Europe, the Americas, and Africa

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Europe, the Americas, and Africa
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Review

• Ming China was culturally advanced and
  prosperous, but faced a looming problem what to
  do about all of the non-Chinese peoples coming to
  its shores to trade and to spread new religious
  ideas
• Tokugawa Japan experienced a period of political
  stability after being united under the shogun,
  but withdrew into isolation in an attempt to
  maintain that stability

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Questions

• How did Europeans conquer the Americas in the
  16th and 17th century conquer the Americas, when
  they generally maintained only coastal bases in
  Africa and Asia?
• What were the consequences of the American
  conquest on New World and Old?
• How did the conquest of the Americas affect the
  development of civilization in Africa?

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The Aztec Empire

• One of the most powerful empires in the New World
  was the first to fall
• The Aztec empire resembled other pre-industrial
  monarchies in the Old world
• Social Stratification
• Monarchy
• Connections between religion and politics
• Huitzilopochtli
• Human sacrifice
• Founded in the 14th century, the Aztec capital of
  Tenochtitlan was larger than all but the largest
  cities in Europe

Human Sacrifice
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The Consequences of Isolation

• Cultural Isolation
• Stone Age Technology
• Biological Isolation
• No pack animals
• No wheat
• Maize
• Fewer animals for food
• Susceptibility to disease

Tenochtitlan
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The Conquest of the Aztec

• Hernan Cortes (1485-1547)
• Motecuzoma II (Montezuma, r. 1502-1520)
• Quetzalcoatl
• Vera Cruz
• Tlascala
• Noche-triste (July 7, 1520)
• Tenochtitlan recaptured Aug. 13, 1521

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Disease and Depopulation

• Smallpox
• Est. population of Mexico 1519 25 million
• In 1530 17 million
• Some reports put number of Native Americans in
  Mexico in 1605 at 1 million
• Other diseases typhus, measles, chicken pox
• Syphilis from old world to new?

Smallpox
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Europeans and Americans

• Motivations for settling in America
• Spanish
• English
• French
• Dutch
• Treatment of Native Americans
• 1537 Sublimus Deus
• Father Bartolome de las Casas

English depiction of Native Americans
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The Columbian Exchange

• Transfer of crops and animals between old and new
  worlds
• The Columbian Exchange transformed new world more
  than old
• New world gave
• Maize
• Squash
• Potatoes
• Old World gave
• Wheat
• Olives
• Grapes
• Citrus

Growing Potatoes in 18th c. Europe
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America and Africa

• Depopulation of Native Americans created need for
  labor in colonies
• Europeans purchased Africans on West Coast and
  Transported them to Americas
• Slave wars and depopulation destabilized African
  societies
• American colonization created trade link between
  Africa, the Americas, and Europe
• Triangle Trade