Spanish Colonial Era

​Colonial Era

​Objective: I will be able to explain how European monarchs sponsored explorations to find new trade routes and established colonies in the Americas beginning in the late 1400s.

​One European's Story

​ln January 1492 the Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus stood before the Spanish court with a daring plan: he would find a route to Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic ocean. The plan was accepted, and on August 3, 1492, Columbus embarked on a voyage that changed the course of history. He began his journal by restating the deal he had struck with Spain.

"...Your Highnesses...ordered that shall go to the east, but not by land as is customary. I was to go by way of the west, which until today we do not know with certainty that anyone has gone..."

Although Columbus did not find a route to Asia, his voyage set in motion a process that brought together the American and European worlds.

​Spanish Colonies

​The European interest in overseas expansion probably began in the 1200s with Marco Polo's journey to China. His published account in 1477 renewed interest. At that time, merchants had to travel to Asia by land, a costly and dangerous journey. Europeans wanted to find alternative routes. Merchants and explorers studied travelers' reports and reexamined maps drawn by ancient geographers.

Multiple Choice

Where did Marco Polo travel to?

• Africa

• South America

• China

• Australia

​Sailing Technology Improvements

​The explorers also used the advanced technology of the period. European ship captains in the 1400s tried new sailing vessels such as the caravel and navigating tools such as the compass and the astrolabe, which helped sailors plot direction at sea. one leader in these developments was Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, who sent ships to explore the west coast of Africa.

Portuguese explorations continued after prince Henry died. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488. Vasco da Gama reached India ten years later. This new route around Africa to eastern Asia reduced traders' costs and increased their profits. while cartographers redrew their maps to show this new route, an Italian sea captain named Christopher Columbus believed there was a shorter route west across the Atlantic.​

Multiple Choice

First European to round southern tip of Africa in 1488.

• Marco Polo

• Bartolomeu Dias

• Vasco da Gama

• Christopher Columbus

Multiple Choice

First European to sail to India.

• Prince Henry the Navigator

• Bartolomeu Dias

• Vasco da Gama

• Marco Polo

​Columbus Crosses Atlantic

​In October 1492, roughly two months after leaving Spain, Columbus's ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, reached land, which he claimed for Spain, Columbus explored islands in the Bahamas and the coastlines of present-day Cuba and Hispaniola. Believing that these were islands off Asia known to Europeans as the Indies, Columbus called the people he met Los Indios.

Multiple Choice

What eventually happened to the Taino Natives that Columbus first met?

• They are a thriving nation today

• Very few survive today

• They were declared extinct

• They moved to England

​The Spanish Claim A New Empire

​Other Spanish explorers claimed more colonies for Spain. These conquistadors imagined vast lands filled with gold and silver. Hernando Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519 and led troops inland to the Aztec Empire, where they found gold and silver. By 1521, Cortes had conquered the Aztecs. In 1532 Francisco Pizarro plundered the Inca Empire on the western coast of South America. Both lands became part of a Spanish Empire that included Mexico, parts of Central and South America, and much of the Caribbean.

​< Cortes' route

​Spain also sent explorers into what is now the southern United States. They set up outposts to protect their holdings and to spread their culture and religion to the Native Americans. Beginning with the efforts of Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513, the Spanish settled in present-day Florida. In 1565 they founded St. Augustine on the Florida coast. It became the oldest European-founded city in what is now the United States.

Multiple Choice

Conquistador who landed in Mexico and conquered the Aztecs

• Hernando Cortes

• Francisco Pizzaro

• Juan Ponce de Lion

• Montezuma

Multiple Choice

Conquistador who explored present day Florida

• Hernando Cortes

• Francisco Pizarro

• Juan Ponce de Leon

• St. Augustine

​In building their American Empire, Spanish men tended to intermarry with native women. This practice eventually created a large mestizo, or mixed Spanish and Native American-population. However, the Spanish also oppressed the Native Americans, forcing them to work as slave labor in the encomienda system. A number of Spanish priests demanded an end to the harsh encomienda system. In 1542 the Spanish monarchy abolished it. To meet their labor needs, the Spaniards began to use enslaved Africans.

​Spain Explorers the Southwest and West

​ Throughout the mid 1500s the Spanish also explored and settled in what are now the southwest and west regions of the United States. In 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado traveled throughout what are now Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, and Kansas in search of another wealthy empire to conquer. Failing to find gold and other treasures, the dejected conquistador returned home.

Some 50 years later, the Spanish returned to the modern-day Southwest-to convert Natives to Christians. Spanish priests arrived in the Americas to spread Roman Catholicism. In the winter of 1609-1610, Pedro de Peralta, governor of Spain's northern holdings called New Mexico, built a capital called Santa Fe, or "Holy Faith." An 1,800-mile trail known as El Camino Real, or "the Royal Road," was established to carry goods between Santa Fe and Mexico City.

Open Ended

Exit Ticket: Why did the Spanish support exploration and colonization?