Download The Age of Exploration - Hackettstown School District

The Age of Exploration
1415 –
Portugal
captures
Ceuta
1494–
Treaty of
Torsedillas
1492 –
Columbus
discovers
the
Americas
1521– Cortés
conquers the
Aztecs
1498 –
Vasco
da
Gama
reaches
Calicut
1542 – New
Laws of the
Indies
enacted
1522 –
Magellan
killed in the
Philippines
1588 –
British
defeat
Spanish
Armada
1565 – First
permanent
settlement at
St. Augustine
1620 –
Plymouth
Colony
founded
1602 –
Dutch East
India
Company
forms
1641 –
Dutch seize
Malacca
Background
• World connected through long distance trade for
centuries
– Silk Road
– Indian Ocean Trade Routes
– Difficult, lengthy, dangerous journey to travel for
spices and luxury goods
• New travel technology appeared in the Middle
Ages & Renaissance
– Caravel – sturdier ship with triangular sales
– Astrolabe – used to determine latitude with the stars
• Perfected by Muslims
• European-Muslim trade since Crusades
– Magnetic compass – perfected by the Chinese
• Renaissance
curiosity in the 1400s
• Desire for luxury
gods
–
–
–
–
Spices
Tea
Porcelain
Silk
Motivation for Exploration
• Access to trade
– Trade controlled by
Italians & Muslims
– Wanted direct
routes to have
cheaper access to
goods
• Missionary work
– Spread of
Christianity
– Jesuits in particular
• Competition
• Glory
God, Glory, Gold
Portugal First
• Portuguese first to establish trading
outposts on the west coast of Africa &
into the Indian Ocean basin
• Henry the Navigator – Portuguese
prince with enthusiasm for exploration
– Founded navigation schools for
mapmakers, instrument makers,
shipbuilders, and captains
• 1415 – Captured Ceuta
• Series of trading outposts on African
coast by 1460 (Henry’s death)
– Traded with Africans for gold & ivory
– Eventually traded for slaves
• Believed they must sail
around Africa to reach
spices in Asia
• 1488 – Bartolomeu Dias –
ventured to the Cape of
Good Hope
– Turned around
– Shortage of supplies
• 1497 – Vasco da Gama –
began exploring African
coast
– 1498 – reached Calicut
(India)
– 1499 – returned to Portugal
with silks, spices, and gems
• Cargo worth 60X the cost of
voyage!
• Gave Portugal a direct sea
route to India
Reaching Asia
The
Portuguese
Method
Established ports & forts along the coast
•
• Called a “trading empire”
• Differences from the traditional notion of an empire
– No vast land
holding
– Few settlers
– Main purpose:
hold cargo for trade
& trade with locals
• Their Trading Empire
– Took control of
spice trade from Muslim merchants
• Brought goods back at 1/5 old prices
• More people could afford luxury goods
– Posts in Mughal Empire
• Promised aid to princes against other European powers
– 1510 – captured Goa
– 1511 – captured Malacca
Competition - Spain
• Competed with Portugal for direct route to Asia
• 1492 – Ferdinand and Isabella hired Christopher
Columbus to find a route to Asia by sailing west
– Big reason – F&I purged the
Jews and lost many
intellectuals & influential
people, so they needed help!
– Genoese captain
• Knew world was round since
Greek times
• Underestimated size of world
• Didn’t know other continents were there
– Set out August 3, 1492
– Reached Caribbean October 12, 1492
– Thought he’d reached the Indies  called people
Indians
Rivaling Claims to Land
• After Columbus’s voyage,
more explorers sailed
west
• Portugal & Spain held
claims in the New World
• 1493 – F&I wanted Pope
Alexander VI to support
their claims
– Set up Line of
Demarcation, dividing
non-European world into
2 zones
• Spain in the West
• Portugal in the East
(claimed Brazil in 1500)
• 1494 – Line agreed to at
the Treaty of Torsedillas
– Basically told other
countries they needed
to move fast to keep up
– Did not take into
consideration native
peoples’ claims to lands
Other Nations Join In
• ~1600 the British & Dutch entered
• Dutch Republic – The Netherlands – was small country
along the North Sea in Europe
–
–
–
–
–
Ruled by Spain since early 1500s
Declared independent in 1581
Leading sea power in short time
Largest fleet by 1600 with 20,000 vessels
Seized Malacca from Portugal
• Valuable spice islands
– Controlled Cape of Good Hope
– Dutch East India Company – company founded in 1602 by
wealthy merchants, which had sovereign powers, that grew
to have a monopoly on the spice islands
• Could wage war, govern territory, and build an army
• Used military force – BUT preferred to forge close ties with local rulers
• Declined as power of Britain & France grew
• British also had an East India Company
• Eroded Portuguese control in the Indian Ocean
British & French Traders
• Britain & France had foothold in the
Mediterranean by 1700
• English East India Company focused on
establishing outposts in India
– Developed successful
business trading cloth in
Europe
– Gained way into the
Mughal Empire
• France’s East India Company
founded 1664
–
–
–
–
Struggled at first
Attacked by the Dutch
Eventually est. outpost in India in 1720s
Not very profitable
Review – Exploration
• What were the 6 motivations for exploration
in the 15th century?
• What country was the first to embark on
exploration?
• What settled the Portugal-Spain dispute in
1494?
• What were the main objectives in
exploration?
• What groups traded with Europeans, and
were eventually subject to their rule?
Spain Builds an Empire
• Motivation – fierce
competition for wealth in
Europe  wanted GOLD
• 1492: Columbus reached the
West Indies on behalf of the
Spanish crown
– F&I financed 3 more trips
– Intended to turn Caribbean
lands into colonies – lands
controlled by another nation
• Conquistadors – conquerors –
would soon arrive in Central
& South America
– Claimed lands for Spain
– Sought silver & gold
Cortés Conquers Mexico
• Landed in Mexico in 1519
• Encountered native Aztecs
– Reached capital Tenochtitlan
– Montezuma II – Is Cortés a god?
• Agreed to give gold
– Killed many Aztecs in 1521
• Conquered Tenochtitlan (and the Aztecs in
general) in 1521
– Spanish weapons superior
– Other native groups helped Cortés
– Disease – measles, mumps, smallpox, & typhus –
killed off many natives
Pizarro in Peru
• 1532- Francisco Pizarro reached Peru &
conquered Incan Empire
• Met ruler Atahualpa near city Cajamarca
– Spanish: 200 man army; Incan: 30,000 man
army
– Spanish ambushed & kidnapped Atahualpa
– Received ransom of gold and silver
– But, killed Atahualpa anyway
– Incans retreated
• Captured capital Cuzco without a
struggle in 1533
• Other Regions
– Maya in the Yucatan & Guatemala
Spanish Empire by
mid-16th Century
• 4
Viceroyalties
– New Spain
– New
Granada
– Peru
– Rio de la
Plata
Spanish Patterns of Conquest
• Used techniques of the reconquista (conquering Muslims)
– Live among them
– Impose culture on them
• Relations between Spanish and natives common  creation
of Mestizo population
• Oppressed natives
– Encomienda system – forced labor of natives on farms, ranches,
or in mines
• Effectively put natives at bottom of social hierarchy
• Spoken against by Bartolome de las Casas 
new laws forbade enslavement in 1542
– Too far from Spain to be enforced
– Imposed culture
– Close control on trade, esp. silver & gold
• Sugar cane profitable  need workers
– Slaves from Africa by 1530s
– # Descendents from Africans outnumbered Europeans within a few generations
• Laws prohibited trade with other nations
• Spread authority of Catholic Church
Spanish Colonial Society
•
•
•
•
•
Blended Spanish, African, and Amerindian cultures
Native styles of buildings, foods, and use of canoes
Christianity and horses present
African cooking, farming, dance, and song
Social Hierarchy
–
–
–
–
–
–
Spanish-born Europeans
Creoles (Spanish born in the colonies)
Mestizos (Spanish + Native)
Mulattos (Native + African)
Natives (Amerindian)
Africans (Descendents of slaves)
• Valued education – role fulfilled by the Church
Pushing North
• 1540 – empire
stretched from
Mexico to Peru
• 1540-41 – Francisco
Vásquez de
Coronado led
expedition through
Arizona, New Mexico,
Texas, Oklahoma,
and Kansas
– Little gold
– Mostly priests settled
to explore &
colonize
• MANY Christian
missionaries sought
converts
Effects of Conquistadors
• Conquered millions of natives
with guns and disease
• Seized valuable goods, esp. gold
and silver
– Sent abroad to the Philippines for
trade
– Made Spain wealthy &
powerful…
– But quickly led to rapid inflation
& declined the empire
• Natives – split
– Stop resisting & convert to
Christianity
– Still fight & protect culture
• Changed patterns of global
encounters
– Map connected by sea routes
for trade (not just land routes)
Remember:
• Conquered the Aztecs, Incas, and other natives
easily with guns and disease
• Empire spread from California to Chile in the
Americas
• Social hierarchy ranged from Africans (slaves) at
the bottom to Spanish-born whites at the top
– Placement of mixed people on the scale indicates the
commonality of interbreeding that was still seen as
less-acceptable
• Economy focused on treasures (gold, silver) and
later plantations (sugar, tobacco)
The Columbian Exchange
• Interaction between Europe, Africa,
and the Americas beginning in the
late 15th century (and Asia)
• Important – it’s not a trade route
• Describes exchange of plants, animals,
people, and diseases among different
areas of the world
Shocking Facts about the Columbian Exchange
• Plants native to the
Americas
– Tomatoes (not Italy)
– Potatoes (not Ireland)
– Corn
• Things introduced to
the Americas
–
–
–
–
–
–
• Lots of people died
– Europeans brought
diseases (smallpox,
influenza, typhus,
measles, malaria,
diphtheria, &
whooping cough)
– Amerindians had no
immunities against the
diseases
Onions
Olives
• Lots of people lived
Coffee
– New, easily grown
Peaches
crops introduced to
Wheat, Barley, & Rice
Europe and Asia
Cattle, sheep, pigs,
– Population BOOMED!
horses
Columbian Exchange Crash Course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ
PA5oNpfM4