Age of Exploration and Discovery Europe and the New World: New Encounters, 1500 – 1800
Dec 30, 2015
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
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
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
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?