Exploration
AND
exploitation
Trailblazers
The Silk Road
• In the second century bce, caravans
began traveling a 4,000 mile route
linking Southeast Asia with the West.
• Silk carried along this route made its
way to Rome
• In both directions, various political,
social, religious, and artistic ideas
flowed.
• Ghengis Khan and the Mongols gained
control of the region by the 13th
century
The Silk Road
In 1271 three Venetian
merchants left in search of the
wealth of the East
17 year-old Marco Polo and his father
and his uncle were gone for 24 years
They found great civilizations in the East - far more advanced than those in Europe
with different ways of life
based on different value
systems
and different
philosophies
After travelling through India,
Marco Polo returned to Venice in
1295
Marco Polo
described
these
cultures in
his
Book of
Marvels
Although his
stories of
magnificent
Eastern
civilizations were
met with
skepticism, the
account of his
travels would be
read all over
Europe, inspiring
the curious and
adventurous
Ibn Battuta
1304-c.1368 or 1377
• Born in Morocco, Ibn Battuta
went on hajj in 1325 and
continued traveling,
eventually covering about
75,000 miles over the
length and breadth of
the Muslim world, and
beyond (about 44 modern
countries).
• His journeys and
observations are recorded in
A Gift to Those Who
Contemplate the Wonders of
Cities and the Marvels of
Travelling but is often
simply referred to as
the Rihla or Journey
Map of Ibn Battuta’s Travels
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
CHU YUAN-CHANG (1328-1398).
Ming Emperor.
Chinese silk scroll painting
• Founded by Chu Yuan-chang,
a peasant who had been a
Buddhist monk, a bandit
leader and a rebel general –
Emperor Hong Wu
• Last native imperial dynasty
in Chinese history
• Re-adopted civil-service
examination system
• One of China’s most
prosperous periods:
agricultural revolution,
reforestation, manufacturing
and urbanization
Age of Exploration
• The Ming Dynasty, under the
naval leadership of Zheng He,
was noted for its sea
explorations and extensive
trade from Africa to Southeast
Asia
• Greatest naval power in world
in 15th c.
• However, scholars convinced
the Emperor in 1435 that taste
for exotic wares would cause
decline of dynasty
• Trade and maritime expansion
was greatly contracted
Zheng He
Zheng-He’s Expeditions
Zheng He sailed from China to many places throughout South Pacific,
Indian Ocean, Taiwan, Persian Gulf and distant Africa in
seven epic voyages from 1405 to 1433,
some 80 years before Columbus's voyages.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ancient-chinese-explorers.html
In the 15th century, Zheng He, seen here with one of his massive ships in a painting
at a temple shrine in Malaysia, led seven enormous seafaring expeditions.
Zheng-He and Columbus
Zheng He’s Treasure
Ship
Compared to Columbus’s
Santa Maria
The pattern of EastWest relations-- from
the first discovery of
a sea route from
Europe to Asia-- was
largely one of
Western action and
Eastern reaction
Ottoman Empire
The West went
to the East,
but the East
rarely saw a
need to come to
the West
Vasco da Gama’s discovery of a sea route to India in
1498 opened important commercial traffic,
led to the expansion and consolidation of the
Portuguese Empire, and the spread of European culture
and Christianity in the Orient.
Da Gama’s Voyage around
the Cape of Good Hope
16th c Portugese
trading ship
The Portuguese were quickly
followed by the Spanish and Dutch,
and later the French and British sent
their ships into Eastern oceans
The British, with their superior
naval strength, finally became
the dominant colonial power in
southern Asia
The Armorial Bearings of the Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies
Granted by Garter and Clarenceux Kings of Arms in 1600 and as Borne and Used until 1709
Japan, reacted to the Western challenge
in a different fashion
Throughout the
14th-19th
centuries, Japan
isolated itself from
foreign trade and
contacts under the
rule of the Shoguns
In 1542 the first Portuguese traders and Jesuit
missionaries arrived in Japan. They brought firearms
and Christianity with them.
Despite
Buddhist
opposition,
many
warlords
welcomed
Christianity
because they
wanted to
trade with
Western
nations for
armaments
Imposing
order after a
series of civil
wars,
Hideyoshi,
in 1587,
issued an
edict
expelling
Christian
missionaries.
European Conquest
of the Americas
Viking Explorations
Leif Eriksson
Iceland
Vinland
Sagas
• Saga of the
Greenlanders and
Saga of Erik the
Red
• Most complete
accounts of Norse
explorations of
North America in
the 10th and 11th c.
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue
Inception of the Scientific
Method
• Hypothesis: It is possible to reach
the Orient by sailing West
• Experimentation: Voyages of
Discovery
• Analysis: There are two large land
masses blocking access to the East
• Conclusion: Two new continents –
North and South America
•The Age of
Exploration presented
enormous challenges
and dilemmas to the
world view of European
civilization.
• Even Columbus
wavered between this
fervent hope that he
had discovered the
Garden of Eden and his
desire to exploit the
riches and peoples of
the New World.
Engraving by Theodore DeBry
Hispanic Exploration and
Conquest
1492 -- 1542
• In one generation Hispanics explored and
colonized over half the earth & waters
• During the period of exploration, in one
generation, approximately 300,000 Spaniards
had emigrated to the New World
• They established over 200 cities and towns
throughout the Americas.
• In one generation Hispanics acquired more
new territory than Rome conquered in five
centuries .
Major Hispanic
Explorations and Conquests
• 1492- 1504: Columbus’s 4 voyages to New World
• 1500: Pedro Cabral (Portugese) discovered Brazil
• 1501-02: Amerigo Vespucci (Italian) after
accompanying Spanish conquistadors decided that
what they had discovered was not Asia, but new
continents
• 1508-21: Juan Ponce de Leon explored Cuba,
Jamaican and Florida –Cuban conquest: 1508
• 1513: Vasco de Nuñez de Balboa crossed the
Isthmus of Panama and named the Pacific ocean
Detailed chronology of Spanish explorations and conquests
Ponce de León
• Ponce de León, who had accompanied Columbus
on his second voyage and had colonized Puerto,
lost the Governership of that island to
Columbus's son.
• In recompense, the king granted him rights to
Bimini, legendary site of the fabled Fountain of
Youth
It was on Easter Sunday (Pascua florida in
Spanish), 1513, that Ponce de León not
only named the peninsula, but claimed it and
incorporated it into the Spanish Empire.
Major Hispanic
Explorations and Conquests
• 1519- 22: Ferdinand Magellan's crew & ship,
completed voyage of circumnavigation.
• 1519-21: Hernando Cortez’s conquest of the
Aztecs in Mexico
• 1531: Francisco Pizarro’s conquest of the Incas
in Peru
• 1540: Vasquéz de Coronado explores California,
Kansas, Arizona, New México, Texas, Oklahoma.
• 1539-42: Hernando de Soto explores SE United
States and discovers Mississippi River
Detailed chronology of Spanish explorations and conquests
The Conquest of Mexico
During the year Ce Acatl
( One Reed)
1519
Hernán
Cortés
• April 21, 1519 (Good Friday),
Cortés landed on an island off
eastern Gulf Coast with 11
galleons, 550 soldiers and
sailors, and 16 horses
• Founded a settlement Villa Rica
de la Vera Cruz
• Took Malintzin/Marina as
Nahuatl interpreter and mistress
• Burnt the remainder of his fleet
and proceeded on to
Tenochtitlán, making allies of
tribes hostile to the Aztecs.
La Malinche
c. 1505- c.1529
• Malinalli (Malintzin)
was born to a noble
family, but sold to a
Tabascan chief by her
mother to ensure her
half-brother’s
inheritance
• Brought from her
native Nahuatlspeaking home of
Veracruz to the
Yucatan, she learned
the Maya language
La Malinche
•
Given to the Spaniards by the Maya, she was baptized as Marina in
1519.
• She began to work for the Spanish as an interpreter between the
Nahuatl and Maya and quickly learned Spanish.
La Malinche
•
She became Cortés’s
interpreter, confidante
and mistress, called
"la lengua de Cortés"
(Cortés's tongue, or
interpreter)
• Bore him a son,
Martín, the first
mestizo of historical
note
• “After God we owe
this conquest of New
Spain to Doña Marina.”
– Cortés
José Clemente Orozco
Cortés and Malinche
Moctezuma
• Emperor of the Aztecs,
Moctezuma was aware of
Cortés’s approach
• He sent Cortés a cordial
message and gifts but
warned against approaching
Tenochtitlan
• The gold and finery
whetted the Spaniards’
greed
• Although Moctezuma
commanded a huge army,
he feared to greet Cortés
with a hostile force because
of ancient legend
th
The Prophecy of
Quetzalcoatl’s
Return
• Ancient legend
prophesied that
Quetzalcoatl, the
Plumed Serpent,
the bearded, fairskinned Toltec
ruler-god would
return in the year
Ce Acatl to reclaim
his kingdom.
http://www.cedarcreekclay.com/
Tenochtitlán
A great white city, lightly moored to the shores by three long causeways, floating
on a shimmering lake.
Tenochtitlán
• The last city the Spanish had seen was
Seville, the largest in Spain, population:
60,000.
• London, Europe’s largest city, had a
population of 100,000.
• Tenochtitlán was almost four times as
large as Seville, with thousands more
people clustered in the "suburbs" fringing
the mainland.
• Tenochtitlán, unlike the cramped muddle
of houses, streets, and byways that made
up medieval Spanish towns, had been
planned.
The Beginning of the End
• Cortés met little resistance, and on November 8,
•
•
•
•
•
1519, he crossed the causeway over Lake Texcoco to
enter Tenochtitlán.
Moctezuma personally went out to meet Cortés and
his men.
Within a week Cortés seized the emperor, put him in
chains and held him hostage.
Cortés had to leave Tenochtitlan to deal with a
Spanish rival
When the Aztecs rebelled, Cortes tried to use
Moctezuma to appeal for peace, but the people hurled
stones and arrows at him
The Spaniards threw the body of Moctezuma into a
canal
Cuauhtemoc
Last Aztec Emperor
• January, 1521, Cortés reentered
•
•
•
•
valley of Mexico and demanded
surrender
Cuauhtemoc refused
Cortés attacked with a newly built
fleet and besieged Tenochtitlan
After a valiant resistance and an
80 day seige, the Aztecs,
overcome by smallpox and famine,
surrendered
The Spaniards lay the Aztec
Empire to waste, burned
Tenochtilan, and levelled the
temples.
European
Colonies in
the Americas
Major French
Explorations and Settlements
• 1525 : Giovanni da Verrazzano, a hired
Italian pilot, failed to find the Northwest
Passage, but he did establish a French claim
to portions of North America.
• 1534 -35: Jacques Cartier ventured up the St.
Lawrence River as far as today’s Montréal.
• 1542: Sieur de Robervall tried to establish a
permanent settlement in North America at
the site of present-day Québec; the settlers
remained one brutal winter before returning
to France.
Major French Explorations
and Settlements
• 1562 : Jean Ribault explored coastal Florida and the
St. Johns River and founded a failed Huguenot
settlement.
• Samuel de Champlain founded Port Royal (1605) and
Québec (1608).
• 1630s: Jean Nicolet (Nicollet) explored Lake
Michigan and surrounding areas.
• 1673: Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette explored the
Mississippi Basin.
• 1679: La Salle explored the upper Mississippi River
and Lake Michigan areas.
• 1698 : Sieur de Bienville founded New Orleans.
Early English Explorations
and Settlements
• 1497: John Cabot explored Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, and Labrador : English fishing rights
• 1580s : Sir Francis Drake harrassed Spanish treasure
ships and attacked Spanish settlements up and down
the coast. The Spanish called the British sailors pirates
and Sea Dogs.
• 1584-87: lost Roanoke settlement in Virginia
• 1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada.
• 1606: Jamestown settlement in Virginia
• 1609-1611: Henrik Hudson explored Hudson Bay,
Hudson River, and Hudson Strait.
• 1620: Plymouth colony settlement in New England
European
Colonies in
the Americas
Columbian
Exchange
European Conquest
of Africa
African
Civilizations
Before
European
Explorations
Timeline of
Africa
1-16th c.
African Slave Trade
• The earliest external African slave trade
was trans-Saharan.
• Slaves in North Africa were mainly
servants rather than laborers.
• Colonization of the Americas by the
Europeans created a huge demand for
agricultural labor.
• Slaves purchased in West African
regions were often the captives of wars
between rival African states.
• European traders also conducted
independent slave raids.
Slave Ship
How Did Europe Conquer Africa?
• During the Middle Ages, Muslim armies kept Europe
cut off from the rest of the world.
• Beginning in the 14th century Portuguese ships
sailed southward along the African coast.
• They traded for gold, and eventually sailed around
Africa to India
• The gold that the Europeans obtained in Africa
financed their overseas expansion.
How Did Europe Conquer Africa?
• The vast gold and silver
deposits of the New World
made African gold less
desirable.
• As European powers
established plantations,
enslaved Africans became
more desirable than gold.
• In exchange, the Africans
received firearms.
• Africans used the firearms
in their wars with each
other.
The World in 1800
Red: British Empire
Yellow: Spanish Empire
Green: Qing Dynasty
Fuchsia: Ottoman Empire
Dark Grey: Russian Empire
How Did Europe Conquer Africa?
• The wealth generated by the buying and selling of
enslaved Africans went to create the extensive
technological innovations that led to the Industrial
Revolution.
• The coastal trade with Africans strengthened European
commercial capitalism and transformed it into allpowerful industrial capitalism.
How Did Europe Conquer Africa?
• Europe started to take a
more direct hand in African
affairs.
• While African states were
weakened by their
conflicts, the Europeans
grew in strength.
• The same scenario took
place in Asia and the
Americas.
• Soon a full-fledged system
of colonialism began to
overspread the world.
• Thus did Europe not only
conquer Africa, but
America and Asia too....
1914:
European
Domination
of
AFRICA
only Ethiopia
and Liberia
remained
independent