AP Euro Ch. 15 - Era of Exploration

Causes of European Expansion

- revival of pop. and economic activity after Black Death - new demands for luxury goods - fall of Constantinople/Ottoman trade route control Spices had many uses. - Ferdinand/Isabella wanted to spread Christianity - desire for Glory/knowledge Christopher Columbus/Antonio Pigafetta. Vasco de gama: Calicut, India / Hernando Cortés: conquered Mexico. - lack of opportunity at home Exploration made possible by the monarchical authorities. Prince Henry the Navigator led Portugal. Life at sea was horrible. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo's General History of the Indies: detailed eyewitness account of plants, animals, and people

Spanish Settlement and Indigenous Population Decline

About 200,000 Spaniards settled into the new world. Cattle ranches, sugar plantations, and silver mines became important. Encomienda system: conquerors were given the right to employ groups of Amerindians as agriculture or mining laborers or as tribute payers (legal slavery). Working in blistering heat/dangerous mines, disease, malnutrition/starvation, infant mortality, and overall violence from Spaniards led to high declines in indigenous populations. Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit missionaries converted Amerindians to Christianity / pressured Charles V to abolish encomienda. He did abolish the worst of it in 1531. The Indians were frail and weak, thus King Ferdinand born the Atlantic slave trade.

Later Explorers

Amerigo Vespucci: discovered the "new world": current day Venezuela. His letter "Mundus Novas" was the first to describe America as a continent separate from Asia. Pope Alexander VI issues the Treaty of Tordesillas: line down the Atlantic Ocean giving Spain everything to the west and Portugal everything to the east. Charles V commissioned Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan to find a direct route to Southeast Asia. Magellan went to Brazil then up the Pacific Ocean. Conquered the Philippines for Spain, but died there. Escape made the return. This voyage had terrible storms. disease, starvation, and violence - many died. Spain gave up the eastern spice trade, while the Dutch dominated it. Dutch East India Company: expelled Portugal from East Indian islands. Dutch west India company: intruded on Spanish possessions in the Americas. England/France.. John Cabot: discovered Newfoundland / explored the New England coast. No spices/gold = Henry VII of England uninterested. Frenchman Jacques Cartier: explored the St, Lawrence region of Canada / first French settlement in Quebec.

The Problem of Christopher Columbus

Believed he was a divine agent. Santa Fe capitulations: named Columbus viceroy over any territories he discovers on his voyage to Asia from the western coast. Landed in the Bahamas, then sailed to Cuba believing he landed on the coast of China.

Spain's Global Empire

Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand/Isabella, was the first monarch to rule a unified Spain. Abdicated, giving HRE to brother Ferdinand and Spain/Netherlands to son Philip II. - devoutly catholic / relied on God for political help. Philip tried helping Mary Queen of Scots to kill Elizabeth and make England catholic. After Mary was beheaded, Pope Sixtus V offered Philip one million gold ducats to send troops to England. Philip sent the Spanish Armada: more than 130 vessels, and was defeated. Eventually Philip III recognized the United provinces as independent.

The Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange: complex process of animals, plants, and diseases being exchanged by migrators. Spanish/Portuguese immigrants in the new world wanted what they were familiar with from Europe. Raised wheat(highlands of Mexico, Rio de la Plata, New Granada, Chile.), grapes, olives, rice and bananas. Plants unintentionally came in such as Kentucky bluegrass, daisies, and dandelions. Natives had no animals for food other than wild turkeys and game. No animals for travel other than alpacas and llamas. Columbus introduced horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, pigs, chickens, and goats on his second voyage in 1493. On the other hand, immigrants took back to Europe the main American cereal, maize(corn), white potatoes, beans, squash, pumpkins, avocados, and the (distrusted?) tomatoes.

New World Conquest

Hernandez Cortés: Spanish, crossed to Mexico (Tenochtitlán) and began the conquest of the Aztecs (ruled by Montezuma II). Spain took over since Aztecs were going through a time of struggle/bad phenomena. Francisco Pizarro, Spanish, landed in Peru during a time of Incan empire civil war and after receiving ransom for and still killing Atauhalpa, they eventually conquered the Incan empire.

Sugar and Slavery

Mediterranean Europe turned to sub-Saharan Africa for slaves after the Ottoman's took over Constantinople. Italians set up sugar plantations in southern Portugal, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. Shortage of Amerindians = African trade. First, the Portuguese brought slaves to Brazil. Then Dutch West India Company transported slaves to Brazil/the Caribbean. Conditions for slaves on the ships were awful.

The Birth of the Global Economy

Portugal: brought spices from India to Lisbon, paying with textiles/gold/ivory. Chinese silks/porcelains sailed to Japanese port of Nagasaki and Philippine port of Manila: exchanged for Spanish silver. Exported horses/copper to India and exported Hawks/peacocks for Chinese/Japanese markets. Brazil provided most of sugar plantations. Merchants controlled slave trade between west Africa and Brazil and sugar commerce between Brazil and Portugal. Portuguese= Asian maritime trade language Spain: land empire, then sea empire centered at Manila in the Philippines. Chinese silk sold by Portuguese in Manila for American silver was transported to Mexico, then to Spain or Peru. 12 million pesos of silver were sent to Manila to buy the silk. Worldwide commercial boom from 1570-1630. Profiters: capitalists, captains/crews, port officials. Dutch: dominated seaborne trade with spices. Dutch East India Company: captured spice trade from the Portuguese. Gained control in Indonesia, avoiding Portuguese forts in India. Eventually gained full control in the Indian Ocean spice trade.

The Portuguese Overseas Empire

Prince Henry the Navigator: supported the study of geography and navigation. Goals: gold, christianize Muslims, slaves, and find a route to Indian spice markets. Under King John II: trading ports/forts controlled flow of African gold to Europe and Portuguese prosperity began. Bartholomew Diaz: rounded the southern tip but turned back due to a storm. Vasco de Gama:sailed up the east coast of Africa to Calicut, India. King Manuel: dispatched thirteen ships under Pedro Alvares Cabral, assisted by Diaz, claimed Brazil for Portugal then went to India. Christopher Columbus: Genoese mariner entered Lisbon representing Spain.

Technological Stimuli to Exploration

Shipbuilding, weaponry, navigation all improved. Prior to: galleys, cargo, and warships. Eventually the Portuguese created the Caravel: small, light, three-masted sailing ship with triangular sails and a sternpost rudder. Held more cargo / easier to maneuver. Cannon: iron or bronze guns that fire iron or stone balls. Improvements in cartography / navigational aids. Ptolemy's Geography: formidable synthesis of the geographical knowledge of the world. World is round, latitude and longitude, but also with crucial errors. Also, magnetic compass: direction/position at sea. Astrolabe: determined the altitude of the sun and other celestial bodies/latitude from the equator. Historians believe that all was made possible by stealing ideas from the east / from natives, and the technology wasn't really that helpful.

Silver and the Economic Effects of Spain's Discoveries

Spanish discover silver in territory conquered from Incan empire (current day Bolivia) and thus begins the Spanish golden century. Armed convoys transported 16 million kilograms of silver and 185,000 kilograms of gold to Spain. It then experienced a rise in pop., demands rose and lacking the best farmers / businessmen, Muslims and Jews, prices rose. Textile industry hurt badly. / inflation. After 1600 pop. pressure declined and prices gradually stabilized. Price revolution: King Philip II repudiated the state debt - strained government budgets. Philip II paid debts with silver bullion, thus inflation spread to all of Europe. China demanded silver for its products.

Genoese and Venetian Middlemen

Venice and Genoa both lost trade with the east due to the Ottoman Empire and Portuguese/Dutch intrusion in the spice trade. However they had Mariners/merchants/financiers with many skills. Venice = Crusader kingdoms. Specialized in spices/silks/carpets, also slaves, but didn't explore new routes. By the 1400s Venice was at the height of its glory until French invasions in 1490s / the Portuguese. The Dutch eventually monopolized Red Sea trade / Ottoman's conquered some Mediterranean colonies. Meanwhile, Genoa dominated the northern route to Asia through the Black Sea / switched focus to the western Mediterranean.