Chapter 2

Early Settlements
L'ans aux Meadeaux
Columbus in 1492
European Communities
Agricultural society
Late technology boom = more food = more people
Iron plows
Crop rotation
Feudalism
Catholic Church was powerful
Jew became successful merchants
The Merchant Class
Genoa, Pisa and Venice became powerful
Rich
Fleets
Financed crusades
Renaissance
The New Monarchies
Replace lords as center of power
Built royal bureaucracies
Had state navies and armies
Support from merchants
Portuguese Explorations
Henry the Navigator = Sagres Point (Naval College)= developed the Caravel
Knew the world was round
Easter influences at Sagres Point
Vasco da Gama-rounded Cape of Good Hope = India and China
Established slave trade
Columbus
Catherine and Ferdinand
Discovers America
Left colony on Haiti and left instructions to dig for gold
2nd and 3rd voyages were a failure and the first colony was destroyed
Vespuci described the "New World"
The Spanish in the Americas
Mixed racially
Powerful
Invasion of America
Brutality in Caribbean
Needs lots of man power = slaves from Africa
Cortez conquers the Aztecs
The Destruction of the Indians
Resistance was futile
De las Casas,-Catholic priest denounced the conquest
Claimed that it was no use
Other European powers used his denouncement to help support their denouncement
of Spain
Population went from 25 million to one million
Starved
Conception avoided
Disease
Small pox
Measles

Pneumonia
Malaria
Americas was a disease free environment
Intercontinental Exchange
Between 1500-1550 amount of silver in Europe triples
Inflation
Crops such as maize, corn and potatoes were introduced to Europe
Vanilla and tobacco were profitable
The First Americans in North America
Two failed attempts to invade Florida
DeSoto, with 700 men were driven away in the Southern USA
However spread disease = easy conquest the second time
De Coronada met the Pueblo people
Pueblos had no gold = no Spanish interest
The Spanish New World Empire
Mestizos were common as there were no women
Authority from Spain was weak
French and English Empires
French tried to colonize Brazil and Florida = failed because Spanish drove them
out
French in the North, English in the Middle and Spain in the South
Luther and the Reformation
Spread Protestantism
England splits with Rome
The French Colony in Florida
Huguenot established a haven in Florida and South Carolina = failed
Another attempt on St. Johns River = Fort Caroline
Friendly natives
Fish and Furs
Grand Banks = fishing = friendly relation with FNP as they had no interest in
settlement
Cabot reached Cape Breton Island
Verazan reached Maine
Cartier reached the St. Lawrence
Trade boomed
Furs for junk
FNP caught diseases

Social Change in the 16th Century England

Elizabeth banned Catholicism
Tolerated different views in the English Church
Enclosure
Fenced off common land for their sheep
Thousands were homeless = need homes in the colonies
Good markets
Bases to raid Spanish
England Turns towards Colonization
English invade Ireland
Drake pirated Spanish gold for England
Spain sends the Armada