An Age of Exploration and Isolation 1400-1800

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An Age of Exploration and Isolation1400-1800

• By the early 1400s, Europeans were ready to
  venture beyond their borders. The Renaissance
  encouraged, among other things, a new spirit of
  adventure and curiosity. This unit describes how
  European exploration began a long process that
  would bring together the peoples of many
  different lands and permanently change the world.

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An Age of Exploration and Isolation

• I. Motivation for Exploration
• II. Portugal Leads the Way
• III. Trading Empires in the Indian Ocean
• IV. China Rejects European Outreach
• V. Japan Limits Western Contacts

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An Age of Exploration and Isolation

• Europeans had not been completely isolated from
  the rest of the world before the 1400s.
• Beginning around 1100, European crusaders battled
  Muslims for control of the Holy Lands in the
  Middle East.
• In 1275, the Italian trader Marco Polo reached
  the court of Kublai Khan in China.

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An Age of Exploration and Isolation

• For the most part, however, Europeans had neither
  the interest nor the ability to explore foreign
  lands.
• That changed by the 1400s.
• The desire to grow rich and to spread
  Christianity, coupled with advances in sailing
  technology, spurred an age of European
  exploration.

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I. Motivation for Exploration
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I. Motivation for Exploration

• 1. The desire to get rich was the main reason for
  European exploration.
• The trade for spices and other luxury goods from
  Asia, introduced during the Crusades, had become
  a profitable business.

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I. Motivation for Exploration

• The Muslims and the Italians controlled the trade
  of goods from East to West.
• Muslims sold Asian goods to Italian merchants,
  who controlled trade across land routes of
  Europe.
• The Italian merchants resold the items at
  increased prices to merchants throughout Europe.
• By the 1400s, European merchants, as well as the
  monarchs of England, Spain, Portugal, and France,
  sought to bypass the Italian merchants who cut
  into their profits.

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I. Motivation for Exploration

• 2. The desire to spread Christianity also fueled
  European exploration.
• The crusades left feelings of hostility between
  Christians and Muslims.
• European nations believed they had a sacred duty
  not only to continue fighting Muslims, but to
  convert non-Christians throughout the world.

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I. Motivation for Exploration

• 3. Advances in technology made the voyages of
  discovery possible.
• In the 1400s shipbuilders designed a new vessel,
  the caravel. The ship was sturdier and included
  large triangular sails.

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I. Motivation for Exploration

• The astrolabe, which Muslims had perfected,
  helped captains sight stars and tell how far
  north or south of the equator he was.
• The magnetic compass, invented by the Chinese,
  also helped.

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II. Portugal Leads the Way
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II. Portugal Leads the Way

• The European leader in developing and applying
  these sailing innovations was Portugal.
• Led by Prince Henry the Navigator, Portugal
  conquered the Muslim city of Cueta in North
  Africa in 1415.
• There, he saw the dazzling wealth that lay beyond
  Europe.
• The Portuguese invaders found spices, gold,
  silver, and jewels.

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II. Portugal Leads the Way

• In 1419, Henry founded a navigation school in
  Portugal.
• Map makers, instrument makers, shipbuilders,
  scientists, and sea captains gathered there to
  perfect their trade.
• By the time Henry died in 1460, the Portuguese
  had established a series of trading posts along
  the western coast of Africa.
• There, they traded for gold, ivory, and
  eventually slaves.

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II. Portugal Leads the Way

• The Portuguese believed that to reach Asia by
  sea, they would have to sail around the southern
  tip of Africa.
• In 1487, Bartolomeu Diaz reached the southern tip
  of Africa.
• As he arrived, a huge storm rose and battered his
  fleet for days.
• When the storm ended, Diaz realized his ships had
  been blown around the tip.
• Exhausted and low on supplies, he returned home.

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II. Portugal Leads the Way

• In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama
  reached the port of Calicut, India.
• Da Gama filled the ships with spices and returned
  to Portugal to a heros welcome.

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III. Trading Empires in the Indian Ocean
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III. Trading Empires in the Indian Ocean

• With da Gamas voyage, Europeans finally opened
  direct sea trade with Asia.
• They also opened an era of violent conflict in
  the East.
• European nations scrambled to establish
  profitable trading outposts along the shores of
  South and Southeast Asia.
• And all the while they battled the regions
  inhabitants and each other.

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III. Trading Empires in the Indian Ocean

• Portugal built a bustling trading empire
  throughout the Indian Ocean, taking control of
  the spice trade from Muslim merchants.

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III. Trading Empires in the Indian Ocean

• Portuguese merchants brought back goods from Asia
  at about a fifth of what they cost when purchased
  through the Arabs and Italians.
• Portugals success attracted the attention of
  other European nations.
• Beginning around 1600, the English and the Dutch
  broke Portuguese control of the Asian region.

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III. Trading Empires in the Indian Ocean

• The Dutch Republic is also known as the
  Netherlands, or Holland.
• Both the English and Dutch formed an East India
  Company to establish and direct trade throughout
  Asia.
• These companies had the power to mint money, make
  treaties, and even raise their own armies.
• The Dutch East India Company was richer and more
  powerful and eventually drove out the English.

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III. Trading Empires in the Indian Ocean

• European traders did gain control of numerous
  port cities throughout the region.
• However, their influence rarely spread beyond the
  ports into the countrys interior
• European traders who sailed farther east to seek
  riches in China and Japan had even less success
  in spreading Western culture.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• Europeans made healthy profits in the Indian
  Ocean trade. Looking for additional sources of
  wealth, they sought a trading relationship with
  China. By the time westerners arrived in the
  1500s, China had driven out its Mongol rulers and
  had united under the Ming Dynasty.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• China had become the dominant power in the region
  under the rule of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
• In recognition of Chinas power, vassal nations
  from Korea to Southeast Asia paid their Ming
  overlords regular tribute.
• The Ming rulers would not let outsiders threaten
  the peace and prosperity they had brought to
  China.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• In 1405, before Europeans began to sail beyond
  their borders, China launched the first of seven
  voyages of exploration, led by Muslim admiral
  named Zheng He.
• Everything about the expeditions was large
  distances traveled, size of the fleet, and
  measurements of the ships themselves.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• The voyages roamed from Southeast Asia and India
  to Arabia and East Africa.
• China wanted to impress the world with its power
  and hoped to expand its tribute system.
• Each expedition included 40 to 300 ships,
  fighting vessels, storage ships up to 440 feet
  long, and up to 27,000 crewmen, including
  sailors, soldiers, carpenters, interpreters,
  accountants, doctors, and religious leaders.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• Everywhere Zheng He went, he distributed gifts,
  such as gold, silver, silk, and scented oils, to
  show Chinese superiority.
• Many Chinese scholars felt these voyages wasted
  valuable resources.
• After the seventh voyage ended in 1433, there
  were no more.
• China withdrew into a self-sufficient isolation.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• Chinas official trade policies in the 1500s
  reflected its isolation.
• Only the government was to conduct foreign trade
  through three coastal ports.
• Merchants turned to smuggling to meet the demands
  for Chinese goods.
• Industries such as silk making and ceramics grew
  rapidly.
• However, China did not industrialize because
  commerce offended Chinas Confucian beliefs and
  taxes on manufacturing and trade skyrocketed.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• In 1644, the Manchus invaded China and the Ming
  Dynasty collapsed after ruling for over 200
  years.
• Calling themselves the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus
  would rule for more than 260 years.
• Many Chinese resisted rule by the non-Chinese
  Manchus, however, they slowly earned the peoples
  respect.
• They upheld Chinas traditional Confusian
  beliefs, made the countrys frontiers safe, and
  restored Chinas prosperity.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• Manchus Continue a Policy of Isolation
• To the Chinese, their country had been the
  cultural center of the universe for two thousand
  years.
• If foreign states wished to trade with China,
  they had to follow Chinese rules.
• Foreign diplomats paid tribute to Chinas emperor
  through gifts and by performing the required
  kowtow ritual.
• This ritual involved their kneeling in front of
  the emperor and touching their heads to the
  ground nine times.

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IV. China Rejects European Outreach

• The Dutch accepted these restrictions and the
  Chinese accepted them as a trading partner.
• The Dutch returned home with porcelains, silk,
  and tea.
• By 1800, tea would make up 80 percent of
  shipments to Europe.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contacts

• The Tokugawa regime unifies Japan and begins a
  200-year period of isolation, autocracy, and
  economic growth.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• Japan had long been ruled by a series of shoguns,
  or supreme military dictators.
• In 1467, civil war shattered Japans feudal
  system.
• The county collapsed into chaos.
• Power drained away from the shogun to territorial
  lords in hundreds of separate domains.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• This violent era of disorder which lasted from
  1467 to 1568 is known as the Sengoku, or Warring
  States period.
• Powerful samurai seized control and offered
  peasants and others protection for their loyalty.
• These warrior-chieftains, called daimyo, became
  lords in a new kind of Japanese feudalism.
• Rival daimyo often fought each other for
  territory.
• This led to endless disorder throughout the land.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• A number of ambitious daimyo hoped to gather
  enough power to take control of the entire
  country.
• In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated his rivals and
  unified Japan as the Tokugawa Shogunate which
  would continue until 1868.
• The Tokugawa shoguns rule brought a welcome
  stability to Japan.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• The Japanese first encountered Europeans in 1543,
  when shipwrecked Portuguese sailors washed up on
  the shores of southern Japan.
• Portuguese merchants soon followed with clocks,
  eyeglasses, tobacco, firearms, and other
  unfamiliar items.
• Japanese merchants were interested in the
  newcomers goods and the daimyo were interested
  in the muskets and cannons.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• Firearms forever changed the time-honored
  tradition of the Japanese warrior, whose
  principal weapon had been the sword.
• Many samurai, who retained the sword as their
  principal weapon, would lose their lives to
  musket fire in future combat.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• In 1549, Christian missionaries began arriving in
  Japan.
• By 1600, missionaries converted about 300,000
  Japanese to Christianity.
• The success of the missionaries upset Tokugawa
  Ieyasu.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• Missionaries, actively seeking converts, scorned
  traditional Japanese beliefs and involved
  themselves in local politics.
• In 1637, an uprising in southern Japan shook the
  Tokugawa regime.
• Because so many of the rebels were Christians,
  the Shoguns ruthlessly persecuted Christians.

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V. Japan Limits Western Contact

• By 1639, Japan instituted a closed country
  policy.
• Only one port, Nagasaki, remained opened to
  foreign traders.
• However, only Dutch and Chinese merchants were
  allowed into the port.
• For more than 200 years, Japan remained basically
  closed to Europeans.