Age of Exploration and Discovery

Europe and the New World:

New Encounters, 1500 – 1800

Timeline

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On the Brink of a New WorldMotives: God, Glory, Gold

Fantastic lands• The Travels of John Mandeville (14th century)• Schlaraffenland• Magical Kingdom of Preter John

Religious Zeal• Dominicans, Jesuits, Franciscans

National and personal pride/fameEconomic motives

• Access to the East – spices, silk, coffee• The New World of the West – gold, silver, coffee, sugar,

tobacco

Means

Centralization of political authority Maps

portalani vs. maps

Ships and SailingNaval technology – quadrant & Pole Star; compass & astrolabeKnowledge of wind patterns

Ptolemy’s World Map

Ortelius - 1579

Mercator – 1596

Sea Chart

Nautical Chart: Map of the Seas

Sundial & Nocturnal

Mariner’s AstrolabeArmillary

Magnetic Compass

Back-StaffCross-Staff

Vermeer, The Astronomer, 1668-69

Vermeer, The Geographer, 1668-1669

Life of an Explorer / Sailor

Cramped quarters

Diseases & their cures

Food

Order, morale and punishment

Crewmen and their jobs

Pressgangs

By 18th century new health measures

Portugal: A Maritime EmpirePrince Henry the Navigator (1394 – 1460)

Portuguese explore the Western (Gold Coast) and Eastern coasts of Africa – looking for all-water route to the East

The Portuguese in IndiaBartholomeu Dias (1488)Vasco da Gama (1497

Conquer Turkish and Indian fleets and trade centers by force!

Alfonso d’Albuquerque (1510) - Albuquerque wants to control Malacca = destroy Arab trade & provide a way station on route to Moluccas (Spice Islands)

Portuguese in the New WorldPedro Cabral (1500)

• Brazil sighted and claimed – on to India

Amerigo Vespucci (1497)• mapped out the eastern shoreline of South America

Portugal: A Maritime Empire

Reasons for SuccessExcellent naval technology

More advanced weaponry (gun ships)

Unable to maintain longterm empire abroadLacked the power as a European nation

Lacked the population necessary to expand abroad

Lacked the desire to colonize Asia

Map 14.1: Discoveries and Possessions in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

Spain in the New WorldReach the East by sailing westward across the Atlantic

Christopher Columbus – 1492, 1493, 1498, 1502• Rejected by the Portuguese but sponsored by Europe’s “most Catholic”

nation• 1492 reached the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti and Dominican Republic

(Hispaniola)

Vasco Nunez de Balboa • reached the Pacific Ocean (1513) by crossing the Isthmus of Panama

Magellan 1519: sent by Charles V (Spain)• To find direct route to Moluccas – spices• He dies – but SUCCESS – circumnavigates the globe

Cortez & Conquistadors (1519): • to Mexico – vs. Aztecs and Montezuma

Pizarro 1531-1536: • Peru & the overthrow of the Inca Empire

Map 14.1: Discoveries and Possessions in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) – decreed by Spanish pope Alexander VI, that all trade to the west go to Spain and to the east to Portugal.

The AmericasJohn Cabot (Italian) BUT explored New England sealine for Henry VII of EnglandSpain and PortugalThe West Indies

The British and the FrenchThe “Sugar Factories”

North AmericaThe Dutch

• New Netherlands

The English• Jamestown (1607)• Thirteen Colonies

The French• Canada

Plight of the Native Americans

The Spanish Empire in the New World

Administration of the Spanish EmpireEncomienda – natives = subjects of Castile (taxed and put to work) to be protected, paid and spiritually supervised – instead they were exploited and abused

• Anton Montecino and Bartholome las Casas decry abuse• Encomienda abolished in 1542!!

Viceroys &– chief civil and military officer to the king (in Mexico City and Lima)audiencias – advisory group that also functioned as supreme judicial bodyThe Church – Spanish monarchs allowed to appoint bishops & clergy, build churches, collect fees, supervise religious orders in New World; Spanish Inquisition in Peru (1570) and Mexico (1571)

Compare and Contrast PS: Columbus and Las Casas

Africa: The Slave TradePortuguese and Dutch on western African coast

Desire for gold and eventually the sale of slavesCape Town (South Africa) inhabited by the Boers (Dutch farmers) = permanent European settlement

Origins of the Slave Trade15th century Mediterranean slave market; war captives & other Europeans used in agriculture; African slaves to Portugal as domestic servants~1490s Sugar cane production off central African coast; by 16th c. in Brazil and Caribbean = native American pop. not enough – turn to Africa1518 1st Spanish ship carrying African slaves to New World

Africa: The Slave TradeGrowth of the Slave Trade

Up to 10,000,000 African slaves taken to the Americas between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth CenturiesAsiento, 1713; Prior to 1713 only Spanish ships brought slaves to Spanish Americas, BUT after 1713 England receives this “privilege” = 4,500 slaves a yearThe Middle Passage: mortality rate averaged 10%

Triangular TradeEffects of the Slave Trade on Africa

Effects in Africa: depopulation of African kingdoms & increased tribal warfare in AfricaEconomic effects in Africa – cheap manufacturing of European goods undermines local cottage industry = increased poverty

Effects of Slave Trade on Europe/New WorldGrowth of plantation economy = increasing need for slave laborIncrease in trade: sugar (molasses, rum), cotton, tobacco, indigo, coffee, rice

Stereotypes and Justifications

Read pg. 393-394 European Stereotypes and Africans and answer the following questions:

Why did many Europeans view Africans as racially inferior?

What reasons were often given to justify the enslavement of another human being?

Map 14.2: Triangular Trade Route in the Atlantic Economy

A Seventeenth-Century World Map