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The Age of Exploration &
Conquest
15th & 16th Centuries
Causes for
Exploration
• “God, Glory, Gold” primary motives
– Rise of nation states (new monarchs)
resulted in competition for empires &
trade
• Portugal & Spain tried to break the Italian
monopoly on trade with Asia
– Capitalist investments in exploration
– Religious desire to convert pagan peoples
• Renaissance: search for knowledge
• Technological advances
– Magnetic compass
– Quadrant & astrolabe
– Ships
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Portugese Caravel
Sail & rope riggings
Axial (side) rudder
Gunpowder & cannons
• Motives
Portugal
– Economic: route to Asia for
spice trade
– Religious: find mythical Prester
John for an alliance against the
Mulsims
• Prince Henry the Navigator
– Financed expedition to Africa to
find gold
• Bartholomew Dias
– Rounded the tip of Africa (1488)
• Vasco de Gama
– Expedition to India (1498)
• Amerigo Vespucci
More Portugal
– Explored Brazil
• 1st European to realize that he
had discovered a new continent
• “America” named after him
• Brazil
– Portugal’s major colony
– In the 1600’s, large # of slaves
from Africa imported for
production of coffee, cotton, &
sugar
– Significant racial mixture
between whites, Amerindians,
& blacks resulted
Spain:
Explorers
• Christopher Columbus
– Ferdinand & Isabella financed his expedition
– 1492: reached the Bahamas
– 4 expeditions
• Charted most of the Caribbean & Honduras
(central America)
• Bartholomew de las Casas
– Publicly criticized the ruthlessness with
which Columbus treated the Amerindians
• Treaty of Tordesillas
– Spain wanted to secure Columbus’
discoveries
– Provisions:
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New world divided by Spain & Portugal
Requested by Pope Leo V
Portugal go the slave trade rights
North-south line drawn in the Atlantic
Spain – west of the line
Portugal – east of the line
More Spanish
Explorers
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa
– Discovered the Pacific Ocean
• Ferdinand Magellan
– His ship was the first to
circumnavigate the globe
• Spanish conquistadors
– Began creating empires by
conquering Indians
• Hernando Cortes – conquered
the Aztecs in Mesoamerica
• Francisco Pizarro – conquered
the Incas in modern-day Peru
Golden Age of
Spain
• Outright conquering entire
regions & subjugating their
populations
• Mercantilist philosophy
– Colonies exist for the benefit of
the mother country
– Gold/silver most important
• 25% of the crown’s total income
• 1545 – opening of world’s richest
silver mine at Potosi in Peru
– Discouraged native industries
to avoid competition
• Structure
Spanish Empire
– Divided into 4 vice-royalties
– Each led by a viceroy
• Encomienda System
– Motive: Spanish gov. sought to
reduce the savage exploitation of
Amerindians in the Spanish empire
– System: Amerindians worked for an
owner a certain # of days/week but
retained other parcels of land for
themselves
– Major reason Spain imported few
slaves from Africa
• Mestizos: Children of mixed white
& native American descent
• Creoles: Spanish born in New
World to Spanish parents
Africa & Asia
“Old Imperialism”
• Characterized by establishing posts &
forts on the coasts – not going inland
– Not conquering entire regions or
subjugating their people
– Sharp contrast to New World
• Portugal
– Da Gama set up trading posts in India
– Alphonso d’Albequerque made coastal
regions a base to control Indian Ocean
– Established an empire in Spice Islands
(Indonesia) 1510
– Francis Xavier led Jesuit missionaries to
Asia
• thousands had been converted to Christianity
in India, Indonesia, & Japan by 1550
• Dutch East India Company
– Founded 1602
– Took Ceylon & Spice Islands from Portugal
– By 1650: began challenging Spain in new
world
The Slave Trade
(asiento)
• First introduced to Brazil by
the Portugese at sugar
plantations
• Dutch West India Company
began transporting slaves to
New World after 1621
• England’s Royal African Co.
entered slave trade in late 17th
century (to Caribbean & N.
America)
• By 1800 – blacks made up
60% of Brazil’s population &
20% of the U.S. population
• 50 million Africans died or
became slaves in the 17th &
18th centuries
The Columbian
Exchange
• Both Europe & the New World
were transformed as a result of
the exchanges between the 2
regions
– For Europeans: improved diet,
wealth, rise of global empires
– For the Amerindians: catastrophic
results
• Disease
– Between 1492 & 1600 approx.
90% of the Amerindian
population perished
– Lacked immunities to European
diseases
– Smallpox was biggest killer
– Syphilis most significant disease
transmitted to Europeans
More
Exchanging…
• Diet
– For Europeans, a revolution in diet due
to the importation of new plants
• The potato – most important new staple
crop
• Also, maize (corn), pineapples, tomatoes,
tobacco, beans, vanilla, & chocolate
– Plants: Wheat, sugar, rice, coffee to
New World
– Livestock: cows, pigs, goats, sheep,
chickens brought to New World
• Prior to the Europeans, Amerindians had no
domestic animals larger than the llama
(thus scarce protein)
• Turkey most important meat source from
New World to Europe
• Animals – Europeans introduced the
horse to Amerindians
A Commercial
Revolution
• Population growth = more
consumers of goods
– 70 million in 1500
– 90 million in 1600
• “Price revolution” = long slow
upward trend in prices
– Increased pop., increased food
prices, increase volume of
money, influx of gold & silver
• Rise of capitalism
– Entrepreneurs invested money
in business
– Bourgeoisie at the forefront
More
Commercial
revolution
• Chartered companies
– State provided monopolies
– e.g. British East India Co. & Dutch East
India Co.
• Joint-stock companies
– Investors pooled resources for a
common purpose
• Early example of modern capitalism
– Stock markets emerge
• Investors finance a company by purchasing
shares of stock
• Investors profit as the value of the company
grows.
• Mercantilism
– Goal: nations seek a self-sufficient
economy
– How: create a favorable balance of
trade (export more than import)
– “bullionism”: a country should acquire
as much gold & silver as possible
16th
Significance of
cent. economics
• Enabled more powerful
governments
– wealth can be taxed
• Inflation stimulated production
– Producers can get more $ for their
goods
• Bourgeoisie got wealthy from
trading & manufacturing (social &
pol. status increases)
• peasant farmers benefitted
– Surplus crops could be sold
• Nobility suffered (fixed income)
• Bourgeoisie grew in pol. & econ.
significance