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Transcript
THE WEST AND THE WORLD
The effects of Columbus’ Voyages
European Empires in America
 Distinctive
because they
conquered territories
located an ocean away
 From the voyages of
Columbus to the mid-18th
century, Europeans
extended empires to
encompass most of the
Americas
The European Advantage



Geography
Countries on the Atlantic rim (Portugal, Spain,
France, and Britain) were closer than Asian
competitors
Used the fixed winds in the Atlantic which blew in
same direction
Need to Expand


Population recovered from plague and needed
more grain, sugar, meat, fish etc.
“Europe needed a large land base to support the
expansion of its own economy.”
 Chinese
and Indian merchants were prosperous in the
Indian Ocean trade so their wasn’t any incentive to go
beyond
Inferior position in Eurasian Commerce

Europeans were aware of their inferior position in
Eurasian commerce
 Muslim

world controlled the Spice Trade
They want to catch up
Rivalry

Intense rivalry drove rulers to compete
Wealth and Status

Colonies were an opportunity for impoverished
nobles and commoners
Religion

Crusading zeal
 “We
came here to serve God and the King, and also to
get rich.
 Spanish

conquistador
Persecuted minorities looking for freedom
European states mobilized resources


Seafaring technology
Iron, gunpowder weapons, and horses
Rivalries within the Americas



Divisions within and
between societies
provided the Europeans
with allies
Ex. Aztec Empire and
Dona Marina
Ex. Violent dispute for the
Incan throne between
Atahualpa and Huascar
Meeting of Montezuma and Cortes with Dona
Marina
Germs and Disease


Native Americans had
no immunities
Ex. Europeans
outnumbered natives in
Caribbean, Virginia,
and New England
within a few decades




Vermeer’s Geographer
A moment in time
Look for objects from
the Age of Discovery
Conveys the
excitement of scholarly
inquiry and discovery
Vermeer’s Astronomer

Look for objects for
the study of astronomy
Who led the way in Exploration?


Portugal
Prince Henry the Navigator



Bartolomeo Dias


Founded navigational school
Explore the West Coast of Africa
1st to round tip of Africa
Vasco Da Gama


1st to find route to India around
Africa
Leads to 27,000 mile route
Christopher Columbus


Believed Earth was smaller

Estimated Japan approximately 2,500 miles west of
Canaries (actually 10,000 miles)

Thought sailing west would be profitable
Portuguese kings do not fund proposed westward trip


Fernando and Isabel of Spain underwrite voyage


Dias had already found the route
Sailed south to Canary Islands, picked up supplies
and turned west
Discovers Bahamas and Cuba

Called the natives, Tainos, “Indians”

Insisted after 3rd voyage to South America that it was
part of Asia
Wind Patterns in the World’s Oceans

How crucial
was an
understanding
of the world’s
wind patterns
to the success
of European
overseas
expansion?
Amerigo Vespucci


Italian explorer,
financier, navigator, and
cartographer who
explored the coast of
Brazil
The 1st to demonstrate
that Brazil and West
Indies were a separate
landmass from Asia
Circumnavigation of the Globe



Magellan
Sailed for Spain
Sails through Strait of Magellan, tip of South America




Crew assailed by scurvy





Sailed for 4 months before new provisions
Ate worm-ridden biscuits, leather softened in the ocean,
water that had gone foul
Ate rats, ox hides dragged through the sea for 5 days,
No fruit/veggies
Rotting of gums, loss of teeth, abscesses, hemorrhaging,
death
29 died from it
Magellan and 29 crew members killed in local dispute
in the Philippines
Of his 5 ships and 280 men, 18 crew members return
Establishment of the Trading-Post Empires






Portugal is the 1st to establish one in W. Africa and
E.Asia
Afonso d’Alboquerque was the architect of trade duties
policy
Seized ports by force in Indian Ocean
Forced merchant ships to buy safe-conduct passes
Ships w/out passes were subject to confiscation and
violators punished by
Portuguese control declines in 16th century


Although heavily armed, never had enough vessels to
enforce orders
England, Netherlands became most prominent in
Indian Ocean trade
Afonso d’Alboquerque
Dutch and English

Dutch and English were more important to spice trade in 17th c.

1.
2.
Displace Portuguese by force as well as compete w/ each other
Sailed faster, cheaper, and more powerful ships
Conducted trade with joint-stock companies

Why is this an advantage?

The Dutch in 16th century

Highly commercialized and urbanized

Business and maritime shipping operations were envy of Europe

Sought to control spice trade but also the production of cloves,
cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace


Control spice-producing islands, forcing the people to only sell to them
Brutality over “nutmeg”

Banda Islands of Indonesia

Originally the only place nutmeg grew

Used not only as spice, but as fragrance to get rid of smells


EX. 17th c. plagues
Dutch kill, enslave, or starve the population of 15,000 and replace them
w/Dutch planters and slave labor


Workers are harvesting
mace, a spice derived
from nutmeg trees that are
indigenous to the Banda
Islands of Indonesia.
Until the 19th c., these
islands were the world's
only source of this
valuable spice.
The Columbian Exchange


Named for Christopher
Columbus
Global diffusion:





Plants and crops
Animals
Human populations
Disease pathogens
Permanently alters human
geography, natural
environment
Tobacco was long used for religious and spiritual
purposes in the Americas. After their arrival in the
Americas, Europeans quickly popularized tobacco as a
trade item and as a recreational drug to be smoked,
snuffed, or chewed.
Columbian Exchange

* Squash
* Turkey
* Cocoa
* Peanut
* Avocado
* Pumpkin
* Pineapple
* Tomato
* Peppers
* Tobacco
* Cassava
* Vanilla
* Sweet Potatoes
* Quinine
* POTATO
* MAIZE
* Syphilis
* Olive
* Coffee Beans * Banana
* Onion
* Turnip
* Honeybee
* Grape
* Peach
* Sugar Cane
* Citrus Fruits * Pear
* Wheat
* Cattle
* Sheep
* Pig
* Flu
* Typhus
* Measles
* Diptheria
* Whooping Cough
* Rice
* Barley
* Oats
* HORSE
* Smallpox
* Malaria
World Population Growth, 1500-1800 CE
900
800
700
600
500
Millions
400
300
200
100
0
1500
1600
1700
1800
Epidemic Disease and Population Decline

Smallpox



Also measles, diphtheria,
whooping cough, influenza
No prior exposure, no immunity
to these diseases in western
hemisphere or Oceania
Ex.


1519 smallpox in Aztec Empire
Population declines 90% within
100 years (17 million to 1.3
million)
Human Population Migrations


Largest forced
migration in history:
Atlantic Slave Trade
European Pioneers