• Why It Matters With financial backing from Spain’s monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, Christopher Columbus “found” the Americas. He then returned to conquer the land, exploit its wealth, and convert its people to Christianity. That process changed the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

First Encounters

• As the representative of a Christian nation, Columbus believed that he had the right and duty to dominate the people he found.

• “They should be good servants and intelligent, for I observed that they quickly took in what was said to them, and I believe that they would easily be made Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no religion. I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure six natives. . . .”

• —Journal of Christopher Columbus, October 1492

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The Conquistadors

– Hernán Cortés– Aztecs

• Tenochtitlan• Moctezuma

– Francisco Pizarro– Incas

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• Native Population Declines– Weaponry

• Steel-edged swords, pikes, and crossbows.

• Guns – (psychological advantage).

• Horses.

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– Devastation of Disease

• Smallpox, typhus, diphtheria, bubonic plague, and cholera.

• From about 300,000 in 1492, the island’s population declined to a mere 500 by 1548.

• Leads to slavery

First Encounters

Effects of Exploration• Columbian

Exchange– Exchange of

Plants and Animals

• colonists introduced their domesticated livestock: pigs, horses, mules, sheep, and cattle.

• Domesticated plants: including wheat, barley, rye, oats, grasses, and grapes.

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– Population Shifts • European population doubled from 80 million in 1492 to 180 million in 1800.

• Move westward into Americas.

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Global Interdependence

Use the excerpts to identify potential negative and positive consequences of global exchange and interdependence:

Draw and complete the following table

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Potential Positive Consequences Potential Negative Consequences

Class workAnswer the following questions from your group

activity:1. What does Columbus claim to have found for

Spain?2. Contrast: In what ways do Lou Dobbs and the

writer in the Economist differ in their opinion of outsourcing jobs? (pg. 27)

3. Link past and present: How do you think workers and political leaders in the United States should respond to increasing global interdependence?

First Encounters