Download The Spanish Empire

Section 1
The BIG Idea
Competition Among Countries
Europeans began exploring the
world in the 1400s, and several
nations experienced economic
heights through worldwide trade.
Motives and Means
• Five European powers, led by
Portugal and Spain, engaged in an
age of exploration. All rose to new
economic heights.
• Motives for European exploration
include “God, glory, and gold”
–Religious zeal – Explorers such as
Hernán Cortés were interested in
sharing the Catholic faith with native
peoples.
–Economic interests – Europeans
wanted to expand trade and locate
spices and precious metals
–There was an increased desire for
grandeur, glory, and the spirit of
adventure.
A Race for Riches
• Portugal took the lead in European
exploration under the leadership of
Prince Henry the Navigator.
• Portuguese ships traveled along the
western coast of Africa, finding gold
and other goods.
• Vasco de Gama traveled around the
Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip
of Africa, and landed in India in 1498
• The Portuguese captured the
important port city of Melaka on the
Malay Peninsula, which enabled the
Portuguese to control the spice trade
that had been dominated by Arab
traders.
• The Portuguese used seamanship,
guns, and treaties to control the spice
trade. However, they did not have the
people, wealth, or desire to expand
their empire
in Asia.
• Christopher Columbus was an
explorer who sailed for Spain.
Columbus searched for a western
route to Asia and landed at Cuba and
Hispaniola in 1492.
• The Spanish explorer Ferdinand
Magellan sailed around the tip of
South America and into the Pacific
Ocean. Magellan is credited with
being the first person to
circumnavigate the globe.
• In 1494, Portugal and Spain signed
the Treaty of Tordesillas, separating
control of the newly discovered lands.
• John Cabot, a Venetian, explored the
New England coastline of the
Americas for England.
• The writings of Amerigo Vespucci, a
Florentine mapmaker, led to the use
of the name “America” for the newly
discovered lands in the western
hemisphere.
The Spanish Empire
• The Spanish conquistadors
established an overseas empire in
the Americas.
• In 1519 Hernán Cortés and his
Spanish allies were welcomed into
Tenochtitlán by the Aztec monarch
Montezuma. The Spanish were
expelled from the city one year later.
The Spanish Empire
• When the Spaniards left, smallpox
devastated the Aztec capital. The
Spanish returned and captured the
city, and the Aztec Empire was
destroyed.
• In 1530 Francisco Pizarro led an
expedition into the Inca Empire. Like
the Aztec, the Incas were no match
for Spanish disease, guns, and
horses.
The Spanish Empire
Pizarro established a new capital for
the Spanish colony at Lima.
• The Spanish used a system of
colonial administration called the
encomienda system— the right of
landowners to use Native Americans
as laborers.
• Spanish landowners could use Native
Americans for labor in return for
protection and converting them to
Christianity.
• Native American political and social
structures were torn apart and
replaced by European systems of
religion, language, and government.
• The exchange of plants, animals, and
disease between Europe and the
Americas is known as the Columbian
Exchange.
European Rivals
• The Dutch formed the East India
Company to compete with the English
and Portuguese for the Indian Ocean
trade.
• The Dutch also formed the West India
Company to compete with the
Spanish and Portuguese in the
Americas.
European Rivals
• By the early seventeen century, the
Dutch established settlements in
North America such as New
Netherland.
• In the 1600s, the French colonized
parts of present-day Louisiana and
regions of Canada.
• The English began
to settle the eastern
seaboard of North
America and islands
in the Caribbean
Sea.
• In 1664, the English
seized the harbor of
New Netherland
from the Dutch and
renamed it New
York.
Section 2
The BIG Idea
Human Rights European
expansion affected Africa with the
dramatic increase of the slave trade.
Trade, Colonies, and
Mercantilism
• The nations of Europe created trading
empires and established colonies in the
Americas and in the East.
• Colonies were an integral part of
mercantilism, an economic theory based
on gold and a limited amount of wealth in
the world.
• Colonies provided raw materials and
markets for finished goods.
Trade, Colonies, and
Mercantilism
To bring in more gold, nations tried
to have a favorable balance of
trade and export more goods than
they imported.
To encourage exports, governments
granted subsidies and improved
transportation systems.
• Slavery had existed since ancient
times, and African slaves served as
domestic servants in Southwest Asia.
• The demand for slaves changed
dramatically with the introduction of
sugarcane. Labor was needed to
work the plantations where
sugarcane was grown.
• Slaves became an important
commodity in the triangular trade
that connected Europe, Africa, and
the Americas.
• As many as 10 million African slaves
may have been brought to the
Americas between 1500 and the late
1800s.
• One reason for the high number of
exported slaves was the high
mortality rate, especially during the
Middle Passage, the journey across
the Atlantic Ocean.
• The slave trade devastated the
population of African communities
near the coastal regions.
• Some African rulers, such as King
Afonso, protested but were ignored by
African and European slave
traders.
Figure 2
Effects of the Slave Trade
• Effects of the slave trade in
Africa: – depopulated areas
– increased warfare
– loss of the strongest and
youngest men and women
• Benin was transformed from a
brilliant society into a brutal, warravaged region following the
introduction of slavery.
Effects of the Slave Trade
• The use of enslaved Africans was
widely accepted until the Society of
Friends began to condemn it in the
1770s.
• The French abolished slavery in the
1790s; the English abolished slavery
in 1807; and slavery continued in the
United States until the 1860s.
Section 3
The BIG Idea
Competition Among Countries
Portugal and Spain reaped profits
from the natural resources and
products of their Latin American
colonies.
Colonial Empires in Latin
America
• In the 1500s, Portugal controlled
Brazil, while Spain’s colonial
possessions included parts of North
America, Central America, and most
of South America.
• The area of Central and South
America became known as Latin
America, and a unique social class
system emerged.
• Colonial Latin America Social
Order:
– Peninsulares: Spanish and
Portuguese officials born in Europe;
they held all important government
positions.
– Creoles: Descendants of
Europeans who were born in Latin
America; they controlled business
and land.
– Mestizos: The offspring of
European and Native American
intermarriage.
– Mulattoes: The offspring of Africans
and Europeans.
– Conquered Native Americans and
enslaved Africans.
• Europeans utilized the Native
Americans as labor. They used the
encomienda system and mita to
sustain a viable labor force.
• Gold and silver from the colonies
offered immediate wealth to the
Europeans. Products, such as
tobacco, sugar, and animal hides
were traded to Europe in return for
finished products.
• To control their colonial possessions
in the Americas, Portugal and Spain
used governor-generals to develop a
bureaucracy and carry out imperial
policies.
• Catholic missionaries were also
instrumental in converting and
maintaining order within the colonial
territories.
• The Catholic Church provided an
outlet other than marriage for
women. Many nuns like Juana Inés
de la Cruz, urged convents to
educate women on subjects
beyond religion.