Age of European Exploration in Latin America

Exploration In Latin America

Christopher Columbus
●Italian explorer who set out on a voyage from Spain to
reach the East Indies in 1492.

●With the help of the ships the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa
Maria he was able to reach his destination in 2 months.
○Columbus badly miscalculated where he thought he
was. He thought he had reached the East Indies but
he really landed on an island in the Bahamas.
■Columbus gave the island he “discovered” the
name San Salvador or “Holy Savior.”

Christopher Columbus

●When Columbus landed, he was met by natives known
as the Taino.

○Since Columbus believed he was in India, he called
the natives “indians.”

●The King and Queen of Spain were so pleased with
Columbus that he was given 17 more ships full of
military men to claim the several islands of the
Caribbean Sea and was funded for three more trips.

●Columbus was no longer known as an explorer, but
as an empire builder.

https://youtu.be/GD3dgiDreGc

Other Explorers to Take the Sea

●Ferdinand Magellan- led the first voyage that
sailed around the world
○The voyage lasted three years from
1519-1522 with 250 men and five ships.

●Magellan and his crew soon reached the
Philippines. After trying to convert the
natives into Christians, Magellan was killed in
battle.
○After disease and starvation, only 18 men
and one ship returned to Spain in 1522.

○Spanish explorers were also known as
conquesadors.

https://www.youtubon the island of Mactan in what is now the Philippines.e.com/watch?v=SctXFsZ3Az4

Cortez and the Aztecs

●Hernando Cortes- a Spanish explorer
who landed on the shores of Mexico
in 1519.

●The conquistadors heard rumors of
vast lands covered in gold and silver.
○They then went in deeper in
Mexico, South America, and the
United States to find such
treasure.

●Cortes then discovered the Aztec
Empire and its capital Tenochtitlan.

Colonization and Imperialism in Latin America

●Columbian Exchange- a global transfer
of food, plants, and animals during the
colonization of the America’s

●PIneapples and tomatoes were the two
of the most important items to travel
from the Americas to the rest of the
world.

●Horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs were also
introduced to the Americas.

●Africa, Asia, and Europe also exposed
the world to smallpox, influenza, and
typhus.

●Triangular Trade- transatlantic trading
network that widely transported Africans
to the Americas (the Atlantic Slave Trade.)

● Europeans would transport goods to
Africa, traders would then exchange these
goods for captured Africans, the Africans
were then transported across the Atlantic
and sold in the West Indies for money, sugar,
coffee, and tobacco.

●The trading system ended in 1870 and over
1.7 million Africans were transported.