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Ch. 15 – The Maritime Revolution, to 1550
I. Global Maritime Expansion Before 1450
A. The Pacific Ocean
1. Over several thousand years, peoples from the Malay Peninsula crossed the water to settle the islands of the
East Indies, New Guinea, the Melanesian & Polynesian islands, New Zealand and as far out as Hawaii.
2. Polynesian expansion was the result of planned voyages undertaken with the intention of establishing colonies.
B. The Indian Ocean
1. Sailing in the Indian Ocean was less difficult and dangerous than in other places because the monsoon winds are
predictable.
2. Malayo-Indonesians colonized the island of Madagascar in a series of voyages that continued through the 15 th
century.
3. Arab seafarers used the regular pattern of the monsoon winds to establish trade routes in the Indian Ocean.
Because Muslim traders shared a common ethic, language, and law they formed networks that tied the region
together. Muslim cities in the Middle East provided a demand for commodities and the traders actively spread
their religion to distant trading cities.
4. The Chinese Ming Dynasty sponsored a series of voyages to the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433. The
Ming voyages of Zheng He were carried out on a grand scale, involving fleets of over 60 large treasure ships.
5. The treasure ships carried out trade in luxury goods as well as stimulating trade with various African & Asian
states. The voyages were not profitable & inspired opposition in court ending them in 1433.
C. The Atlantic Ocean
1.
The greatest mariners of the Atlantic in the Early Middle Ages were the Vikings. During the relatively warm
centuries of the early Middle Ages, the Vikings explored and settled Iceland, Greenland & Newfoundland
(Vinland). When a colder climate returned after 1200, the more northern settlements & Newfoundland were
abandoned.
2.
Genoese & Portuguese explorers settled the Madeiras, the Azores, and the Canary Islands in the 14 th century.
3.
In the Americas, the Arawak & the Carib colonized the Antilles islands.
II.
European Expansion, 1400—1550
A. Motives for Exploration
3. Spain and Portugal began a maritime revolution that profoundly altered the course of world history.
4. The Iberian kingdoms sponsored voyages of exploration for a number of reasons including economic, political,
religious, and intellectual.
D. Portuguese Voyages
1. The Portuguese gained more knowledge of the sources of gold and slaves south of the Sahara when their forces,
led by Prince Henry, captured the North African caravan city of Ceuta. An early motivation for Portuguese
maritime exploration was to gain access to the sub-Saharan gold trade. The first financial return from the
Portuguese voyages came from the slave trade.
2. Prince Henry was known as Henry the Navigator because he devoted his life to promoting exploration. He
established a research institute that, among other things, developed a new vessel, the caravel. Its small size,
shallow draft, combination of square and lateen sails, and cannon made it well suited for the task of exploration.
3. The first Portuguese explorer to reach the southern tip of Africa and view the Indian Ocean was Bartolomeu
Diaz in 1488 and in 1498 Vasco da Gama rounded the tip of Africa and established contact with India.
4. In 1500, Portuguese mariners discovered the east coast of South America while attempting to find a favorable
wind around Africa.
E. Spanish Voyages
1. When Christopher Columbus approached the Spanish crown with his project of finding a new route to Asia, the
Portuguese had already established their route to the Indian Ocean.
2. After three voyages, Columbus insisted that he had reached the Indian Ocean and had found Asia, but other
Europeans realized he had discovered entirely new lands. The new discoveries led the Spanish and Portuguese
to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which they divided the world between them along a line drawn down the
center of the North Atlantic.
3.
Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage across the Pacific established Spanish claims to the Philippines.
Circumnavigated.
III.
Encounters with Europe, 1450—1550
A.
Western Africa
1. During the fifteenth century, many Africans welcomed the Portuguese and profited from trade, in which they
often held the upper hand. In return for their gold, Africans received from the Portuguese merchants a variety
of goods, including firearms.
2. The kingdom of Benin initially exported a number of goods, including slaves, but after 1538 they limited
contact with the Portuguese.
3. The Kingdom of Kongo had fewer goods to export & consequently relied more on the slave trade.
F. Eastern Africa
5. In Eastern Africa, some Muslim states were suspicious of the Portuguese, while others welcomed the
Portuguese as allies in their struggles against their neighbors.
6. Christian Ethiopia sought and gained Portuguese support in its war against the Muslim forces of Adal
G. Indian Ocean States
1. When Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut in 1498, he made a poor impression with his simple gifts.
Nonetheless, The Portuguese gained control of the eastern Indian Ocean through conquest.
2. To assert their control, the Portuguese bombarded the Swahili city-states in 1505, captured the Indian port of
Goa in 1510, and took Hormuz in 1515. Extending their reach eastward, Portuguese forces captured Malacca in
1511 and set up a trading post at Macao in southern China in 1557.
3. The Portuguese never gained complete control of the Indian Ocean trade, but they did dominate it enough to
bring themselves considerable profit.
H. The Americas
1. The most profitable and most complete colonization by Europe was in the Americas
2. The difference between the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire was that the Spanish were territorial,
while the Portuguese had a trading empire. The Spanish pattern was an extension of Spanish actions against
Muslims in previous centuries; defeating non-Christians and putting them and their land under Christian
control.
3. The first Amerindians to come in contact with the Spanish were the Arawaks. Spanish wars killed tens of
thousands of Arawak and undermined their economy.
4. On the mainland, Hernan Cortes relied on native allies, cavalry charges, steel swords, cannon, and smallpox to
defeat the forces of the Aztec Empire. Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire followed the same
pattern.