Spanish and Portuguese Empires

ln the l6th century, Europeans spread their poRTuGAL.;§9nrr,r

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power around the world. The leaders were '1'll,
renocrrtiitanf
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Spain and Portugal Portugal gained control pACltrlC Vera Cruz- Hispaniola
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of the valuable spice trade. At the same time .l i]"
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Spain founded an empire in the Americas and
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§§ lands held by Spain ']]],]

became rich from the silver discovered there.

boundary between ICEAN
Spanish and Portuguese
land agreed with the Pope

The Portuguese Empire

A The line dividing the
Once the Portuguese had gained reached the 'Spice Islands', and in non-christian world
between Portugal and
control of the Indian Ocean, they 1513 Albuquerque captured Ormuz, in Spain was fixed in 1494.
moved farther east. They wanted south Persia. This gave the Portuguese
to control trade with the Moluccas, control of the Persian Gulf. By 1556, v The battle for
the Portuguese had a base at Macao, Tenochtitlán. The
known as the 'Spice Islands'. Their
Aztec city was on an
greatest empire-builder was China, To the west, Portugal claimed island in a lake, joined
Albuquerque. He built a large base Brazil in the Americas. Portugal's main to the mainland by a
interest was in controlling trade - it did causeway. The
at Goa in west India, and in 1511 he
Spaniards destroyed
captured the important Malayan port not want to colonise these new lands it the city and built what
of Malacca. In 1 512 the Portuguese claimed. is now Mexico City.

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 l51l _ 1763_

Spanish Americas The Spanish Empire

::,razil, the Americas 'belonged' to The Spanish explolec1 ',\crv Spain' loolrirlg for
,
: Sp;l1i5fi conque sts üIere organised by 'El Dorado'. a legenclarr-cit1- ot' gold. Dr_rrillg
rr-ho hoped to makc their fortune. their seatrch thcr. liilled nlall]- -\tllcric;ttl
. ,ilicial in Cuba, hearcl stories of a petlple. but the,l- ne\-er
....[c c]ecp irrland, With 500 nlen he found the city. They did,
],-r,Lá Cruz, Mexico, in 15l7. The local however. find silver
,:r, tt,illing tcr help him against the mines in Mexico and
l., rtrled them. Mclntezuma. the Aztec Peru. Every year, they
"llort,ed the Spariards into the city of sent home large fleets of
:,iltl. but trouble soon broke out. With ships loaded with silver.
_ ,i the other local people , the Sparriards Spain became for a time the
lerrochtitlán, and the Aztec empire fell A The Inca made richest and most powerful country
, .,,l:lish hands,
Cortés became ruler of r,tlhat wonderfuI objects in Europe.
'\er,tl of goId, Iike this
:d Spain', an area larger than llama. Atahualpa
..se]f, promised the Sparrislr people lrere gir-e,tl laree
Spaniards a hoard
estates it-t Atlerica. anc1 tlacle the
of go|d if they
.,_:i great American empire rtlas the Inca would let him go. natir.e Atrrericatrs tileir slar-es,
- l-: lL} Peru. It was alreadv we akened bv a The Spanish took Althotr gh thc Spanish governrlel]t
the treasure, but
:.f, so it lvas conquered erlen morc easillr and christiatr missiot-taries tried to
-_.s.o Pizarro arrived in l531 with only 180 killed Atahualpa
as weIl. give the slavcs some protectiotr,
, Tlre Inca ruler, Atahualpa, let them in, but many died íiom ot,erttrork and crr_rel
: ..llbushed him and captured the capital, treatment. Even more died of European diseases. To
. , Irl the next few years Pizarro's followers replace the native Americans, new slaves were brought
: ,\-8I the whole Inca Empire. from Africa.

New England and New France

Other European nations refused to accept
the division of the world between Portugal
and Spain. However, the English, French
and Dutch did not settle in colonies in the
Americas until over 100 years later. By
then, Spanish power was weakening.

The French started settlements in 'New

it first, European traders
__ -9irt furs from native
-,-ters. Later, a new kind of
-,.ter developed, the
,,nner5 of the woods', part
: -:rch, and part American,
France' (south,east Canada) to exploit the
valuable fur trade, but not many people
settled there permanently. In 1682 a
Fr:ench explorer. La Salle, tra,,,elled írom the Great Lzrlres. alotlg
the N,fississippi to the C]ulf of Mexico. He c]aimed thc regiotl for Fratlce.
This threatcned the lJnglish colonies, ar-rd England and Frarrce ftlltght clver
land in North America until the Frcnch r,r,ere defeatecl ir. 776).
Sclme of the most profitable Americatn colonies pror.ed be the rich, sttgar-
grolrring C'aribbean isIarrds.

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