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Acceleration of Global Contact
The Age of Exploration
1405-1700s
Indian Ocean Background
• Southeast Asia:
– Sparsely populated compared to Europe,
India, China
– Rice cultivation and reproductive role gave
women power and economic access.
• Husbands family paid “bride wealth” which wife
•
•
controlled throughout marriage.
Married couples lived in wife’s village
Divorce resulted in equal division of property and
children.
Early Exploration
•
Zheng He (1370s1453)--China
–
Seven trade
voyages into and
around the Indian
Ocean (Africa, SE
Asia, Korea, India…)
Early Exploration
•
Eric the Red and
Leif Ericson--Viking
–
–
Greenland, Iceland,
Ireland.
First Europeans to
reach North America
European Exploration
• Factors in European Exploration
– Centralized Governments
• Rise of the Monarchs--Ferdinand and Isabella
– Technology
• Cannon, Shipbuilding, Magnetic Compass, Map
Making
European Motivations
• Religious Conversion
– Desire to Christianize page
world at large
•
Government Sponsorship
•
Spice Trade
–
• Rise of the Aristocracy
– European nobles are
hording wealth and land in
Europe
– Foreign opportunity for
success, wealth, and status
•
New routs needed as
traditional land routs
ended.
Profit, Profit, Profit
–
“I have come to win gold,
not plow the fields like a
peasant.” H. Cortes.
Christopher Columbus
• The Problem of
Christopher
Columbus
– What kind of man was
he?
– What were his goals
– What did he make of
his Discovery?
Columbian Exchange
• Biological exchange
– Diseases: Small pox,
measles, diphtheria,
whooping cough,
enfluenza killed as
many as 90% of
central Mexico
– By 1530: small pox
spread from Mexico to
Great Lakes region
• Food, Crops, and Animals
– Wheat, vines, cattle, horses,
pigs, sheep goats, and
chickens to Americas.
– Maize, potatoes, beans,
tomatoes, peppers, peanuts,
papayas, avocadoes to Europe,
Africa, Asia.
• Eurasian population growth
from 425 million in 1500AD
to 610 million in 1700.
Conquest of Aztec Mexico
• Hernado Cortez landed in
Veracruz 1519
• Captured Montezumma
II, Aztec Emperor; took
control of much of Aztec
Mexico
How did 600 Spanish Conquer
the Aztec empire?
• Timing
– Spanish arrived in
Harvest Season
– Spanish appeared to
be part of religious
mythology
• Spanish recruitment
– enemies of the Aztec
empire
• Montezuma welcomed
•
Cortes
Warfare, Technology, and
Disease
– Aztec ceremonial warfare
– Cannons, muskets, steel
swords, crossbows.
– Small pox: Mexico pop.
Decline from 17 million to
1.3 million (90%) after 1519.