early modern european maritime exploration

date

• c. 1450- c. 1750

• the europeans started to develop better maritime tech

• getting to the indian oncean was important because from there you could go to any of the economically strong empires to trade

ming treasure fleet

• the chinese scholar gentry who boot out the mongols organize a rebellion against everything mongol

• the chinese entered an era of chinese culture rebirth, and everything the chinese had done in history was brought back to ensure the strength of chinese culture after mongol rule

• the brough back the great chinese navy, which was often called the treasure fleet

hyper-chinese-ness

• extinguishing mongol EVERYTHING, bringing back old chinese traditions

• footbinding, the imperial university, language, etc.

voyages of admiral zheng he

• zheng he was hired to be the general of the chinese navy (treasure fleet)

• he went on seven voyages with the treasure fleet

• they went to all different places to exchange goods with wealthy traders (empires, merchants)

• this wasn’t a conquest, but seeing all those ships was a threat to encourage people to trade with them

european world map

• europe had no connections to these maritime trade routes

• educated people (also sailors because they can literally SEE the curve) know that the world is round.

• the europeans had some things on their map correctly, but not the whole world

• they relatively had everything on the coastlines correct

crusaders open up trade for europe

• the crusaders opened up trade routes for europe

• europe was blown away by the crusaders loot and they wanted more of where that came from

• europe wanted to get to the indian ocean because that was where all the wealthy empires were located so they could trade with them

portugese explorations

• 1450-1488

• portugese prince henry paid people more than anyone else

• he set up an institution to map the coasts, the winds, and the currents

• they “leapfrogged” down the coast of africa 300 miles at a time

• a sailor named magellan gets caught in a bad storm with bad sailing and dies

portugese voyages + trasing posts

• the portugese aren’t conquering these places

• dominating the trading posts so that no other european civilization can have access to trade there

columbus

• 1492-1504

• since portugal was capturing all these trading posts, spain wanted in too

• but, the didn’t want to get taken down by the portugese

• columbus had the idea to sail around the globe (of which they thought the back was water) and get to the other side of asia

• he ran into the amercas, not asia

sugar

• after docking in native america, the spanish discovered sugarcane

• they didn’t have anything like sugar at home, so sugar was traded as a luxury good

• but sugar was a hard crop to work with (needed to be stirred 24/7, hard to cut the harsh outside off, etc)

slavery from sugar

• they needed labor, so they tried to force the natives into slavery, but they escaped, then they recruited a bunch of indentured servants, until they heard that they would die fast in the carribean, so they resorted to the slave market in africa

• at the beginning, slavery wasn’t hereditary (it was only for the one guy who was purchased or committed a crime)

• since there was no one to enforce this, slavery became hereditary because people wanted more slaves

the first globar treaty: spain/portugal

• the spanish were worried about the portugese claiming their new land

• they went to the pope and asked him to write a note that gave spain claim to any new land west of an arbitrary line, and portugal could claim anything east.

• becomes useless in 100 years because other countries didn’t sign this treaty and could come in and take any unclaimed land, regardless of the treaty

magellan voyages around the world

• magellan was sailing for spain to try and figure out what land they had just claimed

• he was instructed to claim land for spain (that hasn’t already been claimed by portugal

• although magellan died because he upset the natives in foriegn diplomatics, his crew was the first to sail around the globe

• they tried to map their journey

• there was luck involved in their journey