Social Sciences and History / Unit 4 SSH 0313 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Columbus, Cortés, Potosí
Captions available
The idea
Columbus sailed in fourteen ninety-two on faith and commerce; the earth's roundness was known, its size not. Cortés reached Mexico in fifteen nineteen with about four hundred fifty men and turned the Aztecs' tributaries against them.
In practice
Potosí's silver from fifteen forty-five, mined by forced labor, the mita.
Where people slip
The anchor calls the conquests a catastrophe for native peoples. Bullion undermined Spain's development.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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