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Period: 200 BCE to 900
The Taíno's Ancestors Sailed to the Caribbean
The Taíno sailed from the Orinoco Valley in South America to the Caribbean islands. There they cultivated important American crops like manioc as well as developed chief-lead governing. -
1492
Christopher Columbus Connected the World
In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic Ocean blue and connected the Americas to Afro-Eurasia. This was the first exchange in the Columbian Exchange which has impacted both hemispheres ecologically and agriculturally. This also resulted in the disease-ridden colonizers spreading their disease to millions of native people in the Americas. -
1494
The Creation of the Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas was incredibly important in the Age of Exploration/Colonization as it divided the Americas through the north-south line. Spain could lay claim to lands west of it while Portugal could do the same to lands to the east. This all completely disregarded preexisting indigenous claims to the land and resulted in total Iberian control of indigenous people and land they encountered. -
Period: 1498 to 1550
The Spanish Used the Encomienda System on the Taíno
The encomienda system was a system of slavery that put the Taíno to work in mines mining for gold or in fields mining crops. Millions of Taínos died from Spanish contact mostly from smallpox while thousands died from the hands of encomenderos directly through this brutal slavery. -
Period: 1500 to
Iberian Immigrants Shaped New Societies
The Iberians not only wished to use and exploit these new lands, but they wished to make them their new homes by not only incorporating European architecture but by encouraging thousands of migrants to make the new lands their home. 500,000 Spanish and 100,000 Portuguese arrived in the Americas as settlers meant to mold the land and society into new homes for them. -
Period: 1518 to 1540
Smallpox Devastated the Caribbean
The introduction of non-native epidemic diseases such as smallpox devastated the Taíno resulting in the decline of culture, people, and Taíno society. -
Period: 1520 to
The Economic Powerhouse: the Hacienda
The hacienda (estate) was the center of economic importance, excluding silver mines, as the crops grown around it were sent back to Europe. The rampant abuse of the encomienda system (slavery including tribute) led to too many native people dying for the Spanish's liking, so they switched to debt peonage which required so much tribute that the debts would be payed off in labor. This was a different system, but still revolved around the hacienda. -
Period: 1520 to 1550
The Dutch Explored Australia
The Dutch discovered Australia and charted/explored the western and northern coasts searching for fertile land or mines filled with valuable metals. The northern and western part of the continent is very flat and treeless with desert stretching across the western part, so the Dutch kept a lax interest in the region. -
1521
Hernán Cortés Struck Down the Aztec Empire
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1521
Ferdinand Maghellan Sailed to the Marianas and the Philippines
Maghellan linked the Manila galleon trade from Manila and Acapulco to link New Spain to East Asian markets in order to ship silver faster. -
1530
The Portuguese Imported the First Enslaved Africans to Brazil
The Portuguese were the first to utilize enslaved Africans but really escalated the use in the 1580s as the demand for labor increased as sugar plantations grew prosperous in Brazil. The business was brutal, rampant with abuse, and resulted in 5-10% of enslaved dying from working on the sugar plantations. Sugar was such a fatal business that one ton of sugar = one human life. -
1535
The Creation of the New Castile Capital: Lima
Lima was created as a new center of power in Peru since the old capital Cuzco was too high of altitude for the Spanish and to make Lima's location on the coast accessible for shipping commerce. -
1540
Francisco Pizarro Toppled the Inca
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1545
Dsicovery of Silver in Zacatecas (Mexico) and Potosí (Bolivia)
The discovery of abundant silver mines in Spanish-controlled land resulted in a high demand for indigenous laborers and traders. This led to Spain becoming an economic powerhouse from exploiting labor and silver in the Americas and stimulating global trade as there was high demand for silver in China. -
1570
Conquistadores Were Formally Ruled by Monarchy
The conquistadores, previously the sole rulers to the new Spanish colonies, were now subjected to the authority of the Spanish crown. Bureaucrats were formally sent to the new colonies and shared immense power with the conquistadores, much to their disdain. -
The Rest of Colonizing Europe Sought to Settle in the Americas
Similar to the Iberians, the British, French, German, Dutch, and Irish sought to settle the new land and create more riches for themselves. For them, their pull to the new land was the promise of fertile lands to create agricultural wealth. Over 150,000 English migrated in the 17th century along with thousands of other Europeans. -
Period: to
The Europeans Succeeded in Outnumbering Native People
The European settlers who sought to create better live for themselves by pushing out the native peoples succeeded by immigrating millions eventually resulting in about 5 million Europeans outnumbering 600,000 native people. -
Period: to
Tobacco Became Extremely Popular
Tobacco became a lucrative cash crop and grew in importance in the 1600s as it took ahold of Europe with the addictive properties of nicotine, advertisement of the herb from merchants and physicians, and social factor of using tobacco. -
Period: to
The Beaver Wars
Beaver skins were a hot commodity in North America with Europeans and native peoples allying with and against each other in a war to lay claim to lands with beavers. The Iroquois and Dutch fought against the French and Huron and resulted in carnage for all parties involved. -
The Rest of Colonizing Europe Took Over the Caribbean
After the Spanish abandoned the Caribbean for the silver mines of Peru and Mexico, the French, English, and Dutch took over and established plantations to cultivate cash crops like sugar and tobacco. Soon, using native people for labor created labor shortages since so many people died creating the demand for African slave labor. -
The Virgin Guadalupe Became Popular
The Virgin Guadalupe was/is extremely important culturally to Mexicans as she helped merge and blend Roman Catholicism with strong indigenous beliefs and influences which allowed Mexico to have a distinct faith. -
Period: to
The Spanish Sought to Control the Chamorro
The Spanish had previously had peaceful relations with the native Chamorro people of the Marianas and Guam, but soon relations turned sour as the Spanish sought to conquer and control them in order to better control silver trade from New Spain to East Asia. The Spanish seized control of the islands and forcibly relocated the remaining Chamorro people to Spanish-controlled communities. -
The Pueblo Revolt
The forced labor around the hacienda led to many revolts including the notable Pueblo Revolt where the indigenous peoples slaughtered the Spanish missionaries, priests, and settlers in the colony. The native peoples scared off the Spanish for 12 years. This showed the resistance native peoples committed against their European oppressors and how badly the Spanish treated them to urge the native peoples to massacre a whole town. -
Caribbean Society Had Majority Enslaved and Minority Slave Owning
By 1700, the African enslaved outnumbered the European slave owning minority as the Europeans imported millions of enslaved creating a new society. -
James Cook Explored Eastern Australia
James Cook, a British colonizer, explored eastern and southeastern Australia and found and charted the lush forests of the region. This revived interest in Australia, and the British decided to make Sydney a penal colony to store criminals. -
James Cook First Encountered Hawaii
James Cook first arrives in Hawaii and communicates with him from his knowledge of Polynesian language as well as starts up trade of necessities for silver with the Hawaiians. -
James Cook Was Murdered in Hawaii
James Cook lost his life by being stabbed after retaliating from a dispute. Despite this, Europeans were still very interested in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands tempting whalers, missionaries, merchants, and plantation owners. -
Period: to
Australia Became Linked to the Rest of the World
After the British made Sydney a penal colony, along with the fact that the Europeans had very little interest in exploiting the resources or people of Australia, it remained fairly isolated. Once European settlers immigrated over in the next few centuries, Australia became more connected with the rest of the world. -
Period: to
Europeans Upheaved the Pacific Islands
Europeans had previously encountered the Pacific islands and Pacific islanders, but with more readily available and lucrative exploitative interests, they had little interest and rarely interacted. However, they began to take a little interest and upheaved previous societies through rapid and unsettling change such as Guam, the Mariana Islands, and Hawaii from 1800-1900.
