European Expansion

Question 1

impact of disease

Answer 1

minimum of 1/3 people died with each new disease, in 1585-1591 measles and smallpox occurred simultaneously and wiped out 605 of native population

Question 2

disease and Taíno people

Answer 2

Taíno people of Hispaniola, population pre-discovery estimated between 100,000 and 2.5 million but by 1519 they were extinct

Question 3

disease and Aztecs

Answer 3

Aztecs in Mexico, in 1519 had a population of 21 million but by 1605 only 1 million

Question 4

long term impact of disease

Answer 4

Haida in Canada first encountered in 1770s and by 19th century almost completely wiped out from smallpox with a death toll of 95%

Question 5

Gomara

Answer 5

Spanish conquistador noted how smallpox “spread from one Indian to another, and they being numerous and eating and sleeping together, quickly infected the whole country”

Question 6

Queen Isabella to Columbus

Answer 6

Columbus allowed 300 men to take native slaves back from Caribbean to Spain, Queen Isabella responded furiously saying “what power of mine does the Admiral have to give vassals to anyone?”

Question 7

Anthony Pagden

Answer 7

concludes that instead of ‘enlightenment’, Europeans brought nothing but death and disease to the people they conquered

Question 8

Columbus’ letter

Answer 8

letter published in 1494 of his first voyage, published in 6 different countries in 17 editions by 1497

described New World as naked people standing amongst plants and fruit reflecting images of Garden of Eden
described people as “naked… timid and full of fear” “kind and gentle people”
others as “war-like…they eat human flesh”

Question 9

Hans Staden

Answer 9

captured by the Tupinamba natives in the 1550s, publishes his account ‘True Story and Description of a Country of Wild, Naked, Grim, Man-Eating people in the New World” in 1557 describing cannibalism
accompanied by woodcut images and became a bestseller and printed in 76 editions

Question 10

Rousseau

Answer 10

popular idea of ‘noble savage’, he saw natives as what all men had once been before being ‘domesticated’, natives are a representation of a universal human nature before a civilised society is created

Question 11

Peter Martyr

Answer 11

wrote the first history of the Americas, described them as living in a golden age without laws, judges or books compared to Renaissance Europeans who were legalistic, individualistic and money-minded and therefore were more advanced

Question 12

Aristotle

Answer 12

revival of classics in Renaissance meant people’s view were influenced by Aristotle’s argument that all people outside of the city are either heroes or beasts

Question 13

John Elliott

Answer 13

argues classics and Renaissance humanism allowed Europeans to come to terms with native cultures, such as Las Casas who argued “although out Indians did not read the Philosopher, they lived - enlightened by natural reason - in conformity within the rules prevailing in good polity”

Question 14

Laws of Burgos

Answer 14

Spanish Laws in 1512 to control Spanish abuses of native populations and forbid treatment of them as animals, however did not have much impact

Question 15

Valladolid Debate

Answer 15

1550, first moral debate on the treatment of peoples of the New World organised by Charles V between Sepúlveda who argued natives were incapable of creating a civilised society and could be suppressed violently, and Las Casas who was appalled at treatment of natives and argued for them to be treated as human beings, he won the debate and published his findings but did not change things

Question 16

Slavery

Answer 16

between 1440-1870 Portugal carried 4.65 million slaved to the Americas
Britain took 2.6 million
Spain took 1.6 million
in 1550s Captain John Hawkins gained 60% profit in slave trade

Question 17

New products

Answer 17

region of Pernambuco in Brazil in 1591 alone produced 339,312 of sugar
by 1717 200,000 pounds of tea was being produced per year, by 1770 this had grown to 17 million and taxed at 120%

Question 18

early modern works replacing classical works as authority on world

Answer 18

Francanzano da Montalboddo’s 1507 publication was the most instrumental work in disseminating knowledge of America, Africa and Far East, printing in 4 languages and 15 editions

Elliott argues voyages and exploration confronted myths with facts and proved the ancients had got it wrong, the accounts of explorers replaced classical a authorities on geography

Question 19

Pagden

Answer 19

the New World now had to be incorporated into Europe’s cosmological, geographical and anthropological understandings of the world

however the impact of native cultures on Europe was very limited since through assimilation, enslavement and turning America into an extension of Europe, their cultures were driven underground

Question 20

Elliott and impact of new world on old world

Answer 20

argues impact of new world on the old world of Renaissance Europe was “disappointingly muted”, Europeans approached the New World with “prejudice, curiosity and caution”

Question 21

Elliot and impact of knowledge of new world

Answer 21

it is difficult to quantify impact because of lack of statical data on readership and printing of works on the New World
we cannot assume that “the gradual accumulation of knowledge will little by little dispel theist of ignorance”