The Spanish and French Build anEmpire (pg 18)
Conquest of Mexico
•Spain conquered Cuba, but disease killedmost of the Native American’s there.
•Hernan Cortes was sent to explore Mexico tofind:
1.new peoples who could be forced to work forthe Spanish
2.Investigate reports of a wealthy civilization
Cortes defeats the Aztecs
•Cortes gained allies among the native peopleseasily. The Tlaxacala were astonished byhorses, sparks from guns and cannon power.
•The Aztec leader was Montezuma.
•Montezuma believed in the prophecy ofQuetzalcoatl: a fair-skinned, bearded deitywould someday come from the east toconquer the Aztecs.
Cortes defeats the Aztecs
•Cortes, his Spanish troops and the Tlaxcalatook Montezuma hostage.
•The battle lasted for several days. 400 Spanishand over 4,000 Aztecs were killed.
•Cortes was overrun by the sheer number ofAztecs and was forced to leave the city.
•Cortes finally defeated the Aztecs because of asmallpox outbreak.
The Codex Telleriano-Remensis, produced insixteenth century Mexico and printed onEuropean paper, is one of the finestsurviving examples of Aztec manuscriptpainting.
A stone carving at Teotihuacánrepresents the feathered serpentQuetzalcóatl, a major deityamong the ancient Indians ofMexico.
Image of a Mesoamerican infected with smallpox; illustrated panel from the Florentine Codex, acompendium of information on Aztec people and history by Bernardino de Sahagún, a 16th-century Spanish Franciscan missionar
New Spain
•A city built on Aztec ruins was called Mexicoand became the capital of the Spanish colonyNew Spain.
•Cortes sent men called Conquistadors or“conquerors” around the region to explore.
Conquistadors
•Pizarro explored South America’s west coastand conquered the Inca.
•Coronado explored North America’ssouthwest and Desoto explored the southeast.
Missionaries
•Eventually the Catholic Church became theprimary force for colonizing the Southwest.
Encomienda System
•Encomienda System was a class based societyin New Spain and other colonies.
–Pininsulars: Spanish born and held highgovernment positions
–Mestizos: mixed Spanish and Native Amrican race
–Lowest level consisted of Native Americans,African’s and a mix of the two.
Mining and Ranching
•Many towns were set up for mining silver andgold.
•These towns were in areas that could notgrow crops.
•Large ranches called haciendas were createdand the men who herded the cattle werecalled vaqueros.
New France
French Colonization of Americabased on the Fur Trade
Hunters?
•Why do people huntanimals?
•What types of animalsdo people hunt?
•What types of peopleare hunters?
The Beginning of the Fur Trade
•The fur trade has been around for as long aspeople have been wearing clothes.
•Animals were hunted for food, and theirpelts worn for protection.
•The use of the hair from animal pelts tomake felt was probably started by nomadicpeoples in Central Asia. They used the hair ofgoats, sheep, camels and other animals to maketheir tents. They found that felt lasted a long timeand was easily made. One of the best furs formaking felt was beaver. It became very valuable.
Felt?
•Felt is a cloth made by pressing, heating ortreating animal hair with chemicals.
•It is valuable because its waterproof,moldable, and doesn't wear out easily.
•The best kinds, like beaver, are very soft andsmooth.
•Later, many peoples such as theChinese, the Greeks and theRomans used it as padding underheavy armor, or to stop arrows.After the fall of the RomanEmpire, the art of making felt waslost in Western Europe. It did notcome back until two thingshappened: First, crusadersvisiting Constantinople saw thefine hats and other clothes wornby people there and learned howthey were made. Second, a greatinvasion into Russia forced manyfelt makers west into Europe.
•By the year 1600, the need formore beaver furexploded. European beavers weredying out because of over-hunting, and new fashions, likehats, used lots of beaver felt.Which was why the discovery ofthe North American beaver waslike a miracle to hat-makers
Northwest Passage
•France sent Verrazano andlater Jacques Cartier,explorers, to look for theNorthwest Passage.
•Northwest Passage:northern route throughNorth America to thePacific Ocean.
•The Northwest Passagedoes not exist, instead theexplorers successfullymapped the NorthAmerican coastlineclaimed the land aroundthe St. Lawrence River forFrance.
New France
•The fur trade began between Native Americansand French fishermen.
•Traded furs for tools such as knives or iron pots.
•Hats made of beaver pelt became very popular inEurope. American beavers and their fur were ahot commodity.
•To expand the lucrative fur trade the French Kingestablished the colony of New France.
•Samuel de Champlain helped colonize NewFrance.
Settlement
•The settlement of NewFrance was slow. The firstsettlers were courers dbois: “runners of thewoods” or the French furtraders who lived with theNative Americans.
Settlement
•Settlement of the Frenchcolony began to growwith Jesuit missionaries:Catholics intending toconvert Native Americansto Christianity.
Louisiana
•La Salle became the firstexplorer to successfullynavigate the MississippiRiver to the Gulf ofMexico.
•La Salle claimed theregion for France andnamed it Louisiana afterKing Louis XIV.
Competition
•French colonies around the Mississippi River:
–Biloxi
–New Orleans
–Mobile
•Spanish colonies:
– St. Augustine in Florida. It became the firstpermanent European settlement in North America.
–American Southwest
•English colonies along the Atlantic Coastline arecompetition for both France and Spain.
