This timeline can also be found on textbook, pages 34-35;xNLx;;xNLx;
Viking Leif Erickson and 35 others sail from Greenland in 1001. They explore Vinland. textbook page 36
About 350,000 Native Americans live in what is today Florida.
European explorers search for a faster route to Asia where major trading posts are located. Columbus gets the idea to go across Atlantic ocean to find Asia. Doing so he spots land. He claims the island for Spain. He thought he landed on Asian islands know as the Indies. He then sails west to find Japan. He actually finds Cuba. He then sails to Hispaniola, today known as Dominican republic and Haiti. He then returns to Spain.
Conquistadors didn't do a good job at governing the colonies. Therefore Spain looked for Spanish people who wanted to settle in the Americas. Spain's government officials granted settlers huge tracts of land to start mines, ranches and plantations- large farms worked by laborers who live on the property. To help Spanish colonists find needed workers, the Spanish government granted ENCOMIENDAS. These were lands grants that included the right to demand labor or taxes from Native Americans. Life for Native Americans under Spanish rule was very harsh. Under the encomienda system they were forced to work in gold and silver mines. many died when the tunnels caved in. A Priest, Bartolome de las Casas complained to Spain and helped reform the encomienda system. But by then so many Native Americans had died that Spain decided to look into the African slave trade to replace Native America workers. Spain had also established a rigid social system where the Peninsulares and Criollos where on top and the Africans and Native Americans were at the bottom. Spain loses all colonies in the Americas by 1900's.
After exploring South America, Amerigo comes to the realization that Columbus discovered a new continent, and not a route to Asia.
First European to set eyes on Pacific Ocean. He did it by hacking his way across jungle of Panama.
Juan Ponce de Leon is the first European explorer to set foot on what is now the United States. While Francisco Coronado sets out to find fabled Golden city, he explored what is now New Mexico, Arizona,, Texas and Kansas, At the same time, Hernando de Soto was searching for riches in today's southeastern United States, from the Carolinas to Louisiana. He explored the Mississippi River. Spain loses all north American territories in 1819.
Religious tensions created by the Reformation of the Catholic church made enemies of many of the European countries. Catholic nations were against Protestant Nations and vise verse. There were many wars because of this. Spain didn't trust other European nations to trade. Spain thought that American colonies alone could make them rich. They along with many other European nations saw colonies as a source of wealth. This system is called mercantilism. The need gold to continue paying for the wars which were mainly religious. MERCANTISLIM is a system that believed that colonies existed to make the home country wealthy and powerful.
Since the late Roman Empire, most Europeans belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. But not all were happy with Catholicism. In 1517 a German monk named Martin Luther demanded that the Roman Catholic Church reform, made changes. Rome rejected his demands. As a consequence, Martin Luther and his followers split from the Catholic Church. His new church was called the Protestant church because they protested the way Catholic Church conduct itself.
First Explorer to circumnavigate the earth while looking for a southwest passage to Asia.
Cortes conquers the Aztecs in Mexico 1519. Pizarro conquers the Inca empire in Peru in 1532. They both enslave Native Americans. A few Spanish conquistadors are able to defeat the larger armies of the Aztecs and Incas because Spanish soldiers had better technology like muskets and cannons. Also Spaniards rode horses which the Indians had never seen before. Also the Native Americans were divided among themselves. In Peru, a civil war had just ended. In Mexico many Native Americans hated the Aztecs.
Like all Europeans, Spain believed they had a duty to convert Native Americans to Christianity. They set up Missions, religious settlements, run by Catholic Priests and friars, San Francisco, San Diego, San Antonio and a number of other US cities got their start as Spanish missions in the 1700
(Even though the timeline says 1610, this religious conflict continued well over colonial times in the Americas) King Henry the VIII of England wanted to divorce his queen, but Roman Catholic Church wouldn't allow it. He broke away from Roman Catholic Church. He set up a Protestant church named the "Church of England", so that he could divorce.
After the Reformation, tensions between Catholics and Protestants were on the rise in Europe. After England defeated the Spanish Armada, England and the Netherlands were able to found colonies in North America. Explorers John Cabot and Henry Hudson both disappeared while searching for a northwest passage.
After King Henry VIII, there were a few successors to the throne, but none lasted long. On 1558 Elizabeth I, a protestant, took the throne of England. Under her rule, the rivalry between the Catholic Church and the Protestant queen intensified. The king of Spain wanted to make England A Catholic nation. He also disliked that England kept raiding Spanish ships coming from the colonies. In 1588 Jung Phillip assembled a fleet of 130 warships known as the Spanish Armada. England destroyed more of the Spanish Armada. This shifted the balance of power in Europe. This enabled the English and the French to establish colonies in the Americas.
Columbus' return from his first voyage interested another Italian explorer, JOHN CABOT. Cabot decided that a more northen route to Asia would be shorter and easier. ENGLAND paid for his voyage to find a Northwest passage to Asia. In 1524 another Italian explorer GIOVANNI DA VERRAZANO searched for the same northwest Asia passage for FRANCE. He discovered the mouth of the Hudson River and New York Bay. JACQUES CARTIER explored North America for FFRANCE. He explored discovered the St. Lawrence River and present day Montreal in Canada. HENRY HUDSON from England searched for the Northwest Passage to Asia for DUTCH. in 1607 he reached as far as the Hudson Bay, named after him.
We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.
Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.
We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.
You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.
If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com
Close