1. Results of the Age of Exploration
About 200 common words in English have been adapted from Native American
languages; about 80 from North American Languages. Altogether, 2,200 words in the
English dictionary are American Indian in origin. These words include, from the Taino
alone: Canoe, Tobacco, Barbecue, Hammock, Maize, Yucca, Paw Paw [Papaya], Tuna
[Edible fruit of cactus], Cayman, Savannah, Hurricane [God; shared with the Mayan
language], Carib [Cannibal], and Manatee.
Natural resources were carried back to Europe, such as gold, silver, copper, and other
minerals; corn, beans, squash, tapioca, cocoa, tomatoes, potatoes, fur, and timber.
Meanwhile, the Spanish brought horses, cattle, pigs, sugar cane, wheat, and metal goods
to the Americas.
There were negative impacts as well. Between 1492 and 1514, as a result of disease and
persecution, the native Taino population of the Island of Hispaniola shrank from an
estimated 8 million to 28,000. By 1560, the Taino were extinct. Today there are only
3,000 full-blooded Caribs living. Pre-Columbian population figures of the Carib people
are unknown. Europeans caused extinctions of six native bird species, 34 mammals and
10 reptiles in the Caribbean.
How many came after Columbus?
8 - 11 million Africans
2,000,000 British
200,000 Germans
150,000 Spanish (between
1509-1740)
By 1950, 85% of the population of the Americas was from Europe; this is the greatest
legacy of the Columbian exchange.
During the 1500s, there were 320 major expeditions to the New World. The frontier had
changed direction from north-south to east-west. The new business opportunities and
trade generated caused the rise of the merchant class, and the drift of the population to the
cities of Europe, which became manufacturing centers. The balance of political power
shifted and became a concern for the first time among the Christian nations. This constant
effort to preserve a "balance of power", which can be seen in terms of economic
preservation as well, continued in a series of progressively bloody wars between nations
from the 1500s to the present.
During the 1500s, there were 320 major expeditions to the New World. The frontier had
changed direction from north-south to east-west. The new business opportunities and
trade generated caused the rise of the merchant class, and the drift of the population to the
cities of Europe, which became manufacturing centers. The balance of political power
shifted and became a concern for the first time among the Christian nations. This constant

2. effort to preserve a "balance of power", which can be seen in terms of economic
preservation as well, continued in a series of progressively bloody wars between nations
from the 1500s to the present. Our lives today are still heavily affected by the legacy of
500 years of colonialism touched off by Columbus.
In the year 1500 Pedro Alvarez Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal. By 1503 African
slaves were being imported to the Americas, and legislation was passed against runaway
slaves, prohibiting them from living in Indian communities. Native Americans were not
particularly exploitable as slaves, since they died very quickly in captivity; so Africans
were brought in to do the work. In 1513 Balboa crossed Panama and claimed the Pacific
Ocean for Spain. That same year Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. In 1519 Magellan
circumnavigated the globe, while Cortes entered Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Alonso Alvarez
de Pineda explored the Gulf Coast, encountering the mouth of the Mississippi River. In
1526 the first African slaves were brought to what is now the U.S. by a Spanish
expedition to Florida. Spanish slavery was different from that which the English later
employed. The Spanish system was taken from Roman law. Slaves had the right to own
property, and were allowed to work for themselves on feast days and holidays, earning
money which they could use to eventually buy their freedom. Their slavery was not
perpetual bondage, and they had access to the courts and to the church. The English
employed a system of chattel slavery, and considered people as property; these people
had little hope for freedom under the law.
Colonialism comes from the Latin word COLONOS. These were farmers in the Roman
Empire who were sent out beyond the boundaries to settle and start farms. When the
Empire moved forward and caught up with the Colonos, they were able to impose their
sovereignty over the entire region. In Pre-Columbian America, the Incas and Aztecs used
the same system.
One of the most extreme examples of colonial rivalry was that between the British and
the Spanish. By 1585 privateering had reached intolerable levels. Sir Francis Drake
burned Santo Domingo, sacked Cartagena, and attacked St. Augustine. King Philip II of
Spain, with reduced resources, mounted the Spanish Armada, which was defeated by
Britain in 1588.
THE SPANISH FRONTIERS
Once begun on their track of exploration, conquest and administration, the Spanish found
that owning a vast empire came at a price. Constant challenges to Spanish authority and
claims came from Native American tribes and European powers like England, France,
Portugal and Russia. The Spanish found that several specific areas of their empire
became established, often unconnected by easy overland routes to one another.
The most important of these was the Florida Frontier - St. Augustine was established in
reaction to French Huguenot Colony at Fort Caroline [1565]. The first permanent city in
what is now the U.S. was founded as direct result of colonial competition. Spain claimed

3. all of New World, up both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. Florida was
important as a defensive area.
The Empire Dies:
In 1810 a movement began in Mexico for independence from Spain. By 1821 the
Republic of Mexico was established. The Mexicans sought three basic liberties: Political
Independence, Religious Independence, and the Union of disparate areas. They also
abolished slavery. Between 1833 and 1855, Mexico had 55 presidents. With the new
government in place in Mexico, the American trader William Becknell was able to open
the trade route later called the Santa Fe Trail, between Santa Fe and St. Louis. This route
had already existed for many years, but was not used during the years after the United
States took over Louisiana.
The Spanish Empire, once huge and encompassing nearly all of North and South
America, was reduced during the early 19th century to a few small colonies, primarily in
the Caribbean. Revolutions swept Spanish territories, and the overextended Spanish
Army was powerless to prevent them. During 400 years of rule, the Spanish made many
lasting contributions in language, religion, political administration, laws, and other areas
of endeavor. Although their empire was never populated with large numbers of
Spaniards, they were able to colonize and missionize native populations to create Spanish
citizens from Native Americans and even former African slaves. Spanish colonies were
"melting pots" where there was a great deal of intermarriage between a polyglot
population. The final and most lasting legacy of Spanish exploration and rule is seen in
the faces of the inhabitants of North and South America.
CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY ENCOUNTER
BETWEEN "OLD" AND 'NEW' WORLDS
INTRODUCED TO THE AMERICAS:
DISEASES: rapidly devastated human populations that had no resistance to Old World
Diseases, killing 50-90% of native populations; 50 epidemics in Valley of Mexico
1519-1820 often carried to villages by other natives, arriving before actual contact with
Spanish
• smallpox, measles, whooping cough, bubonic plague, malaria, yellow fever,
diphtheria, influenza
ANIMALS: no large mammals in Middle America; introduced new means of
transportation/labor horse became indispensable to plains Indians; new food sources
• horses, pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, rats (spread disease, decimated native small
animals)
• adapted quickly
• competed with Indians for food
• destroyed vegetation

4. PLANTS:
• sugar cane - harmed both man and environment; forbearer of plantation system
with slave labor and the initial assault on tropical rainforests;
o from 1650 until beginning of 20th century, Caribbean region was the
world's center of cane sugar; worldwide demand
o changed ethnic make up of much of Latin America
• grains - wheat, millet, barley, sorghum, rice; adapted well to many areas,
enhanced native diets
• chick peas (garbanzos), soybeans
• fruit - peaches, pears, oranges, melons, limes, bananas
• vegetables - onions, radishes, salad greens, yams, peas, leeks, parsley
• European clover, grasses, many other plants widely used in our modern American
landscape
• weeds - Kudzu (lagume brought for forage from Japan - has taken over in the
Gulf and South Atlantic US)
INSECTS:
• Asian cockroaches, Japanese beetle, Dutch elm disease, Killer bees, Gypsy moth
TECHNOLOGIES:
• alphabet, writing
• iron-edge tools; didn't shatter like those made of obsidian by Indians
• farming equipment - plow; drastically changed agricultural practices
• wheel
• gunpowder
• ranching - changed landscape; walled ranches with tile roofs, adobe brick
buildings surrounded by corrals and pastureland; cowboys, gauchos
• creation of new institutions
o towns - relocated Indians from their land into villages and towns; changed
building patterns that used wood and charcoals; led to more deforestation
o government structures/policies; encomienda - system that gave the right to
a conquistador to collect tribute from Indians
o religion (Catholic)
PEOPLE:
• Spanish, Portuguese - main colonizers of Middle and South America
• Africans - necessary as native population decreased; worked on plantations;
eventually replaced Indians as the dominant ethnic group in the Caribbean;
infused much of their culture into many areas of the Americas
• British, Irish, French, Germans, Dutch, Asians, Indians (from India)

5. CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY ENCOUNTER
BETWEEN "OLD" AND 'NEW' WORLDS
INTRODUCED TO THE EUROPE:
PLANTS:
• maize (corn) from Mexico
o introduced in Africa and south of equator as early as 1550
o fed Africans that provided the manpower for American plantations
o grows where rainfall was sufficient in S. Europe, especially important to
Greeks and Serbs
o led to population growth necessary to provide labor for industrialization
o China
• potato from Peru
o basic food for people all over the world; no other single crop has played
such a decisive role
o N. Europe potatoes dominated the diet of the poor in the 19th/20th
century. This in turn contributed to population growth which led to
industrialization of Germany and Russia
o China
Maize (corn) and potatoes had a fundamental advantage over the different sorts of grain
in Europe - they produced more calories per acre, feeding up to 4 times as many people.
• sweet potatoes
o China - 1986 raised 80% of world's sweet potatoes
• tomatoes
o adapted well to Mediterranean climate
o vitamin content supplemented diet
o today Europe raises more tomatoes than any other continent
o what would Italian food be without tomatoes?
• healing plants
o quinine from Peruvian bark
o Ipecac from Amazon roots
o today some 500 prescription drugs derived from American herbs, other
plants