What Changes In Europe Set The Stage For Exploration Of The Americas?

The Expansion of Europe

From the 15th through 17th centuries, Europe sought to expand its ability and riches through a rigorous exploration of the world.

Learning Objectives

Explicate the reasons for the first few European excursions to the New World

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• The Vikings were the first Europeans to land in Due north America; in the 10th century, they formed settlements in what is presently Greenland and Newfoundland.
• While Western history often centers on Europeans as the primeval and virtually avant-garde explorers of the world, growing prove suggests extensive transoceanic travel had been well underway long before the European Age of Discovery.
• In the 15th century, Europe sought to expand trade routes to find new sources of wealth and bring Christianity to the East and any newly constitute lands.
• This European Historic period of Discovery saw the rise of colonial empires on a global scale, building a commercial network that connected Europe, Asia, Africa, and the New World.
• Christopher Columbus, supported past Kingdom of spain, made four voyages to the Americas get-go in 1492. During his brutal reign, he exploited the riches and resource of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. The contact betwixt Europe and the Americas produced what is known every bit the Columbian Exchange: the wide transfer of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

Fundamental Terms

• Black Death: A rat-borne and highly contagious disease known as the bubonic plague that swept through Europe in the 1340s, killing about ane-third of the population.
• Columbian Exchange: The widespread trade of animals, plants, diseases, culture, people (including slaves), and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres that followed Espana's 1492 voyage to the Americas.
• Age of Discovery: The menses starting in the early 15th century and standing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world.

Introduction

The Age of Discovery, likewise known as the Age of Exploration and the Great Navigations, was a flow in European history from the early 15th century to the early 17th century. During this period, Europeans engaged in intensive exploration and early colonization of many parts of the world, establishing direct contact with Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Historians often refer to the Age of Discovery to mean the pioneering menstruation of the Portuguese and Castilian long-distance maritime travels in search of alternative trade routes to the Indies. The contact between the "Old World" of Europe and the and then-called "New Earth" of the Americas produced what is called the Columbian Exchange: the broad transfer of plants, animals, foods, communicable diseases, people (including slaves), and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

European Expansion: This map illustrates the chief travels of the Age of Discovery, from 1482-1524. The travel routes spanned between Europe and the eastern coast of the Americas, down through the Atlantic Ocean and around the southern tip of Due south America toward Southeast Asia, and downwardly through the Atlantic and effectually the southern tip of Africa toward Bharat.

Early Explorations

While Christopher Columbus has been hailed in United States history for "discovering" America in 1492, in that location is growing archaeological testify of cross-continental travel and merchandise for centuries prior to Columbus' travels. In improver to the travel and settlement of the Vikings in N America over 500 years earlier Columbus, several theories have been proposed of extensive trade and travel to the Americas dating dorsum thousands of years by Africa, the Middle East, South asia, East Asia, and Polynesia. While a great deal of Western history centers on Europeans every bit the primeval and most advanced explorers of the globe, growing evidence suggests extensive transoceanic travel had been well underway long before the European Age of Discovery.

The Vikings

The Vikings are thought to be the beginning European explorers to arrive in Northward America, having landed in what is now Newfoundland, a present province of Canada, over 500 years before Columbus. Historical and archaeological testify tells us that a Norse colony in Greenland was established in the late 10th century and lasted until the mid-15th century. The remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, are dated to around the year thou. Continental North American settlements were pocket-size and did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, to collect timber for case, are likely to take occurred for some time, there is no evidence of enduring Norse settlements on mainland Northward America.

Leif Erikson was an Icelandic explorer considered by some as the first European other than the Vikings on Greenland, to land in North America. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Leif was the son of Erik the Cherry, who was the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland. Leif established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in mod-day Canada. Later on archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may accept been the surface area around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was a transport repair station.

The colony in Greenland began to decline in the 14th century, and it is probable that the settlements were defunct by the tardily 15th century. Several theories have been advanced to explain the refuse, such as the Petty Water ice Age, disunity within the Viking civilization due to the emergence of a unified Christian kingdom in Norway, and a series of devastating bouts of epidemic disease in Europe. Explorations of a new state to the west would go a legendary tale of the feared Viking pirates, and nearly 500 years would pass before another European saw the American continent.

The Age of Discovery

Europe After the Middle Ages

The autumn of the Roman Empire (476 CE) and the commencement of the European Renaissance in the belatedly 14th century roughly bookend the menstruation known as the Middle Ages. Without a dominant centralized power or overarching cultural hub, Europe experienced political, social, and armed services discord during this time. This included the Crusades against the Muslims of the belatedly 11th through late 13th centuries and the Blackness Death of the 1340s.

The Christian church remained intact, however, and emerged from the period as a unified and powerful institution. A high nativity rate after the Blackness Death, coupled with bountiful harvests, meant that the population grew during the next century. By 1450, a newly rejuvenated European society was on the brink of tremendous change. Larger portions of western Europe had become familiar with the goods of the East as a result of the Crusades. A lively trade subsequently adult along a variety of routes known collectively equally the Silk Road, to supply the need for these products. Brigands and greedy middlemen made the trip along this road expensive and dangerous, and by 1492, Europe—recovered from the Black Death and in search of new products and new wealth—was broken-hearted to improve merchandise and communications with the rest of the world. The lure of turn a profit pushed explorers to seek new trade routes to the Spice Islands and eliminate Muslim middlemen.

The autumn of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 was a pivotal reason for European exploration, as merchandise throughout the Ottoman Empire was difficult and unreliable. Trade for luxuries such as spices and silk inspired European explorers to seek new routes to Asia. Portugal, under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, attempted to send ships around the continent of Africa, and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain hired Christopher Columbus to notice a route to the East by going west. Every bit strong supporters of the Catholic church building, they sought to bring Christianity to the East and any newly found lands, and hoped to find sources of wealth.

Christopher Columbus

It was confronting this backdrop that Christopher Columbus, a Castilian navigator and admiral, submitted his plans for sailing effectually the world to Asia. After several approaches to the Italian, English language, and Portuguese monarchies, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain finally decided to requite Columbus a risk, despite the counsel of their advisers. King Ferdinand thought Columbus might find something that could give the Spanish an opportunity to compete with their neighbor and rival Portugal.

Columbus set up out on his offset of four voyages on August three, 1492. Riding the trade winds westward beyond the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, Columbus landed on an isle he called San Salvador, in the present-mean solar day Bahamas, 5 weeks after embarking from Spain. During this voyage, Columbus as well explored the northeast coast of Republic of cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola, where he established the settlement of La Navidad.

Upon his return to Spain, news of the discovered lands spread throughout Europe. Columbus fabricated three more voyages to the New World between 1493 and 1504. Columbus' second voyage landed in the Caribbean, on an isle he named Dominica, and continued northward through the Bottom and Greater Antilles. On his third voyage, Columbus landed on the Portuguese Porto Santo Island before continuing on to Madeira; the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa; Trinidad, off the declension of present-twenty-four hours Venezuela; and mainland S America. Columbus's 4th and final voyage across the Atlantic took him throughout Central America, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa rica, and Panama.

These three subsequent voyages were made to explore and exploit the riches and resources of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. Columbus had been granted authority by the Spanish monarchy to claim land for Spain, begin a settlement, merchandise for valuable goods or gold, and explore. He was besides fabricated governor of all the lands which he found and he proved to be a savage and savage governor. Columbus enslaved and stole from the indigenous people, at one point threatening to cut off the hands of any person who failed to give him gilt. His brutal reign would foreshadow the arrival of the Conquistadors—Spanish warriors who would plunder and destroy the big and wealthy Aztec, Incan, and Mayan civilizations.

The Rise of the African Slave Trade

Driven by the desire for raw materials, new trading outlets, and cheap labor, Europeans initiated an extensive slave trade out of Due west Africa.

Learning Objectives

Examine how economic desires gave birth to and perpetuated the Atlantic slave trade

Central Takeaways

Key Points

• Europeans invaded and colonized the Canary Islands during the 15th century, converting much of the land to the production of wine and sugar.
• Using the Canary Islands every bit a naval base, Portuguese traders began to movement their activities down the western coast of Africa, performing raids in which slaves would be captured to be sold in the Mediterranean.
• The Castilian were the first Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New World on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola.
• The increased demand for slaves due to the expansion of European colonial powers to the New Globe made the slave trade much more lucrative to many West African powers.

Primal Terms

• Hispaniola: An island in the Caribbean, comprising the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Democracy.
• Canary Islands: An archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa, virtually Morocco and belonging to Spain.

Introduction

The major European slave trade began with Portugal's exploration of the w coast of Africa in search of a trade route to the East. By 1444, slaves were existence brought from Africa to piece of work on the carbohydrate plantations of the Madeira Islands, off the coast of mod solar day Morocco. The slave merchandise then expanded greatly as European colonies in the New World demanded an ever-increasing number of workers for the extensive plantations growing tobacco, sugar, and eventually rice and cotton.

European Colonization and Slavery in West Africa

Upon discovering new lands through their naval explorations, Europeans soon began to migrate to and settle in lands exterior their native continent. In the 15th century, the Spanish invaded and colonized the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa under the direction of the Kingdom of Castille. They likewise captured indigenous Canary Islanders to use as slaves both on the Islands and across the Christian Mediterranean.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese settlers found that the Canary Islands were ideal for growing sugar, and they forcefully converted much of the land to the production of wine and sugar. Sugar growing is a labor-intensive undertaking, and Portuguese settlers were difficult to attract due to the heat, lack of infrastructure, and hard life. To cultivate the saccharide, the Portuguese turned to large numbers of enslaved Africans. Elmina Castle on the Gold Coast, originally built by African labor for the Portuguese in 1482 to control the gold trade, became an important depot for slaves that were to be transported to the New World.

Every bit historian John Thornton remarked, "the bodily motivation for European expansion and for navigational breakthroughs was little more than than to exploit the opportunity for immediate profits fabricated by raiding and the seizure or purchase of trade bolt." European traders, mostly the Portuguese, began to move their activities down the western coast of Africa. Using the Canary Islands equally a naval base, they performed raids to capture slaves and sell them in the Mediterranean.

Although initially successful in this venture, Portuguese raiding ships presently met with resistance from African naval forces. The crews of several European ships were killed by African sailors whose boats were ameliorate equipped at traversing the Due west African coasts and river systems. Many African peoples already adept various forms of slavery (all of which differed significantly from the racial slavery that would ultimately develop in the New Earth), and eventually, deals were struck with some peoples of Africa to participate in the enslavement and subsequent trade for profit.

Slavery in the New Globe

The Spanish were the first Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New Globe on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola. The alarming death rate experienced past the indigenous population had spurred the first majestic Spanish laws protecting them, and consequently, the first enslaved Africans arrived in Hispaniola in 1501.

Increasing penetration into the Americas by the Portuguese created more demand for labor in Brazil—primarily for farming and mining. Slave-based economies quickly spread to the Caribbean area and the southern portion of what is today the Usa. There, Dutch traders brought the first enslaved Africans in 1619. These areas all developed an insatiable demand for slaves.

Growth of the Atlantic Slave Merchandise

Equally European nations grew more than powerful—especially Portugal, Kingdom of spain, French republic, Great U.k., and the Netherlands—they began vying for control of the African slave merchandise, with little event on local African and Arab trading. Great Britain's existing colonies in the Bottom Antilles and its effective naval control of the Mid-Atlantic forced other countries to abandon their enterprises due to inefficiency in price. The English language crown provided a charter giving the Royal African Company monopoly over the African slave routes until 1712.

The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves was captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa. The expansion of European colonial powers to the New Earth increased the need for slaves and made the slave trade much more than lucrative to many West African powers, leading to the establishment of a number of West African empires that thrived on the slave trade.

Historians have widely debated the nature of the relationship between the African kingdoms and the European traders. Some researchers debate that it was an diff relationship in which Africans were forced into a colonial trade with the more economically developed Europeans, exchanging raw materials and slaves for manufactured goods, and ane that led to Africa beingness underdeveloped. Other researchers claim the Atlantic slave trade was not as detrimental to various African economies as some historians purport, and that African nations at the time were well-positioned to compete with pre-industrial Europe.

The African Slave Trade: This map shows the routes that were used in the course of the slave trade and the number of enslaved people who traveled each road. As the figures point, well-nigh African slaves were bound for Brazil and the Caribbean area. While West Africans made up the vast majority of the enslaved, the due east coast of Africa, besides, supplied slaves for the trade.

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-expansion-of-europe/

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