http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBLbH6vRwk8

The Mission - Gabriel’s Oboe

Section 1: Widening Horizons 4 Motives for explorers:

1. Desire for wealth and power - Searched for sea routes to Asian spice centers

2. Religious Aims - Spread Catholicism

3. Renaissance Spirit - Fame, glory, individualism

4. Improvements in Technology - caravel ships, better maps

- Wanted to skirt the Ottoman-controlled land routes

Jan Vermeer The Geographer

Prince Henry the Navigator(1394-1460)

Portuguese leader w/ passion for seafaring and navigation - not a seafarer or navigator himself

Gathered masters of the craft

Made Portugal a forerunner of the exploration era

Portuguese Exploration

Portugal: - sailed up & down the west coast of Africa searching for sea route to Asia

- sought for the fabled gold of West Africa & later slaves - established trade forts along the W. African coast, throughout Indian Ocean

Vasco da Gama :

- rounded tip of S. Africa 1487 (Cape of Good Hope), sthrnmost is Cape Agulhas or the “Cape of Needles” - Where magnetic north & true north coincide - led a Portuguese fleet to Calicut, India - center of spice trade

- brought back Chinese porcelain which eventually was in great demand

Ferdinand Magellan - circumnavigated the globe, 1512

Vasco da Gama Ferdinand Magellan

Voyages of Columbus

- An Italian (Genoa) who sailed W. African coast in the service of Portugal

- Inspired by The Travels of Marco Polo - wanted to find a new route to the East’s gold & spices

- Plan rejected by Portuguese, funded by Ferdinand & Isabella Castile & Aragon (Spain)

- Columbus agreed to declare Castilian sovereignty over new lands & split profits w/ crown

- stated goal: find gold, subjugate the Indians, propagate Christianity

- 2nd voyage - 17 ships, 1500 men - proposed setting up slave trade based in Hispaniola

- F & I asserted direct royal control over Americas - named for Italian Amerigo Vespucci’s1499 voyage

- Treaty of Tordesillas 1494 - divided the Atlantic world between Spain & Portugal - Americas for Spain, West African Coast & E. Indies & Brazil to Portugal

New Era in Slavery

- Pre-Exploration slavery - far-flung, involved multiple ethnicities

- Portuguese focused on African slave trade to man Atlantic plantations, make profit

- By 1500 - Africans, slave & free, made up 3% of the Portuguese population

Conquering the New World -Cortes - in 1519, conquered Aztecs of Mexico w/ several hundred men & native allies

- Charles V - grandson of F&I, inherited Mexico along w/ Spain & HRE

- Pizarro - conquered Incas in Peru, added it to Spanish Empire - Potosi - mine in Bolivia w/ vast silver deposits - funded Spain’s wars, led to massive Euro inflation

- Spaniard successes sparked Dutch, French, English to prey upon & compete with them in New World

Results: - Global reallocation of people, animals, plants, goods, & $

- Rapid spread of Euro diseases in New World

- Annihilation of Caribbean pop., drastic reduction of Indig. pop. of N & S America

*POTOSI - INFAMOUS MINE IN PERU

* 1/2 Million lb. silver, 10,000 lb gold flowed to

Spain annually for a period of years

Mines - provided Spain w/ vast wealth to fuel its counter-reformation efforts