Exploration and Expansion

EXPLORATION AND EXPANSION

On a quest for “God, glory, and gold,” the Portuguese and Spanish led the way

in exploring new worlds. Setting sail to the east, the Portuguese eventually gained

control of the Spice Islands. In the west, Portugal and Spain each claimed new lands

in the Americas. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, the Dutch, French, and

English began competing with the Portuguese and Spanish for these new lands and

the riches they held.

Motives and Means

caused them to undertake such dangerous voyages to the ends of the Earth?

Europeans had long been attracted to Asia. In the late thirteenth century, Marco Polo

had traveled with his father and uncle to the Chinese court of the great Mongol ruler

Kublai Khan. He had written an account of his experiences, known as The Travels.

Many, including Christopher Columbus, read the book and were fascinated by the

exotic East. In the fourteenth century, conquests by the Ottoman Turks reduced the

ability of westerners to travel by land to the East. People then spoke of gaining access

to Asia by sea. Economic motives loom large in European expansion. Merchants,

adventurers, and state officials had high hopes of expanding trade, especially for the

spices of the East. The spices, which were needed to preserve and flavor food, were

Mexico, that they must ensure that the natives were “introduced into the holy Catholic

faith.” There was a third motive as well. Spiritual and secular affairs were connected

in the sixteenth century. People like Cortés wanted to convert the natives to

Christianity; but grandeur, glory, and a spirit of adventure also played a major role in

European expansion. “God, glory, and gold,” then, were the chief motives for European

expansion, but what made the voyages possible? By the mid-1400s, European

monarchies had increased their power and their resources and could focus beyond

their borders. Europeans had also reached a level of technology that enabled them to

make regular voyages beyond Europe. A new global age was about to begin.

A Race for Riches

sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese fleets began probing

southward along the western coast of Africa. There, they discovered a new source of

gold. The southern coast of West Africa thus became known to Europeans as the Gold

Coast. Portuguese sea captains heard reports of a route to India around the southern

tip of Africa. In 1488 Bartholomeu Dias rounded the tip, called the Cape of Good Hope.

Later, Vasco da Gama went around the cape and cut across the Indian Ocean to the

coast of India. In May of 1498, he arrived off the port of Calicut. There he took on a

cargo of spices. After returning to Portugal, da Gama made a profit of several thousand

percent. Is it surprising that da Gama’s voyage was the first of many along this route?

Portuguese fleets returned to the area to take control of the spice trade from the

station on the route to the Moluccas, then known as the Spice Islands. From Melaka,

the Portuguese launched expeditions to China and the Spice Islands. There they

signed a treaty with a local ruler for the purchase and export of cloves to the European

market. This treaty established Portuguese control of the spice trade. However, the

Portuguese had a limited empire of trading posts on the coasts of India and China.

The Portuguese had neither the power, the people, nor the desire to colonize the Asian

regions. Guns and seamanship made the Portuguese the first successful European

explorers. Heavily armed, their fleets were able to defeat local naval and land forces.

Later, however, the Portuguese would be no match for other European forces—the

English, Dutch, and French.

Spanish Explorers

Ocean, the Spanish sailed westward across the Atlantic Ocean to find the route to

Asia. Convinced that the Earth’s circumference was not as great as others thought,

Christopher Columbus believed he could reach Asia by sailing west instead of east

around Africa. Columbus persuaded Queen Isabella of Spain to finance an exploratory

expedition. In October 1492 he reached the Americas, where he explored the coastline

of Cuba and the island of Hispaniola.

Columbus believed he had reached Asia. After three voyages, he had still not

found a route through the outer islands to the Asian mainland. In his four voyages,

Pacific Ocean. The fleet reached the Philippines, but Magellan was killed by the native

peoples there. Although only one of his ships returned to Spain, Magellan is still

remembered as the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

New Lands to Explore

The voyages of the Portuguese and Spanish had opened up new lands to

exploration. Both Spain and Portugal feared that the other might claim some of its

newly discovered territories. They resolved their concerns with the Treaty of

Tordesillas, signed in 1494. The treaty called for a line of demarcation extending from

north to south through the Atlantic Ocean and the easternmost part of the South

American continent. Unexplored territories east of the line would be controlled by

Portugal, The caravel was a faster ship design invented by the Portuguese, which

made long voyages of exploration possible. Its triangular (lateen) sails allowed

explorers to sail against the wind. Europeans learned to use lateen sails from the

Arabs. The caravel design included a large cargo hold. At the same time, cartography

(the art and science of mapmaking) had advanced to the point where Europeans had

fairly accurate maps. European sailors used the astrolabe, an invention of Greek

astronomers, to plot their latitude using the sun or stars. The magnetic compass,

invented in China, also helped sailors to chart a course across the ocean. Technology

and Exploration The caravel was well suited for long voyages of exploration. and those

west of the line by Spain. This treaty gave Portugal control over its route around Africa,

new lands. Europeans called these lands the New World although they already had

flourishing civilizations made up of millions of people when the Europeans arrived. The

Americas were, of course, new to the Europeans, who quickly saw opportunities for

conquest and exploitation.

The Spanish Empire

The Spanish conquerors of the Americas—known as conquistadors— were

individuals whose firearms, organizational skills, and determination brought them

incredible success. With their people and resources, the Spanish established an

overseas empire quite different from the Portuguese trading posts.

Aztec Civilization Destroyed

For a century, the Aztec ruled much of central Mexico from the Gulf of Mexico to

the Pacific coasts. Most local officials accepted the authority of the Aztec king in

Tenochtitlán. In the region of Tlaxcala to the east, however, the local lords wanted

greater independence. Areas that had never been conquered wanted to remain free

of the Aztec. In 1519, a Spanish force under the command of Hernán Cortés landed

at Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. Cortés marched to Tenochtitlán with a small body

of troops (550 soldiers and 16 horses). As he went, he made alliances with city-states

that had tired of the oppressive rule of the Aztec. Particularly important was the alliance

with Tlaxcala. In November, Cortés arrived at Tenochtitlán and was welcomed by the

Aztec monarch Montezuma (also spelled Moctezuma). The Aztec were astounded to

see the unfamiliar sight of men on horseback and firearms, cannon, and steel swords.

These weapons gave the Spanish a great advantage in fighting the Aztec.

immunity to European diseases, many Aztec fell sick and died. Meanwhile, Cortés

received fresh soldiers from his new allies; the state of Tlaxcala alone provided 50,000

warriors. After four months, the city surrendered. The forces of Cortés leveled

pyramids, temples, and palaces and used the stones to build government buildings

and churches for the Spanish. The rivers and canals were filled in. The magnificent

city of Tenochtitlán was no more. During the next 30 years, the Spanish expanded

their control to all of Mexico.

Conquest of the Inca

of South America with only a small band of about 180 men. However, like Cortés,

Pizarro brought steel weapons, gunpowder, and horses. The Inca had seen none of

these. The Inca Empire also experienced an epidemic of smallpox. Like the Aztec, the

Inca had no immunities to European diseases. Smallpox soon devastated entire

villages. Even the Inca emperor was a victim. When the emperor died, his two sons

each claimed the throne. This led to a civil war. Atahuallpa, one of the sons, defeated

his brother’s forces. Taking advantage of the situation, Pizarro captured Atahuallpa.

With their stones, arrows, and light spears, Inca warriors provided little challenge to

the charging Spanish horses, guns, and cannons. After executing Atahuallpa, Pizarro

and his soldiers, aided by their Inca allies, marched on Cuzco and captured the Inca

capital. By 1535, Pizarro had established a new capital at Lima for a new colony of the

Spanish Empire.

The Columbian Exchange

By 1550, much territory in Mexico, Central America, and South America had been

the Indies”) to be her subjects. She granted to Spanish settlers in the Americas the

encomienda. This was the right of landowners to use Native Americans as laborers.

The holders of an encomienda were supposed to protect the Native Americans, but

Spanish settlers were far from Spain and largely ignored their government. Native

Americans were put to work on sugar plantations and in the gold and silver mines.

Few Spanish settlers worried about protecting them.

Forced labor, starvation, and especially disease took a fearful toll on Native

American lives. With little natural resistance to European diseases, the native peoples

society. Native American social and political structures were torn apart and replaced

by European systems of religion, language, culture, and government. As the Spanish

and Native Americans married and had families, they created a new people with roots

in both cultures. Some aspects of the indigenous culture survive. In Mexico, the Nahua

Indians, descendants of the Aztec, weave on the same kind of loom used by the Aztec.

Spanish conquests in the Americas affected not only the conquered but also the

conquerors. Colonists established plantations and ranches to raise sugar, cotton,

vanilla, livestock, and other products introduced to the Americas for export to Europe.

While Europeans were bringing horses, cattle, and wheat to the Americas, agricultural

products native to the Americas, such as potatoes, cocoa, corn, tomatoes, and

tobacco, were shipped to Europe. The exchange of plants and animals between

Europe and the Americas—known as the Columbian Exchange—transformed

economic activity in both worlds. Potatoes, for example, became a basic dietary staple

in some areas of Europe. By enabling more people to survive on smaller plots of land,

a rapid increase in population was made possible.

an English fleet landed on the northwestern coast of India and established trade

relations with the people there. The first Dutch fleet arrived in India in 1595. Shortly

after, the Dutch formed the East India Company and began competing with both the

English and the Portuguese for Indian Ocean trade. The Dutch also formed their own

West India Company to compete with the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas.

Although it made some inroads in Portuguese Brazil and the Caribbean, the

founding Virginia and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. After 1660, however, rivalry with

the English and the French (who had also become active in North America) brought

the fall of the Dutch commercial empire in the Americas. In 1664 the English seized

the colony of New Netherland from the Dutch and renamed it New York. The Dutch

West India Company soon went bankrupt. By the end of the seventeenth century, the

English had established control over most of the eastern seaboard of North America.

They had also set up sugar plantations on several Caribbean islands. Nevertheless,

compared to the enormous empire of the Spanish in Latin America, the North American

colonies still remained of minor importance to the English economy.