Transcript Exploration Power Point 2

Unit 2: Age of Exploration
Reasons for Exploration

Search for spices & benefit from the profits
(highly profitable)
◦ Wanted direct route to Asia

Spread Christianity
◦ Inspired by the Crusades & Reformation, duty to
convert non-Christians

New Technology
◦ Cartography (better & more accurate maps)
◦ Astrolabe (determine accurate latitude)
Henry the Navigator

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
Prince of Portugal
Wanted to explore the
western coast of Africa,
started in 1415
◦ Gold
◦ Christianity
Then wanted to sail
around Africa to India
in search of spices
 Henry died in 1460
 Vasco de Gama finally
made it in 1488!
Bartholomew Dias
Vasco Da Gama
Strait of Malacca
Brazil, Africa & India
Pedro Alvarez Cabral
Christopher Columbus
From Genoa, Italy
 Asked for financial backing from the
Portuguese
 Wanted to find the Indies by sailing west

◦ Didn’t plan on the Earth being this large
◦ Didn’t plan on two continents getting in the
way
Ferdinand and Isabella
Portugal refused
Columbus
 So, he moved on to
King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella of
Spain

◦ Spain wanted to
strengthen its power
◦ Isabella wanted
converts to
Christianity
“Land! Land!”
Set sail August 1492
 Reached present-day
Caribbean October
1492
 Thought he reached
India… named the
inhabitants “Indians”

LINE OF DEMARCATION
Pope Alexander VI divided non-European world into two zones:
Spain = lands to the west
Portugal = lands to the east
Search for Direct Route
to Asia Continues…
Balboa finds water
on the opposite side
of Panama (named
South Sea)
 Magellan sets out in
1519 & sails under
tip of South America
where he finds the
South Sea – renamed
Pacific Ocean

Strait of
Magellan
Conquest in the Americas
Juan Cortes in Mexico
Landed in 1519 with hundreds of men, 16
horses and a few cannons
 Connected with an Indian woman, Malinche
(“Dona Maria”), who helped them form
alliances with other Indians who were angry at
Aztecs

Aztecs, 1519
Montezuma, the emperor, was afraid the
Spaniards were Quetzalcoatl, the god-king
who vowed to return from the east
 Cortes continued towards Tenochtitlan &
his men eventually destroyed the city
 They built Mexico City in the ruins, and it
became the heart of the Spanish empire
in the Americas

Pizarro in Peru
Pizarro was a Spanish
conquistador (conqueror).
He arrived in Peru in
1532 with a thirst for gold
& treasure
 He overthrew the Incan ruler, Atahualpa, and
demanded a ransom for his return
 He overran the Incan empire (from Peru 
to Ecuador  to Chile)
 Much of South America was under Spanish
rule. Pizarro founded the city of Lima, capital
of modern day Peru

How’d they do it?
Superior military technology
 Division & discontent among the Indians
 Disease (brought from Europe to the
Americas– wiped out natives who had no
immune defenses to those germs)
 Many natives feared that they were facing
the end of the world

Spanish & Portuguese Colonization
in the Americas
Forced Indians to mine for gold & silver;
many died….
 Many Catholic missionaries arrived
 By the 1500s, Spain controlled an empire
from California to South America!
 Most important colonies were New Spain
(Mexico) & Peru

Missionaries
Franciscan, Jesuit and others
 Baptized thousands
 Built many mission churches
 Forced European culture on the natives

◦ Clothing
◦ Spanish language
◦ New crafts/fields –
carpentry
Economy in the Americas


Colonies were allowed to export to and
import from Spain only
Sugar cane became key in the West Indies on
large plantations
◦ Refined into sugar, molasses & rum
◦ Finding labor was a problem
◦ Forced Indians to work

Bartolome de las Casas, a priest, fought against
the cruelties of forced labor
◦ New Laws of the Indies (1542 forbid enslavement of
Native Americans)
◦ Encouraged the use of African workers b/c they
were “immune to the tropical diseases”
Society & Class
Darkness Brought by the Europeans
Took natural resources, particularly gold
 Enslaved Native Americans
 Enslaved Africans
 Forced the natives to adopt Christianity
 Disease killed as many as 90% of the Native
American population of the Caribbean
(graphic slide next)

◦ Smallpox
◦ Measles
◦ influenza
Measles
Smallpox
Europeans in Africa
Started arriving in the 1400s while
looking for a sea route to India
 Built small forts along the coasts
 Attacked some coastal cities – expelled
Arabs who controlled the East African
trade network
 Eventually, these African cities were no
longer profitable from simply trading
goods….

Forts
Atlantic Slave Trade, 1500s
Slaves became the most important (and
valuable) commodity
 Began to fill the need for Spanish labor
 Business boomed! Thousands of slaves were
sent to work on sugar & tobacco
plantations in the Americas

Horrors of the Middle Passage
Impact of the Slave Trade
1500s– approx. 2,000 Africans enslaved each
year
 1780s– approx. 80,000 Africans enslaved
each year
 Approx. 11 million enslaved Africans
reached the Americas
 Approx. 2 million died along the way
 Western African nations dwindled in
population

Triangular Trade
Changes in Europe

New foods
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

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
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Peppers
Bananas
Sugar cane
Population growth (better nutrition)
Migration of millions of people
New words added to the language
◦ Pajama (India)
◦ Hammock (American)
◦ Canoe (American)
Other European Settlements

Spain became the most powerful &
wealthiest European nation/empire &
other nations took notice and began
building their own empires:
◦ French
◦ Dutch
◦ English
The Rest of Europe Joins
English sent John Cabot to seek
northerly route to India (found
Newfoundland)
 French sent Jacques Cartier who found
St. Lawrence River (connects Great Lakes
and Atlantic Ocean)
 Dutch sent Henry Hudson who found
present day Hudson River (in NY)
 Search for a Northwest Passage continued

Dutch East India Company
Formed in 1602
 Captured Malacca
from Portuguese in
1641
 Opened trade with
China
 Made fortunes!

New France
Samuel de Champlain built the first
permanent settlement in Quebec in 1608
 Jesuits & other missionaries arrived
 Fur traders & Native Americans ventured
inland and soon the empire stretched to
the Gulf of Mexico
 Trade– farming & fur trapping & fishing
 Population remained small; only Catholics
allowed

13 English Colonies
First permanent colony in Jamestown,VA in
1607
 Colony eventually grew b/c of tobacco
growth and trade
 In 1620, Pilgrims land in Plymouth, MA
 Established 13 colonies in the 1600s & 1700s
 Southern colonies required labor for their
plantations (leads to slave trade)
 Colonies had their own self-governments
with crown & parliament control

Others

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Spain took over the
Philippines
Dutch, English, and the
French set up trading
posts throughout the
Indian coast
British East India
Company eventually
drives away the French;
starts taxing the
Indians
Competing for Power
Competition for North American land &
trade
 English took Dutch colony  New York
 French took Haiti
 English took Barbados & Jamaica
 French & Indian War (1754-1763)

◦ English settlers infringed on French held lands
◦ The French joined forces with Indians
◦ English won & pushed the French out
Commercial Revolution
Inflation
 Growth of capitalism
 Joint stock companies (basically
investment firms)
 Guilds became less important
 Mercantilism (high exports, low imports)
