1. Exploration and the Colonial Era
For nine days I was as one lost,
without hope of life. Eyes never
beheld the sea so angry, so high, so
covered with foam. The wind not
only prevented our progress, but
offered no opportunity to run
behind any headland for shelter;
hence we were forced to keep out
in this bloody ocean, seething like a
pot on a hot fire. Never did the sky
look more terrible…
-Columbus (4th
Voyage)

2. European Societies of the 1400’s:
• Based on Social Hierarchy (Ranks)
• Top of the Hierarchy were monarchs and the
aristocracy
• Landowners
• Members of the Clergy (Christianity)
• Artisans and Merchants
• Agricultural laborers or peasants

3. European Nations take shape in
1400’s:
• Four Major Nations Take Shape
in Europe:
Portugal
Spain
France
England
• Strong Governments form
• The raising of powerful armies
• Collecting new taxes for
exploration and expansion
• New allies were the growing
merchant class

4. European Expansion:
Renaissance or Cultural
Rebirth
• Philosophers
• Mathematicians
• Geographers
• Scientists
• Sailing Technology
Improves
• Introduction of the Caravel
• Usage of the Compass and
astrolabe (Helped plot
direction at sea)
• Navigation increases

5. Spanish North America:
• 1492 Christopher Columbus leaves
Spain with a small fleet of ships, the
Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
• Went ashore in the Caribbean
Islands
• Encountered the Taino people
• Claimed the area for Spain and
renamed the surrounding two
larger islands, known today as Cuba
and Hispaniola

6. European Exploration on Native
Americans:
• Usage of native people for forced labor
• Economic exploitation through the plantation
system
• European advanced weapons dominate Native
Americans
• Disease (Measles, Mumps, Chickenpox,
Smallpox, Typhus)

7. The Columbian Exchange:
• The global transfer of living
things begin with Columbus’s
first voyage
• Americas sends to Europe,
Africa, and Asia
• Corn, potatoes, tobacco, peanut,
turkey
• Europe, Africa, Asia sends to
Americas
• Coffee, Grapes, grains, livestock
• Disease
New World native plants. Clockwise, from top
left: 1. Maize 2. Tomato 3. Potato 4. Vanilla 5.
Pará rubber tree 6. Cacao 7. Tobacco
Old World native plants. Clockwise, from top left:
1. Citrus 2. Apple 3. Banana 4. Mango 5. Onion 6.
Coffee 7. Wheat 8. Rice

8. Spanish Claim a New Empire:
• Hernán Cortés(Conquistador)
subdues the Aztec Empire
• 508 men, 16 horses, 10 cannons
Numerous dogs
• The Aztec Emperor Montezuma
agrees to share gold with Cortez
• Cortez desires all and forces
Aztecs to mine more gold and
silver
• Aztecs rebel and force Cortez
and the Spanish army to leave
• Disease sets in the populace of
the Aztec Empire from Spanish
exposure
• Cortez launches a counterstrike
in 1521 with the help of some
native allies
• Aztecs surrender

9. The Spanish Pattern of Conquest:
• Mestizo or mixed
Spanish and Native
American
(population in
Spanish colonies)
• Encomienda
System: under this
system, Natives
farmed, ranched, or
mined for Spanish
landlords, who
received rights to
their labor
Picture from Códice Kingsborough showing an
encomendero abusing an Indian.

10. Spain Explores the Southwest and
West:
• Francisco Pizarro plunders the
wealthy Incan empire in 1532
• In 1540, Francisco Vasquez de
Coronado travels through much
of what is now Texas, Oklahoma,
Arizona, New Mexico, and
Kansas in search of another
wealthy empire to conquer
• He finds none and goes home
empty handed
• Spanish open missions
Francisco Pizarro
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado

11. The Coronado Expedition 1540–1542
Coronado Sets Out to the North, painted
by Frederic Remington