3RD YEAR - 15TH-16TH CENTURY EXPLORERS AND CONQUISTADORS

Why did Pedro Álvarez Cabral set sail westwards into the Atlantic Ocean?

• He wanted to discover and colonize Brazil.

• He wanted a faster route to India different from the long voyage Eastwards around Africa.

• Portugal needed colonies in America like Spain.

• He knew there was an unknown territory in the middle of the ocean and he wanted to explore it for his country, Portugal.

Why were the Canary Islands important for the Spanish and Portuguese explorers?

• They offered protection from the storms

• It was the only archipelago free from pirates.

• There they could get water and supplies before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

• They could get slaves there.

Why did people like Hernán Cortés or Francisco Pizarro risk their lives with the conquest of unknown territories?

• They were looking for fortune, fame and recognition. In Spain they didn't have opportunities so they tried in the Americas.

• They were commissioned by the Crown of Spain and they were given huge armies and a lot of ships.

• They knew that it would be easy to destroy the Aztec and Incan empires.

• They were obsessed with just one thing: gold.

What would have happened if the Chinese emperors had continued their explorations across the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the 15th c.?

• China didn't have technology and resources to carry out such long-distance explorations.

• History wouldn't have changed. Spanish and Portuguese were better sailors.

• The Chinese would have conquered Europe.

• Chinese ships were very advanced and capable, so they could have controled the oceans and discovered America long before the Europeans.

How could the conquerors defeat the powerful empires of the Aztecs and Incas?

• By using armies that were even bigger than those of the natives.

• With a mixture of trickery, spreading epidemics, fireguns and alliances with other natives.

• Their superior war technology made the conquest very easy.

• Everybody knows that the Europeans were more intelligent than the American natives.

What is amazing about Magallanes and Elcano?

• They didn't receive any reward for their exploration.

• They could circumnavigate the world in tiny boats overcoming many difficulties.

• Both of them survived after their dangerous journey around the world.

• They had ancient maps that helped them find the best routes to go around the globe.

What did Pizarro and Cortés do with the new territories?

• They became kings of the territories they conquered.

• They devastated them, enslaved their inhabitants and returned to Spain with gold and silver.

• They added them to the Spanish Crown and governed them in the name of king Charles I.

• They took all the gold they found and abandoned the territories.

What were the consequences of the conquest of American territories in your opinion?

• Very positive: natives improved their lives, became Christian and adopted the superior European culture.

• Very negative: it was a genocide because of military action and epidemics.

• Positive: pagans abandoned their false religion and they finally came under the protection of the Catholic Church.

• Does it really make sense to speak about positive or negative consequences five hundred years after it happened? Both native and European cultures were transformed because of mutual interaction, even if it was violent.

• Negative: Europeans became vegans due to so many tomatoes, potatoes and corn!

What did Spanish and Portuguese sailors know about America at the beginning of the 16th century?

• Very little, they thought it was just some islands far away from the coast of Asia.

• They knew it was a huge unexplored continent.

• They knew it was a big mass of land that extended over the two hemisphere.

• They still believed it was part of China or Japan.

Why did so many explorers, adventurers and soldiers go to America in the first half of the 16th century?

• Becuse the king of Spain invited them to settle in the new countries (Mexico and Peru) to farm the land and trade.

• Spain was overcrowded with knights, soldiers and adventurers that wanted to become rich in new unexplored territories. Spain didn't offer any opportunity to them.

• Because they created problems in Spain and the Crown wanted to get rid of them.

• Because they received an invitation from American natives that needed European products and technology.