Brave New World: the Age of Discovery

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Brave New World the Age of Discovery
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Exploration in Context
To seek new worlds for gold, for praise, for
glory.Sir Walter Ralegh
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PROSPERO Abhorred slave, Which any print of
goodness wilt not take, Being capable of all ill!
I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak,
taught thee each hour One thing or other when
thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning,
but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I
endow'd thy purposes With words that made them
known. But thy vile race, Though thou didst
learn, had that in't which good natures Could
not abide to be with therefore wast
thou Deservedly confined into this rock, Who
hadst deserved more than a prison. CALIBAN You
taught me language and my profit on't Is, I know
how to curse. The red plague rid you For
learning me your language! William Shakespeare
The Tempest
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Exploration in Context
O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there
here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new
world! That has such people in't! The Tempest
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Exploration in Context
Each man calls barbarism what is not his own
practice for indeed it seems we have no other
test of truth and reason than the example and
pattern of the opinions and customs of the
country we live in. Michel de Montaigne On
Cannibals
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Discovery or Contact
How did Europeans discover the new world? How
did Europeans come into contact with the new
world? When did contact first happen? With
Columbus?
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Why did Europeans take to the Seas?

• The Growth of Mercantilism
• New Trade Routes
• Development of Better Naval Technology
• The power of Human Achievement

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Tabula Rogeriana
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Waldseemuller World Map 1507
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Portugal An Empire of Trade
Portuguese explorations routes to the east
by going south Europeans map the entire
coastline of Africa Build the first European
settlements in sub-Saharan Africa The beginning
of the African slave trade
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Mapping Africa
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Dangers of Sea Voyage
We were three months and twenty days without
refreshment from any kind of fresh food. We ate
biscuit which was no longer biscuit but its
powder, swarming with worms, the rats having
eaten all the good. It stank strongly of their
urine. We drank yellow water already many days
putrid. We also ate certain ox hides that
covered the top of the yards to prevent the yards
from chafing the shrouds, and which had become
exceedingly hard because of the sun, rain and
wind. We soaked them in the sea for four or five
days, then placed them for a short time over the
hot embers and ate them thus, and often we ate
sawdust. Rats were sold for half a ducat apiece,
and even so we could not always get them.
--Ferdinand Magellan
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Christopher Columbus

• Genoese navigator, convinces Spanish rulers to
  finance his expedition
• Sets sail August 3, 1492
• Sights Bahamas after 33 days at sea, then sights
  Cuba and Hispanola
• Died believing he had reached East Indies

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Spain A Colonial Empire

• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided the world
  between Portugal and Spain
• At its height Spain controlled Mexico, Central
  America, and much of South America in addition to
  various islands in the Caribbean.
• Conquistador conqueror of new territories,
  explorer or mercenary?

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The Spanish empire
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New World Natives
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Native Religion
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I knew that they were a people who could be more
easily freed and converted to our holy faith by
love than by force, gave to some of them red
caps, and glass beads to put round their necks,
and many other things of little value, which
gave them great pleasure, They afterward came
to the ship's boats where we were, swimming and
bringing us parrots, cotton threads in skeins,
darts, and many other things and we exchanged
them for other things that we gave them, such as
glass beads and small bells. It appeared to
me to be a race of people very poor in
everything. They go as naked as when their
mothers bore them They have no iron, their
darts being wands without iron, They are all
of fair stature and size, with good faces, and
well made. They should be good servants and
intelligent, for I observed that they quickly
took in what was said to them, and I believe
that they would easily be made Christians, as it
appeared to me that they had no religion.
--Christopher Columbus
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Transatlantic slave trade