European Origins, Exploration and Conquest

What is going on in Europe around 1450?

Development of Nation States

England Magna Carta (1215) established rules for government. Parliament established in Relative peace with Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Hundred Years War ( ) increases national pride.

France Territorial gains during the Hundred Years War ( ). Also gains in national pride.

Spain Controlled by Muslims (Moors) from Small Christian kingdoms. Reconquista (gradual reconquering of Spain). Marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile united the two largest kingdoms.

Prince Henry the Navigator Prince of Portugal Patron of sailors and exploration. Established navigation school. Encouraged early Portuguese exploration (Dias, Da Gama, etc.).

What impact did the Renaissance have?

New Technology Navigation – The astrolabe and compass allowed sailors to sail without using landmarks. Stronger, larger ships. New sail design from India.

Waldseemuller World Map

Americas in 1540

What are the explorers trying to do? The Three G’s. – Gold – Glory – God

Northwest Passage?

Conquistadors Conquistador – Spanish adventurers who conquered American Indian tribes, usually for personal fortune and glory.

Hernan Cortes Lived Minor noble family from Spain. Served in Spanish controlled Cuba before leading an expedition to the Aztec Empire in Mexico.

The Aztec Empire Established in the 1300s. Ruled over about 500 small city states through military power and commerce. 5-6 million people.

Capital City of Tenochtitlan built in the middle of a lake. 140,000 people and most densely populated city on Earth in the 1400s.

Crops grown on man-made islands called “Chinampas”.

Cortes burned his ships to make his troops focus on the expedition.

Cortes’ force consisted of about 700 soldiers equipped with iron weapons, guns, artillery, horses and armor. They also, unintentionally, brought European diseases.

Aztec forces numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Wood and stone weapons, no armor, no immunity to diseases.

Cortes had a native translator and allied his small force of Spaniards with local tribes who resented the power of the Aztecs.

Massacre in the Main Temple

Cortes ultimately captured Tenochtitlan, killed their emperor, Montezuma, and established Spanish control over the area.

Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans died of European diseases (smallpox, influenza, etc.) 90% of the Native population.

Francisco Pizarro Lived Served in the Spanish colonies from

Located in South America Andes mountains 400,000 square miles 12 million population Occupied present- day Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile

Well known city of Machu Pichu

Pizarro and a small force of less than 200 Spaniards met the Inca ruler Atahualpa and his army of 80,000 at Cajamarca.

The Spanish attacked, killed thousands of Inca and captured Atahualpa.

Pizarro ransomed Atahualpa for a room filled with gold and two rooms filled with silver. When the Inca paid, Pizarro had Atahualpa executed.

Pizarro later captured the Inca capital at Cuzco in He established a Spanish colonial capital at Lima.

French Explorers Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River ( ).

French Explorers Sent Samuel de Champlain to set up fur trading posts along the St. Lawrence from – Established French claim to Canada. – Beaver pelts became the lifeblood of French colonies in the New World. – French colonization was not that intense.

English Exploration The English sent out unsuccessful expeditions in the late 1500s to explore Canada and look for the Northwest Passage. John Cabot, Martin Frobisher, Humphrey Gilbert, etc.

Henry Hudson explored the mid- Atlantic region in and Canada in 1609.