Ch. 6: The Age of Exploration

1. Ch. 6: The Age of Exploration Text pgs. 186 - 204

2. I. Exploration and Expansion:A. Motives and Means • From 1500 to 1800, European energy and industry were focused outward, to exploring and conquering the wider world. The discovery movement was led by the Portuguese and Spanish, and continued by the Dutch, English and French. • As early as the thirteenth century, the exploits of Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) had infused Europeans with a desire to explore and exploit the East, especially China. • With the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, land routes to the Orient were closed, so Europeans began to search for sea routes to Asia. Marco Polo

3. I. Exploration and Expansion:A. Motives and Means • European motives for exploration have been summed up as, “God, glory, and gold.” • Religious zeal encouraged explorers to seek out non-Christian peoples all over the world in order to convert them. Catholic nations, like Spain and France, were especially active in proselytization. • A sense of adventure and the opportunity for fame and glory accompanied exploration. Conquerors like Hernan Cortes became world-famous for their exploits. • The primary motivation, in most cases, was money. Tremendous fortunes could be made from New World silver, African slaves, and South Asian spices. • The new monarchies of the fifteenth century (Spain, France and England) had the centralized governments, the wealth, and new maritime technology to pursue their global goals. Missionary Cortes

4. I. Exploration and Expansion:B. The Portuguese Trading Empire • Under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394 – 1460), Portugal was the first nation to explore the coast of Africa. In 1420, they discovered gold in Ghana. • In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. • Ten years later, Vasco da Gama sailed all the way to India. He returned with a cargo of spices and made a profit of thousands of percent. • The next wave of Portuguese ships set off armed to the teeth, intent on establishing permanent trading ports. Prince Henry da Gama

5. I. Exploration and Expansion:B. The Portuguese Trading Empire • The Portuguese aimed to eliminate all competition for the spice trade in the Indian Ocean. In 1509, an armed fleet attacked Turkish and Indian merchant ships. The following year, Admiral Alfonso de Albuquerque established a fortified trading center at Goa. • Later, Albuquerque led an expedition to Melaka on the Malay Peninsula to destroy the Arab spice trade and take over the market. • From Melaka, Portuguese traders expanded their control to the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) and to China. • The Portuguese had the ships and the guns to dominate trade, but they did not have the manpower to establish large colonies. They were eventually out-competed in southeast Asia by the Dutch, English and French. Melaka

6. I. Exploration and Expansion:Preview • Voyages to the Americas • The Voyages of Columbus • A Line of Demarcation • Race to the Americas • Pgs. 192 - 194

7. I. Exploration and Expansion:C. Voyages to the Americas • While the Portuguese used their limited resources to explore south and east around Africa, the Spanish took a decidedly different approach. • More populous and prosperous than Portugal, Spain had the resources to mount expensive expeditions of discovery and conquest. • Spain was also newly unified as a single nation and was intent on proving its power to the rest of Europe. In this frame of mind, it is easy to see why King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were willing to listen to a Genoese adventurer. The “Reconquista” of Spain Ferdinand and Isabella

8. I. Exploration and Expansion:D. The Voyages of Columbus • Educated Europeans knew that the earth was round, but there were differing theories on its actual size. • Christopher Columbus, a sailor from Genoa, believed that the earth was smaller than some said. He believed he could sail west and eventually reach China. • Columbus persuaded the monarchs of Spain to pay for an expedition westward by promising them access to Asian trade routes. In October 1492, he discovered the Caribbean islands of Hispaniola and Cuba. • On three subsequent journeys, he landed on all the major Caribbean islands and the Central American mainland. Columbus was convinced that he had made it to East Asia.

9. I. Exploration and Expansion:E. A Line of Demarcation • By the early 1490s, Portugal and Spain had laid claim to extensive sea routes. The two powers feared that conflicts would arise over colonies and trade access in the newly discovered territories. • Spain and Portugal agreed to prevent any dispute by appealing to the pope for a ruling. Pope Alexander VI (of the Spanish Borgia family) agreed to mediate, and in 1494, all parties signed the Treaty of Tordesillas. • The treaty established a line of demarcation, separating potential Spanish and Portuguese territories. The line ran through the eastern part of South America, granting Brazil to Portugal. To the west, Spain received all of North America and the majority of South America. Pope Alexander VI

10. I. Exploration and Expansion:F. Race to the Americas • The economic opportunities present in the Americas soon attracted other adventurers and explorers. • John Cabot (1450 – 1499), a Venetian, was hired by the English to explore the coast of North America in 1497-98. He laid claim to Canada. • Pedro Cabral (1467 – 1520) landed in modern-day Brazil and claimed it for Portugal. • Amerigo Vespucci (1454 – 1512), from Florence, described much of the coast of the Americas, which were named for him. • Europeans called the lands they explored the “New World,” though it was certainly not new to the millions of Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years.

11. I. Exploration and Expansion:Preview • The Spanish Empire • Economic Impact and Competition • Pgs. 194 - 195

12. I. Exploration and Expansion:G. The Spanish Empire • The Spanish conquistadors were remarkably successful in the New World. They used a combination of military technology, determined leadership, and European disease to conquer the western part of Latin America. • Hernan Cortes defeated the mighty Aztec empire and captured northern Mexico in three years. Francisco Pizarro overthrew the Inca by 1550. By 1580, Spain controlled all of Central and South America except Brazil. • As early as 1535, Spain had a system of government in place for its New World colonies. Native Americans (called “indios”) were subjects of the Empire. Spanish landowners were granted encomienda, the right to use Native Americans for forced labor. Conquistador “Comenderos”

13. I. Exploration and Expansion:G. The Spanish Empire • Spanish settlers were expected to look after native workers, but there were very few government representatives to ensure good treatment. Landowners used the natives like slaves in silver mines and sugar cane plantations. • Backbreaking labor and poor diet added to the terrible death toll caused by disease. Smallpox, measles and typhus had killed 98% of the native population of Hispaniola in under 50 years. The population of Mexico dropped by 96% by 1630. • Spanish settlers had also brought along priests and missionaries. They baptized many of the natives and enforced Christian religion and culture. Native society was effectively destroyed and replaced. South American mine Missionary in California

14. I. Exploration and Expansion:H. Economic Impact and Competition • Spain’s colonies had a direct effect on the home country’s economy. They had come to the new world in search of mineral wealth, and in Mexico and Peru, they found huge silver deposits. New World silver would make Spain the richest nation in the world in the late sixteenth century. • Spanish colonists operated plantations and ranches in Latin America. In addition to European crops and livestock, they grew native plants for export, including corn, potatoes, cocoa and tobacco. These products generated further wealth when sold in European markets. • Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia also affected European markets. They became the primary source for spices, gems, and silk, replacing the Italian merchant companies. Atocha treasure New World crops Thai Emeralds

15. I. Exploration and ExpansionII. Africa in an Age of Transition:Preview • New Rivals Enter the Scene • Trade, Colonies, and Mercantilism • The Slave Trade • Growth of the Slave Trade • Pgs. 195 - 198

16. I. Exploration and Expansion:Homework • Answer each question in a half-page response with complete sentences. Be accurate, be specific, be complete. Due tomorrow. • 1. Explain the phrase, “God, glory and gold.” (Pgs. 189 – 191) • 2. What was the impact of Spanish settlement on the Native Americans? (Pg. 194) • 3. Read the “Science, Technology & Society” box on pg. 191. What one technological advance was the most important? Why?

17. I. Exploration and Expansion:I. New Rivals Enter the Scene • Beginning in the mid-1500s, other nations entered the colonialism game. The Spanish were established in the Philippines, where they competed with the Portuguese for southeast Asian markets. • The Dutch founded a colony in India in 1595, and later created the East India Company, which dominated trade in the Spice Islands. They also founded colonies in the Hudson River area of what is now New York State. • England set up colonies in northwest India. They also explored coastal North America, eventually taking over New York and Caribbean islands from the Dutch in the 1660s. • French entrepreneurs explored eastern Canada and much of the Mississippi River valley. They also competed for trade in India and the Caribbean. British French Spanish

18. I. Exploration and Expansion:J. Trade, Colonies and Mercantilism • European nations competed with one another to establish colonies in the sixteenth century as part of the Commercial Revolution. • The theory of mercantilism, popular in Europe at the time, said that the wealth of a nation was measured by its supply of gold and silver (called bullion). To bring in more bullion, a nation should have a favorable balance of trade, meaning that it exports more valuable products than it imports. • Colonies were important to a mercantilist economy because they provided cheap raw materials and markets for expensive manufactured goods, thus creating a favorable balance. • Nations also stimulated trade by subsidizing new industries, building new transport systems, and taxing foreign imports (called tariffs). U.S. balance of trade, 1970 - 2002

19. I. Exploration and Expansion:J. Trade, Colonies and Mercantilism

20. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:A. The Slave Trade • Slavery was not new in the 1400s. African cultures had taken slaves from one another for centuries. Some slaves had been sold, mostly in southwest Asia, where they were usually used as servants. Slavery as practiced by Europeans changed dramatically with the discovery of the New World. • The coast of Brazil and the islands of the Caribbean have the ideal climate for growing sugarcane, and huge plantations were established. Sugarcane requires lots of back-breaking labor, and the Native American population had been decimated by disease. • Plantation owners began transporting slaves from the west coast of Africa to work on the sugar plantations as early as 1518.

21. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:B. Growth of the Slave Trade • The slave trade soon became an integral part of mercantilism. In what is known as the triangular trade, manufactured goods from Europe were taken to Africa and exchanged for slaves. The slaves were transported to the Caribbean and North America and sold. The profits were used to buy raw materials like lumber and molasses, which were taken back to Europe and sold at a profit. • As the slave-based economy of the American colonies became more profitable, the demand for Africans skyrocketed. An estimated 275,000 slaves were transported in the sixteenth century, more than a million in the seventeenth century, and six million in the eighteenth. By 1888, a total of ten million people had been taken from west, central and east Africa. French slaver Slaver routes

22. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:B. Growth of the Slave Trade • One reason for the rapid rise in the number of imported slaves was the high death rate. • Africans were packed by the hundreds into tiny, unventilated slave ships. They spent almost the entire sea journey chained to wooden platforms. Human waste collected on the floor. Food was limited, to save space and money. Thousands died before they reached the Americas. This was known as the middle passage. • Slaves taken directly from Africa had no natural immunity to European or American diseases, which killed thousands more. Slaves born in the Americas had a higher survival rate, but slave owners usually felt it was cheaper to import adult slaves than to raise slave children to working age. Slave ship Sugar plantation

23. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:Preview • Sources of Slaves • Effects of the Slave Trade • Political and Social Structures • Pgs. 198 - 199

24. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:C. Sources of Slaves • Prior to European involvement in the early 1500s, most African slaves were taken as prisoners of war by neighboring kings. • European traders would exchange firearms, gold and cloth for slaves along the coast of West Africa. As demand for slaves increased, African traders had to collect slaves from farther inland. • Some African rulers became worried about the damage caused by the slave trade. King Afonso of Bakongosent a letter of complaint to the king of Portugal in 1526. • European powers ignored these protests, as the slave trade had become very profitable. King Afonso

25. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:D. Effects of the Slave Trade • Increased demand for slaves led to an increase in warfare. Slave-taking kingdoms along the coast, armed with European weapons, raided inland communities more and more often. • The slave trade always had a devastating effect on the individuals who were taken, their families, and the communities that were deprived of their young people. • Some areas suffered more than others. The nation of Benin, a thriving and creative kingdom in the early 1500s, it deteriorated to the point of lawlessness and human sacrifice in less than a hundred years. Emperor Oba of Benin 18th century slave raiders

26. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:E. Political and Social Structures • Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, European involvement in Africa was limited to the slave trade. England, Portugal, the Netherlands and France set up trading posts along the West African coast to trade for slaves, ivory and other products. • Europeans did not encroach very far into the interior of the continent, with two exceptions. The English and Dutch colonized large sections of South Africa, and the Portuguese settled in Mozambique. Otherwise, the vast majority of Africa remained unexplored by whites, who called it “the dark continent.”

27. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:F. Traditional Political Systems • For the most part, African political structures remained unchanged by contact with Europeans. • Many societies were governed by kings with centralized authority. The king of Benin was a semi-divine figure with unquestioned powers. • Other cultures operated like federations, with several autonomous states linked together through lineage groups. The Ashanti civilization of the Gold Coast was structured this way. • Some areas had no political structure beyond the village elder, such as the Ibo culture. These areas saw the greatest concentration of slave-raiding activity. Oba, King of Benin Ibo village elders Ashanti king’s stool

28. II. Africa in an Age of Transition &III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:Preview • Foreign Influences • Emerging Mainland States • The Arrival of Europeans • A Shift in Power • Pgs. 200 - 203

29. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:Homework • Answer each question in a half-page response with complete sentences. Be accurate, be specific, be complete. Due tomorrow. • 1. Describe the purpose and path of the triangular trade. (Pg. 198) • 2. Describe three forms of government traditionally practiced in West Africa (Pgs. 199 – 200) • 3. Why was the death rate for African slaves so high? Why did New World slave owners still prefer slaves taken from Africa to those born in the Americas? (Pg. 198)

30. II. Africa in an Age of Transition:G. Foreign Influences • Foreign influence in Africa was largely indirect. Europeans introduced new agricultural products to the continent, which changed Africans’ diets and farming practices. • Commercial contact with Europeans encouraged African trade routes to relocate closer to the coast. This led to the rise of a powerful state in Morocco and the decline of Songhai. • While the Portuguese established some missionary stations, the spread of Christianity in Africa was very slow in the 1500s. Instead, Islam came to dominate the northern and eastern coasts. Catholic missionaries

31. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:A. Emerging Mainland States • By 1500, independent states on the Southeast Asian mainland had been forming for hundreds of years. • Siam (modern-day Thailand) extended its control far south. They came into conflict with the Burmese and were forced to relocate their capital to Bangkok. • The kingdom of Dai Viet conquered Champaand the Mekong River delta to the south, outlining the modern borders of Vietnam. • Muslim merchants had been attracted to the spice trade in the Malay Archipelago. They established themselves along the coasts, and Islam became the majority religion in the area. The Muslim state of Melaka came to dominate the spice trade and regional politics.

32. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:B. The Arrival of Europeans • Melaka was seized by the Portuguese admiral Albuquerque in 1511. The sultan was defeated and control of the Melaka Straits came into European hands. The Portuguese used this base to conquer the Molucca Islands, known to the West as the Spice Islands. • The Portuguese did not have the resources or manpower to establish large colonies in Southeast Asia. Instead, they founded coastal settlements as trading posts and provisioning stations. Admiral Albuquerque

33. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:C. A Shift in Power • The English and Dutch organized large-scale trading corporations to raise money and private armies with which to conquer the East Indies. • In the early 1600s, forces of the Dutch East India Company drove the Portuguese out of the Moluccas and established a colony there. In 1619, the Dutch built a fort at Batavia, on the island of Java. They came to control the entire island, as well as Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in a short period of time. The Dutch gradually took over all of the major spice-producing islands and ran them as vast plantations. • The English had been major players in the East Indies in the early era of the spice trade, but by the end of the 1600s, they were reduced to a single city in Sumatra. Dutch East Indies fleet Cloves

34. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:Preview • Impact on the Mainland • Religious and Political Systems • Pgs. 203 - 204

35. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:D. Impact on the Mainland • Initially, the European presence in the East Indies had little direct impact on mainland states. The Portuguese made contact and established treaties with Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and the Angkor kingdom. Later, European nations would compete for trading and missionary privileges within these states. • In 1527, a civil war split Vietnam into two states. European powers took sides in the conflict, attempting to gain economic concessions and political influence in the region. Baganmyo, Burma 17th Century map of Vietnam

36. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:D. Impact on the Mainland • Foreign influence in Vietnam and other mainland states did not last long. By the early seventeenth century, most trading enterprises had been closed. French Catholic missionaries attempted to stay, but the Vietnamese government forced them out. • The mainland of Southeast Asia was able to resist European domination for two reasons. • By the time of European exploration, Vietnam, Burma and Thailand were established monarchies with powerful, centralized governments. The Malay peninsula, by contrast, was not united or well-organized. • Whereas the Spice Islands were full of products that Europeans wanted, the mainland held very little of interest for outsiders. This made large-scale trade less profitable. King Mongkut of Siam Shwedagon Pagoda

37. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:E. Religious and Political Systems • Between 1500 and 1800, the religious make-up of Southeast Asia changed. In the islands, Islam and Christianity took hold. On the mainland, Buddhism came to dominate. In all cases, traditional forms of belief continued to structure society. • New religions and contact with the West influenced political structures in the region. Four distinct styles of kingship emerged in this era: Buddhist kingship, Javanese kingship, Muslim sultanate, and Vietnamese empire. Ayutthaya, Thailand Binondo Church, Manila Mosque at Depok, Java

38. III. Southeast Asia in the Era of the Spice Trade:E. Religious and Political Systems • Buddhist kings (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia): In the Buddhist tradition, the king is regarded as spiritually superior to everyone else. • Javanese kings (Island of Java): This form of kingship is similar to the Buddhist model, but influenced by Indian social structures. The king is semi-divine. • Islamic sultans (Malay peninsula, Indonesia): The sultan was a mortal, but tasked with defending Islam. The government was staffed by aristocrat-bureaucrats. • Vietnamese emperor (Vietnam): Based on the Chinese model and Confucianism, the mortal emperor ruled with the Mandate of Heaven. Emperor of Vietnam Sultan of Brunei