Unit 3

Age of Exploration

Early Exploring Nations

• Why Portugal?– Strategic Location– Trade relations with Muslims– Support of Royal Family– Maritime Experience

Who was Exploring?

• Dias-Western Africa to Cape of Good Hope

• De Gama-Cape of Good Hope to India—made 6000% profit on investment—guess what happened?

• Magellan-circumnavigated the globe—was inspired by Balboa (Panama Canal)

Strategy and Colonization

• Explore African Coast

• Claim several islands

• Far East was too strong and powerful to conquer, so they settled for a few ports to colonize and trade

• Primarily headed East to trade

Spain headed West

• Why Spain?– Spain was temporarily delayed from wars with

the Islamic Moors– Portugal had head start on African Coastline,

had to have Plan B– Strategic Location– Trade Relations with Muslims– Support of Royal Family– Maritime Experience

Voyage By Columbus

• Financed by Ferdinand and Isabella

• Believed earth was a sphere, but size estimates were incorrect—not surprised world is round, but surprised by vast proximity

• 1492 West Indies, Cuba

• Never new what he really found

• Amerigo Vespucci mapped the New World

Treaty of Tordesillas

• Line of Demarcation—Brazil vs. Everything Else

• Western sides size still unclear at time of Treaty

• Line drawn by Pope

Spain and Portugal Try to Stop Northern Wave of Exploration

• Why? What was at stake?– Military Power– Immense Wealth– Religious Rivalry

• During 1500s, Spain and Portugal allowed the exploration of Northern part of North America by England and France—thought the land was useless

• By mid 1500s Northern Europeans had stolen information and shadowed ships

• Wars break out between Spanish and English—encourage piracy

British Establish colonies in 1600s

• Motivations– Gain military strength– Gain wealth

• Desire to establish permanent settlements made them different

• Exploitation of natural resources became the norm for all European powers

• Brought slaves to the new world• Established British East India Co. to manage

economic and military relations

France

• Explored and Colonized Canada

• Rich in animal furs

• Late 1600s and early 1700s controlled Mississippi Basin

Netherlands—the Dutch

• In battle for independence from Spain

• Attempted to attack Spanish and Portuguese ships to disrupt trade

• Created Dutch East India Co.

• Established colonies in Indonesia and ran pepper and spice plantations

Effects of European Exploration

• Created colonies and conquered new lands• Led to wars• Led to nationalism• Emergence of truly global economic system• Worldwide system of military competition—wars

between European powers also taking place on other continents

Positive Legacy for Europe

• Europe gained unprecedented geographical, navigational, and scientific knowledge

• Europe became extremely wealthy and powerful

• Europe no longer the smallest, weakest civilization

Moral and Ethical Legacy

• Connections to:– War– Greed– Prejudice– Religious intolerance – Slavery

• Tensions between nations still have impact on international relations

• Altered dramatically:– Environments– Populations– Economic systems– Political systems

Trade Imbalance

• China not interested in European products—just silver or regional trade

• Europeans trading silver for Chinese products• Japan prohibited foreign trade• Russians traded with central Asian nomads• Ottomans dismissed importance of European

technologies• Mughal India encouraged trade—led to British takeover• Europeans feared internal Africa—fear of Malaria in

combination with lack of navigable rivers

Columbian Exchange

Commercial Revolution

• New financing– Joint Stock Companies

• Pooling money reduces cost and risk• Encourage investors with potential for huge profit

– Huge cargoes, and piracy rampant

– Church revised bans on business practices• Lending money—usury• Charging interest

– Monarchies granted trade monopolies• Dutch East India Co.—spice islands and Indonesia• British East India Co.—India

– Fostered growth of capitalism

Mercantilism

• Why?– Countries sought trade– Export more than import—trade deficit implied weakness– To have surplus, someone else had to have deficit—colonies – Colonies sent resources to mother country– Colonies bought only from mother country– Colonies only used mother country’s ships– Huge tariffs on trade outside of country—low tariffs on trade

within

• Colonies annoyed– Sent resources away– Not free to buy cheapest or best product– Added taxes

Social Diversification

• Growing importance of non-agricultural ways to earn money—growing middle class– Banking– Commerce – Trade – Shipping– Shop keeping– Artisanry– Craftsmanship

• Wealth now being based on industries around money and NOT land

Extraction of Precious Metals—Especially Silver

• Affected economies around the world

• Glut of precious metals

• Severe inflation

Birth and Growth of Atlantic Slave Trade

• 1400-1800 A.D.—12 million African Slaves

Chartered Companies and State Banks

• The Crown allowed charter companies

• Large banks were also chartered by the Monarchy– Facilitated lending and management of

kingdoms economy– Lent money to the government– Lent money and issued bank notes—

redeemable for gold/silver coins

The foundation toward Revolutions is being cemented…