Exploration, The Atlantic Slave Trade & the Columbian

ExchangeTwo Worlds Collide

Exploration

• Because the Crusades brought back new luxury goods from Asia, Europeans in the late 14th- early 15th century started to venture outward looking for a direct route to Asia in order to prevent paying very high prices.

• Renaissance humanism put an emphasis on personal/individual achievement as well as creating a desire to take a risk and answer the question, “What else is there?”

Motives for Exploration

• 3G P.I.T.• Gold- Economic, search for new sources of wealth (spices, gold,

silver, silks)• God- Religious, spread Christianity (Catholic first)• Glory- Adventure, risk taking and the possibility for glory & fame• Power- Political, acquisition of new lands meant spreading

influence to other areas• Ideology- Europeans develop a “Because we can” attitude; this

begins the idea of European superiority• Technology- Newer ships (caravel), navigational improvements

(compass, astrolabe, sextant, maps), gunpowder weapons

Portugal leads the way?

• Because of their economic, social, and political stability, Portugal begins to venture out and explore areas along the coast of Africa (late 1300’s).

• In 1419, Prince Henry the Navigator creates a navigation school to train sailors; encourages growth in the merchant trade.

• For the remainder of the 15th century, Portugal is the most aggressive country in exploration establishing ports in Africa, India, and S.E. Asia. Portugal will be one of the first European countries to make it to Japan.

Portuguese Explorers

• Bartholomew Dias(z)- Rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 by accident.

• Vasco de Gama- Rounded the Cape of Good Hope and made it to India to trade in 1498.

• Alfonso d’ Albuquerque- Set up a Portuguese trading post in Goa, India in 1510. Departure point for Portuguese trips to China & Japan.

• Ferdinand Magellan- First to circumnavigate the globe in 1519. Magellan was killed in the Philippines but the remainder of his crew made it back to Portugal.

• Pedro Alvares Cabral- Reached what is now Brazil in 1500. Brazil is Portugal’s only colony in the “New World.”

Spanish Explorers and Conquistadors

• After the Reconquista is complete, Spain begins exploring quicker ways to Asia, knowing the Portuguese have already made it to the Indian Ocean.

• Christopher Columbus- Italian; sails west for what he thinks is India after securing funding from Ferdinand & Isabella in 1492.

• He lands in the Bahamas thinking they are islands off the coast of India. He “discovers the New World.”

• Juan Ponce de Leon- discovers Florida and supposedly the “Fountain of Youth” in 1513.

• Hernando de Soto- explored what is now the southeastern United States from 1539-1542 and is the first European to see the Mississippi River. One of the most brutal of all conquistadors.

Conquistadors pt. 2

• Hernan Cortez- Landed in Mexico (1519) and wiped out the Aztec Empire.

• Francisco Pizarro- Landed in Peru (1532) and eventually wiped out the Incan Empire.

New World• Identified as the Americas (named for Amerigo

Vespucci), the landmass was not part of Asia as once originally thought but its own separate land.

• Issues surrounding ownership- Spain & Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas and agree on the Line of Demarcation (1493-1494). This splits the New World between Spain & Portugal and the deal was brokered by the Pope.

• The treaty prevents a war between Spain and Portugal.• Spain gets all new lands West of the line and Portugal

gets all new lands East of the line.

• Spain creates the Encomienda system in the New World. This system uses indigenous labor (like, but not slaves) to work the plantations & farms. In return for their labor and ultimately tribute, the natives were to be protected, converted, and educated in Spanish language.

• The Repartimiento system replaces the Encomienda system in some areas of New Spain. This system is similar to the mita in the Incan Empire where natives are forced to provide some type of labor for a specific amount of time.

• Mestizo- mix of Native American and European; new racial & social class in the Americas.

• Mulatto- mix of Native American and African; new racial & social class in the Americas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spain_and_Portugal.png

Atlantic Slave Trade• In the early 1400’s, the Portuguese begin exploring the coast of

Africa looking for new sources of wealth & slaves to work in Europe.

• With the discovery of the “New World” in 1492, changes came quickly in regards to trade with Africa.

• Because of the Spanish Encomienda system and disease taking huge tolls on the native population, plus the vast amounts of territory, labor had to be imported from other areas.

• By order of the Pope & Spanish crown, natives were not to be considered slaves since they had an established social and religious system and their souls could be saved.

• Africans were seen as a suitable alternative to native labor since Europeans felt the Africans were inferior plus they had some immunities to the diseases that were killing off the native populations. In addition, Africans were on foreign soil and less likely to escape.

• Portugal and Spain were the first two European nations to aggressively trade for slaves.

• In the late 17th century, England surpassed the Spanish and Portuguese in the slave trade and brought in hundreds of thousands of slaves to their Caribbean and North American possessions.

• In exchange for the slaves that they caught, Africans received guns, gunpowder, metals, alcohol, textiles, and other products from the Europeans.

• It is estimated that by the end of the Atlantic slave trade around 1870, Europeans had brought almost 10 million Africans to some part of the Americas.

• A fact that is often overshadowed by the Atlantic Slave Trade was that there was an equally aggressive Indian Ocean Slave Trade with Arab/Muslim slave traders bringing slaves from East Africa to parts of the Middle East, including Turkey/Ottoman Empire, modern day Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

Diagram of the British slave ship Brookes. In addition to food, water, other supplies and the regular ships crew, this ship would have been able to carry over 480 slaves.

Slaves were chained together and laid out in rows separated by gender. Lack of food, disease, harsh treatment, and suicide claimed about 20% of the slaves on each ship. The trip between African slave ports and the ultimate destination was known as the Middle Passage.

The Columbian Exchange

• The Columbian Exchange represents the connection between the Old World and the New World by the literal transfer of plants, animals, food, disease, etc. from one location to the other.

• The success of the exchange allowed for the merchant class to become much more powerful in Europe and the Americas and serves as the foundation for the economic concept of modern capitalism.

• Joint-stock companies are created to take advantage of the new opportunities that the New World provides. Trading companies (Dutch East India & British East India) control land & resources, send explorers & colonists, fund & operate merchant ships, and even invoke political and social control in some areas to maximize profits for their shareholders.

From New World to Old

Maize

Cacao Beans

Potato

Turkey

From Old World to NewCitrus Fruits

Olives Livestock

Diseases Sugar Cane

Grains

Mercantilism• An economic policy in which a country believed that it derived its

power from its wealth. The stronger the country was economically translated to being stronger politically, militarily, and socially/culturally. Therefore, the goal was to obtain as much wealth as possible and try to prevent others from gaining wealth.

• Two ways: 1. Obtain as much gold & silver as possible. 2. Favorable balance of trade- The country exports more goods than it imports.

• The goal was to be self-sufficient and not rely on other countries for goods.

• Countries relied on colonies to aid in mercantilist opportunities. • Colonies provided the bulk of raw materials/natural resources but

were prohibited from trading with any other country other than the mother country.

• The colonies also were forced to import/purchase manufactured goods from the mother country at regular price but exported/sold raw materials at a greatly reduced rate.