Three Worlds Collide

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Three Worlds Collide
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Three Worlds Collide

• America, Africa, and Europe come together in the
  15th / 16th centuries

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America

• South and Central America
• Unified empires Aztec (Mexico) and Inca (Peru)
• Population of millions
• North America
• Primarily small populations, widely dispersed
• Nomadic / Semi Nomadic
• No large scale civilizations at time of Euro
  arrival
• Anasazi Mississipian cultures

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• Monks Mound dominates the city known as
  Cahokia. The structure is 100 ft high, 16 acres
  at base

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Africa

• West North Africa had long been in contact with
  Europe through trade
• 1470s Portugal establishing trading posts along
  west Africa.
• Gold, spices, ivory traded for iron, copper, and
  cloth
• 1480s Portugal establishes sugar plantations
  off coast of Africaimports slaves from W. Africa
• Slavery existed in Africa prior to European
  colonization, but differed greatly. Slaves were
  war captives or debtors, but not a hereditary
  status not racially based.

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• 1791 Map of West Africa

Sao Tome Principe established as sugar
planations in the 1480s
Cape of Good Hope Vasco da Gama rounds in 1488
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Europe

• An age of exploration begins in the 15th
  century
• Reasons
• Strong monarchs / nations
• Growing populations
• New tastes and interest in trade (Crusades and
  Renaissance)
• Technology - Astrolabe, Lateen Sail, Compass
• Portugal Spain in exploration race
• Vasco da Gama goes east and rounds Africa in 1488
• Columbus goes west in 1492

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