First Global Age: Europe and Asia

1415-1796

The Age of Exploration• the Age of Exploration, was a period starting in the early

15th century and continuing to the 17th century during which Europeans explored Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

• The Black Death and the breakup of the Mongol Empire disrupted trade along the Silk Road

• Since the Silk Road ended in Constantinople, most of the trade to Europe was controlled by Muslim and Italian Merchants. The Age of Exploration ended this monopoly.

• The last straw was the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. This severed European trade links by land with Asia leading many to begin seeking routes east by sea and spurred the age of exploration

The Age of DiscoveryHistorians often refer to the 'Age of Discovery‘ as the first Portuguese and Spanish long-distance maritime travels in search of trade routes to "the East Indies", to get access to gold, silver and spices.

The contact between the Old and New Worlds produced the Columbian Exchange: a wide transfer of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

The Columbian Exchange is one of the most significant global events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in history.

Motives - Wealth

• The Age of Exploration was sparked by a number of motives, the most prevalent being profit. After the Ottoman Turks cut off the Silk Road, spices and goods from the east became very, very expensive.

Motives - Religion• Many of these explorers had

religious reasons. The Catholic Churches and the Protestant Churches were now competing for souls, so if an explorer could discover new lands, they could claim them for the Church.

• Many also wanted to continue the crusades against the Muslims

Motives – Curiosity and Fame

• Many of the people that went on these voyages of exploration went from curiosity about different cultures.

• Also, since the feudal pyramid was crumbling, this was a way to move up in society. Becoming a famous explorer could help escape whatever social class one was born into. Also, discovery of new markets, could make one rich, which always helps socially.

Technological Advances• One of the reasons sailors had not

ventured too far out into the Atlantic was because there was really no reliable way to navigate back.

• The invention of the Astrolabe by the Arabs and used by Europeans allowed sailors to chart reasonable courses.

• The Portuguese introduction of the Caravel, a multi-sail ship with a functional rudder, made it possible to sail against the wind. Also, the Caravel was large enough to carry supplies and weapons, which makes discovery and conquest much easier.

The Portuguese Go to India

The Portuguese began systematically exploring the Atlantic coast of Africa from 1418, under the sponsorship of Prince Henry. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias reached the Indian Ocean by this route. Vasco da Gama led an expedition in 1497 that reached India itself

The Dutch Empire

The Dutch were the first to really challenge the Portuguese in Asia. They possessed a large and very effective navy . This allowed them to set up trading outposts throughout Southeast Asia.They settled the southern tip of Africa known as the Cape of Good Hope.In 1602, a group of wealthy Dutch merchants formed the Dutch East India Company which effectively ruled Southeast Asia for 100 years.

Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus was an Italian sailing for the Spanish royals Ferdinand and Isabella.Queen Isabella was a big supporter of this expedition. She wanted to spread Catholicism to new lands.Columbus never really figured out that he found a new continent. He thought he had found the East Indies, thus he named the people “Indians”. Amerigo Vespucci, another Italian sailor, was the namesake for the New World. A German cartographer, or mapmaker, labeled this new area “America”.

Commercial and Cultural influence of India in Southeast Asia

Indian merchants and Hindu priests filtered into Southeast Asia over many years, bringing Indian culture with them.The prosperity brought to these areas by the Indian traders was welcomed by the natives. The height of Indian influence was between 500 and 1000 AD. The primary effect of India on Southeast Asia was the introduction of Buddhism and Islam. One area in which India was not influential in Southeast Asia was in the role of women. Traditionally, in India, Japan, Korea and China, the role of women was severely restricted.Southeast Asia is different. There were female merchants, some attained enough wealth and power to become rulers of port cities, women could choose to divorce and matrilineal descent was common

European AdvantagesHistorians have wondered why Western Europeans came to dominate the world. The answer to a large extent is: a)more advanced political organization b)b) capitalism created a need for overseas expansion and provided the money to do it with and

c)c) GUNS

Ming China1368 - 1644

Admiral Zheng explored most of southeast Asia long before the occidentals arrived. Zheng was sent out into the world at the behest of his Emperor. The question has always been “why did they stop”. Many explanations have been proffered but none explain it, except the most basic one, which was vanity.China of the Ming was one of the great civilizations of the world. The art, the technology and the commerce were probably the greatest that the world would see at that point. This is wonderful and this is great, but like other things we have talked about, in success lies the seed of failure.The Ming considered their empire to be the entire world worth having. Anything outside of it was barbarian. The Ming stopped exploring because they simply chose to. This attitude guaranteed conquest later because they never had to change.

Ming ChinaWhen Portuguese traders reached China in 1514, they were treated like barbarians by the Ming. They didn’t have anything that the Ming particularly wanted, so they made the Portuguese make their purchases in gold or silver rather than in trade.They restricted the Portuguese traders to outposts on the island of Macao. This island later became the trade center of Asia as the other Europeans set up outposts there. Very few of these European traders took the trouble to find out what the Chinese were really like. One of the few was a Jesuit priest named Mateo Ricci, who learned the language and dressed like a native. He didn’t have much success spreading Christianity.

Manchu Conquest1644

The Ming Dynasty came to an end for all the usual reasons and the invaders this time were the Manchus.The new Manchu Dynasty was called the Qing Dynasty. They were led by two brilliant emperors, Kangxi and his grandson, Quianlong. The Manchus wanted to preserve their own identity, so they held themselves separate from the Chinese.It was against the law to intermarry. Women were not allowed to engage in foot binding, and for every government post there were two officials, one Chinese and one Manchu.This worked quite well because the Manchus also embraced Confucian ideas about government, so things worked well. China prospered and with the new goods from the New World like potatoes and corn, famine stopped for a while and the population doubled.

Tokugawa JapanThe Portuguese reached Japan in 1543, followed by the Spanish and the Dutch. Japan was in the midst of a power struggle between the shogun and the daimyos. The Tokugawa adopted western firearms and castles and used these methods to centralize the feudal system of Japan.Christian missionaries had more luck in China than in China or Korea. Francis Xavier, a Spanish priest was very successful at converting many Japanese to Catholicism.All of this trade and religion started scaring the Tokugawa and they expelled all foreigners in 1638 and started persecuting and killing Christian converts.They outlawed any trade outside of Japan and turned inward.

First Global Age: Europe and the Americas

1492-1759

First Encounters

In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the West Indies, in the Caribbean. He encountered the Taíno people, who were friendly and generous toward the Spanish.

Spanish conquistadors, or conquerors, followed in the wake of Columbus. They settled on Caribbean islands, seized gold from the Taínos, and forced them to convert to Christianity.

Meanwhile, smallpox, measles and influenza carried by the Europeans wiped out village after native village. Native Americans had no immunity, or resistance, to such diseases.

Hernan Cortés landed on the Mexican coast in 1519.

Cortés arranged alliances with discontented peoples who hated their Aztec overlords.

The Aztec emperor, Moctezuma, thought Cortés might be a god. He offered tribute to Cortés and welcomed him to Tenochtitlán.

When relations grew strained, the Aztecs drove the Spanish out of Tenochtitlán.

In 1521, Cortés returned and captured and demolished Tenochtitlán.

CORTÉS IN MEXICO

MontezumaMontezuma was the Aztec Emperor. He was considered a god and part of the Aztec religion required human sacrifice (since the humans sacrificed were being done so for Montezuma tended to upset the people in general)He is actually the one that thought the bearded Spaniards was Quetzcoatl. Montezuma welcomed Cortez into his capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). Cortez returned his courtesy by taking Montezuma captive until a ransom of gold was delivered. Remember, this pretty much set the pattern for relations between the natives and the Europeans. The Aztecs were able to drive the Spanish from the city, but Montezuma was killed and the Aztec empire was essentially finished.

PizarroPizarro was inspired by Cortez (shows you what kind of people we are dealing with that he was INSPIRED)Pizarro took his Conquistadores further south into South America to what is now Peru in 1532There they set about conquering the Incas led by Atahualpa. Using Incan allies just like Cortez, Pizarro slaughtered thousands of natives and took Atahualpa prisoner for a ransom. This conquest added a large chunk of South America to the new Spanish Empire in the new world.

Land Claims in the AmericasBy 1675, Spain, France, Britain, and Portugal possessed sizable overseas empires.Trade ships carried goods between Europe and the Americas and Africa.

New SpainIn the beginning the Spanish Empire produced thousands of TONS of gold and silver as its main export. This is what drove most of the exploration of the Americas by everyone from the Dutch to the English. All came looking for gold.The problem was that most of the gold was in Mexico and South America. It took years before the real important exports like sugar (the most important product), tobacco and coffee were recognized. These products over the long run produced far more wealth than the gold that essentially ruined Spain (more on that later)The Spanish understood what they had and set about to control it as quickly and as rigidly as possible.The did this first by importing Spanish feudalism. This basically reinforced the Spanish social and political system into the New World. They set up the Council of the Indies to pass laws for their new empire. They essentially ruled in the King’s name in the New World. Viceroys or representatives of the crown were then appointed to rule each province. The Catholic Church played a huge role in the colonies. Priests served as local rulers. Franciscan, Jesuit and Dominican missionaries worked to convert the natives. The forced European culture on the natives against their will. No wonder they were hated.

Economic ControlThe Spanish were diligent in controlling the economy of New Spain.The first and most important rule was that all goods had to go to Spain first before they were sold elsewhere. This gave the Spanish a supposed advantage over their economic competitors the French and the English. This was most important part of the policy of Mercantilism (more about this later)The Spanish also used the idea of the Encomienda to provide labor for the sugar plantations. This was used instead of outright slavery, though it was the same thing. With the encomienda, the Spanish could demand labor or tribute from the natives. They put them to work in the mines and they died by the hundreds of thousands.A very, very few people opposed the use of slaves, the most important being Bartolommeo de las Casas, a priest.Las Casas said the exploitation of the Indians was sinful and that the Spanish should import African slaves because they were better suited to being slaves. The Council of the Indies listened to him and allowed the importation of slaves. The combination of Spanish feudalism and slavery created a social pyramid in New Spain that was based on the Peninsulares, the Spanish conquerors, on top. Below them were Mestizos, the product of the union of Spaniards and Natives (usually against the latter’s will) and Mulattoes, the product of Spaniards and African slaves (ditto).

Land Claims in the Americas About 1750

Portuguese in the New World

• The Portuguese in South America were concentrated in what is now Brazil.

• Brazil was primarily rainforest, so they did not immediately get rewarded with gold.

• They exported Brazil wood which yielded dyes and lumber.

• Eventually they moved into plantation farming using forced labor from the Indians.

• Later African slaves were imported and Brazil became the largest importer of slaves in the Western Hemisphere.

New France• The French colonies in North America

were huge, but grew slowly. • These colonies were concentrated in

what is now Canada and this is one of the reasons the colonies grew so slowly. The climate was harsh and not many settlers wanted to come to the New World.

• Also, agriculture was not nearly as successful as fur trapping which required lots of space and few people.

• Seemed the only way to get people to settle in New France was to force them, which is exactly what the very Catholic king, Louis XIV did. He forced settlers here, but wouldn’t allow Protestants, which also retarded the progress of the colony.

• The Massachusetts Bay colony was settled as a business venture.

• Many have believed that the Puritans came to the New World for religious freedom. This is simply not true. They were able to practice their religion in England but chose not to. They were intolerant and were not welcomed.

• When they got to the Massachusetts colony they created a theocracy and essentially outlawed the practice of other religions.

• The Puritans first came over on the Mayflower, a transport. They initially were going to Virginia to raise tobacco and got lost.

• When they realized they were not in the King’s land, they had to draw up a document to design a government called the Mayflower Compact. What this document decreed was majority rule, the basis of democracy.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

13 Colonies• Geography is destiny. The thirteen colonies

were shaped economically and socially by their climate and land.

• The southern colonies had a mild climate that encouraged large plantation style farming. This in turn encouraged the need for African slaves.

• The Middle or Atlantic colonies were more diverse, in Pennsylvania for instance, you could raise wheat in the west , lumber in the north and tobacco in the east. The diversity of their economy ensured that these would eventually be the wealthiest colonies.

• The New England colonies had to rely on trade and commerce rather than agriculture. The soil was so thin and the winters so cold that agriculture was small scale without need for slavery.

Triangular Trade

The Middle PassageThe Atlantic slave trade was initially driven by the Spanish need for labor in the sugar islands.Later, more slaves were imported into the rest of the New World by the English, Portuguese, Dutch, you name it. Everyone was guilty. The need was so great that the European and African slave traders couldn’t keep up with the demand. This was insanely profitable. The Europeans didn’t go into the interior of Africa to get the slaves, they relied on African traders to get them. This Middle Passage was a vision of Hell. No one knows how many died as they were packed into fetid ships like cordwood. Surely hundreds of thousands, probably millions. No one cared.The effect on Africa was destruction of ancient cultures and it prevented those that followed to develop much beyond mere subsistence.

The Middle Passage

African Slave Trade

By the 1800s, an estimated 11 million enslaved Africans had reached the Americas. Another 2 million probably died during the Middle Passage.

The slave trade caused the decline of some African states. In West Africa, the loss of countless numbers of young women and men resulted in some small states disappearing forever.

At the same time, new African states arose whose way of life depended on the slave trade. The rulers of these new states waged war against other Africans in order to gain control of the slave trade in their region.

New African States• In this period, large states started to form in Central

Africa. • The strength of these states rested largely on the slave

trade itself. They traded gold and slaves to the Europeans for weapons, much as is done now.

• Osei Tutu was the leader of the Asante Kingdom in the 1680’s. He was a great war leader and chose his officals based on merit rather than blood, which allowed him to create a powerful state.

• In the early 1800’s, there were a series of Islamic Crusades in north central Africa. The Islamic states there went through a religious revival and tried to get rid of the corruption in their systems.

• They were led in Nigeria by Usman dan Fodio, a preacher. He inspired the Hausa and Fulani people to rebel against their rulers and establish a more pure Islamic state.

• This in turn inspired others to create Islamic states.

Europe and the Commercial Revolution

Columbian Exchange

Price Revolution• The Price Revolution occurred as a result of

inflation.• This inflation occurred as a result of population

growth and the flow of gold and silver from the New World

• What resulted was a permanent rise in prices which also led to a rise in profits.

• These increases kicked capitalism into high gear.

Mercantilism

• Mercantilism is an economic system practiced by Europeans in the years from 1500 to the late 1700’s.

• In Mercantilism, the wealth of a nation is measured in how much gold remains in the nation’s borders.

• What this means is that you should export as much as possible and import as little as possible.

• What this led to in Europe was tariff barriers and depressed economies. The cure for this was thought to be colonies. The colonies would serve as markets within the mercantilist system of each country.

• What this led to was imperialism and industrialization

Capitalism

• The rulers of nations like France, England, Russia, etc. thought that colonies would solve the problems of mercantilism.

• They may have thought that, but the individual business people in those countries saw it as a chance to expand their markets even farther.

• When England created the colonies as a mercantilist market, the colonists responded by not selling just to England, as the law said, but illegally to anyone.

• This sparked the development of capitalism.