were eventually revoked by 1545. Mixed historical
reviews on their effectiveness depending on the position. Did allow
for the release of many Indian slaves, but the Spanish still needed
labor.
Dominicans will continue pushing for reforms.
Mission System
• The mission system will eventually replace the
encomiendas (late 1700s)
• Started by mostly Franciscans and Jesuits, Spain had 3
goals:
• Education (literacy)
• Gain tax base
• Conversion to Christianity
• These missions will continue, particularly in places like
California, until its annexation into the US
• Missions would baptize natives first, then force them to
attend daily religious services and labor
Spanish/Portuguese search for labor
• Need for labor - support plantation-based agriculture and
extract precious metals and other resources
• Dramatic forced labor of indigenous societies,
accompanied by a tremendous reduction in population
leads to a hunt for new labor (see Las Casas)
• As minerals were extracted and land producing fewer
natural resources, Spanish colonists transitioned into
sugar production, leading to a massive plantation system
in the new world (see Columbian Exchange article)
A New Issue?
• The Colombian Exchange also introduced the slave trade
which would be central to the development of economic
structures, social hierarchies, and human relations for …
Extraction of Africans
• Spanish and Portuguese traders reached West Africa and
partnered with some African groups to exploit local
resources and recruit slave labor for the Americas
• Example: Portuguese King Manuel I (who will marry
Isabella and Ferdinand’s daughter, responsible for Vasco
de Gama and discovery of Brazil) and Congo King
Affonoso entered symbiotic relationship.
• Congo sells lower class African citizens to King Manuel as
prisoners of war for shipment as slaves
• Evidence of letters where they address one another as ‘brothers’
and would send one another extravagant gifts.
• Eventually Affonoso tried to break ties, but too late
• Similar agreements in Nigeria and Ghana
http://hnn.us/article/41431
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml#four
Spanish Caste System
3 present ‘races’ in North America: Spanish, Amerindian, African
1. Peninsulares – Born in Spain, living in the Americas
2. Criollos – pure Spanish blood, born in the Americas
3. Mestizos – mixed race of Native American and Spanish, born
in the Americas, Bearing Spanish names, they became the
backbone of the Spanish empire in the Americas. Mestizos
made up the majority of conscripts in the army; they became
artisans, traders, and local officials.
4. Mulattos – typically classified as the first generation of
Spanish and African mix
5. Indios – Native Americans
6. Africans/Negros – most first generation in the Americans
were slaves, but there were many free-black communities,
who because of their close social ties to slavery, were in this
caste level, as well
7. Zambo – Amerindian and Negro mix
http://nativeheritageproject.com/2013/06/15/las-castas-spanish-racial-classifications
/
Casts System aka Spanish Caste System
3 present ‘races’ in North America: Spanish, Amerindian, African
1. Peninsulares – Born in Spain, living in the Americas
2. Criollos – pure Spanish blood, born in the Americas
3. Mestizos – mixed race of Native American and Spanish, born
in the Americas, Bearing Spanish names, they became the
backbone of the Spanish empire in the Americas. Mestizos
made up the majority of conscripts in the army; they became
artisans, traders, and local officials.
4. Mulattos – typically classified as the first generation of
Spanish and African mix
5. Indios – Native Americans
6. Africans/Negros – most first generation in the Americans
were slaves, but there were many free-black communities,
who because of their close social ties to slavery, were in this
caste level, as well
7. Zambo – Amerindian and Negro mix
http://nativeheritageproject.com/2013/06/15/las-castas-spanish-racial-classifications
/
• Sambo, 1770
• Little Black Sambo - 1899
Amerindians and Africans struggle for
autonomy
• In spite of slavery, Africans’ cultural and linguistic
adaptations to the Western Hemisphere resulted in
varying degrees of cultural preservation and autonomy
• Examples: (think Salem Witch Trials influence)
• Syncretic Religions formed
• Santeria – Yoruba and Catholicism
• Louisiana Voodoo • Language
• Formation of pidgin languages
• Runaway slaves would often form maroon communities,
particularly in the Caribbean, armed groups often run to
smaller islands or eventually conquered
• Some major rebellion stories such as the Amistad (1840)
Additional Things To Know
• Ferdinand & Isabella
• Coronado
• Cortes
• Moctezuma
• Incas
• Aztecs
• Treaty of Tordesilla
• Bartolome de Las Casas