Transcript Around the World in Not Quite Eighty Days

Exploration and Consequences
 Exploration
before the late fifteenth century
was largely limited to land travel
 Ships were used on the Mediterranean and
Indian Ocean trade routes for centuries, but
they were linked up to land routes through
Persia, Arabia, northern Africa, or central
Asia on the Silk Road
 Eager
to eliminate Muslim middlemen and
discover more efficient trade routes to Asia,
the Portuguese and their Iberian rivals, the
Spanish, set out to sea
 Advances
in navigation, ship-building, and
the development of gunpowder weapons
allowed for increased sea travel
 These “floating empires of the wind” soon
controlled major shipping routes in the
Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and the Atlantic
Ocean
 The
increase in European trade
encouraged by the Hanseatic League
and the Crusades spawned a search
for new, efficient trade routes on the
seas
 Portugal led the way because it was
strategically situated near the coast
of Africa, had long-standing trade
relations with Muslim nations, and
most important of all, was led by a
royal family that supported
exploration (the head of the royal
family was known as Prince Henry the
Navigator)
 In
1488, Portugal financed a voyage by
Bartholomew Dias who rounded the tip of
Africa (which became known as the Cape of
Good Hope)
 In 1497, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of
Good Hope, explored the east African
kingdoms, and then went all the way to
India, where he established trade relations
 Shortly
thereafter, Spain, which had
recently been unified under Isabella and
Ferdinand, wanted in on the action
 In 1492, Christopher Columbus convinced
them to finance a voyage to the east by
going west
 While those who were educated
understood that the Earth was a sphere,
few people understood how large it was
 Despite
the fact that some scholars had
accurately estimated the Earth’s size, most
people, including Columbus, thought it was
smaller
 As a result, Columbus thought that India and
China were located where the American
continents were
 Columbus sailed, found Cuba and the islands
that came to be known as the West Indies,
and the exploration of the Americas was
underway
 By
1494, Portugal and Spain were already
fighting over land in the newly found
Americas
 To resolve their differences, the two
countries drew up the Treaty of Tordesillas,
which established a line of demarcation on a
longitudinal (north-south) line that runs
through the western Atlantic Ocean
 Everything to the east = Portugal
To the west = Spain
 Soon,
England, the Netherlands, and France
launched their own expeditions
 They competed with each other by rapidly
acquiring colonies and conquering new lands
 The cost and risk associated with these
expeditions made it necessary for explorers
to rely on the backing of strong and wealthy
states
 Merchants
also wanted protection for their
trade routes, which could also be acquired
through allegiance to a particular sovereignty
 Colonialism and the expansion of trade
routes contributed to the rise of nationalism
and the development of strong monarchies
 Amerigo
Vespucci explored South America
on several trips around 1500, realized that
the continent was huge and not part of Asia;
Americas named for him
 Ponce de Leon In 1513, explored Florida
for Spain in search of the fountain of youth
 Vasco de Balboa In 1513, explored much of
Central America for Spain; laid sight on the
Pacific Ocean
 Ferdinand
Magellan In 1519, sailed around
the tip of South America to the Pacific Ocean
for Portugal…made it as far as Philippines,
where he died; his crew continued, however,
and became the first to circumnavigate the
globe
 Giovanni
di Verrazano  In 1524, he
explored the North American coast for
France
 Sir Francis Drake  In 1578, became the first
Englishman to circumnavigate the globe
 John Cabot In 1597, explored the coast of
North America for England
 Henry Hudson  In 1609, sailed for the
Dutch looking for a northwest passage to
Asia; explored the Hudson River and made
claims to the area for the Dutch
 In
the late fifteenth century, innovation was
combined with determination to apply new
technologies to political and economic goals
 Advanced
mapmaking techniques
 Sternpost rudder (invented in China during the
Han Dynasty)
 Lateen Sails (allowed ships to sail in any
direction regardless of wind)
 Astrolabe (portable navigation device by
measuring the distance of the sun and stars
above the horizon helped determine latitude)
 Magnetic Compass (borrowed from Chinese,
through trade with Arabs…allowed sailors to
determine direction without staying in the sight
of land)
 Three-Masted
Caravels large
ships employed significantly
larger sails could hold
provisions for longer journeys in
their larger cargo rooms
 By the late fifteenth century,
these inventions had converged
on one continent largely through
trade
 This continent (Europe) was
fiercely competitive about trade
routes, newly wealthy,
increasingly organized under
strong leaders, and racing with
the innovation and imagination of
the Renaissance
 With
explorations, commercial exploitation,
and wealth of the New World came further
conflict on the European continent as well as
in the colonies
 At first, the Dutch were the most successful
in the competition with the Iberian peninsula
for overseas control, for they had an
efficient merchant ship (the flyboat) that
was able to challenge Portuguese control in
the East Indies to establish Dutch interests in
the New World
 The
Netherlands monopolized whaling in the
Arctic and trade in the Baltic
 Temporarily (until 1664) they controlled New
Amsterdam (New York), the northeast coast
of Brazil (until 1654), and the Cape of Good
Hope in South Africa
 But the Netherlands became entangled in a
series of wars with France and England, and
lacked the manpower and resources
necessary to compete with mightier
neighbors
 England
and France became supreme in the
commercial rivalry of the eighteenth century,
in part because of their high industrial
production and in part because of the fact
that their governments were organized on a
national scale
 Over half of England’s trade became
transoceanic, whereas only one-third of
France’s trade was involved overseas – the
other two-thirds were in Europe and the Near
East
 The
eventual decline of the Netherlands and the
Iberian powers left England and France to fight
for the mastery of the New World and to
maintain a balance of power on the European
continent
 Conflicts for control for North America, India,
and eventually Africa, as well as for supremacy
at home, were fought in 1679 – 1689 (King
William’s War) and 1701- 1713 (The War of the
Spanish Succession or Queen Anne’s War)
 The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 partitioned the
Spanish empire: Belgium, Naples, Sicily, and
Milan went to the Austrian Hapsburgs, Sardinia
to the Duke of Savoy and Minorca and Gibraltar
to England
 England
also acquired Nova Scotia,
Newfoundland, and the Hudson Bay area
from France
 Then
followed the War of the Austrian
Succession (King George’s War) in 1740-1748
and the Seven Years’ War in 1756-1763
 Although there were eight years between
them, they were essentially the same war,
for their causes were the same:
1. A struggle between Britain and France for
colonies, trade and mastery of the seas
2. A duel between Prussia and Austria for
power in Central Europe
 The
Seven Years’ War began in America but
soon spread to Europe
 On the continent, it was merely another war
of partition
 The Marquis of Montcalm was finally
defeated by General James Wolfe at Quebec,
and Joseph Dupleix was defeated by Robert
Clive in India
 The deciding factor in the colonies was the
superior strength of the British navy
 After
the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763,
England was in control of North America and
India, supreme on the seas, and, hence, the
most powerful nation in the world
 France surrendered the St. Lawrence Valley
and all territory east of the Mississippi in
America
 Spain lost Florida to the British, and France
lost all her fortifications in India
 The
fifteenth century was a dynamic
century, which saw many radical changes
 New political, economic, religious and
dynastic forces were at work throughout
western Europe, and all of these
challenged feudal society - sealing the
fate of the landed aristocracy and, to
some degree, that of the Church in Rome
 Changes affected all classes of society,
but none so profoundly as the
bourgeoisie
 It
was during the 15th century that a new
class of merchants, ship-builders, tradesmen
and others appeared - living in and around
Europe's old medieval towns
 This class was to ally itself with the
monarchs of Europe, and nothing illustrates
this merchant-monarch alliance better than
the career of Christopher Columbus
 A son of Genoa and a member of the new
aspiring class, Columbus' ultimate success
came as a direct result of having forged an
unparalleled alliance with Isabella and
Ferdinand, the Catholic monarchs of Spain
 Although
there were some attempts on the part
of China to extend its influence westward
around India before the 15th century, almost all
subsequent efforts at discovery of far-away
lands and seas have been made by western
explorers
 This is why there has been such an
overwhelming European bias to the traditional
commemoration of the Age of Discovery of the
15th and 16th centuries
 The explorations of this time led to a worldwide
expansion of European power in many ways…As
always, it was the victor who wrote the history
of the age, and the people and countries that
made the discoveries were the main
beneficiaries of the new wealth and glory
 Clearly,
Europeans were not the only people
to initiate voyages of discovery
 The peoples of North Africa and Asia, long
before the 15th century, had sailed into
unknown seas and explored distant lands
 These discoveries, however, for the most
part, either were kept secret to protect
lucrative trade routes or resulted in only
small additions to a larger picture
 And before the time of the printing press,
which led to the great expansion of learning
at the time of the European Renaissance
(roughly 1400 to 1550), the discoveries were
known only within limited regions of the
world
 Exploration
on a grand scale can only occur when
great changes in technology or in political power
make new ways of travelling possible
 It was the rise of the European national
monarchies, with their profound political and
dynastic influence, that most helped to encourage
the new spirit of adventure
 To a 15th-century explorer, royal sponsorship was a
necessity, not a luxury
 Who else but a monarch could conduct diplomatic
relations, colonize land and create an ultramarine
government?
 It was no coincidence that the Age of Discovery
occurred at the same time as the appearance of
the first truly national governments in western
Europe