-The Columbian Exchange: A key moment in history when everything changed
-Initial contacts between Europeans and Native Americans
-How climate can affect politics
-How different world views complicated contacts between cultures
-Further development of the Sub-African slave trade
-Key causes of hostility between England and Spain

[SLIDE 1]

First contacts on the mainland were positive with both parties eager to engage in trade. These early voyages to the Northeastern coast were made by enterprising, anonymous fishermen.

[SLIDE 2]

Climate theory for previous eras is based on many different types of data. A warming period occurred that more-or-less coincided with the European Medieval Period, and this warming period was followed by what is termed the Little Ice Age. There is no agreement on exact centuries when these climate periods occurred. Some argue that for historical purposes it would be better to think in terms of independent regional climate changes rather than global phenomena.

[SLIDE 3]

Some theorize that climate played a role in the politics of the Northeastern Indians at the time of first contacts with Europeans. Climate change is believed to have brought about increased competition for resources, which resulted in conflict among groups. Europeans were potential allies in these conflicts, and they brought useful tools and weapons.

[SLIDE 4]

Although Indians and Europeans were both seeking benefit when they engaged in trade, there was a fundamental difference in the way they understood such transactions. In the worldview of Native Americans, there could be no no actual ownership because all things belonged to themselves. Land was a nurturing mother, not a commodity whose ownership could be transferred. This worldview relied on fictive kinship and a system of reciprocal trade that created social ties and obligations. Europeans, however, viewed trade as an opportunity for profit and a transfer of ownership, which could allow exploitation of both the trading partner and the item now owned.

[SLIDE 5]

Contact between the Old and New Worlds changed both forever. The interaction between the two is known as the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange was a turning point in world history. Agriculture and diet in Europe were revolutionized by new, easily grown crops, and European health benefits from abundant new foods led to a significant increase in population. The effect on the Native American population was much more insidious, as the transfer of human populations meant the destruction of some of them.

[SLIDE 6]

While Europe benefited from access to new commodities, the benefits in the New World were more dubious. The ability of indigenous plants and animals to survive was negatively impacted by the introduction of non-native species, a process which continues today. This was also true of the indigenous human species. Population estimates of Native Americans in North America before Columbus vary widely, but certainly vast numbers, perhaps millions, of people were lost to the new diseases introduced. Those who survived disease faced harsher circumstances because fewer people were available to do the work necessary for the group to survive. In addition, cultural links were lost when bearers of the oral traditions died. Population pressure from growing numbers of European immigrants added further burdens.

[SLIDE 7]

The Islamic trade in African slaves had existed for hundreds of years, and its racist effects continue to be felt in the Islamic world today. European entry into the market, however, caused the numbers of people being trafficked to explode. The disruption to African life and society is incalculable.

[SLIDE 8]

Not all of the effects on Europe were positive. The quest for control of the new sources of wealth fueled further conflict in Europe. It also aided the creation of absolute monarchies, a stage in the development of the modern nation-state. 

[SLIDE 9]

Rivalries between the European royal houses continued. Hostility between the rulers of Spain and England would soon cast those rulers on different sides of a religious divide between Protestantism and the Catholic Church. The Spanish ruling house was strongly allied with the Catholic Church. British monarchs had for some time been trying to limit the power of the Church in England. The final break would come in the reign of Henry VIII.

[SLIDE 10]

Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon had produced only one surviving daughter, Mary. To ensure succession, he needed a male heir. Since Catherine was now 40 and Henry was not particularly monogamous, he looked elsewhere. Having decided on Anne Boleyn, he sought an annulment of his marriage from the pope, who refused to comply, leading to Henry's separation from the Catholic Church. Protestantism would gradually gain traction in England until religion became absorbed into the general animosity between England and Spain. 

[SLIDE 11]

The complicated family legacy of Henry VIII is intertwined with Europe's Christian rivalries and will reach a head in the reigns of Philip II of Spain and Elizabeth I of England.

[SLIDE 12]

Henry's reign represents the quickening pace of resistance to medieval channels of authority, including the Church. Absolute monarchs sought to control all the state's power and resources. Any competing special interests, such as the nobility or Church, each of which held traditional legal rights, merely compromised the monarch's complete control. Such monarchs used the vast wealth brought from the New World to strengthen their control. They also wanted to extend their absolute control to the new territories of the New World. Absolutism was a key step in the move toward the centralized, bureaucratic state of modern times. It is especially associated with Louis XIV of France.