APEC Chapter 14

Chapter 14 encompasses the European age of exploration.

Expansion
During the Middle Ages, there was little motivation to move beyond Europe. People fantasized about strange lands outside Europe. People had heard of spices and luxuries from East Asia, but were blocked from reaching there by the Muslim world. Thus, they tried to reach it by sea to increase their wealth. There was also religious zeal.

The centralized monarchies in Europe allowed exploration to become a state enterprise. In addition, explorers had more advanced technology that allowed them to sale, including improved cartography, the axial rudder, the lateen sail, the square rig, the astrolabe, and the compass, as well as increased knowledge of winds in the Atlantic Ocean.

Portugal
Portugal was the first of the European nations to explore. Prince Henry the Navigator founded a navigation school in Lisboa. Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of West Africa, prospering from returns of gold, ivory, and slaves. Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope but soon turned around, and de Gama reached Calicut in India. The Portuguese set up a blockade against Arab traders, against whom they tried to monopolize the spice trade against. The new Portuguese trading base in India was at Goa.

The Portuguese conquered the port of Melaka in present=day Malaysia and killed the Arab traders there. However, the Portuguese neither had the desire nor the population to colonize lands. Instead, they simply set up trading ports.

The New World
The Spanish tried to reach the East Indies via the Atlantic instead, believing that the distance west of Europe was not far from Asia. Columbus reached the Caribbean and thought that he had reached Asia. The Italian sailor Cabot sailed for England and reached New England, and Cabral discovered South America under the Portuguese flag. Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean via the isthmus of Panama and named the ocean, while Magellan's crew circumnavigated the world. The New World, named America after Vespucci, was divided between Spain and Portugal in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Spain
The Spanish had a desire to spread Catholicism to the world. Cortes captured Tenochtitlan, and advanced Aztec civilization that dominated much of present-day Mexico. Pizarro killed leaders during an Inca civil war and gained territory in South America for Spain.

New Spain was originally governed under the encomienda system, in which the Spanish forced natives to work in return for wages and protection. Viceroys governed the new territory, which included missionaries to spread Catholicism to natives.

Rivals
Other countries, such as England, France, and the Netherlands came to rival the Iberian nations in exploration.

Dutch merchants began to steal Portuguese forts along the West African coast. Dutch settlers in South Africa were known as Boers, and the Dutch East India Company was set up to trade in the east.

The slave trade grew in popularity because much labor was needed to grow crops such as sugar cane in Brazil. Millions of Africans were sent to the Americas under terrible conditions. Because of this, depopulation, war, and violence plagued nations such as Benin, whose cultural golden ages were ended due to the exportation of slives.

Portugal failed to colonize Southeast Asia due to lack of population, but Spain gained control of the Philippines. The Dutch and English were more prosperous, and the Dutch dominated trade in the East Indies in present-day Indonesia. Vietnam was taken over by the Europeans, but not the strong centralized monarchies of Indochina.

Both the French and English vied for domination of trade in India. The Mughals ruled in India during the time. Eventually, France gained control over much of Indian ports, but Clive drove out the French under the English flag.

China was at the height of its power when Europeans came in contact with them and had a huge empire under the Ming dynasty. The Qing dynasty which followed it closed trade with Europeans except at Canton, specifically Emperor Qianlong.

The Portuguese began to trade with the Japanese, who were interested in European goods. However, with the conversion of many Japanese, all were expelled except for the Dutch, who remained at Nagasaki.

In the Americas, Spain held a huge empire. Many of the Caribbean islands were owned by France and England, who set up plantations with African slaves. Much of North America was claimed by the Spanish. Dutch colonies at New Amsterdam were stolen by the English who set up 13 prosperous colonies on the eastern coast of North America. France took Canada primarily for the fur trade, but it was later taken by the British.

Economy
Europe was plagued by inflation caused by the influx of money as well as population growth. Wheat prices grew but wages did not increase, which led to the growth of capitalism in Europe. The Dutch economy was strong and Amsterdam became the commercial center of the world. However, the European economy still remained largely based on agriculture.

Mercantilism was a practice in which countries tried to export more goods than they imported. This led to state intervention which granted monopolies to certain companies to minimize intranational competition. Overseas trade gave commoners in Europe more access to new goods.

As a result of exploration and colonization, the culture of Europe began to dominate the world and that of native American civilizations largely died out. Meanwhile, that of Eastern Asia was retained to some extent.