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Section 3.11
The Opening of the Atlantic
What was the impact of the Age of Exploration?
• Growth of capitalism• global trade • Columbian Exchange
– new products– Depopulation of Native
Americans and Africans– Destruction of cultures
• huge population growth• New commercial class• New emphasis on naval
power • cultural relativism
Why did Europeans Explore?• Motives
– Gold, God, Glory– Conquistadores
• Cortes, Pizarro
• Fall of Constantinople (1454)– Eastern Mediterranean trade
cut off– Desire for new trade routes
• New Technologies• Astrolabe/quadrant,
compass, dead reckoning, caravel, lateen sail
Significance of Constantinople’s Fall
Constantinople
The EastThe Orient
How are Europeans going to get the Stuff?
Portuguese
Ceuta
Portuguese• Eastern Goods
– Sugar, silk, nutmeg, rugs, medicines, porcelain
• Henry the Navigator/Ceuta• Old Land Routes
– Silk road= slow and unreliable– Sahara= Ditto
• New Routes– Water is now a bridge
• Da Gama– Machiavellian– Reaches Calicut in 1494
• Torches cities, prisoners butchered
• Portuguese concentrate on the East (Africa and Asia)
Spanish Empire in America• Encomienda System
– Colonial feudal system• Catholicism forced on native populations• Natives die at incredible rate• Leads to renewal of African Slave Trade
– 9-11 mil• Black Legend
– Belief that Spanish conquistadores were extremely cruel
– Less cruel than Aztecs• Established universities
– Lima (1551), Mexico (1553)• Potosi Silver Mines (Bolivia)
– 500 thousand lbs of silver, 10 lbs of gold annually
– Finances Counter Reformation• Where’s England, Germany, France?
Why did the Europeans win?• Better weapons
– Guns, horse• Alliances
– Aztecs hated by Toltec and others
• Quetzalcoatl– Were the Europeans
gods?• Machiavellian
– Pizarro’s ransom of Altahualpa
• Disease– smallpox
Middle Passage
Treaty of Tordesillas• Rivalry between
Spain and Portugal settled by pope
• Divided world in half
• East – Portugal
• West – Spain
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