1. Transoceanic Encounters and Global Connections The Columbian Exchange

2. Why Not China?
In 1405 the Chinese Admiral Zheng He led the first of seven voyages to the Indian Ocean and the east coast of Africa
Largest ships in the world (400 feet) carrying 28,000 sailors and soldiers
Collect tribute from and trade with all societies encountered on the voyages.
After last expedition in 1431, the Ming Emperor forbids any further voyages and scraps the entire fleet. Why?????

3. Motives for European Exploration
Why have the motivations for European exploration and colonization been summarized as “Gold, God and Glory”?
Gold: (economic motive).Desire for material wealth; precious metals, spices, slaves
God: Christian crusading and missionary tradition. Spain and Portugal recently completed the “reconquista”. Fall of Grenada in Anti-Muslim. Search for “Prestor John”
Glory: Competition for power between European nations
Another factor was the desire to understand the world; a product of the European Renaissance and scientific revolution.

4. What Spurred European Exploration?
Riches to be had in Asia!
After the collapse of the Mongol Empire, the trade routes to Asia were blocked or hampered by Ottoman Turks and monopolized by Venice.
Collusion between Venice and Ottomans
Ottomans brought goods to Mediterranean.
Venice brought it to the rest of Europe.
Middle men jacked up the prices.
Istanbul

5. The Lure of Spices
Europeans went looking for another way to get to Indian Ocean to avoid dealing with middlemen
Spices were in great demand to “spice up”
the boring and bland European diet
Indian pepper, Chinese
Ginger and cloves and
Nutmeg and Mace from the
Spice Islands (the Maluku
Islands or Moluccas in what is
now Indonesia.)

6. 1st Country Involved: Portugal
Prince Henry “the Navigator” got things started.
NOT a sailor, but the son of King John I of Portugal.
But he set up a school for navigators in Sagres, Portugal—the first in Europe.
Also sponsored voyages into the Atlantic and down the African coast.

7. Portuguese Explorations
Portuguese explorers discovered
Azores (1427) uninhabited; settled in 1439)
Madeiras Islands
Cape Verde Islands
Italian investors help Portuguese establish sugar plantations using African slave labor
At trading posts in West Africa, European horses are traded for gold and slaves

8. Portuguese Naval Innovations
Mapmaking (cartography)
Before, maps described coastlines not shipping routes.
Now they showed charts of the open sea.
Use of magnetic compass for determining direction.
Use of astrolabe (Arab invention) and cross staff for figuring out latitude at sea.
Fast ships—caravel—for sailing across or against wind, using triangular lateen sails as well as square sails.

9. Portuguese Explorers 1488 Bartholomeu Dias
discovered southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)
Proved you could get to East Asia by sailing around tip of Africa.
1497 Vasco Da Gama rounds Cape of Good hope and sails to India.
Encountered Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta.
Saw silk, porcelain, spices.
Couldn’t get merchants to trade with him because Portuguese goods were regarded as worthless.
Merchants accept only gold or silver.
Ferdinand Magellan, circumnavigation of the world. Magellan killed in the Philippine Islands. The survivors complete the journey.

10. The Portuguese Trading Post Empire
The Portuguese build forts to protect their trading posts in the Indian ocean
Mozambique in East Africa
Harmuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf
Goa on the west coast of India
Malacca in Malaya in Southeast Asia
They also received permission from the Chinese Emperor in 1557 to establish a trading post at Macao, a port on the Pacific ocean in southern China

11. 2nd Country Involved: Spain
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon united two major kingdoms of Spain.
In 1492 they completed the Reconquista with the capture of Grenada, ending Muslim presence in Spain since the 7th century.
After political unity, Isabella tried to achieve religious unity.
Even before Inquisition (started by Philip II later on) she forced conversions on Muslims and Jews (Moriscos and Maranos)
Some killed; many went into exile (150,000)

12. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
4 expeditions from
First meets the Taino (Arawak) in the Bahamas in October, 1492; also visits Cuba and Hispaniola.
From his contact on, an exchange between the Old and New Worlds of plants, animals, pathogens, and culture: “Columbian Exchange”

13. Columbian Exchange Old > New New > Old Plants
Sugarcane, wheat, onions, grasses, weeds
From Africa: coffee, sweet potatoes, bananas
corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, pumpkins, beans, peanuts, avocados, pineapples, tobacco
Animals
Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs
turkeys
Pathogens
Smallpox, measles, influenza, hepatitis
Venereal disease
Culture
Languages, religion, political organization

14. Impact of Diseases
By 1650, Native American population in Latin America was 1/10th of what it was in 1500.
That is, if there were 30 million people in Latin America (Meso- and South America together), then fifty years later there were just 3 million.

15. Benefits to Europe El Escorial
Gold and silver from America brought tremendous wealth to Europe (Spain, in particular)
Spain’s wealth got pumped into fighting Reformation forces, among other things. (Philip II)
Trade expanded in Europe; cities grew wealthy. Increasingly powerful “bourgeoisie”; an expanding capitalist economy
Diet improved among Europeans thanks to introduction of corn, beans, and potatoes.
Poor Europeans sought immigration to New World to improve their lives.
El Escorial

16. Competition between Spain and Portugal
Spain and Portugal were major competitors in expedition and conquest.
To settle differences, they asked Pope Alexander VI (Spanish by birth) to settle claims.
Alexander VI drew a “line of demarcation” down the middle of the Atlantic from North pole to South pole.
Spain was to get the west; Portugal the east.
Line was renegotiated in 1494 in Treaty of Tordesillas.
In Latin America, it roughly corresponds to the border dividing Brazil and the rest of Spanish-speaking South America.

17. Explorers: England
In search of the Northwest Passage: explorers imagined way to get to Asia by sailing north.
under Henry VII, John Cabot—an Italian—explored parts of Canada.
Claimed Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
Not much happening for about 70 years, then Martin Frobisher explored Labrador.
First attempt at settlement in Roanoke, VA in 1588; first permanent in Jamestown, VA in 1607.

18. Exploration of the Pacific Captain James Cook leads three expeditions to the Pacific. Adds Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands to European Maps. Killed in Hawai’i in 1779

19. Explorers: the Netherlands
1609 Henry Hudson—Englishman—explored North America for the Netherlands.
Again, looking for Northwest Passage.
First, he went through Arctic Ocean.
Next, he explored eastern part of US: sailed up the river (later named for him) and claimed it for Netherlands.

20. Explorers: France Looking for gold and markets for French goods.
1524 Giovanni da Verrazano explored coast from Maine to North Carolina. Sailed into New York harbor.
1530s Jacques Cartier explored St. Lawrence River and eastern Canada.
60 years goes by then Samuel de Champlain explored St. Lawrence region in 1603
First permanent French settlement in North America in 1608 in Quebec.

21. Colonial Empires
After exploration, the 5 European nations set up colonies:
Spain
Portugal
France
Great Britain (England)
Netherlands

22. Spanish Colonial Empire
Mid-16th century New Spain included:
Mexico
Central America
Most of South America
Western part of North America
Florida
Several Caribbean islands
In the Pacific: the Philippine Islands

23. Portuguese Empire Portugal: Brazil Trading posts on coasts of Africa
India
China (Macao)

24. Trading Post Empires
Portugal was to small a nation to maintain trade dominance in Africa and Asia.
English and Dutch merchants and investors form joint stock companies to finance overseas trade (East India Company and the VOC)
The Manila Galleons sail the Pacific between the Philippines and Mexico from 1565 to 1815, bringing goods from Asia to Europe.

25. French Empire New France: Eastern Canada Mississippi Valley
Trading colonies in Caribbean and India.

26. Netherlands New Netherland Hudson River Valley
Caribbean islands (St. Martin, Curacao)
Parts of South America
South Africa
Present-day Indonesia (Java)
Sri Lanka

27. Great Britain
After several wars with Netherlands, Spain and France, Great Britain won:
Canada
India
New Netherland (renamed New York)
Several Caribbean islands (Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, and more…)
By mid 18th century, Great Britain had:
13 colonies on Atlantic coast of North America.