ORIGINS -- THE WORLD BEFORE COLUMBUS
I.Western Hemisphere
A. Geographically

  1. Changes in temperature created dramatic risings and lowerings of the sea level, placing large portions of the North American South and Midwest under water many times.
  2. Large glaciers existed in the northern half of North America
    a. New England's top soil was swept away, leaving a rocky, infertile land.
    b. A shelf off New England's coast made possible the later development of commercial fishing.
    c. The Great Lakes were carved out.
    d. Two northward flowing rivers (Missouri and Ohio) were diverted and redirected as tributaries of the Mississippi River.
    e. Sea level around 20,000 years before Columbus left a possible land bridge between Siberia and Alaska.

II. Cultural Exchange
A. Crossing While the Land Bridge was In Tact

  1. The horse and the camel migrated to the Old World while becoming extinct in the New.
  2. The deer and the elephant migrated to the New World from the Old although the North American mammoth became extinct.

III. Europe on the Eve of Columbus
A. Background

  1. Origins of the voyages of exploration
    a. Collapse of the Roman Empire was a catastrophic, colossal event in world history
    (1) Education was lost
    (2) Legal system was lost
    (3) Money system lost
    (4) Transportation and road system with the safety to walk free of fear broke down
    b. What replaced the Roman Empire--Feudal System (Middle or Dark Ages )
    (1) Lord and vassal with localized control and decentralized government
    (2) It was a time of no national or international law
    (3) Germans who overcame the Roman Empire broke it up into hundreds of little states, so every thing was local from its own culture and economy
    (4) Catholic Church was the only unifying force after Rome's fall
    (a) The Church preserved learning, education and art
    (b) Europe looked to the Church for unity and stability
    c. Under Feudalism you looked to the one who protected you, an armed, trained man and in return for his protection you paid him a part of everything produced -- a type of tax.
    d. Middle Ages was a relatively stable era because of no one strong national government
    (1) No one state was supreme.
    (2) All were tied to the land
    (a) Feudalism, a land oriented system based on the idea that there is no more land and so there were more people than land and whoever controls the land controls the people.
    (b) Land to Old World Europeans was a finite commodity to be competed for.
    (3) Nobles or lords only permitted the pursuit of agriculture because that was all they taxed.
    (a) Trade is restricted because there was no gold supply -- barter was the trade system so you must produce something that someone else wants so you can trade.
    (b) Therefore trade is modest, confined and dangerous
    (4) The concept of the medieval just price was established by the church to forbid usury or the charging of high interest.
    (5) There was a state economy in which everyone pretty much produced the same amount every year for a slow growing population and this stability lasted from 408-1100 AD
  2. A new religion emerged in the 7th century -- Islam or Muslims
    a. By 730 AD it spread across Africa into Spain and stopped in Central France.
    (1) Islam began as tolerant and sophisticated.
    (2) It was very adept at absorbing peoples and cultures.
    b. By 1080 within the Muslim religion, an internal crisis with the Egyptians took place and the Turks swept across the Holy Land and the Turkish Empire emerged
    (1) Turks closed the Holy Land to Christian pilgrims
    (2) In 1095 Urban II at the Council of Claremont issues a proclamation for the first Crusade to free the Holy Land from Turkish control.
    (a) The first crusade consisted of three French armies all acting independently
    (b) It was the only successful crusade (kill them all, God will know his own).
    (c) Crusaders called on Italian city states like Venice to help for a piece of the action
    (3) After the Crusade of 1100 two thirds walked back home
    (4) The Church recruited Christian Knights to defend the Holy Land
    (5) An explosion of trade resulted, beginning the idea of "making money" (Temple of Trade)
    (6) The acquisition of gold and silver began to buy things of the East, esp. pepper, but Europe did not have anything anybody wanted.
  3. Jerusalem was reconquered by Muslims in 1187 and not taken back as the next 7 crusades failed
    a. However the Muslims struck a deal with the Europeans to let them visit the Holy Land if they would leave their swords at home
    b. They also allowed Europe to begin trading with them.
  4. From then on the rate of trade exploded, esp. in the Italian city states like Venice and Florence
    a. Venice had more ships than any one else and big slave galleys.
    b. These big warships of Venice dominated trade but created jealousy .
  5. This set off much competition for others in Europe to seek to find another way to reach the Indies so they too could get the goods of the East.
  6. Portugal was first and Spain was second in this endeavor.
    a. Portugal first successfully got rid of the Muslims by reconquering the Iberian Peninsula.
    b. Portuguese knew more about shipbuilding and navigation than anyone at this time.
    (1) They were the first to develop deep water ships (galleon ships) that were extra long so you could deck the sides with guns and get gunpowder from Arabia.
    (2) Portuguese could go long distances with few people.

IV. Pre-Colombian Exploration
A. Viking Settlement and Exploration

  1. Earliest occupation of the Shetlands, Faroes and Orkneys occurred by AD 800.
  2. Iceland was settled by AD 874.
  3. Erik the Red explored the coasts of Greenland in AD 982-5, after which the first Norse settlement was made in AD 986.
  4. Bjarni Herjulfson sighted the coast of North America in AD 986 when blown off course seeking the Greenland colony.
  5. Leif Erikson - about AD 1000 - (Eric the Red's son) - explored the North American coast naming the regions Helluland, Markland, and Vinland.
  6. Thorfinn Karlsevni from Iceland with three ships and 160 men from Greenland sailed to explore the North American mainland (AD 1010-13).
  7. Freydis , Eric's daughter, made a final trip to the mainland (AD 1014-15).
  8. The Norse settlement ceased as an active colony in AD 1367.

V. Cristobal Colon
A. Introduction

  1. Expansion into the New World coincided nicely with the modern era in European history, with its revival of learning, explosion in trade and commerce, towns, modern corporations, decline of feudalism, the rise of the nation state, religious zeal from the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and the emergence of an inquisitive spirit.
  2. Europeans were obsessed by the lure of Asia, mythical land of paradise filled with spices (pepper, nutmeg, cloves) to preserve food, silks, jewels and millions of "heathens" to be Christianized.

VI. Early Exploration
A. Major explorers were Spanish with Hispaniola as the initial base and a second temporary trading post established in Venezuela and Colombia.

  1. Sebastian de Ocampo (1508) circumnavigated Cuba, proving it was an island.
  2. The subjugation of the Caribbean islands was the first military problem - Puerto Rico (1508-09), Jamaica (1510) and Cuba (1511).
  3. Vasco Nunez de Balboa (1513) crossed the Isthmus of Panama to discover the Pacific Ocean.
  4. The ships of Fernando Magellan (a Portuguese) under Spanish flags left in 1519.
    a. Although killed in the Philippines (Apr 1521), one ship completed the first European circumnavigation of the world, returning to Spain in Sept 1522, led by Sebastiano del Cano .
    b. The Philippines were occupied by Spain under Miguel Lopez de Legaspi 1564
  5. The conqueror of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon , when searching for the mythical Fountain of Youth , discovered and explored Florida in 1513 and visited Florida's Keys and Bahamas before returning to Puerto Rico.
  6. The governor of Cuba, Hernando de Soto , led an expedition to Florida, discovered the Mississippi River near Memphis and went as far north as the Blue Ridge Mts and as far west as Eastern Oklahoma (1539-42) before dying of a fever in 1542 with his party returning under the leadership of Luis Moscoso de Alvarado (after exploring the upper Brazoa River).
  7. Hernando Cortes (1518-21) conquered the Aztecs under Montezuma , landing at Vera Cruz and traveling 200 miles inland.
  8. Francisco Pizzaro defeated the Incas by 1532.
  9. Panfilo de Narvaez (1528) landed with 400 colonists in Florida but was unsuccessful before sailing for Mexico. Only two survivers reached Mexico City in April 1536, including Cabeza de Vaca , who told of riches in New Mexico.
  10. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led an expedition into New Mexico, Arizona, the Texas panhandle, and as far north as Kansas, in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola , discovering the Grand Canyon (Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas ) and buffalo instead (1540-42).
  11. West coast exploration into the Guld of California (1539-43) was led by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (d. 1543) and his successor Bartolome Ferrelo who went as far north as the Oregon-California border, although permanent Spanish settlement did not occur until 1769 at San Diego, 1770 at Monterey and 1776 at San Francisco.
  12. Juan de Onate dispatched an expedition which explored from Kansas to the Gulf of California, dounding Santa Fe in 1609-10.
  13. Results
    a. The work of Cortes and Pizarro established Spanish America.
    (1) The Spanish ruled over Indian villages requiring tribute in goods and services.
    (2) By the 1550s however, so many Indians died from diseases that the Spanish imported African slaves to labor in the colonies.
    b. Catholic Missionaries differed from the conquistadors in that they pursued "souls" of the Indians rather than gold and silver.
    (1) Missionaries were determined to rid the heathens (non Christians) of their native religions and culture by "Christianizing" them.
    (2) Although missionaries were elitist and Eurocentric toward the Indians, they did nevertheless wholeheartedly try to protect them.

VII. Spain's Colonization
A. Introduction

  1. Prerequisites for Colonization
    a. Growing population
    b. Willingness to colonize
    c. Location - on the tip of Europe bordering on the Atlantic Ocean
    d. Wealth to colonize - Following the conquest of the Moors in Jan 1492 with the fall of Grenada, the expulsion of conversos (converted Jews) and moriscos (moors who did not convert to Catholicism), resources for a new Holy War were used in the New World to conquer and Christianize the Indians.
    e. Effective civil government - Spanish monarchs promoted exploration and colonization
  2. Spanish Approach to Colonization
    a. Medieval approach
    c. Catholic Institutions - Thomist world model
    c. Governed by an absolute monarchy from Spain, not from the New World
  3. Problems in Colonization
    a. Larger land area to control
    b. Climate varied throughout Spanish empire to a greater degree than used to in Europe.

VIII. Challenges to the Spanish Colonial Lead
A. Reasons for Waning Spanish Domination

  1. Spain's Armada , defeated off the coast of England in July 1588, signalled a rise of English naval superiority.
  2. Spain lost control of the Holy Roman Empire to France in 1600.
  3. The Spanish monarchs, devoutly Catholic, overextended their resources when aiding the Pope's attempt to recapture Protestant lands.