Modern History Midterm I (Do these in order!)

Context of the Spice Road

• Prior to the 1400s, dating back to 400 AD, a trade route was established between Asia and Africa to exchange specialized, luxury goods of the upper and middle class.

• China specialized and created silk and specific spices like nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and pepper were grown/found in Indonesia and India.

• Asian countries like China and India sold these goods to Muslim merchants in North Africa who then sold them to Italian city-state merchants directly North and West.

• The Italians then distributed across Western Europes (giving them significant economic power and control) as nutmeg and cloves were sought after for medicinal purposes (nutmeg for colds and cloves for dentistry).

• As these spices passed from merchant to merchant, prices increased as each tried to make a profit, making them extremely expensive for nations on the receiving end and giving them little control.

• Resulted in search for new ways to regain economic power through voyages and claims of these trade routes.

Portugal (Begin voyage to pre-India)

• Portugal, being located in far West Europe, held limited control over spices and paid extremely expensive prices to access them, giving them little control.

• Having a taste for the spice road, the Renaissance being a time of risk-taking, and control over places in Northern Africa, Portugal sought to voyage to around Africa and lay claim to the East Indies in order to control trade of spices.

• 1419, Prince Henry of Portugal and the crown funded a navigation school/base in Sagres where teachers were hired to teach the Portugese to navigate, build ships, make maps, etc.

• 1419-1488: Portugal lays claims to several ports across West African coast (Madeira Islands, Azure Islands, Cape Verdes, and the Cape of Good Hope.

• Developed technologies from merchants such as triangular sails to give more control, learned to mount artillery to turn ships in to a navy, etc.

• Established logbooks and maps like Berhaim’s globe to map out and report back on their voyages.

Timeline of Portugal’s claims

• 1498: Vasco de Gama and his crew land in Calicut, India (southern India). Believing that the people are Christian, attempt to establish relations with them and their nobility to control spices.

• 1499: Don’t establish relations but return with spices which are sold at a 3000% profit, making the journey worthwhile.

• 1502: Return to Calecut, but this time conquer it as other European nations still relied on previous merchants of Asia and Africa. By doing so, gives Portugal complete control over the trade routes, forcing nations to buy directly from them. they want complete control over spices

• 1511: Alfonso Alberqueque reaches the strait of Malacca in Indonesia, the only place where nutmeg is grown. Claims the strait and establishes a fort as it is the easiest and quickest way to navigate to Indonesia, directly controlling the source.

• 1512: Francisco Serrâo lays claim to Banda Islands, establishing complete Portugese dominances over where nutmeg is produced and creating a route that Portugal completely controls, giving them economic power.

Spain and Portugal Conflict

• Portugal and Spain, competing Western European powers, were looking to lay claim to East Indies, but the Portugese had already set sail to India.

• 1494 King John II and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, allowing Spain claim 30 Leagues West of Cape Verde and the “West Indies” while anything east was for Portugal.

Vasco de Gama Source Reading

Who: Àlvaro Vehlo, a Portuges crewmate of Vasco de Gama on voyage to Calecut

Where: Written in Calecut

When: 1498 when Portugal first reached Calecut India on its voyage to the East Indies

For whom: nobility and future voyagers of Portugal

Context and Timeline of Spain’s Voyages

• Having seen Portugal’s success and having their own desire to gain economic control, the Spanish set out to find their own pathway to the Spice Islands.

• The marriage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella united Castile and Aragon to form the complete kingdom of Spain

• 1491-92: Spain conquers Grenada, giving them a sign that God is on their side

• 1492: Kind Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain hire Columbus, an ambitious Italian voyager, to find a pathway Westward to Asia.

• Columbus wanted to be named admiral, govern the land he found, and receive 10% of merchandise

• 1492-1504: Columbus took four different voyages, bringing back items, animals, and even people to show “proof” of his findings.

What did Columbus encounter?

• Taino: indigenous Caribbean people throughout Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, etc. who lived prior to Columbus’ arrival. By 1550s though, many of them and their cultures died of due to exposure of European diseases and use in enslaved labor.

• Technologies used by the indigenous such as ocean-going canoes, hammocks, and other words that were taken into their language.

• Cultivation of yuca, sweet potatoes, maize, corn, and beans

Sugar Production and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

• Prior to the 1400s, no European power had ever cultivated sugar as it required tropical conditions to grow, but was highly valued by the Europeans.

• Early 1400s, through the claim of West African territories by Prince Henry, Portugal began to create its own sugar plantations there.

• 1500s Spanish began sugar production after Columbus had brought it to the Carribean.

• Triangular trade was established as ships left Europe to West africa, kidnapped and enslaved Africans, and tkae them to the Caribbean for sugar production which then went back to Europe.

• Created its own trade route rather than relying on pre-existing routes like in the East as well as implemented its own production rather than extraction of resources.

Great Britain initial voyage

• Because Columbus, being Italian, who became successful in work for Spain, other Italians sought to do the same.

• John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) was an Italian (Venetian/Genoan) who also believed in a Northwest passage to Asia.

• 1496 Worked with King Henry VII who commissioned Cabot legally on behalf of England to sale West to claim land for the English. Found private investors in order to establish this and set out on behalf of England.

• 1497: Leaves from Bristol, port city, and sales out West, landing in Newfoundland, Canada having believed he landed in Asia.

• Convinces nobility of his success with proof of his crewmen (being Italian and not English) as well as details of his success.

• 1498: Sets out on a second voyage, this time funded by the Crown, to Japan, to create a port city for London to control trade of spices.

Britain source

Who: Raimondo de Soncino, a Milan ambassador to England Where: London When: 1498 For whom: Duke of Milan

Britain second voyage

• 1576-78 an Englishman by the name of Martin Frobisher took three voyages into the Arctic to seek out a Northwest passage for the English

• Many countries saw the outsourcing of other nations’ talent to conduct these voyages, but the English instead wanted to create their own “home grown” talents as it would help them rise in rank

• Sought out a passage through the Arctic from the UK

• First voyage was funded privately via investors (similar to the Dutch); however, his second voyage, was funded by Queen Elizabeth after claiming have founding gold (which turned out to be pyrite or fool’s gold).

• From the source, however, in their first voyage, they also saw five men disappear and thus kidnapped a man, woman and child of the Inuit people who died in England no long after their arrival.

Martin Frobisher Sources

a) Who: Christopher Hall, a voyager with Frobisher When: 1576-78 on Frobisher’s first voyage Where: Arctic For whom: Nobility, queen Elizabeth + investors in their passage

b) Illustrations of Inuit people -

c)

England third attempt

• 1578 Francis Drake, a pirate, is commissioned by Queen Elisabeth I to find a Northwest Passage, sailing through the Atlantic undetected, around South America and return through the north of America.

• Queen Elisabeth saw the growing power of the Spanish at the time (found gold via Columbus in the Americas) and wanted to challenge them head on via their own route (henry VIII had built an effective armed fleet to serve as a navy)

• Sails the Straits of Magellan around South America, plundered Spanish maps, but instead of coming around via the North of North America, travels via the spice islands and around Africa (circumnavigating the globe).

Dutch Republic Contex

• 1500s saw changes in Christianity with Luther, Calvin, etc. challenging the papacy, so some regions were catholic while others became Lutheran, Hugenot, etc.

• Dutch became Calvinist despite being under Catholic Spanish rule

• 1568- Led a revolt agains the Spanish for their independence, starting the 80 Years War

• The Dutch established a republic with landowners and city livers shaping future of the Dutch, the upper and middle classes essentially ruling themselves

• 1590s - the Dutch sought its own route to Asia to pay for the war via the North and the Arctic and secure control amongst foreign competition

Dutch voyage to the Arctic

1594 - by the 1550s, the Dutch had a foothold in Norway and Kola, so were looking towards the North for its own route

1594-1597: Willem Barent was sent on three voyages to find this pathway through the Arctic

Funded privately by the middle and upper class merchants. Found agreements for people to put money into investments and then given a share of the profits if discovered. Low risk