Timeline

1300s   Italians monopolize spice trade

1477    Marco Polo’s story published

1488    Dias rounds tip of Africa

1492    Columbus’ oops

1497    Cabot “discovers” Newfoundland

1521    Tenochtitlan surrenders to Spain

1560    Elizabeth becomes Queen of England

1584    Roanoke

I. Pre-European life

            Population pre-contact

            Subsistence types

            Gendered division of labor

            Warfare

Columbian Exchange.

II. Why do Europeans go west?

            Trade

            Population pressures

            Upward mobility

            End of Spanish reconquista

            Fishing

            Technology.

III. Spain

            1492

            conquistadors

            Catholic Church

            Bartolome de Las Casas

IV. England

            Reformation splits England

privateering

Occupation of Ireland

            Roanoke

World known to Europeans in 1490

New World population estimate (based on most conservative numbers)

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