09 Jun Western Civilization
The Maritime Revolution
European expansion across the globe
Roots in the Mongol Empire
With the expansion of the Mongols in the 13th and 14th centuries, European markets sought goods from Asia.
While this movement may have led to the Black Death, it also opened trade routes between Asia and Europe.
Traders from Arabia controlled the land routes, the Silk Routes, leaving maritime routes open for Europeans.
The rise of Portugal
Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal invested in Portuguese efforts to control the seas at the beginning of the 15th century.
His efforts led to the establishment of universities to study maritime exploration, opening the doors to new types of ships and navigation tools.
Celestial navigation and inventions in seafaring allowed for great improvements in sailing the seas.
The development of the caravel allowed for more ambitious voyages in the Atlantic.
Portuguese exploration map
Portugal’s control of the Southern trade route
Throughout the 15th century, Portugal established trading ports along the western coast of Africa.
By the 1440s, Portugal had begun a small-scale slave network from western Africa to Europe, although the opening of the Americas to European settlement would lead to an explosion in that trade.
With eastern land trade routes already under control, Portugal would establish control of the South Atlantic trade route into the Indian Ocean.
Spain’s trans-Atlantic ventures
With the eastern and southern routes already under control, other European powers could only look to the northern or western routes.
The northern route to Asia was virtually unpassable, with the Arctic Ocean waters and the size of Russia making such a venture dangerous.
Spain sought control of a trade route, in part to help fund the Spanish Inquisition and efforts to reconquer the Iberian Peninsula for Christendom.
The commissioning of Christopher Columbus led to the exploration of the Atlantic and European exploration of the Americas.
Discovery?
Columbus is often credited with having discovered the Americas. But is this true?
What does it mean to discover something?
In the case of the Americas, an indigenous population had lived in the Americas for at least 12,000 years before Columbus.
Even among Europeans, Columbus was preceded by 500 years by Viking explorers who landed in modern-day coastal Canada.
FEDS
Columbus’ expeditions led to European powers exploring the Americas during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Portugal and Spain arrived at an agreement, with the help of Pope Alexander VI and the Treaty of Tordesillas, with each Iberian power having dominion over their half of the world.
Other Atlantic European powers, including England, France, and the Dutch, began their own explorations of the Americas. This led to four main European powers carving up the majority of the Americas: French English Dutch Spanish.
The European powers
FEDS again
Conclusion
Portugal’s investment in maritime studies under Henry the Navigator gave the country an early advantage.
Spain succeeded Portugal in seeking control of trade routes to provide access of Asian goods to European markets.
Columbus may not have discovered the Americas, but his exploration opened the door to European interest in the continents.
The impact of the Portuguese and Spanish explorations led to other European powers, including the English, French, and Dutch, to seek their own control over parts of the Americas.
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