Age of Exploration

Age of Exploration • The Age of Exploration or the Age of Discovery as it is sometimes called, officially began in the 15th Century and lasted until the 17th century. The period is characterized as a time when Europeans began exploring the world by sea in search of trading partners, new goods, and new trade routes. In addition, some explorers set sail to simply learn more about the world. Whatever their reasons though, the information gained during the Age of Exploration significantly helped in the advancement of geographic knowledge. • Though the desire to simply explore the unknown and discover new knowledge is a typical human trait, the world's famous explorers often lacked the funding needed for a ship, supplies, and a crew to get underway on their journeys. As a result, many turned to their respective governments which had their own desires for the exploration of new areas.Many nations were looking for goods such as silver and gold but one of the biggest reasons for exploration was the desire to find a new route for the spice and silk trades. • When the the Ottoman Empire took control of Constantinople in 1453, it blocked European access to the area, severely limiting trade. In addition, it also blocked access to North Africa and the Red Sea -- two very important trade routes to the Far East. • The first of the journeys associated with the Age of Discovery were conducted by the Portuguese under Prince Henry the Navigator. These voyages were different than those previously conducted by the Portuguese because they covered a much larger area. Earlier sailors relied on portolan charts which are maps created for navigators based off of land features. Because these charts relied on the ability to see land, the voyages prior to those conducted by Prince Henry stayed along the coastlines. • Also during the Age of Discovery were the famed voyages of Christopher Columbus. These voyages started as an attempt to find a trade route to Asia by sailing west. Instead, he reach America in 1492 and shared information on this newly found land with Spain and the rest of Europe. Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral explored Brazil, setting off a conflict between Spain and Portugal in terms of the newly claimed lands. As a result, the Treaty of Tordesillas officially divided the world in half in 1494. • Some other important voyages of exploration that took place during the Age of Exploration were Ferdinand Magellan's attempted circumnavigation of the globe, the search for a trade route to Asia through the Northwest Passage, and Captain James Cook's voyages that allowed him to map various areas and travel as far as Alaska. Colonial Imperialism • Colonialism is not a modern phenomenon. World history is full of examples of one society gradually expanding by incorporating adjacent territory and settling its people on newly conquered territory. The ancient Greeks set up colonies as did the Romans, the Moors, and the Ottomans, to name just a few of the most famous examples. Colonialism, then, is not restricted to a specific time or place. Nevertheless, in the sixteenth century, colonialism changed decisively because of technological developments in navigation that began to connect more remote parts of the world. Fast sailing ships made it possible to reach distant ports and to sustain close ties between the center and colonies. Thus, the modern European colonial project emerged when it became possible to move large numbers of people across the ocean and to maintain political sovereignty in spite of geographical dispersion. This entry uses the term colonialism to describe the process of European settlement and political control over the rest of the world, including the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia. • American nations came to the Americas to increase their wealth and broaden their influence over world affairs. The Spanish were among the first Europeans to explore the New World and the first to settle in what is now the United States.By 1650, however, England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic coast. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in the New World came to escape religious persecution. The Pilgrims, founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists flourished with some assistance from Native Americans. New World grains such as corn kept the colonists from starving while, in Virginia, tobacco provided a valuable cash crop. By the early 1700s enslaved Africans made up a growing percentage of the colonial population. By 1770, more than 2 million people lived and worked in Great Britain's 13 North American colonies. Mercantilism & Triangle Trade •Mercantilism can be called "imperialism on steroids." Colonies send raw materials (harvested by cheap local labor) back to the mother country. Another example of imperialism is called the Triangle •Those raw materials are turned into Trade. After the vast majority of their workforce in manufactured goods in the mother country's the New World was killed off by smallpox, the factories. Europeans turned to Africa for a new labor force. •Slaves were bought in Africa using gold and sugar •Those manufactured goods are sold back to from America. the colonies at a large profit. The colony must trade only with the empire-- •Those slaves were used to produce raw materials they cannot trade with other empires or their and cash crops (sugar, cotton, tobacco) to be colonies. This created a kind of monopoly. shipped back to Europe. •The factories produced manufactured goods (textiles, rum, etc.) to be sold to Africa and America. Industrialization • The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain. Along with technological advances in farming (there was enough food to go around now) and manufacturing, the British mercantile economic system created huge amounts of capital to help build railroads, factories, etc. to shift the country's population from farming in the country to working in factories in the cities. • he joint-stock company was the forerunner of the modern corporation. In a joint-stock venture, stock was sold to high net-worth investors who provided capital and had limited risk. These companies had proven profitable in the past with trading ventures. The risk was small, and the returns were fairly quick. But investing in a colony was an altogether different venture. • The risk was larger as the colony might fail. The startup costs were enormous and the returns might take years. Investors in such endeavors needed more than a small sense of adventure. • In addition, the cheap raw materials from the colonies helped to increase the profits of the factory owners. • European nations were seeking new sources of raw materials and markets to sell manufactured products. • Industrialized countries of the west sought to expand their economies by obtaining raw materials which could be transported back to factories, turned into manufactured goods, and shipped back to the colonies markets for sale." Spheres of Influence Example: China: • In the early 1800s, the British treasury was being depleted due to its dependence upon imported tea from China. The Chinese still considered their nation to be the Middle Kindom and therefore viewed the goods the Europeans brought to trade with as nearly worthless trinkets. To solve this trade imbalance Britain imported opium, processed from poppy plants grown in the Crown Colony of India, into China • Chinese officials attempted to ban the importation of the highly addictive opium, but ultimately failed. The British declared war on China in a series of conflicts called the Opium Wars. Superior British military technology allowed them to claim victory and subject the Chinese to a series of unequal treaties. Unequal Treaties According to the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, the Chinese were to: Reimburse Britain for costs incurred fighting the Chinese Open several ports to British trade Provide Britain with complete control of Hong Kong Grant extraterritoriality to British citizens living in China • Spheres of Influence Eventually several European nations followed suit, forcing China to sign a series of unequal treaties. Extraterritoriality guaranteed that European citizens in China were only subject to the laws of their own nation and could only be tried by their own courts. Eventually western nations weary of governing foreign lands, established spheres of influencewithin China which guaranteed specific trading privileges to each nation within its respective sphere..

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