European exploration 1500-1600

European Exploration 1500-1600

As Europe’s population recovered from the Black Death, the demand for trade goods grew.
Europeans wanted spices but not to pay the prices dictated by (mainly) Islamic traders (trade was also endangered by the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453).
European merchants wanted to gain direct access to the riches of Asia.
Some voyagers still wanted to crusade against the Muslims.
Others were inspired by the Renaissance spirit of Marco Polo and others to learn about distant lands.

European Exploration 1500-1600
The general historical chronology is well-known.
But why had Europe not explored the west before?
What was different about the late-15th century?
What were the impacts of the so-called Columban exchange?

The World
Typical modern world map
Pre-existing limitations to Exploration
Compasses were very simple and maps either imaginative, fragmentary, or non-existent.
Enemies – for many European states that had begun to develop their naval capabilities, exploration might mean navigating through unfriendly waters.
Disease/death/starvation during an expedition
Fear of falling off the earth (e.g. world map from the Apocalypse of Saint-Sever, dated 1050 AD)!

Compass: China
Disagreement over when and where the compass was invented.
The earliest Chinese literature reference to magnetism lies in the 4th century BC book Book of the Devil Valley Master which states that "The lodestone makes iron come or it attracts it.“
The compass, or ‘south pointer’, could be carried with jade hunters to prevent them from getting lost during their journeys.

Compass: China
The first mention of the attraction of a needle by a magnet is in the Louen-heng or ‘Discourses weighed in the Balance’ (70 and 80 AD): "A lodestone attracts a needle.“
A Song Dynasty book, Wujing Zongyao (Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques), dated to 1040-44 describes an iron "south-pointing fish" floating in a bowl of water which is recommended as a means of orientation at night.

Compass: China
The first definite reference to a magnetized needle in Chinese literature appears in 1088.
The Dream Pool Essays, written by Shen Kuo, contained a detailed description of how to magnetize a needle by rubbing its tip with lodestone and hang it from a single strain of silk so that it sometimes pointed south, sometimes north.

Compass: China
The earliest recorded actual use of a magnetized needle for navigational purposes is found in Zhu Yu's book Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119 (written from 1111 to 1117): “The navigator knows the geography, he watches the stars at night, watches the sun at day; when it is dark and cloudy, he watches the compass.”
The first clear use of a magnetic direction finder occurred before 1044, but clear evidence for the use of the compass as a navigational device first appears in 1119.

Compass: China
Song and Yuan Dynasty: dry compass was in use as described in the Shilin Guangji (Guide Through the Forest of Affairs), from 1325 (written 1100 to 1250).
Shilin Guangji apart, some claim that Chinese mariners only ever used the floating needle in a bowl until the 16th-century European contacts.

Compass: China
The use of a 48 position mariner's compass appears in “The Customs of Cambodia” by Yuan dynasty diplomat Zhou Daguan, describing his 1296 voyage from Wenzhou to Angkor Thom in detail; when his ship set sailed from Wenzhou, the mariner took a needle direction of “ding wei” position, which is equivalent to 22.5 degree SW. After they arrived at Baria, he took "Kun Shen needle" , or 52.5 degree SW.
Zheng He's Navigation Map, also known as "The Mao Kun Map", contains a large number of "needle records" of Zheng He's travel (i.e. bearings).

Diffusion or invention?
Did the compass travel from China to Europe or the Middle East via the Silk Road or was it independently created in Europe (and diffused from there to the Middle East and got called al-konbas).
The first European reference to a magnetized needle and its use among sailors occurs in Alexander Neckam's De naturis rerum (On the Natures of Things), written in Paris in 1190.
In the Arab world, first reference is from 1282 (The Book of the Merchants' Treasure), by Baylak al-Kibjaki of Cairo. There is also a reference to an iron fish-like compass in a Persian talebook from 1232.

Independent European invention?
The arguments against the independent invention of the magnetic compass in Europe are credible.
The close dates of the Chinese navigational compass (1117) and its first appearance in Europe (1190).
The common form of the early compass as a magnetized needle floating in a bowl of water.
Absence of prior knowledge in Europe of magnetism.
Remaining issue is over how it got from China to Europe in mid-1100s – it seems it must have passed through Islamic hands (despite not being mentioned in Arabic sources until mid-1200s).

Medieval European compasses
Pivoting compass needle in a 14th century copy of Epistola de magnete of Peter Peregrinus (1269)
In Europe, the compass, improved dead reckoning, and Portolan charts, allowed winter sailing (and increased and less-hazardous journeys) from the second half of the 13th century.

Navigational Improvements: Jacob’s staff
Originally for astronomical measurements, developed in 1300s by Jacob ben Makir of Provence and described by Levi ben Gerson.
Shen Kuo (1031–1095) describes it in his Song Dynasty Dream Pool Essays (1088).
Employed in Indian, where it was known as Yasti-yantra by the time of Bhāskara II (1114–1185).
By 1514, Johannes Werner suggested it be used for navigation at sea.
John Dee introduced it to England in the 1550s.
A Jacob's staff, from John Sellers' Practical Navigation (1672)
Astrolabe
Known in classical Europe, medieval re-introduction from the Arab world, via Spain in the mid-1020s.
From about 1480 navigators began to carry modified versions we now refer to as `Mariners Astrolabes'.
Enabled East -West travel with the movable arm (alidade) sighted on the North star to measure the angle of its height of the north star above the horizon.
With the panorganon (quadrant) distances could be reliably calculated.
T-O Maps
7th century scholar Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae did identify the earth as a sphere although the southern hemisphere was believed uninhabitable.
A 12th century copy includes this schematic T-O map.
The T is the Mediterranean, the O is the Ocean around the three landmasses – Asia, Europe and Africa.

Mappa Mundi
More detailed maps, the mappa mundi are known from around 1100 surviving medieval examples.
The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by Muhammad al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154 and preserved in the Bibliotheque nationale de France
Mappa Mundi
Detail of the Tabula Rogeriana.
Despite the limitations much is clearly recognisable.
From 12th century ships often had a manuscript detailing sailing distances between ports, capes etc.
Portolan Chart
Carte Pisane (Portolan Chart) from 1296.
The straight lines represent the 32 directions of the mariner's compass.
This improves the capacity for sea travel.
Catalan Atlas (1375)
Most important Catalan map of the period. It was produced by the Majorcan cartographic school and is attributed to Cresques Abraham.
Portolans were mainly a Mediterranean phenomenon.
Rutters
Northern version of portolans: small pocket books with courses between ports and distances but in addition they also had soundings and data on tides.
Only a very few survive from before the early sixteenth century but their numbers rose sharply after 1500 when printers began to produce more of them and with longer pressruns.
Early examples, like Das Seebuch, also included descriptions of the western front of Europe.
Le routier de la mer ascribed to Pierre Garcie was printed in Rouen between 1502 and 1510.
Jan Severszoon's De Kaert van der Zee of 1532 was followed by an enlarged version in 1541 and then a series of new editions through to 1588.
Columbus in the context of Portugese in Africa
During the 15th century Portugese sailors pioneered the routes down the Atlantic coast towards the Cape of Good Hope – led by Henry the Navigator, Fernão Gomes, Fernão do Pó., Diogo Cão and João Afonso d'Aveiros.
Finally, in 1488, Bartolomeu Dias and his pilot Pêro de Alenquer, turned a cape where they were caught by a storm, naming it Cape of Storms.
Afterwards the Portugese pushed on and made contact with Indians and Chinese, provoking Egypt and Venice.
Spain joined the race by sponsoring Columbus to seek a western passage to India.
Inter caetera was a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI on 4 May 1493 to resolve sovereignty issues.
Earlier Contact: Olmecs 1200 BC – 400 BC?
Located in Mexico (near Veracruz)
Grew corn beans and squash primarily
Vast trade networks, encompassing very diverse areas, but small territory relative to land available- no empire/political unification
Each center seems to have fallen due to a violent rebellion (defaced monuments)
Colossal mounds used in religious ceremonies, importance of animal motifs, calendar/writing
Clear social structure, elites controlled labor pool (increased food production), merchants


Olmec Colossal Heads
African features are regularly commented upon – indicating contact?
St Brendan
5th-6th century Irish saint.
Supposed to have found a land to the west as told in a Gaelic immram.
Popularised in medieval texts in German, through earlier contacts with Irish sources.
This is from a Dutch version (Des Reis van Sint Brandaen) dating to the 12th century which derives from an earlier (lost) German version of Navigatio Sancti Brendani.
The Vinland Sagas
We know the Vikings were there.
Helge Ingstad unearthed the ruins of an ancient Norse village near L’Anse aux Meadows on the north coast of Newfoundland, conclusively proving that the Vikings has established a settlement in North America 1000 years previously.

Henry Sinclair
Claimed to have led expeditions to Greenland and onwards to Nova Scotia in the late 14th century.
Based on letters and a map ascribed to the Venetian Zeno brothers and published in 1558, although their authenticity has not be established.
The letters describe a voyage taken by a ‘Zichmni’ around the year 1398 to Greenland that actually reached North America.
It is claimed that Zichmni is Henry Sinclair.

Basque Whalers
Claimed to have had knowledge of America through whale-fishing in the medieval period.
Known to have come to North America in 1517 and soon 2,000 Arrantzales are estimated to have set sail every year from Basque ports to the St. Lawrence River.
Longer term stations were set up (eg Saddle Island below).
João Vaz Corte Real
João Vaz Corte Real made a voyage of discovery (1472) to Greenland and Newfoundland with two Danish pilots named Pining and Pothorst.
Found Terra Nova do Bacalhau ‘New Isle of Codfish’ which was named on later maps.
Some claim it is modern Baccalieu Island off the Canadian coast.
Columbus and the “Enterprise of the Indies”
Columbus left Spain in 1492 to discover a trade route to the Orient.
Spanish Monarchs commissioned the trip as they sought to compete with Portuguese domination of the Oriental Spice Trade.
Columbus had, in fact, landed in the Caribbean and hadn’t realized what he had found even when he died.
This is a 1493 engraving showing King Ferdinand overseeing his journey to the New World.

Columbus
Believed to be Italian (but was only literate in Spanish).
Worked for Spain.
Landed in San Salvador on Oct. 12, 1492, with 3 ships & 87 men.
Had a very peaceful first encounter with the Indians and wrote “they invite you to share anything they posses & show as much love as if their hearts went with it….with 50 men, they could be subjugated & compelled to do anything one wishes!”
He left 40 men & returned to Spain with 12 Indians to give as presents to the King & Queen.
Columbus’ Second Trip
He brought 17 ships & 1200 Spaniards, but they were not greeted peacefully.
The Indians attacked & killed 10 Spaniards. Columbus retaliated by killing all the Indians, burning their villages & enslaved over 500 to sell in Spain. This damaged any peaceful meetings that may have happened.
Columbus made 4 trips to the New World before he died.
Cortés and the Aztec Empire
In 1519 explorer Hernan de Cortés landed on the Yucatan in search of gold.
Cortés' party was welcomed into the Aztec capitol Tenochtitlan, where he was believed to be the god Quetzalcoatl.
In time, the population of Tenochtitlan was devastated by smallpox, carried by the Spanish explorers, a disease to which the natives had no natural resistance.
Eventually, Cortés arrested the Aztec monarch Montezuma II and tried to assume power over Aztec lands and resources.
French Exploration: Jacques Cartier Explores the St. Lawrence River for France
In 1534, French explorers, led by Jacques Cartier, explored the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by ship. Finding economic promise in the region, Cartier returned the following year and sailed down the St. Lawrence as far as modern Montreal.
Unlike the Spanish, the French were far more interested in establishing trade networks and building sustainable colonies in the New World than in finding gold. The French were particularly interested in the harvesting the bountiful furs found in the area.
English Explorations
John Cabot – 1st to see North America. He represented England (he was from Venice). But England was too busy fighting with France to exploit his discovery.
Later, pirates & privateers from England, Holland, France, etc. were the biggest threat to the Spanish search for gold. John Hawkins & Sir Francis Drake were the most famous & were encouraged by Queen Elizabeth.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert – ½ brother to Sir Walter Raleigh, received a Royal Patent in 1578 to est. & hold land in America. After 2 delayed attempts to leave, he set sail in 1583 & landed in New Foundland. Set sail for England to escape the on set of winter & was never seen again.
Roanoke
Sir Walter Raleigh – 1584 – had the Queen put his brother’s patent in his name, then sent a scout ship to America. It landed at Roanoke Island, N.C. (good soil & the Indians were friendly)
1587 – Raleigh & 117 men, women & children, including Gov. John White set sail.
After a month on the island, Gov. White returned to England for supplies, his grand-daughter, Virginia Dare was born. The 1st English child born in the New World.
Gov. White returned in 1590 – no one from the group was ever found. Roanoke – the lost colony. The only clue was a word carved into a tree “Croatoan”.
1492 and Later: Aztecs
After 1492 AD
Set the stage for Indian policy for the next 500 years.
Hernando Cortes – (Spain) 1519 – landed in Vera Cruz with 600 Conquistadors & conquered the Aztec Empire.
Tricked his way into Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) took all of the gold & enslaved the Aztecs.
They rebelled & ran him out of the city. He later returned & destroyed the Aztec civilization.
Francisco Pizarro – (Spain) – a Lt. of Cortes, did the same thing to the Incas in South America as Cortes did to the Aztecs.
Europeans brought diseases, viruses, pests, vermin, etc. This decimated the Indian population.
Some scientists estimate that 80% of the Indian population of North & South America were killed during this period.
Aztecs
Originally named Mexica
Located in what is now central Mexico
The empire lasted during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries AD
Aztecs
Tenochtitlan was the capital city and is located in what is now present day Mexico city
The Aztecs were ruled by a single emperor called the Huey Tlatoani which roughly translates to “The Great Speaker”
There was also a ruling counsel from the Calpulli, a group of extended families that controlled the use of local lands and performed other territorial and social functions

Government
Each urban settlement had a calpulli and four main leaders would be selected to a governing board the most powerful being named Tlatoani
The Tlatoani from the all over the emperor would then comprise the main ruling counsel in the capital city
The Aztecs grew rapidly by conquering nearby cities and would force them to pay tributes
These tributes would eventually result in the increased welfare of the common people
Art
The favored form of art in the Aztec empire was sculpture
Most Sculptures were made from limestone, which is still abundant in Mexico today
Aztec sculpture was like most other Mesoamerican cultures and was mostly directly related to religion

Art
The Aztecs also made other religious and non-religious artifacts such as jade masks
Clothing was also a popular art form and women from around the empire would use bead, flower, and metal decorations
These artifacts were sold in markets by visiting merchants
Architecture
There where several main types of architecture in the Aztec society: sacrificial temples, emperors temple, and shines of the gods
Social Structure and Religion
The Aztec society was divided into three socal classes: the macehualli (people) or peasantry, the pochteca or merchants and traders, and the pilli or nobility
Slaves or tlacotin consisted as a large part of the Aztec society
Though people were born into a certain class it was possible to move up the ranks within a life time
Main deity in the Aztec religion was Huitzilopochtli and was known as both the sun god and war god
Human sacrifice was practiced heavily in the Aztec religion
The Aztecs believed that by performing these sacrifices that it gave power to the gods which in turn would insure the survival of the Aztec universe

Tenochtitlan
When the Aztecs settled in the swampy Lake Texcoco and built Tenochtitlan, around the year 1350, the dominant tribe had been the Tepanecs. They controlled most of the shore of Lake Texcoco and forced the Aztecs and a number of other other tribes including the Texcoco, Tlateloco and Tlacopan to pay heavy tribute.  

Agriculture
The comprehension of how irrigation can benefit agriculture is evident by the expansion into the highland areas.
They developed drainage systems and canals to expand their crop resources.
Potatoes, tomatoes, cotton, peanuts and coca were among the many crops grown by the Inca.
Llama were used for meat and transportation.
There was more than enough resources available for everyone.
Horse and cannon figure prominently in this Aztec drawing from the Florentine Codex
INCAS
Twantinsuyu:World of the Incas.
Recent arrivals on the political stage in America.
The term 'Incas' (or Inkas) is often used to refer to the people of the empire as a whole, whereas strictly it refers to the ruling aristocracy.

Incas
The beginning of the Inca rule started with the conquest of the Chimu Culture in Peru.
The original Inca tribe was a minor Andean tribe whose expansion began with a successful campaign against its more powerful neighbours, the Chancas, in the 1440s.
Leading them was Pachacuti a military strategist, statesman, and diplomat of enormous skill. Armies under Pachacuti and his son and successor, Topa Inca, conquered the entire mountainous area from Quito south past Lake Titicaca. 
Topa Inca also subjugated the coastal kingdom of Chimor, and extended the Inca domain farther south, as well as east to the fringes of Amazonia. 

Inca Conquest and Religion
"Split inheritance“ : Power to successor, Wealth, land to male descendants
Result is continual succession disputes and conquest
Religion
Sun god supreme and he is represented by ruler (Inca)
Temple of the Sun at Cuzco
Local gods survive

The Techniques of Inca Imperial Rule
Rules from Cuzco
Governors of four provinces with local rulers (curacas)
Unified by Quechua language and forced transfers of people
Military system of roads, way stations (tambos) and storehouses.
State had a redistributive economy and carried out building and irrigation projects
Gender cooperation, ideology of complementarity of sexes
Inca's senior wife links state to moon

Inca Cultural Achievements
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Architecture
The dominant stylistic form in Inca architecture is a simple, but elegantly proportioned trapezoid, which serves the dual ends of functionality and severely restrained decoration.
Trapezoidal doorways, windows, and wall niches are found in Inca constructions of all types, from the most finely wrought temples to crudely built walls in unimportant buildings.
The doorways and windows are obviously functional, and the niches probably served a variety of functions as yet unidentified by the archeologists.
Placement of these trapezoidal openings was primarily functional, but occasionally, esthetic arrangements might dominate the placement of the trapezoids, if there was no conflict with functionality.

Stone Work
Sacsayhuaman
Cuzco
The ancient Inca capital is said to have been founded around 1100 AD.
The Incas conceived their capital in the shape of a Puma with the river serving as the spine, Sacsayhuaman the head, and the main city center the body.
Almost every central street has remains of Inca walls, arches and doorways. Many streets are lined with Inca stonework, now serving as foundations for more modern buildings.
Khipu (Quipu)
A khipu consists, minimally, of a main cord from which pendant cords hang. (Pendants of pendants are called subsidiaries.)
Knots tied in the pendant cords and other modifications of the pendant are the commonest data-bearing or significant features.
Inka functionaries used cord records for censuses, inventories, tribute records, and documents about transactions; Spanish courts also accepted them as documents of record in early colonial times.

Inca Social Structure
The Incas had a very clear social structure.
The ruler, the Sapa Inca, and his wives, the Coyas, had supreme control over the empire.
The High Priest and the Army Commander in Chief were next.
Military
Then came the Four Apus, the regional army commanders.
Next came temple priests, architects, administrators and army generals.
Merchants and Middle Class
Next were artisans, musicians, army captains and the quipucamayoc, the Incan "accountants."
At the bottom were sorcerers, farmers, herding families and conscripts.

Inca Dynasty
About 1438, the ninth Inca, Pachacuti, set forth to conquer on a scale never before attempted in aboriginal America. Pachacuti and his son, Tupac Inca, the tenth Inca, forged an empire nearly as far reaching and well organized as Caesar's Rome. They Called it Tahuantinsuyu, Quechua for the " Four Quarters of the World".
Huayna Capac - Valiant Youth - surely visited Machu Picchu after he succeeded Tupac Inca in 1493, for he devoted years to a grand tour of his inherited Four Quarters of the World.
Dynasty
Huayna Capac settled down in Ecuador with his hundreds of wives and concubines, occupying a sumptuous palace of which no trace remains. Today natives, reminders of the brief lnca occupation of Ecuador are Quechua-speaking Indian communities of diverse tribal origins-some from distant Bolivia- found along the Pan American Highway.
The emperor's warrior son, Atahuallpa, became a favorite of the battle-tested armies that carried on the northern border campaigns. Meanwhile premonitions of doom haunted Huayna Capac.
About 1525 Huayna Capac was stricken possibly by smallpox introduced into the continent by Europeans probing its coastline. Before he could choose, he died. In Cuzco the high priest conferred the royal fringe on Huascar, a son of Huayna Capac and his sister wife the queen. But Atahuallpa, Huascar's half brother, governor of Quito, reportedly refused to accompany his father's mummy to Cuzco and render homage. His generals, veterans of Ecuadorean wars, backed his insurgency, and civil war flared.

Dynasty
Huascar sent a huge inexperienced army against Atahuallpa, but it perished in battle near Ambato, Ecuador.
The chronicler Cieza, who saw the skeleton-strewn battlefield twenty years later, wrote that the body count of 25 or 26 thousand was an underestimate.
Huascar conscripted army after army, including peasants from as far away as Argentina.
Thousands who had escaped the plague now fell under the northerner's onslaughts.
Perhaps 200,000 men fought in the final battle near Cuzco.
The unthinkable occurred: Atahuallpa's generals tumbled Huascar from his golden litter. Cuzco's defenders fled in terror. The Son of the Sun had fallen.
The generals dressed the emperor in women's clothes. They forced him to eat excrement in Cuzco's streets and watch the extermination of his multitudinous family and courtiers.

Atahuallpa
ATAHUALLPA had left Quito to make triumphal entry into Cuzco when he got word of his generals' victory. But at this moment coastal chiefs warned him of Pizarro's approach. A mere 62 cavalrymen and 106 foot soldiers, armed with Toledo blades and a few guns and crossbows, were winding slowly into the mountains of northern Peru.
Pizarro sent an interpreter and 15 riders under Hernando de Soto (who later discovered the Mississippi River) to offer his services in arms and to ask the emperor to dine next day. The seated Inca offered ceremonial chicha, accepted the invitation, and told his guests to occupy the town plaza.
Pizarro set a trap that the Inca had unwittingly provided him. In the great triangular plaza, with an entrance at its apex, he laid an ambush. He hid his forces inside buildings that had doorways, high enough for horse and rider, facing into the walled plaza.

Atahuallpa and Pizzaro
On Saturday, November 16, 1532, the Inca delayed his social call until sundown, supposing horses to be of no use after dark, and bemused by reports that the bearded men were hiding in fear. Then be capped his spate of bad decisions by going unarmed to sup and spend the night in town.
The Spaniards captured Atahuallpa and he ruled for eight months from a prison compound in the triangular plaza, keeping his lordly mien, his authority unquestioned by any subject of the empire.
 To secure his release, Atahuallpa decreed that the realm be ransacked to fill a 18-by-22-foot room once with gold, as high as he could reach, and twice with silver. Totally unaware that Pizarro's men spearheaded a massive European invasion of the Tahuantinsuyu, he presumed the bearded ones would go away once they had received their booty.


By July 1533 more than 24 tons of exquisite treasure had been collected: idols and chalices, necklaces and nuggets, accumulated through centuries of placer mining. Though this was only a fraction of the plunder that awaited the Spaniards elsewhere in the Four Quarters of the World, Atahuallpa's ransom, as duly recorded in the Spanish archives, was worth at least 267 million dollars at today's bullion values for gold ($315 ounce-Nov/02/1997-) and silver.
Treason
But instead of freeing the Inca, they tried him for treason, and was sentenced to death for treason against the strangers within his own realm.
 To avoid the horror of being burned alive as a heretic and thus deprived of mummification, Atahuallpa accepted Christian baptism and took Pizarro's Christian name: Francisco- Then the Spaniards garroted Francisco Atahuallpa, thirteenth Inca, and marched down the royal road to Cuzco.

Final Battle
The 40,000 member army of the Inca was destroyed by a 180 member Spanish conquistador army, which was commanded by Francisco Pizarro.
The warriors of the Inca were no match for the Spanish guns. By 1535, the Inca society was completely overthrown.

Mississippian
Large settlements, development of Chiefdoms & usage of kinship lines.
Use of the large Temple-Mound complexes, i.e. Ocmulgee, Etowah, etc. Large truncated, flat-top pyramids.
Extensive farming, use of corn as staple crop, along with beans, squash.
The main dish from this was called Succatash (the 3 Sisters) and provided energy from corn, protein from beans & vitamins from squash. This process saved on land, labor & fertilizer.
Food storage buildings, palisades surrounded villages, extensive warfare for land & food.
Religious influences from Mexico & South America, i.e. Spider Cult, Snake Cult, use of Charnel Houses, complex belief systems.

Mississippian Mounds
After 1492
Period just prior to the European invasion.
Warfare among the tribes & religious/cultural diversity caused the great temple complexes to lose power.
People began to break up into smaller villages & away from the great cities.
Less trade & contact with outside tribes. Isolation & development of a homogenous population.
Hernando de Soto – (Spain) 1539 – took 6oo Conquistadors through Fla., GA., S.C., N.C., Tenn., & Miss., destroying the Indians as they went.
Cataloged the plant & animal life & some of the Indians.
He was killed near Memphis in 1542. Over ½ of his men were killed on the expedition.

Epidemics in Mexico, 1520-1595
Epidemics in Central America 1520-1578
Plants