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Age of Exploration in the Americas

The document provides an overview of European exploration during the Age of Exploration in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Key events included Spain and Portugal signing the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 to divide colonial territories between them, with Portugal gaining control of Brazil. Spanish conquistadors explored the Caribbean islands and mainland North and South America in the early 1500s, with Balboa first seeing the Pacific Ocean from Panama and Ponce de Leon exploring Florida. Later expeditions by de Soto and Coronado expanded Spanish territorial claims in North America.

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Daanyal Ibn Umar
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3 views3 pages

Age of Exploration in the Americas

The document provides an overview of European exploration during the Age of Exploration in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Key events included Spain and Portugal signing the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 to divide colonial territories between them, with Portugal gaining control of Brazil. Spanish conquistadors explored the Caribbean islands and mainland North and South America in the early 1500s, with Balboa first seeing the Pacific Ocean from Panama and Ponce de Leon exploring Florida. Later expeditions by de Soto and Coronado expanded Spanish territorial claims in North America.

Uploaded by

Daanyal Ibn Umar
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

History of the United States I

The Age of Exploration (Module 1.1)

[Prof. Elvin T. Ramos, Ph.D.]

By the 1490s, Europe was experiencing a curiosity about the world.

They wanted new technologies that would lead to the creation of new 
maps, such as this one right here, as you see in your slide, and 
navigation.

Most superpower countries in Europe, including Spain, England, France 
and Portugal searched for glory, most specially, gold and silver.

Now, in Asia, here, you'll see that, in this area of the world, they were 
looking for other resources such as silks and spices.

But the exploration also included the exposure to religion, being a 
Catholic and a push to become a Protestant.

Columbus, however, impressed Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of 
Spain with his voyages.

Now, he impressed them especially with the gold and what he did was 
that he basically brought all these resources.

But they feared that Portugal would interfere, right? Portugal, 
geographically, faces the Atlantic and it is an active country in overseas 
exploration.

It has a stronger army and a navy.

And for the most part, geographically also, the equal divide between 
Spain and Portugal unduly favors Spain.

So, they sign a treaty that will give Portugal a land from the West.
The treaty would be formalized geographic land ownership called the 
Treaty of Tordesillas, which was signed in 1494.

Now, this gave Portugal the massive land of Brazil.

Now, take a look at this a little bit.

Here we have Portugal and, as you see geographically, they have all of 
this section, okay.

That would open them to explore here in North America, here in the 
Caribbeans and here in South America.

So what did they do with Spain? That Treaty of Tordesillas basically gave 
them the opportunity to explore here, the big chunk of South America, 
okay, the eastern part of it which is Brazil.

Now, the Spanish conquistadors were mostly working in the Caribbean 
islands.

Most of them had their own slaves, but most of them really worked all day
as well.

They worked really hard, long hours.

10 to 15 hours, etc.

But one thing that happened in America was that the conquistadors from 
Europe carried diseases, and this killed and devastated a lot of the indian 
populations who had no immunities against many viruses.

Now, the Spanish conquistadors, in the early 1500s, decided to take 
some interest in the American mainland.

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, you see him here holding a cross, from 
Panama became, really, the first European to see the Pacific ocean as 
soon as he ended up in Panama.

Then later, here, you can see, Juan Ponce de León, explored Florida.
But Juan Ponce de León did not find anything in Florida, so he decided 
that he would just take the land and basically declared Florida for Spain.

From 1539 to 1541, Hernando de Soto led an expedition to the 
southeastern United States.

There, Hernando saw Oklahoma all the way to the Mississippi River.

In 1540 to 1542, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado took an adventure from
Mexico to crossing the Rio Grande through New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, 
Oklahoma and Kansas.

While neither expedition discovered rich, indian civilizations of wonder, 
both of them basically decided that, you know what, this will be an 
opportunity for Europe to increase knowledge to the interior of North 
America, and asserted Spain territorial claims to the continent.

Now, this gives you a very basic understanding of the early exploration of 
North America as well as South America.

So, take a look at this lecture again and don't forget to review the 
questions.

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