📍Topic 4.2 Exploration: Causes and Events

📖 AMSCO p.199 - p.208

Main Idea

Key Timeline

Image Courtesy of Sarah

Things to Know:

The Roles of States in Maritime Exploration

• European states wanted to expand their influence and resources
• Conquests were a way for states to expand their wealth
• Eventually rivalries formed because of the want for more land
• Many European states wanted to expand their religious beliefs and claiming it was their Christian duty “to seek them out and convert them”
• Voyages were expensive, so without government support they would not happen
• Countries set out to maximize their wealth in the form of finding riches overseas

Expansion of European Maritime Exploration

• Portugal’s interest in both state and the explorers were tied together
• Portugal expanded over overseas to Africa and India
• Prince Henry the Navigator was the first European Monarch to sponsor overseas expeditions
• Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese explorer, who sailed the to the southern tip of Africa
• Vasco Da Gama, another Portuguese explorer, established India as part of Portugal’s empire
• Portuguese admiral Alfonso de Albuquerque won a battle that led to him setting up a factory in Malacca (modern day Indonesia)
• Portugal failed to win over Chinese society because they considered them to be barbaric
• Portugal established trading forts from Goa (western India) to Malacca
• These forts helped make Portugal a global trading empire
• Portugal being a small nation lacked the resources to maintain a large trading empire which led to many merchants to trade independently
• Corruption entered the trade market and led to rivalries
• The English pushed the Portuguese out of South Asia
• Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, who’s ship proved that it was possible to sail around the world
• Spain took control of the Philippines and its people, Filipinos, put up a fight
• Many Filipinos became Christians because of occupations

The Lure of Riches

• Columbus and other explorers from Europe hoped to increase their wealth and resources, so they decided to carve new routes to Asia
• The Spanish did not find much in their first twenty years of exploration which caused them to want to stop searching
• The English did not explore for almost a hundred years
• Europeans became interested in the Americas again when the Spanish came into contact with the Incas and Aztecs
• These empires had what Columbus and other Europeans were looking for
• Europeans enslaved Native Americans and Africans to increase profit
• China was a huge consumer of silver
• Traveling silver was a huge process that required a long journey
• Europeans traded silver for luxury goods
• Silver was a major commodity in the economy by the early 17th century

Terms to Remember