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Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sea captain, was funded by the Spanish monarchy to find an alternate route to Asia. Instead, his three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, landed on an island in the Caribbean.
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Pope Alexander VI devided the world between Spain and Portugal. He granted Portugal a large portion of the New World and all rights to colonize Africa and Asia. Where Spain had the rights to the unknown wilds in the west.
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King Ferdinand of Spain authorizes the transportation of 50 African Slaves to Santo Domingo. This is the start of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
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Hernando Cortez and 600 of his men marched to the Aztec capital of Tenochititlan. The Aztec emperor, Montezuma II, mistook Cortez as a returning god and welcomed the Spanish into his city. When Montezuma discovered that Cortez was not a god the Spanish were forced to leave Tenochititlan. They soon returned with Native allias and modern weapons and conquered the Aztec defenders.
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Francisco Pizarro set an ambush for the Incan ruler, Atahualpa, and captured him for ransom. Atahualpa promised to fill the room in which he was being held with gold and silver. Yet, when the ransom was paid, Atahualpa was strangled. The Spanish marched into the Incan capital of Cuzco without a fight.
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King James issued a charter that allowed for the founding of an English colony in the New World. Most of the men who arrived died of starvation, disease or the elements within the first years. Those who survived discovered tobacco, a cash crop that was easy to grow and to sell.
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Samuel de Champlain landed at the "point of Quebec" and started to fortify the area ordering the construction of three main wooden buildings, each two stories tall, that he collectively called the "Habitation",
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A group a settlers, including women and children, who were seeking religious freedom. They wanted to make a "city on the hill" that could be an example to the rest of the world.
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Civil War broke out in England. King Charles I was put on trial for putting his own welfare above that of the English people. Charles I was beheaded, and then was given a proper funeral.
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African Slaves were more resistant to European diseases than Native Americans, and were able to labor in horible conditions without succombing to the heat and mistreatment.
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King Philip, or Metacom, led a coalition of tribes against the English colonists throughout Massachusetts. For over a year hundreds were killed on each side until Metacom and his warriors were defeated.
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A dispute about land claims in the Ohio River Valley led to a war between the English conolists and the French. The French were allias with several of the Indian tribes of North America. This war became part of the larger conflict know as the Seven Years' War.
