Voyages of Discovery

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Voyages of Discovery
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Review

• West African kingdoms grew rich in the years from
  1000-1500 through the mining of Gold
• Mansa Musa (r. 1312-1337)
• The West African kingdom of Benin was developing
  from an acephalous to a monarchial society in the
  15th century
• The Mongol conquest allowed for safer travel
  across the Eurasian continent, encouraging trade
  and cultural contact
• The Western European economy grew from the years
  1000-1300, and this growth was only temporarily
  interrupted by the demographic and military
  crises of the 14th century (The Black Death and
  the Hundred Years War)

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Questions

• What technological innovations made it possible
  for Western Europeans to embark on great oceanic
  voyages in the 15th c.?
• What motivated Western Europeans to make such
  voyages?
• What were the initial consequences for the
  peoples of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia
  of European ventures on the seas?

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Crusading in Spain

• Arab raiders seized most of Iberian peninsula in
  8th c.
• 11th 15th centuries Christian kingdoms and
  crusaders capture more and more Muslim territory
• 1249 Muslim rulers held no more territory in
  Portugal
• 1492 Muslim kingdom of Granada surrenders to
  Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of
  Aragon
• W. Europeans did not perceive that the battles
  with the infidel had ended simply because Spain
  had been recaptured

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Motivations for Exploration

• Christianity
• Ceuta (1415)
• Explorers and Popes
• Prester John
• Trade
• W. African Gold
• Indian Spices
• Regional Pride

Cinnamon
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Governments and Explorers

• One reason for Portuguese and Spanish success
  exploration was not treated as simply a
  mercantile endeavor, but a matter of national
  policy
• Portugal
• Prince Henry the Navigator (1396-1450)
• King John II (r. 1481-1495)
• Spain
• Ferdinand of Aragon (r. 1479-1516)
• Isabella of Castile (r. 1474-1504)

Prince Henry the Navigator
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Exploration and Technology

• Carrack
• Cannon
• Magnetic Compass
• Astrolabe

Mariners Astrolabe
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The Progress of Exploration

• 1434 Cape Bojador
• 1460s Gold and Ivory Coast
• 1473 Equator
• 1485 Congo River
• 1487-88 Crossing of the Cape of Good Hope
• Bartolomeo Dias
• 1492 First Expedition of Christopher Columbus
• 1498 Vasco da Gama (d. 1524) reached India

Vasco da Gama
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Initial Consequences of Voyages of Discovery

• For Europe
• Breaking of Italian monopoly on Eastern Trade
• Beginning of European maritime dominance
• For Africa
• Opening of new markets for African goods
• Africans maintained control over interior trade
• Portuguese forced Africans to accept armed
  Portuguese trading posts
• For Asia
• Muslim traders lost control over Indian Ocean
  trade
• Indians had to accept Portuguese trading posts
• For the Americas
• Early Spanish settlements led to massive
  depopulation of W. Indian Islands