Spain and the Americas World History/Napp

“Competition for wealth in Asia among Europeannations was fierce. This competition prompted a Genoese sea captain namedChristopher Columbus to make a daring voyage for Spain in 1492. Instead ofsailing south around Africa and then east, Columbus sailed west across theAtlantic in search of an alternate trade route to Asia and its riches. Columbusnever reached Asia. Instead, he stepped onto an island in the Caribbean. Thatevent would bring together the peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Thinking he had successfully reached the East Indies, Columbuscalled the surprised inhabitants who greeted him, los indios. The term translated into ‘Indian,’ a word mistakenly applied to all the native peoples of the Americas. Columbus had miscalculated where he was. He had not reached the East Indies. Scholars believe he landed instead on an island in the Bahamas in the CaribbeanSea. The natives there were not Indians, but a group who called themselves theTaino. Nonetheless,Columbus claimed the island for Spain. He named it San Salvador, or ‘Holy Savior.’

Columbus, like other explorers, was interested in gold. Finding none on San Salvador, he explored other islands,staking his claim to each one. In early 1493, Columbus returned to Spain. The reportshe relayed about his journey delighted the Spanishmonarchs. Spain’s rulers, who had funded his first voyage,agreed to finance three more trips. The Spanish intended to transform theislands of the Caribbean into colonies, or lands that arecontrolled by another nation. Over the next two centuries,other European explorers began sailing across theAtlantic in search of new lands to claim.

In 1500, thePortuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral reached theshores of modern-day Brazil and claimed the land for his country. A year later, Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian in the service of Portugal, also traveledalong the eastern coast of South America. Upon his return to Europe, heclaimed that the land was not part of Asia, but a ‘new’ world. In 1507, a Germanmapmaker named the new continent ‘America’ in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. In 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the boldest explorationyet. Although Magellan was killed in the Philippines, his crew was the first to circumnavigate, or sail around, the world in 1522.” ~ World History

Questions:

- What was Columbus’ planned alternative route to Asia?

- Why did Columbus call the people he met “los indios”? Was he correct?

- What was Columbus interested in finding and what did Spain intend to do with the land Columbus claimed?

- Why are the Americas named in honor of Amerigo Vespucci?

- What was Ferdinand Magellan’s crew the first to do in world history?

Hernando Cortés / Francisco Pizarro
- Cortés was a conquistador or conqueror
- Soon after landing in Mexico, Cortés learned of the wealthy Aztec Empire
- After marching for weeks, Cortés and his force ofroughly 600 men reached theAztec capital of Tenochtitlán
- The Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, was convinced at first that Cortés was a god
- He agreed to give the Spanish explorer a share of the empire’s existing gold supply
- The conquistador was not satisfied; Cortés admitted that he and his comrades had a ‘disease of the heart that only gold can cure’
- In the late spring of 1520, some of Cortés’s men killed a number of Aztec warriors
- In June, the Aztecs rebelled against the Spanish and drove out Cortés’s forces; despite being outnumbered, Cortés and his men conquered the Aztecs in 1521
- The Spaniards had muskets and cannons, help of Native American Indians’ hostile to the Aztecs, diseases like smallpox
- Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases, had no natural immunity and many died / - In 1532, another conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, marched a small force into
South America; he conquered the Incas
- Pizarro and his army of about 200 met the Incan ruler, Atahualpa, near the city of Cajamarca
- Atahualpa, who commanded a force of about 30,000, brought several thousand mostly unarmed men for the meeting
- The Spaniards waited in ambush, crushed the Incan force, and kidnapped Atahualpa
- Atahualpa offered to fill a room once with gold and twice with silver
- After receiving the ransom, the Spanish strangled the Incan king
- Demoralized, the remaining Incan force retreated from Cajamarca
- Pizarro then marched on the Incan capital, Cuzco; he captured it in 1533
- The Spanish settlers or peninsulares were mostly men and as a result, relationships between Spanish settlers and native women occurred creating a large mestizo – or mixed Spanish and Native American—population
- The Spanish forced Native Americans to work within a system known as encomienda – encomienda was a kind of Indian slavery

Identify and explain the following terms:

Hernando Cortés Francisco Pizarro

Conquistador Atahualpa

Tenochtitlán Cajamarca

Montezuma II Death of Atahualpa

Defeat of Aztecs Peninsulares

Advantages of Spaniards Mestizos

Impact of Disease on Aztecs Encomienda

The Great Dying

Opposition to Spanish Rule

Spanish priests worked to spread Christianity in the Americas. They also pushedfor better treatment of Native Americans. Priests spoke out against the cruel treatmentof natives. In particular, they criticized the harsh pattern of labor thatemerged under the encomienda system. “There is nothing more detestable or more cruel,” Dominican monk Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote, ‘than the tyranny whichthe Spaniards use toward the Indians for the getting of pearl [riches].’

The Spanish government abolished theencomienda system in 1542. To meet the colonies’ need for labor, Las Casas suggested Africans. “The labor of one . . . [African] . . . [is] more valuable than that of four Indians,” he said. The priest later changed his view anddenounced African slavery. However, others promoted it.

- Who was Bartolomé de Las Casas?

- What did he protest against and what did he encourage but eventually regret?

- What is most surprising about Pizarro, Atahualpa, and the Encounter?

The Spanish encomienda system in the Americas resulted in

  1. the strengthening of indigenous cultures
  2. political independence for the colonies
  3. the exploitation of natives
  4. religious freedom for the majority of peasants

Which situation was an unintended consequence of Spain’s colonization of the Americas?
  1. establishment of a favorable balance of trade
  2. introduction of the encomienda system
  3. transmission of communicable diseases
  4. exploitation of resources in new lands
Why is Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage considered a turning point in world history?
  1. Portugal’s claims to southern Africa were established.
  2. His ship was the first to land in the Americas.
  3. One of his ships was the first to circumnavigate Earth.
  4. Britain’s control of the seas ended.
It led the way in European exploration.
1. Portugal 3. England
2. Spain 4. France / Which country is responsible for the extensive colonial use of the encomienda labor system?
  1. England
  2. France
  3. the Netherlands
  4. Spain
One reason Spain sponsored the first voyage of Columbus to the west was to
  1. find a more direct trade route to Asia
  2. obtain military technology
  3. make contact with the Empire of Benin
  4. trade in established ports in the Americas
Which situation was an immediate cause for the collapse of the Aztec civilization?
  1. disruption of overseas trade networks
  2. conquest by foreigners
  3. a series of crop failures
  4. a lack of military training