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The European reconnaissance of the world's oceans
The exploration and mapping of the world's oceans by Europeans
Motives for exploration
Europeans sought new resources
Resource-poor Portugal searched for fresh resources
Portugal ventured into the Atlantic from the 13th to 15th centuries in search of new opportunities.
Established sugar plantations in the Atlantic islands
Portuguese colonization supported sugar production and trade in the Atlantic islands.
The lure of direct trade without Muslim intermediaries
European powers sought to bypass Muslim traders to directly access Asian and African goods.
Asian spice trade
A major motivation for European exploration to access valuable spices from Asia.
African gold
ivory
Missionary efforts of European Christians
Europeans sought to spread Christianity globally
New Testament urged Christians to spread the faith throughout the world
The Bible inspired European missionary work as part of their exploration efforts.
Crusades and holy wars against Muslims in early centuries
European history of religious conflict motivated further expansions into Muslim territories.
Reconquista of Spain inspired Iberian crusaders
The successful reclaiming of Spain from Muslim rule fueled further exploration and conquests.
Various motives combined and reinforced each other
Religious
The technology of exploration
Innovations like the sternpost rudder and advanced sails enabled long-distance maritime travel.
Sternpost rudder and two types of sails
These technological advances allowed ships to sail more effectively against the wind.
Navigational instruments
Tools like the magnetic compass and astrolabe improved maritime navigation.
Magnetic compass
A navigational tool that indicated direction and greatly improved sea travel.
Astrolabe (and cross and back staffs)
Instruments used to determine latitude during sea voyages.
Knowledge of winds and currents
European mariners learned to use trade winds
Trade winds north and south of the equator
Predictable wind patterns that facilitated transoceanic voyages.
Regular monsoons in Indian Ocean basin
Seasonal winds that shaped trade and travel routes in the Indian Ocean.
The volta do mar
A navigational strategy using prevailing winds and currents to travel efficiently across the Atlantic.
Dom Henrique
king of Portugal
Portuguese conquered Ceuta in north Africa in 1415
Marked the beginning of Portuguese expansion into Africa.
Trading posts at Sao Jorge da Mina
Portuguese-established posts in West Africa for gold trade.
Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope
Bartolomeu Dias reached the Indian Ocean by rounding Africa's southern tip in 1488.
Vasco da Gama of Portugal
Navigator who crossed the Indian Ocean and reached India in 1497
Portuguese trading post at Calicut
Established in 1500
Christopher Columbus
Genoese mariner who proposed sailing west to reach Asia and discovered the Americas in 1492.
Columbus's voyage
Linked the eastern and western hemispheres
Ferdinand Magellan
Portuguese navigator who led the first circumnavigation of the globe (1519–1522).
Exploration of the Pacific
Took centuries to complete
Trade route between the Philippines and Mexico
Spanish merchants facilitated global trade with Manila galleons.
English mariners searched for a northwest passage
Attempted to find a direct route from Europe to Asia via the Arctic.
Captain James Cook
British explorer who led three major expeditions and expanded European geographical knowledge.
Portuguese trading-post empire
Over 50 posts established between West Africa and East Asia to control trade routes.
Alfonso d'Alboquerque
Portuguese commander who captured key trade cities in the Indian Ocean in the 1500s.
Joint-stock companies
English and Dutch enterprises that financed and organized global trade efficiently.
The English East India Company
A powerful trading company founded in 1600 to manage British trade in Asia.
The United East India Company (VOC)
Dutch trading company founded in 1602 that dominated spice trade.
Spanish conquest of the Philippines
Led by Miguel López de Legazpi
Dutch conquest of Java
VOC established a monopoly over spice trade
The Seven Years' War
Global conflict (1756–1763) resulting in British dominance in India and North America.
The Columbian Exchange
Global diffusion of plants
Epidemic diseases
Smallpox and other diseases devastated indigenous populations in the Americas and Pacific.
New foods and animals
Crops like maize and potatoes spread globally
Growth of world population
Increased due to improved diets and global agricultural exchanges.
Enslaved Africans
The largest group of migrants to the Americas from 1500 to 1800
The Manila galleons
Spanish ships that connected Asia and the Americas
The fragmentation of western Christendom
The division of Christianity in Europe into Protestant and Catholic factions during the Reformation.
The Protestant Reformation
A movement to reform the Roman Catholic Church
Martin Luther attacked the sale of indulgences
1517
Attacked corruption in the Roman Catholic Church
Highlighted abuses within the church and called for change based on scripture.
Argument reproduced with printing presses
Luther's writings spread widely thanks to the printing press
Enthusiastic popular response
Luther's ideas resonated with lay Christians
By mid-sixteenth century
half the German people adopted Lutheran Christianity
Reform spread outside Germany
Protestantism gained traction in Switzerland
English Reformation
Initiated by King Henry VIII to break from the Catholic Church
John Calvin
French Protestant reformer who established a strict theocratic community in Geneva.
Calvinist missionaries
Spread Calvinism to Scotland
The Catholic Reformation
A movement within the Catholic Church to reform and counteract Protestant growth.
The Council of Trent
1545-1563
The Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
A Catholic order founded to educate and spread Catholicism worldwide.
Witch-hunts in Europe
Hysteria over witchcraft led to the execution of thousands
Religious wars in Europe
Conflicts between Protestants and Catholics dominated the 16th century.
The Thirty Years' War
A devastating European war (1618–1648) stemming from religious and political tensions.
The consolidation of sovereign states
The formation of centralized states with distinct governments and territories.
Charles V
Holy Roman Emperor
The new monarchs of England
France
The Spanish Inquisition
A Catholic court established to root out heresy and enforce religious orthodoxy.
Constitutional states
England and the Netherlands developed systems of government with limited powers and individual rights.
Absolutism
A political system where monarchs held absolute power
Louis XIV
The "Sun King" of France
The Peace of Westphalia
A treaty in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years' War and established sovereign states.
The balance of power
A diplomatic principle to prevent any one state from dominating others.
Early capitalist society
An economic system where private parties made decisions based on supply and demand.
Population growth
Improved nutrition and disease resistance led to a European population boom from 1500 to 1800.
Urbanization
Rapid growth of cities as commercial and administrative centers during early modern Europe.
The nature of capitalism
Economic activity driven by private parties and free-market principles.
Supply and demand
Determined prices and encouraged the development of trade networks and financial institutions.
Joint-stock companies
Organizations like the EEIC and VOC that pooled resources for large-scale trade and colonization.
The putting-out system
A production system where rural laborers produced goods for merchants outside guild control.
Social change in early modern Europe
Capitalism improved living standards but also created social tensions.
The nuclear family
Strengthened by economic independence and emotional bonds in capitalist society.
The reconception of the universe
A shift from the geocentric to the heliocentric model during the Scientific Revolution.
The Ptolemaic universe
A model with Earth at the center
The Copernican universe
A heliocentric model proposing the sun as the center of the universe.
Galileo Galilei
Scientist who made groundbreaking observations with the telescope and advanced physics.
Isaac Newton
Developed the laws of motion and gravity
The Enlightenment
An intellectual movement applying reason and scientific principles to human society.
John Locke
Philosopher who argued that human knowledge comes from sensory experiences.
Adam Smith
Economist who explained market behavior using laws of supply and demand.
Montesquieu
Advocated for political liberty through the separation of powers in government.
Voltaire
Enlightenment thinker who championed religious freedom and individual rights.
Deism
The belief in a rational God who created the universe but does not intervene in human affairs.
The theory of progress
Enlightenment belief in rational analysis and human advancement to improve society.
Colliding worlds
The meeting and interaction of European explorers and indigenous peoples in the Americas and the Pacific.
The Spanish Caribbean
The early area of Spanish colonization where the Taino people lived under chiefs.
Taino
Indigenous people of the Caribbean who lived in small villages and initially offered little resistance to Europeans.
Columbus built the fort of Santo Domingo
Established as the capital of the Spanish Caribbean.
Taino conscripted to mine gold
Forced labor of the Taino for Spanish economic interests.
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