Exploration and Exploitation

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Exploration and Exploitation
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• Although the world has been inhabited for some
  time extensive exploration is a relatively new
  phenomenon
• Would drive the Europeans to colonize the world
  was the desire for gold, God, and glory
• One of the first attempts at colonization was by
  the Vikings who set out from rugged Scandinavia
  in search land
• They reached as far as Iceland, Greenland, and
  North America. However they did not maintain
  contact with the colonies which soon disappeared

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• The next great European explorer was Marco Polo
  who traveled overland from Venice to China
  returning to Italy in 1295
• The overland route was long, dangerous, costly
  and controlled by warring tribes
• A sea route to India and Asia would obviously be
  more desirable but as yet one did not exist
• The first country to look for sea routes to Asia
  was Portugal - strategically located on the
  Iberian Peninsula
• In 1415 the Portuguese captured Cuerta from the
  Muslims and opened the door to exploration

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• The Portuguese king, Henry the Navigator, opened
  a school to study geography and exploration at
  Sagres
• He sent ships out to explore the Atlantic coast
  of Africa, the Azores, and the Canary Islands
• In 1441 the first black slaves were brought back
  to Portugal
• Bartholomew Dias rounded the southern tip of
  Africa, but in the face of mutiny he was forced
  to return home
• He called the area the Cape of Storms, but this
  was later changed to the Cape of Good Hope
• Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and arrived at
  Calicut in 1498

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• In 1597-8 John Cabot and his son Sebastian
  explored Newfoundland and New England for Henry
  VII of England
• The claim would wait for almost a century before
  the English would exercise their rights
• In 1500 the Portuguese sailor Pedro Cabral was
  blown off course and landed in Brazil, thus
  claiming that country for Portugal
• In 1513 the Spaniard Vasco Nunez de Balboa
  discovered the Pacific
• Between 1519 and 1522 Ferdinand Magellan led a
  the first circumnavigation of the world.
  Unfortunately Magellan was killed in the
  Philippines but some of his men did complete the
  voyage

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• Spanish explorers in the New World were called
  conquistadors and Spanish policy was based upon
  exploitation
• In just three years starting in 1519 Hernán
  Cortés and a small group conquered the huge Aztec
  empire of central Mexico
• Between 1531 and 1536 Francisco Pizarro and
  another group of conquistadors toppled the mighty
  Inca empire
• The greatest success came not with technology but
  diseases which wiped out the natives of the New
  World

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• In the 1580s the English tried to settle Virginia
• 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent the first settlers
  but they returned home
• In 1587 another group was sent to Roanoke and
  they completely disappeared without trace
• The next real attempt was by the Virginia Company
  in 1606. They sent hundreds of settlers and in
  April 1607 they founded Jamestown
• The relationship between the Indians and the
  settlers was volatile from the start, but the
  English were determined to stay
• As much as the settlers espoused Christianity
  their treatment of the Indians was far removed
  from a Christian approach

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• In 1619 the first shipment of slaves arrived at
  Virginia. By 1620 the sale of tobacco guaranteed
  the success of the colony
• In 1624 King James made Virginia a royal colony.
  As the settlers became more independent so the
  survival rate increased.
• With the European economy in a shambles the risks
  involved in North America now seemed much less
• The English moved to America in the Great
  Migration looking for land and religious freedom
• In 1620 the second permanent English settlement
  was being formed in New England

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• The Pilgrims sailed to the New World looking to
  escape the Old World. But it was not until the
  1630s that they arrived in any great number
• The Massachusetts Bay Colony included settlements
  all around Boston
• However religious disagreements forced some to
  leave and found the colonies of Rhode Island and
  Connecticut

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• In 1634 another southern colony was founded, this
  time it was Maryland. In 1632 George Calvert had
  obtained a proprietary grant from the English
  government which made the colony almost his
  personal property
• Calvert hoped to make the colony a refuge for
  Catholics, but Protestants always made up the
  majority
• While the colony had little initial success,
  Calvert did make lots of money selling the land