1. Spain Builds an American Empire
Chapter 4.1
Spain Builds an American Empire

2. Columbus Columbus lands in Caribbean; claims land for Spain
Looking for gold – finding none on San Salvador goes to other islands; claims all visited islands for Spain
Spain wants to build colonies
Colonies = lands controlled by another nation

3. Other explorers Cabral reaches Brazil
Vespucci discovers new land not part of Asia, but a new continent
America named in honor of his discovery
Magellan 1st to sail around the earth
Dies in Philippines

4. Hernando Cortes Conquistador = conqueror
Lands in Mexico – claims land for Spain
Reaches Tenochititlan – Aztec capital
Montezuma believes Cortes is a god from Aztec legend
Agrees to give Cortes some of their gold

5. Hernando Cortes Aztecs try to remove Cortes Spanish win
Better weapons and armor
Other local tribes hate Aztecs & help
European diseases greatly help defeat Aztecs
Natives had never been exposed, so no immunity

6. Effects of Small Pox

7. Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro explores Peru (Incan empire)
Ambushes Atahualpa (Incan leader)
Atahualpa promises gold and silver for his return – Spanish get it and the kill him

8. Effects of Spanish conquest
Spanish settlers (peninsulares) come to Americas – mostly men
Mestizo = category of children with Spanish fathers and native mothers
Encomienda system
Natives farmed, ranched, or mined land for Spanish landlords
Natives were promised fair treatment – did not happen often

9. Effects of Spanish Conquest
Spanish explorers move north
Ponce de Leon in Florida
Coronado in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas
Little gold found in SW United States, so priests sent to colonize

10. Encomienda system ends
Priests object to encomienda system
Africans replace natives – more advantageous
Don’t know the territory
Can’t speak the language
Easily identifiable
Have no allies