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