Europeans began exploring the Atlantic in the early 1500s, seeking to expand trade networks and spread Christianity. This led to encounters between European powers and indigenous societies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. The Portuguese established coastal trading posts in Africa and fought Arabs for control of the spice trade. Spain formed the largest American empire through conquests led by Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro. France founded Quebec in 1608 and grew the fur trade. England established 13 colonies along the eastern coast of North America in the 1600-1700s, with different economic focuses between the northern and southern regions.

1. Exploration and
Encounter

2. Introduction
By 1500, the Atlantic Ocean was
no longer seen as the border
between landmasses.
Europeans, in search of spices
and gold, began their voyages,
which would lead to a range of
encounters between unknown
societies.

3. Introduction
In 1502, Amerigo Vespucci
(1454-1512), Italian explorer, gave his
name to the “Americas,” stated:
“We found the region inhabited by a
race of people who were entirely naked,
both men and women…They have no
laws, and no religious belief, but live
according to the dictates of nature alone.

4. Introduction
“They know nothing of the
immortality of the soul; they have no
private property, but everything in
common; they have no boundaries of
kingdom or province; they obey no
king or lord, for it is entirely
unnecessary, as they have no law, and
each one is his own master.”

5. Portuguese
Europeans believed there was a
“Sea of Darkness” existing beyond
the Canary Islands.

6. 1414, Portuguese captured North
African city of Ceuta, part of large
trade network in Muslim Africa.
Motives for exploration to Africa
were mixed: expanding power through
trade; acquiring gold from Africa and
spices from India; and lead religious
crusade to extend Christianity to
Muslim Africa.
Portuguese

7. 5

8. In early 16th century, Portuguese
fought the Arabs for domination of
trade in Indian Ocean.
Portugal became centre through
which goods flowed from east to west.
Coastal trade stations were
established in North Africa for gold,
slaves, and ivory.
Portuguese

9. Large expeditions followed.
Portugal took trade away from
Arab merchants and Venice.
Brought commercial boom for
Portugal - prices of spices and
precious goods fell and investments
in ships and voyages greatly
increased.
Portuguese

10. Spain
Largest and most important European
empire in Americas.
Stretched from southern tip of South
America to southwest United States.
Voyage of Christopher Columbus in
1492, sponsored by the king and queen
of Spain was the beginning of several
centuries of exploration and conquest of
the Americas.

12. Columbus recorded the first encounter (October 12,
1492) in his diary:
“All of them go around as naked as their mothers bore
them…They are well formed, with handsome bodies and
good faces…They do not carry arms or are they acquainted
with them…They have no iron…They should be good and
intelligent servants, for I see that they saw very quickly
everything that is said to them; and I believe that they
would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me
that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time
of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your
Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak.”
Spain

13. 1496, Columbus conquered Hispaniola (Haiti
and the Dominican Republic), which had gold.
The people living there were enslaved and a
system was established that ensured labour
service from the population which would benefit
Spain economically.
Forced labour and the spread of disease
brought by Europeans killed many of the
island’s people.
Slaves from the Bahamas and Africa were
brought to continue mining.
Spain

14. Columbus wrote a letter in February
1493 to Ferdinand and Isabella
describing what he had found.
“Hispaniola is a wonder…In Hispaniola
there are many spices and large mines of
gold and other metals…[Christendom will
receive a] great triumph…by the conversion
of so many peoples to our holy faith and
for the temporal benefits which will follow.”
Spain

15. Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) issued a
papal bull - an official order - that divided
the newly discovered lands between Spain
and Portugal.
He believed it was important to prevent
controversy and “that in our times especially
the Catholic faith and the Christian religion
be exalted and be everywhere increased and
spread…and that barbarous nations be
overthrown and brought to the faith itself.”
Spain

16. Treaty of Tordesillas

17. New Spain (Mexico) and
Peru were most populous and
wealthiest regions of Americas
– under the Aztec and Inca
empires.
People were badly abused
under Spanish rule.
New Spain

18. Aztec Empire

19. Inca Empire

20. Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) noted:
“The manner of living among the
people is very similar to that in Spain,
and considering that this is a barbarous
nation shut off from a knowledge of the
true God or communication with
enlightened nations, one may marvel at
the orderliness and good government
which is everywhere maintained.”
New Spain

21. Cortes arrived in Mexico in 1519
with 600 men, crossbows and guns,
and horses.
Took 3 years to conquer the entire
empire!
Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan was
destroyed and new Spanish city,
Mexico City was built on its ruins.
New Spain

22. Between 1531 and 1536, Inca
civilization was destroyed, and
silver mines were exploited.
It is estimated that at least 20
million indigenous people died,
most from disease, some from
violence, others from slavery during
the time of conquest!
New Spain

23. Spaniards insisted on
imposing their own system of
justice and own religion
(Catholic).
Established royal courts of
justice were established in
Mexico around 1527.
New Spain

24. Monarch acted as final
arbiter in disputes among
subjects – this meant that
indigenous people could take
Spaniards to court.
Inclusiveness helped keep
colonies loyal to Spain.
New Spain

25. Secret to imperial success
was Spain’s policy of divide
and administer.
Each community was
defined as a corporate group
with the right to appeal to the
king’s justice.
New Spain

26. Each community fought to
defend its right, while
proclaiming its loyalty to a
distant figure, assumed to have
its best interests at heart.
Trouble ensued when Spain
moved outside the old empires.
New Spain

27. People outside empires were not
accustomed to accepting authority of
imperial ruler.
Spaniards entered the land of the
“barbarians.”
Discovery of silver in 1550s in
northern Mexico gave them incentive
to venture outside empires.
New Spain

28. Revolt of Pueblo (New
Mexico area), 1680, succeeded
in getting rid of Spaniards –
temporarily.
Primarily driven by anger of
missionaries’ attempts to
eradicate Pueblo culture.
New Spain

29. Harsh treatment by
Spanish rulers, famine, and
raids were factors as well.
Very bloody but resulted
in Spaniards being driven
out.
New Spain

30. Identity and Race
Largest part of colonial
population was mixed race (mestizo),
but Indians were predominant.
Small number of Africans in
Spanish America.
Brazil (Portuguese), slave society,
Africans made up largest part of
population.

31. Racial categories were arranged in
complex hierarchy known as castas or
castes.
Race was a legal status, not just
biological.
Economic position and local social
standing played a part: “money whitened.”
Racial identity was not fixed, it was
possible to move up the racial hierarchy.
Identity and Race

32. In 1774, Pedro O’Crouley wrote his
explanation of the racial hierarchies in
New Spain:
At the time of the conquest, only Indians
of unmixed blood were known to inhabit
New Spain. The Spaniards associated with
them, as also did the Negroes…Human
weakness brought about the indistinct
combination, the mixture of bloods…
Identity and Race

33. …that even to the present day
has produced in the co-mingling
of the three stocks and their
descendants a number of other
common mixtures. [Examples]
in the general acceptation are as
follows:
Identity and Race

34. Parentage Offspring
Spaniard and Negro mulato
Mulato and Indian chino grifo
Negro and Indian lobo or sambayo
Spaniard and Indian mestizo
Spaniard and mestizo castizo or albino
Spaniard and castizo Spaniard
Spaniard and mulato morisco

35. “If the mixed blood is the offspring of
a Spaniard and an Indian, the stigma
disappears at the third step in descent…
The admixture of Indian blood should
not indeed be regarded as a blemish, since
the provisions of the law give the Indian
all that he could wish for, and Phillip II
granted to mestizos the privilege of
becoming priests.”
Identity and Race

36. France
1608, French colony at Quebec was
founded by Samuel de Champlain
(1570-1635).
Worked for a private company and the
colony remained under the company’s
control until 1663.
After years of warfare among
Aboriginals, crown took over New
France.

37. Iroquois threat was defeated and
colony began to grow.
1680 = 10,000 colonists.
1700 = 15,000 colonists.
1750 = 70,000 colonists.
Grew rapidly due to high birth rate.
New France began as a commercial
operation, with religious motivation.
France

39. Seven years after the foundation
of Quebec, members of the
Recollects Order set out to convert
the Huron.
The Jesuits followed in 1625.
Despite efforts to learn the
language, they had little to no
success.
France

40. Vast majority of population in
New France were farmers
(habitants).
Land was under seigneurial system
– elite Catholics who received large
grants of land from crown, which
they then rented to the habitants, who
paid rent to the Church.
France

41. Major source of exportable
wealth from New France was
the fur trade.
French depended on
Algonquin allies to bring pelts
to them at Montreal.
France

42. French soon faced serious
competition.
1670, Charles II of England
chartered the Hudson’s Bay
Company to develop the fur trade.
Competition gave indigenous
groups opportunity to pit
Europeans against each other.
France

43. England
English were latecomers in creating
colonies in Americas.
First – Virginia (1607).
Second – Massachusetts (1620).
Third – Connecticut (1636).
Fourth Rhode Island (1636).
Fourteen in total between 1664 and
1732 (including Nova Scotia).

45. Northern and southern colonies
developed very differently.
Southern colonies (North and
South Carolina, Georgia, and
Virginia) were defined by
plantation agriculture and slave
labour.
England

47. Northern colonies were
settled primarily by farmers,
artisans, and small merchants.
Economy was
overwhelmingly agricultural.
Most cities were situated
along the coast.
England

48. Largest were Philadelphia,
New York, and Boston.
Ports played important
economic role, connecting
colonies to British imperial world.
Timber, fish, and agricultural
surpluses were sent to Britain.
England

49. Social structure of cities was
made up of elite group of
wealthy merchants, professionals,
and government officials, as well
as working people.
Sailors, servants, and slaves as
well.
England

50. Largest group was skilled
artisans who sought economic
independence.
Women’s opportunities: running
taverns or boarding houses.
Life still revolved around
marriage and frequent childbirth.
England

51. Household was basic unit of
economic activity, especially in the
country.
Marriage had serious legal
consequences for women in the
colonies.
They were “covered” by
husbands.
England

52. Husband had full control
over family property.
English colonies in North
America were established by
religious minorities fleeing
from persecution by the state
church in England.
England

53. Massachusetts was founded
by Puritans, Maryland by
Catholics, and Pennsylvania by
Quakers.
Massachusetts colony was
closed to people of other faiths.
Salem witch trials in 1692.
England

54. Led to the arrest and trial of
150 women and execution of
19.
England

55. Europeans brought many
plants and animals with them that
changed the landscape of the
Americas.
In the Caribbean, the Spaniards
left cattle on islands where they
affected local vegetation.
Ecological Imperialism

56. The cattle ate the fruit of citrus
plants the Spaniards had brought
and deposited the seeds in manure,
where they germinated and grew.
By the mid 16th century, there
were dense groups of orange and
lemon trees on islands where they
had been unknown previously.
Ecological Imperialism

57. The horse was also brought to
the Americas.
Spaniards kept horses away from
indigenous people, but after the
revolt of 1680, the Pueblo acquired
some horses left behind.
Made it easier for Plains nations
to hunt buffalo and raid others.
Ecological Imperialism