UNIT 3
Conflict, Exploration,
and Isolation
How people got crowded out, ticked off, runned off, shut in,
and generally just didn’t get along
The Hundred Years War
• Cause
• Claims on the French
Throne
• Last French Capetian
dynasty king died with
no heir to the throne
• Both England’s Edward
III and France’s Philip VI
claimed the throne
• Edward III was son to
Princess Isabella of
France (Married King
Edward II of England)
• Philip VI was French and
a distant cousin of the
late king
• Edward III begins war
• 1337 – first battles
fought
The Hundred Years War
• The Longbow changes
Warfare
• Battles of Crecy (1346),
Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt
(1415)
• Smaller English forces
defeat strong French
armies with masses of
archers
• Ended Chivalric warfare
• No more big cavalry
charges by knights in
shining armor
Crecy
Poitiers
• Gunpowder
• Cannon and handguns
appear on the battlefield
late in the war
• Were first more effective at
shooting holes in walls and
scaring horses than hitting
moving targets
Agincourt
The Hundred Years War
• Joan of Arc
• Said God sent her to save
French throne from Henry V of
England
• English and French had agreed to
give crown to Henry V in 1420
upon death of Charles VI
• Siege of Orleans
• 1429 – she leads French army in
defeating the English
• Led to Charles VII, son of Charles
VI, being crowned king
• Betrayal and Death
• Eventually betrayed by French
and burned at stake by English as
a witch
The Hundred Years War
• War ended in 1453
• Results
• Each side gained a feeling of nationalism
• Prestige of the French monarchy increased
• English descended into the War of the Roses for control of the English
crown
• Some consider 1453 as the end of the Middle Ages
The Rise of the Holy Roman Empire
• Charles V ambitions
• Hapsburg ruler wanted to keep
the Ottomans out of Europe
• Used resources of the HRE, and his
kingdoms of Castille and Aragon in
Spain to fight the Turks
• Succeeded in stopping the Turks
outside of Vienna in 1529
• Wanted to make the HRE the
strongest in Europe
• Failed because of other’s ambitions
• King Francis I of France openly
supported the Turks against him
• Was upset that he was not elected
Emperor of the HRE
• Princes of the HRE who agreed with
Martin Luther refused to allow
Charles V to become all powerful
Islam on the Iberian
• Islam reaches Spain
• Iberian Peninsular
conquered by Tariq ibnZiyad in 711 AD
• Iberian peninsular was
placed under Islamic rule
for nearly 800 years
• Reconquista
• Nearly 800 year long
period of warfare fought by
Catholic kingdoms in
Northern Spain to take
back Spain from the
Muslims
• Ended in 1492 when the
last Islamic armies were
defeated in Southern Spain
Age of Exploration
• “God, Glory, and Gold” – Bartolomeu Dias
• By the 1400’s, Europeans were looking to expand empires to new lands
• New trade routes – wanted to find ways around the routes created by the
Crusaders
• Spread Christianity – saw it as their duty as Christians to convert other
people to the Christian religion
• Portugal in the Lead
• Had good ships and good sailors
• Prince Henry, son of the king, was an explorer
• Called “Henry the Explorer/Navigator” – founded a school for navigation
• By his death in 1460, Portugal had trade posts along West Africa
• Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco de Gama
• Dias explored eastern Africa in 1488
• De Gama was the first European to sail around Africa to India in 1498
Age of Exploration
• Columbus discovers New World in
1492
• Pope Alexander VI creates Treaty of
Tordesillas
• Divides the land between Spain and
Portugal
• Spanish Explorers – “New Spain”
• Hernando Cortez – defeats Aztec in
Mexico (1520)
• Francisco Pizarro – defeats Inca in Peru
(1533)
• Ferdinand Magellan – his fleet was first to
sail around the world (1522)
• Portuguese Explorers
• Amerigo Vespucci – explored Brazil’s
coast (1501) - America named after him
• Pedro Alvares Cabral – explored Brazil
and brought sugar back to Europe
Age of Exploration
• And the Race Begins
• Portugal
• Portugal establishes trade empire
in the Indian Ocean as well
• France
• Begins fur trading colonies in
Canada
• Holland
• Purchases Long Island from
Natives – “New Netherland”
• Set up Dutch East India Company
in Indonesia and Sri Lanka
• England
• Sets up Jamestown in Virginia
Colony
• Set up English East India Company
in India
Age of Exploration
• Mercantilism – The Triangular Trade Begins
• Goods from Europe -> Materials from New World -> Slaves from Africa
• Mercantilism – the practice of using resources from colonies to enrich
the mother country
• People believed a nations power was in its wealth
• Nations tried to become as wealthy as possible
• Encomienda – Spanish plantation system that granted Spanish settlers
Native Americans to “protect”… actually gave them a cheap source of
labor to help enrich Spain
• Balance of Trade – nations tried to sell more goods than they purchased
• Joint Stock Companies – investors buy shares of a trading company,
allowing less risk and more money to fund overseas voyages
• Capitalism – private ownership of companies and investment in them
for profit
Asian Isolation
• China
• Became isolationist under the rule of the Ming
and Qing dynasties
• Believed their country to be the cultural center of the
universe
• To trade with China, other nations had to follow special rules
• Could only trade in special ports
• Had to pay a tribute to the Chinese emperor
• The Dutch were willing to do this and took back to Europe Chinese
goods
• The British refused tribute and wanted China to purchase British
goods; China denied trade with them as they did not need British
goods
Asian Isolation
• Japan
• In the 16th century, the Japanese were eager to accept European
trade
• Portugal becomes 1st Europeans to enter Japan after being
shipwrecked
• They came back later with merchants, ships, technology, and missionaries
• Japanese were very interested in guns and gunpowder
• Missionaries converted about 300,000 to Christianity by the year 1600
• Rejection of Missionaries and Christianity by Tokugawa Ieyasu
• Christian rejection of Japanese culture upset the Japanese Shogun and he
banned Christianity from Japan
• After an uprising in 1637, Japanese shoguns began persecuting and killing
Christians
• Closed Country Policy
• After the uprising, Japanese leaders believed they must protect
Japanese culture from outside ideas
• Began an isolationist policy in 1639, not allowing outsiders into Japan
or Japanese to leave Japan to go to foreign countries
• Only one port, Nagasaki, remained open to Dutch and Chinese merchants
Age of Absolutism
• Absolute Monarch – king or
queen with total power over
their nation and society
• Phillip II of Spain – hard working,
devoutly Catholic king
• Ruled during Spanish Age of
Exploration
• Saw Spain become richest
country in Europe
• Wealth came from the gold and
trade items from the New World
• Defended Catholicism against
the Turks and Protestants
• Helped defeat Turks at naval Battle
of Lepanto (1571)
• Sent failed Spanish Armada to
attack Queen Elizabeth I in England
Age of Absolutism
• Louis XIV (14th) of France –
most powerful European king
• Known as the “Sun King”
because of his great power
• Weakened power of the nobility
by giving more power to
government agents known as
“intendants”
• Nobility would eventually come to
serve and flatter him at Versailles
• Strengthened French economy
through finance minister Jean
Baptiste Colbert
• Used mercantilism to make France
wealthy
• Warfare turned out to be Louis’
downfall
• Made France weak by using up all
of the wealth created by Colbert
• France was defeated in many of
Louis’ wars as well
Age of Absolutism
• Peter the Great – Russian Czar
who reformed Russia to be
more European
• Russia was still in the middle ages
when he came to power in 1696
• Visited Europe and brought back
many changes
• Policy of “westernization”
•
•
•
•
Introduced potatoes
Began first newspaper
Raised status of women
Ordered nobles to shave beards and
wear European clothes
• Advanced education through schools
of navigation, arts, and science
• Brought Russian church under his
control
• Retrained the army in European
tactics
• Established capital city at St.
Petersburg
• City on the Baltic Sea allows access
to Europe
Age of Absolutism
• Stuart Dynasty
• James I, Charles I, Charles II, James II
• Believed strongly in divine right monarchy
• Stuarts demanded more money for military
• Parliament attempted to force Charles I to sign Petition of Right 1628 to
limit his power
• Charles I answered them by dissolving Parliament and beginning the English Civil
War
• Charles I Defeated
• New Model Army led by Oliver Cromwell defeated Charles I and had him
beheaded
• New Government
• Cromwell ruled England as Lord Protector until his death; his son was a
terrible ruler
• Parliament invited the Stuarts back to be king again
• James II, the last Stuart king, was thought to be Catholic and was
dethroned by the Glorious Revolution
• Brought Protestants William and Mary of Orange in to be King and Queen of
England