Three Worlds Collide

Early Explorations

• Exploration fueled by trade• Imported goods revitalized Europe• Created great wealth• European leaders wanted to cut out the

Arab traders (middle men) to increase profits

• Alternate routes to the Far East

• Overland passages (Silk Road) unsafe due to Mongol/Turkish raiders

• Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean controlled by Arab traders

• New Concept (shhhh, don’t tell nobody…)The World may be round……… Say

What???!!!! (actually, most educated Europeans knew the world was round)

• Finally a group of European rocket surgeons realized that if the world was round, you could sail west from Europe and ultimately reach China and India.

• 360 degrees in a circle—say it ain’t so……

Technology

• Compass—from the Chinese; could travel at night, far out to sea and in bad weather

• Improved cartography—by 1300s mapmaking had vastly improved and maps more accurate; grid system coordinates

• Caravel—new ship design with wide, broad bottom and maneuverable sails; faster, could carry heavy weight (cannons)

Recreation of the Pinta

The Innovative Portuguese

• Prince Henry the Navigator—son of King John I of Portugal; never sailed anywhere, but gathered the best sailors and engineers together to design ships

• 1488—Bartholomeu Dias sailed around southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope)

• 1497—Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India

Da Gama’s Route

Spanish Riches—Where’s the Bling?

• Ferdinand and Isabella—united Spain as a Catholic nation

• Wealth = Power; rivalries with England and France

• Christopher Columbus—Italian navigator who had tried every other monarchy for financial support

• Gained favor with Isabella

1492, Ocean Blue, Blah Blah Blah

• August 1492, Columbus set sail w/three ships

• Never before (except for Vikings) attempted expedition across the Atlantic

• Unsure of calculations (how big is Earth?)• About to turn back when land sighted• Landed on Hispaniola, thought he was in

India

• Spent three months on islands of Hispaniola and Cuba before returning to Spain

• Made three voyages total; some say he died thinking he had landed in Asia; others say he knew

• Not until 1507, Amerigo Vespucci, suggested this was a “new world” with his maps

• Theory: name America derives from the district of Amerrique in Nicaragua. Gold-rich district was purportedly visited by both Vespucci and Columbus, for whom the name became synonymous with gold. According to some, Vespucci later applied the name to the New World, and even changed the spelling of his own name from Alberigo to Amerigo to reflect the importance of the discovery.

Spain and Portugal: Divide’n Conquer

• Spain and Portugal led Europe in the conquest of the Americas in the 1400-1500s. Claimed many of the same areas

• Threat of war between two most powerful Catholic nations. Pope upset by this. Comes up with a plan—a line of demarcation

• Details finally worked out in the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494; basically gave most of the Americas to Spain and Africa/Asia to Portugal

Are you Gellan?

• 1522, Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal sails under a Spanish flag across the Atlantic, down eastern coast of S. America, around tip and out into the Pacific—first circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan died in the Philippines, but surviving crew made it back to Spain.

Meanwhile, back in Gothom City…..

• Treaty of Tordesillas not recognized by anyone but S and P.

• Other European nations began a race to carve out their own empires.

• In the meantime, Portugal defeated Arab merchants for full control of the Indian Ocean. Ca--ching!!!!!

• Portugal also colonized Brazil; it soon became it’s most valuable colony

• Spain sent conquistadors to the Americas to search, map and claim territory for its empire.

• Hernan Cortes—the Aztecs• Francisco Pizzaro—the Incas

Europe: Royal Rumbles

• Strong monarchies began to emerge in western Europe during the 1500s. In Spain, England and France strong kings and queens emerged through both conquest and religious sponsorship.

Height of Spanish Empire in the early 1500s

Spain

• Had been united under Spanish Catholic rule during reign of Ferdinand and Isabella in the 1400s.

• Killed or cast out all non-Catholics (Protestants, Jews, Muslims); Inquisitions

• Favored by the Catholic Church, unified Spain grew in wealth and power

• Became dominant sea power in the world

• Philip II becomes king in 1556. Grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella (his parents were first cousins)

• Most powerful king in Spanish history• Fought many religious wars in Europe,

trying to stop the spread of Protestantism• Netherlands—inherited by Philip II; Dutch

were mostly Protestant (supported by England) and declared its independence

• Brought Spanish/British into direct conflict

• May, 1588, Spanish fleet of 130 warships head for England--known as the Spanish Armada

• Outmaneuvered by smaller, faster English ships and set afire. Then, a storm in the North Sea sank many ships

• This defeat marked end to direct Spanish threat to England and the end of Spain’s dominion over the seas