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The Beginning of the Global Age
ca 1400s – 1550s
THE SEARCH FOR SPICES
Motivations for Exploring the East
 Crusades introduced many Europeans to luxury
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goods from Asia:
Spices: cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, cloves
Spices preserve meat, add flavor, medicine, perfumes
Black Death and break up of Mongol Empire
disturbs trade
Population grows again
Spice Islands
 The chief source of spices could be found on the
Moluccas – an island chain in present day Indonesia
 Arabs and Italians controlled trade
 Europeans (outside of Italy) knew it would be more
profitable if they had direct access to Asia
Spice Islands
Prince Henry the Navigator
 Portuguese
 1415 – Madeira, Azores, and Ceuta (north Africa)
 Felt Africa had a lot of promise
 Convert people to Christianity
 Another source of riches controlled by Muslims
Prince Henry
Bartholomeu Dias
 1488 – Rounded the southern tip of Africa
 Named the Cape of Good Hope – because it opened
the way for a sea route to Asia
Vasco De Gama
 1497 – Reaches Calicut on the West coast of India
 Half his crew was lost
 Left a merchant whose main job was to buy spices
and store it until he returned
 Portuguese would seize ports around India
De Gama
Christopher Columbus
• Italian
• Believed he could reach Asia by sailing West across the
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Atlantic Ocean
Columbus believed the Earth was a sphere
Under estimated the size of the Earth
Portugal refused to sponsor him
King Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain financed his voyage
Strengthen Catholicism
Spanish Inquisition weakened the nation in affluence
and culture
Wanted to Columbus’ voyage to bring them wealth and
prestige
Columbus
Dividing the Globe in Half
 Line of Demarcation – divided the non European
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world into two zones
Spain – east of the line (Americas)
Portugal – west of the line (Africa and India)
Treaty of Tordesillas
Other European nations saw this as arrogance
entered the race for world exploration and
domination
Treaty of Tordesillas
Waldseemüller Map
America
Ferdinand Magellan
 1520 – Reaches the southern tip of South America
 Straits of Magellan
 Names it the Pacific or peaceful
 1522 – reaches Philippines (he was killed)
 Crew first to circumnavigate around the globe
Magellan
Conquest in the Americas
 1492 – Explorer Christopher Columbus – Caribbean
islands now called West Indies
 Repeated cycle of encounter, conquest, death
 Taino people
Conquistadors
 Conquerors
 Hispaniola – Dominican Republic and Haiti
 Cuba
 Puerto Rico
 Seized gold
 Made them pan/mine for more gold
 Forced conversion to Christianity
Guns, Horses, Disease
 Guns and cannons superior to bows and arrows
 European armor
 Horses helpful in supplies
 Lack of immunity
 90% of population in the 1500s died from disease
Cortez
 1519 Hernan Cortez – landed on the coast of
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Mexico
600 men
16 horses
A few cannons
Began an inland trek toward Tenochtitlan – capital
of the Aztec Empire
Malinche – “Dona Maria”
Alliances – Other native American groups despised
the Aztecs and helped Cortez
Moctezuma
 Leader of the Aztecs
 Terrified at the “pale skin
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bearded strangers” might be
Quetzalcoatl – Aztec god king
who vowed to return
Montezuma sent presents
including gold and silver
They were dazzled by the city
Captured Montezuma fight the
Aztecs
Eventually Montezuma is
captured and renamed Mexico
City
Pizaro Takes Peru
 Francisco Pizaro 1532 –
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captures Athulapa
Atlulapa refuses to be a
vassal and convert to
Christianity
Held ransom
Inca pay ransom but
killed anyway
Inca overrun and killed
by disease
Effects (1500s-1600s)
 A few hundred Europeans aided by superior weapons
and disease had conquered millions of native
Americans
 Native American labor to establish gold and silver
mines
 Treasure fleets
 First time in history entire world connected