Download European Exploration and Expansion

European Exploration and Expansion
• The age of Exploration is considered a turning point in world history
• This was inspired by the Crusades, the writings of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta
and the Renaissance
• Trade linked through land routes: Persia, Arabia, Asia, Silk Road
• Europeans wanted direct route to the east, rather than middlemen
• Many areas of the world were unknown
II Motives for Exploration
o Europeans wanted to find a direct route to Asia
o They wanted to build a world empire
o They desired wealth, goods and natural resources
o Europeans primary motive was economic
o Desire for wealth and foreign goods
o Jewels and tea from India, Silk, Porcelain and other goods from China
o Wanted to sell foreign goods for profit
o Europeans wanted to spread Christianity
III. New Technology
 Late 15th century new maps
 Astrolabe: Navigational device determines latitude
 Magnetic Compass: Borrowed from China, traded by Arabs, used to tell direction
 Gun powder
IV Portugal
o Prince Henry the Navigator created a navigational and sailing school
o Trained people to sail and explore
o Conquered islands in Atlantic and on Africa’s coast
o 1497- Vasco de Gama sailed around Africa was first European to reach India by sea
o Ferdinand Magellan-Led the first successful expedition to circumnavigate the globe
V Spain
o 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella financed Christopher Columbus
o Columbus sailed west and discovered the Americas
VI The Dutch
• Set up Dutch East India Trading Company
• Begin to take lands in Indonesia, South Africa and North America
• Henry Hudson sailed and claimed what is now New York
• Bought island of Manhattan
I. Encomienda
 The Spanish granted the conquistadors Encomiendas.
 This gave the Spanish the right to demand labor or tribute from the natives.
 Natives were treated like slaves and millions died
 Worker shortages started African slave trade
II. New Social Classes
1. Peninsulares: people who were born in Spain. Highest positions in gov’t and Church.
2. Creoles, American born descendants of Spanish. Creoles owned ranches, plantations and
mines.
3. Mestizos people of Native American and European descent
4. Mulattoes people of African and European descent.
5. At the bottom of society were the Native Americans and Africans.
I. Columbian Exchange
1. Columbian Exchange as it was known was the exchange of peoples, plants, animals,
technology, and disease between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.
2. New products like corn, potato, sugar, horses, and other animals shifted
3. Disease: yellow fever, malaria, smallpox, the measles and syphilis were spread
throughout the world