Spanish Conquests in America What do you remember

Spanish Conquests in America

What do you remember? ? ? • • What was the motive behind exploration? Spices What was the motto? God, Glory, Gold Who was the first to travel around the tip of Africa? Bartolomeu Diaz Which country was the leader in exploration at first? Portugal

The Spice Trade • Many merchants were becoming extremely wealthy through the spice trade. • Christopher Columbus believed he could open a trade route heading west across the Atlantic Ocean to reach India. • He needed ships and a crew. • He asked the Portuguese king for financing and was denied.

King Ferdinand Queen Isabella of Spain • Spain finally succeeded in kicking out the Moors, and they could finally focus on sea exploration. • Christopher Columbus sought financial help from the Spanish monarchy. • The Spanish monarchy refused his request 3 times. • The Queen called for Columbus when she learned he was going to ask the French for the money.

Agreement • The Spanish monarchy promised Columbus that he would be governor over lands he discovered, as well as be called, ‘admiral of the ocean seas’. • Columbus would also receive 10% of the profits. • In return, Columbus agreed to spread Christianity and return with gold, silver, and spices.

Columbus petitioning the Spanish monarchy

Christopher Columbus • The Italian explorer left Spain on August 3, 1492 in search of a westward route across the Atlantic to reach India. • Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. – The Santa Maria was the largest ship and the slowest. – The Pinta and Nina were smaller caravels, which were quicker. • He took about 120 men, including an Arabic interpreter.

The Bahamas • He landed on an island somewhere in the Bahamas. • Historians debate exactly where Columbus first set foot. • The first island he visited, he claimed for the Spanish throne and renamed it ‘San Salvador’ -translation for ‘Holy Savior’.

Close up of San Salvador • Today San Salvador island (also known as Watling Island Guanahani Island) is known for its sandy beaches and tropical climate. • Population is approx 1, 000

San Salvador Can you imagine Columbus’s crew landing here? How would this environment be different than Spain? How do you think Columbus and his men felt?

The Taino people • Columbus believed he had reached the ‘Indies’, and therefore named the indigenous people ‘los indios’, or the Indians. • However, he was not in the Indies. • The people he encountered called themselves the Taino. • The Taino people were spread out all across the Bahaman islands.

Reconstruction of the Taino village

Gold • Columbus was highly interested in finding gold. • He explored many islands throughout the Caribbean looking for gold. • He also claimed each island for Spain.

Columbus returns to Spain • The Spanish monarchy was extremely pleased with Columbus. • They financed three more voyages to the islands. • On his second voyage, he had 17 ships in his fleet and several armed soldiers. • He also brought 1, 000 settlers. • The Spanish intended to colonize the area.

Pedro Alvares Cabral • In 1500, Portuguese explorer Cabral reached Brazil and claimed the land for his country.

Brasilia

Amerigo Vespucci • Italian explorer working for the Portuguese crown. • Traveled along the eastern coast of South America. • He returned to Europe and claimed that the newly discovered land was not part of ASIA, but a “New World”. • In 1507, a German map-maker named the new continent ‘America’ after him.

Amerigo Vespucci

Interesting Note • Columbus died never knowing that he discovered the New World. • He died still believing it was the Indies.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa • Marched through modern day Panama and became the first Spanish explorer to see the Pacific ocean.

Ferdinand Magellan • 1519, Portuguese explorer Magellan led an expedition to the Pacific Ocean. • He sailed around the tip of South America. – 230 men – 5 ships – Financed by Spain • Food supplies ran out. Sailors ate hard biscuits full of weevils and sawdust.

Magellan

First trip around the globe • Magellan Explored Guam and the Philippines • Magellan got involved in a local war in the Philippines and was killed. • His crew was greatly reduced by disease and starvation. – only 18 men and one ship arrived back in Spain in 1522, 3 years later. – They were the first people to circumnavigate the world.

Hernando Cortez (Spanish Conquistador, ‘Conqueror’) • Arrived in Mexico in 1519. • Cortes and his men reached the Tenochtitlan. • The Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, was convinced at first that Cortes was a god. • He agreed to give the Spanish explorer a share of the empire’s existing gold supply.

• Cortes forced the Aztecs to mine more gold and silver. • In the spring of 1520, the Aztecs rebelled against the Spanish intruders and drove out Cortes’s forces. • The Spaniards struck back and destroyed the Aztecs in 1521.

Cortes defeats the Aztecs • The Spanish had the advantage of superior weaponry. • Aztec arrows were no match for the Spaniards’ muskets and cannons. • Cortes was also able to recruit help from various native tribes.

Hernando Cortes

Montezuma II

Malinche • Native Aztec woman who helped Cortez convince other tribes to fight against Montezuma. • Many tribes hated their harsh practices of human sacrifices.

Disease • Disease claimed the lives of most Aztecs. • Spaniards brought new germs and diseases to the Natives. – Measles – Mumps – Smallpox – typhus • Over the next 200 years disease would claim over 1/3 of Native American lives.

Francisco Pizarro • In 1532, another Spanish conquistador, Pizarro, marched an even smaller force into South America. • He conquered the mighty Inca empire. • Pizarro and his army of 200 met with Atahualpa. • Atahualpa brought several unarmed men with him. (why do think the men were unarmed? )

Pizzaro

Atahualpa

• The Spaniards crushed the Incas and kidnapped their ruler. • Atahualpa offered to fill a room once with gold and twice with silver in exchange for his release. • After the Spaniards received the ransom, they strangled Atahualpa. • Pizarro then took control of the Inca capital, Cuzco.

Atahualpa captured

A new society emerges • Peninsulares – Spaniards born in Spain who came to America as settlers or explorers. • Peninsulares were mostly men, therefore many married native women. • A new race was created called Mestizo – mixed Spanish and Native American.

Encomienda system • Spaniards forced Native Americans in a labor system. • Natives farmed, ranched, or mined for Spanish landlords. • The landlords promised Spanish government they would act fairly and respectfully toward the workers. • However, many abused the natives and worked many laborers to death, especially inside the mines.

Brazil • The Portuguese took control of Brazil. • Finding little gold or silver, the Portuguese began growing sugar. • Clearing out huge forests, the Portuguese built giant sugar plantations. • The demand for sugar was high in Europe, and the Brazilian colony made Portuguese very rich.

Disease and Slavery • Disease ran rampant throughout Brazil also, killing millions of natives. • Furthermore, the Portuguese enslaved the Brazilian natives, like the Spanish did in Mexico and the Caribbean. • In this time period, it was common for people to enslave the people of their conquered territories.

Treasure • Spain soon became the richest, most powerful nation in the world due to the American colonies. • Ships filled with treasures from the Americas continually sailed into Spanish harbors. • This new found wealth helped usher in the ‘Golden Age’ of Spain.

Powerful army • In order to protect its treasure, Spain increased its military. • Spain built a powerful navy and ruled the seas for the next 150 years. • Spain even increased its holdings in what is now the U. S.

Empire expands • In 1513, before Hernando Cortes, Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain. • By 1540, the Spaniards gained control of the Aztec and Inca empire. • The Spaniards controlled an empire that stretched from Mexico to Peru. • They began looking toward the U. S. to expand their empire.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado • Led an expedition through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. • He was searching for another empire to conquer. • He found a little gold amidst the dry deserts of the Southwest. • As a result, the Spanish monarchy assigned mostly priests to explore and colonize the future U. S.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

Catholic Priests • Accompanied explorers to the Americas. • While the explorers searched for gold, the priests looked for Christian converts. • In 1609 -1610, the “Santa Fe” was built. • In the next two decades, Christian missions would expand across the southwestern U. S.

Opposition to Spanish rule • Spanish priests worked to spread Christianity in the Americas. • They also pushed for a better treatment of Native Americans. • Priests spoke out against the cruelty towards the natives. • They criticized the encomienda system.

Bartolome de las Casas • “There is nothing more detestable or cruel than the tyranny which the Spaniards use toward the Indians for getting of riches. ” • Las Casa suggested the use of African labor. – “The labor of one is more valuable than that of four Indians. ” – The Spaniards soon began to import Africa slaves to meet their growing labor needs.

De las Casas

Native resistance • In November of 1493, Columbus encountered a resistance in his attempt to conquer the present-day island of St. Croix. • The natives used poison arrows. • After several rebellions in Hispaniola, the Taino submitted to Columbus, only to rebel again in 1495.

Spaniards forced their culture • The natives were forced to convert to Christianity. • Spanish priests and soldiers often burned their sacred objects and prohibited many native rituals. • They were abused physically. • Natives who practiced their own religion were beaten.

• A successful native American rebellion occurred in the southwestern U. S. • The natives were able to drive out the Spanish and push the Spaniards back to ‘New Spain’. • But by this time, the eastern border of the U. S. was being colonized by English settlers.