THE AGE OF

EXPLORATION
THE FIVE GS
What were the primary
motivating forces that drew
Europeans to the Americas?
God: The opportunity for religious
freedom, or to act as Christian
missionaries to the Native
Americans
Glory: To build empires or to
become famous
Gold: To get rich
What primary advantages allowed
them to reach these goals?
Germs: Diseases wiped out much
of the Native population
Guns: Military advantage over the
Natives
 THE VALUE OF
SPICES

Pepper and other spices

(like cinnamon, cloves, &
nutmeg) were extremely
expensive in Europe
Spices were used for
flavoring food, but also
as a preservative (to
slow the rotting process)
Spices came mostly
from the Spice Islands
(modern-day Indonesia)
 THE QUEST FOR
CHEAPER SPICES

The spice trade was controlled by the Muslims

(remember, they were between Europe and
Indonesia), so Europeans needed to find a way to
cut out the middleman and bypass Muslim traders

Europeans (especially Spain and Portugal) began to

explore Africas Atlantic coastline to see if they
could go around Africa to reach Indonesia
SPICE TRADE
ROUTES
 WHY NOW AND NOT
SOONER?

Sea exploration had

become possible thanks
to new inventions:
Improved map-making
methods
The astrolabe, an
instrument (invented by
a Muslim) for
determining latitude
Better ship designs
Better weapons for
defense (naval cannons)
MARCO POLO
 ABOUT MARCO POLO
Marco Polo was a
Venetian trader and
an explorer.
He was an Italian
explorer from Venice
who traveled through
Central Asia and
China.
His travels were
recorded in a book
called The
Description of the
World; or, The Travels Marco Polo
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION

Marco Polo
 THE BEGINNING OF
MARCO POLO
Marco Polo was born in
1254 and died in 1324.
After Marco Polos father
(Matteo) and uncle (Nicolo)
returned home to Venice,
Nicolo discovered that his
wife at died, leaving fifteen
year old Marco in his care.
Instead of leaving Marco
home in Venice, the two
men decided that it would
be better to take Marco to
China with them. And in
1271 they left for their
journey.
Marco Polo
MARCO POLOS WAY
 KUBLAI KHAN

The Polos arrived in 1275.

Khan liked Marco a lot, and
conscripted him into
service for the empire.
Marco Polo served in many
government positions.
(including as an
ambassador of the city of
Yangzhou.)
Khan finally said that they
could leave the empire as
long as they escort the
princess, who was to
marry a Persian King.
 TO PERSIA
The princess and the Polos
headed southward on the
China Sea.
It was a long, torturous
voyage.
Stops were made along
the way at: Borneo,
Sumatra, Ceylon and other
places, until the ships
reached the Persian Gulf.
After being entertained for
weeks by the Persians,
Marco, his father, and his
uncle finally went to the
Black Sea and headed for
home.
MAP
 WAR AT HOME
Marco Polo, his father, and
uncle returned to Venice
where Marco joined the
army to fight against the
state of Genoa.
Marco Polo was captured in
1298 and held in Genoa.
While in prison he dictated
to another prisoner his
travels, and The Travels of
Marco Polo was published
in French.

Marco Polo
 INFLUENTIAL MARCO

Marco Polos book

influenced much of
later Europe.
It influenced other
explorers.
It even influenced
Christopher
Columbus.
PORTUGUESE
EXPLORATION
Portugal went east

1415-1460: Prince Henry the

Navigator sent ships to
explore along African coast
1488: Portuguese reached
Cape of Good Hope at the
southern tip of Africa
1497: Vasco de Gama sailed
around the Cape of Good Hope
and reached India; trip to India
took 10 months but returned a
profit of 3000%
Beginning in 1502, Portuguese
captured several port cities in
Asia to use as trading outposts
 WHAT DID THEY
FIND IN ASIA?
A heavy trade network
already existed between
China, Southeast Asia,
India, and East Africa
Cultures that were heavily
dominated by Chinese and
Indian influences
Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Islam were already
strongly rooted in the
area, little interest in
Christianity
 EUROPEAN
SUCCESSES IN ASIA

The Portuguese
1511: Portugal captured the Strait of
Malacca, giving them control of the
spice trade
Focused on controlling ports so that
ships could sail from Europe to
Indonesia in short legs; they did not
move inland to create colonies
The Dutch
Challenged the Portuguese spice
monopoly; captured Strait of Malacca in
1641
The Dutch East India Company was
formed by a group of wealthy investors
to control the spice trade
The Spanish
1521: Spain claimed the Philippines and
quickly colonized and converted the
natives to Catholicism
EUROPEAN FAILURES
IN ASIA
India: Mughal Dynasty was too strong
for Europeans to conquer until the
1750s
China
China was so advanced that
Europeans had little to offer in trade
that they wanted; Chinese only
wanted gold or silver
Strictly limited European access to
China until well into the 1800s
Japan
At first, welcomed Europeans and
traded heavily with them
The shoguns became suspicious of
Europeans intentions, however,
and banned them from Japan in
1638
SPANISH EXPLORATION

Spain went west

In 1492, Christopher
Columbus convinced Spain to
back his effort to reach Asia
by sailing west across the
Atlantic
He discovered the Americas
and established Spains claim
to two new continents;
Portugal would claim part of
South America (modern day
Brazil) under the Treaty of
Tordesillas in 1500
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS
In Oct. 1492, Columbus landed in
West Indies
Enslaved and tortured the natives
and made them mine for gold
Named governor by the Spanish
king, Columbus would later be
removed from office due to
corruption and abuse of power
charges
Within 50 years of his arrival, 90%
of the native Carib population had
died from exposure to European
diseases like smallpox, measles,
and influenza
 BUT WAS COLUMBUS
FIRST?
Asiatic nomads arrived
between 10,000 and 30,000
years ago (the Native
Americans)
The Vikings established
trading outposts in
Newfoundland (Canada)
around 1000 AD
Plus, there is some limited
evidence to support that
the Chinese, Japanese,
Africans, and/or Polynesians
arrived in the Americas
BEFORE Columbus
HERNN CORTS

Arrived in Mexico in
1519 to open diplomatic
relations with the Aztec
Empire
By 1521, had destroyed
Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan, killed the
Aztec emperor
Montezuma, and broken
Aztec power
FRANCISCO PIZARRO
Sent to explore Peru in
1532
Captured the Incan
emperor Atahualpa and
held him for ransom; the
Inca paid the ransom but
Pizarro killed Atahualpa
anyway
War that followed resulted
in the destruction of the
Incan Empire
 THE SPANISH
CONQUISTADORES
Following Columbus
establishment of permanent
Spanish settlements in the
Caribbean, the Spanish sent
military expeditions into the
continental Americas to
explore and conquer
Conquistadores, such as
Hernan Cortes and Francisco
Pizarro, quickly toppled the
large Native empires of the
Aztec and Inca peoples and
expanded Spanish control of
both the people and
resources of the Americas
 SPANISH
ADVANTAGES OVER
NATIVES
So how did a few hundred
Spaniards defeat millions of
natives?
superior military technology
horses
armor
Guns & cannons
rivalries between native
groups kept them from
cooperating
disease decimated the native
population and destroyed
their religious faith systems
THE SPANISH
EMPIRE
Spain developed an American empire stretching
from Northern California to South America

Managing the Empire

Split empire into

provinces, each
governed by a viceroy
Council of the Indies
set up in Spain to
oversee the viceroys
SPAIN GETS RICH!

Spain limited colonists to trading only with Spanish

merchants

Colonists traded raw materials for Spanish

manufactured goods

Spanish wealth came from exploiting American

gold, silver, & sugar resources using slave labor
 SLAVERY UNDER
SPANISH
Encomienda system: viceroys
were empowered by the king of
Spain to enslave natives in order
to save their souls through
Christianity
In 1542, Spain outlawed
enslavement of natives, but it was
too late many had already died
and the abuses continued anyway
Natives were forced into a form of
serfdom after 1542
By the 1530s, Spanish had begun
importing African slaves to
replace native ones
 THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH IN AMERICA
The Catholic Churchs
Jesuit priests helped
control the native
population
Forcibly converted
natives to Christianity
Worked to destroy
native cultures and
religious practices and
replace it with Spanish
BEYOND THE
AMERICAS
The Americas, however, still
blocked Europeans from reaching
Asia by sailing west
How to get around the Americas?
Go North?
English, Dutch and French
looked for a Northwest
Passage around Canada,
but never found one
Go South?
In 1520, Spaniard
Ferdinand Magellan sailed
around the southern tip of
South America and into
the Pacific
 FERDINAND
MAGELLAN

Magellans fleet would

go on to be the first to
circumnavigate (or sail
completely around)
the globe (although it
would take 3 years to
do it, Magellan was
killed along the way,
and only 18 sailors
and 1 ship would
complete the voyage)
MAGELLANS ROUTE