4.2 - Exploration: Causes and Events

voyages such as those Columbus undertook were expensive

and without the financial support of a state, they would most likely have been too expensive for explorers and even most merchants to be able to afford

the French government sponnsored expediitons in search of a northwest passage -french explorer Jacques Cartier

sailed from the Atlantic OCean into the St, Lawernce River at today's northern U.S. border. -he did not find a new route to Asia, but he did claim part of what is now Canada for France

Spain's rivals in Europe also explored and claimed regions in the Americas. -French, English, and Dutch explorers all looked for a northwest passage

- a route through or around NOrth America that would lead to East Asia and the precious trade in spices and luxury goods

the english king sent an explorer named john Cabot to america to look for a northwest passage

-Cabot claimed lands from Newfoundland south to the Chesapeake Bay -English did not have enough sea power to defend themselves against Spanish naval forces, although English pirates called "sea dogs" sometimes attacked Spanish ships -the English defeated and destroyed all but one-third of the wSpanish armada -with victory England declared itself a major naval power and began competing for lands and resources in the Americas

China's explorations of the outside world came to an end after Zheng He's final voyage. But the outside world arrived on China's doorstep in the form of Portuguese traders

-Portugal's superior ships and weapons were unmatched among the europeans -then the portuguese had already won control of the both the African and Indian coasts -they had won a decisive victory over a Turkish-Egyptian-Venetian fleet at Diu, INdia.

at about the same time the French were founding Quebec, the English were establishing a colony in a land called Virginia

-about one hundred English colonists traveled 60 miles inland from the coast, where they built a settlement, Jamestown, on the James River. -both the settlement and the river were named for the ruling English monarch, James I . -Jamestown was England's first successful colony in the Americas, and one of the earliest colonies in what would become the United States -first colonies in US were Spanish settlements in Florida and New Mexico

the dutch sent Henry Hudson to exploore the east coast of North America

-among other feats, he sailed up what became known as the Hudson River to see if it led to aisa - he was disspaotined in finding no northwest passage -he and other explorers would continue to search for such a route -though it would travel through a chilly region, it offered the possibility of being half the distance of a route that went around South America

though Henry Hudson did not find a northwest passage, his expeditons proved vlauble to the dutch

-based on his voyage, the dutch claimed the hudson river valley and the island of Manhattan - on the tip of this island, they settled a community called New Amsterdam, which today is knw=own as New York city. -like many port towns, New Amsterdam prospered because it was located where a major river flowed into the ocean

Portuguese in Africa and India: 3 people led explorations -Prince Henry the Navigator

-became the first european monarch to sponsor seafaring expeditions, to search for an all water route to the east as wekk as for African gold -under him, portugal began importing enslaved africans by sea, replacing the overland slave trade

Thanks in part to improved navigation techniques, Italian cities with ports on the mediterranean had a monopoly in european trade with asia.

-by controlling access to the trade routes, the Italians controlled prices of Asia imports to Europe, driving Spain and Portugal, and later France, England, and the Neverlands, into the search for new routes to Asia

New Amsterdam became an important node in the Dutch translantic trade network.

-dutch merchants bought furs from trappers who lived and worked in the forest lands as far north as canada. -they purcahses crops from lands to the south, partiucalry tabacco from virgnia planters -they sent those goods and others to the neverlands in exchange for manufatroed goods and they could sell throughout colonial north aemrica

spain -christofer columbas

-exploer: Christofer colbumas -key voyages were to Caribbean islands and Central America -purpose was to find a sea route to India and china going west from Europe -Spain led the European exploration and colonization of the Americas

portugal

-exploer: Vasco da Gama -key voages was to west coast of africa and India -purpose to open a sea route from eruope to india to china -portugal expanded trade and cultural exchange between india and europe

Spain -Ferdiand Magellan

-exploeror: Ferdinand Magellan -key voyages to South America and the Philippines -purpose to demonstrate that Europeans could reach Asia by sailing west -Spain established links between the Americas and Asia across the pacific ocean

China

-exploers: Zheng He -Key voages: india, middle east, Africa -purpose was to open uo traide netwroks with INdia, Arabia, and Africa and to spread Chinease culture -China deccided not to continue explroing

England

-explorer: John Cabot -key voyage was to north america -purpose was to find a sea route to the east going west from europe -claimed land in canada for britain and established a shorter, more northerly route across the atlantic than columbus's route

The Portuguese also traveled to Japan to trade

-followed by Christian missionaries. They formed large catholic settlements until the 1600s when Japanese rulers outlawed Catholicism and expelled the missionaries

unlike the Spanish or the English who were colonizing east coast of US, the french raley settled permanently

-instead of demanding land, they traded for the furs trapped by native Americans -the french had better relations with natives than did the Spanish or English colonists and their settlements also grew more slowly -the European population of New France ( the French colony in North America) was only 70,000. -the English colonies include one million Europeans

christopher columbus

-is credited with "discovering the new world" -was fortunate enough to gain the support of the Spanish monarchs, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, for his voyages across the Atlantic -his journeys helped increase the interest in discovery, and the English, French, and Dutch supported later exploration.

the Portuguese succeed in global trade for several decades, but Portugal was a small nation

-lacking the workers and the ships necessary for the enforcement of a large trade empire -many Portuguese merchants ignored their government and traded independently. -corruption among government officals also hampered the trading empire

Portuguese in Africa and India: 3 people led explorations -Bartholomew Diaz

-sailed around the southern tip of Africa, the cape of good hope, into waters his crew did not know. -Diaz feared a mutiny if he continued pushing eastward, so he returned home

Portuguese in Africa and India: 3 people led explorations -Vasco Da Gama

-sailed farther east than Diaz, landing in India. -there he claimed territory as part of Portugal's empire -the portuguese ports in india were a key step in expanding Portugal's trade in the INdian ocean and with points farther east

to ensure control of trade, the Portuguese had constructed a series of forts stretching from Hormuz on the Persian gulf to Gao in western India to Malacca on the Malay Peninsula

-the aims of the fort construction were to establish a monopoly over the spices trade in the area and to license all vessels trading between Malacca and Hormuz -the forts gave Portugal a global trading post empire. -portuguese also restricted indian ocean trade to those who were willing to buy permits

Dutch and English rivals were challenging the Portuguese in East Asia, including islands that are today part of Malaysia and Indonesia

-the dutch captured Malacca and built a fort at Batavia in Java -from Batavia, the Dutch attempted to monopolize the spice trade. Then the English focused on India, pushing the Portuguese out of south Asia

Monopoly

Complete control of a product or business by one person or group

Columbas and other European explorers sought a new route to Asia and hoped to find

Gold, silver, and other valuable resources

scientific and technical knowledge were the keys to success at the court

Jesuit missionaries in Macau, such as Matteo Ricci ( an Italian) and Adam Schall von Bell ( a german) impressed the chinese with their learning -but failed to win many converts to win many converts among the hostile scholar-gentry, who consider them barbaric.

Spain annexed the Philippines when Magellan's fleet arrived there -the Spanish returned and started a long campaign to conquer the Filipinos, who put up fierce resistance

Manila became a Spanish commercial center in the area, attracting Chinese merchants and others -because of Portuguese and Spanish occupations, many Filipinos became Christians.

in no nation were the interests of the state and the interest of explorers as closely tired as they were in

Portugal -which led the way in European exploration as it had in maritime innovations.

Portuguese in Africa and India: the small kingdom of Portugal, bounded on the east by the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, could expand only overseas. -3 people led its exploration

Prince Henry the Navigator -Bartolomeu Diaz -Vasco Da Gama

initial Portuguese visits had little impact on Chinese society. -but the traders were following by

Roman Catholic missionaries, mainly Franciscans and Dominicans, who worked to gain converts among the Chinese people -the Jesuits soon followed and tried to win over the Chinese court elite

Silver had become a dominant force in the global economic system -China was a particularly enthuastic consumer of this silver from western heishpere

Silver had become a dominant force in the global economic system -silver made it was from Mexico across the pacific ocean to east Asia in heavily armed Spanish ships known as galleons that made stops in the Philippines -at the trading post in Manila, Europeans exchanged Silber for luxury goods such as silk and spices, and even for gold bullion -the impressive maila galleons allowed the silver trade to flourish -the Chinese government soon began using silver as its main form of currency

European interest in the Americas was rekindled when the Spanish came into contact with the two major empires in the region

The Aztecs in Mesoamerica and the Incas in south America -these empires had the gold and silver that made exploration, conquest, and settlement profitable. -european soon realized that by using enslaved native Americans and later enslaved Africans, they could grow wealthy by raising sugar, tobacco, and other valuable crops

Portuguese explorers such as Vasco da Gama were the first western Europeans to reach the Indian Ocean by sea by going around the southern tip of Africa -Spanish ships however

became the first to circumnavigate the globe when the government sponsored the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan -he died on the voyage in the Philippine islands, but one of the ships in his fleet made it around the world, proving that the earth could be circumnavigated

European states were seeking ways to expand their authority and control of resources in the era of empire-building. conquests brought new wealth to states through the collection of taxes and through new trading opportunities -also brought great material wealth

especially in silver, to European states -rivalries among European states stroked efforts to expand before another power might claim a territory.

a french trader known as La Salle

explored the great lakes and followed the missippi river south to its mouth at the gulf of mexico. -he claimed the vast region for france

like the spanish, the french hoped to

find gold, instead they found a land rich in furs and other natural resources - they established a town and trading post that they named Quebec -french traders and priests spread across the continent -the traders searched for furs; the priests wanted to convert native americans to christianity -the missionaries sometime set up schools among the indigenous people

Europeans generally measured the wealth of a country in how much gold and silver it had accumulated

for this reason, countries set policies designed to sell as many goods as they could to other countries- in order to maximize the amount of gold and silver coming into the country- and to buy as few as possible from other countries- to minimize the flow of precious metals out of the country. -this theory known as MERCANTILISM required heavy government involvement

Explorers hoped to find riches overseas, especially

gold and silver -in addition to these economic and political reasons, explorers were interested in converting others to Christianity -also, technological breakthroughs in sailing and navigation made bold new voyages possible

Ruthless Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque won a short but bloody battle with Arab traders and set up a factory at Malacca in Indonesia.

he had previously served as governor of portuguese india, sending strings of INdians' ears home to Portugal as evidence of his conquests

Religion was also a motivating force for exploration and expansion.

many Europeans believed that it was their christian duty to seek out people in other lands to convert them

trading port empire

one based on small outposts, rather than control of large territories

Since religion was tightly woven into the government of most European states

preserving and spreading a state's religion became another reason for state involvement

eventually, explorers such as Cartier and Samuel de Champlain realized there was

valuable goods and rich resources available in the Americas, so there was no need to go beyond to Asia