Age of Exploration (1 janv. 1450 – 1 janv. 1650)

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The Age of Exploration was a time of drastic change in which Europeans discovered new routes to India, much of the far east, and the Americas. Europeans utilized new technology and trade routes to explore unknown lands and gain foreign goods like silks, spices, and new goods, all while wreaking havoc on native populations.

Political unification and economic growth in China and the spread of Islam through much of the Indian Ocean world were important developments. China had a powerful influence. They controlled the Silk Road, and the Mongols had increased connections with the Indian Ocean trade world. Fell to Ming Dynasty in 1368. Admiral Zheng led naval expeditions and enhanced China’s prestige. Mamluk empire was extremely powerful until taken by the Ottomans in 1517. Cairo was a hub of trade. Swahili-speaking city-states on the east coast of Africa engaged in trade. Gold and slaves were the most important parts of trade here.

Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453 and had control over maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean. Venice and Genoa controlled the European luxury trade with the east and were important players in the slave trade. Spices were used for food, medicine, etc, and showed off wealth.

A Reconquista-esque crusading spirit sparked expansion. Conquistadors (Spanish for conquerors) expected to be rewarded with land, titles, and power over conquered peoples.

Cosmography, natural history, and geography aroused interest. The Travels of Sir John Mandeville was a very popular book on travels in Asia. Important developments in technology included the caravel, a two or three-masted ship that required few crewmen and was highly maneuverable, the compass, which originated in China and was brought to the West in the late Middle Ages, and the astrolabe, which used star patterns to determine longitude. The Portuguese were the first to arm ships with cannons, which was very important in their conquests. Ptolemy’s Geography provided synthesized geographical knowledge of the classical world. It depicted the world as round and introduced latitude and longitude (did not include the Americas and the world shown as smaller than in actuality).

Henry the Navigator supported Portuguese voyages of discovery. Pope Nicholas V recognized Portuguese possession of territories in West Africa and allowed it to enslave non-Christians

In 1487, Bartholomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope but turned back to do poor conditions. A decade later, Vasco De Gama reached India and returned with lucrative goods that opened the possibility of these trade routes further. A Portuguese convey was sent out every year. These strides in exploration opened the door for Columbus.

Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci catches on to the idea that this was a new world. The Treaty of Tordesillas, established by Pope Leo II, established the line of Demarcation, splitting the world into Spanish and Portuguese claims. Magellan was sent out, rounded the Strait of Magellan, called the ocean the Pacific, then headed towards the Malay Archipelago (Indonesia and other island nations). He died in the Philippines and only 1 of 5 ships return. This was the first voyage to circumnavigate the globe, and took 3 years.

In 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian merchant living in London, got support from Henry VII to try to find a shorter passage to Asia. He landed on Newfoundland, and later made two additional voyages to explore the northeast coast of Canada. Martin Frobisher explored the Canadian bay and made three voyages that had little result. Jacques Cartier explored Canada, and the French found profit in beaver, fur trading, and fishing, which they competed with other nations for.

Hernán Cortes brazenly sets out for the Yucatán coast. He landed on the Mexican coast on April 21, 1519. Aztecs, with cities like Tenochtitlan, had developed a culture with advanced mathematics, astronomy, engineering, oral poetry, and written record keeping. They practiced constant warfare. The Spanish formed an alliance with Tlaxcala and began massacring Aztecs. Other kingdoms joined their alliance and in November, they attacked Tenochtitlan. Emperor Moctezuma II was taken hostage, killed, and the Aztecs attacked. The Spanish fled and attacked again, but smallpox dealt heavy blows.

The Incas (Ecuador+Colombia-Chile) had a complex system of colored and knotted cords (khipus) for administrative bookkeeping, and they made use of llamas. Their empire contained 80 provinces and twice as many districts, yet at that point, they were weakened by civil war and disease. Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru. The new leader Atahualpa is ambushed by the Spanish and killed. They headed to Cuzco, which fell in 1533, and the Spanish plundered the empire's wealth.
Portuguese settlers began arriving in Brazil in the 1530s. Numbers rose after the 1550s. They used enslaved natives, then turned to Africans. They pioneered large plantations worked by enslaved people in the Americas.

England, France, and the Netherlands chartered various companies. Virginia and Carolina were founded and used for tobacco and rice, respectively. European nations began to further colonize the American mainland. The French allied with the Huron, a league of 4 indigenous nations. The English hugged the coastline and didn't want to incorporate the indigenous population, unlike the Spanish. Sugar and slaves came about in the West Indies. England established autonomous assemblies to regulate local affairs

The Portuguese had the House of the Indies (Casa da India), a royal trading house in Lisbon to handle gold and other goods being extracted from Africa. They enjoyed a monopoly over exports and imports. Captaincies, hereditary grants of land given to nobles and loyal officials who were to bear the costs of settling and administering their territories, were implemented.

The Spanish established the House of Trade (Casa de la Contratacion), which oversaw economic matters. By the end of the 1500s, the Spanish had expanded into modern-day Mexico, southwestern modern-day U.S., and Central and South America. They took over Aztecs and Incas and divided possessions into viceroyalties, administrative divisions. They established the Encomienda system, a labor system that rewarded explorers with military men and land in the New World. They obtained land and labor from people on the land. It created a hierarchical labor system based on “blood purity”. Peninsulares were Spaniards born in Spain, Creoles were American-born Spaniards, Mestizos, were born of Spanish and Native Americans, followed by Native Americans, and enslaved persons.


Indigenous women would be used, often enslaved, as translators and guides. When women accompanied European men, their culture endured with the influence of local cultures. When women did not, local populations often retained their own cultures.
⅘ of the female population who crossed the Atlantic before 1800 were captive Africans, who were often coerced into sexual relations, resulting in a mix of indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans

Transatlantic slave trade began in 1518 with authorization from King Charles I of Spain. The Portuguese brought the first slaves to Brazil around 1550. The Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621 and transported thousands. 20% of captives died on the voyage before slavers decided it was better for business to improve conditions around 1700.
In 1545, the Spanish discovered the silver mine of Potosi (conquered by the Inca, present-day Bolivia), which yielded 60% of the world’s silver by 1550. Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico were also used. The Spanish made a huge profit while millions of laborers suffered. Spanish claimed the Quinto, ⅕ of all previous metals from South America, which was 25% of its income.

The whole world was linked by trade and a global economy developed, which resulted in the commercial empires of the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch. The Portuguese were the first worldwide traders. They were involved in trade on sea routes to India, trading slaves throughout Asia, Asian spices, and gold and ivory from East Africa.

Spanish had a land empire in the new world and a seaborne empire in Manila (established in 1571, linked South America and China). Spanish traded silver for Chinese silks.
Towards the end of the 1500s, Dutch challenged these commercial empires. Protestant Dutch were engaged in a war for independence from Spanish Catholics at the same time. They had reason to challenge the Spanish and Portuguese. A successful 1599 voyage led to the creation of the Dutch East India Company, which forged military alliances, captured Malacca, gained western access to the Malay archipelago with Indonesian assistance, and took over Sri Lanka. They established Cape Town. They were more ruthless and organized than the Portuguese and aggressively intervened in new world and transatlantic slave trade

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