Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 • Welcome to Mr. Gray’s class. Get ready for the hardest year of your life. Ever.

2. Europe Looks Westward • Leif Eriksson reached the New World in the 11th Century, but left no lasting legacy

3. Europe Looks Westward • Europe in the Middle Ages (500 – 1500 A.D.) was divided into innumerable small duchies and kingdoms that were provincial in their outlook, subsistence agriculture dominated and commerce was limited

4. Europe Looks Westward • Holy Roman Empire held spiritual authority and some political authority over the majority of the continent, no leader could launch a colonization effort on their own (no money or authority)

5. Europe Looks Westward • The Black Death began in Constantinople in 1347 and eventually would spread to Europe, wipe out 1/3 of the population, and severely limit economic activity • By the 15th Century the population of Europe was recovering, land values were rising, commerce and prosperity were returning

6. Europe Looks Westward • Landlords were eager to purchase goods from distant lands and a merchant class was growing to meet that demand, additional advances in navigation and shipbuilding allowed for easier trade

7. Europe Looks Westward • Strong new monarchs in Western Europe began to develop and drift away from the authority of the Church and the Pope • These monarchs created centralized nation-states that began to increase their wealth and they began to look overseas to increase and enhance their commercial growth

8. Europe Looks Westward • After Marco Polo returned from Asia in the 14th Century bearing exotic goods, Europeans strived for trade with the East • At first trade was over land that took a long time and was quite dangerous so the western European monarchs began to look for a faster, safer sea route to Asia

9. Europe Looks Westward • Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal sent explorers along the west coast of Africa in order to create a Christian empire to aid Portugal in its wars against the Moors, additionally it was hoped that they would find new stores of gold

10. Europe Looks Westward • Bartholomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1486, Vasco da Gama reached India in 1497 – 1498, Pedro Cabral sailing for India in 1500 was blown off course and discovered Brazil

11. Europe Looks Westward • Christopher Columbus believed that he could reach Asia by sailing west, he thought that the world was smaller than it actually was and that Asia extended eastward farther than it actually does, therefore it would only require a short voyage across the Atlantic Ocean

12. Europe Looks Westward • Columbus presented his plan to Portugal but they rejected him, so he traveled to Spain and gained approval for a voyage from Ferdinand and Isabella

13. Europe Looks Westward • Columbus’ Voyages: • 1492 – the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria reach the Bahamas after a 10-week voyage, returned to Spain with captured natives (Indians) • 1493 – Returns to the Caribbean with a larger expedition leaving a short-lived colony on Hispaniola • 1498 – Reached the mainland of the New World sailing along the northern coast of South America, realizes that he had not reached an island off the coast of China, but a new continent (Orinoco River)

14. Europe Looks Westward • Until his death, Columbus believed that he had reached the fringes of the Far East, and was recognized as the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” after his death

15. Europe Looks Westward • The new lands were named after Amerigo Vespucci who wrote a series of vivid descriptions of the new world and who recognized that they were new continents, not the fringes of the Far East

16. Europe Looks Westward • In the early 1500’s Spain began to replace Portugal as the main seafaring nation of Western Europe and started sending ever larger expeditions to the New World

17. Europe Looks Westward • In 1513 Vasco de Balboa fought his was across the Isthmus of Panama and became the first known European to see the Pacific Ocean

18. Europe Looks Westward • Ferdinand Magellan completed the first known circumnavigation of the globe on his voyage from 1519 – 1522 • By 1550 the Spanish had explored the coasts of North America as far north as Oregon in the west and Labrador in the east as well as some of the interior regions of the continent

19. Europe Looks Westward • The Spanish began to see the New World as a source of wealth rather than a roadblock to the Indies and started to send the Conquistadors on expeditions to the New World

20. Europe Looks Westward • Cortes conquers the Aztecs in 1518, Pizarro conquers in Incas in 1538, de Soto explores the American Southeast from 1539 – 1541, and Coronado explored the American Southwest from 1540 – 1542

21. Europe Looks Westward • The Spanish Empire was primarily a work of private enterprise in which individuals would get licenses from the crown (encomiendas) to extract labor and tribute from the natives in a particular area, there was no guarantee of success

22. Europe Looks Westward • For 300 years (1500 – 1800) the mines in Spanish America yielded more than 10 times as much gold and silver as the rest of the world’s mines put together

23. Europe Looks Westward • The Catholic Church was the only allowed religion in the colonies and Catholic missionaries tried to spread the faith among the natives • Missionaries built missions throughout the colonies and these missions usually had a presidio nearby to provide protection

24. Europe Looks Westward • St. Augustine in Florida was the first permanent European settlement in the present-day United States founded in 1565, it was followed by Santa Fe in New Mexico in 1609, both as a result of Spanish colonizing activity

25. Europe Looks Westward • By 1680, there were 2,000 Spanish colonists living among 30,000 Pueblos in New Mexico making a living on ranchos raising livestock

26. Europe Looks Westward • Pueblo Revolt of 1680 – The Spanish missionaries began to crack down on the religious practices of the natives and insisting on the following of Catholic rituals. The Pueblo leader, Pope, led an uprising against the Spanish that killed hundreds of settlers, captured Santa Fe, and temporarily drove the Spanish from the region

27. Europe Looks Westward • Spanish Response – Returned to the area in 1692 and began a concerted effort to assimilate the natives into the Catholic faith, but allowed the natives to own land, replaced the encomienda system with a less oppressive system, turned a blind eye to some tribal religious rituals, and a significant number of Europeans began to intermarry with the Pueblos

28. Europe Looks Westward • By 1750, there were 4,000 Spanish colonists and 13,000 Pueblos living in New Mexico • The Spanish established rigid royal control over the world’s largest empire at that time, focused on extracting surface wealth rather than making agriculture and commerce profitable in the colonies, sent relatively few Europeans to the colonies and the vast majority of the population in the Spanish colonies were natives

29. Europe Looks Westward • The importation of European diseases to the New World (influenza, measles, mumps, typhus, and smallpox) resulted in a demographic catastrophe that was in some areas far worse than what the Black Death had done to Europe, the population on Hispaniola declined from 1,000,000 to about 500, there was also a deliberate and systematic attack on the native populations (savages)

30. Europe Looks Westward • The importation of new crops (sugar, bananas, oranges), domestic livestock (cattle, pigs, sheep, horses) benefited the natives and Europeans also benefited from native crops (corn, squash, pumpkins, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes)

31. Europe Looks Westward • As early as 1502 the Spanish and Portugese began importing slaves from Africa to deal with the rising demand for sugar cane (very labor intensive crop)

32. The Arrival of the English • In 1497 John Cabot led an expedition for King Henry VII of England to look for a Northwest Passage through the New World to the Orient, other explorers followed but it would take over a century until England would look to establish colonies in the New World

33. The Arrival of the English • Philosophical Approach – the New World presented an opportunity to start a perfect society without the flaws and inequities of Europe, Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1551 in English) is the best example

34. The Arrival of the English • The Enclosure Movement dislocated thousands of peasants from the countryside and contributed to social unrest throughout England, it also removed land from cultivation resulting in an inability to feed the population of England (4 million in 1603)

35. The Arrival of the English • Chartered Companies began to be used by the merchant class in which the King granted a charter to a company that gave a monopoly for a certain part of the world to that company, investors in these companies often made fantastic profits

36. The Arrival of the English • Mercantilism came to be the primary economic theory of the time period, which emphasized the accumulation of wealth by the country, not individuals, therefore exports should be encouraged and imports discouraged

37. The Arrival of the English • Merchant Capitalists created overseas ventures, which increased the wealth of the country and therefore were worthy of government assistance, colonies became very attractive

38. The Arrival of the English • Richard Hakluyt began to argue for colonies stressing that colonies created new markets, provided natural resources that previously had been bought from other countries, and allowed for the surplus population to leave England thereby alleviating poverty and unemployment

39. The Arrival of the English • The 1500s were a time of tremendous religious upheaval in Europe: • Martin Luther – salvation was attained through faith alone 95 Theses

40. The Arrival of the English • John Calvin – believed in predestination, God has “elected” some people to be saved and others were damned to hell, this was determined before birth and no one could change their fate

41. The Arrival of the English • Henry VIII – led the English Reformation which broke with the Catholic Church and established the monarchy as the head of the Christian church in England

42. The Arrival of the English • Puritans believed that the Church of England had left the Catholic Church but still followed its offensive beliefs and practices, therefore the Anglican Church (Church of England) had to be purified

43. The Arrival of the English • Puritan Separatists were determined to worship as they pleased in their own independent congregations, this was against English law that required all subjects to attend regular Anglican services and levied taxes to support the established church, many separatist sects (especially Quakers) believed that women could play a role in religious activities, even serve as preachers

44. The Arrival of the English • Most Puritans wanted to simplify Anglican forms of worship, reduce the power of the Anglican bishops who were often corrupt and extravagant, and reform the local clergy who often had little theological knowledge • Puritans wanted to see the church give its attention to spiritual matters and less attention to its worldly ambitions

45. The Arrival of the English • In 1603, James I took the throne and believed in the divine right of kings, resorted to arbitrary taxation, favored Catholics in the granting of charters, and supported “high church” ceremonies

46. The Arrival of the English • In the 1560’s and 1570’s, England began sending colonists into Ireland to capture territory and subdue the native population with its own language and culture

47. The Arrival of the English • The Irish were viewed as wild, vicious, and ignorant “savages” who could not be tamed, certainly could not be assimilated, and therefore must be suppressed, isolated, and if necessary destroyed • Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Richard Grenville all served in Ireland and would take their experiences and attitudes to the New World

48. The Arrival of the English • The English would create “plantations” which would be transplantations of English society in foreign lands, they would build a complete society of their own peopled with emigrants from England itself, in an area physically separated from the natives

49. The Arrival of the English • During the 1570’s and 1580’s Sir Francis Drake and the rest of the “sea dogs” staged successful raids on Spanish merchant ships, leading to the launching of the Spanish Armada against the English in 1588, its defeat would allow the British to move forward with their colonies in the New World

50. The Arrival of the English • Sir Humphrey Gilbert led an expedition to Newfoundland in 1583 and took possession of it in the Queen’s name but did not survive the expedition