Chapter 4
Spain Builds an Empire
The Voyages of Columbus
Lesson 1
Christopher Columbus
• He wanted to find a
better way to reach
the Indies (part of
Asia rich in spices,
gold, and other
goods).
• The Silk Road was
very difficult and
dangerous.
• Columbus
suggested sailing
west across the
Atlantic Ocean.
• He needed
money to fund
his expedition (a
journey made for
a special
purpose).
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
• Columbus took his plan to King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella.
• They did not agree right away, but he
convinced them that he could find a cheaper,
faster way to the Indies.
August 3, 1492
• Columbus left Spain with 3 ships
– Nina
– Pinta
– Santa Maria
• After a month at sea, the sailors feared they
would never see home again.
• They had traveled farther west than they
thought possible, and they wanted to turn
back.
• Columbus pushed on.
October 12, 1492
• Land was sighted from the Pinta.
Columbus Wrote:
• “At two hours after midnight, the Pinta fired a
cannon, my prearranged signal for the sighting of
land.”
• He claimed the land for the Spanish king and
queen.
• Soon after, some Taino came to greet the
Europeans.
• Historians believe that Columbus may have
reached one of the Bahamas' Islands.
• Because he believed
that he had reached
the Indies, he called
the Tainos “Indians.”
• This name later
referred to the native
people of the
Americas.
• The Bahama Islands
and other islands of
the region became
known as the West
Indies.
• Columbus led 3 other expeditions to the Americas.
• On the second ship in 1493, he took 17 ships loaded with settlers, animals, and
other supplies.
• This goal was to start a colony that would bring profits to Spain.
• Colony—a settlement far from the country that rules it.
• Before long, thousands of European settlers were living in the colonies throughout
the West Indies.
Columbian Exchange
• The Columbian Exchange was a movement of
people, animals, plants, diseases, and ways of life
between the Eastern Hemisphere and Western
Hemisphere.
New Animals in the West
• Europeans brought
– Horses
– Cattle
– Sheep
– Pigs
• with them to the Western Hemisphere.
New Food in the East
• In the Eastern Hemisphere, people enjoyed
new foods from the Americas, such as
– Corn
– Potatoes
– Tomatoes
– Cocoa
– beans.
• These changes helped the people of Europe,
Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Oops!
• Not all of these changes were positive.
• Without knowing it, Europeans also brought
disease germs to the Americas.
• Many Native Americans died because they had
no defense against small pox and measles.
Changes In Ways of Life
• As European colonies took hold in the West
Indies, the native people’s ways of life changed.
• Many were forced to work on large farms
growing sugarcane and other crops.
• Sugarcane is used to make sugar, and growers
made huge profits.
Christianity
• The Spanish also
wanted to bring
Christianity to the
native peoples.
• They forced many to
give up their own
beliefs.
• As a result, the way of
life of the Taino, and
other native groups of
the Caribbean
disappeared.
Amerigo Vespucci
• Amerigo Vespucci
became the first
person to realize
this was a “new
world” in 1502.
Others Come
• Many explorers followed in search of land and riches.
• They conquered many Native Americans to find them.
• By the 1600s, explorers and settlers from Spain, Portugal,
England, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands had come to the
Americas.
• For hundreds of years, some of these countries fought amongst
themselves and Native Americans for control of these lands.
Different Worlds Collide
Lesson 2
Montezuma and Hernando Cortés
• Moctezuma and Cortés knew of each other long before
they met in 1519..
• Cortés arrived in Mexico nine months earlier in Cuba.
• The Spanish had begun establishing colonies on the
islands of the Caribbean Sea.
• Stories of great riches in Mexico encouraged Cortés
and other Spaniards to gain some of the Aztecs’
wealth.
Conquistadors
• Cortés was one of a group of Spanish soldiers who
would later be called conquistadors (or conquerors).
• Bt Cortés faced a major challenge in defeating the
Aztecs.
• His force of about 500 men were greatly outnumbered.
Cortés's Advantages
• However, Cortés did
have a few
advantages:
– They had metal
armor to protect
them from the
Aztecs’ stone
weapons.
– Spanish soldiers
had muskets (a
kind of rifle) which
could easily pierce
the cloth suits the
Aztecs wore.
– The conquistadors
had horses which
the Aztecs had
never seen before.
They were
frightened of the
animals.
Cortés’s Allies
• Cortés also had allies (friends who will help in a
fight).
• The people of Tenochtitlan did not want to live
under Aztec rule, and many decided to help
Cortés defeat the Aztecs.
Dona Marina
• One ally was an Aztec woman named Dona Marina (a name
she took after becoming a Christian).
• She spoke several Indian languages and spoke to the native
people of Mexico for Cortés.
• She help Cortés persuade thousands of people to join him.
• One Spaniard described her “an excellent person, and a
good interpreter.”
Another Ally
• Another important ally
the Spanish did not
know they had was a
germ that causes
smallpox.
• Some historians think
thousands of Aztecs
caught smallpox after
Cortés arrived.
The Fall of the Aztecs
• After their meeting in 1519, Moctezuma
agreed to let Cortés live in Tenochtitlan.
• Almost a year
later, the Aztecs
rose up and
threw the
Spanish out of
their city.
• Moctezuma was
killed (perhaps by
his own people).
• Cortés escaped
and returned late
in 1520 with many
more native
people as allies.
• In 1521, the
mightiest empire
in the Americas
fell to the
conquistadors.
Francisco Pizarro
• Spain sent Francisco
Pizarro to conquer
another powerful
empire, the Incas.
• He captured the
ruler, Atahualpa
in 1532.
• The next year,
his forces
captured Cuzco.
• By 1535, Pizarro had founded a new capital called
Lima (in a colony called Peru).
• Today. Lima is the capital of the country of Peru.
• A new culture was forming—part Indian and part
Spanish.
Life in New Spain
Lesson 3
Hernando de Soto
• In 1540, Spanish
conquistador
Hernando de Soto
and about 700 men
traveled through
what is now
Georgia.
• They were searching
for Cofitachiqui, a
rich Indian city they
had heard about.
• They met a young Native American woman
they call “the Lady of Cofitachiqui.”
• De Soto asks her about the freshwater pearls
she has with her, and she takes him to a
building that contains many more pearls
Search For Gold
• De Soto was interested
in more than pearls.
• He hoped that the land
would hold as much
gold as Cortés found in
Mexico.
• They demanded that
the lady help them find
gold, but she escaped.
• They continued their
explorations without
ever finding gold.
De Soto’s Travels
Esteban
• Esteban was an
African sailor who
had been
enslaved.
• He had survived a
shipwreck off the
coast of Texas with
the conquistador
Alvar Nunez
Cabeza de Vaca.
Cabeza de Vaca’s Travels
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
• He and Esteban
traveled together
for eight years in
what is now the
Southwest region
of the United
States.
Esteban’s Fate
• Three years later,
Esteban joined
another expedition
to find Cibola.
• He did not find the
kingdom and was
killed by the Zuni
people in what is
now New Mexico.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
• Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was sent by
the governor of New Spain to find the city of
Cibola.
• He did not find it either because it did not
exist.
• Society—a group of people forming a
community
Peninsulares
• Peninsulares—people who were born in Spain who
were at the top of the colonial society in New Spain.
The name was based on the geography of Spain, which
is located on a peninsula.
• They were wealthy and powerful.
Plantation
• Some owned plantations.
• Plantation—large farm with many workers
who lived on the land they worked.
Encomienda
• Other peninsulares received grants called
encomiendas.
• Encomienda—granted a peninsulare control of
all the native peoples who lived on an area of
land.
• Encomienda owners could put the native
people to work.
• They were supposed to take care of the native
peoples and convert them to Christianity.
• In return, native peoples had to give the
encomienda owners crops they grew and
other goods.
Creoles
• Creoles—people
of Spanish
background who
were born in the
Americas
Mestizos
• Mestizos—the largest group in New Spain
society.
• A mestizo is a person with Indian and Spanish
background.
All Others
• People who had no Spanish ancestors, such as
Indians and Africans, had the lowest position
in this society.
City Life
• In the cities, colonists became merchants and
shopkeepers, or worked for the colonial government.
• Others had small businesses such as making furniture
and clothing.
Changes for Native Peoples
• Many encomienda owners put native people to work
as farm workers, miners, and servants.
• They had to work without pay and did not always have
enough to eat.
• They could be beaten and forced to work long hours.
Missionaries
• One type of encomienda was run by Roman
Catholic missionaries.
• Missionary—teaches his or her religion to
others who have different beliefs.
Mission
• The priests built missions throughout New
Spain.
• Mission—a religious settlement where
missionaries live and work.
Purpose
• The purpose of these
missions was to teach
native peoples about
Christianity.
New Practices
• Missionaries also taught them some European
farming practices, such as
– raising cattle
– Raising sheep.
• The native people gave up their traditional
ways of life and become Christians.
• On some missions, they were treated cruelly.
Bartolome de Las Casas
• Bartolome de Las
Casas was a priest
who spoke out
against the
mistreatment of
native peoples under
the care of the
church.
Letter
• In 1527, Las Casas wrote angrily
about what he had seen in the
encomiendas.
• “(The native peoples) die or
lead lives harsher than death.
They have been split into shares
as if they were herds of cattle or
sheep; that is (divided)among
the Spaniards and assigned by a
specific number to each to
become their slaves.”
Success?
• The efforts of Las Casas had some success.
• He persuaded Spain to pass laws in 1542 saying
that native peoples must be paid for their work.
• Those laws were not enforced, however, and later
were canceled.
Slavery
• Despite the efforts of Las
Casas, slavery did not end in
the Americas.
• The Spanish first brought
enslaved Africans to the
Caribbean Island of
Hispaniola in 1512.
• The Spanish enslaved African
Americans to replace the
native peoples who were
dying in large numbers from
disease and overwork.
• At first, Las Casas
supported bringing
Africans to New
Spain to work in
place of the native
peoples.
• Later, he wrote that
Africans should not
be enslaved either.
• Gradually, the enslavement of Africans became
an important part of colonial economy.
• On Hispaniola alone, there were 12,000 enslaved
Africans in 1574.
• Like the native peoples, African slaves on the
encomiendas and plantations died from overwork
and mistreatment.
Wealth of Spain
• The profits from the colonial plantations and
mines created great wealth for Spain.
• In the 1600s, these riches helped make Spain one
of the most powerful countries in the world.
• However, the power will come to an end.