The Age of European Colonization and Expansion

Life in 1491: The Americas BEFORE Columbus There were between 140 and 160 different AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES. There was no single Native American language. It would have been as difficult for the Mohawk Indians of the East to converse with Zuni Indians of the West as it would be for Germans to converse with Turks. Potential long-term issues with this? Sound familiar anywhere else in the world? The American horse died out at the end of the last Ice Age and came back with Spanish conquistadors. The largest domesticated animal in the American continent was the llama. In 1491, natives did not know about the horse, cow, sheep or pig.  In 1491, it's possible that Europe and the Americas had similar populations. In 1491, portions of the Amazon rainforest contained well- settled farming communities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avzSHpnhk4U   Life in 1491: The Americas BEFORE Columbus

Civilizations/ Countries   Europe America Civilizations/ Countries Ex. Spain Ex. Inca Domesticated Animals Fishing Wood Staple Crops Tools/Inventions Population 1491

1492: The Conquest of the Americas Big Questions to Think About What drove European conquest/colonization of the Americas? How did their motivations effect their settlement patterns and colonial structures? In what ways did the cultures of Europe, Africa, and the Americas interact? What were the consequences of the interactions between European, African, and American cultures? 1492: The Conquest of the Americas

Why America? Was Columbus first to the Americas? Christopher Columbus and every other early explorer of his time wanted to get to Asia in order to: spread Christianity expand their territory gain resources Columbus took a western route to Asia and ran into the Americas. He thought he was in Asia so named the natives of the region Indians (believing he was in India). How might Columbus have used the map on the right as an excuse for his mistake? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGtIHZMr0vQ Why America? Was Columbus first to the Americas? http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/exploration-of-north-america/videos/did-the-chinese-discover-america

Columbus: Jerk or Man of His Time? Columbus was from Italy (real name: Christopher Columbo) but sailed to the New World for Spain. Upon his return, he wrote a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella about his trip. In the letter, he boasts of the land being good for planting, filled with gold, and that the people would make great slaves. Columbus kidnaped 6 natives his first day on land. In 1495 he tried to send 500 Indians back to Spain. 200 died enroute. Within a few years, millions of natives died because of diseases that they had no resistance to. This, in part, caused Europe to turn to Africa for slaves, rather than Native Americans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqrev5dweyU http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/29/science/don-t-blame-columbus-for-all-the-indians-ills.html?mcubz=0 Columbus: Jerk or Man of His Time? Proves that Columbus was a good guy, right?

Short-term effects of Exploration: The Columbian Exchange The idea that Europeans brought with them things that didn’t already exist in the New World and returned with things they in turn didn’t have is known as the “Columbian Exchange” Results of the Columbian Exchange Crops and animals were transported across the Atlantic, but so was disease. Up to 90% of the native population would die of disease, meaning slaves would be necessary to work the plantations and gold mines Columbus envisioned in the New World. Africa would be the source of those slaves. Short-term effects of Exploration: The Columbian Exchange

Short-term effects of exploration: Slavery Raw Numbers and Raw Materials One of the biggest drivers of slavery was actually the Caribbean and South America, where sugar plantations needed lots of labor and had little natives to do the work (since perhaps 90% had died of disease like smallpox, measles and the flu) The number of slaves transported to the New World is actually unknown and impossible to know for sure. Most historians have settled on 10-15 million Africans were forcefully moved to North and South America. The vast majority of slaves were destined for South American sugar plantations Between 500,000 and 700,000 arrived in the colonies that would be the U.S. The Source of Slaves The task of gathering up Africans for sale into slavery actually fell to other Africans- local kings and chiefs sold off their prisoners of war, criminals, and conquered neighbors to Arab traders on the West African coast. Those Arabs then accepted goods from North Americans and Europeans in exchange for the slaves they had acquired. Short-term effects of exploration: Slavery

Short-term effects of exploration: Slavery The Middle Passage Slave ship captains needed to maximize every inch of space on board to maximize profit. Slaves were stacked like lumber above and below deck, each with less room than a coffin The food and water (when there was any) was terrible, and many fell ill or committed suicide. When sick or low on provisions, slaves were simply cast overboard. During the 6-10 week trip 14%-20% may have died in transit, adding an additional 4-5 million to the total number of slaves brought to, but not arriving in, the New World http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery/videos/the-middle-passage Short-term effects of exploration: Slavery

Short-term effects of exploration: Slavery The African slave boarding the ship had no idea what lay ahead. Africans who had made the Middle Passage to the plantations of the New World did not return to their homeland to tell what happened to those people who suddenly disappeared. Sometimes the captured Africans were told by the white men on the ships that they were to work in the fields. But this was difficult to believe, since, from the African's experience, tending crops took so little time and didn't require many hands. So what were they to believe? More than a few thought that the Europeans were cannibals. Olaudah Equiano, an African captured as a boy who later wrote an autobiography, recalled . . . “When I looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate and quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. . . . I asked if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces and long hair?" Short-term effects of exploration: Slavery