Name: European conquest of America - Summary on a Map
Uploaded: 2022-07-01T08:36:11.000Z
Duration: 17 min 38 s
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In the 15th century, these are  approximately the known lands in Europe.  

To the east are the Indies, from where spices  and silk come.

In Europe, the trade of these luxury products is controlled by the powerful  Republics of Genoa and Venice.

But in 1453, the Ottomans seize Constantinople and bring  down the Byzantine Empire.

By extending their influence over the Mediterranean, they put an  end to the golden age of the Italian republics. 

In the west, Portugal dreams of opening a  new trade route to the Indies

and seizing the monopoly on the spice trade.

They take advantage of the development of the caravel,

a more robust ship capable of handling the oceans, to send explorations to Africa.

In 1484, Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator living  in Lisbon,

proposes to the Portuguese king to try to reach Asia by sailing west.

According to his calculations, Cathay and Cipango, currently China and Japan, are close enough for the crossing to be feasible.

Confident, Christopher Columbus  tries his luck with the rival queen of Castile, but in vain.

Two years later, while Portugal reaches the Cape of Good Hope,

the Spanish monarchy completes the Reconquista by seizing  Granada.

Nothing seems to stop its ambitions. It must now catch up with Portugal in its race towards the Indies.

The Queen of Castile and the King of Aragon authorize and finance  the expedition of Christopher Columbus.

On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus leaves  Palos with three ships and 90 men.

After a short stopover in the Canary Islands, they head  west and sail for 36 days into the unknown.  

The crew finally see an island, Columbus lands and  meets with the local Taino people.

Convinced he has reached the Indies, Christopher Columbus  names them Indians.

After a few exchanges, he leaves and explores the surrounding islands.

Thinking he is in Asia, he looks for the kingdom of the Great Khan mentioned in the writings of Marco Polo.

On an island called Quisqueya, which he renames "La Hispaniola", he builds the fort of the Nativity,

leaves 39 men behind and returns with 7 Tainos, gold, pearls, and parrots  as proof of the success of his expedition.  

Welcomed as a hero, he returns to the Nativity  a few months later, this time with 1,500 men,  

to found a permanent colony of which he would be  the governor.

But he finds the 39 men left behind dead.

He then founds La Isabela  in honor of the Queen of Castile and continues his explorations.

During this time, the Spanish monarchy and Portugal,

to avoid conflicts around the newly conquered territories, agree to draw a meridian.

The lands to the east can be claimed by Portugal,

those to the west by the Spanish monarchy.

England in turn begins to search for a new  maritime route to India.

An expedition is sent further north and reaches a land that is  unknown to them.

Vasco De Gama, for Portugal, crosses the Cape of Good Hope, enters the  Indian Ocean

A second Portuguese expedition leaves for India, but as it moves away from the coast to take advantage of the sea currents,

the expedition reaches a new land located east of the meridian of Tordesillas.

There, an exotic wood grows from which can be obtained a red dye like an ember, or “Brasa” in Portuguese.

This will later give the name of Brazil to their new colony.

While the Spanish colonists discover products  unknown in Europe

such as potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, and cocoa,

ships loaded with gold, emeralds, and pearls return to Spain,

which motivates the departure of many colonists to the new Spanish lands.

They bring with them domestic animals, and seeds,

but also diseases that were previously unknown to the indigenous populations, who are therefore not immune.

These diseases spread throughout the continent faster than the colonists and decimate the populations.

In 1506, after a fourth trip, Christopher Columbus dies.

A few months later, the word America appears on  a map in honor of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

The continent would henceforth be called America.

In the Spanish territories, colonists impose forced labor on the local populations.

But the Spanish monarchy, influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, opposes this mistreatment

and tries via new laws to increase its control over the new territories and to improve the condition of the natives.

The Catholic Church also sends missionaries to  evangelize the local populations.

From the Spanish colonies, conquerors called conquistadors explore everywhere.

To the north, they discover a land they name Florida. To the south, an expedition goes inland and discovers a sea on the other side.

Finally in 1518, an expedition goes north along the coast, passes a peninsula and meets representatives sent by an emperor.

The governor then decides to send a mission there.

The conquistador Hernán Cortès leaves Cuba  in 1519.

On his way, he recovers a Spanish shipwrecked man who survived eight years in Mayan country,

and then he obtains a mistress after a confrontation. Both will assist him as interpreters.

Once on dry land, he understands that he is in the Aztec empire,

whose capital Tenochtitlan controls the surrounding regions.

Impressed by the firearms and horses they have never seen before, some of the people choose to join the Spanish crown.

Cortes is guided to Tenochtitlan where the emperor welcomes him peacefully.

At the same time, to the south of the continent, Ferdinand Magellan, who is also trying to reach the Indies to the west,

passes through a strait that will one day bear his name and enters a new ocean that is unknown to him.

In Tenochtitlan, a war breaks out between the Aztecs and Cortés who had been chased out of the capital.

He allies with the rebels and enemies of Tenochtitlan, then besieges the city and cuts off its drinking water supply.

But the inhabitants suffer above all from smallpox  which decimates the city.

After 75 days of siege, Tenochtitlan collapses and Cortes  becomes the governor of New Spain.

Despite strong resistance, the Spaniards continue  to extend their control in Central America.

Spain, which is indebted to German bankers, authorizes  them in return to found a colony in an area where  

houses are built on stilts and which is then  named Little Venice or Venezuela.

To the south, an expedition goes inland and rumors circulate  about a certain "Piru" kingdom.

The navigator Francisco Pizarro then leaves to search for it.

He lands and learns that he is in the Inca empire which is in a full war of succession.

After several contacts by intermediate embassies, a meeting is organized in Cajamarca with the emperor Atahualpa.

But the meeting degenerates and Pizarro arrests the emperor.

9 months later, in spite of the enormous gold and silver ransom received for his liberation,

Pizarro executes Atahualpa and then seizes Cusco, the capital of the empire.

While strong rivalries appear between the  colonists who want to monopolize the Inca wealth,  

in the north of Tomebamba, a pocket of  Inca resistance is organized around the general Rumiñahui.

But finding himself in a difficult situation, he decides to burn Quito and to hide all the Inca wealth.

Captured and tortured, he does not reveal the location of this treasure which, if it exists, has never been found.

Further south, Pizarro founds a capital, the City of Kings, which later will become Lima.

In 1536 in Cuzco, the Incas rebel and take the city.

Almagro, Pizarro's ally, who returns from unsuccessful conquests in the south, takes the city and proclaims himself governor of Cuzco.

A war breaks out between Pizarro and Almagro.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the Incas found the kingdom of Vilcabamba which will resist the Spaniards for 36 years.

Further south, a group of populations called the Mapuches,

also firmly resist the Spanish intrusions.

In the north, Spain continues to enlarge its  territory considerably.

The priest Bartolomé de Las Casas denounces the cruel treatments  imposed on the natives.

Spain, in 1542, passes new laws in order to return freedom to the slaves by abolishing the encomienda,

and by affirming equality of the rights of the natives.

In Peru, these laws are very badly received by the colonists.

The viceroy tries to make them apply, but a revolt breaks out and he is beheaded.