1.6 European Exploration and Empire-building

why the exploration happened

the 3 G’s: Gold, God, and Glory

mercantilism

the dominant economic system of Europe during this time period where the goal was to get as much gold and silver into the national coffers as possible (favorable balance of trade: when a state has more exports than imports)

gold as a motivating factor for exploration

the states wanted wealth through mercantilism and by establishing colonies they got more gold & provided more raw material —> so basically just more money

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

he aimed to create policies in France that enabled French industry to create everything the people needed so they didn’t need to import anything (basically what trump was tryna do but it obviously didn’t work and just ended up raising our costs) anyway he raised tariffs

tariffs

taxes on imported goods (Colbert raised taxes as a way to get French people to only buy french goods because they’re less expensive)

European demands for luxury goods and what that effected

the elites wanted luxury stuff and tea from asia but couldn’t get it without going through the Muslim controlled Ottoman empire’s land routes —> motivates europeans to go find a sea route to Asia for luxury goods

God as a motivating factor

God is very very important to the people so they wanted to spread it into distant lands. so after the Protestant Reformation era, many people wanted to see Catholicism with higher power/influence over Protestantism so people went to spread Catholicism over seas.

Jesuit missionaries

states sent Jesuits to convert indigenous people despite seeing them as inferior (lesser human —> for forced labor)

Christianity’s control over indigenous people and land

The imperial states used Christianity to became a way to control them (their labor and land) (not every christian tho because Bartolome de Lad Cases didn’t)

Bartolome de lad Cases

A Jesuit priest who defended the indigenous people and worked to make their lives less harsh under the imperial regime of the states (he’s a good example of not using christianity to control the indigenous people)

except he did the opposite for the enslaved african people that later came

glory as a motivating factor

all the states were basically competing to have to most power and by raking up the most lands they got the most power therefore using that glory to keep pushing them

maritime empires

they’re sea based empires rather than land based and they’re a type of empire that just got introduced during this time

what 3 technologies was advanced/created to create maritime empires

• advancements in Cartography (map making) —> more detailed + accurate and spread widely because of the printing press

• new ships like the Caravel (developed by the spanish and portuguese) —> faster and easier to navigate so it transported cargo very fast. it was influenced by the Lateen Sail (a triangular sail that could take wind from any direction rather than just from the back like a square one)

• better navigation like the Magnetic Compass/Astrolabe adopted from Chinese and Muslim navigators —> the magnetic compass helped with direction while the astrolabe helped with the latitude