Transcript Columbian Exchange - IAS 10300 Core Social Science II

Transoceanic Encounters and Global
Connections
The Columbian Exchange
Why Not China?
• In 1405 the Chinese Admiral
Zheng He led the first of seven
voyages to the Indian Ocean
and the east coast of Africa
• Largest ships in the world (400
feet) carrying 28,000 sailors
and soldiers
• Collect tribute from and trade
with all societies encountered
on the voyages.
• After last expedition in 1431,
the Ming Emperor forbids any
further voyages and scraps the
entire fleet. Why?????
Motives for European Exploration
Why have the motivations for European exploration and
colonization been summarized as “Gold, God and Glory”?
• Gold: (economic motive).Desire for material wealth;
precious metals, spices, slaves
• God: Christian crusading and missionary tradition. Spain
and Portugal recently completed the “reconquista”. Fall of
Grenada in 1492. Anti-Muslim. Search for “Prestor John”
• Glory: Competition for power between European nations
Another factor was the desire to understand the world; a
product of the European Renaissance and scientific
revolution.
What Spurred European Exploration?
• Riches to be had in Asia!
• After the collapse of the
Mongol Empire, the trade
routes to Asia were blocked or
hampered by Ottoman Turks
and monopolized by Venice.
– Collusion between Venice and
Ottomans
• Ottomans brought goods to
Mediterranean.
• Venice brought it to the rest of
Europe.
• Middle men jacked up the prices.
Istanbul
The Lure of Spices
Europeans went looking for another way to get to
Indian Ocean to avoid dealing with middlemen
– Spices were in great demand to “spice up”
the boring and bland European diet
– Indian pepper, Chinese
Ginger and cloves and
Nutmeg and Mace from the
Spice Islands (the Maluku
Islands or Moluccas in what is
now Indonesia.)
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Country Involved: Portugal
• Prince Henry “the
Navigator” got things
started.
– NOT a sailor, but the son of
King John I of Portugal.
– But he set up a school for
navigators in Sagres,
Portugal—the first in Europe.
– Also sponsored voyages into
the Atlantic and down the
African coast.
Portuguese Explorations
• Portuguese explorers
discovered
– Azores (1427) uninhabited;
settled in 1439)
– Madeiras Islands
– Cape Verde Islands
• Italian investors help
Portuguese establish sugar
plantations using African
slave labor
• At trading posts in West
Africa, European horses are
traded for gold and slaves
Portuguese Naval Innovations
– Mapmaking (cartography)
• Before, maps described coastlines not
shipping routes.
• Now they showed charts of the open sea.
– Use of magnetic compass for determining
direction.
– Use of astrolabe (Arab invention) and
cross staff for figuring out latitude at sea.
– Fast ships—caravel—for sailing across
or against wind, using triangular lateen
sails as well as square sails.
Portuguese Explorers
• 1488 Bartholomeu Dias
• discovered southern tip of Africa (Cape of
Good Hope)
– Proved you could get to East Asia by
sailing around tip of Africa.
• 1497 Vasco Da Gama rounds Cape of
Good hope and sails to India.
– Encountered Hindus and Muslims in
Calcutta.
– Saw silk, porcelain, spices.
– Couldn’t get merchants to trade with him
because Portuguese goods were regarded
as worthless.
– Merchants accept only gold or silver.
• 1519 -1522 Ferdinand Magellan,
circumnavigation of the world. Magellan
killed in the Philippine Islands. The
survivors complete the journey.
The Portuguese Trading Post Empire
The Portuguese build forts to protect their trading
posts in the Indian ocean
• Mozambique in East Africa
• Harmuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf
• Goa on the west coast of India
• Malacca in Malaya in Southeast Asia
They also received permission from the Chinese
Emperor in 1557 to establish a trading post at
Macao, a port on the Pacific ocean in southern
China
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Country Involved: Spain
• Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of
Aragon united two major kingdoms of
Spain.
– In 1492 they completed the Reconquista
with the capture of Grenada, ending Muslim
presence in Spain since the 7th century.
– After political unity, Isabella tried to achieve
religious unity.
• Even before Inquisition (started by Philip II
later on) she forced conversions on Muslims
and Jews (Moriscos and Maranos)
• Some killed; many went into exile (150,000)
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
• 4 expeditions from 1492-1502.
• First meets the Taino (Arawak) in the Bahamas in October, 1492; also
visits Cuba and Hispaniola.
• From his contact on, an exchange between the Old and New Worlds of
plants, animals, pathogens, and culture: “Columbian Exchange”
Columbian Exchange
Old > New
Plants Sugarcane, wheat, onions,
grasses, weeds
From Africa: coffee, sweet
potatoes, bananas
Animals Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs
Pathogens Smallpox, measles,
influenza, hepatitis
Culture Languages, religion, political
organization
New > Old
corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chili
peppers, pumpkins, beans,
peanuts, avocados,
pineapples, tobacco
turkeys
Venereal disease
Impact of Diseases
• By 1650, Native American
population in Latin
America was 1/10th of
what it was in 1500.
– That is, if there were 30
million people in Latin
America (Meso- and South
America together), then
fifty years later there were
just 3 million.
Benefits to Europe
• Gold and silver from America brought
tremendous wealth to Europe (Spain, in
particular)
– Spain’s wealth got pumped into
fighting Reformation forces, among
other things. (Philip II)
• Trade expanded in Europe; cities grew
wealthy. Increasingly powerful
“bourgeoisie”; an expanding capitalist
economy
• Diet improved among Europeans thanks
to introduction of corn, beans, and
potatoes.
• Poor Europeans sought immigration to
New World to improve their lives.
El Escorial
Competition between Spain and
Portugal
• Spain and Portugal were major competitors
in expedition and conquest.
– To settle differences, they asked Pope Alexander
VI (Spanish by birth) to settle claims.
– Alexander VI drew a “line of demarcation”
down the middle of the Atlantic from North pole
to South pole.
• Spain was to get the west; Portugal the east.
– Line was renegotiated in 1494 in Treaty of
Tordesillas.
• In Latin America, it roughly corresponds to the
border dividing Brazil and the rest of Spanishspeaking South America.
Explorers: England
• In search of the Northwest Passage:
explorers imagined way to get to Asia
by sailing north.
• 1497-98 under Henry VII, John
Cabot—an Italian—explored parts of
Canada.
– Claimed Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
• Not much happening for about 70
years, then Martin Frobisher explored
Labrador.
• First attempt at settlement in Roanoke,
VA in 1588; first permanent in
Jamestown, VA in 1607.
Exploration of the Pacific
Captain James Cook leads three expeditions to the Pacific.
Adds Australia, New Zealand
and Pacific Islands to European Maps. Killed in Hawai’i in 1779
Explorers: the Netherlands
• 1609 Henry Hudson—
Englishman—explored North
America for the Netherlands.
– Again, looking for Northwest
Passage.
• First, he went through Arctic
Ocean.
• Next, he explored eastern part of
US: sailed up the river (later
named for him) and claimed it
for Netherlands.
Explorers: France
• Looking for gold and markets for
French goods.
• 1524 Giovanni da Verrazano explored
coast from Maine to North Carolina.
Sailed into New York harbor.
• 1530s Jacques Cartier explored St.
Lawrence River and eastern Canada.
• 60 years goes by then Samuel de
Champlain explored St. Lawrence
region in 1603
– First permanent French settlement in North
America in 1608 in Quebec.
Colonial Empires
• After exploration, the 5 European nations
set up colonies:
–
–
–
–
–
Spain
Portugal
France
Great Britain (England)
Netherlands
Spanish Colonial Empire
• Mid-16th century New
Spain included:
–
–
–
–
Mexico
Central America
Most of South America
Western part of North
America
– Florida
– Several Caribbean islands
– In the Pacific: the
Philippine Islands
Portuguese Empire
• Portugal:
– Brazil
– Trading posts on coasts of
• Africa
• India
• China (Macao)
Trading Post Empires
• Portugal was to small a nation to maintain trade
dominance in Africa and Asia.
• English and Dutch merchants and investors form
joint stock companies to finance overseas trade
(East India Company and the VOC)
• The Manila Galleons sail the Pacific between the
Philippines and Mexico from 1565 to 1815,
bringing goods from Asia to Europe.
French Empire
• New France:
– Eastern Canada
– Mississippi Valley
– Trading colonies in
Caribbean and
India.
• New Netherland
Netherlands
– Hudson River Valley
– Caribbean islands (St.
Martin, Curacao)
– Parts of South America
– South Africa
– Present-day Indonesia
(Java)
– Sri Lanka
Great Britain
• After several wars with
Netherlands, Spain and
France, Great Britain won:
– Canada
– India
– New Netherland (renamed
New York)
– Several Caribbean islands
(Jamaica, Bahamas,
Barbados, and more…)
• By mid 18th century, Great
Britain had:
– 13 colonies on Atlantic
coast of North America.