Download Trade and Conflict in Early Modern Asia

Chapter 19 Notes
Chapter 19 Timeline
1394 - 1460 LIFE OF PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR OF PORTUGAL
1488
BAROLOMEU DIAS’S VOYAGE AROUND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE INTO THE INDIAN
OCEAN
1492
COLUMBUS’S FIRST JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
1497 - 1499 VASCO DA GAMA’S FIRST VOYAGE TO INDIA
1519 - 1522 FERDINAND MAGELLAN’S CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE WORLD
1565 - 1575 SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE PHILIPPINES
1768 - 1780 CAPTAIN JAMES COOK’S VOYAGES IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN
The European Reconnaissance of The World’s Oceans
MOTIVES FOR EXPLORATION
- Strong motives: large dividends, chart ocean, develop understanding of world geography;
- search for basic resources and lands suitable for cash crops, spread Christianity, new
trade routes to Asia
Portuguese Exploration: Portugal = poor; they searched for new lands  supplement their own
meager resources; canary islands  sugar
The Lure of Trade: trade routes to Asia = more alluring; travel on silk roads became more
dangerous (plague); Went through Muslim mariners to Cairo (expensive); West African gold –
principal way of payment for Asian goods
Missionary Efforts: Christianity became a powerful justification and reinforcement for the more
material motives for the voyages of exploration
THE TECHNOLOGY OF EXPLORATION
Ships and Sails: 12th cent. – maneuverability – rudder (Chinese); square or triangular latten sails
Navigational Instruments: magnetic compass and astrolabes (latitude)
Knowledge of Winds and Currents: Volta da mar (“return through the sea”) – Portugal – using
winds and currents to cross oceans
VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION: FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE ATLANTIC
Prince Henry of Portugal: (1394 – 1460), Conquered the Moroccan port of Ceuta and voyages
down west African coast; 1488 – Bartolomeu Dias rounded Cape of Good Hope and to Indian
ocean – stopped by storms
Vasco da Gama: Travel to India and goods he took there made little profit, but the goods he
brought back made a bunch of money  Portugal built a trading post in Calicut
Christopher Columbus: 1451 – 1506; Genoese; funded by Isabel and Ferdinand of Spain; landed
in the Bahamas on 12 October 1492, spent 3 years sailing around the Caribbean
Hemispheric Links: Columbus’s “exploration” connected the western and eastern hemispheres
and paved the way for the conquest, settlement, and exploitation of the Americas by European
peoples
VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION: FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC
Ferdinand Magellan: Portuguese (1480 – 1521); while sailing visited ports throughout the Indian
Ocean; thought the “spice islands” were close to the Americas and pulled a Columbus; Portugal
showed little interest - already had a route  sailed for Spain
The Circumnavigation: Scurvy killed 29 members of his crew; he and 40 members of his crew
were killed in a local political dispute in the Philippines; started with 5 ships and 280 men,
returned with one ship and 18 men (17 returned later)
Exploration of the Pacific: English discovered a lot of it while searching for a NW passage from
Europe to Asia; 16th century - Sir Francis Drake – West coast of North America, as far a
Vancouver Island
- Russian explorers mostly land-based; but by 18th cent. they also explored the Pacific;
Russian officials commanded Danish navigator Vitus Bering (2 expeditions 1725 – 1730
and 1733 – 1742) in search of NE passage to Asia  bering strait and arctic ocean
Captain James Cook: 1728 – 1779; most important on Pacific exploration (minus Magellan); 3
expeditions; died in fight with Hawaiians; chartered Eastern Australia and New Zealand; added
New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Hawaii to English maps; Artic Ocean as well
Trade and Conflict in Early Modern Asia
TRADING-POST EMPIRES
Portuguese Trading Posts: earliest trading-post empire; goal to control trade not territories;
forced merchants to dock at fortified trading sites and to pay duties; Vasco da Gama built one in
Calicut in 1498. By 1550ish Portugal had more than 50 between W. Africa and E. Asia
Alfonso d’Alboquerque: architect of aggressive policy; commander of Portuguese forces in the
India ocean; seized Hormuz (1508), Goa (1510), and Melaka (1511); wanted to control trade in
Indian ocean purchase of safe-conduct passes; punished violators by executing; not enough
vessels to do this  Arab, Indian, and Malay merchants still prominent; Portuguese faded, Dutch
and English took over
English and Dutch Trading Posts: didn’t seek to control trade on high seas, just through their
ports; Parallel networks: English – India and Dutch –Indonesia, Colombo, etc; 2 main
advantages over Portugal – faster, cheaper, and more powerful ship, 2 - joint-stock company
The Trading Companies: East India Trading Company (1600) and the United East India
Company (1602); privately owned enterprises – charters let them buy, sell, build trading posts,
make war.
EUROPEAN CONQUESTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Conquests of the Philippines: 1565 – Spanish: no central government  no resistance; named
after King Philip II of Spain
Manila: soon emerged as a bustling port city- trade (silk esp.); Spanish sought to Christianize
Manila; by 19th cent, Philippines had become one of the most fervent Roman Catholic lands
Conquest of Java: Plan was to use post on Batavia to monopolize spice production and trade Jan
Pieterszoon Coen took naval power and forced small Indonesian islands to deliver spices only to
VOC merchants; Dutch too small  made alliances with local authorities  uprooted spicebearing plants and mercilessly attacked those who sold spices to other; made Netherlands the
most prosperous land in Europe for most of the 7th century
FOUNDATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN ASIA
Siberia: pushed through rough terrain for fur
Native Peoples of Siberia: home to 26 major ethnic groups; some responded to their coercion
some didn’t ; Yakut (1642) uprising  40 years of oppression by Russian, wiped out 70% of the
tribe; epidemic diseases wiped out about half the population
The Russian Occupation of Siberia: misfits/criminals often went to Siberia; by 1763 about
420,000 Russians lived in Siberia, double the amount of natives
FOUNDATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN ASIA
Competition and Conflict: 1746 – French forces seized English trading port at Madras (one of
three principal posts for the brits); in Caribbean as well; English pirates vs. Spanish; English vs.
French
Ecological Exchanges
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
Biological Exchanges: after the voyages of Columbus; lands had radically different plants,
animals, and diseases  disease to the Americas and the pacific islands (worst = smallpox) a
Epidemic Diseases and Population Decline: 1519 – Smallpox hit Aztecs (90% pop decline); total
(1500–1800) more than 100 million people may have died in the pacific and Americas cause of it
Food Crops and Animals: Out of Eurasia (wheat, rice, sugar, bananas, cherries, apples, etc.);
Africa – yams, okra, collard greens, coffee; Americas – horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and
chicken, maize, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, peanuts, tobacco, etc.;
Population Growth: 1500 – 425 million; 1600 – 545 million; 1750 – 720 million; 1800 – 19
million
Migration: largest group of migration = African slaves
THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL TRADE
Transoceanic Trade: globally linked trade system
The Manila Galleons: large, multidecked, highly stable, and maneuverable sailing ships used by
Europeans for war or commerce; Spanish and Portuguese built the biggest ones
Environmental Effects of Global Trade: fur-bearing animals felt pressure