01:360:401 Lecture 15: Chapter 15
21 May 2018
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Chapter 15: The Age of European
Expansion and Religious Wars
1. Discovery, Reconnaissance, and Expansion
1. Introduction
1. Period from 1450, to 1650 called Age of Discovery, Reconnaissance,
Expansion
2. Age of Discovery refers to the era’s phenomenal advances in
geographical knowledge and technology (often trial and error)
3. Age of Reconnaissance refers to the fact that much of the
geographical information they had gathered was tentative and not fully
understood
4. Age of Expansion refers to the migration of Europeans to other parts
of the world
2. Overseas Exploration and Conquest
1. Outward expansion of Europe began with Viking voyages across the
Atlantic and under Eric the Red and Leif Erickson, the Vikings
discovered Greenland and North America and had settlements in
Iceland, Ireland, England, Normandy, and Sicily
2. Crusades of seventh through thirteenth centuries also explored
continent
3. By 1450, a new threat appeared in the East—the Ottoman Turks
1. Combining excellent military strategy with efficient administration
of their conquered territories the Turks controlled most of Asia
Minor
2. The Muslim Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mohammed II captured
Constantinople in 1453, and by the early sixteenth century
controlled the eastern Mediterranean
4. Political centralization in Spain, France, and England explained the
expansion and with the more united Spain, the Spanish monarchy
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was in a position to support foreign ventures; it could bear the costs
and dangers of exploration
5.
6. Portugal, on the southwestern edge of the continent, started European
expansion
1. The objectives of Portuguese policy included the historic Iberian
crusade to Christianize Muslims and to find gold, an overseas
route to the spice markets of India, and the mythical Christian
ruler of Ethiopia, Prester John
2. Prince Henry (the Navigator because of the annual expeditions
he sent down the western coast of Africa) reached Guinea and
established trading posts and forts reaching all the way to
Timbuktu (gold used to come from West Africa)
3. Portuguese pushed to sail around Africa and Vasco da Gama
reached India in his 1497-1499 expedition and returned to Lisbon
loaded with Indian wears
4. King Manuel dispatched Pedro Alvares Cabral with Diaz claiming
the coast of Brazil in South American in 1500 and then proceeded
around the Cape of Good Hope and returned with six spice-laded
vessels (entrance port of Asian Goods)
5. Muslims had controlled the rich spice trade of the Indian Ocean,
but Portuguese commercial activities were accompanied by the
destruction or seizure of strategic Muslim coastal forts (Alfonso de
Albuquerque governor of India)
7. Christopher Columbus had secured Spanish support for an expedition
to the East and landing in October 1492, he landed on an island he
named San Salvador
3. Technological Stimuli to Exploration
1. The development of the large cannon made of iron and bronze and
placing them on heavy hulling sailing vessels gave power to the
European expansion
2. Improved techniques of shipbuilding and instrumental development for
exploration
1. Galleys: narrow, open boats propelled largely by manpower
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2. Caravel: small, light, three-mast sailing ship (wind power for
manpower)
3. The magnetic compass enabled sailors to determine their
direction/position at sea
4. Astrolobe: instrument used to determine the altitude of the sun
and other celestial bodies permitted mariners to plot their latitude
and improved maps and sea charts
4. The Explorer’s Motives
1. The expansion of Europe was not motivated by overpopulation (Black
Death)
2. The desire to Christianize Muslims and pagans played a central role in
expansion
3. After the reconsquista, enterprising young men of the Spanish upper
classes (nobles and merchants) found their economic and political
opportunities severely limited
4. Government sponsorship and encouragement of exploration
accounted for voyages because mariners and explorers could not as
private individuals afford the sum
1. Strong financial support of Prince Henry the Navigator led to
Portugal’s success
2. The Dutch in the seventeenth century through such government-
sponsored trading companies as the Dutch East India Company
reaped enormous wealth
3. Henry VII’s lack of interest in exploration delayed English
expansion
5. Renaissance curiosity about the physical universe, the desire to know
more about the geography and people of the world
6. The basic reason for European exploration and expansion was the
quest for material profit and spices (nutmeg, mace, ginger, cinnamon,
and pepper added flavor and variety) were another important incentive
to voyages of discovery
5. The Problem of Christopher Columbus
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Document Summary
Expansion and religious wars: discovery, reconnaissance, and expansion, introduction, period from 1450, to 1650 called (cid:1688)age of discovery, reconnaissance, Atlantic and under eric the red and leif erickson, the vikings discovered greenland and north america and had settlements in. Minor: the muslim ottoman turks under sultan mohammed ii captured. Cape horn, entered the pacific ocean, and although he died, his crew eventually circumnavigated: hernando cortez sailed to mexico from hispaniola conquering the. Aztec empire of central mexico by taking captive emperor. Montezuma then founding mexico city as the new capital (1522) and. Francisco conquered inca empire of the andes (1536: between 1525 and 1575, wealth of americas poured into spanish port of seville and the portuguese capital lisbon but flemish city of. Americas: in 1497, john cabot of england explored the northeast coast of. Americas founding newfoundland and in mid 1530s, frenchman.
