Age of Discovery
Social Structures
Discovery
Power Shift
• In 1500 China is most powerful country in the world
• Key to East-West power shift
– European voyages of discovery
• New long-distance trading routes
• New centers of trade
Society –
The Rulers: Kings, emperors
Elites & Merchants
• Military caste (nobles)
– Usually own land, collect ‘rent’ in kind from peasants (serfs)
• Religious organizations
– In West, structured along same hierarchical lines as ruling and noble
classes, own serfs
• Merchants
– Not considered as members of the elites
Peasants
• About 95% of people lived in country
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Illiterate, work land belonging to others
Speak local languages, dialects
Live with their animals in smoky hovels
Marry young
Life expectancy: about 30
Entertainment: story-telling by the hearth
Communications with the outside world extremely limited
Communications
• Word of mouth
– Many dialects, languages
– Latin, language of intellectuals, the church
• Invention of printing, mid-1400s (Gutenberg)
• Reformers encouraged Bible reading
» Bible translations help stabilize languages
Age of Exploration
• Mediterranean dominated by Muslims to late 15th century
– Expulsion from Spain (Reconquista) after more than 700 years
– 1415, Portuguese capture Ceuta on North African coast (modern
Morocco)
• Portuguese take lead in exploration
– Seafaring tradition, crusading spirit, and in search of cheaper
access to Eastern luxuries
• Prince Henry the Navigator plays key role as sponsor of voyages of
discovery around Africa
Discovery & technology
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Better maps & charts
Lateen sails combined with square sails
Tools to determine latitude
Magnetic compass
Better ships (the caravel)
Sternpost rudder
Growing knowledge of wind patterns
Voyages of Discovery
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Dias rounds tip of Africa, 1488
Columbus to the New World, 1492
Vasco da Gama sails round Africa to India, 1497-98
Magellan sails around the world 1519-1522
Who Paid?
• Early voyages sponsored by Portuguese & Spanish rulers
– On borrowed money from Italian bankers
– Rulers grant concessions to merchants
• Formation of joint stock companies - spreads risk among investors
– English East India Company, 1600
– United East India Companty (VOC), Dutch, 1602
Why not the Chinese?
• Zheng He’s seven voyages of exploration in the Indian
Ocean in the early 15th century
– Voyages prove that China had the technology, manpower, and
wealth to explore the world
– Voyages end in 1433
The Spanish in America
• How did a small band of soldiers led by Cortes defeat the
strong, sophisticated Aztec Empire?
• How did an even smaller band of soldiers led by Pizarro
defeat the even stronger and more sophisticated Inca
Empire?
Aztec Empire & Cortes
Cortes & the Aztecs
• Cortes (1485-1547) -- minor Spanish nobility
• Left Cuba in 1519 with 600 men to make his fortune
• Enlists Aztec enemies in his attempt
to conquer empire led
by Moctezuma (at right)
Deaths
• Estimates vary -- no real way to know for certain. Up 95%
of Aztec population died with count going from roughly 21
million people to 1 million
• Figures are highly controversial -- historians and other
experts have been arguing over them for years
Francisco Pizarro
(c.1478-1541)
• Limited education. Arrived in America in 1502 to seek fortune
• By 1520 he is wealthy landowner and official in Panama
• Went into Inca Empire with a motley band of 180 men, 37 horses, and two
cannon (1532)
Inca Empire
Inca Characteristics
• More sophisticated than Aztec civilization
• Cities, productive agriculture
• System of communications using runners
– May have had a writing system
Atalhualpa
• Consolidates empire (1531-1532)
• Pizarro imprisons him while Inca army of 40,000 stands by. Promises enormous ransom:
room full of gold
• Betrayed: Offered death either by burning or by strangling if he becomes Christian -chooses latter. His death breaks resistance
Why Cortes & Pizarro Won
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Spanish arms superiors to native weapons
Smallpox & other ‘European’ diseases
Strife within the indigenous empires
‘Shock & awe’