European Expansion Increases in population Prosperity Development of navigational technology (instruments, map-making, ship design) Desire to find sources of profit and convenient trade routes factors into these ambitions; religious ideology motivates some as well. By the 1420s, Portugal was already exploring the west coast of Africa Later, European powers including Spain, Holland (Netherlands), France, and England also began displaying ambition and ability to travel and colonize in the Americas

Spain 1492 Christopher Columbus Bartolomé de las Casas The Conquest of the Aztec Empire, 1519-1521

Who was Christopher Columbus? Columbus and Las Casas Who was Christopher Columbus?

Who looks most “Columbus”?

Who looks most “Columbus”?

Myth and Reality Aspects of his story are exciting and memorable Many of us were taught only the myth Perspective: discovery and invasion

Columbus and his world Spain, La Reconquista, and an emerging culture of intolerance: rehearsal for the invasion of the Americas Conversos, Moriscos,“calidad”: potential problems for converts? Columbus and DNA

Bartolomé de Las Casas “Defender of the Indians” Activist and author of many works critical of Spanish brutality against native people

Antonio de Montesinos, !511 sermon Tell me, by what right or justice do you hold these Indians in such cruel and horrible slavery? By what right do you wage such detestable wars on these people who lived mildly and peacefully in their own lands, where you have consumed infinite numbers of them with unheard of murders and desolations? Why do you so greatly oppress and fatigue them, not giving them enough to eat or caring for them when they fall ill from excessive labors, so that they die or rather are slain by you, so that you may extract and acquire gold every day? And what care do you take that they receive religious instruction and come to know their God and creator, or that they be baptized, hear mass, or observe holidays and Sundays? Are they not men? Do they not have rational souls? Are you not bound to love them as you love yourselves?

From the Brief History of the Destruction of the Indies