Unit 4

• Trans-oceanic interconnections


  Development and expansion of sea-based empires, with Europe becoming a primary imperial power
• Maritime technology advancements


  • Creation of new ships like the flute, caravel, and carrick
  • Smaller, faster, and cheaper ships
  • Introduction of the Latin sail
• Navigational technology advancements


  • Improved astronomical charts
  • Astrolabe
  • Magnetic compass
• Europeans ventured out into the Atlantic Ocean to search for a sea route to Asia, as Muslims controlled most land-based trade routes
• Columbian Exchange


  Biological exchange of animals, people, food, and diseases between the Eastern and Western hemispheres
• Columbian Exchange items


  • Europeans brought smallpox, natives sent syphilis
  • Europe introduced sugar and horses, Americas sent potatoes and maize
• Atlantic slave trade


  Importation of enslaved people from Africa to work in the Americas, a system of chattel slavery
• Labor systems used in the Americas

  • Encomienda
  • Hacienda
  • Mita
  • Indentured servitude
• Mercantilism


  Dominant economic system in Europe, based on the belief that wealth is fixed and countries must compete for a larger share
• Colonies were established to serve the mother country, in line with mercantilist principles
• Joint stock companies


  New way to fund exploration and colonization, with private investors sharing the financial burden
• Caste system


  New social hierarchy established in the Americas, based on ancestry and race, with peninsulares, criollos, mestizos, mulattoes, zambos, and indigenous/African people
• Sea based Empires

  Empires built by European states through maritime exploration and trade from 1450 to 1750
• Factors enabling rise of seab based Empires

  • State-sponsored/state-driven
  • Consolidation of power by European monarchs
  • Building up military forces and use of gunpowder weapons
  • Implementing more efficient taxation
• Motivation for maritime exploration

  Desire for Asian and Southeast Asian spices, especially pepper
• Land-based Empires controlled land trade routes

  Made spices exceedingly expensive in Europe
• Portugal's motivations for exploration

  • Technological advancements like compass, astrolabe, caravel and carrack ships
  • Economic motivations to access trans-Saharan gold and Asian spice trade
  • Religious motivations to find Prester John and spread Christianity
• Portugal's strategy for empire building

  1. Establishing self-sufficient trading posts to facilitate trade

  2. First major trading post in West Africa for gold

  3. Vasco da Gama's voyages establishing posts along African coasts and in Indian Ocean region
• Portuguese trading posts had advantage of large guns over lightly armed local ships
• Spain's motivations for exploration

  Desire to access the Spice Islands of the East Indies
• Spain's exploration and colonization

  1. Christopher Columbus reaches Caribbean, mistaking it for East Indies

  2. Ferdinand Magellan sails around South America to East Indies

  3. Spain conquers and colonizes the Americas
• Transatlantic trade


  Proved more prosperous than Indian Ocean trade
• Other European states involved in maritime exploration

  • France
  • England
  • Netherlands
• France's exploration and colonization

  1. Expeditions seeking westward passage to Indian Ocean

  2. Establishment of Quebec colony and access to fur trade
• England's exploration and colonization

  1. Late start due to profitable textile industry

  2. Queen Elizabeth I supports westward exploration

  3. Establishment of Virginia and Jamestown colonies
• Netherlands' exploration and colonization

  1. Gained independence from Spain and became wealthiest state in Europe

  2. Competed for control of trading posts in Africa and Indian Ocean

  3. Henry Hudson founds New Amsterdam colony
• Colombian Exchange


  The transfer of new diseases, food plants, people and animals between the Eastern and Western Hemisphere
• The Colombian Exchange was the occasion for a massive change in world history
• People in Afro-Eurasia had developed immunities to diseases, but the indigenous peoples in the Americas had not
• Diseases introduced to the Americas

  • Malaria
  • Measles
  • Smallpox
• The introduction of these diseases had devastating demographic consequences, making the eventual European takeover of the Americas more achievable
• unit 4 - 1450 to 1750
• Maritime Empires

  Empires that were maintained and developed through control of sea trade routes from 1450 to 1750
• Mercantilism

  • State-driven economic system that emphasizes the buildup of mineral wealth by maintaining a favorable balance of trade
  • Sees the world's wealth as a limited pie, so the goal is to get the biggest slice possible
• Favorable balance of trade

  Exporting more goods than importing, so more gold and silver comes in than goes out
• Mercantilism

  Was a powerful motivation for establishing and growing Empires, as colonies created closed markets to purchase exports from the Imperial parent country
• Joint stock company

  Limited liability business, often chartered by the state, funded by a group of investors
• Joint stock companies

  Became the main tool by which the mutual interdependence between the state and merchants led to expanding Empires
• Joint stock companies

  • Dutch East India Company
  • French joint stock companies
  • British joint stock companies
• Spain and Portugal mainly funded their trade and Imperial ventures through the state, which was a reason their influence waned during this period