Colonial Beginnings Flashcards
Describe:
the Renaissance
The Renaissance (meaning rebirth) was a rediscovery of the works of classical antiquity following the Middle Ages. This rediscovery renewed a focus on scientific inquiry and the arts and literature.
Inventions such as the printing press, compass, and gunpowder spurred exploration.
What was the effect of the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of Constantinople?
Constantinople served as the trade gateway between Europe and Asia. Following its conquest by the Turks in 1453, Europeans had to find alternative trade routes to gain access to Asian goods, promoting exploration.
What was the primary focus of Portuguese exploration?
The Portuguese were primarily interested in trade with Asia, and during the early 1400s, Prince Henry the Navigator funded exploration expeditions primarily to access these markets.
In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India.
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella completed the conquest of Spain from the Moors by successfully capturing _____.
Granada
Granada was the last Moorish outpost in Spain, and its conquest unified the country under one monarchy. Its conquest allowed the Spanish monarchy to focus on other military adventures, such as the conquest of North America.
What country established a fortress at St. Augustine, Florida as a lookout to protect its Caribbean sea routes?
Spain
Founded in 1565, close to the location where Ponce de León first discovered Florida as he sought the Fountain of Youth, St. Augustine was the oldest continually occupied city in North America.
In 1492, Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus, funded by the Spanish monarchy, sailed west from Spain. What was the purpose of Columbus’s voyage?
Columbus was convinced that a western route to India existed and wanted to find it. Although he’d stumbled upon the New World, Columbus died in 1506 believing he had succeeded, and that the peoples he’d named “Indians” really were inhabitants of Asia.
Contrary to legend, few in Europe believed the Earth was flat.
After Columbus established permanent contact with the New World, how did Spain focus its colonial efforts?
Spain focused primarily on conquest and expeditions under conquistadors (conquerers) who were sent from Spain to the New World.
In 1521, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs in modern-day Mexico, and in 1534, Francisco Pizarro completed the conquest of the Incas of Peru.
How did contact with Europeans affect the native inhabitants of the New World?
Indians had no resistance to European diseases, and roughly 90% of the Indian population died from diseases like smallpox. Many of the remaining Indians were enslaved to work Spanish farms and mines under the Encomienda System.
The chain of disease was not one-sided; from the New World Spanish explorers brought syphilis back to Europe.
Historian Alfred Crosby coined a term to describe the interchange of flora, fauna, and diseases between Europe and the New World. What is that term?
Columbian Exchange
Before European contact, there were no crowd-spread diseases, nor domesticated animals in the New World. Hearty American crops such as corn, potatoes, and cassava were brought back to Europe, helping to alleviate food shortages there.
Though Europeans didn’t understand pollination, they enjoyed honey and brought European honeybees to the New World.
Define:
the Encomienda System
Under the Encomienda System, the Spanish government provided grants of land and Indians to individual Spaniards who were supposed to care for the Indians and convert them to Catholicism. The system resulted in virtual slavery for the Indians consigned to Spanish care and most died from brutal treatment or disease.
To replace Indian labor, Spain arranged for the importation of slaves from Africa, under the Asiento System.
What was the Asiento System?
As the Indians died from disease and overwork, the Spanish turned to the Asiento System to make up for the labor shortage. Under the Asiento System, African slaves were carried to the Americas and a tax was paid to the Spanish crown for each slave imported.
The Asiento System was a forerunner of the Triangular Trade System, and resulted in hundreds of thousands of slaves being brought to the New World.
What was the Papal Line of Demarcation?
In 1493, the Pope divided the world between Portugal and Spain by drawing a line down a map of the known world, giving Spain everything west of the Papal Line of Demarcation, and Portugal everything to the east.
In the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the Portuguese and Spaniards moved the line slightly to the west, an action which was ratified by the Pope in 1506. Since the Tordesillas line went through a portion of Brazil, the Portuguese would later claim the region.
Besides Mexico and Central and South America, what other locations did the Spanish colonize?
The Spanish also colonized Texas, New Mexico, Florida, and California.
In California, the Spanish founded San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and under Father Junipero Serra planted religious missions along the California coast.
The Spanish mission at San Juan Capistrano, in Orange County, California, was founded by Father Serra on July 4, 1776.
What was the Pueblo Revolt?
In 1680 a group of Pueblo Indians in modern-day New Mexico, led by Popé, a Pueblo religious leader, revolted against Spain, driving the Spanish from the colony of Santa Fe de Nuevo México.
Popé and his followers revolted because of Spanish attempts to ban Indian religious ceremonies. The Spanish returned in 1692, and a subsequent revolt failed.
Define:
nation-state
A nation-state (such as France or Spain) is a geographical unit, under one form of government, in which the populace shares a common ethnic and cultural background.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, trade was an important source of funding for nation-states, leading to an increased emphasis on commerce and exploration.
