Origins: Europe & The Americas

Back in Europe:
Centralizing Monarchies (Portugal/Spain)
Growing intra-European trade
Competition for access to Eastern trade markets and a quest
for gold
By the early-to-mid 1500s: explosive religious rivalries
(Protestant Reformation/Catholic Reformation)
AGE OF DISCOVERY:
MOTIVATIONS
Gold
God
Glory
COLONIALISM, IMPERIALISM,
AND THE AGE OF EXPLORATION
AGE OF DISCOVERY:
ACCULTURATION
Caravel
Transportation
Astrolabe
Navigation
Compass
Navigation
Portugal
Then Spain
Spanish Empire (Red)
Portuguese Empire (Blue)

~ 1600
Christopher Columbus
1492: Tierra! Tierra!
Not in the East Indies
Los Indios
Cleared the way for Spanish Colonization


Treaty of Tordesillas
Pope Alexander VI - 1494
Later Spanish Explorers: Conquistadors
Hernan Cortes (1485-1546) Initiated
conquest of Mexico (1519)
Superior Weaponry, Malinche, Assisted by
various native groups, (Measles, mumps,
smallpox)

Francisco Pizarro (1470-1541) Initiated
conquest of Peru (1531)

BIG PICTURE
1492-1600 200,000 Spaniards settled in new
world
Most sophisticated imperial administration
since Rome to exploit Spanish empire
By 1700 native population may have
decreased from 50 M to 5 M

Outcomes of the age of Discovery
Native population reduced
25.3 Million in 1519 only 1 million by 1605
Colonization
Rise of the global slave trade
The Columbian Exchange
The global transfer of foods, plants, and animals during
colonization of the Americas




The Columbian Exchange

Revolts in Latin America
1. Napoleonic Wars
2. European intervention?
British objection
3. Monroe Doctrine (1823)
US mouth
Britain muscle
British motives
Break Spanish Empire
trade influence

American motives
Fondness for revolutions against old world
monarchs
Nationalistic flexing of international muscle
Economic interest in Latin America sphere
of influence



THE MONROE
DOCTRINE
NORTH AMERICA AND LATIN AMERICA
The Monroe Doctrine
American foreign
policy opposing
interference in the
western hemisphere
by outside powers
(1823)
The Roosevelt Corollary
Added on to the
Monroe Doctrine:
Authorized U.S.
intervention in the
affairs of neighboring
countries in order to
counter threats posed
to U.S. interests and
security (1904)

Open your Google
Form: HERE
Read / Investigate
Howard Zinns A Peoples History of the United States
Chapter 12: The Empire and the People
(Spanish-American War)
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnempire12.html
Criticism of the Platt Amendment
IMPERIALISM
a policy of
extending a
country's
power and
influence
through
diplomacy or
military force.
SOCIAL DARWINISM
A set of late 19
th
Century theories that
sought to apply biological concepts
of natural selection to human groups
(EX: races, ethnicities, classes)