Download The Age of Exploration

The Age of Exploration
Motives


Europeans had remained in one area of the
world
15th C – began voyages overseas – WHY?




Asia – Long standing interest; Marco Polo (13th C);
extensive travels in China, Japan
Mongol Turks (1453) limited access to east
Looked to the sea; spices important
ECONOMIC MOTIVE – Middle East controlled –
extremely expensive; Europeans wanted this
market
Motives cont.


RELIGIOUS MOTIVE – to serve God;
covert Muslims
POLITICAL MOTIVE - New monarchies
wanted to expand.



Had grown extremely powerful and united
(SP, FR, POR, ENG)
New knowledge and technology
Gold, God, Glory!
First – Portugal (then Spain)





Prince Henry the Navigator – School for
navigators; trade opportunities and expand
Christianity
Along coast of Africa
Brought cargo of Africans; sold as slaves
(1000 per year to Portugal)
Gold, ivory, slaves; built forts along coast
Bartholomew Diaz – rounded Cape of Good
Hope
Portugal cont.





Vasco de Gama – rounded Cape and made it
to India!
Ginger and cinnamon (earned 1000% profit)
Remember commercial capitalism????
Conflicts w/Muslim shipping though
Alfonso d’Albuquerque set up port at Goa



Important geographic location
Destroyed Muslim population
Later to Malacca (Indo.) controlled whole region
Others follow….





Spanish had greater resources; headed West
Christopher Columbus – most believed world
was round, but no knowledge of size
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain financed
1492 arrived in Caribbean (Bahamas, Cuba,
Hispaniola) – called the Indies
Held belief until his death
Others cont.





John Cabot (Italian) explored N. Am. Coast
for England
Pedro Cabral (Portugal) – South America
Amerigo Vespucci (Italian)- several voyages,
wrote letters describing geography; new
name – America!
Flourishing civilizations already; NOT new
Treaty of Tordesillas – divided Americas
between Spain and Portugal; Spain got the
most
Spanish Empire





Conquistadors – motivated by glory, greed,
and religious zeal
Hernan Cortes – overthrew Aztec empire
(Mexico)
Francisco Pizarro – Inca empire of Peru
Helped by firearms, armor, diseases
Isabella granted the Spanish encomienda –
the right to use “Indians” as slave labor;
brutal treatment
Spanish Empire cont.






Bartolome de Las Casas disapproved; became
monk and fought for rights of Indians
Ravaged by smallpox, measles, typhus
30-40% died
Missionaries set up to convert Indians
Church collected taxes – sent back to Spain
Later dioceses, parishes, schools, hospitals
Impact of Exploration






Native civilizations destroyed
Social, political, economic, language systems
replaced by European ones
Greed and power (gold and silver mines)
New products from NA – sugar, dyes, cotton, vanilla,
hides, potatoes, coffee, corn, tobacco)
Columbian Exchange – Exchange of goods and ideas
from Old World & New World
Fierce rivalries & tensions
New Rivals




English and the Dutch
Dutch competed in India and N.
America (West India Company)
Settlements “New Netherlands” on
Hudson River to Albany (Manhattan,
Staten Island, Harlem, Catskills –
Dutch); didn’t last
2nd half of 17th C. England & France
New Rivals






Canada goes to France
England creates colonial empire along the
Atlantic Coast
Economic interests and desire to escape
religious persecution led thousands to NA
Jamestown, VA – 1607 First Eng. Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony (pilgrims/puritans)
To be continued in U.S. History….. 
Section 2 – African Slave
Trade





Portuguese had discovered high profits from
African slave trade
Colony at Cape of Good Hope established in
S. Africa; Boers (Dutch farmers) came
Inland Africa not as affected
Coastal countries devastated
Millions sent to plantations in New World
Slavery





Had been practiced within Africa for centuries
Primary market had been Middle East, but
also existed in Europe; most domestics
Discovery of the Americas changed things
drastically
Sugar plantations of Caribbean needed
human labor
Native populations had been killed or died
from disease; needed workers
Slavery cont.






First ship to NA – 1518 (Spanish ship)
Increased dramatically over the next few
years
10,000 over time brought to the Americas!
Even as Great Britain and others had tried to
stop the slave trade, it flourished
High death rate: journey itself, disease
Didn’t encourage children; cost more $; later
changed though when prices went up
Slavery cont.





In early days in Africa, slaves were prisoners
of war
Europeans bought slaves from local rulers
Increasingly turned inland; African leaders
began to protest
But generally viewed slave trade as source of
income; rulers sent raiding parties – if they
didn’t, someone else would
Self-preservation
Effects





Undermined local economies
Depopulated local areas – strongest,
young men taken
Increasing warfare to compete
Cultures, education, art, etc.
deteriorated (Benin)
Overall devastation of West Africa
African Political & Economic
Systems



Monarchy most common govt.
Some had strong central govt. where leader
was almost divine (Yoruba custom – commit
suicide when ruler died)
Some independent states, or linked by kinship
ties; EX:


Ibo – (Nigeria) independent villages linked by
convenience
Songhai – western coastline threatened by
growing Moroccan traders; war & eventually
crushed by Moroccans
Africa cont.





Sometimes Africans allied against European
operations
Gold Coast – involved heavily; profited
greatly from trade (slave trade too)
Other conflicts – Zaire, Congo, Kenya,
Tanzania
Muslim maintained stronghold in N. Africa
Some Christianity in S. Africa
Southeast Asia






Malaysia – already Muslim influence
Portugal first moves into Spice Islands
Later Dutch and English
Dutch in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Malacca,
Sumatra, Jakarta (Indonesia)
Less impact in Vietnam, Burma,
Thailand
Resisted foreign intrusion