Age Of Exploration

• 15th Century Europeans began to explore

the world.

• Portugal, Spain, the Dutch Republic and

England reached new economic heights
through world trade.
• Conquistadors – Spanish conquerors of the
Americans
• Colony – A settlement of people living in a new
territory, linked with the parent country by trade
and direct government control.
• Mercantilism – A set of principles that dominated
economic thought in the 17th century.
• Balance of Trade – Difference in value between
what a nation imports and what it exports over
time.
Exploration and Expansion 1500-
1800
• Europeans had been interested by Asia for
a long time.
– Interest peaked during the Renaissance
because of the want for exotic items.
 Motives
• 3 Motives
– Gold
• Riches
• Jewels
• Spices
• Textiles
– Glory
• First person to reach a new land
• Higher Social Status
– God
• Missionaries
• Spread Religion – More Followers = More Power
 New Maritime Technologies
Better Maps

Hartman Astrolabe
(1532)
Mariner’s Compass

Sextant
 Portuguese
• Sail East
• Lead the way in exploration-explore Africa in
1400’s
• Name West Africa the “Gold Coast”
• Vasco da Gama sails around “cape of good
hope” to India
• 1498-Arrives in Calicut, gets spices, makes a profit of several
thousand percent
• 1507 Portuguese fleet of warships defeats a
fleet of Indian and Turkish ships to gain control
of strategic ports
 Spanish
• Sail West
• Establish an overseas empire (Portuguese
only set up trading posts).
• Spanish were there to inhabit and occupy
the land as opposed to profit only.
 Columbus
• Believed the world was round and not flat.
• Did not know how big oceans were, how big
continents were, or that North and South
America existed.
• Columbus underestimates the size of the earth.
• Convinces Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain to
fund a westward voyage to Asia.
– Columbus is of Italian ethnicity but sails under the
Spanish Flag
Columbus
 1492 – Columbus Sails…
• Explores the Island of Hispaniola and the
Cuban coast.
• 4 voyages total exploring the area-calls it
the Indies until the day he dies even
though everyone knew it was not by then.
• Columbus finds modern day Caribbean
Islands.
• Assumes the natives are Indian based on
the color of their skin.
A Map of the Known World,
pre- 1492
 Line of Demarcation
• Line down Atlantic Ocean dividing
undiscovered territories between Portugal
and Spain.
– Territories East-Portugal, Territories west-
Spain.
– Explorers now race to discover new
territories.
– This is why South America speaks both
Spanish and Portuguese.
Line of Demarcation
 Amerigo Vespucci
• Letters he wrote on his travels to South
America made him famous, continent
named after him.
– America and Amerigo sound very similar…
– Writings became historical evidence of what
travel and sea life was like.
 John Cabot
• Explored the New England coastline of the
Americas for England.
 Spanish Empire
• Conquistadors—swiftly defeated natives
– Cortez overthrows Aztecs in three years
• Francisco Defeats the Inca
• Portugal gets Brazil—other side of line of
Demarcation
• Natives were put to work in gold and silver
mines—labor, starvation, and disease
– Native population on Hispaniola goes from
250,000 to 500 in about 50 years
Conquistadors
 Economic Impact
• Europeans go crazy for gold/riches in
Americas.
– The supply is low but the demand is very
high.
– Allows for successful explorers to make a
huge profit.
• Completely changes trade—new network
between Europe and Americas.
– Faster and shorter route.
 Ferdinand Magellan
• Helped the Spanish establish themselves in the
Philippine Islands.
• Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became
the first expedition to sail from the Atlantic
Ocean into the Pacific Ocean
– Then named "peaceful sea" by Magellan
– The passage being made via the Strait of Magellan
and the first to cross the Pacific.
– Also completed the first circumnavigation of the
Earth
Ferdinand Magellan
 English – Dutch - French
• 1500’s and 1600’s these countries join the
competition.
• Dutch are 1st to inhabit the Northeast of North
America.
• By 1700 English take control of the area and re-
name the colony of New Netherland, New York.
• French sought wealth in the fur trade.
• English sought colonization and land expansion.
• Dutch sought riches.
 Impact of European Expansion

1. Native populations ravaged by

disease.
2. Influx of gold, and especially
silver, into Europe created an
inflationary economic climate.
[“Price Revolution”]
3. New products introduced across
the continents [“Columbian
Exchange”].
4. Deepened colonial rivalries.
• Plantation – Large agricultural estates
typically worked by slaves.
• Triangular Trade – Trade route that
connected Europe, Africa and the
Americas.
• Middle Passage – Middle portion of the
Triangular Trade route, majority of slaves
were transported in this route.
 Slavery
• Slavery existed in many countries such as;
– England
– Southwest Asia
– Africa
• Since countries were expanding during
exploration, slavery increased
dramatically.
Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade
 The Slave Trade
1. Existed in Africa before the coming
of the Europeans.
2. Portuguese replaced European slaves
with Africans.
Sugar cane & sugar plantations.
First boatload of African slaves
brought by the Spanish in 1518.
275,000 enslaved Africans exported
to other countries.

3. Between 16c & 19c, about 10 million

Africans shipped to the Americas.
Slave Ship

“Middle Passage”