Explorers

Columbus (1451-1506) was from Genoa, Italy. He was very religious and inspired by Marco Polo. He made a total of four voyages to the New World.
He greatly miscalculated his voyage with the circumference of the Earth.
His plan was to sail West to reach China. In order to receive funds, he went to Genoa, them Portugal, then finally the Spanish monarch, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, who agreed to give him money.
He embarked on his journey in 1492, and landed in the Bahamas. He sailed on the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. He encountered the Taino people, setting up the Columbian Exchange, a network of communicaation from the old world to the new world in which disease, plants, animals, technology, and people were traded.
This set up the slave trade (1500-1800).

Old World → New World	New World → Old World
small pox, measles, cholera, influenza, typhus, Bubonic Plague, chicken pox, leprosy sugar, lettuce, mango, wheat, grape, banana, rice, barley, okra, coffee, apple, carrot, onion firearms alphabet horses, cattle, rats, chickens, sheep, goat, earthworms, pigs	syphillus corn, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, yams, tobacco, cocoa, vanilla, chile powder, avacado, peanut llama, alpaca, turkey, guinea pig

Portugal led exploration, with Spain following close behind.
They had new technologies, including the rudder, square sail, caravel, lateen, magnetic compass, and astrolabe. They had also figured out the Coriolis effect in the Atlantic Ocean.
Their motives were to spread Christianity, conquer new lands, and trade. New land had a strategic location, more space, and commerce, which gave them money, power, and spices.
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) set up a school of cartographers, where they studied geography, math, and astronomy. He funded voyages to explore and learn.
Bartholomew Dias (1488) was the first European to sail to the Cape of Good Hope.
Vasco de Gama (1469-1529) sailed in 1497 from Lisbon to India. He didn’t see land for three months, encountered conflicts with Muslims, and there was a shortage of food. He traded wool with the Indians in exchange for spices and gold, which was forced at gunpoint. They set up commercial states, such as Calicut, Gao, Hormuz, and Malacca. This changed the Indian Ocean Trade Network.
The architect behind their agressive colonization methods was Alfonso de Alboquerque.

Spain followed a step behind Portugal in exploration.
Their motives were to spread Catholocism, become a global superpower, and get money, spices, and power.
Spain used mercantilism, an economic system in which the government regulates the economy for augmenting state power with a positive balance of trade. This included all exports and no imports, and made Spain rich. However, it also led to inflation.
Spain used direct colonization methods in which the Spanish monarch ruled over the colonies and it was very bureaucratic. The monarch appointed a viceroy to stay int he colony and rule in representation of the monarch.
They set up colonies in the new world, such as New Spain.
They had religious orders that tried to convert natives to Christianity. This included the Jesuits, the Franciscans, and the Dominicans.
They set up haciendas, which were large estates employed by natives and later African slaves. They had ecomienda, a labor system in which natives were forced to work on mines or haciendas.
Spain had conquistadors (explorers) that went to the new world to colonize after Columbus.
The Spanish sailed on galleons, and after taking the Philippines and New Spain (Mexico), they set up a global trading route called Manilla Galleons.
In the Philippines, they were violent towards the natives but turned Manilla into a cultural trading center. China’s population in Manilla was decreased by at least 25% in the 1603 Sangley Rebellion.

England was stronger than Spain, and sent out privateers to raid Spanish colonies.
England had a joint stock company that was not initially owned by the royal monarch. It was called the British East Indian Company and was founded in 1600.
England wanted to colonize India.
They took over Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta (formerly Portuguese).

The Dutch sailed on fluyts. They set up trading posts that acted as a business through a joint stock company. This was not sanctioned by the royal crown and instead had private investments.
The VOC, or Dutch East Indian Company, was in charge of most trade. It came out in 1602.
They set up trading posts in Capetown, Malacca, and Java. Their only goal was to make money.

Following the Peace of Westaphalia, there were independent states in Europe that were fighting for hegemony. Some countries had mercantilism, while others had capitalism. Capitalism was founded by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. Countries who had capitalism underwent the Commercial Revolution.
Countries began to ally together. Eventually, Prussia, under Fredrick William, invaded Silesia (Austria), under the leader of the Hapsburgs, Maria Theresea. Prussia allied with England, who had a strong navy. Theresea allied with France. This erupted into the Seven Years War (1756-1763), which was fought all over the world. It was over colonization and border disputes. England wanted to knock out Spain, so they fought with France and Austria and they won, giving Prussia and England hegemony. England also got India and the Americas as a result.

With Portugal and Spain competing in colonization, Pope Alexander VI passed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 that divided the New World to prevent conflict between these Catholic states.
Ferdinand Magellan was Portuguese but went to Spain in 1517 to get funds for a voyage; he received an armada of five ships and 270 men. He was born in 1480 and studied cartography and astronomy as a member of Portuguese nobility. From 1505-1512, he sailed on expeditions for Portugal. He embarked on his final voyage in 1519 with aims of circumnavigating the globe.
After three years, only one ship, the Victoria, had arrived back in Seville in 1522, and Magellan was not aboard. He had died in a fight earlier that year in the Philippines.
Magellan named the Magellan Strait and named the Philippines after King Philip II.