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WHII.4 The European Age of Discovery Part I: Foundations of Exploration In 1453 the Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire and took control of their capital, Constantinople. This allowed the Ottomans to take control of some of the most important trade routes in the world – the ones leading to the East Indian Spice Islands. European merchants desperately wanted to sail the oceans to reach these Spice Islands in the East, but when the Arab Ottomans captured Constantinople, Europeans began turning towards the Atlantic to find new trade routes. By 1490 improvements in ship-building, map-making, and navigation made it possible to achieve this goal. This caused a new era of exploration and colonization of foreign territories. In Portugal, Prince Henry was strongly interested in exploration and even established a school for navigators. In time he became known as Prince Henry the Navigator. With new technology and an increased competition for trade, power, and wealth, European nations were strengthened and became some of the strongest nations in the world, often at the expense of other civilizations. Early European explorers and conquistadors (Spanish explorers/conquers) were first motivated by a desire to find a better trade route to the Spice Islands and other trading areas in Asia. In time, however, exploration and conquest were driven by three major desires: an overwhelming lust for gold and other New World riches (including valuable natural resources like spices and precious metals), a desire to convert native populations to Christianity, and finally, a desire to bring glory to mother countries and their leaders. In short, the main motives for European expansion were “gold, glory, and God.” During the 15th century, Europeans were eager explore, gain new riches and power, and establish foreign territories. It all started because Europeans were eager to expand trade with India and Southeast Asia. These regions produced spices and other products that were in great demand in Europe. Both Spain and Portugal financed explorations of the open seas to find the shortest possible path to Asia. After the success of Spain and Portugal, other European nations like England and France also began sending explorers across the globe and with that, the European Age of Discovery was under way. Part II: Explorers - Spain and Portugal Italian sailor Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to finance an expedition to the west to reach East Asia (the Indies). Columbus thought he could sail westward across the Atlantic Ocean and arrive in East Asia. In 1492, he landed on the islands known today as the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, and Santo Domingo. Columbus claimed these lands for Spain and to his death believed he had found the Indies. However, other explorers realized that what Columbus discovered was an entirely new part of the world that was completely unknown to Europeans. Many explorers quickly launched expeditions of their own to explore these unknown places. With so many explorations aiming for the new world, conflicts began between who could claim what land. On June 7, 1494 the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed to avoid confusion between Spain and Portugal on the claim of land in the New World. The treaty divided the world into two hemispheres along an imaginary line down the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. Lands east of the line belonged to Portugal; lines to the west belonged to Spain. From 1519 to 1522, Ferdinand Magellan led a Spanish expedition to expand trade with India and Southeast Asia. Although Magellan died en route, his crew continued on and became the first to circumnavigating (sail around) the entire globe. Spanish ships carried silver and gold from the New World to be traded for luxury goods in China for export to Spain and her colonies. In 1518, Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) sailed from Spain to the coast of Mexico, making contact with the Aztecs. Cortes believed the Aztecs possessed large amounts of gold, so in 1521 he led a group of Spanish Conquistadors that fought with and brutally defeated the Aztecs. Cortes claimed the Aztec Empire of Mexico and renamed it the Kingdom of New Spain. In 1532 Francisco Pizarro (1470-1541) conquered the Inca who had controlled Peru and much of eastern South America since 1200 A.D. Pizarro’s conquest, motivated by desire for gold and silver, led to the Spanish colonization of most of South America. Created in 1542, the Spanish domain was called the Viceroyalty of Peru. After taking control of many parts of South America, the Spaniards began shipping precious metals like gold and silver back to to Spain in great quantities. This, however, led to “too much of a good thing” because Spain only passed these riches on to other countries to buy goods from around the world causing horrible taxation and inflation in Spain. Spain’s economy was eventually ruined and it had many negative impacts on other European and Asian economies. The Spanish royal government allowed the conquistadors to use encomiendas, a system that gave them the right to take advantage of (exploit) indigenous land and labor. Native Americans were then called Indians, after “Indios,” the Spanish word for “inhabitants of the indies.” The Spanish required these Indian’s to work for the colonial government and accept Spanish culture, religion (Catholic), and education (led by the Jesuits). Because of this forced labor, starvation, and diseases from Europe, many Native Americans died. These diseases, particularly smallpox, measles, and influenza, wiped out almost the entire native South American population. Africans were then imported as slaves to replace the lost labor force. In order to adapt and survive, many of the remaining Native Americans adopted European cultural practices. They converted to Christianity, got educations, and worked for imperial administration. The Roman Catholic Church, represented mainly by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus), played a key role in educating and introducing European culture to the native population. Immigration from Europe to South America accelerated in the 17th century. However, the initial lack of European women there led to the mating of European men with Indian women. The mixed-blood children, called mestizos, later became the majority ethnic group in Latin America. Those of pure Spanish decent enjoyed a higher status in colonial society. While most of Spain’s efforts were on colonizing South America, Portuguese explorers, sponsored by Prince Henry the Navigator, sailed down the west coast of Africa and out into the Atlantic with hopes of finding trade routes to Asia. Around 1497-1498, Vasco da Gama turned south into the Atlantic and sailed around the tip of South Africa-the Cape of Good Hope and reached the coast of to India. He failed to persuade local merchants to trade with him but the expedition established a new commercial trade route. In 1500, Pedro Cabral led 13 ships to the Indian Ocean, winning control of it by defeating a large Arab fleet. The Portuguese soon sailed beyond India to the Spice Islands. They built bases along their route: in West and East Africa, on the west coast of India, and in the East Indies. Part II: Explorers - England, France, and the Netherlands By 1577, Spain controlled almost all of Central and South America. An English captain named Sir Francis Drake began attacking Spanish ships that were bringing goods back from their colonies. He waged pirate war against Spain, stealing large quantities of Spanish gold for Queen Elizabeth I. He duplicated the achievement of Magellan’s crew while escaping the Spanish. Seeing the success of the Spanish people in the Americas, many English, French, and Dutch migrated to North America in the early 17 th century in search of new wealth. They hoped to find a northwestern passage to the spices and gold of the East Indies by sailing between the islands off northwestern Canada. The first English expedition to North America was led by John Cabot, who reached and named Newfoundland (modern Canada) in 1497. A French explorer, Jacques Cartier, sailed down the St. Lawrence River and found a land filled with fish, lumber and furry animals. They did not find the same wealth in gold and silver that the Spaniards found in Latin America, but they did realize that North America itself was filled with many riches. In the modern territory of the United States, English settlers founded the colonies of New England wanted to gain religious freedom and worked to create model Christian communities based on Puritan beliefs. Part III: The Impact of Exploration - Columbian Exchange The Columbian Exchange, named for Christopher Columbus, was the massive transformation of the entire globe that resulted from the exchange of plants, animals, and disease between the Old World (Europe) and the New World (The Americas). The exchange increased global food production and human populations. However, it also ruined the ecological stability of large areas. Diseases wiped out massive populations. The Europeans brought many things to America: crops like rice, wheat, coffee and sugar; animals like cattle, pigs, and sheep; and vermin such as rats. While some of these animals became new sources of transportation, labor, or food, they also damaged or destroyed native plant and animal species. In the New World, Europeans were introduced to indigenous plant foods, such as corn, tobacco, and potatoes. These plants, brought back to Europe, enriched nutrition in the Old World, greatly increasing the food supply and resulting in global population growth after 1700. Disease, another aspect of the Columbian Exchange, had disastrous consequences for Native Americans. These indigenous populations had been isolated for centuries. They lacked an acquired immunity to diseases introduced by the Europeans. Smallpox and measles, in particular, rapidly devastated massive populations. At the same time, the desire to grow and sell new cash crops like cotton and tobacco increased the demand for slaves and forced labor. The increase in crop production led to a new farming system, the Plantation System, which produced large quantities of crops for trade, but destroyed native economies and environments. Part III: The Impact of Exploration -The Slave Trade in Africa Traffic in slavery had been practiced in some civilization, including in Africa and ancient Rome, since early times. Before being enslaved by the Europeans starting in the 15th century, most slaves in Africa had been tribal war prisoners. The European colonization of the Americans brought slavery to the New World. At first, Europeans relied on the native populations for forced labor. But, when disease killed off native populations, Europeans began to buy and ship an increasing number of slaves from the cost of Africa. The slave trade was part of the triangular trade network between Europe, West Africa, and the Americas. European ships left their homeports loaded with manufactured goods, which included weapons and rum. Europeans traded these goods for slaves which were packed tightly into the cargo hold of boats that made their way to the Americas along what was known as the Middle Passage. Africans were then sold along the coast of Central America, southern North America and the Caribbean Islands. The money was used to buy sugar, molasses, cotton, and tobacco which were carried back to Europe and sold. The molasses was made into rum, manufactured goods were purchased, and the cycle began again. Part III: The Impact of Exploration - The Spice Trade in Asia Portuguese explorers like Cabral and Da Gama led some of the first expeditions to the spice trade in Asia, which made other European countries thirsty to compete for trade in this area. In 1602 the Netherlands established the Dutch East India Company to expand trade in the region. By 1641 they had kicked the Portuguese out of the region and dominated the spice trade. The English East India Company was formed in 1600. English traders concentrated on the Indian sub-continent. By 1650 their trading posts and forts were beginning to dot the east and west coasts of India. Indian textiles began to influence British textiles. In the century that followed, the merchants and soldiers of the French East India Company would challenge the English for control of the India trade. By the late 16th century, English, Dutch, and French merchants joined their Spanish and Portuguese counterparts in linking ports all over the world in global trading networks. By the 18th century, European had created a mass market that included coffee, tea, sugar, and tobacco, in addition to other commodities, such as wheat, rice, and other goods.