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1400-1800
Chapter 3
AN AGE OF EXPLORATION AND ISOLATION
Christopher Columbus
Chapter Objectives
 Identify the factors that led to European exploration
 Describe how Portugal established a sea route to Asia
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and why
Identify which nations set up trading empires in the
East and where those nations dominated
Identify the successes of early Ming emperors in
China
Describe Japanese society and culture during the
Tokugawa Shogunate
Explain how Japan’s policies toward Europeans
changed
Section 1: Europeans Explore the East
 Driven by the desire for wealth, land, and Christian
converts, Europeans began an age of exploration
 The Renaissance had encouraged a new spirit of
adventure and curiosity
 1400 was not first time for exploration
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1100- Crusaders fight Muslims for Holy Lands in Southwest
Asia
1275- Marco Polo reached China
“God, Glory, and Gold!”
 Reasons for the Exploration
1. Seek greater wealth
2. Spread Christianity
3. Technological advances
 Portugal led these sailing innovations
 Prince Henry- founded navigation school with mapmakers,
instrument makers, shipbuilders, scientists, and sea captains
 Started sailing down coast of Western Africa; set up trade
ports
 Wanted to find sea route to Asia
 In order to reach Asia, had to sail around southern tip of
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Africa
1487- Bartolomeu Dias- 1st to round tip; battered by
storm so returned home
1498- Vasco da Gama- reached port of Calicut in India;
returned with spices and silk; gave Portugal direct route
to India
1492- Spanish jealous so sent Christopher Columbus
west to find a route to Asia across the Atlantic; landed on
an island in the Caribbean
Increased tension between Spain and Portugal led to
Treaty of Tordesillas and Line of Demarcation
Struggle for Dominance 1500-1700s
 England
 France
 Netherlands
 Portugal
 Spain
 Each country created an East India Company
 Wanted control of trade routes and therefore the
goods and money that came with it
Section 2: China Rejects European Outreach
 Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
 Hongwu- drove Mongols out of China in 1368
 Became 1st Emperor of Ming Dynasty
 Reformed agriculture, erased traces of Mongol past, increaed
China’s power and prosperity, increased rice production,
improved irrigation, encouraged fish farming and the growth
of cotton and sugar cane
 Return to Confucian moral standards; merit-based civil service
 Yonglo- 1398- Hongwu’s son came to power; moved royal
court to Beijing and launched Chinese explorers
 Zheng He- led Chinese explorations
 Voyaged to Southeast Asia and India, Arabia, and eastern
Africa
 Increased China’s tribute system
 1433- China withdrew to isolation
 China’s official trade policies reflected isolation
 Only government could conduct foreign trade through 3 ports
 Kept taxes low on agriculture but high on manufacturing and
trade
 As a result, merchants turned to smuggling to keep
up with demand for Chinese silk and porcelain
 Qing Dynasty 1644
 Manchus from Manchuria invaded China; took over Beijing
 Kangxi- 1661-1736 1st Emperor; reduced gov’t expenses;
lowered taxes; favored arts and intellectuals
 Qian-long- 1736-1795; brought China to it’s greatest size and
prosperity; allowed Dutch traders but they had to pay tribute;
Dutch took tea to the rest of the world
 Population doubled to more than 300 million in 1800
Section 3: Japan limits Western Contacts
 In 1300s, the unity that Japan had achieved started
to slip away because of fighting between shoguns
 1467- civil war broke out and centralized rule ended;
power slipped away from the shogun to territorial
lords in hundreds of separate domains
 1600- Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated rivals and became
sole ruler
 Unified Japan until 1867
Tokugawa Society
 Led to stability, prosperity, and isolation
 Merchant classes flourished; rise of commercial
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centers
Culture also flourished- theatre (kabuki), poetry
(haiku)
At first, welcomed outside merchants (Portuguese);
interest in new technology and ideas (guns, clocks,
tobacco)
Firearms (guns, cannons) changed Japan forever;
had always used swords
Christian missionaries= spread the religions
Closing off the Country
 Tokugawa Ieyasu found aspects of Christian religion
troubling- thought it led to revolts; persecuted
Christian converts and made everyone demonstrate
faithfulness to Buddhism
 1639- closed Japan’s borders from merchants and
missionaries
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Exception- Nagasaki open to Dutch and Chinese merchants
 For more than 200 years, Japan remained basically
closed to Europeans and continued to develop as a
self-sufficient country