AP World History - Period 2 / Chapter 1: Exploration & The New Global Economy

Changes in Global Power

• Mongol decline weakened Silk Roads, shifting trade to the sea.
• Arabs were disrupted, prioritizing political stability over ocean exploration.
• China renounced international trade in 1433, entering isolationism and xenophobia.
• Japan turned to isolationism in the 16th century.
• Southeast Asian empires were engaged in Indian Ocean trade.
• The Indian Mughal Empire weakened.
• No major African empire was positioned to dominate.
• Europe, particularly Spain and Portugal, took the lead due to technological advancements and exploratory spirit.

The Rise of the West: Era of Change

• Decline of medieval institutions (knights, Church power).
• Strengthening of feudalism led to larger monarchies and regional governments.
• The Hundred Years’ War spurred new military and technological advancements, strengthening English and French kings.
• Acceptance of capitalism and interest in trade grew.
• The Silk Roads increased access to Asian knowledge and technology.
• The West became accustomed to Asian luxury goods (cinnamon, nutmeg, silk, sugar, perfume, jewels) but had limited goods to offer in return (wool, tin, copper, honey, salt), creating a trade deficit.

Western Trading Deficits

• Europeans desired Asian luxury goods (spices, silks) acquired through ocean/land trade.
• Europe's crude goods were insufficient to balance the value of Asian goods.
• Gold was used to offset the difference, leading to a gold famine by 1400.
• This threatened the European economy.
• Solutions:
  • A) Acquire more gold/silver.
  • B) Obtain desirable goods.
  • Focus on sea expansion and trade.
• Trade Goods Hierarchy:
  • Luxury Goods ($): China / India/ SE Asia (tea, silk, paper, oils, spices)
  • Refined Goods (): Middle East, Europe (rugs, wine, jewelry, furniture)
  • Unrefined Goods ($): Africa, Europe (natural, unchanged, wood, fish, fur, wool)

New Technology

• Caravels: Small, fast, round-hulled sailing ships for the Atlantic, equipped with armaments.
  • Used lateen sails: triangular sails for steering.
  • Used by Spanish and Portuguese.
• Carracks: Large merchant ships with three or four masts, designed for substantial cargo.
  • Used mainly by Portugal.
• Fluyt: Dutch sailing vessel, streamlined for maximum interior space.
• Improved compass, astrolabe, and astronomical charts.
• Advances in map-making (paper from China).
• European adaptation of Chinese explosives for gunnery.

Mercator Projection

• A new mapmaking technique, the Mercator Projection, centered the Atlantic.
• Became the standard for maps.
• Features:
  • Longitude and latitude lines meet at the poles.
  • North is up, South is down.
  • Atlantic in the middle
• Weaknesses:
  • Distorts land mass sizes further from the Equator.
  • Created a Eurocentric/Atlantic-centric view of the world.

Desire to Explore

• Past European fears hindered expansion (ignorance, fear, lack of technology).
• Belief that the world was flat and sea travel could lead to falling off the earth diminished.
• Europeans sought a sea trade route to the East to resolve trading disparities.
  • This aimed for faster, more direct trade with the East Indies.
• Spain and Portugal pioneered long explorations.
• Technology enabled exploration.

Early Western Expansion

• Technological barriers to long-distance exploration diminished by the 15th century.
• Prince Henry the Navigator sponsored Portuguese voyages around the west coast of Africa.
  • Established a school for navigators.
  • Goals: scientific curiosity, spreading Christianity, financial interests in trade.
• Portugal established cash crop colonies along the African coast (sugar, tobacco, cotton).
  • Azores Islands, Madeira Islands, and Canary Islands.

Portugal Leads

• Portugal, under Henry the Navigator, excelled in navigation.
• Focus areas: discovery, weakening the Muslim world, and accumulating wealth.
• 1488: Bartholomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa.
• 1498: Vasco de Gama reached India via the Cape of Good Hope.
• De Gama’s success led to expeditions to Brazil, Mozambique, Indonesia, and Japan.
• 1500: Pedro Cabral, attempting to navigate around Africa, landed in Brazil and claimed it for Portugal.

The Spanish Agenda

• 15th century: Christian monarchies of Castile and Aragon were established in Spain.
• 1469: Kingdoms united through the marriage of Ferdinand (Aragon) and Isabella (Castile).
• Ferdinand and Isabella pursued a rigorous economic, military, and religious agenda.
  • Improve Spain’s global trade fortunes.
  • Promote Christianity by converting or expelling Arabs and Jews (Spanish Inquisition).
  • Expand Christian territory.

Spain Follows Portugal

• Spain aimed to emulate Portugal's sea exploration.
• 1492: Christopher Columbus reached the Americas.
  • Believed he could reach India by traveling WEST, not EAST around Africa.
  • Thought he was in India.
  • Based his calculations on Ptolemy’s inaccurate estimate of the Earth’s circumference.

Dividing Territory

• 1493: Pope Alexander VI’s Line of Demarcation (Spain sought to claim new lands).
• 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas (Brazil was awarded to Portugal).

Pacific Advances

• 1513: Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean.
  • This marked the first recognition of another major ocean.
• 1519-1521: Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the world.
  • Determined the Earth’s size and confirmed its roundness.
  • Demonstrated that waterways connect the world.

Latin American Colonization

• European guns, horses, and iron weapons gave them advantages over indigenous groups.
  • Especially where political instability already existed.
• Colonization proceeded rapidly.
• 1509 CE: Vasco de Balboa founded a Spanish colony in Panama to search for gold.
• 1528 CE: Francisco Pizarro attacked the divided Incan Empire and founded Lima.
• Portugal colonized Brazil.
• Early colonies:
  • Initially had loose colonial administrations.
  • Agricultural settlements were established under European bureaucrats.

Northern European Expeditions

• 16th century: Northern Europe (France, England, Holland) became interested in exploration, recognizing potential gains.
• Focused primarily on the New World's northern regions.
• British established colonies in North America and India.
  • Tried to find an Arctic route to the East.
• Dutch established colonies in Southeast Asian islands, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Manhattan Island.
• French established colonies in the mid-western and southern US (via the Mississippi) and Canada.
• Dutch/British East India Company: joint-stock companies distributed risks, allowing massive fortunes to be amassed.

Columbian Exchange

• The Columbian Exchange refers to the exchange between the New World and Old World following Columbus’s voyages.
• Food/Plants:
  • New à Old World: potatoes, tomatoes, corn, vanilla, rubber, cacao, avocado, tobacco, pumpkin, peanut, cashews
  • New ß Old World: peas, tea, rice, sugarcane, wheat, lettuce, oat, coffee, citrus, apples, bananas, garlic, onion, opium
• Animals:
  • New à Old World: turkey, llama, alpaca, guinea pig
  • New ß Old World: horses, goat, pig, sheep, cattle, chicken, camel
• Disease:
  • New à Old World: syphilis, hepatitis
  • New ß Old World: plague, chicken pox, cholera, flu, leprosy, malaria, measles, smallpox, typhoid, yellow fever
• Concerns: some believed American food spread plague and was not condoned in the Bible.

Devastation & Disease

• Europeans had guns, steel weapons, armor, horses, and germs, giving them considerable advantages over indigenous populations.
• Mosquitoes and rats spread diseases rapidly.
• Europeans also contracted diseases (malaria, syphilis).
• Disease (especially smallpox) caused approximately 80% of indigenous populations to die.
• Entire island populations were decimated.
• Native Americans lacked prior exposure and natural immunities to these diseases.
• Europeans had “room” to establish new populations with their citizens and African slaves.

Mercantilism

• European economies changed due to colonies.
• Mercantilism: an economic theory popular during the 17th/18th centuries that justified colonial holdings.
  • A nation's prosperity depends on its capital (gold and silver).
  • Governments should prioritize exporting over importing.
  • Colonies should supply raw materials and serve as markets for manufactured goods.

Mercantilism Key Tenet #1

• Prosperity of a nation depends on its capital (gold and silver).
  • Mine gold and silver in the New World.
  • Ship gold and silver to the Mother Country.
  • Hold gold and silver in treasury.

Mercantilism Key Tenet #2

• Government should export more than import.
  • Export to colonies and other countries that may want your specialty products.
  • Colonies provide Mother Country with raw materials.

Mercantilism Key Tenet #3

• Utilize colonies to import raw materials; manufacture goods to sell back to colonies.
  • Raw Materials from Colonies: Gold, silver, cash crops, fur, wood
  • Manufactured goods from Mother Country: Clothing, furniture, alcohol, art, jewelry

Increasing Western Power

• Muslim traders remained active in the east African coast, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean.
• 1571: Battle of Lepanto
  • The Spanish fleet defeated the Ottoman fleet.
  • Marked the end of potential Muslim rivalry.
• Western Europe dominated oceanic shipping, increasing profits.
• European-controlled ports in Africa, the Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia.
  • Mostly ports, not inland territory.
  • Western enclaves in existing cities with special rights for traders.

The Asian Sea Trading Network

• The Asian Sea Trading Network was divided into three major zones:
  • Arab Zone: glass, carpets, tapestries, horses, slaves, gold, ivory, forest products, animal hides
  • Indian Zone: cotton textiles, gems, elephants, salt, cinnamon
  • Chinese Zone: spices, silver, paper, porcelain, silk
• Major intersections (choke points): openings of Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Straits of Malacca

Portuguese Trading in Asia

• Portuguese took what they couldn't get through trade by force.
• Found that Asians largely did not desire their goods.
• 1507-1511: Portuguese built fortresses and ports on strategic points in the Asian trade network (Ormuz, Goa, Malacca).
• The aim was to control key Asian spices.
• Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus were not very interested in converting to Catholicism, so the Portuguese did not focus on it.
• Asian and Muslim networks were strong, so Europeans had to participate in the existing trade system rather than changing it.
• Europeans still dominated this system.

The Rise of the Dutch and English Trading Empires

• The Portuguese lacked the soldiers or ships to maintain monopolies forever.
• Many traders traded independently.
• Corruption was rampant among traders.
• The Dutch and British challenged the weakened Portuguese trading empire in the 17th century.
• 1620: The Dutch overtook Malacca and built the port of Batavia on the island of Java.
• Focused on controlling spices.
• The Dutch used peaceful means to enter the Asian market.

Dutch Expansion in Java

• Java was constantly targeted by the Dutch.
• Goal: control over exporting spices.
• The Dutch paid tribute to sultans and created positive relationships with rulers.
• By the 1670s, the Dutch were involved in conflicts over rights to the Mataram throne.
• The Dutch support for the winner resulted in Batavian territories for them to administer.
• Continued to take advantage of already-present political divisions.
• By 1750, they controlled most Javanese kingdoms.

Unequal Labor Systems

• Coerced human labor was vital to producing low-cost goods (cash crops).
• Population loss from disease led to an increase in imported slave labor in the New World.
• Estate agriculture (peasants forced into labor without legal freedom to leave).
• African slaves introduced okra and certain forms of rice to the Americas (even slavery contributed to the Columbian Exchange in terms of food).
• Beyond the slave trade, much of Africa was untouched by Europeans.

Results of a New World

• Positives:
  • Profits from colonies brought wealth and capital.
  • The world economy brings benefits to many (i.e., sugar).
  • New American foods became staple crops in the Old World.
  • Wider trade routes and greater cultural diffusion.
• Negatives:
  • Slavery spread.
  • Increasing colonial rivalries.
• Good and bad:
  • Most white settlers transplanted Western ideas into the New World.
  • Imports of silver.