Age of Exploration and Colonization

Motives in the Age of Exploration

• Attracted to East for silks and spices• Difficult to trade with Islamic empires• Desire for wealth and adventure• religious zeal- save souls• Summary

• Gold, Glory and God

Improvements in Navigation

• Better maps, follow coasts at first, used compass

• better ships- square sails and new hull design, heavy enough to carry cannon

• use of astrolabe- magnetic compass sail by stars

New TechnologyThe compass The astrolabe

Portuguese Explorers• Prince Henry- first school to train

navigators• Diaz- made it to Cape of Good

Hope- 1488• Vasco de Gama- went in search of

Christians and spices- arrived in India

• 1510 Portuguese flags in Goa, India and Macao, China

The Spanish

• Believed a short cut could be found by sailing west

• Columbus- (Genoan) went west 1492• arrived in Caribbean thought it was the

Indies thus the west Indies- • Magellan- around the world

Pattern of Contact• Begin by trading

• Armed conflict- Europeans had cannons• set up trading partners- some stay to

protect partners and Europeans• made alliances with local leaders

• developed mercantilism- material from colony- buy finished products from Europe.

Slave Trade• Portuguese- trade with Africa- To Portugal as

servants then to Brazil to work on plantations• Africans less susceptible to European diseases

than Native Americans• death rate was high 13-30% just on the trip• African middlemen active- depopulated entire

areas of Africa- food from America helped increase birthrate

Spice Trade-East Indies• Very important to Europeans- made

food taste better• Led to increased desire to trade with

Asia• VERY profitable!

Impact on World by European Contact• Purpose of colonies was to serve the

homeland -slaves, furs, cotton, fish, spices, tobacco, gold /silver. Colonies improved the lives of Europeans greatly.

• In the Americas • Disease was devastating. Measles,

influenza, smallpox• Violence common

The World Dominated by Europe (cont)• Africa- completely dominated by Europe-

only one independent country- Ethiopia• Southeast Asia- French in Vietnam, British

in Burma, Spanish in Philippines, Dutch in Indonesia

• India- French and British compete- British win

• South America- Spanish dominated: Others joined ( French, Dutch, British, and Portuguese) too