1. Think-Pair-Share: Were Columbus and the Spanish Conquistadors Heroes or Villains?1 2
Painting by John Vanderlyn, from the United States, 1847
Woodcut by Thomas de Bry, from Northern Europe, 1504

2. CAUSES: Explorers Travel Westward!
All European nations knew that they could get rich quick if they found a faster trade route to Asia.
By finding a faster trade route, Europeans would be able to trade expensive goods such as silk and spices. The king and queen of Spain sent Christopher Columbus to travel west, in search of this trade route.

3. The explorers didn’t realize that there was a great big American continent separating Europe from Asia! Christopher Columbus was the first Spanish explorer to land on the shores of America.
Columbus’ “discovery” of America inspired Spain and other nations in Europe to send more conquistadors, or conquerors, to the New World.

4. Conquistadors traveled to the New World for THREE reasons:
CAUSE #1: God
GOD
Early explorers realized that there were millions of natives living the New World. As followers of the Christian religion, many of the Spanish conquistadors traveled to the Americas to convert the native people to Christianity.

5. Conquistadors traveled to the New World for THREE reasons:
CAUSE #2: Gold
GOLD
Spain, along with the other European nations, realized that if they harvested new goods from the Americas, such as corn, tomatoes, rice, and tobacco, they could make money through trade! Gold = $$$

6. Conquistadors traveled to the New World for THREE reasons:
CAUSE #3: Glory
GLORY
In order to make their countries more powerful, Spain and other European nations wanted to conquer as much land as possible in the New World. More land would bring their empires greater glory.

7. Soma Vocabulary: Act it Out!
The BEST way to remember new information is to act it out! Let’s practice with the 3 causes of exploration:
God (hands praying—“God: spreading Christianity”)
Gold (rubbing fingers together to make the money motion—“Gold: making money through trade”)
Glory (stand like you are planting a flag in the ground—“Glory: conquering land”)

8. EFFECTS: What happened when Europeans Conquered the Americas?

9. European exploration had THREE major effects:
The Columbian Exchange
Once Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors took over parts of the Americas, they began a major system of trade. This system is known as the Columbian Exchange. Crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and chocolate traveled from America back to Europe. In exchange, Europeans brought animals, new plants, and many deadly diseases to America.

10. European exploration had THREE major effects:
The Great Dying
Because natives in the Americas had never been exposed to the flu, smallpox, and other diseases, they had no immunity (protection) from these diseases. Spanish conquerors tried to use the natives for slave labor on farms and in mines, but most of these natives died from diseases.

11. European exploration had THREE major effects:
The African Slave Trade
Without natives to work as slaves on their farms, the Europeans living in the Americas needed new laborers (workers). Because Africans had already been exposed to many European diseases, they did not easily die off. It was during this time that Europeans began enslaving millions of Africans, transporting them in chains to the New World as slave labor.

12. Soma Vocabulary: Act it Out!
Let’s act out each of the effects:
Columbian Exchange (fingers pointing opposite directions and say “Columbian Exchange: trade between Europe, America, and Africa”)
The Great Dying (mimic fainting motion saying “The Great Dying: diseases kill off natives”)
African Slave Trade (crisscross wrists together as if cuffed by chains saying “African slave trade”)