European Conquest

Flipbook Notes

European Exploration and Conquest

• In the 1400s, Spain and Portugal were looking for new routes to Asia.

• Sailors guided their ships using only the stars, a compass, and an astrolabe.

• Spain and Portugal soon became fierce rivals.

Christopher Columbus

• Born in Genoa, Italy (we think)

• Sailed for Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

• Made for four voyages to the New World, the first in 1492

• Originally, he thought he had landed in the East Indies in Asia, so he called the people he saw Indians.

Treaty of Tordesillas

• Divided the New World between the Spanish and the Portuguese.

• Decided upon by Pope

• Signed in 1494

• Set an imaginary line running from the North Pole to the South Pole at about 50 degree longitude. This line is called the Line of Demarcation.

Hernan Cortés

• Arrived in Mexico in 1519• Most important native ally was Malinche• Was looking for treasure• Moctezuma II believed he was the god

Quetzalcoatl returned to rule the Aztecs and turned Tenochtitlán over to Cortés. The peace did not last long and the Spanish had to excape the city.

• Cortés, with the help of Aztec enemies, attacked and destroyed Tenochtitlán.

• In 1521, the Aztecs surrendered.

Francisco Pizarro

• He heard rumors of the rich Incan empire and planned to attack the Pacific coast of South America.

• In 1531, he sailed with 180 Spanish soldiers. He captured and killed the Incan emperor Atahualpa.

• By 1535, he had captured all the Incan empire.

• He established the city of Lima in Peru.

Columbian Exchange

• Goods, as well as people, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the years following the Spanish and Portuguese conquests.

• Goods from the New World (Western Hemisphere) traveled to the Old World (Eastern Hemisphere) with returning explorers.

• Goods from the Old World traveled to the new World with the conquerors.