European Exploration:
New Encounters
Creation of a World Market
European
Exploration
Why Not Italy?
Why Not Italy?
• The Italian city-states of northern Italy
(Venice, Genoa, Milan and Florence)
traded with Muslims
• They had no incentive to look to the
Atlantic for trade due to the system of
alliances they built with the Muslims
due to their monopoly on Asian
goods
• Italian ships were built for the calmer
waters of the Mediterranean, not the
Atlantic
• The Atlantic kingdoms of Europe
looked to the Atlantic for Asian trade
Iberian Kingdoms
• The 3 G’s
• Seeking of profit was the
primary motivator
• Christian conversion
– legacy of the Reconquista
motivated the Christian
monarchs not only to seek out
an ally against Islam but also
to find vast populations to
convert to the Christian faith.
Iberian kingdoms
•
The kingdoms of Spain and Portugal
were the first to sponsor voyages;
their motives for “exploration” were
1.
Desire to break the stranglehold of the
Italian trade monopolies by finding an
Atlantic route to the east
•
2.
Alliance between monarchs and
merchants
•
•
3.
Search for direct contact
Adventurous personalities of their leaders
Monarchies began to take a more active
interest in exploration and financed their
own expeditions
New technologies
•
•
•
Shipbuilding
Cannon technology
Navigation tools
Monarchs &
Merchants
• Prince Henry (“the
Navigator”) sponsored
research and navigation
• Sent expeditions to the
African lands south of North
Africa
• Desired
– Goods and spices
– Expansion of Christianity
– Hope to reach India directly
Technologies - Caravel
• A new vessel, small
size, shallow draft,
combination of
square and lateen
sails, and cannon
made it well suited
for the task of
exploration
• Had great
maneuverability,
speed and
surprising strength
against ocean
storms
Technologies Astrolabe
• A historical astronomical
instrument used by
classical astronomers,
navigators, and
astrologers.
• Used to measure the
height above the horizon
of celestial bodies
Technologies Cannon
• Allowed sailpowered wooden
naval warships
dominated the high
seas from the
1570’s-1860’s
Portugal – 1st to
succeed
• Began to produce a financial
return, first from trade in slaves,
and then from the gold trade in
Africa
• By 1488 they reached the tip of
Africa (Bartholomew Dias)
– Within 10 years they will reach
India directly
Spain plays
catch
up
• Determined not to allow Portugal
to monopolize overseas trade the
Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand
and Isabella, looked to invest in
overseas trade
• Turned to Columbus who would
look for an westward Atlantic
route to India and China
Columb
us
• Which event or
development was the
most important reason
for Columbus’ voyages
1. The fall of the
Constantinople
2. The defeat of the
Moors in Spain
3. Improved sailing
technology
Causation vs.
Facilitation
The CAUSE of his voyages was the Fall of Constantinople
Who are these people?
Columbus’
achievements
► Did
he discover the new world?
► Well, he did:





Lay Spain’s colonial powers in the New World
Growth of a new trading network
Transfer of new crops
Enslavement and death of natives from disease
Act as a catalyst spurring Europe as the dominating
world power
Vasco da Gama
• First explorer to round the tip
of Africa and reach India
– 1498
• Opened first of what kind of
trade between a European
and Asian country?
• Portugal hits the jackpot
in terms of trade
• Did you ever wonder why the
official language of many
countries in Latin America and
the Caribbean is Spanish, but in
Brazil--the largest country-- the
official language is Portuguese?
Treaty of
Tordesillas
• After Columbus' voyages to the New World
there was a concern that Spain and Portugal
would have conflicting territorial claims, so a
treaty was proposed in which Spain would
claim lands to the west of a north-south
trending meridian, and Portugal could claim
lands to the east.
Ferdinand
Magellan
• Tried to complete
Columbus’ attempt at a
direct route to West Indies
• First to circumnavigate the
world
– But did he, he died?
– Actually in a way yes!
• Laid beginnings of Spain in
Philippines
• Shows how large the Pacific
Ocean was
Other Explorers
• Amerigo Vespucci
– That the New World was
not Asia but a previouslyunknown land mass
– First to document this on a
map – mapmakers
convinced him to use his
name for this
• Balboa - crossed
Panama--saw Pacific
Ocean
Encounters with the
Europeans
What TWO regions do you think will have
cataclysmic encounters with the Europeans?
AFRICA
EASTERN HEMISPHERE
NEW WORLD
Africa
Benin
• One of the largest coastal
kingdoms in West Africa
• After the initial search for gold what
other TWO items were very sought
after by Portuguese
• Ivory & Pepper
• Benin showed early interest in, but
ultimately refused, Christianity
• Soon closed doors to trade
Kongo
• Had little pepper and ivory,
so what did they sell instead?
• Slaves
• King began to lose his power
– Takes a Christian name
Afonso I
– Writes to Portugal to ask to
end the slave trade and
exploitation of his country…
King never answered the letter
Indian
Ocean
• Arab seafarers used the
regular pattern of the
monsoon winds to
establish trade routes in
the Indian Ocean.
• These trade routes
flourished when the rise of
Islam created new markets
and new networks of
Muslim traders.
Coming of the
Portuguese
• Engaged already existing trade
networks, could gain wealth
without conquering territory
• Portuguese were determined
to control the Indian Ocean
• Portuguese never gained
complete control of the Indian
Ocean trade
– Dominated – profit and broke the
Italian city-states’ monopoly on
pepper
Americas
The Americas
• Portuguese built a maritime trading empire
• Spanish built a territorial empire due to
isolation of Amerindian communities & lack
of resistance of disease
• The peoples of the New World are often
referred to as Pre-Colombian – meaning the
cultures of the Americas before the coming
of the Europeans
• The two largest empires in the Americas
was the Aztec and the Inca – both of which
will fall to the Europeans by the hands of
quite small conquering forces.
Conquistadors
• Freelance conquerors who
served their own greed, their
countries motives, and Christian
missionaries
• These soldiers, explorers, &
adventurers brought much of the
new world under colonial rule
Reasons for
Success
• Natives had no resistance
to disease
• Military tech
• Ability to apply pattern of:
–Conquest
–forced labor
–forced conversion
Aztec
Empire
• Largest empire in Central
America
• Built upon existing peoples
and cultures in the area
• Controlled many other
groups around them thru
tributary system
• Ruled from Tenochtitlan
under Moctezuma II
Conquest of the Aztecs
• Conquistador – Hernan Cortes
caused the fall of the Aztec
empire and brought large part
of New World under Spain’s
control
• Sought gold in the Aztec
Empire
• Aztecs initially believed he was
a mythical ruler Quetzalcoatl
Conquest of the Aztecs
•Arriving on the continent Cortés
executed a successful strategy of
allying with some indigenous
peoples against others.
•Cortes use of native allies + cavalry
and steel swords intimidates the
Aztecs
•Spaniards loots the treasury and
are defeated in battle only to return
later to defeat the Aztecs with more
firepower and affects of European
diseases had taken a serious toll
Conquest of the Aztecs
• Seen as the most important
campaigns in the Spanish
colonization of the Americas
since the Aztecs were the
central power and all others
peoples were either allies or
tributary states
• After their fall the rest of the
central and N. America will be
relatively easy to colonize
Inca
Empire
Inca
• Largest empire in PreColumbian America, and
one of the largest empires in
the world at the time of its
collapse
• Conquistadors attracted by
the news of a rich and
fabulous kingdom
• the Inca Empire was in a five
year civil war between two
princes (brothers).
– Atahualpa wins
Francisco
Pizzaro
• Wealthy landowner who
sought more fortune and
adventure
• Given license from king of
Spain
• Encounters the Inca with
180 men, horses and
cannon
Collision At
Cajamarca
• While the natives were in a
celebration in, the Spanish
Pizarro took the Inca Atahualpa
prisoner by surprise, causing a
battle in which only 160
Spaniards defeated the entire
empire with 80,000 troops
camped nearby.
– Battle had 6,000 Inca deaths – 0
Spanish deaths
• Why did Jared Diamond focus
on this event?