Global Exploration and Exchange
Analyze maritime exploration, the Columbian Exchange, mercantilism, plantation economies, and the Atlantic slave trade.
A lesson of World History, in The Early Modern World, about 10 minutes.
Global Exploration and the Columbian Exchange
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain the causes and course of European exploration, describe the Columbian Exchange and its consequences, and analyze the demographic, ecological, and cultural effects of first contact between Hemispheres.
Why Explore?
European maritime exploration (c. 1400–1600) was driven by:
- Economic: desire to bypass Ottoman-controlled land routes to Asian spices and luxury goods
- Religious: spreading Christianity; Crusading spirit continued
- Political: competition among European states for wealth and power
- Technological: new tools made long-distance ocean navigation feasible
Enabling technologies:
- Lateen sail: could sail against the wind
- Astrolabe and compass: navigation by stars and magnetic north
- Caravel: small, maneuverable ship for coastal and ocean exploration
Portugal Leads the Way
Portugal was the pioneer of systematic exploration under Prince Henry the Navigator (d. 1460), who organized exploration down the African coast.
- Bartolomeu Dias: rounded the Cape of Good Hope (1488)
- Vasco da Gama: reached India via the Cape route (1498) — broke the Venetian-Ottoman monopoly on Asian trade
- Portugal established a maritime empire: Mozambique, Goa, Malacca, Macao — a trading empire, not a settlement empire
Spain and the Americas
Christopher Columbus (1492): Italian navigator sponsored by Spain; reached the Caribbean (Hispaniola), believing he had reached Asia. This "discovery" was a mistake in his terms — but it connected the Eastern and Western Hemispheres permanently.
Amerigo Vespucci: recognized the lands were a "New World" — not Asia. Continents named after him.
Ferdinand Magellan (1519–1522): led the first circumnavigation of the Earth (completed by del Cano after Magellan's death in the Philippines). Proved the Earth's size and the existence of the Pacific Ocean.
Conquistadors and Conquest:
- Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire (1519–1521): used alliances with enemies of the Aztecs + disease
- Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire (1532–1533): exploited a civil war + disease
- Spanish established the encomienda system: colonists given rights to Indian labor
The Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange refers to the transfer of plants, animals, peoples, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and the rest of the world after 1492.