Hey guys. So, as always, I kind of want to start with a little bit of an overview of some of the major topics, we'll be covering today. So I want to pick up where we left off last class we kind of talked about how this Portuguese have made their way around England, or excuse me all the way around Africa, and what ultimately pulled them to India and Southeast Asia and I kind of want to pick up with Christopher Columbus's story today. If he sails foreign off westward into the Atlantic Ocean, that hole eventually pop out on the far side of the world to India and Southeast Asia, why he is going to have to pitch this idea to several different countries throughout Europe, before somebody finally takes him up on his offer. And then what that first major voyage is going to look like some of the areas of the new world that, Christopher Columbus's voyage is going to bump into, and then kind of talk about the impact that the the Europe is going to have on the New World, and then the impact that the new world is going to have on Europe. I also want to talk ultimately about the significance of a lot of this because I also kind of want to look briefly at England's first major attempts, a colonization of the new world in the 1580s. And then what France's first major attempts of the colonization of the new world is going to look like in the early 1600s. And, and the reason why I want to kind of talk about the significance of all this is because some of you may be thinking to yourselves Well Mr. Judge, I get talking about Native American history and I get talking about African history, because both of those of course play a part in American history. But why are we, why are we looking at Portugal, why are we talking about Spain. What impact are these two countries ultimately have on American history. And I want to answer that question for you there is a reason why we need to talk about Portugal, heading down westward, you know, down south through Africa and eventually to India and Southeast Asia that has a big part to play in the story England's first major attempt to colonization and Francis was a major attempt to colonization, both of those things have an important part to play in the story Spain's major efforts in Central and South America, have a huge part to play in the story. So we will certainly explain that, I promise you guys. Once we get through talking about France's early attempts of colonization. That should get us through the end of chapter one and that may be a good place to start for this particular lecture. So, to recap a little bit of some of the topics that we discussed in the last lecture before we pick up with the new stuff. Last class we left off talking about how slavery had existed in Africa for thousands of years prior to the Portuguese showing up in the western shores of Africa in the mid 1400s. So we said that, even though Europeans are not responsible for bringing slavery to Africa, they are a major, major reason why it becomes such a massive business, and why the demand for slaves is going to explode in Western Africa, such that millions of more Africans are going to end up being enslaved to them probably otherwise would have been historically. Once the Portuguese show up in the Spanish and the English and the Dutch and the French all starts showing up on the western shores of Africa, that is going to make demand explode and that demand is going to end up, unfortunately costing the lives of millions of people, and the enslavement of millions more. We also talked about the Portuguese. Heading southward and that it was the Renaissance period in Europe that allowed the Portuguese to leave the shores of their own nation and to sail southward to Western Africa and we said that there were two major scientific achievements or more developments that came out of the Renaissance time period. We said one was astronomy and star navigation, and we said that this really is going to allow a lot of ships and captains to sail around at night. As long as we have a fixed point in the sky like the North Star or like certain constellations. We can always tell even at night in which direction we're sailing, that way we don't have to worry about getting lost at sea anymore. We also said that the compass, even though we we believe it is a Chinese invention going back centuries prior to the Renaissance that eventually it does that the technology of the compass does eventually make its way from the Middle Eastern world in the 1200s to Europe by the 1400s, and the compass of course is going to allow people to be able to navigate, much better at night as well.
So we talked about. Once the you know the means are there that portugal is going to start to head south and to Africa and we said the big thing that drew them in that direction was the Mali Empire. We said the Mali Empire is one of the last major African empires or at least West African empires. And it was also one of the wealthiest trade with the Mali Empire had been huge for a long time at this point but we said that most of the trade routes, if not all the trade routes heading to the Mali Empire, were overland via the Sahara Desert. So we said the Portuguese are interested in trading with the Mali Empire via ocean routes, because a it's much faster you can you know ships are carrying the, the cargo instead of camels and horses, which means ships can carry much more product for you can make a large profit off of it. It's relatively much safer than having to go through the desert on land with bandits and other people waiting for you on the trade routes. So there's lots of different reasons why the Portuguese headed south to the Mali Empire to pick up trade, and then we said when the Portuguese got there, the Mali Empire was in the midst of a civil war, and that the Portuguese profited off of that war pretty extensively by selling supplies and weapons to both sides. They prolong the war which meant bigger profits, but it also meant the creation of more slaves via prisoners of war of that war. We said the Portuguese, that's really what's going to get them heavily involved in the African slave trade and then not too long after the Portuguese get involved in the African slave trade. And there are a lot of other European nations are gonna start to pick up on that too.
We left off last class, seeing that the Portuguese continued around Africa, over the next. You know 50 years or so, making their way eventually all the way to India and Southeast Asia, and we said we'll pull them over there is an essence what pulled themselves forward to the Mali Empire and its trade. We know silks coming out of Indians and in China and Southeast Asia right now we know certain spices like cinnamon like black pepper, paprika, are all coming out of this part of the world as well, and the Portuguese are making money hand over fist. Not only are they cashing in on the trade but we said they're also cashing in on the ports that they established all along the African route on the west side of Africa and the east side of Africa. We said other nations are certainly welcome to to use Portuguese ports for fresh water and and timber and you know a place to crash, If a nasty storm went by, but that's going to cost them money, anytime they get this stuff from the Portuguese they gotta pay for it. So portugal is sitting really pretty right now on the financial side of things, and we said that really frustrates a lot of other European nations that are now looking for a better route to Indian Southeast Asia, preferably one that's much faster because sailing all the way down around Africa and then all the way back again, is a long trip months of a trip. Africa is a lot bigger than it appears even on some world maps today in the modern times, Africa is a massive continent, and it would have taken a long long time to get all the way around it. So this is where Christopher Columbus's story now comes into play. And this is where I want to pick up with the new material. So let's first start with country of origin, where is Christopher Columbus from, and this actually believe it or not has some indirect references to some stuff that's going on in America today right now. Christopher Columbus originally is from Italy. A lot of my students sometimes will will mistake in and think that he was from Spain, and that's not correct. He was born in Italy so he's Italian by birth. The reason why I say there's some connection here to American history that's going on right now is because there's a lot of people in the United States who are interested in taking down Christopher Columbus statues because you know Columbus had a big part to play in the enslavement of Native Americans and, you know, millions more of them dying via Spanish and European diseases that came over here to the new world. Um, the main reason why Christopher Columbus became such a important figure and why you see so many statues, particularly in the eastern portion of the United States of America in the northeast, is because Christopher Columbus is Italian, um, when immigration from Italy picked up big time in the United States of America late 1800s into the early 19 hundred's, like most other immigrant groups that came to America, the Italians were very much discriminated against people treated them extremely poorly people wouldn't hire them intentionally people did not welcome them when they came here. So a way for the Italians to kind of integrate themselves into American society was to create kind of like a national holiday. That was geared towards a major Italian figure, and that a major Italian figure that they latched on to was Christopher Columbus, so that is one of the big reasons why Christopher Columbus became such an important figure in American history it wasn't even till the, the, like I said, the early 1900s that Columbus really becomes big, and why does he become big because he is a symbol of Italian American to a certain extent heritage, and that was kind of their way of, you know, unfortunately, reminding Americans that Italian Americans are Americans too. So that's where a lot of this stuff comes from today in modern times, but anyway to get back on the historical track. Christopher Columbus is convinced that he if he sails westward into the Atlantic Ocean that he is going to eventually pop out on the other side of the world, that if he sails westward into the, you know, into the Atlantic Ocean, that hole eventually pop out into China Southeast Asia and India and bam that's going to be a much faster route than going all the way down around Africa, and because right now it's an uncharted route, it means that it's up for grabs. Whoever funds, his voyage stands to gain that that passageway to Indian Southeast Asia, that quicker routes that all water faster route to India and Southeast Asia, and potentially has, you know stands to gain a lot of money from this. Think of how much money Portugal's making right now, whoever pioneers that new route to India and Southeast Asia is going to be the next Portugal, and they're the ones who are going to be sitting pretty. So why is Christopher Columbus convinced of this, that, that he sails westward into the Atlantic Ocean he's going to pop out in the far side of the world. The big reason why is because Christopher Columbus's calculations of how how wide the world is in terms of its circumference is way off, compared to what we know that it is today. In modern times. Christopher Columbus's estimations of about how large the world is around is is somewhere around 15,000 miles was his estimation.
So, if he sails far enough out in the Atlantic Ocean by his calculations, that's going to pop him out on the far side of the world. And as far as he's concerned his his numbers are correct his math is correct, and he's convinced that he's right. So, the problem that Christopher Columbus has now is that he needs a financial backer somebody in Europe who's wealthy enough to, to, to loan him the money to prove that his theory is correct. He's going to need sailing ships that can you know survive in the high seas. He's going to need crews for those ships and he's going to need supplies to last him perhaps several weeks and see all of that combined is going to be astronomically expensive way more money than he has. And right now in Europe there really isn't a robust enough banking system that is going to give him the opportunity to get the money from them. He's not not alone that large. So, when you couldn't go to the bank to get a big enough loan usually the only other people you could go to were members of the royal families of Europe. So that's where he really starts to pick up. He goes to a number of leaders of different Italian kingdoms because right now in the 1400s, Italy is not a united country that actually won't happen till the 1800s. Right now, Italy is a bunch of divided separate kingdoms. So he goes to a number of those separate kingdoms and he pitches his idea and he says, Listen, I've got an idea that I think can potentially make you a lot of money. Give me ships give me crew give me enough supplies, I will sail around that. into into the Atlantic Ocean. I'll pop up on the far side of the world. I'll claim that route for you you can knock it down, you can make all the money off of it. Every single Italian government that he goes to says absolutely not pound sand tries going to Portugal thinking that you know because the Portuguese are big funders of of exploration, that they would be willing to fund him to, and just like the Italian kingdoms. The Portuguese also say absolutely not. So why is Christopher Columbus getting all these knows. The main reason is because the Renaissance is happening and why that's significant is because we said there's lots of advancements in science and mathematics right now. And what most of the scientists in, in, in Europe are saying right now are is that the earth is not 15,000 miles around it's it's much much larger than that probably
around 30 to 35,000 miles around.
So Renaissance science is now saying that Christopher Columbus's numbers are way off, and that if he sails off into the Atlantic Ocean, he's, you know he's gonna disappear. It's not that he's gonna fall off the face of the earth. People knew by this time period that the Earth was not flat, almost everybody knew that by this point, um, they knew what was round, they knew you weren't going to fall off the edge of the world, but they think that the Earth was much larger and in fact their numbers are much closer to what we know today than Christopher Columbus's were so for them no like Christopher Columbus if you sail off into the Atlantic Ocean. Today you're just gonna keep on going you're gonna disappear, you're probably gonna die at sea. So nobody is interested in funding this voyage that seems to be a doomed voyage. So he eventually goes to Spain and pitches the same idea to the King of Spain give me ships, give me a crew give me supplies. I will lock down this route for you and then you guys can make money off of it. And the king of Spain says no, just like everybody else did. Because the king is smart enough to listen to his scientists and they're all telling them the same thing that Columbus's numbers are way off. It's the king's wife, Queen Isabella of Spain, she is the one who will eventually say yes. And if court rumors are to be believed and who knows visit you're not I wasn't there I didn't see, but supposedly supposedly Queen Isabella may have had a crush on Christopher Columbus which may or may not have influenced her decision here but who knows. Well we do know though is that Queen Isabella says yes, I will grant you the money to ships the crew the supplies that you need. But I'm not no fool. I know that I'm taking a huge gamble on giving you all the stuff, because for all I know, you could take all my money and all my ships and disappear. And I'll probably never be able to find you again. So for her. She doesn't want to look like a fool. Not in front of her husband and certainly not in front of the rest of the Spanish royal court. So what, Isabella says to Columbus here is that I'm going to need some guarantees from you before I give you this money in the ship's. First, when you go on your voyage, anywhere in the world that you go, that you end up any land that you bumped into that has not already been claimed by a European country specifically, doesn't matter if it was already claimed by some other group of people. If it's not, if this land you bump into is not claimed by a European country specifically.
You need to claim in the name of Spain.
Christopher Columbus has no problem any new land that's not claimed by European power, all claim for Spain, it's all yours. You can have it. And remember that's pretty lucrative right because we talked about land previously and in a previous lecture, we said the land is is wealth in Europe right now so that's you know that's that's lucrative. There's another stipulation that she throws in here though. And she says, All right, I'm going to need a second guarantee from you, wherever it is that you Christopher Columbus and up. You need to you need to prove that I can make money off of this venture you need to bring back something of value, something that we as Spain can financially profit off of. So claiming land is great, but but I need more than just land I you know I need the land that has value, some type of a natural resource something we can exploit once we you know we get to that new land and Christopher Columbus is short no problem you got anything I can find the value to prove that this land has resources. I'll bring it back for me to prove it. And with those two conditions met so at least you know verbal agreement was Isabelle says, Okay, here's your ships, here's your crew here's your supplies, do not cross me. Do not screw me over because I will find you. I am the queen of one of you. You know wealthier more powerful countries in Europe right now I will find you if you try to screw me over. So, Christopher Columbus got everything you need now to to prove his theory is correct. And he sails off in the western direction 1492 into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. About a month or so into the voyage, things are starting to get really ugly, it'll the Atlantic Ocean. And I don't mean weather wise although they had some problems with that too, by a month or so at sea. They had not seen any land for that entire month or so, and heavy doubts are now starting to weigh on the crew, they're terrified now that maybe they made a huge mistake in signing up for this, that maybe we are lost in the middle of the ocean, that this guy, Columbus has no friggin clue what he's doing. he's going to get us lost we're running low on supplies, and a lot of them really really aren't happy. One of the ships because he goes with three ships. One of the ships decides to turn around and start to try to head back to Spain. The crew of the ship that he's on the flagship is on the verge of mutiny, at this point, and they're ready they're ready to overthrow them and probably just toss them off the off the ship in the middle of the ocean. Fortunately for Columbus. Not too too long, maybe about five or six weeks or so after you know the voyage began, they finally bumped into a piece of land, and this is music for Christopher Columbus is here is, in fact, what we know of it historically him bumping into this this island in what we know today is the Caribbean, is probably what saved his life, had they not bought bumped into that piece of land, we don't know how much longer would have been told us crew simply just made a need. But that is ultimately what saves saves the voyage, what we know today. In modern times, is that the island the first bit of land that he bumped into in the new worlds is one of the islands of the Bahamas and and what uh you know what a tough place to start, and the New World, how gorgeous the Bahama islands are. Um, so certainly this is great for them because they hadn't seen land and got six weeks or more. So, so they're excited they're pumped up to find land and and what we see happen not too long after is that the Native American tribes living on some of these islands start to emerge and start to make contact with the Spanish. And what we see here is, is a the Spanish are not going to treat these people particularly well, nor is Christopher Columbus,
what we know of personally
of Christopher Columbus he's actually a bit of a jerk. Most people didn't like it. And that's not, I suppose surprising giving the actions that we know of him going forward with the rest of the Native Americans, but we do know is that relations with the Native Americans broke down pretty quickly, things started to get violent between them and it kind of forced the Spanish to move along. We also know that on the first voyage, the Spanish will eventually bump into the island of Cuba, they'll eventually bump into the island of parts of what's present day depending on Republic, or what we refer to conjoin flee of Haiti in the Dominican Republic combined is Hispaniola. So we're calling at the time. And what we know is that they're going to spend the next several months mapping out Cuba and Hispaniola because those are some of the biggest islands in the Caribbean. They're going to make more contact with the Native Americans on those islands. And of course, again, the relationship between the two groups is going to be really bad almost from the start. Excuse me. Um, and after about nine months or so, being over here in the New World, becoming pretty clear. That's, you know the Spanish, they want to go home. The Native Americans become openly hostile at this point, and and most of them have been gone from their homes and their families for so long that they're ready to head back. So Christopher Columbus had claimed all these islands that he bumped into a mapped out for Spain so you can check that, you know, box off. So the other thing he needs to bring back with him now is a resource something of value to prove that this land that he had just claimed for Spain has has, you know dollar value attached to it. So unfortunately here and I suppose not terribly surprising. Christopher Columbus decides to bring 25 or so captured Native American slaves, as his resource and what he his plans are to present these Native American slaves to the queen and say I estimate that on the island of Cuba alone, there's somewhere around 3 million Native Americans living on the island. In modern times today. We believe that number that estimate of 3 million to be probably pretty correct. So, Christopher Columbus takes those 25 Native American slaves back to Spain with them. Only about eight of them or so actually survived the voyage the rest of them died either through starvation or poor conditions and then everything else, which is awful presents these eight or so Native Americans to the queen and says, I claimed islands in your name and here's the natural resource quote unquote natural resource on the island. What do you think, and for Queen Isabella as far as she's concerned, those two boxes were checked. He claimed Lance, and we can, we can use the slaves. We can either use them, and enslave the Native Americans and use them as slave labor for our own purposes, or we can take those Native Americans and sell them into the world slave trade at this point for profit. But either way, as far as Spain's concerned. This was a successful voyage. Columbus will make subsequent trips back to the new worlds, eventually pumping into additional islands in the Caribbean bumping into parts of what's mainland, Mexico parts of central Mexico. Every time Christopher Columbus goes back he's convinced that he just keeps bumping into islands that are somewhere off the coast of present day either Southeast Asia or India, and in fact when he made contact with the Native Americans he erroneously referred to them as Indians, because he thought he was really close or in India. And, Unfortunately, that's how the term Indian was, you know, attached to Native Americans in America, which is a complete and total misnomer. I mean, Indians Native Americans are not Indians because they're not from India. Only Indian people from India. But the name unfortunately stuck, and it stuck throughout much of our nation's history. So, again, Christopher Columbus here is convinced that he is. He's only a couple islands off the main coast, and he was this close as far as he was concerned proving his theory correct, that if we sailed far enough in the westward direction in in the Atlantic Ocean that you eventually pop out on the other side of the world. Christopher Columbus dies, not really fully understanding, probably what he is in some way stumbled onto that he unknowingly rediscovered or discovered too soon super continents, in North America and South America,
that is about to change the history of millions and millions and millions of people. Some for the better and some for the worse. Christopher Columbus dies not understanding the full weight I think of what had happened. So let's briefly talk about the impact that Europe is about to have on the New World. Now that the Spanish start moving over and using Cuba, as their their overseas their new world headquarters because Island, Cuba was the largest island in the Caribbean, and then that makes sense. So over the next few decades Spain commits itself to to cultivating the islands, and to building it up to developing it building towns and villages and cities building a port space and everything else you're going to need to use Cuba, as a launching off point for the invasion of the rest of the mainland of Central and South America. So the impact that we see on the New World. First is that the Spanish are going to bring a brand new religion with them, and that's going to of course be Christianity and specifically Catholicism. I know we previously talked about the difference between Christianity and Catholicism, but for the Spanish specifically that was a hardcore Catholic nation right now in the 14 1500s, so it's it's Catholicism that the Spanish bring with that a lot of the Spanish priests brought with them to come over here and evangelize the new world. And they'll be able to convert some Native American tribes, some won't. Most in fact won't but some will. And, in fact, that's a major reason why much of Central and South America today in modern times. is predominantly Catholic, because it's Spanish that pick out over your first and spread much of the faith as a result, new technologies of course are also going to be brought over by the Spanish and then eventually by the rest of European countries that come over here. Some of the more obvious things like iron and steel, like guns and gunpowder, and perhaps some of the less obvious things like horses, for instance, and I know it's weird first to refer to a horse as a technology guy. I understand that it's a little bit bizarre. Um, but also Well Mr. Judge I mean I've seen movies that depict Native Americans and those Native Americans were riding around on horses. So what gives. And my response to you is, believe it or not horses did not exist in North Central or South America, until the Spanish brought them over here to the new world. And then once the Spanish did introduce horses. The population of horses exploded because the demand for horses exploded, people understood immediately that you can use horses for everything from hunting to combat to, you know, farming needs and everything transportation, trade everything in between. So horses now did not exist over here until the Spanish brought them over and then horse is gonna have a big impact. And probably again, one of the most obvious impacts that Europe is going to have on the new world is devastation, just sheer devastation diseases like smallpox and influenza will be responsible for wiping out millions of Native Americans throughout North Central and South America literally millions and millions and millions of diseases will kill way more Native Americans than European bullets, or swords or Spears or anything else will come even close to the devastation isn't just limited to human beings either the Spanish are going to be responsible for bringing with them is not just viruses unintentionally and that's something that suppose it's worth mentioning as well. Sometimes it's Miss believed that the Spanish brought these diseases over here on purpose to weaponize them or to use them to wipe out the Native American tribes and that's that's not the case. This is just one of those unfortunate things that typically happens when two groups of people that have never had contact with each other. Now all of a sudden have contact with each other, some things that never existed in this part of the world are going to be introduced. And some things that the new people that come to the new worlds come into contact with for the first time, they're going to bring back with them to Europe for the first time.
So
it's not just the diseases, it's not just the technology and it's not just the religion. Unfortunately the Spanish are also going to bring over some species of animals that are going to end up being highly invasive like rabbits for instance in cows, and I know both of those things don't sound like particularly threatening animals. But because rabbits reproduce so rapidly and they they produce so many children when they reproduce. We believe that rabbits European rabbits actually ended up pushing out a lot of indigenous species to the point that those species died out slowly over time, because they couldn't keep up with the multiplying rabbits who pushed them out of their natural habitat. Same thing with cows. Because cows are such large creatures. And because they consume so much we believe the cows may have pushed out other indigenous species that existed in this part of the world. Briefly, let's talk about the impact that the new world is going to have on Europe, new understanding of the world, certainly. Yes. Vikings, technically, were the first Europeans to come over here to the new worlds. What the Vikings did back in 800 or 900 somewhere around there is in essence the kind of Island hop themselves from where they were coming from parts of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, they headed westwards to places like, you know, Scotland and Ireland and then from there to Iceland, and then from there to Greenland, and then from Greenland over here to what would be parts of northeastern Canada, and eventually made their way south along the Canadian coastline.
So, yes,
technically Vikings were the first groups of Europeans here to the new worlds. But the reason why we don't really give them a ton of credit is because they they didn't stay here permanently. They established small scale villages that they never really took off. They never really committed people over here to permanently colonized the New World, and eventually when the Vikings just coming over a year that knowledge was simply just lost, and then most of Europe wasn't aware of the land that was over here in the new world. So understanding of how big the world is gotten much better in Europe, of course, once you know, North Central and South America was discovered new products are going to be introduced to Europe for the first time, products like potatoes. As an example, on potatoes and certain types of corn like maize potatoes are really going to explode in popularity in certain parts of Europe and in particular, Ireland, which is going to have a very important part to play in their story down the road. The reason why potatoes become so big in Ireland is because, Ireland historically has always been for the most part, a very poor nation, and you can grow. Lots and lots and lots of potatoes and a very very small plot of farmland and since many people in Ireland, were very very poor and couldn't afford much land in terms of growing food on potatoes exploded because you can you can grow so many potatoes in such a small area. So that has a big part to play certainly in Irish history, but in European history as well. What we also see is another major impact here on new war on the new world has on Europe is kind of a development of ethno centricity and especially euro centricity. And what I mean by that is his belief in European superiority. You look at and it's very it's it's it's bad it's a very very bad thing that starts to develop this concept that when the Europeans went out when they left Europe to start to expand to discover the new worlds and worlds beyond. When the Portuguese and other nations sail to Africa, they were able to have a lot of military success and get a lot of financial success in what was going on in the Mali Empire and beyond. And they were able to, in many ways dominate the people in Africa, when they went over to India and Southeast Asia, they're going to come to dominate the people that region in the world as well, and then eventually when they come over here to North Central and South America, they're going to do the exact same thing. When the a lot of the European countries came to those different parts of the world they were bringing advanced level technology with them, like guns and gunpowder that didn't exist in North Central South America prior to this.
So, unfortunately, this convinces
the Europeans, that they are the superior race on the planet, that's, you know, God has chosen us Europeans to spread our culture out to the world because we are superior. Look how advanced we are in technology, look how advanced ours, our cities are compared to Native American cities which is completely off the mark, because again, if you look at capital city of say the Aztecs for instance, you're looking at a capital city that was built on a man made islands with massive temple complexes, and in a government that was able to support millions of people inside the Empire. So it's just foolishness on the part of the Europeans here but it, I think it's a fair byproduct to mention. Okay. Let's briefly talk about England's initial efforts here in the new worlds late 1500s 1580s, and you may be thinking to yourself, well, surely surely Sure. Surely, we're talking about Jamestown, and and we'll be talking about Jamestown not too distant future, but right now no we're not talking about Jamestown in the 1580s and 1587 specifically we're talking about Roanoke, which was a small settlements that was established by a guy named Sir Walter Raleigh, just off the coast of what's present day in North Carolina. Now, I'm Queen Elizabeth of England was the one who gave Sir Walter Raleigh here. The, the charter, in essence permission to to go over to the new world to claim a bit of land for England, and to establish a small settlement there. Now the big problem of why we really don't talk about Roanoke a whole lot is because it was an unmitigated disaster it went really really poorly. For a lot of the colonists who came over here. 1587, the first bit of colonists came over here to Roanoke again with off the coast of present day North Carolina was an island small island off the coast present a North Carolina. Now, these colonists are coming over here totally clueless. And what I mean by that is if any of you have ever been to England, or to Ireland, or to Scotland or Wales anywhere in the British Isles area, especially if you've ever been in the wintertime. You You probably know that in the wintertime, it really doesn't get too much colder in that area of the world than the low 40s, it doesn't get particularly cold over there. Summers don't get particularly warm either you're probably only talking about you know high 70s, you know, a lot of the time. But what I'm ultimately saying here is, it's a relatively narrow area of temperatures. So when they do come over here and establish themselves in what's northern North Carolina which is relatively close to Virginia, you're talking about a region in the world that can get pretty damn colds, you know, in North Carolina and in parts of Virginia, it can get down into the 20s or 30s in the wintertime. That's much colder than these people are prepared for. So they're coming over here completely unprepared for the elements and the temperature. They're coming over here, not particularly well skilled, which means that they're going to really struggle with farming and the soil of the island that they establish themselves on is really bad soil anyway so farming is going to be a disaster. The Native Americans that they come in contact with, they are going to end up pissing off pretty quickly. They try to conquer these people they try to push them off their land, and it creates conflict and tension almost immediately between the two groups. So between the climate, the poor soil the bad farming the immediate conflict the Native Americans, clearly, they're not setting themselves up for success. Now here's where things are going to go from bad to worse, if you can believe it. 1787, the ships dropped these colonists off, and basically said, establish a settlement here. We the ships are going to go back to England, we're going to pick up some more colonists and we're going to come back here as soon as possible. So in the meantime, you guys establish a settlement here, and we'll be back with more people to help out the courts. Now, when those ships get back to England late 50 1587. The big problem that's going to end up hitting England hard in 1588, just next year is a major war between England and Spain, in which the Spanish Armada is launched in 1588, in an effort to try to invade England and take it over with military force is a big moment in English, history.
Long story short, England ends up, defeating the Spanish Armada or the Spanish Navy, and because of storms that really is what saved them the storms off the coast of England. That, that's really ultimately what saves England, but what that also meant was those ships that left Roanoke that went back to England to pick up more colonists, in essence, they were trapped in England for the next couple of years, until that war came to an end until the Spanish Armada was finally defeated. So, the ships with new colonists that start making their way back to Roanoke again they're not going to get there until 1593 years after they left. Now remember we said these people were not set up to succeed, between the bad soil the bad climate the conflict the Native Americans. By the time those ships, get back here three years later, what do you think they find at Roanoke. And the answer is nothing. All the people there all the English colonists that we're trying to establish the settlement there are all gone. To this day in modern times this is one of the biggest mysteries in American history what happened to these group of 100 or so colonists. We know that some of them died of starvation, we know that some of them died of disease and exposure to a very harsh winter, but not all. The fact of the matter is is today in modern times we don't know what happened to that, those group of people that group of survivors. We have theories, but we don't know definitively what happened to them. The some theories suggest that perhaps a, an aggressive Native American group moved into the area and took them over by force. That's a possibility. Some people believe that the Navy. The first winter was so harsh for the colonists that they decided simply just to abandon the settlement, and to ask for mercy with the Native Americans to move in with them so that they didn't starve to death and freeze to death. That's actually the leading theory that we have. Some people think that they may have gotten sucked up into spaceships by aliens, I can just prove it so maybe
it did happen I don't know. Wasn't there I didn't see it,
but what we do know is that to that new group of colonists that came back on the ships and 1590. Ain't no way they're getting off the ships and hanging around, not when the entire population of Roanoke simply just up and disappeared. So ultimately what happens here is that England abandons the entire settlements abandons Roanoke and in fact won't be back to the new world for another 17 years or so, not until 1607. Not until James towel. So Roanoke England's first major attempt here is an unmitigated disaster it goes really really poorly for the English. Like I said to the point where they're not going to be back until 1607. So we have just a little bit left to cover here and
I do want to talk
about France's attempts to colonization here but I know the word yet the 45 ish minute mark so we'll pick up the next lecture with France's first attempts to colonization here in the new world, and that will be the end of chapter one, and then we'll pick up with chapter two, which starts with Jamestown, Virginia and 1607. So as always if you have questions please feel free to email.
