Age of Exploration Notes PDF

In the second half of the 15th century, Europe saw economic growth, the enrichment of the bourgeoisie and the strengthening of the monarchies. These changes were mainly due to an increase in trade, which encouraged countries to find new sea routes and territories. This was an important step in the g...

In the second half of the 15th century, Europe saw economic growth, the enrichment of the bourgeoisie and the strengthening of the monarchies. These changes were mainly due to an increase in trade, which encouraged countries to find new sea routes and territories. This was an important step in the globalization of the world's economies. During the 15th century, the great epidemics came to an end and conditions in the countryside improved. This led to population growth. By 1500, Europe had between 70 and 90 million inhabitants. Growth in demand led to an increase in agricultural production. Over time, agricultural surpluses were created which could be sold at fairs and markets. Trade routes by land increased. Italian silks, wool from Castile, cloth from the Netherlands and England, German metals and French wines circulated on the roads of Europe. New trade routes by sea were used in the Mediterranean, the Baltic and the North Sea. The increase in trade stimulated artisanal production, the development of manufacturing and the growth of cities with ports. The need for capital to finance travel and purchase goods led to the rise of banking. Bankers became the most important urban social group. Moneylenders lent capital to merchants for their travels, and merchants repaid it with interest. Money changers exchanged currency from different countries and charged a commission for the transaction. The bourgeoisie's economic power was based on having capital. They invested this capital in economic activities (trade routes, manufacturing, banking, etc.) to make a profit. The foundations of merchant capitalism were consolidated, and it became a great source of wealth. Some families of merchants and bankers, such as the Medici family in Florence and the Fugger family in Augsburg, became very rich, which gave them a lot of political influence. In the Middle Ages, monarchs lost power to the feudal nobility, but during the 15th century, the power of the monarchy increased. Monarchs centralised power and dissolved parliaments.A new model emerged: the absolute monarchy. Monarchs created permanent armies, established a bureaucracy and a treasury that controlled the administration and finances of the kingdom, and established diplomatic relations between allied countries. The kingdoms of the Catholic Monarchs,Francis I in France and Henry VIII in England are examples of absolute monarchies. Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragón, heirs to the two largest peninsular kingdoms, were married in 1469. When their rule began in 1479, they created the Spanish monarchy. This was a dynastic union. It did not lead to the creation of a single kingdom. Each territory maintained its own borders, feudal system, money, laws and institutions. In addition, there was no capital city. The court had to travel wherever the monarchs were. During their reign (1479-1516), the Catholic Monarchs followed a policy of territorial expansion: They conquered the Muslim Kingdom of Granada. After a long war (1482-1492), the last Nasrid monarch (Boabdil) handed over the keys to the city. The Kingdom of Granada was incorporated into the Crown of Castile and a lot of its inhabitants fled to North Africa. The Kingdom of Navarre was invaded by a Castilian army under the command of King Fernando. In 1515, Castile annexed Navarre, although it kept its laws and institutions (Cortes). They married two daughters to kings of Portugal. This led to union with Spain years later, when Felipe II inherited the Kingdom of Portugal. Religious uniformity under Catholicism was one of the Catholic Monarchs' most important objectives. It was carried out in various phases: In 1478, the Spanish Inquisition was created to try those suspected of heresy or crimes of faith and to punish people who were convicted. Jews were forced to convert to Christianity (conversos). Those that refused were persecuted, and expelled from the territory in 1492. After the conquest of Granada, Muslims could keep their religion and traditions. But religious tolerance ended in 1499 and they were forced to convert to Christianity (Moriscos) or go into exile. The Inquisition subjected Jewish converts and Moriscos to strict surveillance. Those suspected of heresy were publicly tried. If convicted, they could be burned at the stake. Those who recognised their heresy and repented were forced to wear a sanbenito as penance. Fernando and Isabel wanted to increase their authority in their kingdoms and limit the power of the privileged. They acted differently in each kingdom: In the Crown of Castile, the nobility had opposed Isabel. They were not granted land any more and their participation in the monarch's advisory councils was limited. To compensate nobles and guarantee their loyalty to the Crown, the mayorazgo was established (Laws of Toro, 1505). This was a law that guaranteed that land and titles were inheritedby the eldest son. In the Crown of Aragón, Fernando restricted the political power of the local oligarchy with the sortition system (lottery of municipal offices) and created the Arbitral Sentence of Guadalupe, which abolished certain feudal rights (malos usos) of the nobility. The king maintained medieval institutions (e.g. Cortes, Diputación del General). He used pactism to negotiate laws and taxes with each of the kingdoms. The monarchs created new institutions to govern their territories and assert royal authority: The Council of Castile, an advisory council made up of members chosen by the monarch. The Royal Audiencia, to impart justice, and the Royal Treasury, to collect taxes. The Santa Hermandad (1476), an armed group who pursued criminals. Corregidores, representatives of the monarchy that governed in local town halls. A permanent professional army controlled and paid for by the monarchy, and ambassadors who attended to diplomatic affairs. Viceroys, representatives of the monarchs for each of the kingdoms. The Cortes lost a lot of their power. They were only convened when the monarchs needed financial resources, or to confirm a new king. The Catholic Monarchs had a policy of territorial expansion: Towards the Mediterranean: They continued with the Mediterranean conquests of the Crown of Aragón and its continued confrontation with France. First, they recovered the counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya (1493) from France. Then, they defeated the French in Naples (1504). They conquered different territories in North Africa, including Melilla (1497), Orán (1509) and Béjaïa (1510). Towards the Atlantic: Castile consolidated its control over the Canary Islands and supported Christopher Columbus, who arrived in an unknown continent: the Americas. From then on, the foreign policy of the monarchy changed. The Atlantic became the centre of trade, while the Mediterranean became less important. In Europe: To consolidate their dominance in Europe, the monarchy promoted marriage alliances with other European royal houses (Holy Roman Empire, England and Portugal). In the 15th century, trade in goods that came from the East (spices, silk, luxury items, etc.) grew. However, in 1453 the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and blocked the passage of European traders to Asia. Because of this, some European monarchies began to explore the Atlantic Ocean to find new trade routes to India and Southeast Asia. Long sea voyages were made possible by technical advances. New instruments were created, such as the compass, the astrolabe and portolan charts. The caravel became the ideal ship for ocean voyages. Throughout the 15th century, the Portuguese had a monopoly on the silk and spice trade in Europe. With the support of Prince Henry the Navigator, they established trading colonies on the Atlantic coast of Africa with the goal of reaching India. They sailed west to Madeira (1419) and the Azores (1431). They also sailed along the coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea (1460), where they took control of the trade in gold, ivory and slaves. Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope (1488), and the expedition of Vasco da Gama reached the southern coast of India (1498), opening a new trade route to the Spice Islands. Christopher Columbus, a navigator believed to be from Genoa, knew the Earth was round and thought that he could reach Asia (the Indies) by crossing the Atlantic Ocean instead. In 1492, Queen Isabel agreed to finance his project and signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe. This granted Columbus one tenth of the riches obtained from his voyage, and the titles of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy of any newly discovered territories. Columbus's goal was to reach Asia by sailing west. He went to the coast of Huelva to organise the expedition with the Pinzón brothers, expert navigators and ship-owners from Palos de la Frontera. The expedition consisted of a crew of 105 sailors and a fleet of three ships: a carrack (the Santa María) and two caravels (the Pinta and the Niña). The first expedition left Palos (Huelva) on 3 August 1492. On 12 October, they arrived on Guanahaní Island (San Salvador). Later, they explored Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Cuba. In January 1493, they began their return to Spain. In 1493, a second expedition with 17 ships founded the first trading colony on Hispaniola. In 1498, Columbus reached the north coast of South America and discovered Martinique, Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco River. In 1502, he explored the coasts of Central America. When Columbus died in 1506 in Valladolid, he still believed that he had discovered new parts of Asia. The rivalry between the Portuguese and Castilians to control the sea and the new territories led to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). The treaty divided the territories between the two kingdoms along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands After Columbus' last expedition, explorations of mainland Central America began. In 1513, Núñez de Balboa from Extremadura found a new 'sea': the Pacific Ocean. When he saw how big it was, he realised that the new territories belonged to a new continent and that to reach Asia he had to sail west. At the beginning of the 16th century, Portuguese sailor Fernando Magellan presented King Carlos I of Spain (also known as Carlos V of the Holy Roman Empire) with a plan to find a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in order to reach the Spice Islands. The expedition, with a fleet of 5 ships and 250 crew members, departed from Seville in 1519. They sailed along the coast of South America until reaching a strait that led to the Pacific Ocean. When Magellan died, the Gipuzkoan sailor Juan Sebastián Elcano took control of the expedition. After three years, on 6 September 1522, only one ship - the Nao Victoria - returned to Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz) with 18 sick and exhausted men on board. The first voyage around the world had been completed! The expedition had important consequences: Three decades after Columbus' first voyage, it showed that the Americas were separated from Asia by the Pacific Ocean. It confirmed that the Earth was round and that its diameter was much bigger than originally thought. New animal and plant species were identified. New ethnicities, cultures and languages were documented. The American continent was populated more than 20000 years ago. When Columbus arrived in the New World, the indigenous peoples there had advanced civilisations (Mayan, Inca, Aztec) that we call pre-Columbian. They built with stone and did arable and livestock farming, but they did not use the wheel. They grew a lot of products that were unknown in Europe, such as corn, tomato, pumpkin, potato, cocoa and cotton. They mined and knew how to make alloys of metals (using gold, silver and copper). Their trade was based on the barter system, although they also used cocoa or powdered gold as currency. At the top of the social system was an emperor. The privileged groups were the warrior nobility, state officials and temple priests. Most of the population consisted of peasants, artisans and slaves (prisoners of war). They were polytheists and made sacrifices in honour of their gods. They had a high cultural level, with extensive knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. They used the number zero and had very accurate calendars and complex irrigation systems. The Maya lived in the southern Yucatan Peninsula between the 5th and 15th centuries. They were organised into independent city-states, grew corn and used a hieroglyphic writing system. By the time the Spanish arrived, they had already disappeared. The Aztecs dominated the fertile valley of Mexico between 1200 and 1519, until the Spanish conquered them in 1521. They were a warrior people who had conquered a great empire, whose capital was Tenochtitlan. The emperor held all political and religious power. The Inca civilization was dominant in the Andes in South America until the start of the Spanish conquest in 1532. The civilisation was centred in the city of Cuzco and had more than 12 million inhabitants. They created a system of terraces to grow crops on the slopes of the Andes. Their emperor was considered the son of the Sun and was called the Great Inca.