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Europeans and Africans Reach the Americas

Discover how Europeans, Africans, and Americans converged during the Age of Exploration, shaping the world through conquest, trade, and cultural exchange.

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Europeans and Africans Reach the Americas

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  1. 2 Europeans and Africans Reach the Americas

  2. Europeans and AfricansReach the Americas • Breaching the Atlantic • The Spanish Conquest of America • England Looks West • African Bondage • Conclusion: Converging Worlds

  3. Breaching the Atlantic

  4. Columbian Voyages • Columbus spends 10 years looking for sponsor • Queen Isabella pays for a voyage • Sails, 1492 • Lands in Bahamas • Explores Hispaniola, Cuba • Three more voyages financed

  5. Portuguese Voyages of Exploration

  6. The Religious Background • Martin Luther, Protestant Reformation, from 1517 • Attacks on Catholic rites, institutions • Reforms taken farther by John Calvin • Religious reform intersects with politics • Henry VIII • Protestant countries slower to colonize • First Europeans in Americas were Catholic

  7. The Spanish Conquest of America

  8. First Conquests • First Spanish colony on Hispaniola • Goal shifts to securing labor forces • Sugar plantations established • European diseases disastrous • Attack on Tenochititlán, 1515 • Defeated Aztecs • Smallpox devastating • Pizarro captures Cuzco, 1533

  9. The Great Dying • Europeans have immunities to lethal diseases • Hispaniola: from 1 million to a few thousand • Smallpox lethal to Inca • Enslavement increases mortality

  10. The Columbian Exchange • Environment transformed • Herd animals • Hard on plants in some areas, especially pigs • Weed seeds transported • Squash, peanuts, beans, tomatoes to Europe • Corn and potatoes most important

  11. Aztec Corn Myth

  12. Silver and Sugar • Silver abundant in Bolivia, Mexico • Slave labor used • Influx of silver into Europe • Price revolution • Commerce stimulated • Portugal invests in sugar plantations • Use of African slaves • Sugar growing extended to Caribbean

  13. Spain’s Northern Frontier • Early 1500, Spanish explore South, Southwest • Hernán de Soto – Florida to Arkansas • Exploration destructive • Florida settled by Franciscans • Coronado into New Mexico, Colorado • No mineral resources • Missions established

  14. The Spanish Entradas in North America

  15. England Looks West

  16. Challenging Spain • France • Jacques Cartier and Giovanni de Verrazano • Search for route to India

  17. Challenging Spain (cont'd) • England • John Cabot – 1497 voyages sponsored by England • No other voyages until 1550 • Search for markets • Rivalry with Spain around 1600 • First colony – Roanoke – disappears • Renewed religious war spurs emigration in 1600s

  18. Concepts of North America • Portrayals of North American Indians • Gentle, simple, welcoming • Savage, hostile, primitive • Colored by Spanish accounts • Colonists have sense of entitlement • Based on Indian “waste” • Land not under any “Christian prince” available

  19. Watercolor of an Indian town

  20. Manhattan before colonists first arrived

  21. Pomeiock Noblewoman and Daughter

  22. African Bondage

  23. African Bondage • Slave trade continues for centuries • Use of slaves brings new crops from Europe • Sugar, coffee, rice, tobacco • Commerce shifts to Atlantic • Impact • Cultural exchange in both directions • Race remains an issue

  24. The Slave Trade • Portuguese • Sugar cultivation relies on slave labor • Dutch replace Portuguese as slave traders • Through 1600s • English dominate from early 1700s

  25. The Slave Trade (cont'd) • Slave ships • Horrific conditions, driving some to suicide • Crossing took one or two months • Many arrive insane or dying

  26. West African Slaving Forts

  27. Conclusion:Converging Worlds

  28. Conclusion:Converging Worlds • Voyages – 1400s and 1500s • Initiate contact between Europe, Africa, Americas • Foundations of global networks • Spain dominates in this period • Columbian Exchange • Transatlantic slave trade

  29. Conclusion:Converging Worlds (cont’d) • English immigrants arrive late in Americas • Foundation of new societies • Blending European and American cultures

  30. Timeline Timeline

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