Europeans Explore the East

Objectives:

• Describe how Eastern goods got to Europe and how this motivated exploration.

• Know how technological innovations led to increased exploration.

• Know what Portugal did.

• Know what the Treaty of Tordesillas did in settling conflicts between Spain and Portugal.

• Tell what motivated the Dutch to get involved in exploration.

As we’ve seen previously, the Europeans interacted quite a bit with their neighbors to the east.

• Granted, many of those interactions involved killing each other, but they nevertheless succeeded in trading culture, technology, knowledge, and especially trade goods.

• The Europeans had a big taste for things eastern, such as spices and silks and they wanted more of it.

• Most of these goods were transported over land by Muslims to Mediterranean and Black Sea ports. The Italians merchant city-states took it from there, transporting the goods to Europe and selling them at a healthy markup.

• Why the Italians? Because they controlled the Mediterranean, especially after the Battle of Lepanto.

Most of the Europeans didn’t like this too much.

• They didn’t appreciate having to pay exorbitant prices for goods and they didn’t like making the Italians even more powerful and wealthy.

• So they wanted to find their own way of getting their spices and silks without having to rely on either the Italians or the Muslims.

• They went to sea.

Up until this time, ships didn’t venture out too far into the open ocean. They liked sticking close to land.

• This was because the ships weren’t great for blue water travel and the navigation ability away from land wasn’t great either.

• Plus, the sail technology was good only for going with the wind. If it was against you, you just had to pull the sails and wait until it shifted.

• This changed, though, with the introduction of some Muslim technology and some new sails.

Astrolabe

• This enables sailors to figure out where they were in relation to the equator.

• The astrolabe was eventually replaced by the sextant.

Another nice innovation was the compass from China.

• First Chinese mention of something like a compass is about 70 AD. First mention of one used for navigation is 1119.

New triangular sails were another big deal. They allowed ships to travel against the wind by tacking (zig-zagging).

Portugal jumps out ahead in the exploration game.

• This was mainly due to Prince Henry the Navigator

• He stresses navigation and exploration.• Portuguese ships

gradually make their way down and around Africa.

• Bartolomeu Dias first made it around the tip of Africa in 1488.

• Vasco de Gama then made it all the way to India in 1498. The east was finally opened up to the Europeans by sea. Take that, stupid Italians.

Spain

• Spain started getting in on the act.

• It helped when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas in... 14 something.

• Both Spain and Portugal were thinking maybe Columbus got all the way to the East instead of the West. Rather than fight about it, they split up the new territories between each other (with the authority of the pope) in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

• The treaty set the line at 1,550 km west of Cape Verde (the red dot).

• Line wasn’t strictly enforced.

• Other countries were out of luck unless they simply rejected papal authority in the matter (which they did).

Portugal continues conquering in the east

• They gradually take over most of the trade in India as well as the East Indies.

• To aid in this, they take over vital shipping channels like the Strait of Malacca.

• By 1515, they’ve conquered the Spice Islands.

• Portugal was ruler of the Indian Ocean trade with nobody else strong enough to challenge them, whether European or Muslim.

• About 1580, Spain occupies Portugal and the Netherlands are throwing off Spanish rule.

• The Dutch had been the ones who transported the goods from Lisbon to northern Europe. Since the Dutch and the Spanish didn’t get along, Spain occupying Portugal meant the Dutch were no longer getting the goods.

• So the Dutch start exploring and challenging Portugal’s trade directly. So does England.

• The Dutch gradually take over the East Indies trade through the Dutch East India Company. Portugal and Spain are excluded.

• Portugal even goes so far as to eradicate all the clove trees on all the Spice Islands except for two and strictly prohibit the export of the trees… all to better control the clove trade.

• The Dutch focus on the East Indies led the English to focus instead on India with its own East India Company, which has far-reaching consequences.