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NOTES
CHAPTER 16: The World Economy
I.
The West’s First Outreach: Maritime Power
a. The Crusades introduced Europeans to Asian goods, and made them want to find a shorter and
cheaper route to Asia without traveling through the Middle East.
b. New technological advancements helped the Europeans to travel in the Atlantic and in the Indian
Ocean.
i. Stronger, armed ships
ii. Compass and astrolabe help with navigation
iii. Chinese explosives were adapted into cannons and guns
c. Portugal
i. Portugal is well situated on the Atlantic Ocean.
ii. Henry the Navigator, a Portuguese Prince, was the patron of many expeditions.
iii. Bartholomew Diaz rounded the tip of Africa in 1488, but his sailors forced him to turn
around before he reached India.
iv. Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498, with the help of a Hindu pilot picked up in East
Africa.
1. Vasco da Gama was exceptionally brutal, being that Muslim merchants showed
no interest for the items that he brought to sell.
v. The Portuguese accidentally discovered Brazil on one expedition to India – proclaiming
sovereignty there.
vi. In addition, the Portuguese began to build forts in Africa and in India.
vii. By 1514, they reached Indonesia and China.
viii. In 1542, they reached Japan, where they had some missionary success.
d. Spain
i. Recently freed from Muslim rule, Spain began to launch expeditions as well – looking for
riches and possible converts.
ii. In 1492 (the same year that the final Muslim fortress was captured in Spain) Christopher
Columbus set sail for a new route to India – instead finding the Americas on October 12,
1492.
1. He mistakenly called the Native Americans “Indians” believing that he had found
Asia (which he believed to his death).
iii. Amerigo Vespucci’s expedition was the expedition that gave America it’s name, as a
German mapmaker decided that the found land was a not Asia.
iv. The Pope decided to grant Spain most of the New World with the Line of Demarcation
set in 1493.
1. Portugal protested the decision, and so the Pope granted most of Brazil to
Portugal with the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.
v. Ferdinand Magellan set sail for a trip around the world in 1519, reaching the Philippines
in 1521, where he was killed.
1. The Philippines remained under Spanish control until 1898.
e. Northern European Expeditions
i. Northern Europeans developed lighter, faster ships – gaining the lead on the seas against
Spain and Portugal.
ii. For the most part, Britain, France and Holland vied for colonies on the Northern coast,
though, because they could not challenge the colonies of Spain and Portugal in the South.
iii. France first crossed the Atlantic in 1534, claiming Canada
iv. Britain first crossed the Atlantic in 1437, looking for a northern route to Asia – failing
and instead exploring the Hudson Bay.
1. Began to colonize the North American East Coast in the 17th century.
II.
III.
v. Holland (The Netherlands) won independence from Spain (beginning in 1579, but
officially in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia) and began to compete for colonies in
Southeast Asia – winning the Indonesian Islands by the early 17th century.
1. The Netherlands explored Australia without much result, but established a colony
on the southern tip of Africa.
vi. All three countries chartered trading companies that could raise armies and coin money.
1. The Dutch East India Company effectively held Taiwan.
2. The British East India Company effectively held India.
Toward a World Economy
a. The Columbian Exchange involved the transfer of goods and diseases across the Atlantic.
i. More than 50% of Native Americans died of smallpox and measles – disease they had no
immunities for.
ii. New World crops were not as deadly.
1. Corn and sweet potatoes were used in China, Europe, and parts of Africa.
a. New crops allowed for greater population increases.
b. The Europeans began to slowly work their way into being stronger than the Muslims on the seas
– the Spanish defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
c. The Europeans began to set up ports on the coast of Africa and other countries as well, serving as
trading posts and contacts between sea traders and overland traders.
d. Europe dominated world trade due to the steady supply of silver and gold coming in from the
colonies which allowed them to expand their manufacturing.
i. Mercantilism encouraged manufacturing – where the core nations produced and sold
more than they imported. In addition, manufacturing was mostly carried out by the home
country – not in the colonies.
ii. Even places such as Africa participated in this new world trade by trading slaves and
unprocessed goods for such manufactured items such as guns.
e. Areas that were used for trade were not always exploited by the Europeans.
i. African slave traders and princes grew rich from taxing the trade.
ii. Latin American silver mines needed landlords and merchants to help supply food and
goods – therefore they made much money from the trade.
f. Slave labor became common, especially after diseases wiped out much of the Native American
population.
i. Africans were mostly used in the Americas.
ii. Peasants were sometimes forced into labor in the Indonesian Islands.
g. China was able to remove themselves almost completely from world trade after the expeditions
of Zhenghe.
i. Europeans wanted to trade with China, and some unofficial trade did occur – but it was
rare and the Chinese officially did not want to take part in the trade.
h. The Japanese were worried about Western influence on their traditional societal structure, and
the result that guns would have on their samurai warriors.
i. Japan began to make guns of their own.
ii. They suppressed the Christians already in their country.
iii. They completely withdrew from world trade except for some with China and a small
Dutch port near Nagasaki.
i. Other countries that stayed out of world trade were India to a point, the Ottoman and Safavid
Empires, and Russia until the 18th century, and Africa.
Colonial Expansion
a. Colonies
i. Most colonies were loosely controlled by the mother country – and most colonial
administrators were content with getting their tribute.
ii. More formal administration spread as missionaries arrived.
b. Spain
i. Spain was the first European country to begin to colonize in the Americas – it was easy
due to population losses, technological advantages in guns and iron weapons, and the
advantage of horses.
ii. They began with islands such as Hispaniola, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, and then
moving to the mainland.
iii. Vasco de Balboa founded the colony of Panama in 1509.
iv. The Aztecs were then soon conquered by Cortez, as were the Incas in 1531 by Pizarro.
1. Pizarro was assassinated by Inca rebels for his murder of the Incan Emperor.
c. Europe
i. Many settlers were religious refugees – fleeing Europe because of religious persecution.
1. Since new settlements were often small, settlers gained much experience with
representative government.
2. In addition, the colonists read the new Enlightenment ideas widely.
ii. Louis XIV began to settle areas of Canada – urging peasants to migrate to Quebec.
iii. England and France fought each other in the Seven Years War (French and Indian War in
the U.S.).
1. The war was fought on both sides of the Atlantic.
2. It ended with the Treaty of Paris that gave Britain the French land between the
Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
a. English use of this land, and English taxation of the colonists to pay for
the war eventually led to the American Revolution.
iv. For the most part, European life was transplanted to the colonies.
d. Africa
i. Cape Colony on the tip of Africa was established by the Dutch in 1652.
1. Boers (Dutch farmers) frequently moved there and took over native land.
2. Conflicts between Africans and Boers continued in South Africa until the late 20th
century.
e. Asia
i. The French and the British vied for control of India, while the Mughal Empire slowly
collapsed.
1. The British were more concerned about money than missionary work – therefore
the Hindus would rather work with the British.
2.
ii. After the French caused at least 120 British deaths because of imprisonment, the British,
aided by many Indian troops, defeated the French in India.
iii. For the most part, colonies were loosely governed, and their weren’t many European
settlers in Asia (they mostly went to South Africa and the Americas).