Age of Exploration
Scientific Advances from the
Renaissance led directly to the
advances made in Exploration at
this time.
Age of Exploration:
Technology
• Mapmaking improved during this time
– Americas not yet known
– Believed they could reach Asia by sailing West
• Navigation - just as important to Exploring as
Mapmaking
– Compass - used to give sailors their direction
– Astrolabe - used to give their position
• New Ships - no longer used oars to travel
upwind
– New sails made travel faster and easier
– Rudders - made steering easier
Exploration: Economics
• Commercial Revolution - period from 1400’s
to 1700’s
– Economy underwent massive fundamental
changes
– Joint Stock Companies - merchant band together
to form business
• Owners raise money by selling stock in company
• Investors who bought stock became part owners
• All shared in profit
– Coins produced with fixed values (standard
system of money)
– Monarchs supported exploration as a way to gain
riches and resources through discovery
Exploration: Economics
• Mercantilism - a country’s government should
do all it can to increase that country’s wealth
– Favorable balance of trade - country brings in
more gold and silver than it pays out
– Tariffs - taxes on imported goods (discourages
buying of foreign goods)
– Subsidies - grants of money to help out
businesses
– Colonies - used to bring in gold, silver and
resources to affect a favorable balance of trade
Age of Exploration: The
Americas
• Spain and Portugal are 1st to begin
exploration
• Portugal heads east around Africa
• Spain heads west
• Columbus discovers Americas (hispaniola)
• Begins the first trade (exploitation??) b/w
Europe and the Americas
Exploration: Americas
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• Columbian Exchange
– Potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and corn, introduced to Europe
– Horses introduced to Americas
– Europeans also brought diseases (smallpox, malaria, etc.)
Exploration: Americas
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• Spain and Portugal
often claimed the same
lands
• Treaty of Tordesillas Treaty to decide who
claimed what by using a
imaginary line running
north and south
– Spain claimed west of
the line
– Portugal claimed east
Exploration: Americas
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• Plantations - large
agricultural farms that
needed much labor
• As need for labor
increased so did need
for slaves
• Triangular Trade
– Goods and Weapons to
Africa
– Slaves to Americas
(middle passage)
– Sold for goods in
Americas which were
shipped back to Europe
Exploration: Colonization Map
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Age of Exploration: China
• China actually began exploration before the
Europeans (1100’s -1400’s)
• Had great ability to become a seafaring
nation
• China abandons exploration
– Ming rulers wanted China to be self-sufficient
– Nomadic tribes to the north were threatening
China
– Didn’t have enough $ to defend China and explore
overseas
Age of Exploration: China
• Portuguese arrive in 1514
• Jesuits arrived with them
– Gain influence of Emperor by using their
knowledge of astronomy
– They helped revise Chinese Calendar
– Gradually Jesuits gained great power
• Chinese becomes suspicious of Christians
– Were worried about their allegiance to the Pope
and not to the Emperor
Age of Exploration: China
• Chinese Culture
• Qing Dynasty
– Emphasis on
Confucianism
– Qing were not Chinese
(Manchus)
– Separate laws for
Manchus and Chinese
– Chinese had to wear hair
in a queue (symbolised
Chinese submission to
Qing)
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Age of Exploration: China
• Portuguese sign
trading treaties with
China
• As more and more
countries arrive
China is forced to
sign treaties under
threat of invasion
– These are known as
the “unequal treaties”
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Age of Exploration: China
• Great Britain and other European
Powers showed little concern for
Chinese culture and people
• Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)
– Chinese rebellion against the Qing
– Rebellion weakens the government
immensely
Age of Exploration: Japan
• Japan was a Feudal Society in the
1500’s much like Medieval Europe
– Ruled by local lords called Daimyo
• Japan was unified by 3 warlords (Oda
Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
Tokugawa Ieyasu)
– Tokugawa Ieyasu sets up a government
known as the Tokugawa Shogunate
Exploration: Japanese Class
Structure
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Age of Exploration: Japan
• Portuguese arrive in Mid 1500’s
• Brought 2 new items to Japan
– Muskets and Christianity
– Muskets weakened the Samurai Class
• Closing the Society
– Shoguns felt Catholics were less loyal than other
citizens
– Kicked out Europeans and Christians
– Japan only would trade w/ the Dutch a few months
out of the year
– Shoguns focused on domestic affairs and ignored
outside world
Age of Exploration: Japan
• China and Japan were both pressured by
Europeans for Trade
• United States finally opens trade with Japan
in 1854
• Japanese reformers overthrow Tokugawa
Shogunate
• Set up Meiji Government
– Meiji want to modernize Japan to be on equal
footing with Europeans and USA