Transcript Age of Exploration

Age of Exploration:
Impacts on Europe, The Americas & Africa
Three Worlds Collide
Europeans Seek New Trade
Routes to ASIA
 Main
reason: To gain wealth
 Crusades spurs demand for Asian goods
 Muslims and Italians control trade from
East to West
 Other European nations want to bypass
these powers
FOR GOD, GOLD & GLORY

Desire to spread Christianity
also spurs exploration
Portuguese explorer
Bartholomeu Dias wanted to
serve God and king

Technology:

In 1400s, the caravel made it
possible to sail against the
wind
Astrolabe makes navigation
easier
Magnetic compass improves
tracking of direction



Ay caramba!
Tools of Navigation
Caravel
Mariner’s
Astrolabe
Compass
Crosshatch
Hourglass
Log
Mariner’s Astrolabe

Used to measure Latitude,
using the positions of the Sun
or a well known star

A simple brass ring, marked off in
graduated in degrees with a rotating
blade for sighting the Sun or a star.

Not very accurate - errors of four or
five degrees were common
The Portuguese Explore Africa


Prince Henry of
Portugal
1419 - founded
Portuguese
navigation school
 By 1460, Portuguese
trading posts along
west coast of Africa
Portuguese Sailors Reach Asia

1488 - Dias sailed
around Africa

1498, Vasco da
Gama sailed to India

Returned with
valuable cargo
Portugal’s Trading Empire
 1509



- Portugal defeated Muslims
took over Indian Ocean trade
in India & Malaysia
Also control southern tip of Africa
 These
gains broke Muslim-Italian hold on
Asian trade
Challenges to Portuguese in Asia

English & Dutch move
into Asia

Portuguese weakened

England & France
move into India
A Rival Power - Spain

Spanish want access to ASIA
also

They sponsored Columbus

Idea: Sail west to reach Asia

OOPs - Found the Americas
instead

IMPACT: Opened Americas to
exploration and colonization
Shoulda asked for directions…
Columbus
Columbus and the Taino meet –


two worlds collide
Impact on Indigenous Populations:
1. No immunity to European diseases.
2. Whole tribes decimated.
3.
Brutal treatment of local peoples. Enslaved & tortured.
Fr. Bartolome de Las Casas convinced the King of
Spain to halt the mistreatment of the natives.
Impact on Africans:

Over time, Africans replace native
peoples as slaves.

Slavery becomes essential part of
N & S American colonial systems

Between 1500-1800, at least 12 million
people were taken from Africa.
Impact on Europeans:

Merchants & monarchs seek to increase
wealth
•
Thousands of Europeans voluntarily left for a
new life – for religion, land, gold, or power
•
Spain, England & Portugal gain profit, land,
power
•
Treaty of Tordesillas 1494 : Split the New
World into two between Spain and Portugal.
Columbian Exchange:

Massive exchange of plants and animals
between Europe and America.
Spain’s New Empire
 Conquistadors:
Spanish explorers
searched the Caribbean, Central America
and South America for gold and silver.
Hernán Cortés:
 Lands

in Mexico in 1513
600 men, 17 horses, ten cannons.
3. Cortés “subdues” the Aztecs and Montezuma
aided by Spanish firearms, diseases and native allies.
Tenochtitlan
Wealth from the Americas
1.
2.
3.
New Spain: Colony in Mexico
Mestizos: Mixed native and Spanish blood.
Encomienda: Spanish plantation system.
Chinese Explorations

Ming Dynasty- rule China
from 1368-1644

collect tribute from many
Asian countries
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1405 – Launch explorations
The Voyages of Zheng He
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Chinese admiral Zheng He leads 7 long voyages
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Distributes gifts to show China’s superiority
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Chinese then turn away from exploration
More concerned with threat from Mongols
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Comparison of a Chinese Junk to a
Portuguese Caravel