Essential Question: What factors motivated Europeans to enter the Age of Exploration, and what consequences resulted from this movement?

 Goal, to reach Asia by sailing west  Landed in the Bahamas (thought he was in the East Indies)  Explored islands looking for gold  2 nd - 4 th voyages- brought 1,000 settlers to set up Spanish colonies (lands controlled by another nation)

 Spanish Conquistadors desired gold, silver and colonies for Spain  Hernando Cortes  travels to the Aztec capital  seen as a god by Montezuma II  received a portion of the Empire’s gold, not enough  Cortes defeats the Aztecs in 1521  better weapons  Allied with Aztec enemies

 European contact led to infection  Indians were almost disease free and had no immunities:  Flu  Chicken pox  Measles  Smallpox Small pox

 Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas  Atahualpa, Incan ruler was kidnapped, ransomed then killed  Spanish marched into the Incan capital of Cuzco and took it without resistance

 With Exploration came trade in the form of the Columbian Exchange, a global transfer of foods, plants, animals and diseases

 Squash  Avocado  Peppers  Sweet Potatoes  Turkey  Pumpkin  Tobacco  Quinine  Cocoa  Pineapple  Cassava  POTATO  Peanut  TOMATO  Vanilla  MAIZE  Syphilis  Trinkets  Liquor  GUNS  Olive  COFFEE BEAN  Banana  Rice  Onion  Turnip  Honeybee  Barley  Grape  Peach  SUGAR CANE  Oats  Citrus Fruits  Pear  Wheat  HORSE  Cattle  Sheep  Pigs  Smallpox  Flu  Typhus  Measles  Malaria  Diptheria  Whooping Cough

 New business and trade practices evolve  Capitalism - economic system based on private ownership and investment of money for profit  Mercantilism- economic policy that said a nation’s power depended on its wealth  Nations should get as much gold and silver as possible  Establish a favorable balance of trade- sell more than buy  Colonies provide raw materials to mother country