Transcript Age of Explorationx

Elizabeth Grisham
Mississippi College
Wester Civ II
Things to Consider

 Why does European exploration matter to us today?
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Global Economy
Technological advancement
Global culture (?)
We LIVE in the New World
Immigration… Politics!
Morality
 Unclaimed land, virgin land, empty land?
 So what started it?
Age of Exploration

 European explorers searched for a better trade route to
Asia
 Wanted gold, luxury goods, glory, and to spread Christianity
 GOLD, GOD, GLORY!!
 Europeans wanted to trade goods directly with Asia, rather
than rely on Arab or Italian merchants
 These merchants taxed the goods heavily

Age of Exploration

 Why did they begin exploring by sea?
 Wanted a quicker way to get eastern
goods
 Wanted to spread Christianity
 Wanted Christian allies with whom they
could face threatening Muslim powers
 Learning and curiosity
Age of Exploration
 Technology and Exploration

 New technology allowed explorers to venture away from the sight
of land
 Magnetic compass
 More accurate maps
 Before this, most maps were inaccurate
 Cartographers put lands on maps that were
only rumors
 By the time of the Renaissance, maps were better and used
latitude and longitude
Map, 1502

Age of Exploration

 Ships that used several masts & sails
 Allowed them to sail faster and with less human labor
 These ships were called caravels
Portugal Leads the Way

 Portugal was the 1st country to venture
into the Atlantic Ocean looking for a route
to Asia
 Prince Henry the Navigator
 Brought together mapmakers,
mathematicians, and astronomers to study
navigation
 Paid for explorers’ expeditions
 1st one to suggest sailing to India by
going around Africa
 First to bring African slaves to Europe

Bartholomew Diaz (1488)

 Discovered the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good
Hope)
 Proved that ships could reach Asia by sailing around
Africa
Vasco da Gama (1497)

 First to find a water route to Asia -- first to round the tip of
Africa to India
Vasco da Gama

 In search of “Christians and spices”
 Christians for trading purposes one problem with
traveling to Asia by land was crossing over hostile Muslim
territory
 Da Gama’s success allowed to Portuguese to establish a
trading empire along the coast of India (but did not
colonize)
Spain’s Quest for Riches

 Columbus sailed from Spain in 1492
 Planned to reach India by heading west across
the Atlantic
 Took 3 ships, the Santa Maria, Nina, and
Pinta
 Landed on the Bahamas, but thought he found
India
 Explored the islands in the area
 Returned to Spain as a hero
 Made 3 more voyages before he died
Spain’s Quest for Riches

 Ferdinand & Isabella backed the voyages of Christopher
Columbus

Spain’s Quest for Riches

 Line of Demarcation = a line drawn by the Pope down the
middle of the Atlantic Ocean
 Spain had control of lands west of the line
 Portugal had control of lands east of it
 Line moved much further west with the signing of the
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) = gave Portugal control of
Brazil & Spain got the rest of South America
Voyage of Magellan

 Ferdinand Magellan (1519)
 Headed west from Spain
 Reached a narrow passageway at the
southern tip of South America
 Named the Strait of Magellan

Voyage of Magellan

 After 4 months, he reached the Philippines
 Magellan was killed during the journey by natives in the
Philippines
 After 3 years at sea, his crew returned to Spain
Voyage of Magellan

 Magellan’s ships had
circumnavigated = circled the
globe
 Proved the world was round
and larger than anyone
thought
 Also proved the oceans were
connected
Race to the New World

 John Cabot sent by
England’s King Henry VII
 America Vespucci
wrote several letters
detailing the geography of
the New World,
publication of the letters
led to the New World
being called “America”
European Motivations
for Imperialism

 Aware of their low position in the world of Eurasian
commerce and wanted to change this
 European rulers driven by competition and rivalries with
other countries
 Merchants wanted direct access to Asian wealth; no
Muslim intermediaries
European Motivations
for Imperialism

 Poor European nobles and commoners thought they could
gain wealth and status in the colonies
 Christian missionaries wanted to spread their faith
 Persecuted minorities wanted to start a new life with more
freedoms
European Advantages

 Countries and trading companies efficiently mobilized
human and material resources
 Seafaring technology allowed them to cross the Atlantic
easily
Native Civilizations

 Mayans
 Modern day Mexico
 Had a sophisticated
calendar
 Agrarian society
 Civilization declined
before European
exploration
Native Civilizations

 Aztecs
 Capital in Tenochtitlan
(modern day Mexico
city)
 Aqueducts to bring in
fresh water
 Warriors
Native Civilizations

 Spanish-Aztec Encounters
 1519 Hernan Cortez
 Moctezuma Aztec leader, believed the Spanish were sent
from the sun god. He gave them gold and allowed them to
stay in palaces.
 They quickly wore out their welcome and fighting broke
out.
 Spanish pillaged the city and conquered the Aztecs
European Advantages

 Ironworking technology
 Gunpowder weapons
 Horses
European Advantages

 Germs and diseases!
 Major ones = Smallpox, measles,
typhus, influenza, malaria, yellow
fever
 Native Americans had no
immunity to these diseases
 Incas
Native Civilizations

 Civilization in southern
Peru
 Empire spread across
Ecuador, Chile, and parts of
the Amazon
 Included up to 12 million
people
 Emperor was believed to be
descended from the sun
god
 Great builders, up to
24,800 miles of roads and
bridges
Native Civilizations

 Spanish-Inca encounters
 Francisco Pizarro
 Small pox had already spread to the Incan empire
 Pizarro was easily able to conquer the Incan capital and
establish a Spanish colony
In the Lands of the
Aztecs and Incas

Aztecs = conquered by
Hernan Cortes in 1519
Incas = conquered by Francisco
Pizarro in 1532
In modern-day Mexico
In modern-day Peru
Mexico and Peru

 Economic foundations for
these colonial societies:
 Commercial agriculture on
large rural estates
 Silver and gold mining
 Both = used native peoples as
forced laborers
Social Order of Spanish Colonies
Peninsulares = Spaniards
born in Spain
Spanish
Settlers
Started from unions
between native
women and Spanish
men
Creoles =
Spaniards born in
the Americas
Mestizo Population =
mixed-race population
Native Peoples
(Primary labor force; slaves)
Spanish
immigration
= 1 woman
for every 7
men
Mestizos

 Largely Hispanic in culture
 Many looked down upon by
“pure” Spaniards
 Worked as artisans, clerks,
supervisors of workers, and
lower-level officials in
church and government
organizations
“The Great Dying”

 Result of European conquest =
large-scale decimation of Native
American populations and
societies
 In many cases, up to 90% of the
population in a region would die
 Central Mexico = population
went from about 20 million
people to 1 million people by
1650
Spanish Empire

 This high death rate among natives left the Spanish
without enough laborers to support the plantation based
economy
 As a result, the Spanish began importing African slaves to
the New World as laborers in place of the native workers
Colonies of Sugar

Location
Controlled By
Brazil
Portugal
Caribbean
Spanish, British, French, and Dutch
Uses for sugar in Europe:
• A Medicine
• A Spice
• A Sweetener
• A Preservative
• In sculptured forms as a
decoration  indicated high
status and wealth
Production of Sugar

 Involved growing the
sugarcane AND processing it
into usable sugar
 Very labor-intensive
 Most profitable if done on a
large-scale
 Massive use of slave labor 
imported Africans
 Native population had been
wiped out
African Slave Trade

 The Portuguese originally controlled areas along the Gold
Coast of Africa for both trading ports on the passage to
Asia and to dominate the gold trade
 During the 1600s, the Dutch began to move into Africa
and seize Portuguese forts and trading posts
 The Dutch East India Company also set up a
settlement/colony at the Cape of Good Hope
African Slave Trade

 Slavery was not a new practice and had existed in various
forms throughout the world
 At first, the Portuguese sent African slaves to Europe as
domestic servants for the wealthy.
 The discovery of the New World and the planting of sugar
cane led to the drastic expansion of the African slave trade
 Sugar cane plantations required a lot of workers and
natives were dying quickly from diseases, which led to the
demand for African slaves.
African Slave Trade

 Over the next 200 years
(1600-1800), the slave
trade continued to grow
and became a part of the
triangular trade
connecting Europe,
Africa, and the Americas
and characterized the
Atlantic economy
African Slave Trade

 European merchant ships carried manufactured goods to Africa,
where they were traded for slaves. Slaves were shipped to
America and sold. Europeans then brought back raw materials
(sugar, coffee, cotton) back to Europe and sold.
 Altogether, as many as 10 million African slaves were brought
to the Americas.
 One reason for such a high number was the high death rate on
the Middle Passage.
 African slaves were packed onto cargo ships without sanitary
facilities or even room to stand on the voyage to America.
 About 10% of them died on the journey.
African Slave Trade

India

 Mughals- strong Indian rulers
 Competition among the Dutch,
English & Portuguese in Indian
trade
 By the 17th century (1800s),
England dominated Indian
trade. England remained the
primary European power in
India.
 The East India Trading
Company-England
 Eventually, England would
become an English colony
China

 The Portuguese made the first direct trade contact with the
Chinese in 1514
 The Chinese emperor wasn’t concerned
 China was controlled by the Ming Dynasty at this time
China

 Ming Dynasty
 Strong rulers
 Control had extended to
Mongolia and central Asia
 Strengthened the Great Wall
 A major epidemic hit China
and led to a peasant’s revolt
that overthrew the Ming
Dynasty
 The Manchus (from modern
day Manchuria) then
conquered China and
established the Qing Dynasty
China

 Qing Dynasty
 Strong, peaceful and
flourishing China under
Qing’s rule
 By the late 1700s,
England dominated
Chinese trade
 Mostly traded tea and silk
Japan

 Portuguese were the first
to establish trade with
Japan
 Eventually, because of
missionaries and the
spread of Christianity, the
Japanese ran all European
traders out of Japan
except the Dutch
The Americas

 Spain and Portugal
dominated the new world
during the early periods
(1500s & 1600s)
 The French, English, and
Dutch saw their success
and also wanted to profit
in America
The Americas

 West Indies
 English: Barbados, Jamaica, Bermuda
 French: Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Martinique, and
Guadeloupe
 Plantation economies cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar
The Americas

 North America
 Dutch were the first to settle in North America
 Henry Hudson: established New Netherland (New York)
 In 1664 England seized this from the Dutch and renamed it
New York
 English began to establish colonies in North America
 1st permeant English settlement was Jamestown
 Eventually the British established 13 American colonies
along the Atlantic coast
The Americas

 French
 Canada was claimed by the French
 Established the first settlement at Quebec in 1663
 Traded furs, fish, and leather
European Empires

Time Period
European Power(s)
Destinations
15th – 16th centuries
Spain
Caribbean, mainland
Central & South America
16th century
Portugal
Present-day Brazil
17th century
England, France, the
Netherlands
Eastern coast of North
America
Impact of European Expansion

 Destruction of Native civilizations
 African slave trade
 Intermarrying of Europeans and natives creating new
social orders
 Exchange of goods brought horses, cattle and guns to
natives
 Catholicism brought by missionaries
The Columbian Exchange

 The Columbian Exchange = the enormous network,
migration, trade, spread of disease, and transfer of plants
of animals between Europe and the Americas
The Columbian Exchange

Positive Impact on Europe

 New information flooded into Europe
 Led to the Scientific Revolution
 Gained wealth from the colonies  precious metals,
natural resources, new food crops, slave labor, financial
profits, colonial markets
 Led to the Industrial Revolution
 Colonies provided an outlet for Europe’s growing
population
Mercantilism

 Belief held by all European powers
 Mercantilism = governments served their countries’ economic
interests best by exporting more than they import and by
accumulating bullion
 Bullion = precious metals like silver and gold
 Roles of the colonies:
1) Supplied resources for European factories
2) Provided closed markets = they could only buy products
from their “mother country”

Types of Colonial Economies

 Settler-dominated commercial agriculture
 Slave-based plantations
 Ranching
 Mining
Summary

Reasons for Exploration
 Wealth
 Gold, natural resources
(sugar), trade, labor
(natives), land
 Competition
 Competition among
European nations
 Christianity
 Spreading religion, cultural
exchange
Impact of Exploration
 Technology
 Scientific discovery, new
plants and animals
 Columbian Exchange
 Access to new markets,
goods, land and people
 Economic
 Wealth of nations and
individuals. Also created
new social order in the “New
World”. New Global
economy based on shipping
Exploration in Popular Culture

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFHym_W6vkE
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBv3_0j0y_4
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN6ef0ED9aI
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDYrRgBqCB8
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jttzj_sk1Q4