European Exploration

1. European Exploration

2. Background • Europeans traveled to the Americas in the late 15th century. • Conditions there were harsh. • Many Europeans died of disease or starvation. • Others were killed by Native Americans. • In turn, Europeans carried with them tools, goods, and diseases that would change Native Americans’ way of life forever.

3. Background • Europeans brought horses and guns to the Americas. • These tools helped them travel across large areas and conquer people. • With horses, Native Americans were able to travel and trade more easily. • Guns also became important for native people. • They made hunting easier and could be used as protection, too.

4. Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each Other’s Culture • Many European countries believed it was their duty to spread Christianity. • Various Christian missionaries created settlements in the Americas to convert Native Americans. • A missionary is someone sent by a church to a foreign country to spread its faith.

5. Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each Other’s Culture • The main functions of these mission settlements were to teach Native Americans “the arts of civilization” and to convert them to Christianity. • For the Native Americans, the missions represented a means to help them learn European languages in order to trade and negotiate in an increasingly white world.

6. Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each Other’s Culture • Soon after the arrival of Europeans, slavery began in the Americas. • Native Americans were enslaved to work on the sugar plantations in the West Indies. • Diseases such as smallpox and measles, brought by European settlers, killed many native people. • The Native American population was too small for the large amount of work on the plantations. • Europeans had to look to another source of workers to enslave.

7. Native Americans and Europeans Impact Each Other’s Culture • It was hard for Europeans to live in the Americas. • They were not familiar with local food crops. Supplies from Europe took months to arrive. • Some Europeans were friendly with Native Americans. • They learned how to farm crops such as maize from the Native Americans. • Many European colonies would not have survived without help from Native Americans.

8. Early Spanish Missions • Most early European exploration of the American Southeast was done by the Spanish. • They launched ships from bases in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Florida. • They explored the coastline of the Southeast.

9. Early Spanish Missions • They observed the barrier islands that line the coast of Georgia. • These islands were easier for ships to access than the mainland was. • Early missions were built on these islands. • From those missions, the Spanish then explored the coast.

10. Early Spanish Missions • The purpose of the missions was to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. • Natives Americans used the missions to help integrate themselves into the European world. • Mission settlements usually were located in chiefdoms and contained at least one church, and a house for the missionary.

11. Hernando de Soto • Hernando de Soto of Spain was the first European to see the interior of the American Southeast, including Georgia. • De Soto landed on the coast of Florida in 1539. • His party was large and well-equipped. He met many Native Americans along his way. • De Soto was looking for gold.

12. Hernando de Soto • He exploited many Native Americans in his attempt to find it. • At times, this exploitation meant befriending them. • Other times, it meant robbing or killing Native Americans. • After a three-year campaign, de Soto died without finding any gold.

13. Hernando de Soto • De Soto and his party were the only Europeans to see many Native American cultures before they declined. • De Soto wrote of his contact with the native peoples. • Today, historians benefit from de Soto’s writings, Ironically, his party spread disease throughout the Native American culture, contributing to its collapse.

14. Causes of European Exploration • Europeans needed spices from East Asia. Asian trade goods were sold by Arab traders. • Since spices were very expensive, Europeans wanted to find a safe and fast way to reach Asia and acquire the spices directly. • They spent a lot of money to find this passage. • The country that found the western passage to Asia would control trade between Europe and Asia. • As a result of the Asian trade route explorations, the Americas were discovered.

15. Causes of European Exploration • After Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492, rumors of the New World’s wealth spread. • The stories spoke of cities where the streets were paved with gold. • The possibility of wealth and the power to control trade led all European countries that could afford it to spend money exploring the Americas.

16. France • In 1562, France sent explorers to North America in search of gold. • The French explorers made their way to South Carolina. • There, they started a colony called Charlesfort. • Soon, the explorers ran out of supplies and food.

17. France • A ship returned to France to get more supplies, but did not return to Charlesfort until 1565. • By that time, the settlers had left. • The French also founded a colony in 1564 called Fort Caroline, in Florida.

18. Spain • The Spanish, like all Europeans, were looking for wealth in North America. • They destroyed Fort Caroline to stop competition with the French over the wealth of the Americas. • In 1568, they built the first missions in the area of Florida where Fort Caroline had been. • This was the beginning of the mission period in the Southeast.

19. Spain • The missions were built to spread Catholicism. • Missions were also used to integrate Native Americans as members of a new form of society ruled by the Spanish colonial government. • This helped the Spanish control them.

20. Spain • Local chiefs still led Native Americans, but the chiefs were ruled by the Spanish colonial government. • The Spanish colonial government used the missions to communicate with the Native Americans. • Native Americans and Europeans also traded goods at missions. • Eventually, the mission system declined.

21. Spain • Native populations in the Southeast were shrinking due to deaths. • Many missions were left empty. • Slave revolts and English raids destroyed the rest. • The mission period ended in 1684.

22. England • Queen Elizabeth I ruled Great Britain from 1558 to 1603. • She was a Protestant, which is a Christian religion that differs from Catholicism in its practice. • Great Britain was the enemy of Spain, a Catholic state. • Philip II, the ruler of Spain, built the Spanish Armada, a large and powerful naval fleet, to attack the British.

23. England • In 1588, the British defeated the Spanish Armada. • British naval dominance enabled it to explore the Americas. • It also signaled the decline of Spanish power in the Americas.

24. England • The British came to the Americas hoping to find gold. • They also realized they could make money by trading other items such as copper and furs. • They also traded enslaved Native Americans. • Many British slaves came from Georgia’s Native American population.

25. England • The slave trade resulted in the deaths of many Native Americans. • Many became involved in trading slaves themselves. • Others moved away from the region. • There are few records of what happened to most of the Native Americans who once lived in Georgia.

26. Summary • Describe why Europeans wanted to explore. • What impact did Native Americans and Europeans have on each other? (Include both positive and negative)