C.15-WHAP Global Maritime Expansion before 1450 European Expansion 1400-1550 Encounters with Europe, 1450-1550 Comparative perspectives

Warm up Pick a partner and discuss the following: What were the motivations for exploration? What is meant by the word exchange? Are exchanges always even?

Global Maritime Expansion before 1450 Crossing the world’s seas and oceans have been one of the greatest challenges to mankind and have been the cause of many maritime inventions. Why explore and travel across these treacherous waters? Ships could move people and goods quickly and cheaply compared to any form of land travel at this time. It was an exciting to find the “new” It was profitable

By 1450 much had been accomplished when dealing with exploration. Most of the islands of Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian Oceans had been settled. The biggest success story was the trading system of the Indian Ocean. No individual had crossed the Pacific in either direction and the Atlantic created a barrier b/w the peoples of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This was about to change.

The Pacific Ocean Over a period of several thousand years, peoples originally from the Malay Peninsula crossed the water to settle the islands of the East Indies, New Guinea, the Melanesian and Polynesian islands, the Marquesas, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands out to Hawaii. There was until recently a theory that people from the Americas settled Easter Island and Hawaii

Evidence of Polynesian exploration and settlement 1. the languages of these Islanders are all closely related to the languages of the western Pacific 2. It could not have been an accident b/c there is evidence that there were sufficient numbers of men and women brought to the islands along with plants and domesticated animals that were basic to Polynesian islands 3. In 1976 a Polynesian crew used similar boats to that of the Polynesians and it proved seaworthy.

The Indian Ocean Malayo-Indonesians colonized the island of Madagascar in a series of voyages that continued through the fifteenth century Arab seafarers used the regular pattern of the monsoon winds to establish trade routes in the Indian Ocean These trade routes flourished when the rise of Islam created new markets and new networks of Muslim traders The Chinese Ming dynasty sponsored a series of voyages to the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433 The Ming voyages were carried out on a grand scale, involving fleets of over sixty large “treasure ships” or junk ships and hundreds of smaller support vessels

Motivation behind Chinese exploration The Chinese were motivated to explore was to reestablish their prominence after throwing off their Mongol rulers in 1368 They were also motivated by general curisotiy of the unknown. They also wanted to enhance their commerce Take a look at the very large Chinese junk ship used to explore the Indian Ocean basin on page 416 The Chinese junk ship was larger than eh flagship of Columbus’ voyage.

Zheng He Zheng He (jung huh) was at the command of the Chinese expeditions. He was Muslim so he fit in with the growing Muslim-dominated Indian Ocean basin In his travels he observed the divisions of the Indian ocean coastal population into five classes. What did the Chinese junk ships carry to the Indian Ocean? Rich silks Precious metals These goods were meant as gifts to rulers These explorations were more diplomatic and were intended to establish trade b/w China and its neighbors

Chinese exploration continued There is evidence to support that China did explore and trade with the Swahili Coast of East Africa. Delegates from the Swahili Coast did go to China . There is record of representatives of the Swahili Coast bringing a giraffe to the emperor. Why did the exploration stop? One theory is that the Chinese looked at contact with new peoples as being in contact with barbarians and would have no “real contribution to make to China” They stopped their exploration expeditions in 1433

The Atlantic Ocean During the relatively warm centuries of the early Middle Ages, the Vikings, navigating by the stars and the seas, explored and settled: Iceland Greenland Newfoundland When a colder climate returned after 1200, the northern settlements in Greenland and the settlement in Newfoundland were abandoned Leif Ericson found North American prior to Columbus

European Expansion, 1400–1550 The Portuguese and Spanish expeditions increased the “volume of global interaction” Why did exploration being with the Iberian peninsula? Iberian rulers had strong economic, religious, and political motives to expand and increase their dominance. They had the means with maritime technology

Motives for Exploration The Iberian kingdoms sponsored voyages of exploration for a number of reasons : Adventurous personalities of their leaders The revival of trade The struggle with Islam for control of the Mediterranean Curiosity about the outside world The alliances between rulers and merchants

Why was Italy not first? The city-states of northern Italy had no incentive to explore Atlantic trade routes They had established a system of alliances and trade with the Muslims that gave them a monopoly on access to Asian goods Also, Italian ships were designed for the calm waters of the Mediterranean and could not stand up to the violent weather of the Atlantic.

Portuguese Voyages Please answer the following questions: What advancements in sailing technology did the Portuguese have over other countries? What was Prince Henry’s involvement in making Portugal #1 in exploration?

Portuguese Voyages The Portuguese gained more knowledge of the sources of gold and slaves south of the Sahara when their forces, led by Prince Henry, captured the North African caravan city of Ceuta. Prince Henry (“the Navigator”) then sponsored a research and navigation institute at Sagres in order to collect information about and send expeditions to the African lands south of North Africa

The staff of Prince Henry’s research institute in Sagres studied and improved navigational instruments including the compass and the astrolabe They also designed a new vessel, the caravel, whose small size, shallow draft, combination of square and lateen sails, and cannon made it well suited for the task of exploration

Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama rounded the tip of Africa and established contact with India, thus laying the basis for Portugal’s maritime trading empire.

Spanish Voyages When Christopher Columbus approached the Spanish crown with his project of finding a new route to Asia, the Portuguese had already established their route to the Indian Ocean The King and Queen of Spain agreed to fund a modest voyage of discovery, Columbus set out in 1492 with letters of introduction to Asian rulers and an Arabic interpreter.

After three voyages, Columbus was still certain that he had found Asia, but other Europeans realized that he had discovered entirely new lands These new discoveries led the Spanish and the Portuguese to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which they divided the world between them along a line drawn down the center of the North Atlantic.

Answer the following question: Should Christopher Columbus have a holiday in his honor? Why? or Why not?? You will spend 15 min preparing your answer with the documents provided and then we will have a large group discussion.