U.4 (1450-1750)

• God, Glory, and Gold

  • Main motive of transoceanic travel
  • means spread of religion/pursuit of religious freedom, power, and money
• Primogeniture

  • Law where only the oldest son gets money
  • This caused the younger ones to go out and make a life for themselves
• Missionaries

  • Group of Jesuits
  • Spanish wanted to reintroduce Christianity
• Maritime Empires

  • First established starting with the Portuguese and Spain(Iberians)
  • Called this because they controlled the empire using a navy
  • Territories in Asia, Africa, and America
• Spain

  • First to sponsor voyages to farther lands, like the voyages of Columbus
  • The goal was to find a sea route from India and China to west Europe
  • Led European colonization of Americas
• How were the Aztecs and Incas easily taken over?

  Superior military, but most importantly, European diseases
• Slavery

  • Used to get more silver
• Galleons


  large ships that transported silver and other goods between the Americas and Spain
• Portuguese

  • Along with Spain, motivated to the establishment of Maritime empires and Transoceanic Travel
  • Wanted to find a sea route from Europe to India & China
  • Will cause cultural exchange between India and Europe
• Prince Henry the Navigator

  • The first monarch to sponsor seafaring expeditions, Portuguese
  • Spread Christianity and increase Portugal's influence
  • Under his rule, Portugal started importing slaves, jump started the slave trades as well.
• Bartholomew Diaz

  • Sailed around the southern tip of Africa, Portuguese
• Vasco De Gama

  • Following Bartholomew Diaz's footsteps, landed in India and claimed it for Portugal
• England

  • Wanted to get into the Maritime exploration action
  • Wanted to find a sea route to the East going West from Europe
• John Cabot (I don't think we talked about this lad)

  • British explorer, voyaged to North America and found a shorter, more northerly route across the Atlantic than Columbus.
• France

  • Traveled to the Americas with the purpose of opening up trade networks and gaining good for France.
• Jacques Cartier

  • Sailed into the St. Lawrence River, Claimed apart of Canada doing this
• Samuel de Champlain

  • Realized there were valuable goods and riches in the Americas, causing them not to go to Asia.
• Netherlands (Dutch)

  • Purely Business
  • Colonized Indonesia, leading to exclusive access to the southeast asian market (MONEY MONEY MONEY)
• Trading post Empire

  • established mainly in Asia and Africa
  • Used to control trade routes by forcing merchant vessels to pay duties at fortified trading sites
  • Trading posts also called factories, the Portuguese established the first-ever trading post empire.
• Trading Posts in Africa

  • The factory of El Mina, established in the Asante Empire supported the growing African slave trade.
  • Astante and Konogo will both raid other kingdoms using Portuguese guns to get slaves to buy more guns, continuing the cycle. Leading to Atlantic slave trade
  • Portuguese basically exploiting
• Trading Posts in Asia

  • Allowed Portuguese and Dutch missionaries in, causing Japanese converts to Christianity. These convents start destroying Buddhist temples, leading to Japan kicking and persecuting Europeans and Christians respectively. Will later Isolate themselves
  • Ming Dynasty shut down all trade, Less European contact with Chinese
• Monopolies / joint-stock companies

  • Private investors make joint-stock companies and develop colonies to control their prices and collect annual fees
  • Ex. Dutch East India Company on Southeast Asian clove trade
  • Governments can indirectly control areas with joint-stock companies
• Viceroys

  • Spanish officials appointed by the spanish crown to rule land that was colonized by Spain the Americas.
  • Like Governors, ruled areas and reported back to king (indirect government control)
• Lateen sail

  • Triangular sail that increased the potential of ship, using wind to its advantage
• Astrolabe

  • Created by Greeks, and mastered by the Islamic world, measures the incline position of celestial bodies to determine location
• Carrack (ship)

  • 150ft, square, and lateen sails on 3-4 masts, used for trade, Portuguese
• Caravel(ship)

  • 75ft, lateen sail, used for long voyages, Portuguese and Spanish
• Fluyt (ship)


  80ft, square sail on 2-3 masts, used for trade, dutch
• Newton's Law of Gravity

  • Among other things, allowed to calculate the depth of water, making travel easier
• Christopher Columbus

  • Discovered the Americas and manipulated indigenous people
  • Connected the Eastern and Western Hemispheres
  • The transoceanic journey he went through made Europe much stronger
• Treaty of Tordesilla

  • Due to the Spanish and Portuguese conflict on New World land, Portuguese get Brazil and East Indies (India), Spain gets Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
  • Negotiated by Pope Alexander IV
• Mercantilism - Economic System

  • Maximizing exports (receiving) and minimizing imports (purchasing)
  • Wanted to get a lot of silver
• Inflation

  • Due to European spamming purchases (of luxury goods in exchange for silver)with China, China gained a lot of silver: causing inflation.
• Atlantic Ocean Trading System

  • Goods from established colonies in the Americas back to the Motherland (Europe)
  • Cash crops, sugar, cotton, and tobacco, grew very well in the Americas.
• Sugar

  • Most expensive cash crop, Europeans wanted to grow it
  • Brazil began the cultivation of sugar
  • Because it required a lot of labor to make, resulted in the slave trade
• Tobacco

  • Another cash crop, not as valued as sugar
  • Cultivated tobacco with the help of coercive labor
  • Sold back to Europe
• Triangular Trade

  • Three-way, multiregional trading system that had three steps
  • Ships would carry European manufactured goods to West Africa, Africa would send slaves to America, America would send Cash crops to Europe.
• Columbian Exchange

  • An interaction between indigenous Americans, Europeans, and Africans due to Maritime exploration
  • Causes the transfer of disease, food, and animals
• Foods

  • Europeans and Americans both gave each other food, which increased population
  • Europeans to Americas : grapes, bananas, peaches
  • Americans to Europeans : maize, potatoes, and beans.
  • Due to cash crops and forced labor, Africans became the majority of the population, leading to them introducing okra and rice
• Diseases

  • Transfer of diseases from Europe to America through mosquitos, rats, and people.
  • Europeans were already immune to diseases like smallpox, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, and influenza, but Americans are not: massive decrease in native population