The Age of Exploration:

1400-1800
 The Historical Setting
for Exploration
 Europe wanted trade:
overland routes
expensive
 Limited previous
contact with the
Americas had
occurred: Vikings
 Marco Polo had
reached China Vikings
Renaissance Ideas That
Influenced Exploration
 Most educated men
believed that the
world was round
 There were stories of
other lands, but they
were not focused on
the Western
Hemisphere
 Economic Developments

 Trade routes
expanded: Italians
traded with Asia then
sold to the northern
Europeans
 Europeans wanted:
spices(cinnamon,
The Royal Exchange, London
pepper, nutmeg)
 The development of
banking
 New Technology
Ships
 Caravels
 round hulled, carry heavy
arms, smaller

 Ship technology
 rudder, triangular sails

 Armaments
 gunpowder/ cannons on
ships to protect/conquer
 New Technology
Navigation
 Astrolabe
 Calculate latitude
 Compass
 Determine direction
 Practical knowledge
of winds and currents

Astrolabe
 Cartography
Early and Medieval Maps

Ptolemaic map Jerusalem maps

Mappa Mundi
 Late Medieval and
Renaissance Cartography

Portolan map Fra Mauro’s map

 Cartography and Projection
• Projection:
how project a
round object
on a flat map?

Mercator map of Europe, 16th century

 Motives for Exploration

SEARCH FOR RESOURCES AND LAND

Oceanic resources Land resources Land for

Land for
Sugar
like fish, whales like timber wheat
Motives for Exploration
MISSIONARY ACTIVITY
 Motives for Exploration
National: make country GLORY Personal: fame,
more powerful and rich money and power

Columbus lands in America

 In Summary:
Why Explore? And Because they Can
 God  Technology
 Missionary work  Compass, astrolabe, ships
 Gold  maps
 Money to be made  Weapons
 Trade
 Medical knowledge
 Glory
 Competition
 Fame/riches
Early Endeavors:
The Portuguese
 The Portuguese
began the era of
European
exploration
 The Portuguese
were dependent
on the seas
 Ocean access
helped Portugal
 Connected
northern Europe
to Italy
Prince Henry the Navigator
(1394–1460)
 Son of the king of
Portugal
 Had been a crusader in
northern Africa, saw
wealth/goods there
 Investigated possible
trade opportunities in
Africa(gold, silver)
 Established navigational
school: map makers,
sailors, etc
 Motivation: wealth and
religion
Early Portuguese Exploration:
Africa
 West African
coast: looking
for route to India
 Trade
developed: gold,
slaves, spices

Portuguese fort on the African coast

 Bartolomeu Dias
 Traveled the coast of
Africa
 Around the tip of
southern Africa in
1488
 Returned to Portugal

Dias rounding the Cape of Good Hope

 Vasco da Gama
 1498, sailed for India
 Reached India
 Sea route

Da Gama in India Portrait of da Gama

The Portuguese Empire in the
East
 Largest European
empire in Asia
 Opened/controlled
trade in India,
Japan, East Indies,
Spice Islands
 Eventually lost
control of their trade
empire
 Other countries
started to trade Da Gama landing in Calcutta
Portugal

Japan

East Indies
Spice
Islands

India
 Other Traders in the East
 Established East
India Companies
 The English, French,
and Dutch
established trade

Dutch settlement in Java, 1665

 Afonso d’Albuquerque

 16th-century commander
 Seized control of several critical ports
 Difficult to secure full control over the area
 First governor general in India
 The Collapse of the
Portuguese Empire
 Control over the
empire weakened
 Portugal taken over
in 1580
 Japan adopted a
policy of isolationism
 Other European
countries seized Jesuits in Japan
Portuguese interests
throughout Asia
 The Spanish Empire in Asia
 Did not focus on
Asian markets
 Established a
colony in the
Philippines

A Spanish galleon
 Northern Europeans in Asia
 Latecomers to
Asia
 Established East
India Companies
 The English,
French, and
Dutch

18th-century French map of Southeast Asia

 The Dutch and Java
 Wanted Asian
port
 Jan Pieterszoon
Coen established
a trading
monopoly in Java
(Indonesia)
 Direct and indirect
rule

Dutch settlement in Java, 1665

Discovering a New World?

 Empires in the New World—the result of a

mistake
 Christopher Columbus
 Italian navigator
 Sought patron($$) for
his exploration idea
 Spain’s King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella paid
 Sail West to get to East
Indies
 Sailed with 3 boats in
1492
 Columbus’s Journey
 Sailed west
for about 2
months
 Found land
in the
Caribbean
 Believed he
was in Asia
 Discovered
Hispaniola
and Cuba
Columbus’s Subsequent
Journeys  2nd journey
 Puerto Rico
and Jamaica
discovered
 3rd and 4th
trips explored
South
America and
Central
America
Amerigo Vespucci
 Geographer who
wrote notes
about land they
found
 New World
named in his
honor on a map
in 1507
 Portuguese and Spanish
Explorers in the New World:
 Pedro Alvares Cabral:
1500
 Claimed Brazil for
Portugal: sugar
plantations
 Vasco Nunez da
Balboa: 1510
 Crossed Panama, saw
Pacific Ocean
Balboa sighting the Pacific Ocean
 Ferdinand Magellan
 Explored the coast of South
America
 Entered Pacific Ocean

Magellan’s route
 Magellan
 Difficult Pacific journey
 Scurvy
 Food shortages: ate
rats, leather
 Reached Philippines
and Magellan was
killed
 Of 280 crew, only 35
survived to end
Hernando Cortes
 Conquered the
Aztec Empire
(1519–1521)
 Defeated
Montezuma
 Stole gold
 Millions of natives
killed by smallpox
 Governor of Mexico
 Francisco Pizarro
 Conquered the Incas
 Held Atahualpa, the
Inca ruler, prisoner
 Once he controlled the
area, he exploited the
Incas: taxes, labor in
mines
 Spanish Conquest
 Empire extends into North America
 Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida
 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado: traveled in
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, etc

 Many missionaries settled in today’s U.S.

 The Impact on the
Spanish Colonies
 Exploitation of
gold and silver
 Plantations
established
 Trade increased
 Natives forced
labor, lower class
 Bring language
and Woodcut of Potosi
religion(Catholic)
Social Classes & the Spanish

Spanish

Creoles

Mestizos

Native Americans
 Benefits for Spain
 Wealthy empire from silver/gold
 Built navy and army: one of most powerful
European nations
Spanish Impact
The Spanish in the New World
Built an enormous empire in the Americas

Governmental
Administration

Council
Royal of Vice-
Administrators the royalties
Indies
 Religion and the Spanish
Empire
 Christian
missionaries
 Christian
missionaries
and Native
American rights
 Explorers
in the Spain

New World: North

America French
Dutch

North
America

English
 Brazil and the Portuguese
 Pedro Cabral
 Organization and structure of
Brazil
 Economic opportunities

Brazilian plantation
 British and French
Exploration in North America
John
Cabot

Gaspar
Henry
Corte-
Hudson
Real
Explorers

Giovanni
Jacques
da
Cartier
Verrazano
The French in North America
 Samuel de Champlain
 Furs
 Jesuit missionaries

Champlain in Quebec
Further French Colonization

La Salle in Mississippi

 Mississippi and Louisiana

 New France remained small
 English Exploration
 Henry VIII
 Wants to find
“Northwest Passage”
to Asia
 fails

Henry VIII
 English Colonization
in North America
 Slow colonization but
sped up in 1600s
 Roanoke: failed
colony
 Jamestown: first
permanent settlement
 The 13 colonies
 Causes of migration
 English Motvies
 economic opportunities, like many of those
who settled in Virginia.
 relief from religious persecution in
England.
 Catholics in Maryland
 Puritans in Massachusetts
 Quakers in Pennsylvania
The Role of Trading
Companies
Joint-stock-
investors buy stock,
combine wealth

Essential
Elements
Granted Private
charters endeavors-
no gov’t
intervention
 Joint-Stock Companies
 Joint-stock company lets investors share
risk, profits of business
 Buy stock
 Get charter from King
• to establish colony

 help fund colonies in America: Jamestown

Triangular Trade: Review

Spain, Portugal

United States,
Brazil

Rum too

Ghana, Nigeria
The Columbian Exchange

Disease: Plants, animals,

smallpox- and foodstuffs
killed
Natives

Migration of
people (voluntary
and involuntary)
 Columbian Exchange:
Plants and Animals
From the Americas:
Potatoes: most important Pumpkin
Maize/corn: 2nd most Beans
Cocoa Squash
Peanuts Tobacco
Pineapple Tomatoes
Turkeys Llamas
Quinine: treated malaria Avocados
 Columbian Exchange:
Plants and Animals
From Europe:
Wheat Pigs
Cauliflower Sheep
Cabbage Horse
Citrus Fruits Cattle
Peas Onion
Clover
Effects of Columbian Exchange
In Europe In Americas
-More food=more people -horse helps
-quinine helped them Europeans defeat/
colonize Africa colonize Natives
-
-Natives use horse on
plains
-grains for farming
-weeds came too
 Columbian Exchange:
European Diseases
 European diseases
kill millions of
Natives
 Smallpox, measles,
influenza, and
whooping cough

Smallpox victim
Development of Global Trade
 World
connected by
trade

Mining in the colonies

 Changing Economies

 Wealth from Americas, growth of trade

changes business in Europe
 New economic system—capitalism—
based on private property, profit
 Inflation occurs: prices rise when supply is
less than demand
 New Economic Policy

 Policy of mercantilism emphasizes national

wealth as source of power

2 Ways to get wealth

1. gather gold, silver
2. Favorable balance of trade: nation sells
more goods than it buys
Colonies provide: gold, raw materials used to
make goods(cotton), and market to sell goods
Effects of Economic Revolution
 Towns grow
 Merchants gain wealth
 European nations wealthy and more
powerful
 Explorers
in the Spain

New World: North

America
French
Dutch

North
America

English
 The French in North America

• Looking for water route

to Pacific
• Northwest Passage
• New France: Quebec
• Also explored Great
Lakes, Mississippi River
• Dominate fur trade
• Jesuit missionaries
arrive
• New France remained
small
Champlain in Quebec
 French Explorers
 Cartier: founded Montreal
 Champlain: founded New France and city of
Quebec
 Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet
traveled into Wisconsin and discovered the
upper Mississippi Valley.
 Further French Colonization

 Robert Cavelier
de La Salle
followed the
Mississippi River
all the way south
to the Gulf of
Mexico
 Mississippi and
Louisiana La Salle in Mississippi
established.
New Orleans
established
 The Dutch
 1609 Henry Hudson
explores waterways
for the Dutch
(Netherlands)
 Dutch claim land,
found New
Netherland—now
Albany, New York
City
 Dutch focus on fur
trade
 Colonizing the Caribbean
 European nations start colonies in the
Caribbean
 Large cotton and sugar plantations work
by slaves
New Colonial Rivals