{"id":6391,"date":"2016-11-02T15:02:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T15:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/?post_type=chapter&p=6391"},"modified":"2019-06-04T22:34:32","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T22:34:32","slug":"3-1-introduction","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/preconfederation\/chapter\/3-1-introduction\/","title":{"raw":"3.1 Introduction","rendered":"3.1 Introduction"},"content":{"raw":"[caption id=\"attachment_2437\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]\"A<\/a> Figure 3.1 The putative Irish explorer, St. Brendan, gets a lift from a whale.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe 1400s witnessed the start of increasingly ambitious sea\u00a0expeditions in the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, which continued for several centuries.\u00a0Countries in\u00a0Eurasia and Africa developed a growing interest in exotic goods and the wider world. The western European voyages of fishermen, whalers, and licensed explorers opened up an era in which the growth of commerce, creed, and\u00a0curiosity combined with an opportunity to exploit new resources in far-off lands. Different European nations used\u00a0different strategies to achieve these goals.\r\n\r\nThe motivations of the European expansionists were those of their\u00a0age. The pursuit of\u00a0material and spiritual goals\u00a0reflected\u00a0the agendas of mercantile wealth accumulation and\u00a0Catholic dominance. The example of Iberian colonies\u00a0in Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America taunted the French: they, too,\u00a0wanted easy riches\u00a0and an almost effortless conquest. Instead they got long, cold winters, an Iroquois adversary that would not relent, and a trade in furs -- a far cry from the silver and gold looted from the Aztec and Incan empires.\u00a0As well, the French experiment in North America faced serious competition from\u00a0English\u00a0and Dutch Protestants in the region.\r\n\r\nIn the earliest era of contact and conquest, the Spanish dominated the New World. Their experiences largely defined early European knowledge of the Americas and its native inhabitants, the people Europeans called los Indios <\/em> or\u00a0\"Indians.\" In the 50\u00a0years after Christopher Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492,\u00a0the Spanish established the basis for a powerful hemispheric empire. The Spanish faced two significant\u00a0challenges, however: distance and time. The long journey between Europe and the colonies\u00a0meant that communication was difficult and slow. Distance and time played a key\u00a0role in shaping colonial administration as well as patterns and methods of imperial control.\r\n\r\nThe direct impact of European exploration\u00a0on the northern half of North America was slight until the early 17th century, with\u00a0colonization and some measure of agricultural settlement\u00a0occurring only very slowly. The earlier successes modelled\u00a0by the Spanish and Portuguese from the Carolinas south to Tierra del Fuego had\u00a0a profound effect on European attitudes and ambitions for the lands to the north.\r\n\r\nThis chapter surveys early European\u00a0interest in what was called the \"Americas\" through the first stages of establishing colonies. It explores the various economic and political\u00a0models that emerged, and the impact of this phase of transatlantic plunder on the emergence of western Europe as a centre of imperial power.\r\n
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