EUROPEAN EXPLORATION ERA 4

WHY DID CHINA NOT DOMINATE?

They did from 1405-1433 under Zheng He (Ming Dynasty)

Confucian scholars convinced the Ming emperor to end exploration and turn attention inward

Great Wall enlarged

China becomes isolationist

EUROPEAN CARAVEL VS. MING TREASURE SHIP

EUROPEAN EXPLORATION

Diffusion of technology from China and the Middle East

Magnetic compass

sternpost rudder

lateen sail

more accurate maps

the astrolabe

Better shipbuilding with the caravel

MOTIVATION FOR EXPLORATION

Fall of Constantinople (1453 CE) to the Ottoman Turks

Europe needed to find a way to the riches of the East without paying the taxes of the Ottoman middle men

Religion

Reconquista in Spain with Ferdinand and Isabella

Strong Catholic missionary thrust after the Protestant Reformation (1517)

Wealth (Trade)

Silk (China), spices (India & SE Asia), gold

PORTUGAL

First to dominate in exploration

Prince Henry, the Navigator

Finances the training of explorers

Dias

Reaches Cape of Good Hope (S. Africa)

Da Gama

goes around Africa

reaches India (1497)

Conquered Swahili City States

used cannons

SPAIN

Located along the Atlantic Ocean

Larger size means more resources

Newly united nation state under Catholicism

Christopher Columbus (1492)

connects Old World & New World

COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

Environmental and demographic (population) changes

Transfer of diseases, plants, animals and people

COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

From Old World (Afro-Eurasia)

Small pox

sugar

Rice

Horses

Pigs

Cattle

chickens

COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

From New World (Americas)

Syphilis

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Chocolate

Maize

chili peppers

Manioc

tobacco

DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES

Higher world population

China introduced to sweet potatoes, peanut

Africa introduced to manioc

Despite slave trade, population of Africa increases significantly

Small pox

largest epidemic by percentage in world history

Introduction of sugar to Americas

need for workers and forced migration of African slaves resulted

CONQUISTADORS

Guns, Germs & SteelSmallpox, influenza

Hernan CortesAided by American natives

Conquered Aztec in C. America

Acquired lots of gold

Inspired other conquistadors

Francisco PizarroConquered the Inca in S. America

LABOR CHANGES

Indentured servants from Europe at first

Encomienda system

Spanish labor system put in place in the Americas

Mita system

borrowed by Spanish from Incan system already in place (Potosi silver mine)

Slavery

From 1500-1800’s, 16 million slaves taken from West Africa

90% of slaves going to Latin America (sugar plantations)

ENCOMIENDA SOCIAL STRUCTURE

RELIGION SPREADS

Jesuits

Christianity in the Americas

Bartolome de las Casas

Defends natives

Bartolome de las Casa, On the Destruction of the Indies, 1540’sAmong these gentle sheep...the Spaniards entered...like wolves, tigers, and lions which had been starving for many days, and since forty years they have done nothing else; nor do they otherwise at the present day, than outrage, slay, afflict, torment, and destroy them.…We are assured that our Spaniards, with their cruelty and execrable works, have depopulated and made desolate the great continent, and that more than ten kingdoms, larger than all Spain...although formerly full of people, are now deserted through tyranny, by the infernal deeds and tyranny of the Christians.…Two ordinary and principal methods have the self-styled Christians, who have gone there, employed in extirpating these miserable nations.…The one, by unjust, cruel, and tyrannous wars. The other, by slaying all those who might aspire to...liberty or to escape from the torments that they suffer, such as all the native lords and adult men.…The reason why the Christians have killed and destroyed such infinite numbers of souls is solely because they have made gold their ultimate aim, seeking to load themselves with riches in the shortest time.…These lands, being so happy and so rich, and the people so humble, so patient, and so easily subjugated, they have...taken no more account of them...than—I will not say of animals, for would to God they had considered and treated them as animals—but as even less than the dung in the streets…In this way have they cared for their lives—and for their souls: and therefore, all the millions above mentioned have died without faith and without sacraments. And it is...admitted...by all...that the Indians throughout the Indies never did any harm to the Christians: they even esteemed them as coming from heaven, until they and their neighbors had suffered the same many evils, thefts, deaths, violence, and visitations at their hands.…

Juan Gines de Sepulveda, Spanish Journal on the Indians, 1547The Spanish have the perfect right to rule these barbarians of the New World who in prudence, skill, virtues and humanity are as infer to Spanish as children to adults or women to men, for there exists between the two as great a difference as between savage and cruel races and the most merciful…You surely do not expect me to recall at length the prudence and talents of the Spanish…And what can I say of the gentleness and humanity of our people, who even in battles after having gained victory put forth their greatest effort and care to save the greatest possible number of the conquered and to protect them from the cruelty of their supposed allies…they have established their nation in such a way that no possess anything individually, neither house nor a field for everything to their masters whom they call kings and by whose whims they live by more than their own and desire of these rulers, possessing no liberty…And fulfillment of all of this under no arms, is a definite sign of the servile and base soul of these barbarians…I do not say to our domination, but to a servitude less harsh as they have been born to slavery and not to a civic and liberal life, who are barbarous and impious and inhuman.

GLOBAL FLOW OF SILVER

Potosi mine (Bolivia)

Silver going back to Spain

caused inflation in Europe (Price Revolution)

Most of the silver used to purchase Chinese goods (silk, porcelain)

Ming Dynasty hordes silver (causes inflation in China)

Spanish Manila Galleons

EDWARD TEACH (BLACK BEARD)

CAPTAIN HENRY MORGAN

END OF PIRACY