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In the 17th century Europeans began to establish settlements in the Americas. The division of the land into smaller units under private ownership became known as the plantation system. Starting in Virginia the system spread to the New England colonies. Crops grown on these plantations such as tobacco, rice,sugar cane and cotton were labour intensive. Slaves were in the fields from sunrise to sunset and at harvest time they did an eighteen hour day. Women worked the same hours as the men and pregnant women were expected to continue until their child was born.

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As the population of Native Americans declined, it became clear Iberian colonists needed to import laborers to sustain sugar and gold industry. Emperor Charles V, abolished the provision requiring slaves to be born under Christian dominion, allowing for the direct purchase from Cape Verde.

The Iberian slave trade from Africa to the Caribbean expanded over the following decades, with the Spanish Crown selling “licenses” for specific numbers of slaves to individuals who would either arrange a slaving voyage, or attempt to make a profit by reselling the same license to a third party. They increasingly relied on large-scale slaving ventures based on contracts, or asientos, in which merchant houses agreed to transport a certain number of captives to Spanish American ports over a set period of time.

Due to the participation of non-Hispanic merchants—especially the Portuguese during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, but also the Genoese and Germans, and later the English, French, and Dutch—the asiento system helped to internationalize the trans-Atlantic slave trade long before the establishment of non-Iberian colonies in the Americas, or non-Iberian trading factories in western Africa.

The Spanish developed an international trade system to profit from the buying and selling of Africans in relation to the plantation systems, of which cash crops required heavy manual labor. "God" comes into play as the Spanish were weary of eastern European and Middle Eastern slaves as they feared to the spread of non-catholic religious practice.

Spanish Crown’s emphasis on limiting the spread of Islam ensured that enslaved laborers sent to the Americas would be sub-Saharan Africans, rather than Iberian moriscos, or Muslims from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean world.

Prior to Spanish internationalized slave trade, there was no link between slaves and race. Slaves tended to be conquered people, prisoners of war, or debtors.
Instead focusing on import of African Slaves, whom were also better adapted to the climate of tropical america, a social-race based hierarchy began to develop.

Ultimately, the connection between slavery and race did not fully develop into a rigid racial hierarchy until European colonization of the Americas.

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Before 1491
Indigenous people were extremely diverse.

The region itself had over 20 different language families, culture heavily centered around environment (available resources specific to the region).

Different levels of development by region and tribe.

After

Despite reaping some benefits from European technology, Native American populations were in stark decline due to pandemic (specifically smallpox).
Tribal ethnic culture forever threatened and changed by western culture from European contact and onward.

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Financially backed by the Spanish crown, made a total of three voyages from  the Canary Islands to the Bahamas.
However, these were viewed as relatively unsuccessful as he found little gold, little spices, established no trade route to Asia or India, and area in which he landed was already named after another Italian explorer.

Today, historians agree that though he may be mocked for his failures, Columbus was an extremely talent nationalist, and had established permanent interaction between the new and old worlds

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trade routes

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Tobacco Plantation

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Introduction to Colombian Exchange with Alfred Crosby

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An Introduction to Alfred Crosby's The Columbian Exchange - A Macat History Analysis

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Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage from Europe to the Americas has always been recognized as politically important to world history. But biological factors such as the ensuing exchange of foodstuffs and disease-intended or otherwise-played a much bigger part in how history actually developed than we first thought.

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Charles Mann

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School House Rock Science Electricity Cartoon Lesson

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Electoral College Kids Civics Lesson Cartoon

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Song Lesson for Kids Homeschooling Economics Barter & Trade

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Schoolhouse Rock teaches barter and trade - economics lesson for students. This video is part of a playlist with many hours of homeschooling videos and lessons: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL79156F04DE48560E Please share and enjoy with students, teachers and your kids. http://www.facebook.com/libertyclick http://www.twitter.com/libertyclick http://www.youtube.com/libertyclick Great for a history lesson in the home schooling or classroom setting.

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Gold, God, and Glory: European Motivations

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Gold, God, and Glory: European Motivations

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Renaissance
Rebirth in knowledge 15th-16th century that gave way to technological advancements such as gunpowder, the sailing compass, and the printing press.

Improvements in shipbuilding and mapmaking is what physically enabled exploration of new trade routes.

Religious Reform
Printing of the bible in vernacular, and negative sentiment toward the Catholic Church promoted religious division and the rise of Protestantism.
Meaning, new competition over religious influence with not only Islam, but between Christian denominations.
(motivation to convert during colonialism)

Fall of Feudalism
Large multi-ethnic empires and small kingdoms were replaced with nation-states; the majority shared common culture and loyalty toward a central government.

Monarchs depended on the Church and trade revenue as justification for their rule.
They used their powers to search for riches and spread their culture and influence abroad.

Gold, God, and Glory
Nations funded expeditions overseas to establish new trade routes in order to (Gold) obtain riches, (God) spread their denomination of Christianity, and (Glory) to bring wealth and influence to the name of their crown

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A key difference between the immune systems of the Indigenous people of the Americas and Europeans, was exposure to animals.

Unlike the Native Americans, Europeans had centuries of living close proximity to domesticated animals. This exposure and eventual immunity to animal-carried pathogens is what allowed the Europeans to remain largely unaffected by disease, such as smallpox, that could wipe out entire Native American villages.

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Avocados, Beans (kidney, navy, lima), Bell peppers, Black-eyed Susans, Cacao (for chocolate), Chili peppers, Corn, Cotton, Marigolds, Papayas, Peanuts, Petunias, Pineapples, Poinsettias, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Quinine, Rubber, Squashes, Sunflowers, Sweet potatoes, Tobacco, Tomatoes, Turkeys, Vanilla, beans, Zinnias

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Bananas, Barley, Cabbages, Carnations, Chickens, Coffee, Cows, Crabgrass, Daffodils, Daisies, Dandelions, Horses, Lemons, Lettuce, Lilacs, Olives, Oranges, Peaches, Pears, Pigs, Rice, Sheep, Sugar Cane, Tulips

Smallpox, Influenza, Typhus, Measles, Malaria, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough

Domesticated Animals, Disease, Flora, Slavery, Technology