Age of encounter and reason

• Age of Encounter


  Period of European exploration and expansion
• Age of Reason


  Period emphasizing the use of reason to understand the world and formulate solutions
• Desire for Wealth (Gold and Silver)

  • 15th - 16th Century
• Accounts of Marco Polo from the East

  • Tales of riches from the eyewitnesses in the Crusades

  
• Demand in Spices and Luxury goods

  Explaining the cultivation of cash crops in colonies
• Monopoly of Venetian merchants


  Due to the fall of Constantinople, urged Spain & Portugal to sail reaching Africa, India, and the Americas
• Mercantilism


  Dominant economic system in the 16th century; the power of a nation was measured by the amount of gold and silver in its reserves
• Colonies


  Through this European countries controlled markets, labor, raw materials, and capital. Exploitation and extraction became the interest of many colonial powers
• Protestant Reformation


  Rocked the stability and the complacency of the Roman Catholic Church. Missionaries sent to new lands
• Cross


  Used as a weapon of subjugation at times even more powerful than the sword
• Escaping Persecution


  The Pilgrim Fathers founded the first colony in Massachusetts who were mostly English Protestants
• Crusades


  Unifying force
• Reconquista


  Military campaign launched by the Catholic Spaniards that expelled the Muslims from Spain
• Rivalry of European Powers


  Desire for supremacy in navigation, naval power, & missionary zeal
• Glory


  New mindset of Europeans to seek glory & fame in the name of their country brought by the Renaissance
• Breaking of Traditional theories

  Christopher Colombus challenged the idea of the "Flat Earth" theory reaching the Americas thus there was nothing to fear
• Caravel


  • 15th Century; an efficient vessel. Used square sails that caught wind efficiently. Huge and sturdy hull
• Galleon


  • 16th Century; replaced caravel providing greater carrying capacity & superiority at sea
• Compass & Astrolabe


  • Used to observe & calculate the position of celestial bodies
• Sextant


  • Used to measure angular distances to observe altitude of celestial bodies to plot their latitude

  
• Mercator Map


  Gerardus Mercator develop a map which spread the curve surface of Earth on a flat surface projection
• Weapons


  • Improved gun powder weapons such as the artillery and muskets and rifles
• Joint-Stock Companies


  Brought together capital resources of merchants financing expeditions
• Monarchies


  Political organization of European countries enabled them to harness collective energies of their people behind this cause of exploration and discovery
• Trading Empires


  The colonial power would establish trading posts along strategic routes to support trading interests in particular areas of the world. The colonial power worked with local rulers in terms of treaties that both parties entered into
• Settlement Empires


  The setting up of overseas colonies with a colonial government manned by European governors who exercised both civil and military powers and top bureaucrats and supported by military presence through garrisons established throughout the territory. By direct control. This was more drastically life-altering for the colonized peoples for it meant imposition of laws, system of value, religion, and a philosophy of government that were totally foreign
• European Explorers


  • Spain - Ferdinand Magellan
  • Portugal - Bartholomew Diaz
  • France - Jacques Cartier
  • Great Britain (England) - Sir Francis Drake and British East India Company
  • Netherlands - Dutch East & West India Companies
• Enlightenment


  Intellectual movement in Europe (with a strong emphasis on France) during the late 17th and the 18th centuries, or, more comprehensively, between the Glorious Revolution in 1688 and the French Revolution of 1789. It represents a phase in the intellectual history of Europe and also programs of reform, inspired by a belief in the possibility of a better world, that outlined specific targets for criticism and programs of action
• Roots of the Enlightenment

  Humanism of the Renaissance, with its emphasis on the study of Classical literature. The Protestant Reformation, with its antipathy toward received religious dogma. The complementary rational and empirical methods of discovering truth that were introduced by the scientific revolution
• Salons


  Social gatherings of the elite usually hosted by a lady of high stature held in luxurious drawing rooms. Provided philosophers a forum where they were able to present ideas for discussion and debate
• The Age of Reason


  This era was also know by this term due to the emphasis on "reason" in understanding the world and formulating solutions to their problems
• Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan Government


  A state that was gargantuan in form and substance that dominate everything. Supports Absolutism, which directs rule of state by one powerful leader
• John Locke - Two Treatises of Civil Government


  His work supports constitutionalism, which directs power from the people. He believed in Mans Natural Rights such as Right to Life, Liberty, and Property. Assertion of "ultimate right to revolution" to remove and establish new government that protects the natural right of the citizens. Supports liberalism
• Baron Charles de Montesquieu - The Spirit of Laws


  Explains the separation of the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judiciary)
• Jean Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract


  Explains the ideal state must be governed by "general will" of the people or the common good of all citizens
• François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) - Candide


  A French writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of the Church as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state
• Adam Smith - An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations


  Explained the concept of "laissez-faire" economics by allowing people to do their interests without interference of the state through its state-owned companies or laws. Free market Economics, Capitalist ideas
• Scientific Revolution


  Preceded the Age of Reason or Enlightenment by half a century. It swept Europe in the second half of the 17th century while the Enlightenment flourished late 17th and in the 18th century
• Immanuel Kant - "Sapere Aude!"


  Dare to Think became the motto of the Enlightenment
• Nicolaus Copernicus - The Heliocentric Theory


  • The sun, not earth is the center of the universe