Expanding Horizons

1. Expanding Horizons 1400-1750

2. Early Explorations • Age of Exploration • Seeking financial gain through trade with Asians, Europeans seek possible water route to Asia • Overseas voyages will end Europe’s isolation and begin the world’s first global age • Advancements in the construction of ships—multiple masts and shifting rudders—make ships more maneuverable

3. Early Explorations • Portugal Leads the Way • Portugal was the first European country to sail the Atlantic Ocean in search of spices and gold, especially down the coast of West Africa • 1488, Bartholomeu Dias discovers the Cape of Good Hope, voyage proves ships could reach east Asia by sailing around Africa

4. Early Explorations • Portugal Leads the Way Cont • 1497, Vasco da Gama sails from Portugal to India, voyage takes ten months and he lands at Calicut in southwest India

5. Early Explorations • Spain’s Quest for Riches • Under Ferdinand and Isabella, Spain entered the race for Asian riches backing Italian navigator Christopher Columbus • Columbus made four voyages to the Caribbean islands and South America before his death in 1536

6. Early Explorations • Spain’s Quest for Riches Cont • Columbus was convinced he had discovered a new route to Asia. • 1507 Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci suggested Columbus discovered a “New World”

7. Early Explorations • Spain’s Quest for Riches Cont • Because both Spain and Portugal wanted to protect their claims in the Americas, the pope drew an imaginary line of demarcation, giving Portugal control of lands to the east and Spain control of lands to the west • Portugal is unhappy with the line created by the pope and agrees to a new line with the Treaty of Tordesillas

8. Early Explorations • Voyage of Magellan • In 1519, Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan led a five-ship expedition under the Spanish flag to find a western route to Africa • Magellan’s ship and two others passed around the southern tip of South America into the South Sea, which Magellan renamed the Pacific Ocean

9. Early Explorations • Voyage of Magellan Cont • When the ships reached the present day Philippines, Magellan was caught in a local skirmish and killed. The surviving crew escaped for Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the globe and proving that the world is round

10. Overseas Empires • Portugal and Spain • Portugal’s main interest was in Africa and Asia, and in trade rather than colonization • The Portuguese expanded eastward to the Spice Islands and also colonized the area of present-day Brazil

11. Overseas Empires • Portugal and Spain Cont • By the 1600’s, Spain’s empire included much of North and South America as well as the islands in the West Indies • Spain pursued two main goals for its American empire: • Acquire its wealth • Convert Native Americans to Christianity

12. Overseas Empires • Portugal and Spain Cont • The Native American population declined because of mistreatment and disease, the Spaniards then brought over enslaved workers from Africa, further adding to a new culture

13. Overseas Empires • Colonies of the Netherlands • In 1602, the Dutch chartered the Dutch East India Company to expand trade and ensure closer relations with Asia • Soon the Dutch controlled island trade throughout present-day Indonesia and pushed the Portuguese and English out of Asian outposts

14. Overseas Empires • Colonies of the Netherlands Cont • In 1621, the Dutch chartered the Dutch West India Company to establish colonies in the Americas • The company founded the colony of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, soon the center for European and colonial trade

15. Overseas Empires • French and English Colonies • England and France turned toward the Americas and the Caribbean for trading colonies; the French companies sought trade, the English used the colonies for raw materials • The French navigator Jacques Cartier, seeking a northwest passage through the Americas to Asia, claimed much of eastern Canada for France

16. Overseas Empires • French and English Colonies Cont • During the 1600’s, the English also founded settlements in the Americas, including Jamestown in present day Virginia and Plymouth in present day Massachusetts • English settlement activities pushed out the earlier inhabitants, the Native Americans; the English emerged as the leading European power in much of North America

17. Overseas Empires • Slave Trade • In the 1600’s, European territories in the Americas based their agricultural economies on the labor of enslaved Africans • In the triangular trade, European ships carried manufactured goods to West Africa and sold the goods for enslaved people. The ships the carried the slaves across the Atlantic and sold them in the Americas; finally the ships returned to Europe to with raw materials from the Americas.

18. Overseas Empires

19. Overseas Empires • Slave Trade Cont • An enslaved person’s journey from Africa to the Americas was a ghastly ordeal called the Middle Passage, the middle leg of the triangular trade • An anti-slavery movement, fueled by humanitarian concerns and fear of slave uprisings, gained power in the 1800s

20. Overseas Empires • Slave Trade Cont • The most successful uprising occurred in the French-ruled West Indian island of Saint Domingue, leading to the creation of the republic of Haiti in 1804