Explorer Notes:

  • In the 1200s explorer Marco Polo traveled the known world. News of fantastic riches and spices in the east spread through an account of his travels.
  • In Europe, demand for spices, dyes, perfumes, jewels and silks increased.
  • For centuries, Europeans traveled Polo's route, “The Silk Road" – to trade with the East. This 4,000 mile network of routes started in China and ended on the Mediterranean Sea.
  • Travelers navigated difficult/dangerous terrain. Europeans looked for a more efficient route.
  • Italian Christopher Columbus proposed an idea to sail a western route to Asia. Spanish monarchs financed his excursion.
  • On October 12, 1492, Columbus landed on San Salvador. Believing he had found India, he called inhabitants Indians.Columbus made four trips to North America; he always believed he had discovered a westward route to the Far East’s riches.
  • Spain & Portugal battled for legal rights to explore the New World. In 1493, to prevent war, Pope Alexander VI invented the Line of Demarcation, dividing unexplored areas between Spain and Portugal. This appeased the monarchs and prevented war.

/ Without realizing it, Pope Alexander VI ensured that, for at least the next century, Spain would be the dominant world power. Spain claimed all of the lands in the New World. Believing Florida was an island, they named it La Florida.

Spain’s focus on exploration can be summed up as God, Gold & Glory:

1. God—Religious reasons; desire to convert Native Americans to Christianity (Catholicism).

2. Gold—Economic reasons; conquistadors sought fortune and fame & monarchs desired wealth for kingdom.

3. Glory—Military motivations; European monarchs desired enhanced power,might and expansion of realm.

  • Spain settled in South and Central America,Florida, and Georgia’s Barrier Islands in the 1500’s.
  • In 1540, Hernando De Soto became the first European to explore interior of Georgia
  • In 1565, the Spanish moved their colonial capital to St. Augustine
  • Spanish missions established throughout Georgia’s barrier islands, including Cumberland, St. Simons & Sapelo islands.
  • Georgia was known as GUALE.

Spain’s forceful domination of the natives they encountered effected many consequences. (Some intended & some unintended.) Ultimately, native cultures were irrevocably changed.

  1. Conversion--Native Americans were forced to accept Catholicism (or die.)
  2. Slavery--Thousands of Native Americans were enslaved and transported to other Spanish colonies.
  3. Death-- Many Native Americans were killed by Spanish weapons,
  1. Extinction—Lack of immunity to European diseases. Millions were killed by smallpox, measles, influenza and whooping cough. Some tribes (ex., CarebArawok) became extinct.

Spanish Missions in Georgia
(Map courtesy of New Georgia Encyclopedia) / Hernando De Soto’s Journey through the Southeast
(National Geographic.org)

Most Europeans believed in mercantilism,the economic policy that inspired world leaders to build up their nation at the expense of other nations and focused on exporting more than importing. Most rulers believed that there was a fixed amount of wealth/natural resources in the world. This policy promoted colonialism.

FRANCE:

  • France also desired gold, land and resources. French explorers also sought wealth and fame.
  • Exporting fish, furssugar became profitable for the French.
  • The French were unable to compete with the military might of Spain in the southeast. After the slaughter of the French at Fort Caroline in 1565, France avoided encounters with Spain. They continued to explore the new world but focused on Canada and along the Mississippi River.
  • In 1682, Sieur de La Salle claimed the Mississippi River region for France, establishing New Orleans and Mobile.

ENGLAND

  • In 1497, English King Henry VII commissions Italian captain John Cabot to “discover unknown lands.” Cabot & sons are lost at sea.
  • With limited funds and serious problems at home, England would not formally return to the New World for over a hundred years.
  • Queen Elizabeth I gave permission to found colonies; however, no American colony was successfully established before her death.
  • By the 1660s, England had established 12 colonies along the eastern coast of North America. (under English monarchs James I, Charles I, Charles II, James II, William, Anne & George)
  • In 1670 eight English gentlemen established Charles Town (Carolina) They used slaves to establish large plantations and allied with the indigenous.

In 1732, on the eve of the founding of Georgia, North America was divided between the claims of Spain, France & England.