Chapter 3: European Exploration and Conquest (1450-1650)

What was the Afro-Eurasian trading world before Columbus?

• Global Trade System Context ($1450\text{--}1550$):

  • In $1450$, European nations were peripheral players in an extensive Afro-Eurasian commercial network centered on the Indian Ocean.

  • Active competition among Arab, Persian, Turkish, Indian, African, Chinese, and European merchants trading in spices, silks, precious metals, and manufactured goods.

  • By $1550$, Portuguese maritime expansion created a new empire, while Spanish voyages led to colonization in the Western Hemisphere.

• Geographic and Environmental Dynamics:

  • The Indian Ocean covers $20\%$ of world ocean surface.

  • Navigation relied on predictable monsoon winds: November to January (northwest/northeast) and April to August (south/southwest).

• Structure of Port Cities and Regional Powers:

  • Trade organized around self-governing, cosmopolitan port cities sustained by transnational ethnic, religious, and familial networks.

  • China:

  • Safeguarded the overland <mark>Silk Road</mark> routes through Central Asia under Mongol rule.

  • Marco Polo traveled through Asia ($1271\text{--}1295$); his accounts of Hangzhou stimulated European interest.

  • Ming Dynasty ($1368$) drove rapid urbanization and economic growth.

  • Admiral Zheng He: Led seven naval expeditions ($1405\text{--}1433$) over $12{,}000\,\text{miles}$ to expand diplomatic prestige and secure tribute alliances.

  • India:

  • Central axis of Indian Ocean network; coastal posts like Calicut and Quilon produced pepper, cotton, and silk textiles from Gujarat.

  • East Africa (Swahili City-States):

  • Autonomous Muslim city-states (Kilwa, Malindi, Mogadishu, Mombasa) exported ivory, rhinoceros horns, tortoise shells, and enslaved people.

  • Southeast Asia:

  • Malacca: Primary commercial <mark>entrepôt</mark> redistributing Chinese porcelain, Moluccan spices, and Indian textiles.

• African Empires and Trans-Saharan Routes:

  • <mark>Mamluk Sultanate</mark> of Egypt: Established Abbasid caliphate in Cairo ($1258$), connecting Red Sea trade to Mediterranean markets until Ottoman conquest ($1517$).

  • West African Gold Trade: Transported via trans-Saharan camel caravans to North African ports and Cairo.

  • Kingdom of Mali: Ruler Mansa Musa made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca ($1324\text{--}1325$) displaying immense gold wealth.

  • African Slavery: Internal and external slave trade systems predated European arrival across the Sahara and East Africa.

• Middle Eastern Empires and Italian Intermediaries:

  • Abbasid Caliphate ($750\text{--}1258$): Unified trade across Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

  • Ottoman and Safavid Empires: Competed for regional trade control. Fall of Constantinople ($1453$) to Sultan Mohammed II ($1451\text{--}1481$) blocked European Mediterranean access.

  • Venice vs. Genoa:

  • Venice: Traded European wool, arms, and enslaved people for Asian spices with Mamluk Egypt ($1304$).

  • Genoa: Shifted from Black Sea trade to western Mediterranean finance after $1291$.

How and why did Europeans undertake ambitious voyages of expansion?

• Primary Drivers of European Overseas Voyages:

  • Economic Motivations: Demand for bullion ($Au$ and $Ag$) and desire to bypass Ottoman middlemen to acquire spices (pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon).

  • Religious Fervor: Impelled by the <mark>reconquista</mark> (centuries of warfare to expel Muslim states from Iberia, culminating in Granada's fall in $1492$).

  • State Rivalry and Renaissance Culture: Competition among monarchies and intellectual curiosity encouraged by the printing press and travel accounts.

• Maritime Technological Innovations:

  • Ship Design: The Portuguese <mark>caravel</mark> with two or three masts, sternpost rudder, and triangular lateen sails allowed ships to tack into the wind and carry cannons.

  • Cartography: <mark>Ptolemy's Geography</mark> (reintroduced ca. $1410$) introduced spherical Earth, latitude, and longitude, though underestimating Earth's circumference.

  • Navigational Instruments: <mark>Magnetic compass</mark>, <mark>dead reckoning</mark>, and <mark>celestial navigation</mark> using the <mark>astrolabe</mark>.

• Iberian Exploration:

  • Portugal: Prince Henry "the Navigator" ($1394\text{--}1460$) financed West African expeditions (Ceuta $1415$, Madeira $1420$, Azores $1427$, Arguin $1443$). Papal bull ($1454$) granted exclusive rights.

  • Established fortified coastal <mark>factories</mark>. Bartholomeu Dias rounded Cape of Good Hope ($1488$); Vasco da Gama reached Calicut ($1498$).

  • Spain: Christopher Columbus ($1451\text{--}1506$) sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella; landed on San Salvador (Bahamas) on October 12, $1492$.

  • <mark>Treaty of Tordesillas</mark> ($1494$): Pope Alexander VI drew line dividing Atlantic between Spain (west) and Portugal (east, claiming Brazil in $1500$ under Cabral).

  • First <mark>Circumnavigation</mark>: Ferdinand Magellan ($1518\text{--}1522$) navigated Pacific; ship Victoria under Elcano completed voyage with $18$ survivors out of $270$.

• Northern European Exploration:

  • England: John Cabot ($1497$) and Martin Frobisher ($1576\text{--}1578$) searched for a <mark>Northwest Passage</mark>.

  • France: Jacques Cartier ($1534\text{--}1541$) explored St. Lawrence River, developing fur trade and Grand Banks cod fisheries.

What was the impact of European conquest on the New World?

• Demographics Prior to Contact: Estimated $35\text{ to }50\text{ million}$ Indigenous inhabitants in $1492$.

• Fall of the <mark>Aztec Empire</mark> ($1519\text{--}1521$):

  • Hernán Cortés ($1485\text{--}1547$) landed at Veracruz ($1519$). Governed from Tenochtitlan by Moctezuma II ($1502\text{--}1520$).

  • Cortés formed alliances with native translator Malintzin (Doña Marina) and Tlaxcala.

  • Siege of Tenochtitlan ($1521$) with $1{,}000$ Spaniards and $75{,}000$ Indigenous allies; smallpox devastated defenders.

• Fall of the <mark>Inca Empire</mark> ($1532\text{--}1533$):

  • Spanned $350{,}000\,\text{sq miles}$ and $16\text{ million}$ people linked by roads and <mark>khipus</mark>.

  • Francisco Pizarro ($1475\text{--}1541$) ambushed Atahualpa at Cajamarca ($1532$), extracted gold/silver ransom, executed Atahualpa ($1533$), and captured Cuzco.

• Explanatory Factors for Conquest: Military alliances, internal divisions, steel/cavalry weapons, and catastrophic European epidemic diseases.

• Colonial Enterprises & <mark>Mercantilism</mark>:

  • Guided by <mark>mercantilism</mark> and managed by chartered <mark>joint-stock companies</mark>.

  • English: Jamestown ($1607$), Plymouth ($1620$), Massachusetts Bay ($1630$).

  • French: Quebec ($1608$) by Champlain; Louisiana claimed ($1682$) by LaSalle.

  • Caribbean: Sugar plantations established on English (Barbados, Jamaica) and French (Saint-Domingue) islands.

How did Europe and the world change after Columbus?

• Systems of Colonial Governance:

  • Spanish Institutions: Casa de la Contratación ($1503$), Council of the Indies ($1524$), and <mark>viceroyalties</mark> (New Spain $1535$, Peru $1542$, New Granada, La Plata) advised by the <mark>audiencia</mark>.

  • French & English: French used military governors and intendants; English used elected colonial assemblies.

• Labor Exploitation Systems:

  • <mark>Encomienda System</mark>: Forced Indigenous labor grant system.

  • <mark>New Laws of 1542</mark>: Restricted encomiendas and recognized Indigenous freedom, leading to <mark>repartimiento</mark> (New Spain) and <mark>mita</mark> (Peru) rotation labor systems.

  • <mark>Haciendas</mark>: Large private landed estates worked by peons and enslaved Africans.

• The <mark>Columbian Exchange</mark>:

  • Pathogens (smallpox, measles) caused up to $90\%$ mortality among Indigenous populations.

  • Flora/Fauna: Wheat, sugarcane, horses, cattle to Americas; maize, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco to Old World.

• Sugar Production and Transatlantic Slave Trade:

  • Transatlantic trade authorized $1518$; <mark>Middle Passage</mark> saw $20\%$ mortality rate prior to $1700$.

• Spanish Silver and Global Commerce:

  • Potosí mines ($1545$) produced $60\%$ of world silver. Crown claimed $20\%$ <mark>quinto</mark>.

  • Caused European <mark>Price Revolution</mark> (sustained inflation $1560\text{--}1600$).

  • China absorbed $50\%$ of global silver as ultimate silver sink.

  • Global networks: Spanish Manila Galleons ($1571$) connected Acapulco to Manila. <mark>Dutch East India Company (VOC)</mark> ($1602$) dominated Asian spice trade.

How did expansion change European attitudes and beliefs?

• Religious Conversion & Hybridity: Over $2{,}500$ friars baptized $4\text{ to }9\text{ million}$ Indigenous people in New Spain by mid-$1530\text{s}$, creating syncretic Catholicism.

• Human Rights Debates:

  • <mark>Valladolid Debate</mark> ($1550$): Sepúlveda (argued Native Americans were natural slaves) vs. Bartolomé de Las Casas (argued Native Americans possessed natural rights).

• Evolving Concepts of Race:

  • Shift from Iberian <mark>limpieza de sangre</mark> to American <mark>castas</mark> system (ranking Mestizos, Mulattos, Indigenous, and African populations).

• Skepticism and Cultural Relativism:

  • Michel de Montaigne ($1533\text{--}1592$) published Of Cannibals ($1580$), pioneering <mark>skepticism</mark> and <mark>cultural relativism</mark>.

  • William Shakespeare ($1564\text{--}1616$) explored race, religion, and empire in Othello ($1603$).