Free Response

Think about space exploration or going to the moon. List all the things (or, resources) that a country needs in order to explore space.

The European Age of Exploration

Phase I: Exploration and Trade(with a bit of violence for good measure)

LAND HO!! (But do I really

need this telescope to see

it?)

1492-1800

THE AGE OF EXPLORATION

Motives and Means• Motives

– Age of Exploration very much a productof the Renaissance (remember?)

• Importance of the individual(glory, fame)

• Interest in the natural world• Quest for knowledge

– Rise of nation-states• Can FUND voyages• National pride

– FANTASTIC STORIESbrought to Europe bytravelers (most notablyMr. Polo) piqued interest(in the “other”)

Motives and Means– Trade! (and its buddy, WEALTH!)

• Spices, silk and gold from “the East” (China(Cathay), Southeast Asia, the Indies) – muchdesired in Europe

• Silk Road trade falters after decline of Yuan(Mongols) in China

• Constantinople had been a link with the east,but it falls to the Muslim infidels in 1453

• Italian merchants (Genoa, Venice) and Muslims then served as middlemen for European traders – CUT THEM OUT AND FIND ROUTE BY SEA!!!

Motives and Means– Religion - as Europeans encounter

non-Christian cultures, conversionbecomes important (especially forthe Spanish (“God, Gold, and Glory”)

• Means– Technology (much comes from

the Arab world!)• Improved cartography

(portolani)• Compass• Astrolabe (to determine

latitude)• Ship design (the Caravel

– new sail design, deeperhulls – longer voyages)

Exploration Begins - Portugal• Prince Henry (the Navigator) (d. 1460)

– (1420) Begins sending exploratory missions into the Atlantic and along the western coast of Afrique (into the “Green Sea of Darkness”)

– Slaves and Gold!– Europeans come to call

southern coast of West Africa the “gold coast”

AFRICA

ASIA/CHINA

EUROPE

Exploration Begins - Portugal• Prince Henry (the Navigator) (d. 1460)

– (1420) Begins sending exploratory missions into the Atlantic and along the western coast of Afrique (into the “Green Sea of Darkness”)

– Slaves and Gold!Henry’s reasons for exploration

• Europeans come to callsouthern coast of West Africa the “gold coast”

• Bartholomeu Dias – 1488– First to round southern tip

of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)– Turns back due to storms

(loser?)

Exploration Begins - Portugal• Vasco DeGama

– Reaches w. coast of India (Calicut) in 1498 (A First!) - forces treaty with ruler

– Makes stops on Africa’seastern shore (to laterPortuguese outposts)

– Takes on cargo of spices,1000%profit!

DaGama, our hero!

Exploration Begins - Portugal• By 1510, they DOMINATE the spice trade

– Fortified outposts in India prevent competition– Treaty with Spice Island rulers to purchase and

export cloves, etc.– By the 1520s, Venetians are buying pepper in Lisbon!– Mostly achieved by

violent means• Massacres, deception• The Inquisition

• No colonization– Had neither power,

people, nor desire - just creation of aTRADING EMPIRE

Exploration Begins - Spain• Not to be outdone or out-traded…

– Columbus sails with blessing (and wads of cash) from Ferdinand of Isabella of Spain

• Initially rejected byPortugal, sails westto get east

• BINGO! 1492(a day that will livein infamy?)

• Lands on Hispaniola(modern-day Haitiand DominicanRepublic)

• “I’ve found the Indies,hence, you savagesare “Indians””

I claim this land in the name of Spain, who will soon completely destroy every single last one of you!

Exploration Begins - Spain– Columbus makes 3 more trips (still thinks it’s Asia)

• Caribbean islands today are called the “West Indies”

– Balboa (1513) - FirstEuropean to see thePacific

– Magellan (1520) - Tries tocircumnavigate the globe, but...

NO! Not the face!

Pre-Columbian America• North

America– How

manydifferenttribalgroups?

– No“empires”

Pre-Columbian America• Central and South America

– Most natives members ofone of two major empires(they are ?)

Pre-Columbian America• Commonalities?

– Well-developed societies– All EXPLOITIVE (?)– Highly developed religious

beliefs

Exploration Begins - Land Grab!• Spain v. Portugal

– both lay claim to New World– Pope steps in, 1494 (both

Catholic nations)• Treaty of Tordesillas• Established “Line of

Demarcation” (west of line toSpain, east of line toPortugal) Why do they speakPortuguese in Brazil?

• Someone gets a raw deal

– Differences?• Spain wants AN EMPIRE

(and an empire they will have!)

Spanish Conquistadors• Hernan Cortes

– Conquers who?– Allied with who?

– Horses, cannon, guns, disease give Cortez the edge

– Tenochtitlan becomes Mexico City

Spanish Conquistadors• Francisco Pizarro

– Conquers who?– For what resources?

Pizarro - Hero of Spain

Pizarro - Villain of Peru

Exploration Begins - Wait For Us!• Europe scrambles to compete

– Search for Northwest Passage (to the east)• England - Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot)

– claims New England for (old) England

• France - Cartier – explores the St. Lawrence in (French) Canada

• The Dutch send Henry Hudson– 1609 - sails up Hudson River, discovers one of the

world’s greatest natural harbors next to a little piddling island, later known as Manhattan

– There is nonorthwest passage,unless you have asled dog (and awarm coat)

Hudson’s voyage

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

An Algonquin sees Hudson approach

THE AGE OF EXPLORATION

Global Trade – The Dutch (who?)

• First to compete with Portugal – 1599 – First shipment of spices from

Asia (big profit)– Outposts in southern Africa

(Capetown)– Leaders of commerce by late 1500s

– Dutch East India Co.• First successful joint stock company• Like Exxon, but with guns• Take Malacca from Portugal in 1641,

monopolize spice trade• New Amsterdam dominates NA fur trade

– Amsterdam THRIVES! (“Paris of the North” – wealth, commerce and culture)

Capetown

Trade with the Sleeping Giant• The Ultimate Prize!

– China was fixed in the European imagination as an exotic kingdom with fabulous wealth and luxury

• Hesitant to trade with Europeans– Couldn’t offer better goods– Portuguese first to be

granted privileges (minor) at Macao

– Only accepted gold (major implications for European rulers, i.e., New World)

– Protection of Chinese culture

Trade with the Sleeping Giant• Restrictive trade policies

– Reflected Chinese conception of themselves as the “Middle Kingdom” (who needs Europe?)

– British embassy (McCartney) in 1793 a failure

– Remain in place until 1800s

Ming Dynasty Porcelain

Emperor to Macartney: Yankee Go Home!

Stay tuned for The Age of Exploration: Phase II