Zheng He (Hajji Mahmud Shamsuddin) 1371-1433 Chinese Admiral
Zheng He(Hajji Mahmud Shamsuddin)
1371-1433Chinese Admiral
Christophe Colomb’s and Zheng He’s Ships
A giraffe brought from
Malindi, Kenya, by the
fleets of Zheng He.
Henry the Navigator 1394-1460
Astrolabe
Portuguese caravel. This was the
standard model used by the
Portuguese in their voyages of
exploration. It could
accommodate about 20 sailors.
Lateen Sail
Portuguese Map of Western Africa, 1502 The map shows in great detail a section of African coastline that Portuguese explorers charted and named in
the fifteenth century. The African interior is illustrated with drawings of birds and views of coastal sights: Sierra Leone, named for a mountain shaped like a lion, and the Portuguese Castle of the Mine on the Gold
Coast.
Fernão Gomes15th CenturyPortuguese
entrepreneur who purchased from the king the privilege to explore in return for
trade monopoly.
The Portuguese Fleet Embarked for the Indies
This image shows a Portuguese trading fleet in the late fifteenth century, bound for the riches of the Indies. Between 1500 and 1635, over nine hundred
ships sailed from Portugal to ports on the Indian Ocean, in annual fleets composed
of five to ten ships.
Bartolomeu Dias 1451-1500
Vasco da Gama1469-1524
Portuguese Sailor
The route followed in Vasco da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499)
European Exploration, 1420–1542 Portuguese and Spanish explorers showed the possibility and practicality of intercontinental maritime trade. Before 1540 European trade with Africa and Asia was much more important than that with the Americas, but after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires
transatlantic trade began to increase. Notice the Tordesillas line, which in theory separated the Spanish and Portuguese spheres of activity.
Elmina Castle Erected in 1482 by the Portuguese in Ghana
Portuguese Port in Muscat erected in the 1580s
Fort Jesus, Mombasa Still standing on the Kenyan coast today, Fort Jesus was built by the
Portuguese in 1593. The fort was built not only to protect Portuguese trade interests in the Indian Ocean, but also to assert the Christian conquest of the
Swahili speaking Muslims of Mombasa. The Swahili word for a jail, gereza, derives from the Portuguese word for a church, igreja, indicating how the
residents of Mombasa themselves saw Fort Jesus.
Portuguese in India In the sixteenth century Portuguese men moved to the Indian Ocean Basin to work as administrators and traders. This Indo-Portuguese drawing from about 1540 shows a Portuguese man speaking to an Indian woman, perhaps making
a proposal of marriage.
World Map of Diogo Ribeiro, 1529This map integrates the wealth of new information provided by European
explorers in the decades after Columbus’s 1492 voyage. Working on commission for the Spanish king Charles V, the mapmaker has incorporated
new details on Africa, South America, India, the Malay Archipelago, and China. Note the inaccuracy in his placement of the Moluccas or Spice Islands, which
are much too far east. This “mistake” was intended to serve Spain’s interests in trade negotiations with the Portuguese.
A New World Sugar Refinery, BrazilSugar as the most important and most profitable plantation crop in the New
World. This image shows the processing and refinement of sugar on a Brazilian plantation. Sugar cane was grown, harvested, and processed by African slaves
who labored under ruthless conditions to generate profits for plantation owners.
Chinese PorcelainThis porcelain from a seventeenth-century Chinese ship’s cargo, recovered from the
sea, was intended for European luxury
markets.
Hernan Cortes1485-1547
Spanish conquistador
Mexico and Central AmericaThe Valley of Mexico was a populous region of scattered towns, most of which were
part of the Aztec Empire. As Cortés marched inland from Vera Cruz toward the valley, he passed through lands that for generations had been in an almost constant state of
war with the Aztecs.
Francisco Pizarro
1475-1541Spanish
Conquistador