Jeremy Schwartz
7/10/12
AP US History
Ms. Schuler
Exploration Discovery, and Settlement, 1492-1700
1. One theme in Chapter 1 is religious motive for exploration.
a) The later years of the renaissance were a time of intense religious zeal and conflict. The Roman Catholic Church that had once dominated the culture of Western Europe was threatened from without by Ottoman Turks (followers from Islam) and from within by a Protestant revolt against the pope’s authority.
b) In the Middle Ages, Spain had been partly conquered by Muslim invaders. Only one Moorish strong hold remained in that country when Isabella, queen of Castile, and Ferdinand, king of Aragon, united their separate Christian kingdoms. The uniting of Spain under Isabella and Ferdinand was a sign of new leadership, hope, and power for European believers in the Roman Catholic faith.
c) In the Early 1500’s, certain Christians in Germany, England, France, Holland, and other northern European countries revolted against the authority of the pope in Rome. Conflict between Catholics and Protestants led to a series of religious wars. It also caused the Catholics of Spain and Portugal and the Protestants of England and Holland to want their own versions of Christianity adopted by non-Christian peoples in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
2. A second theme of Chapter 1 is the spread of kingdoms and exploration.
a) Columbus spent eight years seeking financial support for his plan to sail west from Europe to the “Indies.” Finally, in 1942, he succeeded in winning the backing of the two Spanish monarchs. After sailing from the Canary Islands, Columbus landed in the Bahamas. His success in discovering lands on the other side of the ocean brought him a burst of glory in Spain. He provided a permanent interaction between Europeans and Native Americans.
b) Spain and Portugal were the first kingdoms to lay claim to territories in the New World. In 1494, the two disputing kingdoms signed the Treaty of Tordesillas which moved the line separating the two kingdoms.
c) Spanish dominance in the Americas was based on more than a treaty and a papal line of demarcation. Spain owed is power in the New World to the many explorers and conquerors.
3. A third theme of Chapter 1 is the founding of colonies and the hardships they faced.
a) In the early 1600’s, England was finally in a position to colonize the lands explored more than a century earlier. England’s King James I chartered the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company that established the first permanent English colony in America at Jamestown in 1607. The first settlers of Jamestown suffered great hardships from Indian attacks, famine, and disease-and their own mistakes. The settlement’s location in a swampy area along the James River resulted in outbreaks of dysentery and malaria, diseases that were fatal to many.
b) The Pilgrims decided to establish a new colony at Plymouth. Economic hardship and cultural differences led the pilgrims to seek another haven for their religion. After the first winter, half their people perished. Friendly Native Americans helped them to adapt to the land.
c) In 1630, Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A civil war in England drove some 15,000 more settlers to this colony.

The Thirteen Colonies And The British Empire 1607-1750
1. One theme in Chapter 2 is slavery.

a) Slavery started as an attempt to solve the labor shortage. By 1650 there were 400 African laborers in Virginia, and not all of them were held in permanent bondage. In the 1660’s the Virginia House of Burgesses enacted laws that discriminated between blacks and whites. Africans and their offspring were to be treated as lifelong slaves, whereas white laborers were to be set free after a certain period.

b) The number of slaves grew rapidly from only a few thousand in 1670 to tens of thousands in the early 18th century. By 1750, half of Virginia’s population and two