hi everyone welcome to the first half of the american history survey today we'll be talking about the world of the 15th century and the combination of circumstances that led to the arrival of europeans and africans in the americas in 1492 and after if around 1400 we were to ask the question where will the center of world power emanate from in the future the last place on earth we would choose is europe there were plenty of reasons to see european expansion as improbable for most of the 15th century here's a map that shows us roughly what europe looked like in 1400 although the nations of england and france already existed at this point they were not the powerful unified states they would later become the nation-state of spain had not yet appeared and across europe small internal wars between princes for territory and influence worked to destabilize and undermine efforts toward consolidating and centralizing power the continent was also still recovering from the devastating impact of the black death the bubonic plague that killed off a third of europe's population after 1340 at a time when basically only clergy and royalty could read and write because of the catholic church's monopoly on literacy there was little interest among europeans and new science and technology the prevailing attitude was that the greeks or romans had already discovered everything and that whatever else there was to know had been revealed by their christian god in the bible those who did engage in scientific speculation faced prosecution by church courts another major reason europe was an unlikely candidate to dominate the globe in the 15th century was that it lived very much in what we might call the shadow of the islamic world in the 1400s the ottoman empire of the turks possessed the kind of wealth technology power and influence that europeans could only fear and envy then there was the miserable legacy of the crusades and the failure to capture and hold the holy city of jerusalem the ottomans controlled access to the overland routes that led to the riches of the far east and china europeans dreamed of tapping into the markets of asia but the overland routes were blocked by the ottomans islam's expansion as we can see from this map extending across the sahara into africa and ultimately along the iberian peninsula terrified the christian leaders and population of western europe arabic not english french or spanish was the language of law commerce government and science in the 15th century and finally the fall of constantinople today's istanbul turkey the last stronghold of the holy roman empire in the east in 1453 created a sense of religious and geographic claustrophobia among christians we can point to two things that began to change the dynamics of power within europe first the advent of the printing press in the second half of the 15th century spurred increased literacy and the wider ownership of books especially the bible which people began to read for themselves while the bible was unquestionably the most printed and most popular work outside of religious reading the most influential book was the travels of marco polo which once again wet the appetites of europeans for the incredible riches of asia they became more desperate than ever to find a way of bypassing muslim control of the trade routes to the east to uncover a way that they could access the gold and ivory of africa and the silk gems and spices of asia the second event had an even more immediate impact on europe's ability to expand and start projecting power beyond its territorial boundaries this was the rise of spain and portugal and the latter half of the 1400s another map here of europe around 1 500 helps to tell the story in 1469 the marriage of queen isabella and prince ferdinand united the kingdoms of aragon and castile creating the nation-state of spain which we see on the bottom left of the map along with portugal the new monarchs began the long process of rolling back muslim power on the iberian peninsula in a decades-long military campaign known as the reconquista the reconquest in the momentous year of 1492 spain took grenada the southernmost region on the country on the map it was the last stronghold of the muslim wars this completed the reconquista but even after the reconquest a crusading spirit remained in the form of a militant clergy eager to expand the influence of the christian faith and an ambitious warrior cast known as hidalgos who were determined to win fame reputation and riches for themselves as christian heroes spain began to look to the west for places to extend this expansionist momentum portugal at this time also started looking to expand its influence and together with spain began welcoming reinforcements in the shape of italian mariners who were willing to lead crusading adventures people like christopher columbus why italian mariners we might ask the fact of the matter was that the italian city-states had been sailing to and from and trading with various parts of the globe for centuries if a monarch wanted to hire a captain for a sailing expedition italian mariners were the best and most experienced that money could buy the development of new ships navigation techniques and mounted cannons allowed spain and portugal over time to dominate various coastal peoples especially important was the advent of the latin or triangular sail older ships like we see in this sketch used only square sails which prevented them from being able to move into the wind while at sea and as we can see in this image the advent of what's called the latin or triangular sail solved this problem greatly enhancing the speed and maneuverability of ocean vessels spain and portugal followed different strategies toward the same goal another map here can illustrate their plans in search of a way around ottoman power which was impossible over land the portuguese pioneered ocean voyages and expeditions along the western coast of africa all the way south around the bottom of the continent into the indian ocean and then east toward the markets and riches of asia the spanish thanks to columbus followed a westward route across the atlantic ocean believing that japan and china could be reached perhaps as quickly sailing in the opposite direction of the portuguese it proved to be a faithful decision not just for spain or even europe but ultimately the entire world on the african continent for centuries slavery had existed well before contact with europeans enslaved peoples had been moving along the ancient trade routes of the sahara for many generations but the slavery that existed there was nothing like what it would later become in the americas under europeans slavery in africa was an institution tied to concepts of family sustainability influence and power the more dependence a family contain the greater its labor power profitability and influence within a community or even a state not only were slaves considered a part of the family unit but slavery itself was also an incredibly fluid institution one need not remain a slave for life and further having the title of slave need not in all cases reflect an individual's status or influence african rulers employed many slaves some of whom served as trusted advisors meaning that some of them though technically slaves were some of the most powerful and influential people in their societies this was worlds away from the slavery that developed later in the americas it's also crucial to note that neither the ottoman turks nor europeans in this period were able to dominate regions of africa the continent's major empires which we can see reflected on this map ghana mali and songhai remained independent powers autonomous from foreign control the influence of islam both religious and cultural however was quite quite strong throughout west africa as evidenced by the conversion of mansa musa captured in this image the most famous ruler of the mali empire by many accounts the wealthiest man on the planet in his time mansa musa became famous for participating in the hajj making the three and a half thousand mile trek to mecca and along the way making a public display of his gold riches and hundreds of servants and concubines that greatly impressed other muslim rulers of the day that matsumusa played second fiddle to no other power of his time is made clear in the next image we have of him a larger view of the same painting the emperor with the golden crown upon his head a golden scepter in his left hand and a massive nugget of gold in his right sits upon his golden throne and waits for all who want to do business such as the turban merchant and the painting to come to him the fact was that in this period african states were anything but backward or primitive timbuktu capital of the mali empire grew over time into one of the most advanced cities on earth here we have an early sketch of timbuktu and a couple of more modern photos one here of the ancient ruins of the city and here a photograph of the university which drew students from all over the world in the 14th 15th and 16th centuries the iberian peninsula was an ideal spot from which to launch european overseas exploration and conquest because of its proximity to the western coast of africa the portuguese under henry the navigator pioneered the first voyages along the african coast they were originally looking for known commodities upon which they could turn a profit such as fishing grounds gold ivory pepper and ultimately the slaves that muslim north africans had long tapped through their overland caravan trade with sub-saharan africa it was while they were probing along the northwest coast of africa that the portuguese discovered three sets of islands that we can see in our next couple of map images if we look to the top left corner and find morocco and then move out to the west we can see them the canaries the madeiras and the azores here we can look at them a little closer surrounded by rich fisheries and heavily forested with trees that yielded valuable dyes these atlantic islands provided immediate commodities they also provided safe harbors and bases that facilitated voyages further down the coast of africa on both the azores and the madeiras the portuguese discovered no inhabitants but on the canaries they encountered a people known as the guanche olive complexioned in numbering around 30 000 and fourteen hundred the guanche had emigrated to the canaries about two thousand years before the time of jesus christ and over the centuries had neglected their navigational techniques ultimately losing contact with the continent they cultivated wheat beans and peas as well as raising goats pigs and sheep but they did not have cattle or horses or metal weapons which proved to be a severe disadvantage in their encounter with europeans the ancient romans knew the canaries is what they called the fortunate islands but their fate at the hands of the portuguese was anything but fortuitous the portuguese subdued conquered and exploited the guanta peoples justifying their enslavement upon two primary grounds first they were not christians in fact no one had ever even heard the name jesus second they were not civilized according to european standards as one official noted the gowank were in his words little more than animals since they had in his words no contact with each other by sea no writing no kind of metal or money obligated to spread their catholicism to the unconverted the portuguese and later the spanish would claim that they were doing peoples like the guanca favor by enslaving them because if their lives became a living hell on earth it was only for the purpose of saving their immortal souls in the afterlife a pattern emerged in the case of the guant that would tragically play itself out over and over in the decades and even centuries ahead the islands the azores madeiras and canaries became the site of the very first european sugar plantations the trees were stripped away for lumber back on the european mainland where it was in much demand and immense seemingly never-ending fields of sugarcane replaced them fields that were worked not by portuguese or later spanish but by african slaves the guant were the original slaves on the islands but the pattern that developed spelled their doom they were enslaved and effectively worked sometimes to death producing the cash crop of sugar for a world market then they became sick not from their labor exploitation so much as the fact that they had no immunity from the diseases such as the bubonic plague and smallpox that europeans exposed them to the impact on the guang was total within a hundred years they ceased to exist as a people their disappearance did not stop the european demand for slaves far from it the portuguese and later spanish began to enter into agreements with west african rulers for more slaves who were taken from the interior parts of the continent and ever larger numbers over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries what were called factories forts like elmina and today's ghana were established up and down the west african coastline here's an artist's sketch of what elmina originally looked like and a series of images from today that demonstrate how the site operated easily spotted from the ocean as we can see from this photograph the fort was armed with cannons pointed out toward the water but not toward the interior this was by design the portuguese had little to fear from the african mainland where their allies the african rulers and warlords controlled security but the ocean was another situation altogether the portuguese knew that if an attack came it would be from the atlantic and that it would come from a european competitor such as spain therefore all the cannon pointed out toward the ocean the fort did in fact change hands between european owners many times over the centuries ahead including the spanish dutch french and english when captives were brought to elmina all went through this entryway called fittingly the door of no return since the lives of none who passed through it would ever be the same they would be forced into this open courtyard and ultimately separated into gated cells where they were packed in like sardines standing shoulder to shoulder often sick and with no recourse even to go to the bathroom people got sick urinated and defecated where they stood they suffered like this until the ships arrived on the shore to claim them there was a saying among the captives that the white people on board the slave ships were going to eat them boil them up in massive bats and consume them but if we think about the story in a metaphorical rather than a literal way it makes absolute sense we know that europeans were not for literal cannibalism but isn't that exactly what the slave trade from africa did consume lives and not just a few but millions over many centuries what happened to the guang became a blueprint for european expansion and conquest elsewhere faithfully the last guant resistors were being put down on the canaries in 1492. on his way across the atlantic ocean christopher columbus stopped at the islands and witnessed firsthand the operations there when he himself ultimately encountered distant foreign peoples in his travels he would follow the same model and dealing with them by the 1490s european imaginations were running wild with visions of the wealth and wonders that could be found overseas but nothing could have prepared them for the discovery of two vast continents full of millions of peoples no one knew even existed many centuries prior to the arrival of columbus and the so-called new world between 900 and 1350 a period of warming temperatures around the globe which scientists called the medieval optimum led to the rise of the first sedentary cultures in the americas the increase in average annual temperatures fostered a burst of agricultural creativity centered on improved varieties of two old crops squash and maize or corn and one new one beans the development of these permanent food sources allowed various peoples for the first time to settle down in one place and establish lasting roots a way of living that would increasingly replace patterns of hunting and gathering based on perpetual movement in north america as we can see in this image the greatest settlement was known as cahokia near the side of present-day st louis missouri cahokia and such other major centers as those now known as ottowa and georgia moundville and alabama and nachez and mississippi were home to highly stratified societies where elites and commoners were sharply divided they also possessed many skilled artisans were tapped into widespread trading networks and established elaborate mortuary rituals to which the burial mounds attest such as the big central mound called monks mound at cahokia which we can see in this image surrounding networks of agricultural hamlets provided food to support the urban centers where priests and chiefs conducted rituals centered on the solar cycle and the seasons to ensure the success of crops and the power of the community at cahokia a massive woodhenge or circle of posts which we see on the left side of the image served as an astronomical observatory and the main plaza was oriented on a perfect north south line to trace celeste to trace celestial movements these mound building societies known as mississippian cultures flourished during the global warming period of the medieval optimum between 900 and 1350. here we see a photograph of what monks mound looks like today in most mississippian societies farming came to be women's work and female kin groups controlled the fields the food that they produced and the houses in which those who ate it lived men were responsible for the animal protein side of the diet and as a result spent much of their time away from the female dominated world of the village seasonal hunting fishing and fouling camps were where most men and most of their labor took place the forest native people taught belonged to men and the clearing to women after 1350 what scientists call a little ice age an average annual cooling of temperatures across the globe brought the medieval optimum period to an end the cooler temperatures would last all the way into the 1800s by 1492 the time of columbus's arrival in the caribbean many of the mississippian cities were already in decline or disappeared victims of deceased and decreased agricultural productivity resulting from climatic change of the inherent instability of chieftains as long-term political systems and perhaps of a loss of faith in religious leaders whose authority rested on their pretensions to control the natural forces that allowed crops to flourish while the portuguese focused their early exploratory efforts on the african continent and on circumventing it by water to reach the riches of asia spain pioneered transatlantic voyages thanks to the aggressive ambition religious mysticism and navigational prowess of the genoese mariner christopher columbus here we have an artist interpretation of columbus in popular histories and films he appears anachronistically as a modernist a secular man dedicated to humanism and scientific rationalism a pioneer who overcame medieval superstition in fact he was a devout militant catholic who drew upon the bible for his geographic theories he also owned cherished and heavily annotated a copy of the travels of marco polo which inspired his dreams of reaching the trade riches and the unconverted souls of east asia columbus hoped to convert the asians to christianity and to recruit their bodies and their wealth to assist europeans in a final crusade to crush islam and reclaim jerusalem such a victory he believed would invite christ's return to earth to reign over a millennium of perfect justice and harmony in 1492 with three ships and about 90 men columbus followed the well-tested route southwest from spain to the canaries here we have a map that indicates the routes that columbus followed on his four voyages with the blue line indicating the first exploiting the trade winds he turned west into the open ocean and had clear easy sailing reaching a new land after just 33 days he first landed at the bahama islands just east of florida turning south columbus entered the west indies islands framing the caribbean sea but columbus supposed that all of the islands belong to the east indies and lay near the mainland of asia although the native inhabitants the people known as the taino were unlike any people he'd ever seen or read about columbus insisted that they were in his words indians a misnomer that's endured the colonial enterprise arrived in the americas in columbus's mind from the start he treated the caribbean islands and their taino inhabitants exactly as the portuguese had treated the canaries and the guang as places and people to be rendered into commercial plantations worked by forced labor he rationalized that such treatment would benefit the indians by exposing them to christian salvation and hispanic civilization thanks to the newly invented printing press word of columbus's voyage and discovery spread rapidly and widely through europe eagerly read his published report ran through nine editions in 1493 and 20 by 1500 publication and multiplying print helped to ensure that columbus's voyages will lead to an accelerating spiral of further voyages meant to discern the bounds and exploit the peoples of the new lands here we have a map that shows the remarkable flurry of activity and expeditions sponsored by a variety of european nations that followed in the wake of 1492. with the assistance of the pope the spanish and portuguese negotiated what became known as the treaty of torticius in 1494 which split the world of new discoveries by drawing a south boundary line through the mid-atlantic west of the azores which we see displayed on this map the portuguese secured the primary right to exploit the coast of africa and the indian ocean while the spanish obtained columbus's western discoveries further exploration determined that south america bulged eastward beyond the treaty line placing a land called brazil in the portuguese sphere in dividing the world of course no one bothered to consult the indians for europeans and the pope considered them pagan savages with no rights under international law all the way up until his death in 1506 columbus insisted that all of his discoveries lay close to the coast of asia other explorers often working for rival powers expanded upon columbus's discoveries to demonstrate that he had instead found what they called a new world as with the guant people on the canaries colonization rapidly destroyed the taino people of hispaniola from a population of at least 300 000 in 1492 the taino declined to about 33 000 by 1510 and to a mere 500 by 1548 like the guanc the taino died primarily from virulent new diseases brought to the americas by the spanish but the colonizers compounded the destructive impact of the diseases by callous exploitation with armed force the spanish drove the taino to labor on colonial mines ranches and plantations where they suffered a brutal work regimen although not genocidal and intent for the spanish preferred to keep the taino alive and working as tributaries and slaves the colonization of hispaniola was genocidal in effect although extreme in its rapidity and thoroughness the depopulation of hispaniola was far from unique in the americas everywhere during hernan cortez's conquest of the aztec empire in mexico francisco pizarro's conquest of the incas in peru in various explorers journeys through parts of north america the first european explorers and colonists reported horrifying and unprecedented epidemics among the native peoples here we have diego rivera's famous painting of the aztecs capital city of tenochtitlan first colonized the caribbean islands suffered the first great epidemics spanish soldiers exported the diseases to the mainland between 1510 and 1535 when they conquered central america mexico and peru in any given locale the first wave of epidemics afflicted almost every indian within a decade of contact about half the natives died from the new diseases after about 50 years of contact successive epidemics reduced a native group to about a tenth of its pre-contact numbers some especially ravaged people's lost their autonomous identity as the few survivors joined a neighboring group consequently the indian nations of colonial history represent a subset of the many groups that had existed before the great epidemics most scholars now estimate that in 1492 about 50 million indians lived in north and south america with about five million of those living north of mexico and what would later be the united states and canada throughout the north american southwest and northeast sedentary cultures had developed over hundreds of years in the warming period of the medieval optimum that were based on stable agriculture and chiefdoms where a leader's greatness and influence was based upon the number of households dependent upon his generosity and resources for their survival leaders ability to provide for their peoples were not just deteriorated by the cooling trends of the little ice age they were annihilated by the spread of european diseases through the interior of the continent shortly after columbus's atlantic voyages the peoples of western europe were torn by religious divisions a continental movement to return the christian church to the purity of early christianity was at the heart of europe's religious strife criticism of the worldliness of the roman catholic church mounted during the renaissance then a german monk martin luther broke with rome initiating what became known as the protestant reformation luther who we have an artist's interpretation of here had lost faith in the power of the age-old rituals of the church the mass confession and pilgrimages to holy places luther believed that salvation came through an inward faith or grace that god conferred on those he chose good works luther believed did not earn grace but were the external evidence of a person's faith he took the revolutionary step of rejecting the church's elaborate hierarchy of officials who presided over the rituals that guided individuals toward salvation his doctrine of justification by faith did not threaten the catholic church until 1517 when he openly attacked the sale of what were called indulgences for sins the proceeds of which were used to build saint peter's basilica in rome by purchasing indulgences individuals were told they could reduce their time or that of a deceased relative in purgatory printing invented less than 70 years before allowed for the rapid circulation of luther's protest his call for reform soon inspired germans of all classes he denounced five of the seven sacraments of the church calling for a return to baptism and communion alone luther railed against what he characterized as the detestable tyranny of the clergy over the lady arguing instead for what he described as a priesthood of all believers he urged people to seek faith by reading the bible which he translated into german and made widely available for the first time most provocatively he called on the german princes to assume control over religion in their states directly challenging the authority of rome the basic issues dividing catholics and protestants thus centered on the source of religious authority to catholics religious authority resided in the organized church headed by the pope to protestants the bible was the sole authority and access to god's word or god's grace did not require the mediation of the church the frenchman john calvin who we have an artist sketch of here built upon luther's redefinition of christianity and in the process brought new intensity and meaning to the protestant reformation by calvin's doctrine known as predestination god had saved a few souls before creation and damned the rest humans could not alter this predestination but those who were good christians must struggle to understand and accept god's saving grace if he chose to impart it without mediation of ritual or priest but by what calvin called straight walking the godly were to behave as befitting god's elect those he referred to as the saints of society calvin envisioned reformed christian communities structured around these saints the elect few of which no doubt he considered himself a member to remake the corrupt world and follow god's will communities of saints must control the state calvin argued elected bodies of ministers and dedicated laymen called presbyteries were to govern the church directing the affairs of society so that all whether saved or damned would work for god's ends calvinism as it came to be known was a fine-tuned system of self-discipline and social control first put into practice in the 1550s in the city-state of geneva between france and switzerland it was here that calvin established his model christian community a council of 12 elders drove non-believers from the city disciplined daily life and stripped the churches of every appeal to the senses religious reformers from all over europe flocked to the community and geneva for a while became the continental center of reformed christianity the most important monarch to break with catholicism was henry viii of england who we see here in this painting when the pope refused henry permission to divorce and remarry he declared himself head of the new church of england or as it came to be known the anglican church although it retained many catholic features under henry his son edward pushed it further in a protestant direction this was interrupted briefly when henry's older catholic daughter mary became queen vowing to reinstate her mother's religion by suppressing protestantism her policy though just worked to create protestant martyrs in england and many were relieved when she died in 1558 bringing henry's younger protestant daughter elizabeth to the throne it was during her long reign that the anglican church became consolidated around a middle course between the radicalism of geneva and the catholicism of rome one last point is crucial some of the countries most affected by the protestant reformation such as england holland and france were slow to colonize the americas as a result protestantism did not gain as early a foothold in europeans new world as catholicism which remained the official religion of both spain and portugal it swept across the atlantic virtually unchallenged for a century after 1492 giving the spanish especially the full century head start over its european rivals and the race for new world riches and souls okay so that gets our narrative of a little more than four centuries of american history up and rolling next time we'll go into more detail on the period colonial historians called the spanish century