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HERE COME THE EUROS…. European Exploration and Colonization. Visitation by the Vikings…. The Vikings forays to the North American continent (c. 987 – 1020) were relatively brief and had no lasting impact. Spicing up Life – and Other Reasons for Exploration.
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HERE COME THE EUROS… European Exploration and Colonization
Visitation by the Vikings… • The Vikings forays to the North American continent (c. 987 – 1020) were relatively brief and had no lasting impact
Spicing up Life – and Other Reasons for Exploration • For centuries, people Europe had no way of preserving food other than salting it, which doesn’t make it very palatable (tasty!) • When the Euros were fighting in the Middle East during the Crusades, they established overland trading routes that supplied spices from the East: • Cinnamon from Ceylon; pepper from India; Cloves and nutmeg from the Moluccan Islands • They also liked silks from China & Japan and the gold and precious metals of the East
The Turks closed the trade routes, and the Europeans had to begin thinking about finding a sea route to reopen the trade The Portuguese, the best navigators and sailors in the world in the 1400s,were pushing farther into the Atlantic and down the coast of Africa and hoping to circumnavigate it
Christopher Columbus(1451 – 1506) • Explorer from Genoa, Italy • Received a map & letter from Paola Toscanelli (a Florentine scientist & astronomer) on the subject of the Indies and the best way of getting there…
Paulo Toscanelli… • “I perceive your magnificent and great desire to find a way to where the spices grow…. I know this can be shown from the spherical shape of the earth, yet to make the comprehension of it easier … I have determined to show that way by means of a sailing chart….”
Toscanelli continued… • “… you must begin to make your journey always westward, and the places at which you should arrive … at those most fertile places full of all sorts of spices and jewels. You must not be surprised if I call the parts where the spices are west, when they usually call them east, because to those always sailing west, those parts are found by navigation on the under sideof the earth. But if by land and by the upper side, they will always be found to the east….”
Columbus sails westward under the Spanish flag (gets financing from Ferdinand II & Isabella) • First Voyage: August 2, 1492 • Left Spain with a crew of 90 in three ships • Santa Maria, Nina, Pinta – each about 70 – 80 feet long
Columbus’s first voyage • Landed on an island in the Bahamas (he called it San Salvador) • Next sailed to Cuba (found little spices & gold) • Then he sailed to “Hispaniola” (Dominican Republic and Haiti) • The Santa Maria hit a reef on Christmas Eve, 1492. Columbus abandoned ship, set up a trading outpost (“Navidad”), left some men to operate it, and sailed back to Spain on the other two ships
When he reaches land after 2 & ½ months…(from The Journal)… • “…. I saw and knew that these people are without any religion, not idolaters but very gentle, not knowing what is evil, nor the sins of murder and theft, being without arms, and so timid that a hundred would fly before one Spaniard, although they joke with them. They, however, believe and know that there is a God in heaven, and say that we have come from heaven. At any prayer that we say, they repeat, and make the sign of the cross. Thus your Highnesses should resolve to make them Christians, for I believe that if the work was begun, in a little time the multitude of nations would be converted to our faith, with the acquisition of great lordships, peoples, and riches for Spain….”
Continued… • “Without doubt there is in this land a vast quantity of gold, and the Indians do not speak without reason when they say that in these islands there are places where they dig out gold, and wear it on their necks, ears, arms and legs, the rings being very large. There are also precious stones, pearls, and an infinity of spices…. Here also there is a great quantity of cotton….”
From this excerpt, we can sum up the motivation for the Age of Discovery and Exploration in three words… • GOLD, GLORY, GOD
Columbus’s second voyage… Sept 1493 – June 1496 • 17 ships and 1,200 men • Natives had wiped out Navidad • The men Columbus brought with him had come only for the gold and other riches… They soon wanted to go home! • Columbus demanded tribute in gold from the natives (which they didn’t have), enslaved the natives (thousands died) … and he hanged some of his men for rebelling against his authority
The third and fourth voyages by Columbus also failed to produce the fabulous riches he had hopedWhen he died in 1506, he was largely considered a failure
John Cabot (England) • Italian by birth, commissioned by King Henry VII • Used the northern route the Vikings had used 500 years before • Sailed to Newfoundland in 1487, saw lots of fish, claimed the area for England … sailed back
Vasco Nunez de Balboa (Spain) • First European to see the South Seas from the New World • He named it the Pacific (because it appeared so calm).
Ferdinand Magellan (Spain) • First to sail around the globe (proving it was indeed round!) • Led a Spanish expedition of five ships in 1519 • Magellan was killed during a battle with natives in the Philippines, but one of his five ships made it back to Spain in 1522
Giovanni Verranzano (France) • In 1525, he sailed along the east coast of America from the Carolinas to Maine • He decided the landmass was probably just a narrow strip separating the Atlantic from the Pacific • On a second voyage to the Caribbean, Verranzano was killed and eaten by Indians
Jacques Cartier (France) • Made two trips to the New World in 1534 and 1535, sailing up the St. Lawrence River • On the second trip, he made it to the site of present-day Montreal • His trips established a French claim for much of what is now Canada
Francisco Coronado (Spain) • 1540 … Looking for “Seven Cities of Cibola” which were supposedly dripping with riches • In two years of looking, they found nothing! • His group explored Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and the Gulf of California, and discovered the Grand Canyon • Never found gold!
Hernando de Soto (Spain) • Discovered the Mississippi River in 1541 • Died of a fever on its banks
Sir Francis Drake (England) • From 1578 – 1580, sailed around the globe for England • Explored the west coasts of South and North America as far up as Washington State • Claimed California • Returned home to England with more than $9 million in gold & spices
Sir Walter Raleigh (England) • Explored North Carolina coast • Named entire area “Virginia” for Queen Elizabeth • Set up the “LostColony” in 1587
Juan de Onate (Spain) • Conquered the Pueblo tribes of the Southwest and established the territory of New Mexico in 1599 • Introduced the horse to the American Southwest • Mounts that escaped or were turned loose by his troops bred in the wild and were eventually domesticated by various Native American tribes
Samuel de Champlain (France) • Landed in the New World in 1603 and explored extensively in the northeastern part of the continent • “Father of New France” • He founded the colony of Quebec in 1608 • Started the highly profitable fur trade with the natives
Henry Hudson (Netherlands) • Sailed up the bay and river that now bear his name in present-day NewYorkin 1609.
Sieur de La Salle (France) • Greatest of the French Explorers • Explored all the way down the Mississippi River to below New Orleans • Named and claimed the entire lower Mississippi area “Louisiana” for King Louis XIV in 1682
One of the problems of “discovering” a new land that is already inhabited… • …is what to do with the people who got their first? • When it came to the Native American populations of the New World, the Euros generally solved that problem by killing or enslaving them • Let’s look at Native American slavery first…
Native American slavery • Started with Columbus • By his second voyage to Hispaniola, he set up a system called the encomienda • Under it, a colonist who was given a piece of land had the right to the labor of all the natives who lived on that land • Columbus also imposed a gold tax • Would cut off the hands of those who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay it
Native American slavery • Between slavery, killings, and diseases, the population of Hispaniola’s natives plummeted from an estimated 250,000-300,000 in 1492 to perhaps 60,000 by 1510 and to near zero by 1550 • When the populations of the islands waned, the Spanish looked for other cheap labor sources • They found them in Africa • By 1513, King Carlos I of Spain gave his approval to the African slave trade
Disease • Because the natives had never been exposed to European disease as a culture, their immune systems had no defense when faced with diseases such as measles and smallpox • The first major smallpox epidemic started in 1518 • Sometimes, disease spread so fast that it decimated tribes before they ever saw a European
Disease • Some historians believe that disease was spread less by the Europeans and more by the livestock they brought with them, particularly the pigs • The theory is that the pigs passed on microbes to the native wildlife, allowing disease to spread more quickly than it could have by human transmission • What’s certain … over the next 400 years, smallpox, measles, whooping cough, typhus, and scarlet fever killed thousands of times more Native Americans than guns or swords did
A Pox on you! • New World Native Americans may have gathered a measure of revenge by giving Europeans syphilis. • Many researchers believe that Columbus’s sailors brought the disease back to Spain • Syphilis was relatively common among different Native American groups.
Arriving Late for the Party! • Spain’s early explorations of the New World gave that country a great head start over its European rivals • The Spanish conquered mighty empires in Mexico (Aztecs by Cortez) and Peru (Incas by Pizarro) • Both empires had huge supplies of gold & silver and built-in labor classes • The Spanish did not have to import slaves in these places as they did in the Caribbean
Spain’s predominance was short-lived! • In an effort to prevent fighting over the spoils in the New World, Pope Alexander VI divided the Americas between Spain & Portugal by drawing a line on a map: Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 • But in 1588, Spanish plans to invade England with an armada of ships blew up when the fleet was scattered by the English navy and a fierce storm • Within 30 years, both England & France had established colonies in the New World
FRANCE • French forays were limited to fishermen who came each year to mine the cod-rich banks of Newfoundland and eastern Canada • While the Spanish were in it for the loot and the English for the land, the French weren’t quite sure what they wanted! • They settled for a little of both! • The fur trade with the natives was profitable, but the French had few permanent settlements
ENGLAND • Two problems why England lagged behind Spain: • 1) England was broke • 2) England feared Spain’s military might • After the defeat of the Armada, the English were encouraged • But in 1587, one year prior to their defeat of the Spanish Armada, Sir Walter Raleigh sent a group of 89 men, 7 women, and 11 children to their colony “Roanoke”
ENGLAND • The looming threat of the Spanish invasion meant the colony got little support • In 1590, when a relief expedition finally arrived, the colonists had vanished • They left behind only rotting and rummaged junk and a single word carved in a tree: Croatoan • The word referred to an island about 100 miles south of Roanoke. • No one knows what happened to the “Lost Colony”
