Spain+and+Portugal's+Empires+(in+the+new+world)

=Spain and Portugal's Empires in the New World=

Exploration and conquest
In 1500, Pedro Alvares Cabral lead an expedition that made first landfall on South America for the Portuguese. He landed briefly in Brazil, but saw nothing of interest in the dyewood trees there. Instead of forming a colony, the Portuguese crown allowed merchants to use the dyewood. The French began to take interest after 30 years. The Portuguese used military force to clear the area of French and natives, and established colonies, dividing the land into strips, which were given to nobles to colonize. In 1549, a Portuguese governor was sent to the colony, creating a capitol at Salvador

Other
By 1600, Brazil had a population of about 100,000, comprised of 30,000 Portuguese, 15,000 black slaves, and 55,000 mixed/Indian/other. The number of black slaves doubled by 1630. These slaves were used to work on sugar plantations, the primary economic activity of the time and place. Brazil was the first great plantation colony. Slavery and plantation usage went up, and Brazil's claim on the sugar industry declined. To make up for the economic inactivity, Paulistas (people from Sao Paulo and other areas with minimal plantations) found gold strikes in Minas Gerais, which initiated a gold rush. Mining labor was performed mainly by slaves. With the economy based on a nonrenewable resource, Brazil set up economic dependencies (England) that it was later hard-pressed to keep up with.

Independence
The independence movement in Brazil had many causes, somewhat similar to those of Mexico. an increase of demand for Brazilian plantation products lead to an increase of slavery, which kept any political uprisings down in fear. The higher classes believed that any sort of political change might spark a social rebellion of the slaves and lower classes, or possibly a Haitian style slave rebellion. In addition to that, the 'spark' occurred in 1807. Napoleon's troops started the invasion of Portugal, and the entire ruling family relocated to Brazil. In Rio de Janiero, they established a new court. Brazil became 'on par' with Portugal, on a global scale. To appease the British, Brazil was opened to world commerce, which was what the Brazilian merchants and elites were hoping for.

Exploration and conquest
In 1519, Hernán Cortés led an expedition to Mexico in search of a great kingdom. They fought they're way into the mainland through various towns of the Aztec Empire before managing to reach the capital of Tenochtitlan. There, they managed to kill the emperor, bring the city down, and replace it with Mexico City. By 1535, the majority of central Mexico was considered to be New Spain. Expeditions to both the north and the south were led by the Spanish from that point.

Other
As in other areas of the New World, conquest and foreign disease depleted the native population from 25 million to less than 2 million. Inversely, European livestock increased, and Mexico became filled with Spanish-style farms raising cattle and grain. Compared to other areas focused in mining, Mexico was somewhat less economically important in regards to its impact on Spain. However, Mexico remained an important part of the Spanish empire, with one of two viceroys being based on Mexico City.

Independence
The Mexican War of Independence occurred from 1810 to 1821, caused by the rural population's desire to throw off their Spanish controllers and establish their own government. This was largely caused by negligence of the country while Spain focused on the Napoleonic Wars.

Exploration and conquest
On Columbus's return voyage to the new world, they established a colony on the island of Santo Domingo, the first colony to be established in the Caribbean. In the years following, Spain continued on to continue out its conquest, taking control of the islands of Puerto Rico in 1508, Cuba in 1511, and places in Panama in 1513.

Other
Not having a lot of labor force brought in from Europe, the Spaniards had to rely on the local Indians who provided a surplus of manual labor for the colonies governed by Spain. Another effect on the Latin settlements, was the fall of the Inca Empire at the hands of the Spanish. The Spanish presence in the Latin American colonies didn't go unnoticed for too long. As soon as the Spanish started shipping out fleets of galleon full of silver back to their homeland, there was an increase in attention. In 1627 the Dutch successfully raided a treasure fleet, which was heading back to Spain. That was the first and only time a treasure fleet was entirely captured, or destroyed.

//Sources//
Stearns, Peter N. "Ch. 19- Early Latin America & Ch. 25- Consolidation of Latin America." World Civilizations: The Global Experience. 3rd Edition- AP ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2003. Print.

Vess, Deborah, and Lynn Elizabeth. Marlowe. AP World History. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association, 2010. Print.

McKeehan, Wallace L. "Mexican Independence." //Texas A&M University//. Texas A&M University, 1997. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. .