The Age of Exploration

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OE ART THE AGE OF EXPLORATION Pictures of explorers wko sought new routes for Eastern trade is found the 'Sf.i- World on the uay, of rulers who urged them on, of phies they visited & of the treasures they found in the East NEW YORK 1942 THE U.E OF EXPLORATION The exploration of the world has not been confined to any one period, but has been rather a continuous process of discovering and forgetting, of forming relationships and breaking them—relation- of conquest, of trade, of culture. Today, however, the period of expansion east and west, from the fifteenth through the iteenth century, it generally called the "Age of Exploration." This expansion grew out of the need of the countries of northern and urope to find .1 direct way of trading with the E; pices had been borne by caravan across the plains of Asia and carried bv ships through the Black or the Red Sea ur the Persian Gulf, finally reaching Mediterranean ports. But after the fall of the Roman empire long-distance commerce gradually c< n the knowl edge of distant lands grew dim; the belief that the world was round, common among educated men of Roman days, was almost forgotten, and geographers frightened mariners with descriptions of abysses at the world 'ilgrimi and crusaders, however, kept alive or r me knowledge of the nearer East, and the middle of the thirteenth century saw a brilliant, though brief, re vival of knowledge of the Orient. The Mongol emperort, who then ruled in China, Persia, and eastern Europe, had no strong re ligious bias, and encouraged foreign visitors and trade. Marco Polo's narrative of his travels m China and other Eastern lands is the out standing record of this revival of Eastern relations. But Europ opportunity for closer ties with the East was soon over, for the Mongol empire was overthrown in China in 1 16K bv the Ming * Dynasty, which was unfavorable to foreigners, and in the fifteenth century eastern Europe fell into the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The Turks did not break off trade between Europe and the East, but they found it profitable to deal with one well-organized powc able to pay heavy duties in order to hold a monopoh of the essential CD f spice trade. This power was Marco Polo's city-state of Venice, which had a long history of relationships with the East, and had been able to build up a trade monopoly and hold it by altemal fighting and bribing the Turks. The rest of Europe had to find new ways to get to the East or fight for the old ones, and so European let out to explore unknown oceans. The result was not only the finding of new routes to the East, but the discovery of a New World in the West. This period of expansion produced, in Europe, I not only explorers, traders, and colonizers, but also artists and writers whose work matched the spacious stature of their times. How the influenced by the West during these centuries is a story too long and attempt. The foundations for ocean exploration were laid by Henry the J igator, prince of Portugal, who built up Portuguese sea power in the early fifteenth century, training seamen and pilots and send- lng expeditions down the African coast. Henry did not live to see his countrymen reach the tip of Africa, for it was not until 1487- '488 that Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope. In 14c^7-1 4(^8 another Portuguese, Vasco da Gama, followed the course around the Cape an 1 crossed the Indian Ocean to Calicut on the west coast of India. His were the first European ships to make this Voyage, and he set the ocean course to the East which has been followed in general ever since, except for \csscls routed through the Sue/ CinA after its opening in 1869. In the sixteenth centurv Portugal was the chief sea power in the ! ncn captured the spice trade from Venice, whose pi >s the chief port for European commerce fell to Lisbon. Portuguese trading centers were set up throughout the East, in India, J.na, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, the Moluccas or Spice Islands, and at Macao on the Chinese coast. The Portuguese even reached Japan before the middle of the centurv and established trade relations there which lasted almost a hundred years. The capital of thisj inpire in the 1 ioa, on the west coast of India. Meanwhile, the Spanish explorers, led by Columbus, sought a way to the East by sailing west. The only troubles with this plan were the size of the world—far greater than Columbus had esti mated—and the existence of an unknown continent in the way. Columbus died still believing that he had found India, or perhaps some land on the outskirts of China, but Europe soon began to realize that this was not an Asiatic land but a new continent. This was presently given the name of America, in honor of America! Vespucius, who had been among the first to declare that it was a land hitherto unknown. The old name of "India" lingered long enough, however, to be applied to the natives of the New World and to the islands known as the West Indies. The silver and gold of the New World interested Spain more than the trade with the East which she had set out for, and on the whole she left Eastern discoveries and commerce to Portugal. A great exception to this policy was Magellan's voyage around the world in search of a western route to the Spice Islands in 1519- 1522. A Portuguese by birth, Magellan had visited these islands by the route around Africa, but he believed that a more direct way might be found by a passage through the new continent to the ocean which Balboa had discovered in 1513. Portugal was not in terested in this scheme, and Spain finally accepted Magellan's offer to find such a route. The result was the first circumnavigation of the world. The explorer found the passage he sought—now called the Strait of Magellan—but the voyage was so long that as a spice route from Europe to the East it had little value. What was of im portance was the revelation of .1 route across the Pacific between the New World and the East. On this voyage, Magellan discovered the Philippines, where he was killed by natives in 1521, leaving one ship, the Victoria, to complete the voyage back to Spain. The importance of the Philippines was not recognized at once, but before the century was over, Manila, on the island of Luzon, had become Spain's trading center in the East. The Portuguese success in establishing a base for Eastern trade :'t Macao on the Chinese coast in 1557 encouraged the Spanish to set up a similar center, and Manila was founded in 1571. To this rival port the Chinese brought their wares to be ret hipped in Spanish vessels across the Pacific to the New World. Direct trade between Manila and Europe was not encouraged, and the New World trade was severely limited, because the new continent had only silver to offer in exchange for Eastern wares, and Spain had no mind to sec too much of this go eastward instead of into her °wn treasury. The trade, however, was immensely profitable to the merchants of Manila, and one galleon a \car was allowed : between it and the city of Acapulco oil the Pacific coast of Mexico —the only port in the Spanish New World permitted direct trade with the East. These galleons carried not only cloves and cinnamon and pepper, but also silks and velvets from China, "brocades of gold 3>id silver upon silk," muslins, carpets, porcelain, and gems, to be sold at the annual Acapulco fair. The English and Dutch were late in the field of mean explora tion and trade, although the English king, Henry VII, had sun John Cabot to the New World in I 497 to seek a passage to China. I hrough most of the sixteenth centurv both countries spent much time exploring Arctic seas in the attempt to find a northwi northeast passage to China which would be better than the route ••round Africa and closed to Portuguese competition. Meanwhile their merchants traded contentedly enough at Lisbon. By the end °f the sixteenth century, however, they had to find a way to trade '°r themselves, for the crowns of Spain and Portugal were united in 1 580, and in 1 590 Spain closed the port of Lisbon to both England •'"d Holland, with whom she was at war. They met this situation by organizing two of the greatest trading companies the world has ever known—the English and Dutch East India Companies. Ehc English Company was chartered by Queen Elizabeth in 1600, and the Dutch was founded in 1602. Both Companies soon settled Hope, During the levenl Dutch replaced the Por- • he sea tr.i I power in the East Indies. vhile they kept on with theil northern route. I Englishman H hrough ild for the Dutch Easi Indi a Comi for him and their claim ti norland. The English, during : their a,tcntion ! New World and building up the with India which resulted in I empire in , U)IK m n_u|,. w;tj, pcrsja> where the;. A|Kj thcy were eager to trade with I ch«ir Hakluyt,"t. ample Of our woolen doth, the naturall com mod, lie of tl ie." The English I founded a trading station in Japan in l6l Although the route around \l tut sought a notthwc l() the recalled from Dutch service, lost his life in the |,.,y Ram.

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