Download The Encounter WHAP/ Napp “Portugal`s decision to invest significant

The Encounter
WHAP/ Napp
“Portugal’s decision to invest significant resources in new exploration rested on wellestablished Atlantic fishing and a history of anti-Muslim warfare. When the Muslim
government of Morocco showed weakness, the Portuguese went on the attack, beginning
with the city of Ceuta in 1415. The attack on Ceuta was led by Prince Henry, third son of
the king of Portugal. Because he devoted the rest of his life to promoting exploration of the
South Atlantic, he is known as Henry the Navigator. Despite being called ‘the Navigator,’
Prince Henry himself never ventured much farther from home than North Africa. Instead,
he founded a sort of research institute for studying navigation and collecting information
about the lands beyond Muslim North Africa. Henry devoted resources to solving the
technical problems faced by mariners sailing in unknown waters and open seas. His staff
studied and improved navigational instruments that had come into Europe from China and
the Islamic world. His voyages of exploration also made use of a new vessel, the caravel.
To conquer the seas, pioneering captains had to overcome crew’s fears that the South
Atlantic waters were boiling hot and contained ocean currents that would prevent any ship
entering them from ever returning home. It took Prince Henry fourteen years – from 1420
to 1434 – to coax an expedition to venture beyond southern Morocco. The first financial
return from the voyages came from selling into slavery Africans captured by the
Portuguese in raids on the northwest coast of Africa. However, the gold trade quickly
became more important than the slave trade as the Portuguese made contact with the
trading networks that flourished in West Africa. The final thrust down the African coast
was spurred by the expectation of finding a passage around Africa to the rich trade of the
Indian Ocean. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias was the first Portuguese explorer to round the
southern tip of Africa and enter the Indian Ocean. In 1497-1498 a Portuguese expedition
led by Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and reached India.
In contrast to the persistence and planning behind Portugal’s century-long exploration of
the South Atlantic, haste and blind luck lay behind Spain’s early discoveries. Throughout
most of the fifteenth century, the Spanish kingdoms had been preoccupied with internal
affairs: completion of the reconquest of southern Iberia and the conversion or expulsion of
religious minorities. When the Spanish monarchs turned to overseas exploration, the
Portuguese had already found a new route to the Indian Ocean. Yet Christopher
Columbus’ four voyages established the existence of a vast new world across the Atlantic.
But Columbus refused to accept that he had found unknown continents, insisting that he
had succeeded in his goal of finding a shorter route to the Indian Ocean than the one the
Portuguese had found.” ~ The Earth and Its Peoples
1. Under whose direction did Portugal begin 2. Which of the following was not a cause of
to extensively explore the coast of Africa?
the European explorations?
(1) Alfonso de Albuquerque
(1) European demand for eastern spices
(2) Prince Henry
(2) European demand for gold
(3) Sebastian Elcano
(3) Technological advances that made longer
(4) Ferdinand Magellan
sea voyages possible
(5) Christopher Columbus
(4) Magyar invasions of eastern Europe
(5) Ottoman expansion that threatened
traditional trade routes to the east
Key Words/ I. European Expansion
Questions
A. Geography: the Atlantic rim of Europe (Portugal, Spain, Britain,
France) led the way to Western Hemisphere – closer to the Americas
B. Other Factors
1. Borrowing from Chinese and Muslims – compass and astrolabe
2. Ironworking, gunpowder, and horses had no parallel in the Americas
3. Divisions within and between local societies in the Americas
4. Most significant of European advantages lay in their germs and disease
a) Native Americans had no immunities: smallpox decimated societies
1) Isolation and lack of domesticated animals made them susceptible
2) In many cases up to 90% of population died: The Great Dying
3) Created labor shortage and Europeans then enslaved Africans
C. Columbian Exchange
1. Global cultural diffusion of plants and animals
a) American food crops (corn, potatoes, etc.) led to population growth
b) Potatoes allowed Ireland’s population to grow but fungus, from
Americas, destroyed crop in mid-19th century (“Great Famine”)
D. The Silver Trade
1. Silver mines of Mexico and Peru fueled global commerce
a) Enabled Europeans to buy Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain
E. The Transatlantic Slave Trade
1. Plantation owners needed workers and found them in Africa
2. Brought these workers to colonies (sugar and cotton trade)
F. Mercantilism
1. Colonies exist for benefit of mother country – accumulate bullion
(silver and gold); restrict colonial trade; colony exports raw materials
2. Colonies provided closed markets for goods
G. Differences Among Colonial Societies
1. Settler-dominated agriculture, slave-based plantations, mining
2. Forced Native American labor: Encomienda System
H. Colonial hierarchy
1. At the top were the peninsulares or Spanish settlers
2. Then Spaniards born in the Americas (creoles): wealthy but denied
top jobs
3. Mestizo, or mixed-race population, Spanish-Indian
4. At the bottom were indigenous peoples, known as “Indians”
a) Indians were exploited and converted to Christianity
b) Christian saints blended easily with specialized indigenous gods
I. In Brazil, ruled by Portugal, and in the Spanish, British, French, and
Dutch colonies in the Caribbean, sugar became an important cash crop
1. Brazilian slave owners calculated useful life of slaves at just seven
years but more slaves were voluntarily set free in Brazil
2. Color in Brazil and Latin America was only one criterion of status
J. Third type of colonial society in British colonies of North America –
numerous small-scale and independent farmers (Protestant)
Reflections:
1. Most sugar plantations in the New World
were located in
(A)The southern British colonies and
Mexico
(B) The Caribbean and Peru
(C) The French colonies in North America
and Brazil
(D) New Granada and la Plata
(E) The Caribbean and Brazil
2. Which of the following had the highest
social status in Latin American colonies?
(A) Peninsulares
(B) Creoles
(C) Amerindians
(D) Mestizos
(E) Mulattos
3. Which of the following most accurately
compares the relationship that English and
Spanish colonists had with Amerindians?
(A) Both English and Spanish colonists
rejected Amerindian crops and planting
techniques
(B) The English colonists dominated
Amerindians; Spanish colonists pushed
Amerindians out of the way.
(C) The English colonists pushed
Amerindians out of the way; the Spanish
colonists put Amerindians to work for them.
(D) English colonists were more likely to
marry Amerindians than the Spanish
colonists were.
(E) The English colonists were more
interested in converting Amerindians to
Christianity than Spanish colonists were.
4. In the period between 1600 and 1700, the
principal product in the Atlantic trade was
(A) Pitch
(B) Sugar
(C) Tobacco
(D) Cotton
(E) Gold
5. Which of the following areas was
probably the destination for the MOST
slaves during the period 1450 to 1750?
(A) Brazil
(B) British West Indies
(C) French West Indies
(D) Spanish America
(E) Southern British colonies
6. The sea route to the Indian Ocean
discovered by Vasco da Gama offered
European merchants
(A) A chance to trade with Muslim
intermediaries.
(B) A chance to buy goods directly from
Indian merchants.
(C) Quicker access to the slave trade of west
Africa.
(D) Proof that the earth was round.
(E) None of these answers is correct.
7. In the New World, the Columbian
exchange generally resulted in the
(A) Introduction of infectious diseases.
(B) Staggering loss of indigenous
populations.
(C) Introduction of domesticated animals
such as cattle and horses.
(D) Introduction of food crops such as
wheat.
(E) All these answers are correct.
8. Smallpox, influenza, and measles spread
rapidly in the Americas because of
(A) The densely populated urban centers.
(B) Poor hygiene and contaminated water.
(C) A lack of previous exposure that would
have built natural immunity.
(D) The lack of access to immunizations.
(E) All these answers are correct.
First Passage:
“From the time of Columbus, indigenous populations had been compelled to provide labor
for European settlers in the Americas. Until the 1540s in Spanish colonies, Amerindian
peoples were divided among the settlers and were forced to provide them with labor or
with textiles, food, or other goods. This form of forced labor was called encomienda. As
epidemics and mistreatment led to the decline in Amerindian population, reforms such as
the New Laws sought to eliminate the encomienda. The discovery of silver in both Peru and
Mexico, however, led to new forms of compulsory labor. In the mining region of Mexico,
Amerindian populations had been greatly reduced by epidemic diseases. Therefore, from
early in the colonial period, Mexican silver miners relied on free-wage laborers. Peru’s
Amerindian population survived in larger numbers, allowing the Spanish to impose a form
of labor called the mita. Under this system, one-seventh of adult male Amerindians were
compelled to work for six months each year in mines, farms, or textile factories. The most
dangerous working conditions existed in the silver mines, where workers were forced to
carry heavy bags of ore up fragile ladders to the surface.” ~ The Earth and Its Peoples
Second Passage:
“In 1493, after reports of Columbus’s discoveries had reached them, the Spanish rulers
Ferdinand and Isabella enlisted papal support for their claims to the New World in order
to inhibit the Portuguese and other possible rival claimants. To accommodate them, the
Spanish-born pope Alexander VI issued bulls setting up a line of demarcation from pole to
pole 100 leagues (about 320 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain was given
exclusive rights to all newly discovered and undiscovered lands in the region west of the
line. Portuguese expeditions were to keep to the east of the line. Neither power was to
occupy any territory already in the hands of a Christian ruler. King John II of Portugal
was dissatisfied because Portugal’s rights in the New World were insufficiently affirmed,
and the Portuguese would not even have sufficient room at sea for their African voyages.
Meeting at Tordesillas, in northwestern Spain, Spanish and Portuguese ambassadors
reaffirmed the papal division, but the line itself was moved to 370 leagues (1,185 miles) west
of the Cape Verde Islands, or about 46°30′ W of Greenwich. Pope Julius II finally
sanctioned the change in 1506. The new boundary enabled Portugal to claim the coast of
Brazil after its discovery by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500. Brazilian exploration and
settlement far to the west of the line of demarcation in subsequent centuries laid a firm
basis for Brazil’s claims to vast areas of the interior of South America.” ~ Britannica
Using the reading passages and information from the lesson, how did the Encounter, the
meeting of the Europeans and the Amerindians, radically transform world history and
particularly the lives the Amerindians? And how does this radically transformative
episode in history still impact the world’s peoples today? Be sure to use historical evidence
and consider crafting a thesis statement in your reply.
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