Unit 3 Global Encounters Age of European Exploration
Unit 3Global Encounters
Age of European Exploration
What would cause Europeans to explore?
Prince Henry the Navigator
Bartolomeu Dias
Vasco de Gama
Spain vs. Portugal
Treaty of TordesillasLands to the West of an imaginary vertical
line drawn in the Atlantic, including most of the Americas = belonged to Spain
Lands East of this line, including present day Brazil, belonged to Portugal.
Why would both sides agree to the Treaty of Tordesillas?
Mercantilism
Mercantilism• Exports greater than imports
•Favorable balance of trade
•Colonies provided home countries with raw materials
•European countries used these materials for manufacturing
•Colonies were then markets for finished goods
•Colonies were often prohibited from buying goods from other nations bc of laws passed by their home countries
Results• Major shifts in power occurred
• Spurred competition for overseas colonies = created rivalries
• Set a pattern for acquisition of lands and conquering native people
Results• Merchants & Monarchs saw
potential to increase wealth and power• Peasants saw opportunity to live in
the New World free from the hierarchy that bound them economically and socially.
Results• Opened an era of genocide, cruelty and slavery.
• Enslavement of the Indians - not successful• Result: African Slave Trade
What were the results of exploration?
1. Which items do you think had the most profound impact on the "New" World and why?
2. Which new items had the most profound impact on the "Old" World and why?
3. Were the benefits of the exchange equitable? Or did one Hemisphere benefit at the expense of the other?
What was the French
Motivation for settlement?
“The Beaver does everything perfectly well, it makes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread; and, in short, it makes everything.” He was making sport of us Europeans, who have such a fondness for the skin of this animal and who fight to see who will give the most to these Barbarians, to get it; they carry this to such an extent that my host said to me one day, showing me a very beautiful knife, “The English have no sense; they give us twenty knives like this for one Beaver skin.” (Lepore, 91)
Global TradeRise of Capitalism
Economic system based on private ownership and the investment of resources, such as money, for profit
Commercial Revolution – increase in commerce (trade)
Global TradeIncrease in nations $ supply
Inflation = steady rise in the price of goods
Joint Stock Company = investors buy shares of a stock in a company
EffectsGrowth of townsRise of merchant class – great wealth
Majority of people in Europe remained poor
Increased wealth of European nations
Creation of national identity
Closing QuestionIn your opinion, what was the most significant impact of the Columbian exchange on the world today?