Download AP World Chapter 23: Transoceanic Encounters and Global

AP World Chapter 23: Transoceanic Encounters and Global Connections
Introduction
-Vasco de Gama led a small fleet of four armed merchant vessels with 170 crewmen
out of Lisbon on July 8, 1497 and arrived at Calicut, India ten months later
-This voyage opened the door for direct maritime trade between European and
Asian peoples
-From 1500-1800 CE, cross-cultural interactions took place on a much larger
geographic scale and encounters were often more disruptive than before
-Russians built a Eurasian empire and traveled into the Pacific and the Ottoman
Navy also was prominent
-European influence brought a decisive shift in the global balance of power
I. The European Reconnaissance of the World’s Oceans
-European merchants and mariners were able to chart the world’s oceans basins
and develop an accurate understanding of world geography
A. Motives for Exploration
-Most important motives were the search for basic resources and lands suitable for
the cultivation of cash crops, the desire to establish new trade routes to Asian
markets, and the aspiration to expand the influence of Christianity
-Portuguese originally ventured into the Atlantic in the 13th century for fish, timber,
and lands to cultivate wheat
-In the ensuing centuries they established sugar plantations on islands in the
Atlantic including the Cape Verde islands, Sao Tome, Principe, and Fernando Po
-During the 14th century, travel on the silk roads was much more dangerous as the
Mongols had fallen and plague had spread
-European desire for Indian pepper and Chinese ginger led them to circumvent the
Muslim middlemen and seek direct access to Asia
-Trade with Africa, especially for the gold that was then used to purchase Chinese
goods, was also increasing
-Efforts to spread the Christian faith were also prominent and were particularly
prominent in the form of the Crusades and the Reconquista which finally ended in
1492 with the defeat of the Muslim kingdom of Granada
-Vasco de Gama, when asked at Calicut what he wanted, responded: “Christians and
spices”
-Thus, the goal of spreading Christianity became a powerful justification for the
more material motives for the voyages of exploration
B. The Technology of Exploration
-Most European nautical technology came from the Mediterranean and northern
European maritime traditions and was combined imaginatively with elements of
Chinese or Arabic origin
-Beginning in the 12th century, Europeans built rudders to improve maneuverability
(the sternpost rudder was originally a Chinese invention)
-Used a combination of square and triangular lateen sails, enabling them to catch
winds from behind or the side, respectively
-Thus, their ability to tack—advance against the wind by sailing across it—was
crucial for exploration of regions with uncooperative winds
-Most important on-board technology were compasses and astrolabes (soon
replaced by cross staffs and back staffs)
-Thus, Europeans could determine direction and latitude but had to wait until the
late 18th century to determine longitude since time is required for that and reliable
clocks were not around until then)
-Knowledge of wind patterns was also essential knowledge
-Both north and south of the equator in the Atlantic and Pacific, strong winds blow
regularly to create giant “wind wheels”
-Between 5 and 25 degrees of latitude north and south of the equator, trade winds
blow from the east and between 30 and 60 degrees westerly winds prevail
-In the Indian Ocean, monsoon winds blow from the southeast during the summer
and from the northwest in the winter
-In the mid-15th century, Portuguese mariners had developed a strategy called the
volta do mar (“return through the sea”) in which they returned from the Canary
Islands to Portugal by sailing northwest into the open oceans until they found
westerly winds and then turned east to reach home
-Other variations of the volta do mar were then developed
C. Voyages of Exploration: from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
-The pace of European exploration quickened after 1415 when Prince Henry the
Navigator conquered the Moroccan port of Ceuta and sponsored a series of voyages
down the west coast of Africa
-Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and Vasco de Game reached Calicut in
1498, returning on a perilous journey with profitable pepper and cinnamon
-By 1500 Portugal had a trading port at Calicut and by the end of the 16th century
the English and Dutch had also come to the Indian Ocean basin
-Columbus estimated Japan to be about 2,500 nautical miles west of the Canary
Islands but Japan is really 10,000 miles
-The Portuguese rejected Columbus’ proposal but Fernando and Isabel decided to
underwrite the expedition
-On October 12, 1492 he landed at San Salvador (also known as Watling Island)
-He called the Taino “Indians” because he thought he had reached the Spice Islands
of India
-Columbus’ voyage thus had unintended consequence of linking eastern and
western hemisphere in a way that would lead to conquest, settlement, and
exploitation
D. Voyages of Exploration: from the Atlantic to the Pacific
-In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa sighted the Pacific Ocean while searching for gold
in Panama
-Reconnaissance of the Pacific Ocean began with Ferdinand Magellan, who in the
service of Portugal had voyaged many times throughout the Indian Ocean basin as
far east as the spice islands of Maluku
-Since Portuguese already has eastern routes to Asian markets, they rejected
Magellan’s proposal and instead Magellan sailed for the Spanish crown
-Magellan found a treacherous strait (known as the Strait of Magellan) near the tip
of South America into the Pacific
-Sailed for four months before taking provisions at Guam
-Scurvy killed 29 crewmen as their was simply not enough nutritious food prior to
Guam
-At the Philippine Islands, Magellan and 40 others dies in a local political skirmish
-The survivors continued on to Maluku and then sailed home through the waters of
the Indian Ocean, returning home after 3 years
-In all, 35 of the 280 original crewmen survived
-The English sought a northwest passage, which would prove to be ice-blocked until
Roald Amundsen sailed from Atlantic to Pacific via the NW passage in the 20th
century
-Russian expansion was primarily land based, but did involve some exploration of
the Pacific
-Russian even built a small fort at Kaua’I and traded there for a few years in the
early 19th century
-Alongside Magellan, the most important Pacific explorer was Captain James Cook
who led three Pacific expeditions and died in a scuffle with indigenous folks in
Hawai’i
-He chartered eastern Australia and New Zealand and added New Caledonia,
Vanuata, and Hawai’I to European maps
II. Trade and Conflict in Early Modern Asia
-In the eastern hemisphere, Europeans established a series of fortified trading posts
-Other than Spanish island empire in Philippines and Dutch island empire in
Indonesia, there weren’t many examples of actually imposing rule in the eastern
hemisphere
-On land Russians began to control central Asian lands formerly controlled by
Mongols
A. Trading-Post Empires
-Portuguese set up the earliest trading-post empires with the goal not of conquering
territories but of controlling trade routes and forcing merchants to pay duties there
-By the mid-16th century, the Portuguese had more than 50 trading posts between
west Africa and east Asia and controlled distinct goods at each
-Sao Jorge da Mina: west African slaves
-Mozambique: south African gold trade
-Hormuz: access to the Persian Gulf
-Goa: Indian pepper
-Melaka: oversaw shipments between South China Sea and Indian Ocean
-Macau and Nagasaki: access to markets of China and Japan
-Afonsod’Alboquerque was the architect of the aggressive Spanish policy and was
responsible for seizing Hormuz in 1508, Goa in 1510, and Melaka in 1511
-Forced all ships to buy “safe-conduct passes” and present them at all Portuguese
trading posts
-Cut off the hands of merchants who violated these policies
-By the late 16th century, however, Portuguese influence in the Indian Ocean
weakened because Portugal was a small country with a population of only 1 million
and couldn’t sustain a large seaborne trading empire for very long
-English (Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta) and Dutch (Cape Town, Colombo, and
Batavia which is modern day Jakarta) started to take control of Indian Ocean
-Dutch fleet conquered Portuguese port at Melaka in 1641
-But in cases like Goa, Portuguese retained control until the 20th century
-Two major advantages for Dutch and English over the Portuguese were faster,
cheaper, more powerful ships and the use of joint-stock companies (English East
India Company founded in 1600 and Dutch VOC in 1602)
B. European Conquests in Southeast Asia
-Although most trade was done in peace in the Eastern Hemisphere, two island
regions of Southeast Asia (Philippines, Indonesia) were conquered because they
didn’t previously have powerful states
-Spanish forces approached the Philippines in 1565 and met almost bloodless
resistance from a series of small, disunited chiefdoms
-Spanish policy revolved around trade and Christianity
-Manila became an entrepot for trade in silk and became the hub of Spanish Asia
-Chinese merchants had a 25% presence in Manila and they provided the silk that
Spanish merchants transported to Mexico in the Manila galleons
-Success of these Chinese merchants led to periodic massacres by the Spanish
-By the 19th century, the Philippines had become one of the most Roman Catholic
lands in the world
-Dutch mariners in Indonesia focused solely on trade in spices like cloves, nutmeg,
and mace
-Batavia, on the island of Java, became the entrepot
-By the late 17th century, the VOC controlled all the ports of Java and the spicebearing islands throughout the Indonesian archipelago—indeed, the Netherlands
was the richest land in Europe in the 17th century
C. Foundations of the Russian Empire in Asia
-Russians created a vast land empire that embraced most of northern Eurasia
-Russians came to control the Volga River and the strategically placed city of
Astrakhan on the Volga delta where the river flows into the Caspian Sea
-A large contingent of Indian merchants lived in the city
-In the 18th century, Russia absorbed much of the Caucasus, including modern
countries of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan
-Russians also pushed into Siberia to search for fur under the leadership of the
Stroganov family and a freebooting adventurer named Yermak in 1581
-Siberia was home to 26 major ethnic groups that lived by hunting, trapping, fishing,
or herding reindeer
-They varied widely in their reaction to Russian encroachment and often faced
brutal retribution from Russians if they did not cooperate
-Violence and disease reduced native Siberian populations by 70 percent
-Russians initially tried to convert Siberians to Orthodox Christianity but because
Christians were exempt from providing fur tributes, the Russian government didn’t
make a huge effort to ensure conversion like the Spanish monarchs did
D. Commercial Rivalries and the Seven Years’ War
-Europeans often came into conflict with each other, with the Dutch initially kicking
the Portuguese out of the Indian Ocean Basin in the late 16th and early 17th centuries
-By the early 18th century, trade in Indian cotton and tea from Ceylon began to
overshadow the spice trade, and thus the English and French working from trading
posts in India became the dominant carriers in the Indian Ocean
-The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) took place in Europe, India, the Caribbean, and
North America and wound up laying the foundation for 150 years of British imperial
hegemony
-Known as the “great war of Empire”, this conflict put Britain in the driver’s seat of
the quest for empire
III. Global Exchanges
-New links between lands created by European explorers led to biological exchanges
and commercial exchanges of an unprecedented nature
A. The Columbian Exchange
-Expansion of Islam had led to diffusion of plants and food crops throughout the
eastern hemisphere between 700 and 1100 CE
-During the 14th century the spread of bubonic plague caused drastic demographic
losses
-Yet, the Columbian exchange had much more profound impacts than any previous
exchanges
-Smallpox was the worst of these scourges, but measles, diphtheria, whooping
cough, and influenza also took heavy tolls
-These diseases had become endemic in Europe and thus did not pose real risks to
society other than the unlucky children who fell victim
-But in the Americas between 1519 and 1619, the native Aztec population
diminished by 90% from 17 million to 1.3 million
-Diseases hit the more densely populated areas, such as the Inca and Aztec empires,
with particular ferocity
-Oceania was also effected, but to a lesser degree
-All told, upwards of 100 million people may have died of diseases imported into the
Americas and Pacific islands between 1500 and 1800
-In the longer term, the Columbian exchange increased rather than diminished
human population because of the global spread of food crops and animals that it
sponsored
-Wheat, vines, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens went from Europe to
the Americas
-American crops that took root in Africa, Asia, and Europe included maize, potatoes,
beans, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, manioc, papayas, guavas, avocados, pineapples,
and cacao
-Columbian exchange fueled a surge in world population
-1500: 425 million people
-1600: 545 million people
-1700: 610 million people
-1750: 720 million people (faster rate of growth)
-1800: 900 million people (wow)
-Columbian exchange also consisted of the spread of human populations, with the
largest contingent being enslaved Africans
B. The Origins of Global Trade
-Manila galleons provides a good example of the early workings of the global
economy in the Pacific Ocean basin
-From 1565 to 1815, Spanish galleons—sleek, fast, heavily armed ships capable of
carrying large cargoes—plied the waters between Manila and Acapulco
-They took Asian luxury goods from Manila to Mexico (often then continuing on
back to Europe) in exchange for silver, which made its way to China where it was in
high demand and often traded for Chinese gold
-Fur pelts came into high demand as silver lubricated this global economy
-Siberia produced 200,000 to 300,000 sable pelts annually and North America
beaver pelts also fed demand for fur hats and cloaks
-During the 17th century, the Dutch imported wheat from South Africa, cowry shells
from India, and sugar from Brazil
-Wheat fed people who were increasingly employed as merchants and bankers;
cowry shells were used to purchase slaves in west Africa since cowry shells served
as currency in sub Saharan Africa; sugar went on the market in Amsterdam
-By 1750, all parts of the world except Australia participated in global networks of
commercial relations in which European merchant mariners played prominent roles