Download European Expansion

European Expansion
1450 - 1700
The Big Questions
 Why do nations expand?
 What impact does exploration and expansion have on
economics?
 What impact does exploration have on society's values
and ideals?
Portugal
 Not a wealthy country  but had a history of seafaring
 Prince Henry played a major role in the early phases of
exploration
 Objectives:
 Military glory
 Christianize Muslims
 Gold, slaves, and overseas route to India for spices
Portugal
 Established trading posts on the African coast
 Diaz – Cape of Good Hope
 Vasco da Gama – succeeded in going around the Cape
of Good Hope to India  failed to establish any trading
alliances
 Lisbon  capital for import of Asian goods
 1511  Defeated Muslim controlled port city-states in
India – laid the foundation for Portuguese imperialism
(16th and 17th cent.)
Spain
 Columbus embodied the goals of Spanish exploration
 Spread of Christianity (converting Muslims and others)
 “The Enterprise of the Indies”  direct westward route to
Asia
 Glory (for himself, Spanish dominance)
 Over the next decades the Spanish would follow a policy
of conquest and colonization in the New World, rather
than equal exchange
Spanish Explorers
 Columbus  Hispaniola and Cuba
 Amerigo Vespucci  South America (modern day
Venezuela)
 Ferdinand Magellan  circumnavigated the globe, took
3 years (he died in the Philippines on the way)
 Hernado Cortes  Mexica Empire (interior Mexico)
 Francisco Pizarro  Incan Empire (interior Peru)
Spanish Conquests
 Columbus  Forcibly subjugated the island of Hispaniola
 Cortes  Conquered Tenochtitlan and killed Montezuma II
 Tenochtitlan was a sophisticated civilization with advanced
math, astronomy, engineering, complex social system, and
with oral poetry and historical traditions
 Led to Spanish subjugation of Mexico, widespread disease,
and a decrease in population
 Pizarro  Conquered Cuzco (city) and Atahualpa (leader)
 Incan Empire was highly sophisticated
 The defeat led to decades of violence and disease and ultimate
Spanish rule
Treaty of Tordesillas
 Both Spain and Portugal have claims in the Atlantic
 Treaty was signed to settle competing claims to Atlantic
discoveries between Spain and Portugal
 Spain got the west
 Portugal got the east
Treaty of Tordesillas
Spanish
 Established the encomienda system
 System whereby the Spanish crown granted the
conquerors the right to forcibly employ groups of Indians;
it was a disguised form of slavery
 Columbian Exchange
 Exchange of animals, plants, and diseases between the
Old and New Worlds
Columbian Exchange
 Europe brought over:
 Sugar, rice, bananas, wheat, grapes, olives
 Domesticated animals  horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, pigs,
chickens, goats
 Smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, influenza, typhus,
diphtheria, scarlet fever
 Europeans brought back:
 Corn, tomatoes, pineapples, potatoes, beans, ect.
 Turkeys
 Syphilis (possibly)
Columbian Exchange
England
 First colony  Roanoke in 1585, vanished
 Jamestown  1607
 Later competed with the Dutch for territory (N.E. to Virginia)
 English settlements hugged the coastline  did not explore
into the mainland
 English Expansion Objectives:
 Religious freedom for radical Protestants
 Production of tobacco (growing market in Europe)
France
 French Objective  Trade
 Samuel de Champlain  founded Quebec 1608
 Explored:
 Waterways of the St. Lawrence
 Great Lakes
 Mississippi
 Canada
 Gulf of Mexico
 French territory stretched from Canada down to
Louisiana
France
 Also had territories in the West Indies (Caribbean)
 Originally were bases for plundering Spanish shipping 
eventually some areas became French colonies
 Also competed with England for over a century
 Seven Years War (1756-1763)
 France lost Canada and Louisiana
 Regained Louisiana in 1800 and sold it to the U.S. in 1803
The Netherlands (Dutch)
 Traveled east and west, objective was to trade
 West:
 Henry Hudson  traveled to the U.S.
 South America
 East
 Established the Dutch East India Company  dominant
trading company in Europe
 Australia
 Africa – traded in slaves
Exploration and the Economy
 Exploration brings Europe new lands and resources
 Changes in business & trade, money & economic life
 1450-1700 = Commercial Revolution
 Mercantilism
 National economic policy aimed at accumulating monetary
reserves through a positive balance of trade, especially of
finished goods
 Manor centered  town centered  now state centered
 Exploration leads to European rulers rise in power
Mercantilism
 1. Accumulation of Wealth
 State is building wealth  gold and silver
 1600s  ruler’s power judged by luxury of royal court
and size of the army
 2. Trade with Colonies
 Colonies = source of profit for home country
 Colonies supply wealth (gold, silver, raw material) to home
country
 Colonies buy goods from home country
Mercantilism
 Rise of Joint-Stock Companies
 Shipping from Europe to Asia or America  dangerous,
time-consuming, expensive
 To pay for trading voyages 
 Individuals bought stock shares – investors/part-owners
 Increase in money, decrease in risk to individual investors
 Dutch East India Company, English East India Company
Economy and Changing Society
 Wealth now means money and good NOT land
 Rich middle class merchants  spend money to make
money  lack of luxury or savings
 Rulers and aristocrats looked down on money-makers 
remember, power is judged by excess in luxury and
money!!
 Huge competition between nations for gold and silver!
 Lots of attacks on other nations’ ships!!
Economy and Changing Society
 Most of the gold and silver went to Spain and Portugal
 Wealthy Europeans bought the increase in goods & food
BUT products become scarce and prices rise!
 Because of an increase in European population there is a
need for more food and goods
 This leads to INFLATION
 A sharp, steady rise in prices caused by excess demand
 This will cause social changes across Europe
Economy and Changing Society
 Inflation affects different groups:
 Landowning nobles needed money to buy the same
goods  got fixed rent from peasants
 Not good for the peasants  many lose their land, forced to
work for low wages
 Merchants profited by charging high prices for goods sold
 Demand for goods is higher than European supply 
causes an increase in foreign trade for goods
Capitalism
 Capitalism – economic system based on private
ownership and use of capital
 Capital – wealth in the form of property/money used to
make more money (land, tools, machinery, ships, shops,
ect.)
Capitalism
 During the Late Middle Ages  new business practices
led to capitalism (in Italy)
 Profits from trade and interest on loans  Italian
merchants built up their capital
 They used it to reinvest in their business or other
enterprises
 They pooled money and expanded business
 As business activity increase, merchants developed book
keeping system to track money flow
 Banking and use of credit made business dealing much
easier
Capitalism
 1. Private Ownership = Free Enterprise
 People free to do what they want with their money
 Bank for interest, start a business, invest in a company, ect.
 2. Profit Motive – Desire to make a profit
 Law of Supply and Demand

Demand is greater than supply = price increase

Supply is greater than demand = price decrease
 Company produces goods to make a profit for its investors or
owners
Capitalism
 3. Markey Economy
 Money value placed on all property – land, goods, time,
labor
 Because price and quantity decisions are made in a free
market  people must adhere to the law of supply and
demand
 NOTE: Mercantile Capitalism of 1600-1700s differ
from modern capitalism!
 No large corporations which made modern capitalism
possible