LESSON 5 EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

UNIT 3 AGE OF EXPLORATION

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

Learning Target

Students can explain how Spanish colonization of the Americas led to an exchange of cultures between the old and new world

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

R – Rigid class system emerges

• Spanish (pure blood Spanish families)

• Mestizos (mixture of Spanishand Native American families)

• Native Americans (slaves andnatives to the land)

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

A – African slaves increased production of resources

• Africans were brought to the Americas by the Portuguese which solved the labor problem in the Americans

• Slaves were used to work the plantations that produced sugar cane, tobacco, and coffee

• The shipment of slaves became part of the triangular trade routes

• The slave trade spread to north as European colonies began expanding to North America

• In the 1700’s England takes control of the slave trade from Spain and creates southern plantations

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

C – Columbian Exchange

• Exchange of products between the old (Europe) and new (Americas) worlds

• New to Old – corn, tobacco, potatoes, cotton, sugar, coffee, and gold

• Old to New – horses, cattle, Christianity, and diseases

• These goods forever changed the lives of the places to which they were taken

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

E – Europeans immigrate to the Americas

• Oversees trading of goods results in expansion of capitalism (system of economics based on private ownership)

• Entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to invest (lend money for profit) in the great wealth of the Americas

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

D – Development of Mercantilism in America

• As a result of the immigration to the Americas, Europeans competed to make money in foreign markets

• Europeans wanted to establish colonies (settlements ruled by a parent country) to create markets to sell their resources and products

• Mercantilism is the belief that wealth = power

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

D – Development of Mercantilism in America cont…

• The measure of wealth is based on the amount of bullion (gold and silver) a person has

• Spain takes a lot of bullion from the New World (causes problems like inflation and low productivity in Europe)

EUROPEANS RACED TO THE AMERICAS (RACED)

Key Terms

PlantationsTriangular TradeColumbian ExchangeCapitalismInvestMercantilismColony