FOCUS QUESTIONS

• What were the conditions in Europe that led to the conquest of America?


• What effects did the conquest have on the native peoples of America and the
  Europeans?


• What were the motives, mindset, and social backgrounds of the Spanish
  conquistadors?


• What factors explain the relative ease with which a small number of Spaniards
  conquered great and populous indigenous empires?


• What is the “Vision of the Vanquished,” and how does this compare to con-
  ventional interpretations of the “encounter” between Europe and indigenous
  America?

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3

The Conquest of America

A

guese energies for an ambitious program of over-

seas expansion.

The Great Voyages

EXPLORATION UNDER PRINCE HENRY

The famous Prince Henry (1394–1460) initiated

the Portuguese era of exploration and conquest.

Henry, somewhat misleadingly known as “the

Navigator” because he never sailed beyond sight

of land, united a medieval crusading spirit with

the more modern desire to penetrate the secrets

of unknown lands and seas and reap the profi ts

of expanded trade. In 1415 Henry participated in

the capture of the Moroccan seaport of Ceuta, a

great Muslim trading center from which cara-

vans crossed the desert to Timbuktu, returning

with ivory and gold obtained by barter from the

blacks of the Niger basin. Possession of the African

beachhead of Ceuta opened up large prospects for

the Portuguese. By penetrating to the sources of

Ceuta gold, they could relieve a serious Portuguese

shortage of the precious metal; Henry also hoped

to reach the land of the fabled Christian ruler

EUROPEAN CONTACT WITH AMERICA re-

sulted from efforts to fi nd a sea road to

the East that would break the monop-

oly of Egypt and Venice over the lucrative trade in

spices and other Asian products. The drain of their

scanty stock of gold and silver into the pockets of

Italian and Levantine middlemen had grown in-

creasingly intolerable to the merchants and mon-

archs of western Europe. Portugal took a decisive

lead in the race to fi nd a waterway to the land of

spices. It had important advantages over its rivals:

a long Atlantic seaboard with excellent harbors,

a large class of fi shermen and sailors, and an

aristocracy that had already discovered it could

sup plement the meager revenue from land with

income from trade and shipbuilding. Earlier than

any other European country, Portugal became a

unifi ed nation-state under an able dynasty, the

house of Avis, which formed a fi rm alliance with

the merchant class and took a personal interest in

the expansion of commerce. This gave Portugal

a head start in the work of discovery. The Portu-

guese victory of Aljubarrota (1385), gained with

English support, ended for a time Castile’s efforts

to absorb its smaller neighbor and released Portu-