CHAPTER CONTENTS A. How Do We Know about the Conquests and Explorations of the New World?
B. Advances in Travel
C. Portugal Begins to Explore D. Spain Follows
E. The Conquistadores Apply Your Learning
147 149 152 154 158 167
A short history of the explorations In 1400 people in Europe believed the world was much smaller than it really was. Most people, including sailors, believed that Europe was part of one large land mass that extended to China and that one great sea surrounded the entire world. Between 1400 and 1750 Europeans seeking new sea routes in order to trade goods such as spices and silks travelled farther and learnt more about the world they lived in than ever before. A result of these travels was the ‘discovery’ of Central and South America, and the exploration of large parts of the African coast. The Spanish and Portuguese explorers may have intended to find trading routes, but within a few years they had forcibly conquered many of these ‘new’ lands. For Spain and Portugal, these conquests resulted in huge increases in wealth and power. The consequences of European violence, disease and exploitation on the native populations almost wiped out whole civilisations. This chapter looks at the impact of European conquest and colonisation on the civilisations of the Aztec Empire (modern-day Mexico) and the Inca Empire (modern-day Peru).