There were rapid strides in technological inventions made during the Middle Ages, which led to the age of exploration, beginning in the fifteenth century when first Portuguese ships then Spanish and later British, French and Dutch ships set out to discover the world. The compass was first widely adopted as an aid to navigation after 1300, along with instruments for determining approximate latitude, based on the principle of measuring the altitude of certain clock stars, for which tables were developed. Shipbuilding also made steady progress, and the net result of these various improvements was to make possible long ship voyages out of sight of land. Mariners were no longer afraid to venture on the open seas out of sight of the shoreline, and a series of explorations into the Atlantic led to the discovery of the Canary Islands and the Azores in the fourteenth century, and of navigating the sea route to India following the passage of the Cape of Good Hope, and to the Americas in the fifteenth century. With exploration came new opportunities for new overseas conquests after the end of the Crusades, which ushered in imperialism by extending European economic and political influence around the world.
Becoming equipped with technical resources was both a cause and a consequence of European expansion. New techniques made transport and exploration easier, and at the same time, new contacts stimulated Europeans to adopt and adapt new skills and inventions. Political events also made contact with China much easier. Led by Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227), the Mongols conquered a vast territory in Asia, and under his successors, a strong, centralised government was extended from the Pacific coast of China to the frontier of western Christendom in Poland. Within the Mongol empire, effective communications were maintained, and as a result, it became far easier for strangers from the west to acquire information about the distant parts of Asia, and opened the way for profitable trade routes that existed as far east as India, and into part of China. Between 1260 and 1295, a family of Venetian merchants made their way into China. Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, and especially Niccolo’s slightly more famous son Marco Polo wrote an account of his travels in China and India that followed the trade that the crusades had initiated, which sparked interest in further exploration.
For the most part, trade routes were over land as very little sea travel occurred. Shipbuilding and cartography had hardly been developed during the Middle Ages. Ships were not built for ocean voyages, maps were not extensive enough, and a body of knowledge of open sea travel simply did not exist. With the rise of the Islamic Ottoman Turks in southwest Asia, there came the consequent decline and breakup of the Mongol empire and the destruction of the trading cities of Central Asia that made commercial connections between China and Europe increasingly more difficult in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Europeans found it increasingly difficult and dangerous to trade in Ottoman controlled territory. Hence, the very obstacles that arose to the use of overland routes constituted a stimulus to the search of seaways to the Orient. Due to the Ottomans, Europeans started looking for safer and more profitable trade routes early in the fifteenth century when technology that eventually would enable ocean voyages became available, and this made it possible to look for new resources while having easier and more direct contact with the Far East.
In the decades prior to the launch of overseas expeditions, Europeans made improvements in a number of areas and refined some instruments and equipment that allowed their expeditions to become increasingly successful. In 1375, Abraham Creques created the Catalan World Atlas, which was a much more useful map of the Mediterranean than anything before it, complete with sailing instructions and compass readings. From here, maps continued to improve with every expedition adding to the body of knowledge. Cartographers added grids to some of the newer maps, which eventually became latitude and longtitude lines. Hull construction also changed, allowing for more storage and stability. Another change was sails, with the development of the caravel, which was a ship with large square sails for moving forward and small triangular sails for sailing diagonally into a headwind, making it possible to sail into the wind in a zig-zag pattern. The basic compass had been in existence for a few centuries in Europe and for much longer in China. However, a new and improved compass emerged that had a disk displaying degrees beneath the compass needle. As the maps became more precise, the new compass became more important. Another navigational tool was the astrolabe, which measured the distance of the sun and the stars above the horizon and allowed for fairly accurate calculations of a ship’s distance above and below the equator.
The European states had several motives for wanting to explore other regions. The first motive was perhaps the willingness and courage to learn about the world, which followed the Renaissance idea about the willingness to experience and observe. Moreover, in order to acquire exotic goods from the Far East, European monarchs and merchants started to look for ways around the Middle East. They also hoped to spread the idea of Christianity. Explorers and the monarchs who financed them were curious about what lay across the sea, with the hope of returns on their risks in the form of God, gold and glory. There were two religious factors that helped motivate European explorers and their financiers to explore overseas. First, many Europeans believed that there existed Christian land away from Europe, and hoped to make contact with other Christians. Many were likewise eager to make contact with heathen lands, so that the conversion of the entire world to Christianity would be underway as a manifestation of God’s will, adding souls to the Kingdom of God, as well as adding souls to earthly kingdoms that sponsored the expedition. Hence, this age is connected to the idea of the Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries.
Another motive was economic. While there was no way to be sure about what would be found across the ocean, explorers and those who sponsored them were hoping to find something of value while knowing that the Far East was rich in luxuries. Europeans knew what could be found in Asia, and they were hoping to find a sea route to replace the land routes that had been taken over by Muslims, which was also one of the reasons for sailing westward when Islam seemed to be enlarging its domain. Besides, Europe had scant resources in precious metals and the economy itself needed gold and silver. A more exciting possibility was that there were new unexplored lands that would yield gold and treasure as well as profitable trade in goods. Both the explorers and their financiers also put themselves in the position of becoming very famous. If an expedition actually found a way to Asia by sailing westward, all involved would be known throughout Europe and throughout history. Moreover, like the crusaders from preceding centuries, explorers also hoped to find and conquer some far off land that they would rule while naval technology advanced and there was a much larger world at its disposal. An aggravating factor was the disruption of trade between Asia and Europe, as the Ottoman Turks conquered Serbia and Bulgaria in 1389, and then defeated the Hungarian army in 1448, which led to the absorption of the collapsed Byzantine empire. Since the earlier trade routes were cut off, Europeans needed to find new routes, which would eventually lead to looking for sea route alternatives in a westward direction.
Portugal was the first European nation to make attempts at exploration, following its establishment as an independent monarchy free of Spanish control in 1250, and contributing to driving the Muslims out of the Iberian Peninsula. National sentiments about asserting its independence and religious zeal spurred taking action against the Muslims and exploration by probing the west coast of Africa, beginning with conquering the Muslim town of Ceuta in Morocco 1420, which gave Portugal a foothold in Africa, and encouraged exploration over wider expanses. Prince Henry of Portugal, known as the “Navigator,” took up a strong interest in exploration and sponsored later expeditions, leading the Portuguese southward from Portugal to the Canary Islands and to the Azores. Henry also sponsored expeditions southward along the central African coast where the Portuguese established a lucrative gold, ivory and slave trade. Each journey resulted in the Portuguese exploring further and acquiring new knowledge, including refining the accuracy of their maps, and developing new navigation methods and types of vessels for use on their next journeys. Prince Henry also set up a school of navigation back in the early fifteenth century, and financed a number of Portuguese voyages to find a way to the East in order to undercut the Arabs in the spice trade, which was highly lucrative since European food was heavily preserved in salt, and therefore strong spices were needed to give it flavour, and pressed onward in the hope of reaching India. In 1482, the mouth of the Congo River was discovered. In 1486, Bartholomew Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, following the same course as other Portuguese sailors before him along Africa’s west coast. Once around Africa, he turned north and paved the way for other Portuguese to make their way to Asia. In 1497, Vasco da Gama went farther, using the knowledge gained by Dias, rounding the cape and sailing to India, and initiated an enormously profitable trade in spices, calico and other products from the East, making his voyage a great success. In 1500, Portuguese vessels sailing for India accidentally discovered the Brazilian coast. An additional cause for European exploration was competition from Portugal and Spain, which were the first to explore the world and consequently increase wealth and territorial influence. The pope issued a statement in 1481 granting Portugal all land south of the Canary Islands and west of Africa, while having no knowledge of what actually lay west of Africa. Rather than compete with Portuguese interests in the East, Spain decided to explore westward. While the Portuguese were still trying to work a way around the southern tip of Africa, Queen Isabella of Castile received a visit from a Genoese sea captain called Cristobal Colon, otherwise known as Christopher Columbus, in 1492 who proposed sailing west to reach the spice islands of Asia.
Much of the information and knowledge of the world and the oceans during the Middle Ages was based on the science and philosophy, or speculation, of Greek scholars. A more modern work at the time, Pierre d’Ailly’s Image of the World from 1410 used ideas from Ptolemy, Aristotle and others, including Aristotle’s reasoning that West Africa must be close to East India because elephants existed in both places. This helped convince people that a new route to Asia lay by land, which lay geographically east of Europe, could be found by sailing west. Based on his study of contemporary and classical texts, Columbus became convinced of the theory that Asia could be reached quickly by sailing west from Europe. He took the idea to the king of Portugal, but he wasn’t interested, since at the time, Portugal was interested in trade expeditions, rather than expeditions that might or might not discover something new. Columbus then presented his case to Ferdinand, the king of Castile, and Isabella, the princess of Aragon who inherited her father’s kingdom, and had formed Spain as a unified state through their marriage in 1474. Upon the complete reconquest of Spain from the Muslims in 1492, the Spanish kingdom followed Portugal’s earlier sentiments of national pride and missionary zeal that motivated the possibility of exploration and acquiring possessions overseas. Queen Isabella decided to take the risk and provided Columbus with three ships, the Niňa, Pinta and the Santa Maria, 90 sailors and a handful of supplies. Any lands that Columbus found on this voyage would be claimed and governed for Spain, which would lead to Spain taking a leading place among the states of Europe.
Columbus set sail in August 1492. He did not reach the Indies, but instead landed in the “West Indies,” probably the Bahamas, then Cuba, and the island of Hispaniola, or what today is the Dominican Republic, believing that he landed in a group of islands not far from Japan, known as the Indies. He returned to Spain after leaving 40 of his men on Hispaniola until he could return. Upon his return, he told Ferdinand and Isabella about the peaceful people he had found in the islands and were open to prayers and the sign of the cross and who could be converted, as well as about a variety of crops, and promised the assurance of being able to discover more valuables. Ferdinand and Isabella then gave him command of 17 ships and 1500 men.
Columbus returned to find that the men he had left behind had not found any great treasures, and many of the men had fallen victim to each other or to the natives. The Spanish who returned to the islands with Columbus settled in and established a cruel pattern of behaviour, not unlike the original Spanish settlers Columbus had left behind. They forced the natives to work the land and treated them brutally. Columbus was granted a title and a government position in the newly found land, and was also to receive a share of the land’s wealth. He returned to the islands three additional times over the next ten years, making excursions to the coast of modern-day Central America. However, he never got his settlements under control and never managed to produce the fortunes he believed he would find. Although he himself did not land on the American mainland, the Spanish settlers who followed him did.
The Portuguese thought that Columbus had been encroaching on their territory, and as a result, Spain and Portugal brought their dispute to the pope. In 1494, Pope Alexander VI divided the world between Spain and Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas to avert the possibility of war. Spain was to have everything west of a line 370 leagues west of the Azores, and Portugal got everything to the east. Spain got most of America, although not Brazil, which fell east of the line, and Portugal got Africa, India and the east Indies, while other European countries were excluded.
According to the Treaty of Tordesillas, the New World that explorers were discovering belonged to Spain, so Spain had an instant empire that was to be exploited for the benefit of the mother country. Whereas Columbus claimed land and established Spanish presence through administrative means, Spain sent conquistadors to subdue or conquer the natives of their empire through the use of force, bringing with them weapons that native Americans had not seen: muskets, horses and infectious diseases, such as smallpox, measles, typhus and influenza to which native Americans had no immunity.
Considering the feasibility reaching Cathay and the East Indies through a northern route was debated and tested by England throughout much of the sixteenth century. Sebastian Cabot led one of the first expeditions to search for a north-west passage in 1508. In the 1530s, Robert Thorne and Roger Barlow tried unsuccessfully to interest Henry VIII in a plan to sail directly over the North Pole to China. In 1551 a company of English merchants, later known as the Muscovy Company, was formed to search for a northeast passage to Cathay, which failed to find a route. Martin Frobisher may have expressed interest in a search for the northwest Passage as early as 1560, later actively pursued the idea. In 1574, Frobisher petitioned the Privy Council for permission and financial support to lead an expedition to find a northwest passage to “the Southern Sea,” the Pacific Ocean, and then onto Cathay. In 1576, Frobisher persuaded the Muscovy Company to license his expedition to seek out a northwestern passage in the Arctic On 15 July 1576, this expedition reached the southernmost tip of Baffin Island, which Frobisher named it “Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland,” and then reached the mouth of Frobisher Bay a few days later. Since ice and wind prevented further travel north, Frobisher determined to sail westwards up the bay, which he believed to be the entrance to the North-west Passage, naming it Frobisher’s Strait. Although a passage to Asia was not found, these early explorations of North America later led to establishing permanent settlements.
In the years following the Spanish settlement of Hispaniola and Cuba, the Spanish population grew rapidly with settlers pouring in faster than it could support the population. Spanish administrators then turned their attention to the mainland whose coast had been minimally explored, where, according to the natives of the New World with whom the Spanish had contact, there was a civilisation on the mainland. The Spanish governor of Cuba, Velasquez, chose Hernan Cortes to lead an expeditionary force inland to seek out this civilisation.
Hernan Cortez was the first to make it to the New World with conquest as his objective rather than exploration. He landed in Mexico in 1518 from the Cuba with around 500 men, and found native tribes who were enemies of the mighty Aztec empire, which was a civilization ruled by the powerful ruler, Montezuma. Cortez and his men made their way to the capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, and met Montezuma. Montezuma and the Aztecs believed Cortez and his men were ancient gods returning to the Aztecs, so they were heartily welcomed. Using the discontentment of these neighbouring native tribes as allies, Cortez and his men with less than two dozen horses and a few pieces of artillery, and especially smallpox were able to subdue this powerful empire and conquer its capital city of Tenochtitlan by 1521. By 1550, the Spanish controlled a majority of Central America.
Francisco Pizzaro followed in Cortez’s footsteps, setting out from Panama in 1531, he and his conquistadores headed to South America and crossed into the empire of the Incas that was rumoured to be vast and wealthy. Pizarro arrived in Peru to discover land overtaken with smallpox and desperate to overthrow the Inca. Much like Cortez had done, he allied himself with natives to overthrow the Inca Empire. By 1533, he had defeated them and killed the emperor Athahualpa. He built a capital at the city of Lima afterward and set up a puppet monarchy to rule the territory as part of a complex colonial administration to control their empire.
These conquistadores were successful in establishing the first European overseas empire for a number of reasons. They used the natives to help with battle, and they had the benefit of iron weapons and armour. They also fought in different ways than the natives they conquered. The Aztec and Inca used battles to take captives that would be sacrificed later, while the Spaniards used battles to kill as many of the enemy as possible. The greatest advantage that the conquistadores had was the use of disease brought from Europe, to which the natives of the New World had defence against, in addition to superior firepower that also had a psychological shock on the natives.
In addition to conquering new territory, other voyages of discovery were made by other explorers. One of the most dramatic voyages were made by Fernando Magellan and his crew who set sail for South America in 1519 and sailed along the South American coast until he reached the southern tip of the continent, now known as the Strait of Magellan, and made his way into the Pacific Ocean, which had been discovered by the Spanish Vasco Nunez de Balboa in 1513 by crossing the Isthmus of Panama. Four months later, the expedition landed in the Philippines where Magellan was killed by natives. Two ships left the Philippines and sailed westward for the Spice Islands. Finally in 1522, fifteen of Magellan’s original 260 men returned to Spain after circumnavigating around the world for the first time.
Other European countries were attracted by the wealth that discoveries brought to the Spanish and Portuguese. The English and the French established their own colonies in North America, which established a new type of European expansion. Instead of exploiting native inhabitants, as the Spanish and Portuguese did, the English and the French modified replicas of European society in the New World, but also at the cost of the gradual destruction of indigenous societies while establishing permanent self-sufficient colonial settlements in what became Canada and America.
Whereas other European nations explored and colonised the world, the Dutch concentrated on trade. The Dutch were able to set up colonies in both Asia and the Americas, beginning in 1595 with a company created to oversee trade in Asia called the East India Company, and later set up colonies in Asia that linked trade between Holland and China and Japan. A similar company was founded to conduct trade in the West India Company, which financed the colonisation of the Dutch colony of the New Netherlands in the Hudson Valley in North America.
Trade was also established by European explorers in Asia, beginning with the Portuguese in their drive to acquire wealth, the conviction of spiritual supremacy, and the pressure of rivalry between different European nations. The first ship to ever voyage directly from Europe to China was a Portuguese vessel in 1516, which landed at Canton, and thus began the Portuguese monopoly of European commercial contact with China for about a century, which led to the first permanent settlement in Macao in 1557, and later the first Christian missionaries arriving in 1575. The Portuguese were also the first Europeans to establish economic contact and missionary activity in Japan in 1543, as well as in India, and were then followed by the English in 1639, who continued to gradually extend their influence over the entire sub-continent by protecting and then directing England’s expansion.
With the establishment of colonies around the world by the different European nations as sources of national economic power through exploiting resources overseas, there was also large scale of colonization abroad, especially by those countries taking advantage of the vast amounts of available land in the western hemisphere, where many various independent colonies were established as parts of different European empires, with Britain leading the way toward establishing a worldwide empire as a result of waging warfare and exploration that led to creating permanent overseas colonies that were administered by the monarchy or privately-owned colonizing companies, and establishing unchallenged naval supremacy and mercantile trade links. Global economic change also emerged through a worldwide network of exchange that came into being from about the beginning of the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The first sign of this change was the diversion of Europe’s trickle of land-based trade with Asia to the sea routes that were first established by the Portuguese and the start of a flow of precious metals from Spanish America to Europe, and then often to Asia, where its silver financed Europe’s purchases. By the mid-seventeenth century, this was followed by the general growth of trade in slaves from Africa across the Atlantic to the Americas where much of the land was uncultivated, and western powers were determined to make use of it. These ships that were used to carry slaves then sailed back to Europe with products from the Americas that were in demand in Europe. This tragically became the closest and most enduring of contacts between Europeans and non-Europeans in this first phase of overseas imperialism. Imperialism was thus a quick and rather easy source to considerable wealth, which followed the earlier exploration of the world that initially opened the world to the West. It also showed how Europe could turn the world to serve its interests after the Portuguese, the Spanish and then later the Dutch, French and the English established empires across the world outside Europe as they competed for land and resources.
What were the causes and consequences of European exploration on a worldwide scale?
Subsequent classroom assignments are going to be focused on more involved writing assignments for different reasons.
Writing as a means for learning serves several purposes. It can teach critical thinking by helping students organize, summarise, integrate and synthesise diverse elements into a coherent whole.
Writing can also teach students to be aware of their own learning processes, including:
1. Thinking clearly and expressing thoughts precisely
2. Evaluating the adequacy of an argument
3. Using and applying facts, inferences and opinions critically
4. Understanding how truth claims are established
5. Giving and receiving criticism in advantageous ways
6. Agreeing or disagreeing in measured means
7. Extending a line of thought beyond the range of first impressions
8. Articulating a complex position
Dialogue Journals
1. Pairs in chairs write a journal entry in which they write about a reading or writing assignment, and exchanges their contents with a peer who reads and responds to the entry with comments and questions.
2. Collect dated and signed entries to comment on and evaluate the quality of observations and responses.
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