Download Age of Early European Explorations & Conquests

1450-1750
Satellite View of Europe
R
E
G
I
O
N
S
Continents by Size
(sq. km.)
Asia
44,579,000
Africa
30,065,000
North America
24,256,000
South America
17,819,000
Antarctica
13,209,000
Europe
9,938,000
Oceania (incl.
Australia)
7,687,000
Europe: A Peninsula
of Peninsulas?
OR
A Peninsula of Asia?
Europe: An Asian Peninsula?
Why exploration?
• Basic Resources and Trade
– Land, cash crops, new crops
• New trade routes to Asia
– Silk, spices, porcelain, etc.
• Expand influence of Christianity
– Missionary religion
– Franciscan and Dominican Monks
– Reconquista
A Map of the Known World,
pre- 1492
Trade Winds
Earlier Explorations
1. Islam & the Spice Trade à Malacca
2. A New Player à Europe
3. Nicolo, Maffeo, & Marco Polo, 1271
4. Expansion becomes a state
enterprise à monarchs had the
authority & the resources.
5. Better seaworthy ships.
6. Chinese Admiral Zheng He & the
Ming “Treasure Fleet”
Motives for European Exploration
1. Crusades -->by-pass intermediaries to
get to Asia.
2. Renaissance -->curiosity about other
lands and peoples.
3. Reformation-->refugees &
missionaries.
4. Monarchs seeking new sources of
revenue.
5. Technological advances.
6. Fame and fortune.
New Maritime Technologies
Better Maps
[Portulan]
Hartman Astrolabe
(1532)
Mariner’s Compass?
Sextant
New Weapons Technology
“Volta do mar”
Return through
The sea
Prince Henry, the Navigator
1394-1460
West Africa
School for Navigation, 1419
Museum of Navigation
in Lisbon
Portuguese Maritime Empire
1. Exploring the west coast of
Africa.
2. Bartolomeo Dias [P], 1487
-Cape of Good Hope
1. Vasco da Gama [P], 1498.
Calicut.
2. Admiral Alfonso de
Albuquerque [P](Goa, 1510;
Malacca, 1511).
Bartolomeu Dias- 1487
• nobleman of the
Portuguese royal
household was a
Portuguese
explorer who
sailed around the
southernmost tip
of Africa in 1488
• the first
European known
to have done so
De Gama- 1498
• a Portuguese
explorer, one of the
most successful in
the Age of Discovery
and the commander
of the first ships to
sail directly from
Europe to India.
• For a short time in
1524, he was the
Governor of
Portuguese India,
under the title of
Viceroy (GOA)
Alfonso de Albuquerque- 1510
• Portuguese nobleman, an
admiral whose military and
administrative activities as
second governor of
Portuguese India
conquered and established
the Portuguese colonial
empire in the Indian Ocean.
• He is generally considered
a world conquest military
genius, given his successful
strategy: he attempted to
close all the Indian ocean
naval passages to the
Atlantic, Red Sea, Persian
Gulf, and to the Pacific
• The Terrible, The Great, The
Caesar of the East
Christoforo Colombo [1451-1506]
Genoese mariner
Christopher Columbus
• explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in
the Republic of Genoa
• Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs
of Spain, he completed four voyages across
the Atlantic Ocean that led to general
European awareness of the American
continents in the Western Hemisphere
• Those voyages, and his efforts to establish
permanent settlements in the island of
Hispaniola, initiated the process of Spanish
colonization, which foreshadowed the
general European colonization of the "New
World".
Columbus’ Four Voyages
Christopher Columbus
(14521-1504)
•
•
•
In the context of emerging western
imperialism and economic competition
between European kingdoms seeking
wealth through the establishment of
trade routes and colonies, Columbus'
far-fetched proposal to reach the East
Indies by sailing westward received the
support of the Spanish crown, which saw
in it a promise, however remote, of gaining
the upper hand over rival powers in the
contest for the lucrative spice trade
with Asia
Instead of reaching Japan as he had
intended, Columbus landed in the
Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he
named San Salvador. Over the course of
three more voyages, Columbus visited the
Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as
the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and
Central America, claiming them for the
Spanish Empire
The Land Grab begins…
What if Columbus would
not have made it to the
“New World?”
Other Voyages of Exploration
Voyages of Exploration
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa-->Pacific
Ocean
• Fernao de Magalhaes (1480-1521)->Service of Spain
• James Cook (1728-1779)-->Polynesia
and Hawaii
• British, French, Dutch, Russians?
• Trade and Conflict would follow
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
• Spanish explorer,
governor, and
conquistador.
• Crossed the Isthmus of
Panama to the Pacific
Ocean in 1513, becoming
the first European to lead
an expedition to have seen
or reached the Pacific from
the New World
• Founded a settlement in
present-day Colombia in
1510, which was the first
permanent European
settlement on the mainland
of the Americas
Fernando de Magallanes
• Portuguese explorer
Served King Charles I of
Spain in search of a
westward route to the
"Spice Islands" (modern
Maluku Islands in
Indonesia).
• Magellan's expedition of
1519–1522 became the
first expedition to sail
from the Atlantic Ocean
into the Pacific Ocean
• the first
circumnavigation of the
EarthMagellan himself
did not complete
Ferdinand Magellan &
Circumnavigation: Early 16c
John Cabot / Giovanni
Caboto
• Italian navigator and
explorer whose 1497
discovery of parts of
North America is
commonly held to have
been the first European
encounter with the
continent of North
America since the Norse
Vikings
• Position of the Canadian
and United Kingdom
governments is that he
landed on the island of
Newfoundland
Atlantic Explorations
Looking for “El Dorado”
Sebationo Cabato
• 1525with the command of a fleet which was
to determine from astronomical observation
the precise demarcation of the Treaty of
Tordesillas and then to convey settlers to
the Moluccas
• Expedition consisted of four ships with 200
men
• Voyage might have resulted in a second
circumnavigation of the world. Upon landing
in Brazil, however, rumors of the wealth of
the Incan king caused Cabot to abandon his
charge and instead further explore the
interior of the Río de la Plata
James Cook (1728-1779)
• British explorer, navigator
and cartographer
• Made detailed maps of
Newfoundland prior to
making three voyages to the
Pacific Ocean
• First European contact
with the eastern coastline
of Australia and the
Hawaiian Islands, as well
New Zealand
• Saw action in the Seven
Years' War, and
subsequently surveyed and
mapped much of the
entrance to the Saint
Lawrence River during the
siege of Quebec
The “Columbian Exchange”

Squash

Avocado

Peppers

Sweet Potatoes

Turkey

Pumpkin

Tobacco

Quinine

Cocoa

Pineapple

Cassava

POTATO

Peanut

TOMATO

Vanilla

MAIZE

Syphilis

Trinkets

Liquor

GUNS

Olive

COFFEE BEAN

Banana

Rice

Onion

Turnip

Honeybee

Barley

Grape

Peach

SUGAR CANE

Oats

Citrus Fruits

Pear

Wheat

HORSE

Cattle

Sheep

Pigs

Smallpox

Flu

Typhus

Measles

Malaria

Diptheria

Whooping Cough
Cycle of Conquest & Colonization
Explorers
Official
European
Colony!
Treasures
from the Americas
African Trade [15c-17c]
Pre-19c European Trade with Africa
Source for
Raw
Materials
Industrial
Revolution
Markets for
Finished
Goods
European
Nationalism
Missionary
Activity
European
Motives
For Colonization
Military
& Naval
Bases
Social
Darwinism
Places to
Dump
Unwanted/
Excess Popul.
European
Racism
“White
Man’s
Burden”
Humanitarian
Reasons
Soc. & Eco.
Opportunities
European Explorers in Africa
19c  Europeans Map the Interior of Africa
What is next for Africa?
Berlin Conference->1884
1450-1750
1450-1750
R
E
G
I
O
N
S
Northern Peninsulas
Scandinavian Peninsula
Jutland Peninsula
Southern Peninsulas
Iberian
Peninsula
Crimean
Peninsula
Italian
Peninsula Balkan
Peninsula Anatolian
Peninsula
Why is
access to
water
important?
B
o
d
i
e
s
Arctic
Ocean
Atlanti
c
Ocean
Nort
h
Sea
Balti
c
Sea
o
f
Caspia
n
Sea
Bay of
Biscay
W
a
t
e
Bosporus
Strait
Strait
of
Gibralt
ar
Tyrrhenia
n
Sea
Aegean
Sea
Mediterranean Sea
Blac
k
Sea
The Mediterranean Sea:
Mare Nostrum
Strait of
Gibraltar &
the “Pillars of
Hercules”
e 2,400 miles long & 1,000 miles
Caesarea on
wide
the
e “Crossroads of 3 Continents” Israeli coast
R
i
v
e
r
s
Thames R.
Po R.
Tagus R.
Ebro R.
The Danube River
The
Danube
Where
Buda &
Pest Meet
e Flows through the 12 countries of Germany,
Austria,
Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, and
The Volga River
e The longest river in Europe --> 2,300
Why are most
of the capitals
of Europe on
major rivers?
Capitals on the Rivers (1)
London on the Thames
Paris, right bank of the
Seine
Prague on the Vltava
Budapest on the
Danube
Capitals on the Rivers (2)
Moscow on the Moscow
River
Berlin on the Spree
Rome on the Tiber
Vienna on the Danube
Answer:
They are
Europe’s lifeline!
M
o
u
t
a
i
n
s
&
Alps Mts.
P
e
a
k
s
Mt. Vesuvius ^
Mt. Olympus ^
Mt. Etna ^
Caucasus
Mts.
The Alps
e Cover most of Switzerland, Austria, and
parts of Italy and France.
The Caucasus Mountains
e The origin of the
word Caucasian.
Ural Mountains: “The Great Divide?”
e Divides the European and Asian sections of Russia.
P
l
a
i
n
s
Siberia --> Permafrost
e Average temperatures of
January
vary from 0 to -50°C, and in
July from 1 to 25°C
e A rich and
remote land.
Climate
Europe’s Natural Regions
The North European Plain
The Northern European Plain --> An
Invasion Route into Asia (& Vice Versa?)
Steppes: Europe’s Breadbasket
The Steppes
e Many changes,
yet little
changes
Many lands cleared for farming
Tundra: The Not-So-Barren Land
Below the Arctic Circle
L
a
n
d
U
s
e
Agricultural Activity
R
E
G
I
O
N
S
1450-1750