Chapter 22 - Transoceanic Encounters and Global Connections PDF

ransocean1c onne 1ons An unknown artist created a sixteenth- century portrait of Vasco da Gama, who...

ransocean1c onne 1ons An unknown artist created a sixteenth- century portrait of Vasco da Gama, who established a sea route between Portugal and India. 478 The Exploration of the World's Oceans Foundations of the Russian Empire in Asia Motives for Exploration Commercial Rivalries and the Seven Years' War The Technology of Exploration Ecological Exchanges Voyages of Exploration: from the The Columbian Exchange Mediterranean to the Atlantic The Origins of Global Trade Voyages of Exploration: from the Atlantic to the Pacific Trade and Conflict in Early Modern Asia Trading-Post Empires European Conquests in Southeast Asia EYEWITNESS: Vasco da Gama's Spicy Voyage n 8 July 1497 the Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gam a led a small fleet of four armed merchant vessels with 170 crewmen out of the harbor at Lisbon. His destination was India, which he planned to reach by sailing around the continent of Africa and through the Indian Ocean. He carried letters of introduction from the king of Portugal as well as cargoes of gold, pearls, wool textiles, bronzeware, iron tools, and other goods that he hoped to exchange for pepper and spices in India. Before there would be an opportunity to trade, however, da Gama and his crew had a prolonged voyage through two oceans. They sailed south from Portugal to the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa, where they took on water and fresh provisions. On 3 August they headed south into the Atlantic Ocean to take advantage of the prevailing w inds. For the next ninety-five days, the fleet saw no land as it sailed through some six thousand nautical m iles of open ocean. By October, da Gama had found westerly w inds in the southern Atlantic , rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and entered the Indian Ocean. The fleet slowly worked its way up the east coast of Africa, engaging in hostilities with local authorities at Mozambique and Mombasa, as far as Malindi, where da Gama secured the services of an Indian Muslim pilot to guide his ships across the Arabian Sea. On 20 May 1498-more than ten months after its departure from Lisbon-the fleet anchored at Calicut in southern India. In India the Portuguese fleet found a wealthy, cosmopolitan society. Upon its arrival local authorities in Calicut d ispatched a pair of Tunisian merchants who spoke Spanish and Italian to serve as translators for the newly arrived party. The markets of Calicut offered not only pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and spices but also rubies, emeralds, gold jewelry, and fine cotton textiles. Alas, apart from gold and some striped c loth , the goods that da Gama had brought attracted little interest among merchants at Calicut. Nevertheless, da Gama managed to exchange gold for a cargo of pepper and cinnamon that turned a handsome profit when the fleet returned to Portugal in August 1499. Da Gama's expedition opened the door to direct maritime trade between European and Asian peoples and helped to establish permanent links between the world's vanous reg1ons. Cross-cultural interactions have been a persistent feature of historical development. Even in ancient times mass migration, campaigns of imperial expansion , and long-distance trade deeply influenced soci- eties throughout the world. As a result of those interactions, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity spread Vasco da Gama from their places of birth to the distant corners of the eastern hem isphere. Long before modern times, (VAHS-koh duh GAHM-uh) 479 arteries of long-distance trade served also as the principal conduits for exchanges of plants, animals, and diseases. After 1500 c.E., cross-cultural interactions took place on a much larger geographic scale, and encoun- ters were often more disruptive than in earlier centuries. Equipped with advanced technologies and a pow- erful military arsenal, western European peoples began to cross the world's oceans in large numbers during the early modern era. At the same time, Russian adventurers built an enormous Eurasian empire and ventured tentatively into the Pacific Ocean. Europeans were not the only peoples who actively explored the larger world during the early modern era. In the early fifteenth century the Ming emperors of China sponsored a series of seven massive maritime expeditions that visited all parts of the Indian Ocean basin. Although state-sponsored expeditions came to an end after 1435, Chinese merchants and mariners were prominent figures in east Asian and southeast Asian lands throughout the early modern era. In the sixteenth century Ottoman mariners also ventured into the Indian Ocean. Following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, both merchant and military vessels established an Ottoman presence throughout the Indian Ocean basin. Ottoman subjects traveled as far as China, but they were most active in Muslim lands from east Africa and Arabia to India and southeast Asia, where they enjoyed especially warm receptions. Although other peoples also made their way into the larger world , Europeans linked the lands and peo- ples of the eastern hemisphere, the western hemisphere, and Oceania. Because they traveled regularly between the world's major geographic regions, European peoples benefited from unparalleled opportuni- ties to increase their power, wealth, and influence. The projection of European influence brought about a decisive shift in the g lobal balance of power. During the millennium 500 to 1500 c. E. , the world's most pow- erful societies were those organized by imperial states such as the Tang dynasty of China, the Abbasid dynasty in southwest Asia, the Byzantine empire in the eastern Mediterranean region, and the Mongol empires that embraced much of Eurasia. After 1500, however, European peoples became much more prominent than before in the larger world , and they began to establish vast empires that by the nineteenth century dominated much of the world. The expansion of European influence also resulted in the establ ishment of global networks of trans- portation, communication , and exchange. A worldwide diffusion of plants, animals, diseases, and hu- man communities followed European ventures across the oceans, and intricate trade networks gave birth to a g lobal economy. Although epidem ic diseases killed millions of people, the spread of food crops and domesticated animals contributed to a dramatic surge in global population. The establish- ment of global trade networks ensured that interactions between the world's peoples would continue and intensify. the world's ocean basins and develop an accurate under- THE EXPLORATION standing of world geography. On the basis of that knowledge, OF THE WORLD'S OCEANS European merchants and mariners established global networks Between 1400 and 1800, European mariners launched a re- of communication, transportation, and exchange and prof- markable series of exploratory voyages that took them to all ited handsomely from their efforts. the earth's waters, with the exception of those in extreme polar regions. These voyages were very expensive affairs. Yet private investors and government authorities had strong Motives for Exploration motives to underwrite the expeditions and outfit them with A complex combination of motives prompted Europeans to advanced nautical technology. The voyages of exploration explore the world's oceans. Most important of these motives paid large dividends: they enabled European mariners to chart were the search for basic resources and lands suitable for the 480  Chapter 22 Transoceanic Encounters and Global Connections 481 cultivation of cash crops, the desire to establish new trade Atlantic islands. Continuing Portuguese voyages also led to routes to Asian markets, and the aspiration to expand the in- the establishment of plantations on more southerly Atlantic fluence of Christianity. islands, including the Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome, Principe, and Fernando Po. Portuguese Exploration Mariners from the relatively poor and hardscrabble kingdom of Portugal were most The Lure of Trade Even more alluring than the exploita- prominent in the search for fresh resources to exploit and tion of fresh lands and resources was the goal of establish- lands to cultivate. Beginning in the thirteenth century, Por- ing maritime trade routes to the markets of Asia. During tuguese seamen ventured away from the coasts and into the the era of the Mongol empires, European merchants often open Atlantic Ocean. They originally sought fish, seals, traveled overland as far as China to trade in silk, spices, whales, timber, and lands where they could grow wheat to porcelain, and other Asian goods. In the fourteenth century, supplement the meager resources of Portugal. By the early however, with the collapse of the Mongol empires and the fourteenth century, they had discovered the uninhabited spread of bubonic plague, travel on the Silk Roads became Azores and Madeiras Islands. They called frequently at the much less safe than before. Muslim mariners continued to Canary Islands, inhabited by the indigenous Guanche peo- bring Asian goods through the Indian Ocean and the Red ple, which Italian and Iberian mariners had visited since the Sea to Cairo, where Italian merchants purchased them for early fourteenth century. Because European demand for sugar distribution in western Europe. But prices at Cairo were was strong and increasing, the prospect of establishing high, and Europeans sought ever-larger quantities of Asian sugar plantations on the Atlantic islands was very tempting. goods, particularly spices. Italian entrepreneurs had organized sugar plantations in By the fourteenth century the wealthy classes of Europe Palestine and the Mediterranean islands since the twelfth regarded Indian pepper and Chinese ginger as expensive ne- century, and in the fifteenth century Italian investors worked cessities, and they especially prized cloves and nutmeg from with Portuguese mariners to establish plantations in the the spice islands of Maluku. Merchants and monarchs alike I.'&')...).. ,\1~~':J.\ t:JL\\4\ 1 u·a~ ~~ \tt~·· t..~\c:t\f-.\ 1- 0 1.. I A detail from the Catalan Atlas, a magnificent illustrated representation of the known world produced about 1375, depicts a camel caravan traveling from China to Europe across the Silk Roads. 482 Part 5 The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 realized that by offering direct access to Asian markets and Granada fell to Spanish Christian forces just weeks before eliminating Muslim intermediaries, new maritime trade Christopher Columbus set sail on his famous first voyage to routes would increase the quantities of spices and other Asian the western hemisphere. Whether through persuasion or vio- goods available in Europe and would also yield enormous lence, overseas voyages offered fresh opportunities for west- profits. ern Europeans to spread their faith. African trade also beckoned to Europeans and called In practice, the various motives for exploration combined them to the sea. Since the twelfth century, Europeans had and reinforced each other. Prince Henrique of Portugal, often purchased west African gold, ivory, and slaves delivered by called Prince Henry the Navigator, promoted voyages of the trans-Saharan camel caravans of Muslim merchants to exploration in west Africa specifically to enter the gold trade, north African ports. Gold was an especially important com- discover profitable new trade routes, gain intelligence about modity because the precious metal from west Africa was the extent of Muslim power, win converts to Christianity, and Europeans' principal form of payment for Asian luxury goods. make alliances against the Muslims with any Christian rulers As in the case of Asian trade, maritime routes that eliminated he might find. When the Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gama Muslim intermediaries and offered more direct access to reached the Indian port of Calicut in 1498, local authorities African markets would benefit European merchants. asked him what he wanted there. His reply: "Christians and spices." The goal of spreading Christianity thus became a Missionary Efforts Alongside material incentives, the powerful justification and reinforcement for the more material goal of expanding the boundaries of Christianity also drove motives for the voyages of exploration. Europeans into the larger world. Like Buddhism and Islam, Christianity is a missionary religion. The New Testament spe- cifically urged Christians to spread their faith throughout the The Technology of Exploration world. Efforts to spread the faith often took peaceful forms. Without advanced nautical technology and navigational skills, During the era of the Mongol empires, Franciscan and even the strongest motives would not have enabled European Dominican missionaries had traveled as far as India, central mariners to reconnoiter the world's oceans. Embarking on Asia, and China in search of converts. Yet the expansion voyages that would keep them out of the sight of land for of Christianity was by no means always a peaceful affair. weeks at a time, mariners needed sturdy ships, navigational Beginning in the eleventh century, western Europeans had equipment, and sailing techniques that would permit them to launched a series of crusades and holy wars against Muslims make their way across the seas and back again. They inherited in Palestine, the Mediterranean islands, and Iberia. Crusading much of their nautical technology from Mediterranean and zeal remained especially strong in Iberia, where the recon- northern European maritime traditions and combined it imag- quista came to an end in 1492: the Muslim kingdom of inatively with elements of Chinese or Arabic origin. Ships and Sails From their experiences in the coastal wa- ters of the Atlantic, European sailors learned to construct ships strong enough to survive most adverse conditions. Beginning about the twelfth century, they increased the ma- neuverability of their craft by building a rudder onto the stern. ~--- (The sternpost rudder was a Chinese invention that had dif- fused across the Indian Ocean and probably became known to Europeans through Arab ships in the Mediterranean.) They --- --- --- outfitted their vessels with two main types of sail, both of which Mediterranean mariners had used since classical times. Square sails enabled them to take full advantage of a follow- ing wind (a wind blowing from behind), although these sails did not work well in crosswinds. Triangular lateen sails, on the other hand, were very maneuverable and could catch winds from the side as well as from behind. With a combina- tion of square and lateen sails, European ships were able to use whatever winds arose. Their ability to tack to advance against the wind by sailing across it was crucial for the exploration of regions with uncooperative winds. By using cross staffs to measure the angle of the sun or the pole star above the horizon, mariners Navigational Instruments The most important naviga- could determine latitude. tional equipment on board these vessels were magnetic com- passes and astrolabes (soon replaced by cross staffs and back  Chapter 22 Transoceanic Encounters and Global Connections 483 staffs). The compass was a Chinese invention of the Tang or Canary Islands, for example, since regular trade winds blew Song dynasty that had diffused throughout the Indian Ocean from the northeast. But those same trade winds complicated basin in the eleventh century. By the mid-twelfth century, the return trip. By the mid-fifteenth century, Portuguese mari- European mariners used compasses to determine their head- ners had developed a strategy called the volta do mar ("return ing in Mediterranean and Atlantic waters. The astrolabe was a through the sea") that enabled them to sail from the Canaries simplified version of an instrument used by Greek and Persian to Portugal. Instead of trying to force their way against the astronomers to determine latitude by measuring the angle of trade winds a slow and perilous business they sailed north- the sun or the pole star above the horizon. Portuguese mari- west into the open ocean until they found westerly winds and ners visiting the Indian Ocean in the late fifteenth century then turned east for the last leg of the homeward journey. encountered Arab sailors using simpler and more serviceable Although the volta do mar took mariners well out of their instruments for determining latitude, which the Portuguese way, experience soon taught that sailing around contrary then used as models for the construction of cross staffs winds was much faster, safer, and more reliable than and back staffs. butting up against them. Portuguese and other European mariners' ability to determine European mariners began to rely on the prin- direction and latitude enabled them to assem- ciple of the volta do mar in sailing to desti- ble a vast body of data about the earth's nations other than the Canary Islands. geography and to find their way around When Vasco da Gama departed for India, the world's oceans with tolerable accu- for example, he sailed south to the Cape racy and efficiency. (The measurement Verde Islands and then allowed the of longitude requires the ability to trade winds to carry him southwest measure time precisely and so had to into the Atlantic Ocean until he ap- wait until the late eighteenth century, proached the coast of Brazil. There da when dependable, spring-driven clocks Gama caught the prevailing westerlies became available.) that enabled him to sail east, round the Cape of Good Hope, and enter the Indian Knowledge of Winds and Currents Ocean. As they became familiar with the Equipped with advanced technological hard- wind systems of the world's oceans, European ware, European mariners ventured into the oceans mariners developed variations on the volta do mar and gradually compiled a body of practical knowl- that enabled them to travel reliably to coastlines edge about the winds and currents that deterntined navi- throughout the world. gational possibilities in the age of sail. In both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, strong winds blow regularly to Voyages of Exploration: create giant "wind wheels" both north and south of the equator, and ocean currents follow a similar pattern. from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Between about five and twenty-five degrees of latitude Exploratory voyaging began as early as the thirteenth north and south of the equator, trade winds blow from century. In 1291 the Vivaldi brothers departed from the east. Between about thirty and sixty degrees Genoa in two ships with the intention of sailing north and south, westerly winds prevail. Winds around Africa to India. They did not succeed, and currents in the Indian Ocean follow a dif- but the idea of exploring the Atlantic and es- ferent, but still regular and reliable, pattern. tablishing a maritime trade route from the During the summer months, generally be- Mediterranean to India persisted. During the tween April and October, monsoon winds fourteenth century Genoese, Portuguese, blow from the southwest throughout the and Spanish mariners sailed frequently into Indian Ocean basin, whereas during the the Atlantic Ocean and rediscovered the winter they blow from the northeast. Canary Islands. The Guanche people had Once mariners understood these pat- settled the Canaries from their original terns, they were able to take advantage home in Morocco, but there had been of prevailing winds and currents to no contact between the Guanches sail to almost any part of the earth. and other peoples since the time of The earliest surviving world globe, produced in the Roman empire. Iberian mariners The volta do mar Prevailing 1492 by the German cartographer Martin Behaim, began to visit the Canaries regularly, winds and currents often forced mar- depicts the eastern hemisphere quite accurately and in the fifteenth century Castilian iners to take indirect routes to their but shows almost no land west of Iberia except forces conquered the islands and destinations. European vessels sailed for east Asia. made them an outpost for further easily from the Mediterranean to the exploration. 484 Part 5 The Origins of Global Interdependence, 1500 to 1800 ASIA EUROPE NORTH pac i fic Curre AMERICA ~.... PACIFIC OC.. t - 'OQ; Tropic of Cancer (} ·~ \ ------- -----.. - - - - - -.