1. Chapter 14, Section 1
The Search for Spices

2. Motivations…Why Explore the Seas?
Historical background:
Crusades introduce Europeans to Asian luxury goods
The Black Death & Decline of the Mongol Empire disrupted that trade in the 1300s
1400s: Europe’s population was growing = increased demand for trade goods
Most valuable items = SPICES
Used for…
Food preservation
Flavor
Medicines & Perfumes
Chief Source = The Moluccas

3. Competition:
1400s = Arabs & Italians controlled trade between Asia and Europe
Asians brought goods to Eastern Mediterranean + Italians Carried those goods to the rest of Europe. However…
Europeans Outside Italy = wanted direct access to Asian markets…more profitable

4. Portugal Sails East: Prince Henry = sailed for Portugal
Claimed the Azores and Madeira Islands
Saw great promise in Africa
1415 = seized Ceuta on the N. African Coast
Why Africa?
Portuguese could convert Africans to Christianity
Also wanted to find sources of wealth
Wanted an easier route to Asia = meant you had to go around Africa
Redesigned ships, prepared maps and trained crews and captains for long voyages
Explored the West Coast of Africa
1488: Bartholomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope = opens a sea route to Asia

5. WE ROCK!!!! (even though we picked up scurvy!)
The Prize of India
1497 = Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut on the West Coast of India
Get a cargo of spices = makes huge profit in Europe
Returns with new, bigger fleet
1502 = forces a treaty on Calicut
Left Portuguese merchants there
They would buy spices and store them for da Gama’s ships
Portugal establishes a “ring” of trading posts around the Indian Ocean….establishes them as a world power
WE ROCK!!!! (even though we picked up scurvy!)

6. Christopher Columbus Background: Navigator from Genoa, Italy
Goal: To reach the East Indies (groups of Islands in SE Asia) by sailing west across Atlantic
Problem: Underestimated the size of the Earth!!!
Portugal refused to sponsor him…big mistake
Spain sponsors him = compensate for power they had recently lost

7. The Columbus Story…
August 3, 1492 = Nina, Pinta, & the Santa Maria set sail
Voyage is longer than expected
Supplies are running very low…
October 12 = Land is spotted!!!
He had reached the Caribbean
He named the people Indians…b/c he believed he was in the East Indies (Tainos)
1493 = Returns to Spain & makes 3 return journeys to the Caribbean…convinced he was in Asia
Other nations = realized he was in a “New World”
Ooopps! Oh well, we’ll just call it the “West Indies”!

8. The Line of Demarcation:
Set by Pope Alexander VI following a request from Ferdinand & Isabella of Spain
Divided non-European world into 2 zones
Spain to the west, Portugal to the East
Treaty of Tordesillas = established the terms
Effect: other European nations wanted to build their own empires….quickly
Wanted to keep pace with Portugal & Spain

9. The Search for a Direct Route
Northwest Passage = path between Europe and Asia that ships could sail on
Ferdinand Magellan =
Sailed for Spain
Wanted to find the Pacific
Rounded the tip of S. America
Named the ocean “Pacific” = peaceful
1521, reaches the Philippines where he is killed
Survivors returned to Spain =
First people to circumnavigate the globe