United States History Student Edition

06 Reviewing Exploration and Colonization

Summary

Causes for the Age of Exploration • The Crusades result in increased trade with—and curiosity about—Asia. • Spain, Portugal, France, and England become powerful nations seeking to expand their reach. • These nations—along with the Netherlands—use trade to gain economic power. developments and scientific understandings lead to improved navigation tools like the astrolabe and the magnetic compass and to more accurate maps. • Technological

Effects of Exploration of the Americas • Spain’s empire in the Americas is called New Spain and spreads across the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern United States. • The Spanish seek to convert native peoples in the Americas to Christianity. • Portugal’s empire is centered in Brazil, where sugarcane is grown on large plantations. Exchange—an exchange of food, animals, and diseases between the Americas and the rest of the world. • Native peoples are forced to work on farms, plantations, and mines. • After native peoples die of European diseases, enslaved Africans become the primary source of labor as a massive, centuries-long Atlantic slave trade is born. • The colonies of New France and New Netherland take hold in North America. • The Columbian

Effects/Causes

• Spanish and Portuguese explorers set out to find new trade routes to Asia. • European trade with West African kingdoms develops • Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas. • Conquistadors Cortés and Pizarro conquer the Aztec and the Inca. • England, France, and the Netherlands send explorers to the Americas to find a Northwest Passage to Asia, and later to establish colonies.

» Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed from Spain in 1492 in search of a westward route to Asia.

» Spanish missionaries teaching Catholicism to native peoples in New Spain

(l)Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, (r)Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo

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Exploration and Colonization