224

The development of the oceangoing caravel (see right) by the Portuguese and new navigation instruments transformed this situation. The magnetic compass, the astrolabe, which measured the height of the Sun at noon, and the cross-staff and quadrant, which measured the height of a star, all helped navigators determine their latitude, or how far north or south they were. Lack of accurate marine chronometers (see p.282) meant that longitude—distance east or west—was not accurately calculated until the mid-18th century.

New technology, new worldsArmed with this new maritime technology, the Portuguese tentatively explored the coast of Africa. Diogo Cão sailed around the Gulf of Guinea and then headed south, exploring the Congo River before making his final landfall at Cape Cross in what is now Namibia in 1486. Two years later, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed into the Indian Ocean, while in 1498 Vasco da Gama crossed the Indian Ocean to Calicut in southern India. These expeditions

“ May the ocean always be as calm and benevolent as it is today. In this hope I name it the Pacific Ocean.”

FERDINAND MAGELLAN ON FIRST ENTERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN, NOVEMBER 27, 1520

B E F O R E

In the 15th century the Portuguese explored the west coast of Africa.

HENRY THE NAVIGATORPrince Henry of Portugal captured Muslim Ceuta on the north coast of Africa in 1415 and was eager to extend his knowledge of the continent. The next year he set up a navigation school at Sagres to provide Portuguese sailors with a center for exploration. Here they learned the necessary skills of navigation, seamanship, and cartography to enable them to venture overseas. Each year he sponsored a voyage south to explore the African coast, each voyage sailing farther south than its predecessor.

THE FIRST SUCCESSESOne of Henry’s navigators discovered the Madeira Islands in 1418–20 and the Azores in 1427–31. As the navigators returned home with gold and slaves, African exploration became very popular. By the time of his death in 1460, the Portuguese had discovered the Senegal River, rounded Cape Verde, and sailed east toward the Gulf of Guinea.

HENRY THE NAVIGATOR

14 50 – 1750

Voyages of DiscoveryIn little over a century, European navigators left their continent and sailed the world, opening up new sea routes to India and the east. They discovered a continent previously unknown to them, and began a process that eventually resulted in the total European colonial and economic domination of the world.

t the start of the 15th century, European knowledge of the world was surprisingly limited.

Sailors used world maps based on the cartography of Ptolemy, a Greek geographer who had died 13 centuries earlier, in 168 CE. Europe, the Mediterranean, and western Asia were reasonably well mapped, but Africa was vague in shape, as no one knew how far south it stretched, and the Americas were missing altogether. Poor ship design that restricted oceangoing voyages and primitive navigation instruments kept ships close to the coast. At best, navigators used dead reckoning—intelligent guesswork based on speed through the water, winds, and currents—to assess their location.

A

Expedition routesThis map shows the major European ocean voyages of the 15th and 16th centuries. Each line color corresponds to the country of the explorer, whose name and expedition date appear above the line. Arrows indicate the direction of travel, and major ports or stopovers are indicated with white dots.

CHINA

Borneo

Hainan

Java Magellan 1519–21

A S I A

P A C I F I C O C E A N

A U S T R A L I A

N O RA M E R

NEW GUINEA

Loaisa 1526

Drake 1577–80PHILIPPINEISLANDS

Moluccas

Acapulco

A R C T I C O C E A N

Loaisa 1526

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Nagasaki

JAPAN

Malacca

Sumatra

Macao

P O R T U G U E S E E X P L O R E R ( 1 4 8 0 – 1 5 21 )

FERDINAND MAGELLAN

Magellan was a Portuguese soldier and adventurer who had taken part in four expeditions to India and Malaya. He quarreled with the Portuguese king, Manuel I and left the country in 1514 to enter the service of Spain. In 1519 he proposed a voyage west to the Spice Islands, which promised great wealth to Spain if successful. Magellan set out in 1519 with five ships and about 260 men. He sailed south across the Atlantic, and in November 1520 through the straits that now bear his name and into the Pacific. He then crossed the ocean, the first European to do so, reaching the Philippines in April 1521, where he was killed in a local war. His deputy, Juan Sebastian del Cano, took charge, eventually returning to Spain in September 1522 with only one ship and 17 members of the crew.

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225

opened up a new trade route to Asia by sailing east around Africa. Portugal’s neighbor and rival Spain was anxious to share in this potential source of wealth. In 1491, Christopher Columbus, Genoese by birth, persuaded Queen Isabella (see pp.226–27) to support a voyage across the Atlantic in order to find a westerly route to Asia.

He set sail in 1492 with three ships, using dead reckoning to calculate his position. Like other navigators of his day, he knew that the world was round—it is a myth that the common belief of the time was that the world was flat—but accepted Ptolemy’s incorrect calculation of its size. Thus when he stumbled upon the islands of the Caribbean (see pp.228–29) he assumed these were outlying islands of Asia. Three further voyages, in 1493–96, 1498–1500, and 1502–04, failed to convince him that he had found not Asia but a previously unknown continent—the Americas.

Columbus in contextColumbus has been much criticized in recent years both for his geographical ignorance and for his treatment of the

native populations as governor of the first Spanish colony in the West Indies on Hispaniola (modern-day Dominican Republic). While the Europeans viewed Columbus’s journey as a success, since he had “discovered” a new world, it was in fact the beginning of an extended period of hardship for the sophisticated empires of Central and South America and the other peoples of the continent. However, had Columbus not made this first landing, another navigator would have done so within a few years. But he was first, and as a pioneer, he opened up the prospect of European expansion overseas.

Around the worldThe desire to seek new trade routes to Asia continued to preoccupy European sailors and merchants. The Spanish explored a route to the west. In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan (see left) set out to sail to the rich Spice Islands (the Moluccas in modern-day Indonesia). In so doing he started a voyage that, after his death in 1521, was completed by his deputy, who, with the 17 surviving members of the crew, became the first Europeans to sail around the world.

Both routes to Asia were arduous, so French and English navigators explored the coast of Canada hoping to find a northwest passage to Asia, a feat not achieved until the Norwegian Roald Amundsen completed the voyage in 1906 (see pp.320–21). English and Dutch navigators also sought a northeast passage around the top of Siberia—again, a feat not achieved until 1879 by Finn Nils Nordenskjöld.

VOYAG E S O F D I SCOV E R Y

The caravelThe Portuguese voyages of the 15th century were made possible by the development of the caravel, so named because of its flush-planked carvel construction. The caravel was lighter than its predecessors and more seaworthy, enabling it to venture far from land. A small ship, only 60 ft (20 m) long, it carried a crew of about 25.

rounded hull with high bow and stern

carvel construction, with fore and aft planks flush to each other

lateen (triangular) sails; later caravels had more efficient square sails

KEYSpanish expeditionsPortuguese expeditionsEnglish expeditionsFrench expeditionsDutch expeditions

I N D I A N

O C E A NS O U T H

A M E R I C A

Archangel

Malindi

GREENLAND

Will

ou

ghby 1

553

Limit of winter pack ice

Limit of summer pack ice

A T L A N T I C

O C E A N

E U R O P E

A F R I C A

A S I AT HI C A

Panama

Lima

Isla de Chiloé

Strait of Magellan Cape Horn

Puerto San Julián

River Plate

CUBA

PORTUGAL

FRANCE

SPAIN

ENGLAND

INDIA

CanaryIslands

BAHAMAS

Caribbean Sea

Columbus 1492

Columbus 1502–04

Cabot 1497

Cartier 1534–36Corte–Real

1500

Barents 1596–97

ICELAND

Dra

ke 1

577–

80

Mag

ella

n 15

19–2

1

Cabral 1500

Cape of Good Hope

Kilwa

Sofala MADAGASCAR

Goa

Calicut

Drake 1577–80

Montreal

Cape Sierra Leone

Loaisa 1526

Spitsbergen

Pire

s 15

15–1

6

Malacca

SumatraMoluccas

PHILIPPINEISLANDS

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Nagasaki

JAPAN

Borneo

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CHINA

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Novaya Zemlya

Java

MacaoHainan

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Competing Spanish and Portuguese discoveries in the Americas and Asia created a clash between these two maritime nations.

TREATY OF TORDESILLASIn 1494 Pope Alexander VI negotiated a treaty that divided the world along a line drawn south across the Atlantic Ocean: west of the line was Spanish, east was Portuguese. The treaty was useful when the Portuguese began to colonize Brazil, but problems arose in the Spice Islands of Southeast Asia. The treaty was vague about what happened on the other side of the world.

A F T E R

Cape Cross

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NETHERLANDS

CAPE VERDE

230

B E F O R E

On the eve of European conquest, three highly advanced civilizations occupied much of Central and South America.

MAYANSThe Mayan states ❮❮ 140–41 clustered around the Yucatán Peninsula in what is now southeast Mexico. All 16 states were independent, and in 1480 there was a major war for regional supremacy. The lack of a single ruler made these states more difficult to conquer.

AZTECSThe Aztec Empire ❮❮ 210–13 was based around the city of Tenochtitlán (on the site of present-day Mexico City). Under Itzcóatl (reigned 1428–40) and his successors, the empire expanded rapidly, so that by the reign of Moctezuma II (1502–20), over 10 million people were subject to Aztec rule, which stretched from the Caribbean across the valley of Mexico. Central to their belief system was the need to provide human sacrifices for their sun god Huitzilopochtli.

INCASDuring the reigns of Pachacuti (1438–71) and his son Tupac Yupanqui (1471–93), the Inca empire, established around 1230 in the South American Andes, grew rapidly ❮❮ 210–15. By 1525, the empire was at its greatest extent, stretching from modern-day Ecuador in the north to Chile in the south. The empire was rich in gold and had a 12,500-mile (20,000-km) network of roads.

GOLD INCA KNIFE

14 50 – 1750

he Spanish came to the Americas for a variety of reasons. They sought wealth

in the form of gold, spices, and other goods. They came to claim land for their king, and saw the locals as inferiors to be subdued and exploited. They came to convert, for in their eyes this was a godless continent. And they came for adventure—Vasco de Balboa was an unsuccessful pig breeder, Hernán Cortés a failed law student—but the Americas gave men such as these a chance of gold and glory.Initial conquest and settlement was

T confined to the Caribbean islands. The first permanent mainland settlements were founded from 1510 and included Vasco de Balboa, soon to become the first European to see the Pacific, and Francisco Pizarro. Balboa found gold, and learned of a rich land across the Pacific called Birú (Peru). By now, the Spanish were realizing that this new world was rich, but its wealth was not to be taken easily. In 1518 the Spanish governor of Cuba sent 11 ships under the command of Cortés to explore the coast of the Yucatán peninsula for gold. Cortés learned of a great empire inland,

Contact AmericasForty years after Columbus first set foot in the Americas, the Spanish had built a vast empire in North, Central, and South America. With remarkable ingenuity and treachery, and considerable bravery, two small bands of soldiers felled two mighty empires and initiated three centuries of Spanish rule.

“ Shipmates and friends. There lies the hard way, leading to Peru and wealth.”

FRANCISCO PIZARRO, ON GORGONA ISLAND OFF THE PACIFIC COAST OF COLOMBIA, 1526

and on August 16, 1519 set out from the Mexican coast with 15 horsemen, 400 soldiers, and a few hundred porters. Using local guides and interpreters, he arrived at Tlaxacala, an independent city and enemy of the Aztec empire. With the Tlaxacalan army as willing allies, he approached the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán, in November 1519.

� Spanish strongholdThe Spanish fort of San Lorenzo del Chagres was built on the Caribbean coast of Panama and guarded the route across the isthmus to the Pacific Ocean.

15th CENTURY MAP OF TENOCHTITLÁN

231

CO N TAC T A M E R I C A S

this simply encouraged the Aztecs who were hostile to the Spanish presence to chose another leader.

Tenochtitlán began its descent into chaos when Cortés’s soldiers massacred a large number of young Aztec nobles taking part in a festival of feasting and dancing. As the city rebelled, Moctezuma proved powerless to calm the Aztecs; he was stoned by his own people and later died of his wounds. Cortés fought his way out of the city, losing three-quarters of his men in the disastrous “Night of Sorrows.” However, the Aztecs failed to deliver the death blow to Cortés’s bedraggled survivors. Boosted by large numbers of new soldiers attracted by rumors of huge wealth, and by a vast auxiliary army of native peoples anxious to throw off the yoke of Aztec dominance, Cortés undertook a second, and this time definitive, siege of Tenochtitlán, forcing the Aztecs into a final surrender after a desperate struggle in August 1521. While Cortés set about organizing his new territory, others

were exploring to the south. Birú excited the Spanish, who sent an expedition along the Pacific coast in 1522 that found no gold but confirmed reports of a rich empire inland. Further expeditions continued to map the coast, and two of these were led by Francisco Pizarro, an illiterate but

brave 51-year-old soldier. In 1527 Pizarro landed at Tumbes, an Inca

outpost (see pp.210–13), trading goods for gold, silver, jewels, and cloth. With this treasure, he returned via Panama to Spain

and sought permission to mount an armed expedition.

By 1531 he was back with three ships and 180 men. Reaching Tumbes, he found it ruined by a civil war between Atahuallpa (see right) and his brother Huáscar for control of the Inca empire. Learning that Atahuallpa and his army were across the mountains at Cajamarca, Pizarro, with his 106 footsoldiers and 62 horsemen, set out on a trek to meet Atahuallpa. They were received by an imperial envoy bearing gifts from the emperor, who was camped with his army outside the city. Pizarro lured Atahuallpa into Cajamarca, took him hostage, and was offered an enormous ransom. With the treasure amassed by July 1533, and panicked at rumors of an Inca counterattack to liberate Atahuallpa, Pizarro and his officers executed the emperor. The Spanish then marched on the capital, Cuzco, and seized control of the entire Inca empire.

An uneven struggleBoth Aztec and Inca empires fell to remarkably small Spanish armies. But the Spanish had guns, horses, and armor, and ruthlessly exploited their opponents’ weakest points: the repressive rule of the Aztecs over their subject peoples, and the Inca civil war. From a strategic point of view, they

Inca Gold ArmletsGold jewelry in the Inca empire was a sign of wealth and power. Gold was also used for ceremonial items.

The capture of TenochtitlánThe destruction of the Aztec capital by Cortés in 1521 is shown in this somewhat fanciful late 18th-century painting by an unknown Spanish artist. The splendor of the city on its island in Lake Texcoco is clear, though not, perhaps, the brutality of the conquest.

Inca storehousesThe Incas were great stonemasons, building depots to store their harvested crops, and roadside hostels for royal messengers and other travelers.

A F T E R

The arrival of Europeans in force on the American mainland had lasting consequences on all sides.

CONTINUED RESISTANCESpanish conquest of Central and South America did not end with the fall of the two main empires. The last Inca stronghold fell to the Spanish in 1572, and the Inca hinterland was largely untouched until the early 1800s. Conquest of the Aztecs and Central America was more complete, TOBACCO

L A S T I N C A E M P E R O R ( 1 5 0 2 – 3 3 )

ATAHUALLPA

Atahuallpa came to power after a bloody civil war that broke out on the deaths of both his father, Huayna Capac, and the probable heir to the throne by 1527.

Atahuallpa took charge of the imperial army in Quito while his half-brother Huáscar ruled the city of Cuzco. The civil war that broke out between these two for the throne tore the empire apart. By the time Atahuallpa triumphed in 1532, the Spanish had already invaded Inca territory.

recognized that both empires were highly centralized states ruled over by all-powerful emperors. Capture the emperor and the state was paralyzed. Following the conquest, the Spanish exploited the religion of the Aztecs, using their desire for captured enemies to sacrifice to turn them into allies on the battlefield. Pizarro was also helped by the superb Inca road network that enabled his troops to cross otherwise inaccessible terrain. Perhaps most importantly, though, the Spanish brought with them diseases to which the Americans had no resistance. Diseases decimated local populations as the Spanish took control of their lands. In everything but numbers, the Spanish had the advantage and the luck.

but the Maya were a greater challenge, as their states had to be conquered one by one.

NEW FOODOther than gold and silver 234–35 the Spanish discovered and subsequently exported many new plants, such as tobacco, and foodstuffs. In return, the Europeans introduced a variety of crops, livestock, and diseases 236–37 .

The Aztec emperor Moctezuma was fearful of the Spanish, aware of their military reputation and ruthlessness. He placated them with gifts and housed them in a palace in his island capital. The Spanish were also wary, as they were now effectively prisoners. Cortés launched the desperate scheme of taking Moctezuma prisoner, though

232

The Great ExchangeColumbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492 began one of the greatest revolutions in global food habits ever seen. Plants and animals previously separated by some 3,000–4,000 miles (5,000–6,000 km) of ocean would now be exchanged.

14 50 – 1750

sheep flocks could be found from northern South America up to the southwestern corner of what is today the United States.

Horses and cattleHorse and cattle numbers grew more slowly because of the animals’ longer breeding cycles and smaller numbers of offspring. Nevertheless, during the 16th century they spread through Peru and Chile and reached northward through New Spain, which covered Central America and much of southern North America. Horses were central to the early Spanish military conquests—many native Americans were at first terrified of horses, believing them to be divine creatures—but they also introduced effective transportation, providing the future means for a wider

olumbus’s very first voyage in 1492 (see pp.228–29) introduced new species to

the Americas—he brought 28 horses, three mules, and an assortment of sheep, goats, cattle, chickens, dogs, and cats. Apart from the dogs, these were all unfamiliar creatures to the indigenous Americans, but Spanish colonization in the 16th century quickly expanded stock holdings. The numbers of domesticated animals imported by Europeans grew at different rates depending on the species, and brought different social effects. Sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens bred rapidly (the Europeans found excellent grazing land), and became useful not only as sustenance for the colonists, but also as foods to trade with native Americans for fruits and vegetables. Geographically, grazing animals also spread quickly—by 1519

C

Deadly tradeAn early colonial artwork shows the lethal effect of smallpox on the native Americans. The first major smallpox outbreak in the Americas occurred between 1520–24, but epidemics returned regularly until the late 1800s.

Until the end of the 15th century, the New World and Old World had entirely separate agricultures, and most of the serious diseases of Europe and Asia had not crossed the Atlantic.

DOMESTICATED CROPSNew World domesticated crops—those whose growth was controlled by farmers—included corn, tobacco, cocoa, and cotton. The Old World was equally productive, but apart from cotton it shared few crop types with the Americas. Among its most important crops were wheat, rice, and tea.

DOMESTIC ANIMALS Europe and Asia had an abundance of domesticated animals—such as horses, cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, and pigs—but in the pre-Columbian Americas the only equivalents were turkeys, guinea pigs, dogs, alpacas, and llamas. The

Americas, however, had an incredible range of wild animals, hence much meat in the diet was obtained through hunting and fishing.

DISEASEBefore Columbus, the Americas had enjoyed a long period of population growth. Nevertheless, mortality rates remained high from diseases such as tuberculosis, and waterborne parasites caused illness. The Europeans suffered similarly, but they went on to export some of their deadly diseases.

LLAMAS IN PERU

B E F O R E

233

Plains horsesThe introduction of horses had a profound effect on the history of the Americas. Horses had existed on these continents previously, but were hunted to extinction by 7000 BCE. Once American Indian nations of the plains (stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River) mastered the use of the horse, it transformed their way of life. They were now able to travel faster and farther than ever before, and their hunting efficiency increased exponentially.

European colonization of North America. American Indians later fueled the growth of cattle herds with a newly acquired love of beef and leather.

Transatlantic foodsThe “exchange” of animal foods between the Old and New Worlds was mainly one-sided, with Europe importing its domesticated animals into the Americas. The exchange of plant life, by contrast, ran both ways. The European colonists attempted to grow all the traditional Old World Crops in the Americas, with sugar cane, bananas, and lemons, for example, all doing well in the tropical climate. Grain crops such as wheat grew better in mountainous regions and later found perfect growing conditions in the temperate plains of North America. By the end of the 16th century, sugar cane was growing in huge amounts in the Caribbean, Peru, Brazil, and Mexico, with entire forests being cleared for its growth. Exported in the opposite direction were crops that changed the diets of much of Europe

and Asia, including corn, beans, potatoes, and tobacco. Potatoes were introduced across Europe between 1570 and 1600, and two centuries later they would be one of the most important crops of the Old World, alongside corn. Cacao (a base ingredient of chocolate) transformed European confectionery, while tobacco introduced a whole new pastime. Tomatoes became staples of Mediterranean cooking, while chili peppers introduced new spices to Old World palates.

Destruction and diseaseThis great exchange steadily transformed the world’s diets, but also had dramatic human consequences. Along with food, the Europeans also brought diseases that devastated indigenous populations, principally smallpox, measles, bubonic plague,

Potatoes and wheatWheat, an Old World crop, grows alongside potatoes in a hilly region of South America. Wheat needs cooler temperatures to grow, and the first attempts to grow the plants in the American tropics largely failed.

typhoid fever, scarlet fever, cholera, whooping cough, diphtheria, mumps, and (from Africa) malaria and yellow fever. The only major disease that possibly traveled in the opposite direction was syphilis, although many experts dispute its origins.

Compounding the horrors of disease were the social effects of Old World agriculture in a New World setting. Local communities were displaced to make room for grazing cattle, or were forced to labor on farms and plantations. New types of weeds choked native plants. Serious overgrazing problems occurred in places such as New Spain, with large areas

turned practically to desert, having been stripped of vegetation and suffering from soil erosion. For better or worse, the New World had imported much more than just plants and animals.

New cuisineThis Italian cookbook from 1622 was an effort to teach Italians how to cook the exotic foods arriving from the Americas, such as tomatoes.

A F T E R

The Great Exchange had far-reaching implications across the world, irrevocably changing the global ecosystem.

EXPORT OF TEA Tea was first imported to the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in North America in 1650, and during the second half of the 17th century its popularity spread along the eastern seaboard. By the 19th century, tea clippers were making regular tea runs from Europe to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

CHANGED LIVESIn the late 1400s the native population of North and South America numbered around 40 million, but by the late 1700s that figure had fallen by 70–90 percent, mainly because of European-introduced diseases. The consequent collapse of the local workforce in the Americas contributed to the creation of the transatlantic slave trade, in which millions of Africans were forcibly shipped to the Americas to live and work on plantations 280–81 ❯❯.

TEA CLIPPER

T H E G R E AT E XC H A N G E

Age  of  Exploration    Voyages  of  Discovery    

1. Describe  the  factors  that  contributed  to  European’s  voyages  of  exploration;  these  factors  should  include  motivations  and  technologies.  

 Contact  Americas    

2. Describe  the  empires  that  existed  in  Central  and  South  American  when  the  Spanish  first  arrived  

3. How  were  the  Spanish  able  to  defeat  these  great  empires  and  how  did  the  Spanish  benefit  from  these  victories?  

 The  Great  Exchange    

4. What  was  the  Great  Exchange  and  how  did  it  change  the  world?  5. Explain  how  Europeans  benefited  by  bringing  Old  World  (European)  crops  to  

the  New  World  (Americas)  and  by  New  World  crops  back  to  the  Old  World.  6. Describe  how  this  exchange  was  detrimental  to  the  New  World.