This document provides an overview of major events and developments in Europe, Africa, and the Americas between 1450 and 1750. It discusses the age of exploration led by Portugal and Spain in the 15th-16th centuries, including Prince Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama's voyage to India, and Columbus' voyage to the Americas in 1492. It then covers the establishment of colonies in the Americas by Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands. The document also summarizes the introduction and impacts of slavery, the rise of the sugar and silver economies, and the development of the mercantilist economic system between 1450-1750.

1. 1450 - 1750
Janet Pareja, Signature School AP World History, Evansville, Indiana, outdoes
herself in this now Legendary power point. Re-released in 2015 for your enjoyment.

2. Spain & Portugal: Kick-off!
 Prince Henry the Navigator – 1488
 Bartolomeu Diaz – 1488
 Vasco da Gama- 1497
 Rounded tip of Africa  India
 Columbus – 1492…
 Amerigo Vespucci – 1500
 S. America =huge!
 Ponce de Leon – 1513
 Florida, Spain
 Vasco de Balboa – 1513
 C. Am., Spain, Pacific!
 Ferdinand Magellan – 1519
 Around tip of S. Am. – Port.
 Died: Phillippines; Crew
Circumnavigated
England, Netherlands,
France join the game!
 Verrazano – 1524 – N. Am for France
 Sir Francis Drake – 1578 – 1st English to
circumnavigate; Explored Pacific &
sought NW passage
 John Cabot – 1597 – N. Am coast – Eng.
 Henry Hudson – 1609 – Dutch –
sought north passage, Hudson River &
claimed New York for Dutch

3. Volta
do
Mar

4. Demonstrates the role / power of the Church
Significance?

5. New Technologies Available:
 Advanced Cartography
 Astrolabe
 Compass
 Sternpost Rudder
 Lateen Sails
 Three-Masted
Galleon & Caravel:
 Large sails, provision & cargo
space…
 Faster, lighter than Spanish
Galleon…

6.  Desired luxury goods / wealth
 Merchants – personal wealth!
 Crown –tax & prestige & war!
 Fierce competition! Prestige, wealth.
 Wealthy & Strong Monarchs
 “Renaissance Effect” - Innovation &
Imagination
 Humanism:
belief that Man CAN do anything
with God’s help…For God, King
and Profit!
 Missionary fervor
 Desire for more land for growing population?
Nouveau riche?

7. One of the few crops both hemispheres had in common: COTTON.
Grape vines, peas, beef & dairy cattle,
pigs, fowl, sheep, horses…
Squash, peppers, chilis, yams…

8. Plants, Animals:
 Food…Cash Crops –
Wheat, grapes, corn,
potatoes… tobacco, sugar…
 Food, pack animals, dairy,
leather - Horse, cows,
sheep, pigs… domestic
animals.
 PLAGUE of PEOPLE:
 Colonists
 Armies & Administrators
 Slaves
 Few:
 New strains of Syphilis
 Chagas Disease (S. America)
 Possibly Tuberculosis
 Most of humanity’s worst
inflictions:
 Smallpox
 Malaria
 Yellow Fever
 Measles
 Cholera
 Typhoid
 Bubonic Plague…
“The Great Dying:”

9.  YOU tell ME… No, SHOW me!
Signature
School
Community
Service1 Week

10.  1st encounter
 Columbus
 Trading Posts
 Forced Labor
 Smallpox & Death

11. Meso America
 Hernan Cortes – 1519
 450 Men
 Mexico - Aztec
 Tenochtitlan
 Quetzacoatl  Guests
 Aztec tributaries’ role
 Montezuma
 Gold
 Disease!
 Francisco Pizarro – 1531
 Fewer than 200 Men
 Overland to Andes
 Inca civil war
 Guests
 Atahualpa
 Hostage System
 Gold
 Conversion & Murder
 Disease!
South America

12. Rembrandt:
Man in a Gold Helmet,
1650

13. Spanish Advantage:
 Helmets, armor
 Guns & swords
 HORSES!
 Aztec religious beliefs
 Aztec trust
 Aztec enemies
 SMALL POX!

15.  St. Augustine, Fla.
 Panama City, Fla.
 Concepcion, Chile
 Buenos Aires, Argentina
 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 Salvador, Brazil

16. Exaggeration?
 Native Americans were not immune to Old
World diseases, notably Small Pox.
 Many were worked to death in the mines
and fields.
 Others were put to death when they
revolted.
 Yet others committed suicide, throwing
themselves off cliffs or consuming
poisonous leaves, to escape their cruel
masters.
 Some scholars suggest that by 1531 their
population shrunk between 80% and 90%.
“There were 60,000 people living on this island
[when I arrived in 1508], including the Indians;
so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million
people had perished from war, slavery and the
mines. Who in future generations will believe
this?”
The Spaniards "made bets as to who would slit
a man in two, or cut off his head at one blow; or
they opened up his bowels. They tore the
babes from their mothers breast by their feet,
and dashed their heads against the rocks...they
spitted the bodies of other babes, together with
their mothers and all who were before them, on
their swords....and by thirteens, in honor and
reverence for our Redeemer and the twelve
Apostles they put wood underneath and, with
fire, they burned the Indians alive…"

17.  Convert the indigenous
people
 Often gathered them on
church land, converted,
to save from slavery
 Interrupted their
culture
 Infectious European
diseases spread

18.  Mexico City & Lima, Peru
 Viceroys – “in the name of”-
representatives of Spanish King
 Tremendous power
 Not royals usually
 Audencias – review courts &
legislators
 Capitancias- military districts
 countries later

19. Strictly
Hierarchical
System
1. Peninsulares
 select group of Spanish-born
officials governed the colonies
Don Rafael Montero

20.  Born in colonies to Spanish
parents
 Looked down upon because
not born in Spain. Could not
hold highest posts.
 Educated, wealthy, inherited
land…
 After many generations
demanded recognition
Elena
Alejandro Murrieta

21. African ---- Spaniard -----Spaniard -----Amerindian -----African
Mulatto Creole Mestizo Zambo

23. 1. De Español y d'India, Mestisa
2. De español y Mestiza, Castiza
3. De Español y Castiza, Español
4. De Español y Negra, Mulata
5. De Español y Mulata, Morisca
6. De Español y Morisca, Albina
7. De Español y Albina, Torna atrás
8. De Español y Torna atrás, Tente en
el aire
9. De Negro y d'India, China cambuja.
10. De Chino cambujo y d'India; Loba
11. De Lobo y d'India, Albarazado
12. De Albarazado y Mestiza, Barcino
13 De Indio y Barcina; Zambuigua
14. De Castizo y Mestiza; Chamizo
15. De Mestizo y d'India; Coyote
16. Indios gentiles (Heathen Indians)

24. Peninsulares given:
 Land & everything
on/under it… mineral
rights, agriculture, rivers,
etc.
 Native workers for
Agriculture, Mining,
Manufacture… slaves!
 Peninsulares required to
“Protect” & Convert native
workers
Church protested
to Viceroys,
King, Pope…
Spanish Forced Labor System

25. Still required to work mines &
haciendas, BUT:
 Limited work hours, days
 Minimal Wages
BUT, State projects were still required
Based on:
 MITA Labor/Tribute System
 Inca roads
 SILVER MINES
 Abusive, though paid – never
returned!

27. Potosi: Mountain of Silver!
“Rich as Potosi!”

28.  1/5 of silver
production directly 
Spanish Crown
 Tax on all mineral
products
 Funded:
 Spanish wars in Europe
 Hapsburgian Rulers
 Spanish Armada
 Trade with China, Europe

29. Silver Trade
Manila Galleons

31.  Sugar Cane
Plantations!
 Engenhos
 Machine
 1542 began to “mill”
 “engenheiro”
 Slaves: indigenous 
Imported from Africa…

35. Agricultural goods:
- Sugar
- Cachaca
- Tobacco
- Cotton
- Wood
- Rubber
- Gold
- Coffee
The Sugar Cycle: 1530-
1700

37.  Colonial society created to resemble the IDEAL
Europe - ideal, that is, for the Entrepreneur!
 Strongly hierarchical government & society,
under power of home monarchy: Spain or
Portugal
 “For God, King and Profit!” - Missionary,
Patriotic & Entrepreneurial Motives
 Key products: Sugar and Silver (Brazil and New
Spain)
 Indigenous labor Indenture  Slave Labor

38. EXPLOITATION
 NATURAL RESOURCES
 PEOPLE!!
Did not bring Wives,
Families, Possessions
From Spain…
How did that affect Spanish
Colonial Society?

39. 1450 – 1750

40.  English, Dutch, French…
 Under Direct Control of Private
Investors, NOT home government!
 Port Royal, Quebec
 Jamestown & Massachusetts Bay
 New Amsterdam
New Spain: North America:
- No families/women; - Immigration – women,
- children, families
- Intermingling; - No intermingling;
- More slaves - More Indentured Servants
- Indentured later - Slaves later

41. “English concept of, and DEMAND for, PRIVATE
OWNERSHIP of LAND was a strange & threatening
concept for indigenous population.”
WHY?
English Enclosure
Laws
1750-1800’s & before
No free range farming 
 Colonists hungry for land…

42. Church on the
side of
Entrepreneurs!
Do whatever it
takes to earn
the most
money!

43.  The “Beauty” of a Joint Stock Company:
 Pools investments – proportional risk & profit
 Shares / stock in companies
 Church revised ban on lending and
charging interest  Banking respectable
 Caravel - Huge & FAST
 “Free” Goods – exploited…
 Large Wealthy Merchant Class

44. MONOPOLIES granted
on Trade Routes:
 British East India Company
 VOC – Dutch - Spice Islands (Indonesia)
 Royal Muscovy Company –
British to Russia
Original Red Coat

48. 1. Import inexpensive raw materials;
Export expensive finished
/manufactured products
2. COLONIZE!
 Produce raw materials for Mother
 Buy finished products from Mother
3. Competition between countries:
 Tariffs on outsider imports
 No tariffs on imports from/to own
colonies/Mother (part of same family,
right?)

49.  Are in competition with all other European countries
 You have colonies, and you MUST HAVE COLONIES!
 You IMPORT RAW MATERIALS ($) and EXPORT
MANUFACTURED GOODS ($$$)
 TAX GOODS imported from other countries outside
the mother-country-colony system.
 Have a powerful, wealthy ruler and a very wealthy
new MERCHANT CLASS…
who are also starting to feel
somewhat powerful!

50. MERCANTILISM
WHO GETS RICH in this system ????

52. American Revolution Sample…

53. 1763 - 1776
Philadelphia

54. 12-16-1773
1770
1765
1764
1763
1772
1776

56. Abigail Adams

57. 1787
1789 signed,
1791 ratified

58. Looking back, John Adams concluded in 1818:
"The Revolution was effected before the war
commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and
hearts of the people....This radical change in the
principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of
the people was the real American Revolution."

59.  USE MLA format!!!

60. 1450 – 1750

61. Cheap Plantation labor
Needed for
Mercantilism to work!

63.  (Ghana, Mali) Songhai 
 fell to Moroccan guns
 small regional kingdoms
 Portuguese built forts &
churches along coast
 Began to trade & convert…
and buy slaves.
 Swahili City States –>
 Portuguese cannons &
navy – 1505
 Disrupted trade w/ Arabs
 Portuguese picked up
trade…
 Swahili City States never
fully recovered.

64. Centralized state along Congo River
 1483- Portuguese began commercial
relations
 Emissaries to Portugal from Kongo.
 Portuguese sent priests, artisans,
European goods, including a printing
press.
 King converted to Christianity; sent
son to school in Portugal, returned as
Catholic bishop to Kongo.
 Court spoke Portuguese, European
etiquette, etc. King changed name to
Afonso I .
 Sought mutually beneficial trade
relationship with Portugal…including a
carefully controlled slave trade…

66. "Each day the traders are kidnapping our
people - children of this country, sons of our
nobles and vassals, even people of our own
family. This corruption and depravity are so
widespread that our land is entirely depopulated. We need in this
kingdom only priests and schoolteachers, and no merchandise,
unless it is wine and flour for Mass. It is our wish that this
Kingdom not be a place for the trade or transport of slaves.”
“Many of our subjects eagerly lust after Portuguese merchandise
that your subjects have brought into our domains. To satisfy this
inordinate appetite, they seize many of our … free subjects.... They
sell them. After having taken these prisoners [to the coast] secretly
or at night..... (and) As soon as the captives are in the hands of
white men they are branded with a red-hot iron….”

67. By the mid-1600’s European colonists living in
the area went to war with the next King of Kongo…
and beheaded him.
The Portuguese moved on to Angola…
What is the Significance of learning
about the Kingdom of Kongo?

68.  Colony for Portuguese slave
trade
 King Nzinga
 Allied w/ Dutch to drive out the
Portuguese; then expelled the
Dutch!
 Wanted to create a vast central
African empire
 After her death, Angola became
the first fully European colony
in Africa.
Significance?

69.  Regional Kingdoms
 1652 - Dutch trade  trading post at Cape Town
 1700 – Colonists
 Became the most prosperous European colony in
Sub-Saharan Africa
Significance??

70.  1745 - 1797
 Ex-Slave
 Abolitionist
Painting in Royal Albert Museum

71.  Overcrowding
 Ventilation
 Sanitation
 Food
 Sea Sickness
 Disease
 Bedwarmers
 Death
 Insanity
 Suicide- starvation,
jump
 Revolt

72.  Diversion of trade away from
Muslim world:
 Trans-Atlantic largely replaced trans-
Saharan trade.
 Europe side-steps Arab “middle man”
for cotton, sugar cane, coffee, gold, etc.
 Silver mining – trade with China via Europe
& Manila Galleons
 European wealth & capital
increased.
 Merchants & Monarchs profited.
  More economic change, ie:
Industrial Revolution

73.  Some African merchants, rulers, states
benefited.
 Weakened trade inside Africa:
 Internal trade not a priority.
 Trade with Islamic Caliphate
changed/suffered.
 Demographics changed : for
generations, impacting cultures and
economies.
 With “guns for slaves” trade, political
instability in African slave trading states
and nearby states… which continues
today.
Nigeria
Darfur
Somalia

74. ?

75.  1771 - James Somerset
 Escaped slavery in the US and came to England. His
master pursued him, and the British government
refused to return him to his previous owner.
Somerset was set free. But slaves continued to be sold in
Britain and British slaves ships continued taking slaves
to the Caribbean.
 1780's - Quakers under
Granville Sharp publicly campaigned
against slavery.
 WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
became a leading abolitionist, tirelessly lobbying
public opinion and parliament.
 Abolitionists also resettled freed
slaves in Africa.

76. ?

77. Industrial
Revolution in
Britain
 Efficiency in marketplace of products and jobs
 Free trade , not Mercantilism
 Free labor, not slaves who had no purchasing
power and had to be maintained when their
health was poor

78.  American
Revolution - Britain
lost her colonies in
N. America – 1776.
 French Revolution
 Universal liberty,
brotherhood, and
equality

79. Britain … mechanizing…
 1807 the British government
declared buying,
transporting, selling of slaves
illegal. WHY?
 1834 – Illegal to OWN slaves &
do business with Britain:
 Freed all children under six in the West Indies.
 All other ex-slaves were called apprentices and
had to work for nothing for six years.
 Planters were compensated totaling £20 million.

80. 1838 - Apprenticeships outlawed in
Britain as “cruel & repressive”
 British abolitionists toured the world, speaking out.
 Great resentment from Americans.
1865- Slavery abolished in the United States after
the Civil War. But the freed slave in the south
continued to suffer.
 1888 - Brazil was the last country in Americas to
abolish slavery.