New Empires in the Americas

Chapter 3

Section 1: The Conquistadors• Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers who led military

expeditions in the Americas• The governor of Cuba sent conquistador Hernan Cortes

to present-day Mexico in 1519.• Moctezuma II was king of the Aztec Empire who ruled

over several million people. He had a very rich civilization.

• Cortes had 600 soldiers, 16 horses, and some guns. He also received help from a American Indian woman named Malintzin who served as his interpreter and guide. She also helped Cortes forge alliances with other groups that hated the Aztecs.

• Moctezuma tried to bride Cortes with gold hoping it would keep him away. Cortes however was skeptical and gained control of Tenochtitlan. While Cortes was away, Moctezuma led a rebellion in which he was killed. Cortes returned and destroyed the whole city.

Francisco Pizarro• Inspired by Cortes, Pizarro used what

he learned by traveling with Nunez de Balboa to look for treasures he heard about in South America.

• In late 1531, Pizarro led a small army of about 200 soldiers into present-day Peru.

• He found the Incan Empire led by Atahualpa. Atahualpa knew he was no match for the Spanish through fighting, and since disease had decimated his people, he instead tried to bride Pizarro with 24 tons of gold and silver.

• Pizarro killed Atahualpa and conquered the Incan Empire for Spain.

Conquistadors in Florida

• Juan Ponce de Leon was hired by King Ferdinand of Spain to search North America for treasures.

• Ponce de Leon also heard fantastic stories of the fabled “Fountain of Youth” in Florida.

• He set out in 1513, landing on Easter Sunday and thus naming the land he found; Pascua Florida meaning Easter season.

• Unfortunately Ponce de Leon found neither the Fountain of Youth nor gold. Ponce de Leon died in Cuba a few years later.

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca• After surviving a disastrous voyage in which everyone died except for

him and a friend, de Vaca found himself shipwrecked on the coast of Texas.

• His small group began a journey across Texas and into New Mexico.• For eight years Cabeza de Vaca lived with the Pueblo Indians until

other Spanish explorers showed up one day and he went back to Mexico and eventually home to Spain.

The Quest for Gold• While back in Spain, Cabeza de Vaca

described his adventures to Hernando de Soto.

• De Soto fought with Pizarro in Peru and was convinced that Florida had riches.

• He decided to go to Florida himself. He took with him 600 conquistadors, and landed in Florida in 1539.

• He traveled north into present-day North Carolina and then west into Arkansas.

• He became the first European to cross the Mississippi River. He would reach the mouth of the river where he would later die from an illness.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado• Coronado heard stories about the

fables Seven Cities of Cibola. They were stories about fortune and gold.

• So Coronado landed in Mexico in 1540, and set out to find the cities.

• He explored lands of present-day Kansas all the way west to discover the Grand Canyon.

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

• The same year that Coronado was exploring the interior of North America, Cabrillo was exploring the western coast of present day California.

• He was of course looking for gold but also for a water route to China.

• Even though he died before becoming famous, his explorations gave Spain a claim to the western coast of North America.

Section 2: Spanish America• With conquistadors conquering lands for Spain, Spain had to

figure out how to hold and control their newly acquired lands.• They chose to rule through a system of royal officials.• At the top of this system was the Council of the Indies. It was

formed in 1524 to govern the Americas from Spain.– The Council was divided into two parts.

• One was the Viceroyalty of Peru which oversaw mainly South America• The other was the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which was mainly North AmericaThey were responsible for making laws, selecting officials, and judging legal

cases.

Cont’d

• Another responsibility of the Council of the Indies was overlooking the gold and silver mines.

• Between 1503-1660, Spanish treasure fleets carried 200 tons of gold and 18,600 tons of silver to Spain.

• This made the country very wealthy.

Ruling New Spain

• The Spanish established three kinds of settlements in New Spain (North America).

• These settlements filled economic, religious, and military roles.– Pueblos: these served as trading

posts and sometimes centers of government.

– Missions: These were built to convert local American Indians to Catholicism.

– Presidios: these were military forts used to protect towns and missions.

The Economy of New Spain

• American Indian labor was an important part of Spanish development.

• Spain rewarded those settlers through the encomienda system. This was a system by which settlers were allowed to tax and force American Indians to work.

• Settlers were expected to convert their American Indians to Catholicism.

• Most American Indians were treated like slaves and abuse was rampant.

The Rise of Plantations

• Due to harsh resistance in the Caribbean to the encomienda system from Native Americans and due to many Native American Indians dying from disease, settlers were forced to seek other ways to grow their farms.

• The result was that enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean Islands to work.

• They were brought to plantations, large farms that grew just one kind of crop, to make large profits for their owners.

Expanding into the Borderlands• Most colonists in New Spain settles where

they could gain the most wealth. Few settled in the borderlands, or lands on the outer reaches of the empire.

• These included regions on northern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

• The first attempt to settle these lands came from Juan de Onate.

• He settled a little town in New Mexico called Santa Fe. With forced labor from the pueblos, Onate tried to maintain his new colony. However the pueblos rebelled, and fled to present-day Texas. Eventually the Spanish regained controlled and reestablished their colony of Santa Fe.

The El Camino Real

• To connect the scattered communities of New Spain, Spanish settlers built El Camino Real, or Royal Road.

• This network stretched for hundreds of miles eventually reaching all the way to California.

Colonial Society• By 1650 the Spanish Empire in the

Americas had between 3 and 4 million people. American Indians made up about 80% of that population.

• The rest were whites, Africans, and people of mixed racial background.

• The Spanish broke this population down into three parts from top (being the most esteemed) to the bottom (being the least esteemed):– The Peninsulares were white Spaniards

born in Spain– The Criollos were people people born in

the Americas to Spanish parents– Mestizos were people who had both

Spanish and American Indian parents.

Section 3: Religious and Political Changes in Europe

• Martin Luther was a Catholic priest in Germany. He became well known for protesting the Catholic Church.

• His movement to reform, or change, was called the Protestant Reformation.

• People who followed this movement were called Protestants. They believed that the Bible should be kept simple for all to be able to understand.

• In 1534 King Henry VIII founded his own church in England. He called it the Anglican Church, or The Church of England.

• These two movements bred anger in Europe with Catholics.

Conflict between Spain and England

• In the late 1500s King Philip II used Spain’s great wealth to lead a Catholic Reformation against the Protestant movement. He used his troops to drive out Protestants from the Netherlands and England, just as Ferdinand and Isabella did against the Moors.

• Queen Elizabeth I had different ideas though. She wanted peace between Catholics and Protestants.

• At first she secretly opposed Philip and his actions against Protestants, but her opposition was quickly found out.

Francis Drake• To fight Spain without going to war, Elizabeth

made use of the sea dogs, veteran English soldiers whom she encouraged to raid Spanish treasure ships.

• The sea dogs managed to damage Spain’s economy and even gain treasure for themselves. When Philip accused Elizabeth of hiring these soldiers, Elizabeth easily denied having anything to do with it.

• The most famous and most successful sea dog was Sir Francis Drake. He raided Spanish ships from the Strait of Magellan all the way to the coast of California. Eventually he sailed west across the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Englishmen to sail around the world.

The Spanish Armada

• King Philip was angered by the English attacks. He responded to the attacks by organizing a massive fleet called the Spanish Armada. He sent his mighty fleet to the English Channel to overthrow Elizabeth and the Anglican Church.

• While the fleet was still docked in Spain, Drake raided their supply lines delaying the attack for several months.

• Despite poor leadership and delays The Armada was a strong fighting force.

The Spanish Armada• The Spanish Armada consisted of 130 ships and had 27,000 soldiers.• The Spanish ships were large and very well defended.• They relied on the ability to pull up beside another ship and board

it.• Theses ships also had very strong cannons that could destroy other

ships easily.

The English Fleet

• The English fleet was quite different• It consisted of about 40 ships and much fewer men,

including Sir Francis Drake.• Most of the ships in the English fleet belonged to sea

dogs, merchants, and fishermen. They were not equipped for battle.

• In spite of their obvious military disadvantages, they did have a few advantages. These ships were smaller making them more maneuverable and faster. This allowed the English to keep a distance from the Spanish ships and not be boarded.

• The size also allowed English ships to attack and run away. Keeping the Spanish ships floundering in the sea.

The Battle Between Fleets• In late July 1588 the Armada and the

English fleet finally met off the coast of England.

• In a series of battles the English army damaged but could not destroy the Spanish Armada.

• Then the English surprised the Spanish. In the middle of the night, the English sent ships into the middle of the Armada loaded with explosives. The “fire ships” exploded causing the Spanish to scatter.

• The next day the English defeated the Armada in a huge battle.

• Only about half of the 130 ships made it back to Spain

The Decline of the Spanish Empire

• The Armada’s defeat shocked Spain.• With a strong navy, Spain had been able to maintain its

golden age of growth in quality if life, the arts, literature, and religion.

• But now that the Armada was much weaker, Spain begun to have a difficult time protecting it interests.

• Economic problems, due largely to its lack of consistent gold from the Americas, began to cause inflation. Inflation is the rise in the value of goods and services, but a fall in the value of money. Things became more expensive to buy.

• This ultimately allowed other countries like England, France, and the Netherlands to challenge Spain around the world.

Section 4: The Race for EmpiresEarly French Settlement

• France built its first North American settlement in Florida in 1564 by French Huguenots. The Spanish eventually drove them out.

• With this the French moved their interests to Canada.

• In 1604 the French settled in a region they called Acadia, present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and parts of Maine.

• Champlain had founded Port Royal on the coast of Nova Scotia previously along with Quebec and parts of present-day New York and Vermont.

French Resources

• The Great Lakes region proved valuable to France because of the fur trade.

• Beaver pelts and other animal furs were used to make expensive hats and other clothing items.

• The French trade tools, jewelry, and cloth with American Indians for these furs.

The Expansion of the French Empire

• In the late 1600s the French began spreading away from the Great Lakes region. Many headed south toward New Spain.

• Louis Jolliet and missionary Jacques Marquette found the Mississippi river and traveled as far as Arkansas to avoid encountering the Spanish.

• Nine years later Rene-Robert de La Salle followed it river all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, claiming it for King Louis XIV. To honor the king he named the area Louisiana.

• The French called this new territory New France, and by 1688 had about 16,000 settlers living there.

• New outposts began to pop up all over. Some were Detroit and New Orleans.

New Netherland and New Sweden

• With Henry Hudson’s first voyage to North America, the Dutch had laid claim to some land between the Delaware and Hudson Rivers. They called this area New Netherland. Today we know this land as New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Delaware.

• Peter Minuit decided to buy some land from some local Indians. The land he bought was called Manhattan Island on which he founded a town called New Amsterdam.

English Settlements

• In the late 1500s England decided to start its own North American colony.

• In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert received a patent, or charter, giving him royal permission to start a colony.

• He left out for Newfoundland, but died along the journey. His half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh took over.

• They soon landed in present-day Virginia and set up a colony named Roanoke.

• With problems growing food and fights with local Indians some got a ride back to England with Sir Francis Drake who had stopped by after one of his raids.

Resettling Roanoke

• John White resettled the Roanoke colony in the spring 0f 1587.

• White’s granddaughter, Virginia Dare, became the first English child born in the present-day United States.

• White had to return back to England in the summer for supplies and did not return to Roanoke until 1590, 2 ½ years later.

• Upon returning, he found building deserted and the word CROATOAN carved in a wood post.

• After searching for years there was never any evidence to their disappearance.