Section 1: The Renaissance and Reformation (page 154)
I. Introduction
-Leonardo da Vinci was just one of the many____________________ who lived between about_________ and _________ This was the time of the __________________, a period ____________________
II. The Renaissance (page 155)
-The Renaissance began in ___________________________. During the Middle Ages, ___________________, where Leonardo lived, was ________________ from the rest of __________________________. Most people in _________________________________ lived under __________________. They labored for their _______________ and depended on their ____________________________. Manors, rather than ______________, were the centers of ____________________.
-In northern Italy, however, people lived in ____________________, or cities that were both ____________ and ____________________. They had their own __________________________ and were not as ______________________ by nobles of the Church. Instead, wealthy families or ________________________________ held power.
-These merchants controlled ________________________ with Asia. Italian merchants bought ____________________________ such as _________ and __________ in Muslim ________________________ around the Mediterranean Sea. They then _____________________ these goods throughout Europe, __________________ them at high ___________________.
-The city of ____________, built on islands in the _______________, was a leader in this ________________.
-Being at the ____________ of this lively ______________________ exposed Italian __________________ to other _________________. And because _____________ brought them ______________, many _________________ had more time to ____________, to ________, and to _____________________________________.
-The wealthy became ________________, or financial supporters, of __________________________ and the ________________. By the 1430s, the city of _____________________, ruled by the prosperous _____________________, had become a center ________________.
-In the 1300s, the _______________ and _______________ of Italy began to look at __________________________. First, they looked back—not to the _____________________, but to the ___________, _________________, and __________ of ancient Greece and Rome.
-Ruins of ________________________ and realistic _____________ were all around them, especially in the ________________________. These works inspired _____________ and _______________ as well as a new focus on the _____________________________________.
-Renaissance scholars and artists developed a new focus on the _____________, ____________, and _________________ of human beings, rather than ___________________. This philosophy is called ___________________. The ideal of this new era was someone with ______________ and ___________________ in many ___________. Such a person came to be called a ___________________________.
-A rebirth of ______________________ occurred somewhat later in ___________________________. In the early 1400s, artists such as _______________________ developed a distinctive _____________ style of ________________. By the 1450s, newly prosperous cities in the north were the center of a ______________________________.
-Scholars and artists, such as the German artist _________________, traveled to _________________ and helped spread the idea of the __________________________________ in the north. By the late 1500s, the Renaissance had reached _______________, where the plays of _________________________________________________.
III. The Renaissance Artist (page 157)
-Artists of the Middle Ages had not __________________ people or nature ______________________. Their goal had been to celebrate ______________, the _____________, and _________________.
-In contrast, the artists of the Renaissance _________________ and _______________ the more ________________ art of ancient _______________________________. While they continued to do __________________________, they often used the _____________ and _______________ of their own time for these biblical ________.
-In keeping with their interest in _____________________________, these artists also painted _________________________________ of important people of the day—including their ___________________. One of the most famous Renaissance paintings, the _____________ by Leonardo da Vince, depicts a woman _______________________. In fact, to this day, no one is _______________________________.
-To better ________________ how to portray people, Italian ____________ and _________________ studied the ____________ and ___________________ of the body.
Some artists even dissected __________________ to learn about ________________.
-Renaissance painters also used a new __________________ called ___________________ to make ______________ and landscapes look ____________________. By making distant objects _________, artists could create a scene that appeared _____________________. They also used _____________ and ________________ to make objects look solid.
-Michelangelo was one of the _________________________ of the Renaissance. He could sculpt ______________ so that it looked like ______________ cloth, _____________ muscle, and ____________ hair. However, his _________________ work is not a sculpture but a _________________________ that cover the _______________ and walls of the __________________________ in Vatican City in Rome.
-_______________ and ________________ were not Michelangelo’s only achievement. He was also a _____________ and an _________. Michelangelo designed the __________________________________ in Rome as well as _____________________________ for the city of Florence.
IV. The Protestant Reformation (page 158)
-In 1517, only ______ years after Michelangelo finished the _______ ____________, a German monk named ________________ began to criticize the ______________. Following the ______________ of the time, he ____________ a list of his _________________ on the door of his church in ___________________________________.
-This act is regarded as the beginning of the ___________________, an effort to ____________ or _______________ the Catholic Church. At first, instead of _________________, it led to the establishment of __________________________________________________.
-Luther disagreed with many of the ______________________ and _____________________ of the Roman Catholic Church of the 1500s. He believed that people did not _________________ or other ________________________ to tell them what _________________ to do.
-In Luther’s view, ____________ in God, coupled with common ___________________, and not _____________________________, was the key to a proper ________________________________.
-Luther also felt that __________________ people could understand the ______________________. He translated the Bible into _______ so that ordinary __________________________________. He was in favor of creating ____________________________ that would teach _____________________________________.
-Luther especially despised the Church practice of _______________, or pardons for ___________. At that time, people were asked to pay ____________ to the Church to be ___________________________.
-Luther felt the Church did not have the _______________________ God’s ______________ for ____________. What’s more, the Church often sold _____________________ more to __________________ than for any truly _________________________.
-In Germany, _____________, ______________, and ordinary people rallied behind __________________. Some priests agreed with Luther about _______________ in the ____________. Nobles were eager to limit the ____________________________________. They wanted to ______________ their own ________________ and make their own _______________, like the leaders of ___________ __________________________.
-Meanwhile, a revolution in _____________________ had begun in Germany. In the 1400s, the German _________________________ invented the first European ___________________________ using ______________________. He printed a ______________ in 1455.
-The development of the European ___________________________ helped spread _______________________ across Europe. ________ printed in ________________ became available. By the time Luther died in _____________, most of the people in what is now ________ Germany were ______________, or followers of ________________ _____________________.
-Soon, people in much of __________________________ held views similar to ______________. They created their own _____________ _________________, free of __________________________. These came to be called _________________________ because they grew out of ______________ against the ______________ and ________ of the _________________________ Church. Their members, even today, are called __________________________.
-Many Roman Catholics _____________ with some ______________ made by __________________. Instead of _____________________ from the Church, however, they worked to ____________________. As part of this _______________________, Pope Paul III set up the __________________________ in 1545. For almost _____________ years, it worked to _____________ the ________________________ of the Church. But it also ___________________________________ of the Catholic Church.
-The Catholic _____________________ also strove to bring ___________________ back to the ____________________ Church and to make sure that Catholics held _________________________.
-In an effort to wipe out ______________, or beliefs that did not ________________________________, the Church strengthened the power of the _____________________. The ___________________ was a system of church ___________________ that used secret ______________ and _______________ to root out _____________ and force non-Catholics to _______________ to ________________.
-At the same time, the effort to ______________ the Church led to a _______________ of sincere ______________ among many Catholics. St. _________________________ worked to help the poor people of Paris. Teresa of Avila set up a _______________________ in Spain.
-Ignatius of Loyola founded the _____________________________. Jesuits, as members of this society are called, were among the______________________________ of Europe at this time. They became well known as ___________________________________.
Section 2: The Age of Exploration (page 161)
I. Introduction
-During the Middle Ages, Europeans had done __________________ beyond their own _____________. Except for the _______________, they had very little ______________ of, or ______________ in, other ______________.
-During the ___________________, however, Europeans became ________________ about the ________________ around ________. This led to an interest in _____________ and __________________. It also led to ________________________.
II. Europeans Begin to Explore (page 162)
-Driven by _______________, a desire for ______________, and great advances in __________________________, Europeans soon traveled far beyond their ____________________—and all the way ________________________________________________.
-From about _________ to ________, Europeans ___________ across the vast ______________ to explore __________, ________, and the _______________. This period is called the _____________. Eventually, Europeans would _______________ much of these lands and change the __________________________________________.
-Before this time, European ___________ were not capable of such ____________________________________. By the 1400s, though, Portuguese ____________________ had developed a new type of ship called the __________________. Strong, __________________, and able to _________________________________, it was the best sailing __________________ of its time.
-The Europeans also had two improved ______________________ tools, the mariner’s _________________ and the ______________. Further, they had learned how to make _______________, more ______________________. Now they were able to set out on long _________________________.
-By the early _________, many Europeans had ________________ of paying ________________ to Italian ______________________ for Asian ______________. These merchants, in turn, had paid high ______________ to the ____________________ of the __________ Empire, which controlled the _________________________ between Europe and Asia.
-Europeans wanted to gain ________________ of the ____________ with Asia ____________________. To do this, they would have to find a new _________________________—one that did not use the _______________________________ and the ____________ routes controlled by the ________________________.
-Two European nations, _____________ and ____________, set out to find a _________________ starting from their _______________.
III. The Portuguese Head East (page 163)
-By the 1400s, the small nation of ________________ was already a ______________ and successful ___________________. It had even ___________________ some territory on the coast of ___________.
-The Portuguese wanted ________________________ exploring the _____________________. And they thought that the best ________
_______________ to Asia might be one that went ______________, around the southern _____________________________________.
-The search for this _________________________ was led by Prince ______________, the son of Portugal’s ____________. In 1419, he opened a _____________ to encourage ______________________.
-He invited _________________, _________________, and expert _______________ called _________________ from all over the country.
-Henry oversaw more than _________________________ Although he did not go ____________________, his work won him the title of __________________________________.
-As expeditions pushed farther _____________ along the western ___________________________, sailors set up ________________ there. They also gathered information on _____________, ________, and _______________________.
-Henry the Navigator __________ in 1460, but his dream of an ____________________________________ lived on. In 1488, the Portuguese sea captain __________________________ sailed all the way around the ___________________________, which we now call the ____________________________________________.
-Ten years later, ___________________________ sailed around the ________________________, up Africa’s _____________________, and then across the ____________________ to _____________. He returned with a cargo of ___________________________________.
-Soon, the Portuguese _________________ important ___________ around the _____________________. They had their ____________ to Asia.
IV. Columbus Heads West (page 164)
-While the _______________________ were exploring to the ________________, an Italian ________________________ named Christopher Columbus became ____________________ that he could reach _______________ by _______________________, across the Atlantic. At that time, _____________________ Europeans knew that the __________________________. It made sense to Columbus that a ship ________________ would eventually ___________________.
-Columbus convinced ______________________ and King Ferdinand of ________________________ to pay for an expedition that headed ____________________________________. They knew of the great _______________ to be gained if Spain had a __________________ _____________________________________.
-What neither Columbus nor the Spanish ___________________—nor anyone else—knew was that ____________________________ lay between ____________ and _________________. So in August 1492, Columbus ____________________ for Asia—_____________ across the _______________________________.
-Columbus’s ____________________ included three ships—the ______________, the _______________, and the _____________—and about _____________________________. After two months, on _______________________________, they landed on a little _________________ in the _________________________ Sea, off the coast of _________________________________.
-Because he thought he had reached the _____________________, Columbus called the people he found there ____________________. He claimed the ___________________________________________.
-News of Columbus’s ________________________________ Europe. Spain and ___________________ became ________________. They tried to ______________ each other from _____________________ in the Americas. In 1494, they signed a _________________ that set a _____________________________________ through the Americas at about ________________________________________________.
-Spain had the _____________ to settle _____________ of the line. Portugal could do the same ______________ of the _____________.
-England sent sailor _____________________ across the Atlantic five years after Columbus’s ____________________. He reached what is now _________________. A few _________________ later, his son ____________________________ followed.
-His goal was to find a _____________________________, a way to sail through __________________________ and then on to ______. Many other European _____________________________ searched ________________________ for a way to continue the __________ ____________________________________ to Asia.
-In 1513, a Spanish adventurer named ________________________ led a land ____________________ across a ____________________ but ___________________ strip of land in _____________________ America. From a ________________________, he saw a huge ocean to the __________________, which he claimed for ______________.
-The Spanish called it the __________________. ________________ had become the first __________________ to see the ___________ from the _________________ of __________________. The ________________________ was the sea that would eventually take Europeans all _________________________________________.
V. All the Way Around the World (page 166)
-Even after Columbus ________________________ the Americas, Europeans did not understand ______________________________. They believed that ________________________, which they called
______________________, was separated from the Americas by a narrow ______________________________.
-The Portuguese sailor __________________________ was eager to cross that _____________________________. But one problem still remained: how to ________________________________________.
-With backing from the _____________________________, Magellan set sail in ___________ with _______________. They sailed ______ to ____________________________ and then _________________ along the ______________________________________________.
-After spending a _______________________ on land, some of the sailors wanted to ____________________, but Magellan forced them to ____________________. Finally, they located a ______________, ________________________ passage near the _________________ ___________________________. Today, it is called the _________ ____________________________________, in the explorer’s honor.
-It took Magellan _____________ days to ____________ through the strait. Strong _____________ and ____________________ made the journey ______________. Only _________ of the __________ ships made _________________.
-The three ships ________________ from the __________________ into the sea that _______________ had ______________________. Magellan thought this ______________ was much _______________ than the _____________, so he called it _____________________, which means “_________________________.”
-Magellan and his men had _______________ how __________ the _____________________. Short of ____________ and fresh ______, they sailed for ___________ months without ___________________, except for a few _________________________________.
-Some of the men ___________ to ______________, while others died of ______________. At last, they reached the ______________. There, ________________ struck: Magellan was ___________ when he became involved in a ___________________________.
-The expedition continued, but only _____________________ finally made it back to ________________. Of the roughly ______________ who had set ____________ with Magellan, only ________________.
-On September 8, __________, the survivors reached ___________, where the Spanish __________________ them as the ____________ people to _____________________, or _____________ around, the world.
Section 3: The Age of Powerful Monarchs (page 170)
I. Absolute Rule in France (page 171)
-Louis XIV was king of _______________ in the ________ and early ________. In ______________ at this time, people did not choose ___________. They believed that __________ chose the _________. The king’s ___________________ came directly from ___________, and was therefore ___________________. This belief was called the _________________________.
-Therefore, it seemed ____________ that a leader ____________ by ___________ should have ___________________ than anyone else. Louis XIV was an ________________, or ______________ ruler with _________________, or complete, ____________________ over the ___________________ and people in his or her ________________.
-Absolute __________________ did not share ____________ with ______________, with ________________________, or with anyone ___________. From the _________ to the ____________, much of Europe was governed by __________________________________.
-French kings had not always been __________________________. Over a period of about __________ years, starting in the late _____, French ___________ had gradually taken _____________ away from the ____________________.
-Much of this ____________ of _______________ was accomplished not by a ___________ but by a ______________. Cardinal __________________ served as chief __________________ to Louis XIV’s father ______________________________________.
-To limit the ______________ of the French ___________________, Richelieu allowed _____________________________ to buy titles of _________________________. Then he ____________________ the __________________ of some of their _____________________.
-He also started ____________________ for the French government. These ____________________ earned a great _______________ of ______________ for the ________________. Altogether, as these changes made the __________________________, the king became _____________________ and more _____________________.
-Both ____________________ and ___________________ died in 1643, and _________________ became king. He was the _________ monarch of France for ____________________________________.
-King Louis XIV was so _______________ that he became known as the __________________. Just as the _________________ was the center of the ____________________, Louis XIV was the _________ of the _________________.
-He lived in incredible ________________ at ___________________, his huge __________________ outside ___________. It took forty years to complete this ___________________________. At times, as many as _________________ laborers worked on its ____________.
-Many ______________ lived at the __________________________ with the king. Having the ______________ at __________________ made it easier for _____________ to keep ____________________. At home on their ___________________, they might have become a __________________________________.
-To keep the nobles _____________, Louis XIV gave huge ________ with fabulous ______________________. For the most part, the king also excluded the _________________________________________.
-All of this ________________ and ___________________ was very ___________________. To raise the _________________, the king ________________________. This meant that the ______________ and least ________________________ people in France __________ for the _________________________________________________.
-King Louis XIV had more _______________ and ______________ than any other ______________ in _______________. And he wanted __________________ to have more ________________ and ________________ than any other __________________________.
-To accomplish this goal, he encouraged the ____________________ and supported ________________ to build an ________________ in _____________ and in the ____________________. Louis also went to __________ to gain ____________________. From 1667 to 1713, France was almost constantly at _____________________________.
-These wars cost ________________ of _______________, yet they won France _____________ in the way of _______________ or __________________. By the time _____________________ died in 1715, France had ______________________. Even the ___________ at ______________________ had to be _________________ to help pay for _____________________________________.
II. A Powerful Queen of England (page 173)
-Nearly a _______________ before __________________________ took the throne of France, ______________________ already had a ________________________ ruling over a ____________________.
-The monarch, however, was a woman—______________________. She became the most ___________________ and _______________ ruler _____________________________ had ever known.
-When _________________ became queen in _________, she found herself in a ____________ of great _____________________. Her grandfather, _____________, had ended ________________ among local _____________. He had made sure that ___________ monarch would be more _________________ than any of the __________.
-Her father, _____________, had broken away from the Roman ________________ Church and started a new _________________, the Church ________________. The English ___________________ became head of the _____________________ and no longer had to _____________________ with the Church based in _____________.
-Like her father, Elizabeth was ______________________ and ____________________. She spoke _____________ and ________, and she could read the __________________________ languages of __________________ and ___________.
-Unlike her father, who was married __________________________, Elizabeth never __________________. She knew that if she _________________, she would lose ____________ of her __________________ to her ___________________________.
-Elizabeth was ______________________ to gain the support of the _____________________. After she became _____________, she often __________________ through the ______________________ so her _____________ could ______________. The English people came to ______________________________________________.
-Elizabeth’s rule, from ___________________, is called the _________________________. During this time, ______________ grew increasingly ______________ and _____________________.
-Elizabeth strengthened England by using _____________________ to prevent ____________________ between ___________________ and the ___________________ who were still __________________ in England.
-She made _____________ that England remained a _____________ _____________ and that the monarch ________________________ of the _____________________. However, she also allowed much of ______________________________ to be practiced in the English _______________________________.
-At first, Elizabeth avoided _______________ with other European _______________. She used the _________________ of her _________________ with their _________________ as one way to ______________. Meanwhile, Elizabeth supported _______________ power and ____________________________ in the Americas.
-The English sea captain _____________________ sailed around the world. He also ____________________ Elizabeth by leading __________________ on Spanish ships _______________________ from the __________________.
-By ___________, Spain had had ________________. The Spanish king sent a _______________________, or fleet of ships, to invade _________________. With the help of a ___________________ that __________________ much of the _______________________, the ______________ English ships _____________________ the larger, ___________________ Spanish vessels. Now England had the most ______________________________________________________.
-Elizabethan England was not only _____________________, it also enjoyed a ____________________ of _____________, __________, and ___________________. Elizabeth loved the ________________. She often ________________ and helped ______________________ the plays of __________________________. Today, _____________ is regarded as perhaps the __________________________________ in the English language.
III. Strong Rulers Unite Spain (page 175)
-Spain, too, came under the control of ________________________. When _______________________ and _______________________ married in 1469, their separate _______________ became _______. Together, they ruled almost all of ____________________________.
-Like other European monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella worked to _______________________________________________. They also used their power to ______________________ the Roman Catholic Church throughout ___________________. Under their rule, ____________ were forced to ______________ to ______________ or _________________________________________.
-The ______________, North African Muslims who had controlled part of ___________________ since the ____________, were driven _______________________________.
-Ferdinand and Isabella also established the ___________________, a court that ____________ and ______________ people who did not ________________ the Roman Catholic Church.
-The Spanish monarchs also supported _______________________, including those of ___________________________. These voyages eventually led to the _________________ of a _________________
________________________________ in the Americas.
IV. Absolute Power in Russia (page 175)
-Russia shared many of the ________________ and _____________ developments of Europe, including the rule of __________________ ___________________. But Russia was also ___________________.
-First of all, _____________ of Russia is in _____________. Much of it is in _____________. Today, Russia extends all the way from the ________________ coast of _______________ to the coasts of the ______________ and the _____________ seas in ______________.
-In the 700s and 800s, __________, a city in present-day ________________, became an important center of ___________. It developed ties to the _____________________________, which sent ____________________________________________________.
-In 957, Princess _____________ converted to _________________. Her grandson, _______________, expanded the ________________ ruled by ___________________ and also made Orthodox _______________________________________________________.
-During the early 1200s, the _____________ had conquered much of ____________. In the 1230s, ________________ armies known as the _____________________ turned west. They took over much of ________________________________________________.
-The Mongols ruled _____________ for ______ years. Although they required ___________________, the Muslim ____________ allowed Russians to ________________________ and brought peace to their ______________________. However, Mongol _______ cut Russia off from _____________________________________ and many of the _____________________________________________________.
-During this period, the _________________ of Moscow gained _____________. Moscow was a center ________________, and its princes were the ______________________ for the ____________ rulers. The areas they controlled were called __________________. Meanwhile, the _____________________________________ made Moscow its headquarters.
-In the _________, the leaders of __________________ led other Russian groups in _______________ against ______________ rule. By 1505, _______________________ of Moscow had brought much of Russia under __________________________. He then turned to ___________________________________ by limiting the power of Russian _______________________.
-Ivan the Great, as he came to be called, declared himself ________ ____________________________, “in authority like the highest ___________.” His grandson, ____________________, strengthened the monarch’s ________ even more. He was crowned ___________, the Russian word for “________________” or “________________.”
-Peter the Great became __________ of Russia in __________ and ruled for more than ______________. Peter ________________ the Russian ________________________ and improved Russian _____________________ and ____________________ by adopting European ______________________________.
-But he also strengthened ______________, which had already ______________________ in the rest of Europe. Peter _________________ Russia’s _________________, but he could not achieve one of his _________________________: a _____________ that would not __________________________ in the winter, so that Russia could ____________________________________________.
-Like other ________________________ Peter the Great limited the _____________________ in order to __________________ his own position. Peter also wanted ____________________ to be more like _____________________________. He built __________________, a ____________________ city near the __________________ coast, which he called a “_________________________.” The city became a symbol of _________________________ and his desire to make ___________________________________________________.
Section 4: Conquests in the Americas and Africa (page 180)
I. Introduction (page 180)
-About a hundred years before _______________________ had sat down to a _______________________, Moctezuma was the supreme ruler of the ___________________________ in the Valley of Mexico. __________________ was powerful, but the __________________ believed in gods that ______________________________________.
-An Aztec _______________________ said that long ago the white-skinned god __________________ had sailed away to the ________. The ________________ believed that someday _________________ would return _____________________________________________.
-In ______________ that seemed to happen. __________________ heard about a _____________ of _____________________ who had landed on the ______________________. He wondered if these men could be _______________________________________________.
II. Spain’s Empire in the Americas (page 181)
-The leader of the ______________________________ was not an Aztec ________ but a __________________________________. A ______________________ was a Spanish ________________ who ______________________ Native American _________ in the 1500s.
-Ever since _______________had brought back ________________ of new ____________, European had ________________ about the ___________ that _____________________________. The Spanish sent ___________________ to look for ______________ and other ___________________________.
-One of these ________________ was led by __________________. Soon after landing in __________________, Cortes heard about the _________________________. He also heard that many of the local _______________ hated the _______________ because the Aztecs _________________________ and __________________________. Cortes ______________________ some of these _______________ to help them ______________________________________.
-Cortes headed for the ________________ with ________ soldiers and ____________________. Aztec ________________ saw them coming. They had never _________________________________.
-Moctezuma’s spies _________________________ the Spanish as “supernatural ___________________________________________ _____________________________________________________.”
-When Cortes and his men arrived in ________________________, the Aztec capital, they were _______________. The city was larger than any _______________________________________________.
-The Aztec leader ____________________ welcomed ____________ and his men. He and _________________________ were afraid that ____________ might be the returning ________________________, so they treated him and his men as __________________________.
-In order to gain control of the Aztecs, ________________________. The Aztec people soon _________________. Moctezuma was _____, but the _______________ drove ______________________ and his army ________________________________________.
-Outside the city, Cortes ___________________. The Spaniards and their _______________________ allies attacked ________________. In __________, the Aztecs finally _____________________. By then, about ________________________ had died, and 30,000 of Cortes’s ______________ had been ________________. Tenochtitlan and the Aztec __________________________________________________.
-Cortes took control _____________________, which he called __________________________. He built his new capital, Mexico City, on the _____________________________________________.
-Cortes tried to ___________ life in __________________ like that in his ____________________. He imported ______________________ and ___________________. He also introduced the _____________ system, in which the _____________________ gave Spanish settlers the right to the ___________________________________________ who lived in a certain area.
-The settlers were expected to _______________________________ to Christianity and to __________________________. In reality, the settlers treated _______________________. Many Native Americans were ______________________________, and many others died of ____________________________________________.
-Like the Aztecs, the Incas had built __________________________. Their vast _______________ covered most of the _______________ of __________________ and was tied together by a well-constructed ________________________________________________.
-For all its __________________ and ______________, however, the Incan ______________ could not ____________________________. In ___________, the conquistador __________________ led his men into the __________________________. He drove ______________, and within ____________________ he and his __________________ had ___________________ an empire of some _________________.
-How did he do it? First, a ____________ was already ____________ within the ____________________. Some of the people __________ against _______________ rule sided with ______________________.
-Further, as _______________ had done, Pizarro ________________ the empire’s _______________. Leaderless, the _________________ was easy ____________. Finally, European ____________________ such as _____________ killed or ____________________ millions of people __________________________________.
-The Spanish takeover of the _______________ and ____________ empires eventually led to __________________________ of most of ________________ and ____________________. The riches of ______________ and _________________ that Spain brought back to Europe ______________________________________________.
-The large numbers of _____________________ changed the course of history in the _______________. And Spaniards ______________ _______________ of the Native Americans—along with the ____________________ they accidentally brought—devastated the ___________________________________________.
III. The Columbian Exchange (Links-page 183)
-The movement of peoples from ______________ and ___________ to the Americas ____________ up a global ___________________ of _____________ and ____________. Europeans introduced _______, ______________, ____________, and __________ to the Americas.
-From Africa and Asia, they brought such plants as ______________, _______________, and ______________. All became ____________ in the Americas.
-The introduction of ______________ crops such as __________, _________________, and ______________ from the Americas made it easier to ______________________________________________.
-Because ________________ famous voyages made this exchange possible, it is called the __________________________________.
IV. The African Slave Trade (page 183)
-Europeans did not ____________ their _________________ to the Americas. They were looking for ____________________________.
-Prince Henry the Navigator helped ____________________ between _______________ and the west coast of _________________. Soon, ____________, ______________, and ________________ ships also sailed to ________________ to trade for ___________, __________, and _____________. Then they began to trade for ______________ _____________________ as well.
-There was a __________________ for __________________ in the Americas. ________________ and ________________ settlers in the Americas wanted _________________________________________.
-At first they _____________ Native Americans. When many of these ______________________, the Europeans began _______________ enslaved ___________________. Some historians put the ________ of ____________________________ taken to the Americas at about ____________________________.
-As many as _________________ may have _____________ on the ______________ and ________________ slave ships. Men, women, and children were ______________________ in the dark _________ of the ships. The air was __________________ that there was often not _____________________ to keep ________________________.
-The slave trade created ________________, both in the Americas and ________________. In addition to being ___________________ of their _______________ and taken from their ________________, enslaved Africans _________________________________________.
-In the Americas, ________________ was _____________________ to both ______________ and _____________________ because the society that ___________________ was based on _______________ and _______________________________.
-In Africa, groups who were ________________________ had often ___________________ the people they _________________. Some of ___________________ people were __________________. But in the ______________, the slave ____________________ became big _____________________________.
-As the demand for __________________________ in the Americas, European ______________________ lured African groups into wars ________________________. These wars guaranteed the ________ a steady _________________________________________.
-Other people were _______________ in ___________________ and sold by African _____________ and _________________ to the __________________________. These captives were exchanged for _________________, __________________, _______________, and ___________________________.
-European _______________________ wanted Africans who _______________________, ______________, and _____________ to work on their _____________________ in the _______________. The loss of so many _______________________ in their prime was a serious blow to ___________________________________________.
-Wars also caused _______________ and __________________. These harmful effects of the ______________________ lasted for _________________________.
Section 1: The Renaissance and Reformation (page 154)
I. Introduction
-Leonardo da Vinci was just one of the many gifted Europeans who lived between about 1300 and 1600. This was the time of the Renaissance, a period of rebirth of learning in Europe.
II. The Renaissance (page 155)
-The Renaissance began in northern Italy. During the Middle Ages, Northern Italy, where Leonardo lived, was different from the rest of Western Europe. Most people in northern Europe lived under feudalism. They labored for their lords and depended on their lords for protection. Manors, rather than cities, were the centers of economic life.
-In northern Italy, however, people lived in city-states, or cities that were both cities and independent states. They had their own governments and were not as closely controlled by nobles of the Church. Instead, wealthy families or wealthy merchants held power.
-These merchants controlled European trade with Asia. Italian merchants bought precious goods such as silk and spices in Muslim trading centers around the Mediterranean Sea. They then transported these goods throughout Europe, reselling them at high prices.
-The city of Venice, built on islands in the Adriatic Sea, was a leader in this trade.
-Being at the center of this lively international trade exposed Italian city-states to other cultures and ideas. And because trade brought them wealth, many Italians had more time to think, to read, and to create and enjoy art.
-The wealthy became great patrons, or financial supporters, of scholarship and the arts. By the 1430s, the city of Florence, ruled by the prosperous Medici family, had become a center for the arts.
-In the 1300s, the scholars and artists of Italy began to look at life in a new way. First, they looked back—not to the Middle Ages, but to the literature, science, and art of ancient Greece and Rome.
-Ruins of fine architecture and realistic statues were all around them, especially in the city of Rome. These works inspired study and curiosity as well as a new focus on the achievements of individual people.
-Renaissance scholars and artists developed a new focus on the nature, ideals, and achievements of human beings, rather than the divine. This philosophy is called humanism. The ideal of this new era was someone with talent and achievements in many fields. Such a person came to be called a Renaissance man.
-A rebirth of culture occurred somewhat later in northern Europe. In the early 1400s, artists such as Jan van Eyck developed a distinctive Flemish style of painting. By the 1450s, newly prosperous cities in the north were the center of a Northern Renaissance.
-Scholars and artists, such as the German artist Albrecht Durer, traveled to Italy and helped spread the idea of the Italian Renaissance in the north. By the late 1500s, the Renaissance had reached England, where the plays of William Shakespeare drew large audiences.
III. The Renaissance Artist (page 157)
-Artists of the Middle Ages had not painted people or nature realistically. Their goal had been to celebrate God, the saints, and the Church.
-In contrast, the artists of the Renaissance studied and copied the more realistic art of ancient Greece and Rome. While they continued to do religious paintings, they often used the architecture and clothing of their own time for these biblical scenes.
-In keeping with their interest in individual achievement, these artists also painted realistic portraits of important people of the day—including their patrons. One of the most famous Renaissance paintings, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vince, depicts a woman who was not famous. In fact, to this day, no one is sure who she was.
-To better understand how to portray people, Italian painters and sculptors studied the bones and muscles of the body. Some artists even dissected corpses to learn about anatomy.
-Renaissance painters also used a new technique called perspective to make objects and landscapes look more realistic. By making distant objects smaller, artists could create a scene that appeared three-dimensional. They also used light and shadow to make objects look solid.
-Michelangelo was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance. He could sculpt marble so that it looked like flowing cloth, rippling muscle, and twisting hair. However, his most famous work is not a sculpture but a series of paintings that cover the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City in Rome.
-Painting and sculpture were not Michelangelo’s only achievement. He was also a poet and an architect. Michelangelo designed the dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome as well as military fortifications for the city of Florence.
IV. The Protestant Reformation (page 158)
-In 1517, only five years after Michelangelo finished the Sistine Chapel, a German monk named Martin Luther began to criticize the Church. Following the custom of the time, he posted a list of his complaints on the door of his church in Wittenberg, Germany.
-This act is regarded as the beginning of the Reformation, an effort to reform or improve the Catholic Church. At first, instead of reforms, it led to the establishment of new forms of Christianity.
-Luther disagreed with many of the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church of the 1500s. He believed that people did not need popes or other Church officials to tell them what God wanted them to do.
-In Luther’s view, faith in God, coupled with common sense, and not obedience to the Church, was the key to a proper Christian life.
-Luther also felt that ordinary people could understand the Bible for themselves. He translated the Bible into German so that ordinary people could read it. He was in favor of creating town schools that would teach everyone to read.
-Luther especially despised the Church practice of selling indulgences, or pardons for sins. At that time, people were asked to pay money to the Church to be forgiven for their sins.
-Luther felt the Church did not have the power to exchange God’s forgiveness for money. What’s more, the Church often sold indulgences more to raise money than for any truly religious reason.
-In Germany, priests, nobles, and ordinary people rallied behind Luther’s ideas. Some priests agreed with Luther about corruption in the Church. Nobles were eager to limit the Church’s overwhelming power. They wanted to collect their own taxes and make their own laws, like the leaders of Italy’s city-states.
-Meanwhile, a revolution in technology had begun in Germany. In the 1400s, the German printer Johann Gutenberg invented the first European printing press using moveable type. He printed a Bible in 1455.
-The development of the European printing press helped spread Luther’s writings across Europe. Bibles printed in German became available. By the time Luther died in 1546, most of the people in what is now northern Germany were Lutheran, or followers of Luther’s teachings.
-Soon, people in much of northern Europe held views similar to Luther’s. They created their own Christian churches, free of Roman Catholic control. These came to be called Protestant churches because they grew out of protests against the power and abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. Their members, even today, are called Protestants.
-Many Roman Catholics agreed with some criticisms made by Protestants. Instead of turning away from the Church, however, they worked to reform it. As part of this Catholic Reformation, Pope Paul III set up the Council of Trent in 1545. For almost twenty years, it worked to correct the worst abuses of the Church. But it also maintained the basic teachings of the Catholic Church.
-The Catholic Reformation also strove to bring Protestants back to the Catholic Church and to make sure that Catholics held strictly to Church teachings.
-In an effort to wipe out heresy, or beliefs that did not conform to Church teachings, the Church strengthened the power of the Inquisition. The Inquisition was a system of church courts that used secret testimony and torture to root out heresy and force non-Catholics to convert to Catholicism.
-At the same time, the effort to reform the Church led to a rebirth of sincere faith among many Catholics. St. Vincent de Paul worked to help the poor people of Paris. Teresa of Avila set up a new order of nuns in Spain.
-Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus. Jesuits, as members of this society are called, were among the best- educated people of Europe at this time. They became well known as teachers and missionaries.
Section 2: The Age of Exploration (page 161)
I. Introduction
-During the Middle Ages, Europeans had done little exploring beyond their own shores. Except for the Holy Land, they had very little knowledge of, or interest in, other lands.
-During the Renaissance, however, Europeans became curious about the world around them. This led to an interest in science and technology. It also led to exploration.
II. Europeans Begin to Explore (page 162)
-Driven by curiosity, a desire for trade, and great advances in sailing technology, Europeans soon traveled far beyond their homelands—and all the way around the world.
-From about 1400 to 1600, Europeans sailed across the vast oceans to explore Asia, Africa, and the Americas. This period is called the Age of Exploration. Eventually, Europeans would control much of these lands and change the course of world history.
-Before this time, European ships were not capable of such long ocean crossings. By the 1400s, though, Portuguese shipbuilders had developed a new type of ship called the caravel. Strong, maneuverable, and able to sail against the wind, it was the best sailing vessel of its time.
-The Europeans also had two improved navigation tools, the mariner’s compass and the astrolabe. Further, they had learned how to make better, more accurate maps. Now they were able to set out on long voyages.
-By the early 1400s, many Europeans had grown tired of paying high prices to Italian merchants for Asian goods. These merchants, in turn, had paid high prices to the Muslim traders of the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the trade routes between Europe and Asia.
-Europeans wanted to gain control of the rich trade with Asia themselves. To do this, they would have to find a new route to Asia—one that did not use the Mediterranean Sea and the land routes controlled by the Ottomans.
-Two European nations, Portugal and Spain, set out to find a sea route starting from their Atlantic coasts.
III. The Portuguese Head East (page 163)
-By the 1400s, the small nation of Portugal was already a strong and successful seafaring power. It had even conquered some territory on the coast of North Africa.
-The Portuguese wanted to continue exploring the African coast. And they thought that the best sea route to Asia might be one that went east, around the southern tip of Africa.
-The search for this eastern sea route was led by Prince Henry, the son of Portugal’s king. In 1419, he opened a school to encourage exploration. He invited mapmakers, shipbuilders, and expert sailors called navigators from all over the country.
-Henry oversaw more than fifty expeditions. Although he did not go exploring himself, his work won him the title of Henry the Navigator.
-As expeditions pushed farther south along the western coast of Africa, sailors set up trading posts there. They also gathered information on winds, currents, and coastlines.
-Henry the Navigator died in 1460, but his dream of an eastern sea route to Asia lived on. In 1488, the Portuguese sea captain Bartolomeu Dias sailed all the way around the southern tip of Africa, which we now call the Cape of Good Hope.
-Ten years later, Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, up Africa’s eastern coast, and then across the India Ocean to India. He returned with a cargo of spices and precious stones.
-Soon, the Portuguese seized important ports around the Indian Ocean. They had their trade route to Asia.
IV. Columbus Heads West (page 164)
-While the Portuguese were exploring to the east, an Italian sea captain named Christopher Columbus became convinced that he could reach Asia by sailing west, across the Atlantic. At that time, educated Europeans knew that the world was round. It made sense to Columbus that a ship sailing west would eventually reach Asia.
-Columbus convinced Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to pay for an expedition that headed west across the Atlantic. They knew of the great riches to be gained if Spain had a sea route to Asia.
-What neither Columbus nor the Spanish monarchs—nor anyone else—knew was that two huge continents lay between Europe and Asia. So in August 1492, Columbus set sail for Asia—westward across the Atlantic Ocean.
-Columbus’s expedition included three ships—the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria—and about ninety sailors. After two months, on October 12, 1492, they landed on a little island in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of North America.
-Because he thought he had reached the Indies in Asia, Columbus called the people he found there Indians. He claimed the land for Spain.
-News of Columbus’s discovery electrified Europe. Spain and Portugal became rivals. They tried to stop each other from claiming lands in the Americas. In 1494, they signed a treaty that set a Line of Demarcation through the Americas at about 50 degrees W longitude.
-Spain had the right to settle west of the line. Portugal could do the same east of the line.
-England sent sailor John Cabot across the Atlantic five years after Columbus’s first voyage. He reached what is now Canada. A few years later, his son Sebastian followed.
-His goal was to find a Northwest Passage, a way to sail through North America and then on to Asia. Many other European explorers searched unsuccessfully for a way to continue the western sea route to Asia.
-In 1513, a Spanish adventurer named Vasco Nunez de Balboa led a land expedition across a narrow but hazardous strip of land in Central America. From a mountaintop, he saw a huge ocean to the south, which he claimed for Spain.
-The Spanish called it the South Sea. Balboa had become the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the shores of America. The Pacific was the sea that would eventually take Europeans all the way to Asia.
V. All the Way Around the World (page 166)
-Even after Columbus reached the Americas, Europeans did not understand how large Earth was. They believed that Japan, which they called Cipango, was separated from the Americas by a narrow channel of water.
-The Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan was eager to cross that channel. But one problem still remained: how to get around the Americas.
-With backing from the Spanish king, Magellan set sail in 1519 with five ships. They sailed west to South America and then south along the South American coast.
-After spending a stormy winter on land, some of the sailors wanted to turn back, but Magellan forced them to continue. Finally, they located a narrow, twisting passage near the tip of South America. Today, it is called the Strait of Magellan, in the explorer’s honor.
-It took Magellan thirty-eight days to sail through the strait. Strong currents and fierce winds made the journey difficult. Only three of the five ships made it through.
-The three ships emerged from the treacherous strait into the sea that Balboa had sighted. Magellan thought this ocean was much less stormy than the strait, so he called it pacific, which means “peaceful.”
-Magellan and his men had no idea how vast the Pacific Ocean was. Short of food and fresh water, they sailed for three months without sighting any land, except for a few tiny islands.
-Some of the men starved to death, while others died of disease. At last, they reached the Philippines. There, tragedy struck: Magellan was killed when he became involved in a local dispute.
-The expedition continued, but only one ship finally made it back to Spain. Of the roughly 250 sailors who had set sail with Magellan, only eighteen returned.
-On September 8, 1522, the survivors reached Seville, where the Spanish hailed them as the first people to circumnavigate, or sail around, the world.
Section 3: The Age of Powerful Monarchs (page 170)
I. Absolute Rule in France (page 171)
-Louis XIV was king of France in the 1600s and early 1700s. In Europe at this time, people did not choose their leaders. They believed that God chose the king. The king’s authority came directly from God, and was therefore divine. This belief was called the divine right of kings.
-Therefore, it seemed logical that a leader chosen by God should have more power than anyone else. Louis XIV was an absolute monarch, or royal ruler with absolute, or complete, authority over the government and people in his or her kingdom.
-Absolute monarchs did not share power with nobles, with common people, or with anyone else. From the 1400s to the 1700s, much of Europe was governed by absolute monarchs.
-French kings had not always been absolute monarchs. Over a period of about 150 years, starting in the late 1400s, French kings had gradually taken power away from the nobles.
-Much of this transfer of power was accomplished not by a king but by a cardinal. Cardinal Richelieu served as chief minister to Louis XIV’s father King Louis XIII.
-To limit the power of the French nobles, Richelieu allowed wealthy merchants to buy titles of nobility. Then he stripped the nobles of some of their rights.
-He also started businesses for the French government. These businesses earned a great deal of money for the crown. Altogether, as these changes made the nobles weaker, the king became wealthier and more powerful.
-Both Richelieu and Louis XIII died in 1643, and Louis XIV became king. He was the absolute monarch of France for seventy-two years. -King Louis XIV was so powerful that he became known as the Sun King. Just as the sun was the center of the solar system, Louis XIV was the center of the French nation.
-He lived in incredible luxury at Versailles, his huge palace outside Paris. It took forty years to complete this magnificent estate. At times, as many as 30,000 laborers worked on its construction.
-Many nobles lived at the palace of Versailles with the king. Having the nobles at Versailles made it easier for Louis to keep them in check. At home on their estates, they might have become a threat to his power.
-To keep the nobles happy, Louis XIV gave huge parties with fabulous entertainment. For the most part, the king also excluded the nobles from paying taxes.
-All of this luxury and entertainment was very expensive. To raise the money, the king taxed the peasants. This meant that the poorest and least powerful people in France paid for the luxury of the Sun King’s court.
-King Louis XIV had more power and wealth than any other person in France. And he wanted France to have more power and wealth than any other nation in Europe.
-To accomplish this goal, he encouraged the growth of industry and supported efforts to build an empire in Asia and in the Americas. Louis also went to war to gain new territories. From 1667 to 1713, France was almost constantly at war with other European countries.
-These wars cost huge sums of money, yet they won France little in the way of land or power. By the time King Louis XIV died in 1715, France had huge debts. Even the silverware at Versailles had to be sold to help pay for France’s wars.
II. A Powerful Queen of England (page 173)
-Nearly a century before King Louis XIV took the throne of France, England already had a powerful monarch ruling over a golden age.
-The monarch, however, was a woman—Queen Elizabeth I. She became the most powerful and successful ruler England had ever known.
-When Elizabeth I became queen in 1588, she found herself in a position of great power. Her grandfather, Henry VII, had ended fighting among local lords. He had made sure that England’s monarch would be more powerful than any of the nobles.
-Her father, Henry VIII, had broken away from the Roman Catholic Church and started a new Protestant church, the Church of England. The English monarch became head of the Church of England and no longer had to share power with the Church based in Rome.
-Like her father, Elizabeth was determined and intelligent. She spoke French and Italian, and she could read the classical languages of Greek and Latin.
-Unlike her father, who was married six times, Elizabeth never married. She knew that if she married, she would lose some of her authority to her husband.
-Elizabeth was wise enough to gain the support of the English people. After she became queen, she often traveled through the English countryside so her people could see her. The English people came to love and admire their queen.
-Elizabeth’s rule, from 1558-1603, is called the Elizabethan Age. During this time, England grew increasingly powerful and prosperous. Elizabeth strengthened England by using compromise to prevent religious war between Protestants and the Catholics who were still numerous in England.
-She made sure that England remained a Protestant nation and that the monarch remained head of the Church of England. However, she also allowed much of Catholic tradition to be practiced in the English church.
-At first, Elizabeth avoided war with other European powers. She used the possibility of her marriage with their kings as one way to prevent war. Meanwhile, Elizabeth supported English sea power and exploration in the Americas.
-The English sea captain Sir Francis Drake sailed around the world. He also delighted Elizabeth by leading attacks on Spanish ships carrying treasure from the Americas.
-By 1588, Spain had had enough. The Spanish king sent a huge armada, or fleet of ships, to invade England. With the help of a storm that destroyed much of the armada, the lighter English ships defeated the larger, awkward Spanish vessels. Now England had the most powerful navy in the world.
-Elizabethan England was not only powerful, it also enjoyed a golden age of science, art, and literature. Elizabeth loved the theater. She often attended and helped promote the plays of William Shakespeare. Today, Shakespeare is regarded as perhaps the greatest writer in the English language.
III. Strong Rulers Unite Spain (page 175)
-Spain, too, came under the control of strong monarchs. When Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile married in 1469, their separate kingdoms became one. Together, they ruled almost all of present-day Spain.
-Like other European monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella worked to limit the power of the nobles. They also used their power to strengthen the Roman Catholic Church throughout Spain. Under their rule, Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism or leave the country.
-The Moors, North African Muslims who had controlled part of southern Spain since the 700s, were driven out of Spain in 1492.
-Ferdinand and Isabella also established the Spanish Inquisition, a court that tried and executed people who did not obey the Roman Catholic Church.
-The Spanish monarchs also supported voyages of exploration, including those of Christopher Columbus. These voyages eventually led to the creation of a huge Spanish empire in the Americas.
IV. Absolute Power in Russia (page 175)
-Russia shared many of the religious and political developments of Europe, including the rule of Christian absolute monarchs. But Russia was also different.
-First of all, not all of Russia is in Europe. Much of it is in Asia. Today, Russia extends all the way from the Pacific coast of Asia to the coasts of the Baltic and the Black seas in Europe.
-In the 700s and 800s, Kiev, a city in present-day Ukraine, became an important center of trade. It developed ties to the Byzantine Empire, which sent Christian missionaries to Kiev.
-In 957, Princess Olga converted to Christianity. Her grandson, Vladimir, expanded the territory ruled by Kiev and also made Orthodox Christianity its official religion.
-During the early 1200s, the Mongols had conquered much of Asia. In the 1230s, Mongol armies known as the Golden Horde turned west. They took over much of Russia including Kiev.
-The Mongols ruled Russia for 240 years. Although they required heavy tribute, the Muslim Mongols allowed Russians to practice Christianity and brought peace to their large empire. However, Mongol rule cut Russia off from Western Europe and many of the advances being made there.
-During this period, the princes of Moscow gained power. Moscow was a center of trade, and its princes were the tax collectors for the Mongol rulers. The areas they controlled were called Muscovy. Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church made Moscow its headquarters.
-In the 1300s, the leaders of Moscow led other Russian groups in a rebellion against Mongol rule. By 1505, Prince Ivan of Moscow had brought much of Russia under his own control. He then turned to strengthening his power by limiting the power of Russian nobles.
-Ivan the Great, as he came to be called, declared himself absolute ruler of Russia, “in authority like the highest God.” His grandson, Ivan the Terrible, strengthened the monarch’s power even more. He was crowned tsar, the Russian word for “Caesar” or “emperor.”
-Peter the Great became tsar of Russia in 1682 and ruled for more than forty years. Peter modernized the Russian army and navy and improved Russian farming and industry by adopting European technology.
-But he also strengthened serfdom, which had already died out in the rest of Europe. Peter expanded Russia’s territory, but he could not achieve one of his major goals: a port that would not freeze over in the winter, so that Russia could trade by sea all year.
-Like other absolute monarchs, Peter the Great limited the power of nobles in order to strengthen his own position. Peter also wanted Russia to be more like Western Europe. He built St. Petersburg, a magnificent city near the Baltic coast, which he called a “window on the West.” The city became a symbol of Peter’s power and his desire to make Russia a modern nation.
Section 4: Conquests in the Americas and Africa (page 180)
I. Introduction (page 180)
-About a hundred years before Louis XIV had sat down to a splendid dinner, Moctezuma was the supreme ruler of the Aztec empire in the Valley of Mexico. Moctezuma was powerful, but the Aztecs believed in gods that were even more powerful.
-An Aztec legend said that long ago the white-skinned god Quetzalcoatl had sailed away to the east. The Aztecs believed that someday Quetzalcoatl would return to rule them.
-In 1519 that seemed to happen. Moctezuma heard about a group of pale-skinned men who had landed on the east coast. He wondered if these men could be Quetzalcoatl and his followers.
II. Spain’s Empire in the Americas (page 181)
-The leader of the pale-faced men was not an Aztec god but a Spanish conquistador. A conquistador was a Spanish soldier who conquered Native American peoples in the 1500s.
-Ever since Columbus had brought back reports of new lands, European had dreamed about the riches that might be found there. The Spanish sent expeditions to look for gold and other treasures.
-One of these expeditions was led by Hernan Cortes. Soon after landing in present-day Mexico, Cortes heard about the wealth of the Aztecs. He also heard that many of the local people hated the Aztecs because the Aztecs had conquered them and taxed them heavily. Cortes persuaded some of these groups to help them fight the Aztecs.
-Cortes headed for the Aztec capital with 500 soldiers and 6 horses. Aztec spies saw them coming. They had never seen horses before.
-Moctezuma’s spies described the Spanish as “supernatural creatures riding on hornless deer, armed in iron, fearless as gods.”
-When Cortes and his men arrived in Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, they were amazed. The city was larger than any European city at the time.
-The Aztec leader Moctezuma welcomed Cortes and his men. He and his advisors were afraid that Cortes might be the returning Quetzalcoatl, so they treated him and his men as honored guests.
-In order to gain control of the Aztecs, Cortes kidnapped Moctezuma. The Aztec people soon rebelled. Moctezuma was killed, but the Aztecs drove Cortes and his army out of Tenochtitlan.
-Outside the city, Cortes regrouped. The Spaniards and their Native American allies attacked Tenochtitlan. In 1521, the Aztecs finally surrendered. By then, about 240,000 Aztecs had died, and 30,000 of Cortes’s allies had been killed. Tenochtitlan and the Aztec empire lay in ruins.
-Cortes took control of the region, which he called New Spain. He built his new capital, Mexico City, on the site of Tenochtitlan.
-Cortes tried to make life in New Spain like that in his home country. He imported European plants and farm animals. He also introduced the encomienda system, in which the Spanish king gave Spanish settlers the right to the labor of the Native Americans who lived in a certain area.
-The settlers were expected to convert the Native Americans to Christianity and to treat them well. In reality, the settlers treated them as slaves. Many Native Americans were worked to death, and many others died of European diseases.
-Like the Aztecs, the Incas had built an advanced civilization. Their vast empire covered most of the western coast of South America and was tied together by a well-constructed network of roads and bridges.
-For all its achievements and power, however, the Incan empire could not withstand the Spanish. In 1531, the conquistador Francisco Pizarro led his men into the northern Incan empire. He drove south, and within two years he and his 200 soldiers had conquered an empire of some 12 million people.
-How did he do it? First, a war was already raging within the Incan empire. Some of the people rebelling against Incan rule sided with Pizarro.
-Further, as Cortes had done, Pizarro kidnapped the empire’s ruler. Leaderless, the empire was easy prey. Finally, European diseases such as smallpox killed or weakened millions of people in the region.
-The Spanish takeover of the Aztec and Incan empires eventually led to Spanish control of most of Central and South America. The riches of gold and silver that Spain brought back to Europe made Spain even more powerful.
-The large numbers of Spanish settlers changed the course of history in the Americas. And Spaniards cruel treatment of the Native Americans—along with the diseases they accidentally brought—devastated the people of the Americas.
III. The Columbian Exchange (Links-page 183)
-The movement of peoples from Africa and Europe to the Americas opened up a global exchange of goods and ideas. Europeans introduced cattle, chickens, goats, and pigs to the Americas.
-From Africa and Asia, they brought such plants as bananas, coffee, and sugar cane. All became major foods in the Americas.
-The introduction of food crops such as corn, potatoes, and beans from the Americas made it easier to feed more people in Europe and Africa.
-Because Columbus’s famous voyages made this exchange possible, it is called the Columbian Exchange.
IV. The African Slave Trade (page 183)
-Europeans did not limit their conquests to the Americas. They were looking for riches in other lands as well.
-Prince Henry the Navigator helped start trade between Portugal and the west coast of Africa. Soon, British, French, and Dutch ships also sailed to Africa to trade for gold, ivory, and pepper. Then they began to trade for enslaved people as well.
-There was a market for slaves in the Americas. Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the Americas wanted workers for their plantations and mines.
-At first they enslaved Native Americans. When many of these slaves died, the Europeans began importing enslaved Africans. Some historians put the number of African slaves taken to the Americas at about 11 million.
-As many as 2 million may have died on the overcrowded and unsanitary slave ships. Men, women, and children were packed together in the dark hold of the ships. The air was so foul that there was often not enough oxygen to keep a candle burning.
-The slave trade created a disaster, both in the Americas and in Africa. In addition to being deprived of their liberty and taken from their homeland, enslaved Africans suffered terrible brutality.
-In the Americas, slavery was damaging to both slaves and slaveholders because the society that developed was based on injustice and inequality.
-In Africa, groups who were victorious in war had often enslaved the people they conquered. Some of these enslaved people were sold to foreigners. But in the 1500s, the slave trade became big business.
-As the demand for slaves increased in the Americas, European slave traders lured African groups into wars against their neighbors. These wars guaranteed the traders a steady supply of slaves.
-Other people were kidnapped in slave raids and sold by African rulers and traders to the Europeans. These captives were exchanged for textiles, metalwork, weapons, and luxury goods.
-European settlers wanted Africans who were young, healthy, and strong to work on their plantations in the Americas. The loss of so many young people in their prime was a serious blow to many African societies.
-Wars also caused death and destruction. These harmful effects of the slave trade lasted for centuries.
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