32. African Slave Trade• Western European nations sent ships loaded with goods to buy slaves from local rulers on the western coast of Africa, then transported the slaves to the colonies in North & South America & the Caribbean • Raw commodities produced in the colonies were then shipped back to Europe were they were processed & sold • 1518–first boat of African slaves directly to the New World
II. The European Voyages of Discovery A. Causes of European Expansion 1. Economics — European population and economy were beginning to recover after the Black Death, an expansion which created a demand for luxury goods — the fall of Constantinople and Ottoman control of European trade routes forced Europeans to look for alternative trade routes. 2. Desire for Spices — Flavorings, oil, pleasure. 3. Religious Fervor — Passion ignited by the Christian reconquista in Spain and Portugal (Columbus — a devout Christian who wanted to serve God). 4. Renaissance Curiosity — The desire to learn more about the physical universe (fascination with new people and places). 5. Lack of Economic Opportunity at Home — Cort é s — “I have come to win gold, not plow the fields like a peasant” — young Spanish men of the upper classes founded economic opportunities limited. 6. Government Power — Spanish and Portuguese monarchs were stronger than ever and had more financial resources at their disposal. B. Technology and the Rise of Exploration 1. Stronger Ships (caravel, a small, light, three/mast sailing ship) — Better than the galley in negotiating the waters of the Atlantic. 2. Improvements in Cartography — Arab scholars reintroduced Europeans to Ptolemy’s map. 3. New Technology — Magnetic compasses, astrolabes, sternpost rudder, lateen sails (mostly inventions from Arab, Indian, and Chinese worlds).
I. World Contacts Before Columbus A. The Trade World of the Indian Ocean 1. Trade Routes — Centered on cosmopolitan port cities in the Indian Ocean (Malacca — port in the South China Sea that traded in Chinese porcelain, silk and camphor, Moluccan pepper, cloves, nutmeg, Philippinian sugar and Indian textiles, copper weapons, incense, dyes, and opium. 2. The Chinese Economy — The most advanced economy in the world. The Mongol emperors had opened China to the West (Marco Polo’s travels fueled Western interest in the exotic orient) — population tripled to between 150 and 200 million by 1644, Nanjing was the largest city in the world with more than one million inhabitants. 3. Chinese Voyages of Exploration — Admiral Zheng He’s fleet sailed more than 12,000 miles, as far west as Egypt. The voyages, however, were discontinued because of renewed Mongol encroachments and a turn inward by the new emperor. 4. India — Trade between Mesopotamia and South Asia (pepper and cotton textiles).
II. The European Voyages of Discovery C. The Portuguese Overseas Empire 1. Favorable Geography — Location on Atlantic allowed Portugal to rise from a backward marginal European land to a pioneer in exploration (winds allowed passage to Africa, the Atlantic islands, and Brazil). 2. Henry the Navigator (1394–1460) — King who sponsored annual expeditions down the western coast of Africa — to Madeira, the Azores, Arguin, Guinea, where they established trading posts and even colonies. 3. Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama — Explored the African coast as far as the Cape of Good Hope and India. But they encountered problems with Muslim merchants who dominated the trading system in the Indian Ocean, and the Portuguese eventually resorted to bombarding ports to gain entrance to these markets.
III. The Impact of Conquest A. Colonial Administration 1. Four Viceroyalties (New Spain — capital at Mexico City, Peru — capital at Lima, New Granada — capital at Bogot á , La Plata — capital at Buenos Aires. 2. Viceroy — Imperial governor — presided over the audiencia (board of 12 to 15 judges who served as his advisory council and the highest judicial colonies), intendants (royal officials with broad military, administrative and financial authority introduced by the reform-minded Spanish King, Charles III [r. 1759–1788]) 3. Brazil — A Portuguese colony that introduced Spanish administrative forms after the Spanish and Portuguese crowns merged in 1580. B. Impact of European Settlement on the Lives of Indigenous Peoples 1. Indigenous Peoples — Many different cultures, languages, and patterns of life — probably numbered about 50 million in 1492. 2. The Encomienda System — The Spanish Crown granted the approximately 200,000 Spanish settlers and conquerors the right to use the Native Americans as laborers or to demand tribute from them (a legalized form of slavery, even if the Spanish were forbidden to enslave the natives). The Spanish settlers introduced haciendas, vast estates for grazing Spanish livestock, tropical sugar plantations, and silver mines. 3. Native Population Losses — From 50 million in 1492 to around 9 million by 1700 — losses stemmed from disease (no resistance to smallpox, typhus, influenza), overwork (because of forced labor), malnutrition, starvation, infant mortality, violence (documented by the Franciscan Bartolome de Las Casas, 1474–1566, who asserted that the Indians had human rights).