COLUMBUS & CO

Question 1

Takeaway for this?

Answer 1

Columbus is important to European history not for his deeds (which were actually pretty peripheral to the colonial expansion that followed them) but rather for the way his voyages were received by the European public and European government

Question 2

Did Europeans contact the Americas previously?

Answer 2

1000: Leif Erikson sets foot in Newfoundland

*He is associated with the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland and Labrador

Question 3

What was Columbus life like?

Answer 3

Born in Republic of Genoa (Italy) died in Spain
- Ligurian dialect as a first language

Moved to Castille
- read Latin, Castilian, and Portuguese

Started petitioning the Spanish Crown in the 1480s, (to try sail) but the Reconquista was a bigger priority

Question 4

How many voyages did Columbus embark on?

Answer 4

4 voyages

Question 5

What is the silk road?

Answer 5

Trade route linking Europe to China
- Especially lucrative Asian trade goods: textiles (hence, silk road), spices, teas, dyes, porcelain, gun powder
*Especially lucrative European trade goods: horses, camels, wine, honey,

Was Under Mongol Control, (then fell and a huge)

Then Ottoman (monopolized the trade) (leads to collapse of great merchant republics) (Europe lost Constantinople -> lost the last part on Mediterranean)

Question 6

Solution to the Ottomans monopolizing the Silk road? (portugese)

Answer 6

Portuguese solution
*Sailing around Africa to India
- Cape of Good Hope
- Started slave trade
- Proxy wars with Ottomans in Strait of Malakka (malaysia / Indonesia

Question 7

Solution to the Ottomans monopolizing the Silk road? (Columbus)

Answer 7

Sail west to get east

Miscalculated the distance between Canary Island and Japan.

*Columbus pitched this to King John II of Portugal in the 1480s (Portuguese intellectuals point out Columbus’s faulty math)

*Pitch to the Spanish Crown in 1480s and 90s goes much better, despite scholarly evidence against his mat

Question 8

Where did Columbus Voyage to? (in his four journeys)

Answer 8

Caribbean, Central America, and South America

Question 9

What are his Accusation of Cruelty?

Answer 9

Spanish Court received accusations of Columbus’s brutality and incompetence

Columbus and his brothers enacted harsh punishments, including amputations, as a method of governing Hispaniola
*Arrest, return to Spain, and eventual release

Question 10

What were the Portuguese up to?

Answer 10

1) Expansion into West Africa
- *Establishing trade posts all along the coast in present-day Sierra Leone, Gabon, etc.
*Colonial extraction, including sugarcane production

(Growth of slave trade)

2) Colonization in the Indian Ocean

• Establish first European settlement in Asia in Cochin in 1502 and expand from there

3) 1500 “discovery” of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral

• Named that for Brazil trees
  Expansion is resource oriented (sugarcane, unpaid labour, spices, brazilwood, etc.)

Question 11

What is the Treaty of Tordesillas? and what do other countries and Europe think about it?

Answer 11

Problem: how should Portugal and Spain divvy up the non-European territory they conquer?

• Solution: Pope splits map between Spain and Portugal

Spain: Access to Americas

Portugal: Access to Africa and Brazil

Other countries: “This sucks” (everyone wanted their fair share)

Question 12

Who was Amerigo Vespucci?

Answer 12

• Sailed for both Portugal and Spain

Published books that he claimed to write (ppl dispute this) to get ppl excited about Americas

Coined the term “New World”

Claimed: 1st explorer to understand Brazil was on a larger continent (figured out it wasn’t Asia)

Named after him

Question 13

Who is Hernán Cortés?

Answer 13

From Miner nobility (status ok but not great)
Wanted to make a name for his family

NO fighting experience before Mexico

Secretary to guy (Velázquez’s) who Conquers Cuba
- Later = Governor of Mexico

Leverages his experience to make expedition to Mexico

(Velázquez’s) gives permission (but revokes) - Bro goes anyway (this is mutiny)

Founds town of Veracruz

Question 14

What was the Aztec Empire before Cortés?

Answer 14

The Aztec Empire, ruled by Moctezuma II, relied on military prowess and fear to keep vassals in check

Question 15

Why did Cortés march on Tenochtitlán?

Answer 15

Moctezuma II (leader) didn’t want to meet with him

Other Indigneous groups who didn’t like Moctezuma II and Aztec ppl helped Cortes

Question 16

How was Tenochtitlán destroyed?

Answer 16

Bro takes Moctezuma hostage (in revenge for Aztecs killing Spaniards on coast)

Velázquez (old boss) sent another expedition to Mexico & Cortés departed Tenochtitlán to confront

• His lieutenant he left killed an Aztec noble which caused the Aztecs to rebel

Cortés waited for reinforcements from Cuba and began cutting off supplies to Tenochtitlán

Then Moctezuma II’s successor (renamed city Mexico city)

Question 17

What are the three main ways of Colonial Expansion?

Answer 17

1. Sanctioned by Crown (Columbus)
2. Semi Sanctioned (Cabral - guy who found Brazil)
3. Totally Unsanctioned (Cortes)

Question 18

Why were people scrambling for Colonization?

Answer 18

Possibility for upward mobility

You claim new territory under crown (even if unsanctioned) then run the land like governor.

Question 19

What were Spain and Portugal extracting?

Answer 19

Portuguese: sugarcane, unfree labour, spices, brazilwood, etc.

*Spanish: gold, silver, timber, et

Question 20

What types of free labour were happening?

Answer 20

Portuguese slave trade expands, and they become Europe’s premier slave traffickers

Spain relied on encomienda system: enslavement of non-Christian people

The logic of Spanish and Portuguese colonizers does not really distinguish between extracting wealth and expanding Christianity

   *Crusader culture was pushing the Reconquista forward

   *Brutality is acceptable in the pursuit of these goals

Question 21

What is the encomienda system?

Answer 21

Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples

Question 22

What were consequences for Indigenous peoples

Answer 22

Brutal conquests, enslavement, and depopulation due to violence and epidemic disease in the Americas
*Indigenous peoples are not a monolith! Different approaches to colonization (remember Cortes)

Question 23

What were the consequences for Spain?

Answer 23

Lots of Silver (spent it trying to hold onto land)

Question 24

What were the consequences for Portugal?

Answer 24

Massive expansion into Africa and the Indian Ocean, becomes Europe’s slave trafficker of choice

Question 25

What were some problems for countries in Europe trying to rule the Americas

Answer 25

Huge administrative hurdles  how do you manage territory that is so far away? How do you collect taxes, administer justice, etc. for a territory that you don’t even have accurate maps of

Question 26

What did the other countries in Eurpoe do?

Answer 26

Colonial competitors emerge: France, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, etc.

     *The Reformation is going to really exacerbate colonial competition