Pre-Colonial Europe

and Africa
1492-1600

Western Europe
- By the early 1400s Europe is a jumbled mess of competing kingdoms,
duchies and republics.
-Subsistence agriculture.
- The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) has resulted in the death of more than
of Europes population.
- The technological and social advances of the Roman Empire have faded
from the collective knowledge.

European Society
-European society was generally patriarchal, with male bloodlines determining
inheritance.
- Inheritance, including transfer of power, is also determined by birth order.
- First male child received preference, known as primogeniture.
- Monarchs maintained broad power over their territory, but were held in
check by their nobles who often controlled large estates with private
armies.
- These nobles often made up the legislative branch subservient to the
king. The legislatures had little power beyond advising the king, but it gave
nobles a place to explain their grievances.

European Society Cont.

- Life for peasants (poor and landless) was extremely difficult.
- Peasants find themselves at the mercy of landholding nobles and
monarchs. They are taxed heavily and forcibly conscripted into the military.
- As time passes laws change and peasants transformed into renters and
landowners.
- Local economies flourish and flow with the rhythm of the seasons.
- Life remains brutish and short. Over half of all newborns did not
survive childhood.
- The difficulty of the lower classes will make them the primary settlers
to the new world seeking a better life.

Economic Development
- While Europe wallows in self-destruction the rest of the world advances.
- The Arab world makes huge strides in mathematics and other sciences.
- Spices, Silk and other exotic items flow in from the East
- The republics of the Italian peninsula eventually begin capitalizing on their
proximity to the Middle East to being importing luxury goods to Europe.
- A focus on Civic Humanism leads the Italians and eventually the rest of
Europe into the Renaissance.
- Gradually economic reform pushes north and begins to drive European
economies forward. They begin looking for new trade routes...

Society
- Religion grows in importance and power throughout the Renaissance.
- Christianity grows as the most powerful force in Europe and as such
makes its leaders rich and powerful.
- Corrupt practices such as Indulgences create a divide between the
commoners and religious leaders.
- In 1517 Martin Luther writes 95 Thesis condemning the church for its abuse of
power.
- Others such as John Calvin further fragmented Christianity and trigger
the Protestant Reformation
- Religious divides will provide another factor pushing people to settle in
the new world.

Africa
- As early as 800b.c. African nations such as Ghana had pioneered trade
across the Saharan Desert. They would hold a monopoly until the arrival of
European sailors in the 1500s.
- North Africa traded freely with both the Middle East and Europe
- Gold was abundant in West Africa and by 1450 is estimated to constitute
of all gold in circulation between Africa, Asia and Europe.
- Southern and Coastal Africa is composed of ministates about the size of
a US county. They trade widely amongst each other and with the larger
empires to the North.

Exploration
- The Portuguese recognized the immense wealth in
African trade.
- In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good
Hope and discovered a route to India.
- The Portuguese will become the main supplier of
African slaves.

Blocked by the Portuguese to the East, the Spanish monarchy agreed to

fund an expedition by Christopher Columbus to seek a Western Passage
to Asia.
Six weeks later Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas, which he
named the West Indies.

By 1513 the Spanish had approved large scale landings in South America.
- They brutally subjugated smaller tribes before smashing the Aztec empire.
As disease ran rampant through the natives Francisco Pizarro set out and
slaughtered the Inca.
- Both the Spanish and the Portuguese imported the practice of plantation
farming.
- The Encomienda System was established by the Spanish to enslave
the native population.
- The native population are too susceptible to European diseases
and the Spanish are forced to look elsewhere. (like African slaves)