Age of Exploration

WHH 2010
1502, Cantino Planisphere
1570, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,
1507, Waldseemuller Map
 Why explore?

 Ottoman Empire captures Constantinople- 1453 AD

 Cuts off trade to the east via the overland routes
 Demand for eastern goods forces discovery of new
routes
 Italian city-states also monopolized trade from Eastern
Mediterranean

 Gold, silver, spices

 Found in Africa, India, and the east

 Spread Christianity
 Used force to spread religion, gain favor with the Pope
• Pope was actively seeking to spread power and
authority, esp. after Martin Luther
• More Catholics meant more power
 Part of the Catholic Reformation
• Missionaries like the Jesuits established themselves
across Central America

 Fame and glory

 Everyone wanted to be famous
 Monarchs became patrons for explorers
• Just like the Medici’s were patrons for artists
Ottoman Empire, 1543
Ventian (Green) and Genoese (Red) trade routes
 Portugal

 Easy access to the sea

 Many harbors, like Lisbon
 Portugal was competing with Spain and needed a
competitive edge (Spain was incredibly powerful)
 Spain still had access to Italian city-states for eastern goods

 Contact with Islam (The Reconquista)

 Exposed them to Islamic mathematicians and sea faring
techniques
 New sails and rudders
 Also desired to established trade posts beyond the Muslim
coastline of North Africa

 Prince Henry the Navigator

 Reached Atlantic Islands of Madeira (1419) and the
Azores (1427)
 Sent ships south to Africa- 1434
 Sought new routes to Middle East
 Eventually new routes to India- 1498

 Pedro Alvares Cabral- Brazil, 1500

 Vasco da Gama- Sailed to India, 1498
 Bartolomeu Dias- sailed around Africa, 1488
 Ferdinand Magellan- Led expedition around the world,
1522 Prince Henry the Navigator
Caravel

Carrack

Replica of the carrack Victoria,

the first known ship to
circumnavigate the world
 Spain

 Unification of Castile and Leon (1469)

 Isabella and Ferdinand
• Isabella was originally offered to King Edward Iv of
England and then Alfonso V of Portugal
• Eventually need papal dispensation to marry
Ferdinand, their grandfathers were brothers

 Completion of Reconquista
 Muslims driven out of Spain (Jews also expelled)
 Left a warrior society looking for a new outlet for
it’s energy as well as the need to compete with
Portugal

 Funded Columbus, 1492

 Try to beat Portugal’s monopoly on Africa
 Isabella rejected Columbus 3 times
 Columbus arrived in America on Oct. 12
• Discovery would pay off immensely, within 30 years
Spain became wealthiest European nation off gold and
silver from the Americas

 1494, Treaty of Tordesillas

 Line of Demarcation to avoid conflict with Portugal
• Portuguese threatened to take Spanish lands claimed
by Columbus

Queen Isabella of Spain

 Treaty of Zaragoza- did the same in the Pacific,
1529
Voyages of Columbus
 Pope and Exploration

 Papal Bulls- formal communication from the papal

 Dum Diversas, 1452

 Pope authorized Alfonso V of Portugal to conquer
Saracens and pagans along the west coast of Africa
and enslave them
• Possibly intended to launch crusade against Ottomans
• Historians consider this to be the start of the Atlantic
Slave Trade
 Early example of the creation of “spheres of
influence”

 Inter caetera, 1493

 Granted to Spain
• Political control of all lands west and south of a pole to
pole line
• Spain interpreted this as absolute political authority
 Prelude to the Treaty of Tordesillas

 Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494

 Divided the lands discovered/claimed by Portugal and
Spain
• Line of Demarcation

Meant to solve any potential dispute upon the return of
Columbus
 Spanish Conquest and Exploration

 Hernan Cortes- Conquered Aztecs 1521

 Ignored orders from Governor of Cuba and left for
Mexico with 11 ships, 500 men
• Was granted 20 women as hostages from
coastal city, one became his mistress and
translator
 Gathered native allies on his march to Tenochtitlan
 Cortes wrote to Charles V thinking the Aztecs
considered him a god
 After initial defeat, led reinforcements back and
conquered Aztecs, renaming Tenochtitlan as
Mexico City

 Francisco Pizarro- Conquered Incas 1532

Hernan Cortes
 Sailed to America with 2,500 colonists in 1502
• Pizarro was a veteran of the Italian Wars
which sacked Rome in 1527
 He helped in the execution of Vasco Balboa in
1519
 Take 3 expeditions to South America with the
intent of conquering the mythical empire to the
south
• Had to return to Spain in 1528 to convince
Charles V to support third expedition
 After defeating the Incas, Pizarro founded Lime
near the Pacific coast
 Governing the Americas
 Columbus and the first colonies
 He was a great navigator, poor administrator
 Used the natives to mine gold and for farming
 Also tried to bring back natives as slaves to
sell for profit
 As disease devastated local population,
Spanish turn to Africa for labor
 First settlements on the mainland
 Vasco Balboa established cities in Columbia,
1502
• First permanent settlements established in 1510
• By 1574- 30,000+ Spanish families in the New
World
 Mexico
 Conquered quickly through campaign
• More remote regions would take another 60
years of war
 Became the viceroyalty of New Spain
 Encomienda System
• Spanish granted encomiendas of native land
• Basically mini-governoships, oversaw native
production, but Spanish did not own land
 Peru and South America
 Lime founded in 1532 as regional
capital
 Viceroyalty established in 1542
 93% of population destroyed by 1591
 Mercantilism
 Dominant economic theory in Europe
from 15th cent to 18th cent
 Some historians argue that it fueled
both inter-European wars and
imperialism
 Focused on…
• Production of finished goods over raw
materials
• Large populaitons encouraged
• Keep gold/silver within the country
• Foreign goods should not be imported
• Raw materials should be imported if
needed
 Highly competitive system based upon
denying wealth to other nations
 Spanish Empire in 1530
during the reign of Charles V
Spanish depiction of Aztec human sacrifice
 The Columbian Exchange

 Exchange of animals, plants, culture, people, and diseases

 Term coined in 1972

 Disease
 Between 1500 and 1650, as much as 95% of the population died from European
diseases
• Smallpox, measles, and malaria

 Food
 Europeans brought back…
• Tomatoes, potatoes, corn, avocado, blue berry, cocoa, tobacco
 Europeans introduced…
• Peanuts, oranges, bananas, pineapples, dandelions, coffee, watermelon, sugarcane,
lemons and limes

 Animals
 Europeans brought back…
• Nothing, all major domestic animals come from Europe/Asia/Africa
 Europeans introduced…
• Horses, cows, pigs, donkeys, cat, goat, chicken, rabbit, sheep