European Exploration
Theme: How and why the Europeans
were able to reach out to foreign lands
and the results of the “Columbian
Exchange”
Lesson 3
Agenda
• European Explorations
– Explorers
– Motives
– Technology
• Trading Post Empires
– Trading Posts
– Philippines
– Seven Years’ War
• Columbian Exchange
• Conquistadors
• Global Trade
European Explorations
• Between 1400 and 1800, European
mariners launched a series of exploratory
voyages which took them to all but the
extreme polar regions
– Explorers
– Motives
– Technology
European Explorations
European Explorations:
Explorers
• Explorers
– Vasco de Gama
– Christopher Columbus
– Ferdinand Magellan
– James Cook
Explorers:
Vasco de Gama
• de Gama reached India in
1498 sailing around the
Cape of Good Hope from
Portugal
• Opened the door to
maritime trade between
Europe and Asian people
and helped establish
permanent links between
the world’s various
regions
Explorers:
Christopher Columbus
• In 1492, Columbus
landed at an island in the
Bahamas mistakenly
thinking he landed in the
Indies spice islands
• Spanish made
Hispaniola their base of
operations in the
Caribbean, but within a
few years realized there
are no spices or silk to
be found there
• During the 16th Century,
Spanish interest will shift
from the Caribbean to
the American mainland
Explorers:
Ferdinand Magellan
• Between 1519 and 1522, Magellan circumnavigated the
world in an expedition to find a western route to Asian waters
– Of Magellan’s five ships and 280 men, a single ship with
18 of the original crew returned (Another 17 returned later
by other routes)
– Magellan himself was killed with 40 of his crew in a
political dispute in the Philippines
Explorers:
James Cook
• Between 1768 and 1780, Cook led three voyages to the
Pacific that explored places like the Arctic Ocean, New
Zealand, Hawaii, and the Bering Strait
European Explorations:
Motives
• Search for basic resources and lands
suitable for the cultivation of cash crops
• Desire to establish new trade routes to
Asian markets
• Desire to expand the influence of
Christianity
Motives: Resources
• 13th Century Portugal was
a relatively poor land in
need of outside resources
• Portuguese mariners
began pushing out into
the Atlantic and found
islands that would
support Europe’s demand
for sugar production
• By the 15th Century,
Portuguese mariners
were working with Italian
entrepreneurs to
establish sugar
plantations
Motives: Trade
• The collapse of the Mongol Empire and the spread
of the bubonic plague had made overland travel on
the Silk Roads more dangerous than before
Motives: Trade
• Muslim mariners brought Asian goods to Cairo
where Italian merchants purchased them for
distribution in western Europe
• Europeans wanted more and cheaper Asian
goods, especially spices
– Began seeking maritime trade routes directly to Asia
which would cut out the Muslim middlemen
– Likewise maritime access to Africa would provide the
gold, ivory, and slaves the Europeans wanted without
having to go through Muslim merchants
Motives: Missionary
• The New Testament commands Christians
to spread the Gospel
• Some missionary efforts were peaceful
such as Franciscan and Dominican travels
to India, central Asia, and China
• Others were violent such as crusades
against Muslims in Palestine, the
Mediterranean, and Iberia
European Explorations: Technology
• Ships
Sternpost
rudder
• Instruments
• Winds and currents
Back staff
Technology: Ships
• European sailors began
constructing ships strong
enough to withstand adverse
conditions
• The sternpost rudder
increased maneuverability
• Ships began using two sails
– A square one to catch a wind
blowing from behind and a
triangular lateen one to catch
winds from the side and behind
– With both sails European ships
could tack (advance against the
wind by sailing across it)
Tacking
Ships: Carrack
• Mizzen mast with triangular lateen sail
placed toward stern of vessel
• Small square-rigged mast placed to
fore of main mast
• Massive ribbed skeleton
• 2-3 decks, enclosed structures at bow
and stern
• Sternpost rudder
• Maximum capacity: 1,000 tons
• Example: Santa Maria
Ships: Caravel
• About 30 meters long
• Maximum capacity: 130 tons
• Axled rudder
• Early versions: 2-3 masts, lateen
rigged sails, clinker style hull
• Later versions: 4 masts, square
rigged sails, streamlined hull
• Examples: Nina and Pinta
Technology: Instruments
• Magnetic compasses used
to determine direction
• Cross staffs and back staffs
allowed mariners to
determine latitude by
measuring the angle of the
sun or pole star above the
horizon
• The ability to determine
direction and latitude
allowed mariners to
accumulate data for
mapping and to navigate
with accuracy and efficiency
Technology: Winds and Currents
• In the Atlantic and Pacific, strong winds blow
regularly to create “wind wheels”
– To the north, prevailing winds cause “westerlies”
– Further south, they cause the “Northeast trades”
• In the Indian Ocean, there are also regular
patterns
– In the summer, monsoon winds blow from the
southeast
– In the winter, they blow from the northwest
Technology: Winds and Currents
• Understanding these patterns allowed mariners
to take advantage of prevailing winds and
currents to sail almost anywhere
• By the mid-15th Century, Portuguese mariners
had developed a strategy called volta do mar
(“return through the sea”)
– Returning home they sailed northwest into the open
ocean until they found westerly winds and then turned
east for the last leg
– It was a longer but faster, safer, and more reliable
way to travel
Major Ocean Currents
Trading Post Empires
• European powers built a series of fortified
trading posts throughout the maritime regions
• Commercial and political competition between
the European powers would result in the Seven
Years’ War
• The English would emerge victorious in 1763
and dominate world trade and build a vast
empire
– Trading posts
– Philippines
– Seven Years’ War
Trading Post Empires:
Portuguese Trading Posts
• Portuguese trading posts were designed
not to conquer territory but to control trade
routes by forcing merchant vessels to stop
and pay duties
• By the mid-16th Century, Portuguese
merchants had built more than 50 trading
posts between west Africa and east Asia
Trading Post Empires:
Portuguese Trading Posts
• Afonso d’Alboquerque led the effort
seizing Hormuz in 1508, Goa in 1510,
and Melaka in 1511
– From these strategic sites,
Alboquerque tried to control trade
throughout the Indian Ocean
– He was only partially successful
because of an insufficient number
of ships to enforce his plan
– Eventually the English and Dutch
surpassed the Portuguese in the
Indian Ocean
Afonso
d’Alboquerque
Trading Post Empires:
English and Dutch Trading Posts
• Like the Portuguese, the English and
Dutch built trading posts on the Asian
coasts but they did not attempt to control
shipping on the high seas
• The English and Dutch had two main
advantages over the Portuguese
– Faster, cheaper, and more powerful ships
– Joint-stock companies
Trading Post Empires:
English and Dutch Trading Posts
• Joint-stock companies enabled investors to
realize profits while limiting risks to their
investments
– English East India Company
– Dutch United East India Company (VOC)
• Companies had government support to buy, sell,
and build trading posts and even make war, but
they were privately owned
• Advanced nautical technology, military power,
efficient organization, and relentless pursuit of
profit allowed the joint-stock companies to form
a global trade network
Trading Post Empires:
Philippines and Indonesia
• In most cases the Europeans traded
peacefully with the Asians (partly because
they were unable to subjugate them)
• The two exceptions were the Philippines
and Indonesia where Europeans were
able to use massive force to establish
imperial regimes
Trading Post Empires:
Philippines and Indonesia
• The Spanish arrived in the
Philippines in 1565, controlled
most of the coastal regions by
1575, and controlled most of
the archipelago during the 17th
Century
• Spanish activities revolved
around trade and Christianity
– (Today the Philippines are
83% Roman Catholic)
• The most prominent area was
the port of Manila which
supported the trade of silk from
China with New World silver
from Mexico
“Manila galleons”
transported cargo from the
Philippines to Mexico
Trading Post Empires:
Philippines and Indonesia
• In Indonesia, the Dutch focused on trade and did
not try to win converts to Christianity
– (Today Indonesia is 88% Muslim)
• The VOC established a monopoly over the spice
trade, seeking less to rule than to control spice
production
• Used a variety of techniques
– Formed local alliances, uprooted plants on islands
they did not control, attacked people who sold their
spices to others
Trading Post Empires: Seven
Years’ War
• Commercial competition ultimately
generated violence
– In 1746 French forces seized the English
trading post at Madras, India
– In the Caribbean English pirates attacked
Spanish vessels and French and English
forces fought over the sugar islands
• The violence culminated in the Seven
Years’ War (1756-1763)
Trading Post Empires: Seven
Years’ War
• A global war
– In Europe, Britain and Prussia
fought against France, Austria,
and Russia
– In India, British and French allied
with local rulers and fought each
other
– In the Caribbean, the Spanish
and French fought the British
– In North America, the Seven
Years’ War merged with the ongoing French and Indian War
(1754-1763) which pitted the
British and French against each
other
Trading Post Empires: Seven
Years’ War
• In the end Britain emerged victorious, but
challenges continued
• Still Britain was now in a position to
dominate world trade for the foreseeable
future
• The Seven Years’ War paved the way for
the establishment of the British Empire of
the 19th Century
Columbian Exchange
• Previous expansions such as the spread
as Islam had facilitated a diffusion of
plants and food crops throughout much of
the eastern hemisphere but nothing like
the scope of the “Columbian Exchange”
(the global diffusion of plants, food crops,
animals, human populations, and disease
pathogens that took place after the
voyages of Columbus and the other
European mariners)
Columbian Exchange
• Unlike earlier processes, the
Columbian exchange involved
lands with radically different
flora, fauna, and diseases
• Beginning in the early 16th
Century, indigenous people of
the Americas and Pacific
islands were decimated by
contagious and infectious
diseases such as smallpox for
which they had no natural
immunities
• Between 1500 and 1800 over
100 million people may have
died of diseases imported into
the Americas and Pacific
islands
Aztec drawing showing
victims of the smallpox
epidemic of 1538 covered
with shrouds as two
Indians, at right, lie dying
Conquistadores (“Conquerors”)
• When the Spanish
realized there were
no spices or silk in
the Caribbean, they
turned their attention
to the American
mainland, west into
Mexico and south
into Panama and
Peru
– Hernan Cortes
(Aztecs)
– Francisco Pizarro
(Incas)
Conquistadores: Cortes
• In 1519, Cortes
arrived in Mexico
looking for gold with
about 450 soldiers
• He advanced inland
to the Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan, captured
Motecuzoma II, and
starved Tenochtitlan
into surrender in 1521
Conquistadores: Cortes
• Cortes had obvious advantages in terms
of weaponry, divisions among the
indigenous people of Mexico, and the
intelligence, diplomatic, and linguistic help
of Dona Maria (a Mayan woman who
accompanied him), but his conquest of
Tenochtitlan (population of about 200,000)
with less than 500 soldiers was aided
immensely by the smallpox epidemic
Conquistadores: Pizarro
• In 1530, Francisco Pizarro led a
Spanish expedition from Central
America to Peru
– Started out with 180 soldiers,
but later received
reinforcements to make a
force of about 600
• Captured the Inca capital of
Cuzco in 1533, murdering
Atahualpa and other ruling elites
and extorting and stealing gold
• By 1540, the Spanish had
secured Peru
Comparison between Pizarro and
Atahualpa
• Spaniards
–
–
–
–
–
168 soldiers
Steel swords
Steel armor
Guns
Horses
• Incas
– 80,000 soldiers
– Stone, bronze or
wooden clubs, maces,
and hand axes
– Quilted armor
– Slingshots
– No animals on which
to ride into battle
Immediate Reasons for Pizarro’s
Success
• “When Pizarro and Atahualpa met at Cajamarca,
why did Pizarro capture Atahualpa and kill so
many of his followers, instead of Atahualpa’s
vastly more numerous forces capturing and
killing Pizarro?”
– Military technology based on guns, steel weapons,
and horses
– Infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia
– European maritime technology
– Centralized political organization of European states
– Writing
• Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
Immediate Reasons for Pizarro’s
Success
• Military technology based on guns, steel
weapons, and horses
– Guns played a relatively minor role. Pizarro had only
a dozen of them.
– More important were horses which provided shock,
speed, maneuverability, and a protected fighting
platform that left foot soldiers nearly helpless in the
open.
– The Spaniard’s steel armor protected them against
the Inca’s club blows, while the Inca’s quilted armor
offered no protection against steel weapons.
Immediate Reasons for Pizarro’s
Success
• Infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia
– Throughout the Americas, diseases
introduced by Europeans spread in advance
of the Europeans themselves, killing an
estimated 95% of the pre-Columbian Native
American population
• European maritime technology
– It was maritime technology that allowed
Pizarro to come to Peru and capture
Atahualpa, rather than the other way around
Immediate Reasons for Pizarro’s
Success
• Centralized political organization of European states
– Spain’s organization financed, staffed, and equipped
Pizarro’s expedition.
– The Incas also were centralized but the Inca
bureaucracy so strongly identified with its godlike
monarch, it disintegrated after Atahualpa’s death
– Additionally many subjects despised the Inca rulers
as overlords and tax collectors so in many cases
resistance was light
• Writing
– Atahualpa had little intelligence about the Spaniard's
arrival, military power, or intent even though the
Spanish conquest of Panama, just 600 miles from the
Inca’s northern boundary, had begun already in 1510
Conquistadores: de Soto
• Hernando de Soto
was with Pizarro in
Peru and then went
on to explore South
Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, and
Arkansas
• In 1541, he
“discovered” the
Mississippi River
Desoto
County
Columbian Exchange
• From Old World to New
World
– wheat
– sugar
– bananas
– rice
– grapes
– horses
– pigs
– cattle
– sheep
– chickens
– smallpox
– measles
– typhus
• From New World to Old World
– corn
– potato
– beans
– peanuts
– squash
– pumpkin
– tomatoes
– avocados
– chili pepper
– pineapple
– cocoa
– tobacco
– quinine (a medicine for
malaria)
Columbian Exchange
• The devastation of disease was offset by the
exchange of plants and animals which fueled a
surge in world population
• World population
–
–
–
–
–
1500
1600
1700
1750
1800
425 million
545 million
610 million
720 million
900 million
• Much of this growth was due to the increased
nutritional value of diets enriched by the global
exchange
Origins of Global Trade
• By the late 16th Century, European
mariners had linked the ports of the world
• During the next two centuries, the volume
of trade burgeoned and merchants
developed markets
• During the 18th Century, mass markets
emerged for commodities such as coffee,
tea, sugar, and tobacco
Global Trade Today
(We’ll talk more about this in Lsn 8)
Next
• Science and
Enlightenment
Sir Isaac
Newton