European Exploration and the New Global Age

1400s -1600s

Global Changes• Amid the 1400s in Europe, advances in technology and

trade would impact world history and change the globe forever

• These changes would usher in new global conquests, trade, and colonization (setting up colonies in far away lands) on a scale that had previously never been seen

The Rebirth Brings the Modern Age

• Europeans, which experienced the positive effects of the intellectual and economic rebirth of the late 1300s (The Renaissance), would enter an Age of Exploration driven by the desire to buy and sell the exotic goods of the East

• To lower the prices on spices and other goods from the East, new oceanic trade routes would be sought out and fought over by Europeans

• New lands would be discovered, colonies built, and new found wealth would propel a handful of European kingdoms to compete for control of large portions of the planet

Exotic Goods

• After the Crusades (1100s-1200s), Europeans, who had largely been cut off from the East, again desired access to exotic commodities (goods)

• Throughout the 1300s and early 1400s, Italian and Arabic merchants benefitted from Mediterranean trade relationships, giving wealthier Europeans steady access to the goods that enriched their lives

• Spices, perfumes, and silk raised the living standards of the well-to-do and became ingrained into their life styles

• Changes in Asia, the fall of the Byzantine Empire, and the emergence of the Ottoman Empire would change this pattern and launch a new era in human history

Cutting out the Middle Man• In 1450s, Ottoman Turks (Asian nomadic warriors) conquered

Arabic lands and the Byzantine Empire (renaming Constantinople, Istanbul)

• Change in regional power disrupted trade between Europe and Asia, increasing the prices of goods

• High prices led to alternate trade routes being searched for to reduce the number of times products changed hands (cut out the middle man)

• Routes around Africa would be discovered, and attempts to cross the Atlantic would result in the discovery of land previously unknown to Europeans at the time

• Thus, the Global Age (all continents and cultures being connected through trade and conquest) resulted from efforts to reduce the price of trade goods

Technologies and Knowledge

• Enabling this era of exploration and oceanic trading was a variety of technologies, and the general increase in education

• The invention of the printing press made books cheaper and widely read, resulting in more “worldly” awareness

• Cartographers (map makers) were creating more accurate charts and maps

• Gun powder from Asia was being mastered by Europeans, including placing large cannons on sailing ships

• Sailing ships called Caravels could carry more cargo and sail against the wind, speeding journeys and increasing profits

Explorers and Profit Seekers• The first to combine this new knowledge, technology, and desire

to increase trade profits by cutting out Ottoman merchants, were the Portuguese (people from Portugal)

• In the early 1400s, the Portuguese had been working with scientists and shipbuilders to design better ships

• By the late 1400s Portuguese explorers Bartholomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama succeeding in establishing a water route around Africa to India

• Profits from this were very high and incentivized other European kingdoms to invest in similar ventures (gamble/project)

Europeans Scramble For Their Share

• The Spanish, Dutch, English and French would all fund explorations for the purpose of controlling trade routes

• In the process these nations would discover new continents, establish colonies, and use their technological superiority to control trades ports throughout Africa and Asia

• Modern Imperialism is introduced in this era, first in Asia and Africa, then the America’s

• This new era of global interconnectivity would be the precursor for Globalization, and has it’s roots in the Columbian Exchange

Imperialism - is an action that

involves a country (usually an

empire or a kingdom) extending

its power by the taking of

territories. It may also include

the taking advantage of these

territories, an action that is

linked to colonialism

Globalization - is the increasing

interaction of people through

the growth of the international

flow of money, ideas and

culture. It is primarily an

economic process of integration

which has social and cultural

aspects as well

Imperialism in Africa and Asia

• In the 1500s the Portuguese and Dutch competed for control of trade ports in Africa and Asia

• Colonies were established in coastal areas of both continents, and in Africa Dutch farmers (Boers) laid the foundations for modern slavery by forcing local peoples into labor

• Spain joined the competition by sending Ferdinand Magellan on a voyage around the global, in the process claiming lands in South East Asia for the Spanish kingdom (Philippines = King Phillips Islands)

• Both the French and English claimed port cities and controlled lands in South East Asia, and the English would soon dominate India

Magellan

Columbus and the Conquistadors

• Shortly after the Portuguese took control over the trade routes around Africa to Asia, the Spanish would gamble upon the claims of the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus

• Columbus claimed that sailing west across the Atlantic to the riches of Asia would be faster and cheaper than going around Africa

• In 1492 his expedition would change the world when he landed on islands (1st the Bahamas and later Haiti/Dominican Republic) located in North America

• This would result in a wave of exploration to the “new world” led by Spanish Conquistadors, and later joined by the Dutch, Portuguese, French and English

Conquest of the Americas• The indigenous peoples that Columbus

encountered possessed small trinkets and jewelry made of gold – word of this was spread and a wave of Spanish came in search of this precious metal

• Spanish treatment of the natives was abusive, forcing them to labor in search of gold in back breaking conditions

• The natives were not used to labor of this kind and as a result many escaped or killed themselves in refusal to work

• Spanish brought diseases such as small pox and influenza – this combined to wipe out drastic numbers of natives, and would lead to African enslavement to fill the labor gap

The America’s Prior to European Colonization

• Native populations were the most dense, and cultures most complex, in the today’s central Mexico and Peru.

• In Mexico, the ruins of the once vast Mayan civilization were easily recognizable, not only in the remains of cities but also in their successors, such as the Aztecs – this area is called Mesoamerica.

• In South America, the Incan civilization had unified regions and peoples into an Empire that spanned much of the Andean Mt. range.

• These civilizations were complex societies with advanced knowledge and government systems, and used large scale farming to feed large populations.

Aztecs• Migrated into Central Mexico in the

1300s and expanded their culture through warfare and conquest, building a large Empire

• Local rulers paid tribute to the Aztec emperor, fostering hatred towards the Aztecs

• Complex social structure with priests at the top who appeased and honored the gods through human sacrifice – hearts cut out

• In 1521 Hernan’ Cortes led the conquests of the Aztecs by using guns, horses, and alliances with natives that disliked Aztec rule

• Diseases also wiped out the native population, clearing the path for large scale European settlement

Inca• South American people that built an empire

through conquest in the Andean mountains in modern day Peru

• Used roads to unite the empire and forced their language and culture on those that they conquered

• Never developed a writing system as they were cut off from the advanced Mesoamerican culture (Maya/Aztecs) in Mexico

• Used quipu to track information, and developed advanced medical practices such as brain surgery and anesthesia

• In 1532, Francisco Pizarro would destroy the Inca in the same manner that Cortes defeated the Aztecs = Guns, Allies, and Germs

Colonies

• Following the Spanish lead, other Europeans (Dutch, Portuguese, French, English) came in large numbers to claim land, set up colonies, and extract resources

• Competition and war would ultimately result in the English and French controlling North America, and Spanish and Portuguese control of South America

• Treatment of indigenous peoples (Native Americans) was usually bad. Many were enslaved or killed in wars, and diseases decimated their populations all over the continents

• Since the 1500’s the two continents became fully Europeanized, and much of what is common to the continents today (plants, animals, culture, people, religions, diseases) are European, African, and Asia transplants = Columbian Exchange

Mercantilism

• Colonies in the new world were used as a source of raw materials for their mother countries

• The materials would be sent home to be manufactured into goods

• The colonies would then become a market to sell the manufactured goods to

• Colonies were restricted from building industries that would compete with the mother country

• In this way, Mercantilism, enriched the mother country at the expense of the colony – often this made colonials feel like 2nd

class citizens

Mercantilism

Cash Cropping and Slavery

• A large part of the mercantile system was plantation farming (large farms worked by 100s of people) to produce cash crops (valuable crops sold for profit – cotton, tobacco, sugar)

• To fill the labor gap left by the depopulation of native Americans, Europeans engaged in the slave trade with African rulers

• Dutch settlers in Africa first used Africans in a system of forced labor – this example would be built upon to stock sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations in both North and South America

• The modern American South, the Caribbean, and Brazil become the largest recipients of African laborers from the Atlantic Slave Trade

• sugarcane plantation in South America:

The Slave Trade and Middle Passage

• To fill the plantations Africans were taken from western and eastern coastal areas and transported across the Atlantic ocean

• The process involved Europeans(purchased the Africans or traded goods for laborers) and Africans (captured Africans through raids and warfare and transported them to the coast)

• Goods such as rum, furniture, and guns were in high demand by powerful African rulers

The Slave Trade and Middle Passage

• The horrific process of transporting across the rough Atlantic seas become known as the Middle Passage

• Slaves were packed into cramped spaces, given little food, and held below deck for much of the 4-6 week journey – large numbers died in the process

• The number sent to the Americas was over 11 million in two centuries

Triangle Trade• The Slave trade made up one element of

the what is known as the Atlantic Triangle Trade routes

• This trade process resulted in the great exchange of goods, ideas, animals, plants (Columbian Exchange) between Europe, Africa, and North and South America

• It also resulted in a tremendous amount of wealth being exchanged between the New World (Americas) and the Old World (Europe) in which European nation states rose to become globally dominant

• In the centuries to come Europeans would dominant much of the globe, including nearly all of Africa, Australia, and much of Asia

Triangle Trade Routes