Transcript Ch.13 – The Age of Exploration

The Age of
Exploration
Chapter 13
Reasons for Exploration
 War
and the conquests by the
Ottoman Turks reduced the ability to
travel by land.
 3 G’s – Gold, God, Glory
Portuguese
Portugal takes the lead
in exploration.
 Gold

– Southern coast of West
Africa = Gold Coast

Spice
– Vasco da Gama (1498),
found route to India;
made HUGE profits
Voyages to the Americas
Columbus’s Map circa 1490
 Spain
– financed
Columbus
– 1492, reached
the Indies
– Thought he had
reached Asia
Columbus and Queen Isabella
Line of Demarcation
 Spain
& Portugal feared the other
would claim the new territories
 Treaty of Tordesillas – Spain gets
west and Portugal gets east.
Original Treaty of
Tordesillas Map
The Race is On!
 John
Cabot – explores New England
coastline for England
 Amerigo Vespucci – wrote letters and
described what he saw
 Hernan Cortes – conquers Aztecs
 Francisco Pizarro – conquers Incas
Diseases
 Forced
labor, starvation, &
disease devastated the Native
American population
–Mexico: 25 million to 1 million
–Hispaniola: 250,000 to 500
Columbian Exchange
The
exchange of plants and
animals between Europe and
the Americas
Columbian Exchange



Philippines becomes base for
Spanish trade
English establish trade with
India and SE Asia
Dutch form East India Company
(Competed with English &
Portuguese)
– Formed West India Company (trade
in the Americas)
– Established colony of New
Netherland

English established
Massachusetts Bay Colony
(1600’s) – becomes colonial
empire
Mercantilism
a
nation’s prosperity
depended on a large supply
of gold/silver b/c it gave a
country a favorable balance
of trade.
Mercantilism
 Nations
wanted a favorable
balance of trade
–Value of exported goods is greater
than the value of imported goods
–Colonies become very
important!
Sources
of raw materials and
markets of parent country’s
finished goods
The Slave Trade
 Demand
increased w/the European
voyages to the Americas
– Sugar cane plantations used slave labor
b/c disease had killed off the native
population
 Trading
of slaves becomes a major
export in the triangular trade (route)
Triangular Trade Route
The Middle Passage
 The
journey to the Americas that
was the middle leg of the triangular
trade route
– 16th c. – 275,000
– 17th c. – +1 million
– 18th c. - 6 million
– By the end of the slave trade (19th c.)
over 10 million slaves were shipped
from Africa
The Middle Passage

Most slaves were war captives
– Most were sold for gold, guns and other goods
– Most Europeans never actually “captured”
slaves b/c they believed it was too dangerous
to go into the hinterland so, local traders
actually captured the slaves

Slave trade depopulated many African
communities – depriving them of their
youngest and strongest men and women