Chapter 3 The Atlantic World and Commerce 1450-1648

pages 100-117

What was the Afro-Eurasian trading world like before Columbus?

Europeans want goods from Asia and Africa

high prices to middlemen

Exports not in demandEuropeans moved to

dominate global trade

Silk Road Silks, Porcelain, Lumber, Sugar, Slaves, Cotton, Dyes,

Weapons, Opium, Culture, etc. and Spice Islands (Malaysia)

Marco Polo’s Journey1271-1295

European Impressions of

Asia

“Exotic Orient”

Valued Goods

Pagans

African Trade

European Impressions

of AfricaGold

SlavesLegends and

rumors(ex. Prester John)

Ottoman Empire 1453 Constantinople fellInvaded Habsburg lands

Alliance With France(Francis I and Sulyeman)

Ottomans Want To:Monopolize Trade Routes

Spread IslamGain Natural Resources

Expansion Frightened Europeans (but trade continued)

Ottoman Empire

New Technology Allows For European Explorations

•Navigation•Cartography•Shipbuilding Styles•Cannon and Weapons

Portolani

Quadrant

Astrolabe

Nocturnal

Magnetic Compass

Portuguese CaravelLight weight and steered with a stern-post rudder

and lateen sails (Asia)

Why Take Such Dangerous Trips?• Ottomans controlled trade•Wanted goods and spices• The Three G’s

–God–Gold–Glory

…and a lot of luck

Portugal

Portugal and Spain 1st due to their connections to Muslim cultures

Theory of Southernization

Prince Henry The Navigator

(1394-1460) 1420s Started a

Navigation SchoolSponsored

Exploration of W. African Coast

Gold Coast

Bartholomew Diaz

(1440-1500) 1487-1488 Cape

of Good Hope

1489

Vasco da Gama

(1460-1524)

1497 around Cape of Good Hope to India

1498 To Calicut

Spices Sold In Europe

For Huge Profits

Afonso de Albuquerque

1453-1515

Portuguese destroyed Muslim, Indian, and Asian Forts (1510s)

By the 1600s the Dutch East India Company forced Portugal out

The AmericasA “New World”

Spain = Reach the east by going west

Knew the world was round, but not so big

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain

Christopher Columbus

(1451-1506)

Caribbean Islands and

South American

Columbus wanted to

spread Catholicism,

find gold, and capture slaves

1492 Santa Fe CapitulationsColumbus named viceroy of any new territory

and gains 1/10 of any fortune

Thought he was headed to Asia

1st Voyage 1492-1493(Aug. 3 to Oct. 12 there)

2nd Voyage 1493-1494

Forced natives on Hispaniola into slavery and Europeans claimed the land

3rd Voyage 1498

Lasting Impact of

Columbus?

1494 Treaty of Tordesillas

Portugal and Spain divided the world

---------------------------------------------------------

Spheres of influence approved by Pope

Alexander VI

PortugalSpain

Mundus Novus

“The New World””

Amerigo Vespucci1499 the Americas

Concluded it was NOT Asia

1507 World Map (Waldseemuler)

Pedro Cabral - 1500-1501 Brazil and IndiaKilled thousands establishing Portuguese presence

Ferdinand Magellan(1480-1521)

1519 Attempted circumnavigation of the Earth for Spain

(Charles V)

Magellan’s Voyage 1519-1522

almost five months to cross

the Pacific Ocean

ScurvyLack of vitamins C and A = melting of collagen fibers and breakdown of connective tissues

Gums swell, teeth fall out, connective tissues separate, capillaries hemorrhage, and boils form

1521 Landed in the Philippines

“A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass.... That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears…until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide.”

-Antonio Pigafetta (1521)

5 ships and 270 men departed1 ship and 18 men returned 3 years later

John Cabot(1450-1508)1497 New England

Jacques Cartier

1534 Explores “New France”

Henry Hudson

1607 searched for a Northeast Passage

Explored New York for the Dutch

1625 Dutch New Amsterdam

Spanish Conquistadors

Hernándo Cortés

(1485-1547)

“I have come to win gold, not

plow the fields like a peasant.”

1519: From Cuba to TenochtitlanAlliances with enemies of the Aztec

Aztec culture and warfare

very different

from Spain

From a 1521 letter from Cortés to Charles V

…whenever they wish to ask something of the idols, in order that their plea may find more

acceptance, they take many girls and boys and even adults, and in the presence of these idols they open their chests while they are

still alive and take out their hearts and entrails and burn them before the idols, …. Some of us have seen

this, and they say it is the most terrible and frightful thing they

have ever witnessed.

…Your Majesties may, if You see fit, send a report to the Holy Father, so that diligence and

good order may be applied to the work of converting these

people, … also that His Holiness may permit and approve that the wicked and the rebellious, …may be punished as enemies of our Holy Catholic Faith. …

and the great evils which they practice in the service of the

Devil may be prevented…

In 1520 the Spanish were ran out of Tenochtitlan

…but, they left something behind…

Disease

Small Pox

1520 Aztecs defeated & enslaved

GunsHorsesSteelDisease

1400 and 1500s

Columbian Exchangetransfer of plants, animals, and disease

between continents

From the Americas to Europe(New World to Old World)

From Europe to the Americas(Old World to New World)

Smallpox Cholera Influenza MalariaPlague Mumps Leprosy Cold

Disease Haiti:Pre-Columbus = 100,0001570 = only 300Mexico:1500 = 25,000,0001570 = 3,000,000

Spanish Colonial Ruleby 1570s rebellions were crushed and Viceroys ruled

Spanish Encomienda Systemconvert and “protect” a group of

natives in exchange for forced labor

Governments and Church tried to regulate the treatment of the natives

Convert, don’t enslave1537 Papal Bull Sublimus Dei…said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their

property; nor should they be in any way enslaved…

1542 Friar Bartolome de

Las Casas wroteA Short Account of the Destruction of

the Indies Documenting

Brutalities

Wanting To “Protect” The

Natives He Suggests Shipping

Slaves From Africa

He later regretted this

“I soon repented and judged myself guilty of ignorance. I came to realize that black slavery was as unjust as Indian slavery... and I was not sure that my ignorance and good faith

would secure me in the eyes of God.”

he often gets blamed for slave trade but the real blame is $

African Slavery 1st transported by Portugal1650-1870 = 12,500,000 slaves

20% died on the voyage

Spanish Morality Tale African Slave and

Indian WomanCa. 1600

An African slave in the Americas is soliciting an Indian prostitute. The caption in Spanish admonishes the black man for using stolen money in addition to his immoral behavior.

In reality black slaves had no access to coinage and Native

American prostitutes often found clients among the

Spanish.

Mestizos (“Mixed”)

Children of Europeans and

natives

Mulattoes(“Small Mule”)Children of

Europeans and Africans

America-Asia-Europe trade network established by Spain (silver)

Dawn of Globalism

1545 Potosi silver mines (Peru/Bolivia)But farmland still proved to be more valuable

The Commercial RevolutionTop 4

Pages 108-110110-113113-115115-117121-123

Population Growth and the

Price Revolution• 108 million by 1600– France, German States,

Spain, Italy, Russia, England

• Rising prices and falling wages and value of money– Pop growth = demand for

food– Flood of gold and silver– Some unknowns

Labor and Capital

Bourgeoisie(definition will change after industrialization)

New Industries

andCapitalismThe end of usury

Mining, printing. shipbuilding, arms manufacturing, military equipment

The

FuggersGerman

merchants and bankers associated with

Habsburgs, HRE, and Cath. Church

Merchants loan (“put out”)

raw materials to workers

Laborers create the finished

product

Putting-Out System

Some laborers purchased their own raw materials

Cottage Industry - Textiles

Mercantilism•Government regulation and promotion

of industry–Poor Laws, Navigation Acts, National Markets, etc.

•Protectionism•Wealth based on securing limited

resources (gold)• Sell more than you purchase (Balance of

Trade)

Urban Guildshigh wages, monopolies, standards, “group identity”

Who would oppose the guilds? Why?

International Chartered Trading Companies (Merchant/Govt. Alliance)East India Companies

Global Economics 1500s

• Portugal–Asian Sea Trade (India)–Brazilian Plantations (Sugar & Slaves)

• Spain–Americas–Asia (Philippines & trade with China)

• Holland (Dutch)–Amsterdam = Financial Center–Spice Islands and India

Changing Social Structures(lasted until Industrial Era)

• Landed Aristocracy (nobility)• Misc. Middle Classes

(bourgeoisie)• Peasantry (ag. workers)• Urban poor

West / East Differences?Commercial Revolution and Global Trade

Serfdom and Hereditary Subjugation

Education•Reformation–Protestants and Catholics

•Economic changes–Finance, law, government•Growing opportunities across

class, but mostly male