The Age of Exploration

Vocabulary• Mercantilism• Northwest Passage• Columbian Exchange• Triangular Trade• Middle Passage• Inflation• Capitalism• Astrolabe• Treaty of Tordesillas

The Value of Spices• Mostly came from the “Spice

Islands” (modern-day Indonesia)

• Spices were used for: - flavoring food -preservatives (slow down

the rotting process)

• Spices commonly sought after:

- Pepper - Cinnamon - Cloves - Nutmeg

The Quest for Cheaper SpicesSpice trade routes between Europe and Asia - controlled by the Muslims Europeans – wanted to “cut out the middleman” Began exploration!

Spice Trade Routes

Why Now and Not Sooner?• Advancements in Science

and Technology– Improved map-making

methods– The astrolabe - determined

latitude– Better ship designs– Better weapons for defense

(naval cannons)

Ms. Bush’s Timeline “Dilemma”

• The dates of this unit are ALL OVER THE PLACE!

• Please make sure you write down the years!• At the end of the next 2-3 “units” we will be

creating a CLEAR timeline of all events

Portuguese Exploration• Portugal went east

– 1415-1460: Prince Henry the Navigator sent ships to explore along African coast

– 1488: Portuguese reached Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa

– 1497: Vasco de Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and reached India; trip to India took 10 months but returned a profit of 3000%

– Beginning in 1502, Portuguese captured several port cities in Asia to use as trading outposts

European Successes in AsiaPortugal• 1511: Captured the Strait of Malacca

--- Gain control of spice trade– Only controlled trading ports, did

not create colonies

The Dutch• 1641: Captured Strait of Malacca

Spain• 1521: Claimed the Philippines

– colonized– converted the natives to

Catholicism

Spanish ExplorationSpain went west• 1492: Christopher Columbus • He discovered the Americas

and established Spain’s claim to two “new” continents; Portugal would claim part of South America (modern day Brazil) under the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1500

Christopher Columbus• 1492: landed in West

Indies• Voyage funded by

Queen • Named governor by the

Spanish king• Later removed from

office due to corruption and abuse of power charges

Hernán Cortés• Arrived in Mexico in

1519 to open diplomatic relations with the Aztec Empire

• By 1521, had destroyed Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, killed the Aztec emperor Montezuma, and broken Aztec power

Francisco Pizarro• Sent to explore Peru in

1532• Captured the Incan

emperor Atahualpa and held him for ransom; the Inca paid the ransom but Pizarro killed Atahualpa anyway

• War that followed resulted in the destruction of the Incan Empire

Spanish Advantages Over Natives• So how did a few hundred

Spaniards defeat millions of natives?– superior military technology

• horses• armor• Guns & cannons

– rivalries between native groups kept them from cooperating

– disease decimated the native population and destroyed their religious faith systems

The Spanish Empire• Spain developed an

American empire stretching from Northern California to South America

• Managing the Empire– Split empire into provinces,

each governed by a viceroy– Council of the Indies set up

in Spain to oversee the viceroys

Spain Gets RICH!• Spain limited colonists to

trading only with Spanish merchants

• Colonists traded raw materials for Spanish manufactured goods

• Spanish wealth came from exploiting American gold, silver, & sugar resources using slave labor

Slavery Under Spanish• Encomienda system: viceroys

were empowered by the king of Spain to enslave natives in order to “save their souls” through Christianity

• In 1542, Spain outlawed enslavement of natives, but it was too late – many had already died and the abuses continued anyway

• Natives were forced into a form of serfdom after 1542

• By the 1530s, Spanish had begun importing African slaves to replace native ones

The Catholic Church in America• The Catholic Church’s

Jesuit priests helped control the native population– Forcibly converted

natives to Christianity– Worked to destroy

native cultures and religious practices and replace it with Spanish

Beyond the Americas• The Americas, however, still blocked

Europeans from reaching Asia by sailing west

• How to get around the Americas?– Go North?

• English, Dutch and French looked for a “Northwest Passage” around Canada, but never found one

– Go South?• In 1520, Spaniard Ferdinand

Magellan sailed around the southern tip of South America and into the Pacific

Ferdinand Magellan• Magellan’s fleet would

go on to be the first to circumnavigate (or sail completely around) the globe (although it would take 3 years to do it, Magellan was killed along the way, and only 18 sailors and 1 ship would complete the voyage)

Magellan’s Route

France in the Americas• Quebec, Canada• Claimed all the way to

Louisiana• Catholic Jesuit

missionaries – converted natives to Christianity

• Main exports back to Europe: furs and codfish

England in the Americas• Caribbean Islands• Claimed an area

stretching from Massachusetts to Georgia

• Main exports back to Europe: sugar, tobacco

Jamestown Colony• In 1607: English

established Jamestown, VA (1st successful permanent colony in America)

Freedom of ReligionEnglish settlers were Protestants

Other religious minorities (Quakers, Puritans, Catholics) to left England and colonized in America because they wanted the religious freedom that the Protestants had

The Slave Trade• Starting in the 1400s, Portuguese

began building forts along the coast of Africa– Used these outposts for trade and to

replenish Portuguese ships on their way to India

– Portuguese even managed to push Muslim Arab traders out of East Africa

• Portuguese were copied by others and soon the coastline of Africa was dotted with European trading posts

• Europeans traded muskets, tools, and cloth for gold, ivory, and, increasingly, slaves

The Slave Trade• Slaves quickly became the

most desired commodity for Europeans looking for cheap labor

• Slave trade involved coastal Africans capturing and selling inland Africans; these slaves were then transported to sugar and tobacco plantations in the Americas

African Slaves• 1530s – first Africans

imported by Spanish arrived in the Americas (Only 38 years after Columbus’ arrival)

• 1619 – first Africans imported by English to Jamestown (only 12 years after the settlement was founded)

Where Did They Go?

The Middle Passage• The roughly six-week trip by

slave ship across the Atlantic was known as the “Middle Passage”

• About 30% mortality rate for slaves on ships crossing Atlantic

• As many as 10 million Africans may have been cast into watery graves in the Atlantic

• Hundreds packed in on each ship

• At least 15 million slaves had arrived in the Americas by 1850

A typical slave ship

The Triangle Trade• A three-legged trade network

opened up between Europe, Africa, and the Americas

• Finished goods from Europe sent to Africa for slaves

• Slaves from Africa sent to Americas for sugar, molasses, and other raw materials

• Raw materials from America to Europe to be made into finished goods

How Americas Changed Europe• New high-energy foods

became available to Europeans– Corn– Potatoes– Peppers– Sugar (sugar cane, imported

from Africa, could be grown in the Americas much more successfully and cheaply)

• With starchier diets, European workers became more productive

The “Columbian Exchange”

Population Changes• More food = larger

populations• European colonists began to

move to Africa, Asia, & Americas to manage European interests

• Africans forcibly moved to Americas as slaves

• Native American population declined dramatically due to diseases such as smallpox

Commercial Revolution• Inflation (rise in prices) in Europe as too

many new goods become available– more people = more demand for goods– more silver and gold in Europe (from

the Americas) means that money is worth less, because there is more of it

• Growth in capitalism (private ownership of businesses operated entirely for profit)– More investors willing to take risks– More banks opened as post-

Reformation Christians no longer followed the ban on usury (lending money at interest)

– Guilds begin to collapse as individuals began to seek personal profits over cooperative goals

Mercantilism• Mercantilism: economic policy

based on accumulating bullion (gold or silver) by establishing colonies, exploiting natural resources, and developing industry to create a favorable balance of trade.

• Colonies provided Europe with both raw materials AND a market for finished goods, thereby doubly enriching their parent countries

• The result is a “bleeding” of wealth away from the colonies and towards their European controllers