Chapter 15
The Maritime Revolution,
to 1550
AP World History
I. Global Maritime Expansion
Before 1450
A. The Pacific Ocean
• People from the Malay Peninsula crossed the
water to settle the islands of the East Indies, New
Guinea, the Melanesian and Polynesian islands,
the Marquesas, New Zealand, and other Pacific
islands out to Hawaii.
• Voyages were planned with the intention of
establishing colonies.
• Navigated by stars and by observations of ocean
currents and evidence of land.
Malay explorers were the first to explore the islands of the
Pacific, which is the largest of the Earth’s oceanic divisions.
(64.1 million square miles)
Depiction of Malay mariners’ sailing canoes.
A platform connected two canoes to make more
room for the mariners and supplies.
B. The Indian Ocean
• Arab seafarers used the regular pattern of the
monsoon winds to establish trade routes.
• Chinese Ming Dynasty sponsored voyages and
were involved in a grand scale with fleets of over
sixty treasure ships and hundreds of support
vessels.
• They carried out trade in luxury goods including
silk and precious metals as well as stimulating
diplomatic relations with various African and Asian
states.
Indian Ocean maritime system.
Ming China exploration routes.
Superior sail, hull, and rudder technology made
Chinese junks the most seaworthy vessel of their time.
They sailed from India to southeast Asia on monsoon winds.
C. The Atlantic Ocean
• The Vikings guided by stars and the seas explored
Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland.
• Voyagers from Genoa and Mali attempted to
explore the Atlantic, but were never heard from
again.
• Genoese and Portuguese explorers discovered
and settled the Madeiras, Azores, and the
Canaries.
• The Arawak from South America colonized the
Lesser and Greater Antilles and the Carib followed.
Viking areas of exploration from Scandinavia to Newfoundland,
the Mediterranean, Caspian and Black Seas.
Vikings had slender, flexible boats, with symmetrical ends
and overlapping planks riveted together. They were able
to navigate the rough seas of the North Atlantic as well as
rivers that other navy's ships could not negotiate.
II.
European Expansion,
1400 - 1550
A. Motives for Exploration
• The Iberian kingdoms sponsored voyages for the
following reasons; leaders, revival trade, struggle
with Islam, curiosity, and alliances between rulers
and merchants.
• The city states of Italy had no incentive to explore
Atlantic trade routes because they had a monopoly
on access to Asian goods.
• The Iberian kingdoms had a history of warfare with
the Muslims, but they had no share of
Mediterranean Sea trade.
• They had advanced shipbuilding and cannon
technology and were open to new geographical
knowledge and had exceptional leaders.
Both the Spanish and Portuguese had a strong economic,
religious, and political motives to explore. Improvements in
maritime and military technology allowed them to master
unknown bodies of water.
The various kingdoms within the Iberian peninsula. In 1492, the
fall of Granada was the final Muslim stronghold that enabled the
unification of the Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms.
Before the age of European maritime exploration,
Europeans limited their voyages to the coastal areas
in and around the Mediterranean.
B. Portuguese Voyages
• Prince Henry conquered Cueta then sponsored a
research and navigation institute at Sangres to
collect information about and send expeditions to
the African lands south of North Africa.
• At Sangres the staff studied and improved the
compass and the astrolabe, and designed the
caravel.
• Portuguese explorers learned to pick up prevailing
western winds that would blow them back to
Portugal.
• Voyages were initially financed by income from the
properties held by Prince Henry’s Order of Christ
• The voyages began to produce a financial return
from the slave trade and then the gold trade.
• Fernao Gomes sent expeditions that discovered
and developed the island of Sao Tome,
• Bartolomeu Dias reached the tip of Africa, but
Vasco da Gama rounded the tip of Africa and
established contact with India, thus laying the
basis for Portugal’s maritime trading empire.
Henry the Navigator was a Portuguese prince and not a sailor
himself. He sponsored a staff at Sangres to study and improve
the compass, the astrolabe, and design the caravel.
Initial area of Portuguese exploration of the islands off
North Africa under Henry the Navigator.
Henry the Navigator’s school for navigators and map-makers at
Sangres located in southwest Portugal (1416).
A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable fighting ship
with lateen sails that gave her speed and the capacity
for sailing into the wind.
In 1469 Fernão Gomes explored 350 miles of African coast. He
set up a trade monopoly while exploring the Gold Coast which
became the headquarters for Portugal’s West African trade.
In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias was a Portuguese explorer
and the first known European to have sailed around
the southernmost tip of Africa.
Vasco da Gama was one of the most successful
maritime explorers. In 1497 - 1498, he commanded the
first ships to sail directly from Europe to India.
Vasco da Gama’s route from Europe to India.
C. Spanish Voyages
• Christopher Columbus went to find a new route to
Asia.
• After four voyages, Columbus was still certain he
had found Asia, but other Europeans realized he
had discovered new lands.
• Led Spain and Portugal to sign the Treaty of
Tordesillas.
• Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage across the Pacific
confirmed Portugal’s claim to the Molucca Islands
and established the Spanish claim to the
Philippines.
Christopher Columbus was a Genoese mariner that led four Pacific
voyages between 1492 and 1502. Until his death, he believed he had
found a shorter route to the Indian Ocean than the Portuguese.
Replica of the Pinta.
Christopher Columbus’s routes – Yellow: 1st voyage (1492)
Santa Maria sinks, Orange: 2nd voyage (1493) 17 ships and
1,200 men to colonize, Red: 3rd voyage (1498) 6 ships but he
returns in chains, Purple: 4th voyage (1502 – 1504) sought
Malacca with 4 old ships which left him stranded for a year.
The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas divided the world between
Portugal and Spain which was half way between Cape Verde
and the Islands discovered by Columbus.
Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition of 1519 - 1522 was the first to
sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific and was also the first
circumnavigation of the Earth. Magellan himself was killed in the
Philippines and of the 237 men who set out on the five ships,
only 18 completed the circumnavigation.
The route of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition (1519 - 1522)
III. Encounters with Europe,
1450-1550
A. Western Africa
• In return for gold Africans received firearms and a
variety of Asian, African, and European goods.
• The Oba of the powerful kingdom of Benin
established a royal monopoly on trade with the
Portuguese and showed a mild interest in
Christianity.
• The kingdom of Kongo had fewer goods to export
and relied more on the slave trade.
In 1485, Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to reach Benin.
A strong mercantile relationship developed; they traded tropical products
such as ivory, peppers and palm oil for manila and guns.
Benin Oba Ivory mask.
Congo, lacking ivory and pepper, sold more slaves which led to
a black market. After 1540, the major part of the slave trade
from this part of Africa moved farther south.
B. Eastern Africa
• On the Swahili Coast, Malindi befriended the
Portuguese and was spared when the Portuguese
attacked and looted many of the other Swahili citystates in 1505.
• Christian Ethiopia sought and gained Portuguese
support in its war against the Muslim forces of Adal.
• The Muslims were defeated, but a long term alliance
fell through because Ethiopia refused to transfer their
religious loyalty from the patriarch of Alexandria to the
Roman Pope.
In 1539, Christian Ethiopia sought and gained Portuguese
support in its war against the Muslim forces of Adal.
In 1539, a long-term alliance between Ethiopia and Portugal fell
through because Ethiopia refused to transfer their religious
loyalty from the patriarch of Alexandria, Jeremias I, to the
Roman Pope, Paul III.
C. Indian Ocean States
• Vasco da Gama made a poor impression, but the
Portuguese superior ships and firepower gave them the
ability to control Indian Ocean trade.
• Using their superior military technology, the Portuguese
conquered the Indian port of Goa, Hormuz, Malacca,
and Macao in southern China.
• They used these ports to collect taxes and make sure
all goods were transported on Portuguese ships.
• The Mughal emperors took no action, but the Ottomans
resisted and were able to maintain superiority in the
Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
• The Portuguese never maintained complete control of
the Indian Ocean trade, but they did dominate it
enough to bring themselves considerable profit and to
break the Italian city-states’ monopoly on pepper.
The Portuguese empire of the16th century.
The carrack was a three or four-masted sailing ship. Despite the
Portuguese never gaining complete control of the Indian Ocean
trade, their superior ships and weapons allowed them to
dominate key ports and trade routes during the 16th century.
Portugal had little impact on the Asian and African mainlands, in
sharp contrast to what was occurring in the Americas.
D. The Americas
• The Spanish built a territorial empire in the
Americas.
• The Spanish killed thousands of the Arawak,
undermined their economy, forced the rest to serve
as laborers, and took over their gold mines.
• In the Antilles the Spanish put the land under
Spanish control.
• Hernan Cortes relied on native allies, cavalry
charges, steel swords, and cannon to defeat the
Aztec Empire and capture Tenochtitlan.
– The conquest was also aided by the spread of
smallpox.
• Francisco Pizzaro used similar tactics to defeat the
Inca Empire.
The areas of the world that at one time were
territories of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires.
Hernán Cortés was a 16th century Spanish conquistador who
brought large portions of mainland Mexico under Spanish rule,
including the Aztecs and their emperor, Moctezuma II.
In 1520, an Aztec rebellion against the Conquistadors left
Moctezuma II killed and in the following year the capture of
Tenochtitlan was facilitated by the spread of smallpox.
Smallpox localizes in small blood vessels of the skin and
in the mouth and throat. In the skin, this results in a
rash and later, raised fluid-filled blisters. Some
estimates indicate fatality rates of 80 - 90% in Native
American populations during smallpox epidemics.
Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish conquistador,
conqueror of the Incan Empire and founder of Lima,
the modern-day capital of Peru.
Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadors set out to conquer the
Incas with a force of 180 men, 37 horses, and two cannons.
IV. Comparative Perspectives
A. Imperial Comparisons
• Strong centralized governments like China were
not inclined to attempt long distance exploration.
• Weaker rulers such as the Iberian monarchs left
the details of exploration to individuals such as
Columbus.
• Dominance of the Americas by Spain and Portugal
was aided by the native populations’ vulnerability
to European disease and by the superior weaponry
of Europe.
• Natives of Asia and Africa had more immunity to
European diseases from earlier contact and were
able to resist militarily.
B. Economic Comparisons
• Europeans found sophisticated markets and trade
networks in Africa and Asia.
• In contrast, Europeans needed to introduce new
technology and strong political control over
American natives to exploit their natural resources.