European Exploration and Colonization

Prince Henry the Navigator

-Set up a school for navigators at Sagres in 1419

-Helped Portugal take the lead in overseas exploration

The caravel and the astrolabe

Vasco da Gama and his discovery of a new sea route to India

Reasons for European Exploration

1. To gain wealth (gold, etc.)

2. To gain fame

3. To spread Christianity

4. Scientific curiosity

5. Adventure

6. To get land

Competition among European powers (Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands (the Dutch), England, and France) for new trading routes, colonies

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

Christopher Columbus and his four voyages to the New World

Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Differing views:1. Columbus as an

explorer and discoverer first and foremost (Boorstein)

2. Columbus as a non-Anglo hero (Morrison,Bush)

3. Columbus as thecatalyst for genocide(Kirkpatrick Sale, David Stannard))

Spanish colonies• Conquistadors

• Reasons for conquests?

• System of government in New Spain: Viceroy and calbidos(advisory councils)

• The encomienda system –

a cheap labor source on plantations

• Fr. Bartolome de Las Casas, O.P. and the New Laws (1542) –designed to end abuses

Portuguese colonies

• Alfonso Albuquerque and the Far East (his forces seized Goa in 1510 and Malacca in 1511)

• Pedro Alvares Cabral and Brazil

• Entrepreneurs

• Donatario = landowner (cf. patroons in New Netherlands)

Spices

The source of much of the cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.?

The Dutch start competing with the Portuguese and the English; they seize control of Portuguese colonies in the Far East and also start colonies of their own in the Americas (New Amsterdam under Peter Minuit, e.g.)

Triangular Trade

Joint-stock companies• What was their purpose?

Funding colonies, in the Americas especially

• How did they work?People pooled their resources for a common purpose

• What are some historical examples?Virginia Company, East India Company

• What modern-day institution does it resemble?The corporation

The Middle Passage

The Columbian Exchange

• From the Americas to Europe/Africa/Asia:

Potatoes, corn, tobacco, squash, quinine, peppers, beans, peanuts, pumpkins, pineapples

. From Europe/Africa/Asia to the Americas:

Sugarcane, bananas, grains (wheat, rice), citrus fruits, cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, various diseases (smallpox, measles, malaria, diptheria)

Mercantilism

• What is it?

It concerns the balance of trade between nations

• Goals of mercantilism =

gain more gold and silver, achieve economic self-sufficiency

• Ways to achieve that end?

Export more than your neighbor, establish colonies