Lien Encounters: Urope in the Americas

¦  Columbus's Great Triumph— and Error

¦  Spain's American Empire

¦  Extending Spain's Empire to the North

¦  Disease and Population Losses

¦  Ecological Imperialism

¦  Spain's European Rivals

¦  The Protestant Reformation

¦  English Beginnings in America

¦  The Settlement of Virginia

¦  "Purifying" the Church of England

¦  Bradford and Plymouth Colony

¦  Winthrop and Massachusetts Bay Colony

¦  Troublemakers: Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson

¦  Other New England Colonies

¦  Pequot War and King Philip's War

¦  Maryland and the Carolinas

¦  French and Dutch Settlements

¦  The Middle Colonies

¦  Cultural Collisions

¦  Cultural Fusions

¦ Debating the Past:

How Many Indians Perished with European Settlement?

¦ Re-Viewing the Past:

((••-[Hear the Audio Chapter 1 at Www. myhistorylab. com

¦ Spanish soldiers, though trapped in a room by Aztec warriors, have the advantage of metal armor and guns.

And salted fish) reacted when they first tasted pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and other spicy foods from South Asia and the Pacific. Beyond titillating the palate, spices disguised the taste of spoiled meats in regions that had little ice. Europeans also prized such tropical foods as rice, figs, and oranges, as well as perfumes (often used as a substitute for soap), silk and cotton, rugs, textiles such as muslin and damask, dyestuffs, fine steel products, precious stones, and various drugs.

But the cost of transporting such goods from East Asia and the Pacific was exorbitant. The combined routes through central Asia were long and complicated— across strange seas, through deserts, over high mountain passes—with pirates or highwaymen as a constant threat. If the produce of eastern Asia could be carried to Europe by sea, the trip would be both cheaper and more comfortable. Christopher Columbus imagined that by sailing west, he would find an all-water route to the spicy riches of India and East Asia. By providing a cheap means of satisfying the European craving for spices, he would find a path to fame and fortune. He was half right. ¦