The background to 4.2 is everything that happened in Units 1, 2, & 3. The key exception: It’s Europe’s turn to join the Networks of Exchange. Using all of those cross-cultural transfers from one region to another, the Europeans had accumulated the know-how, experience, and technology to make these long distance overseas voyages a reality. The College Board calls this “Causes and Events” but don’t list any specific ones… So, focus on the European Maritime Empires and how and why they went where they did.

1. Description of Capo Bianco and the Islands Nearest to It, Alvise da Cadamosto, 1455 (reconnaissance reported back to Prince Henry of Alvise found on his journeys)
2. Journal of Christopher Columbus, Christopher Columbus, 1492 (Excerpt from Columbus’ journal about his first encounters with the Native Americans)
3. Round Africa to India, Vasco da Gama, 1498 (account of his journey to India)
4. Compilation of Six of Pizarro’s companions of the Encounter at Cajamarca, Pizarro (Compiled by Jared Diamond), c. 1532; this is from the Chapter in Guns Germs and Steel covering the meeting of Pizarro and Atahualpa
5. Letter to Henry Hovener (from a Jamestown Settler), c. 1622

1. MONUMENT OF THE DISCOVERIES, LISBON, PORTUGAL

2. DISCOVERY OF THE AMERICAS by SALVADOR DALI (1954)

3. VASCO DA GAMA BEFORE THE SAMORIM OF CALICUT (1898)

4. PIZARRO SEIZING THE INCA, JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS

5. CORTES CONQUERS THE AZTECS

1. The Europeans have all that new navigational technology from 4.1.
2. Spain and Portugal go out first. They split the world in the Treaty of Tordesillas (think of Brazil vs. the rest of the Americas).
3. The New Kids are the British, Dutch and the French.
4. These are Trading Post Empires (not the massive empires you will see in the next period). Just along the coast.
5. These aren’t just arrivals. The European arrivals were often accompanied by death, disease, and genocide.