POLSCI 2J03 Lecture : 2J03- january 18, 2012.docx
Document Summary
1492 (columbus sailed the ocean blue: west for east (movie trailer, columbus was italian. Worked with the spanish and portuguese because he wanted to get around the middle east spices, china, etc. Europe was not very attractive at this point of time. Era of re-conquest and inquisition: the europe that columbus left was not very progressive or enlightened, people were being converted from judaism or muslim to catholic, genoa from the moors. Europeans bring it to the native mexicans they had no immunity: 100s of millions (die from no immunity, mexico from 25 million to 1. 5, formerly blessed by isolation. Imperialist: run by a number of empires; reorient to serve imperial economy. Mercantilist: in competition with each other 0 sum game; colonies close to each other could not trade with each other. Source of resources for european state: americas a source of resources (silver, gold, fish, beaver, sugar, tobacco, cotton)