Exploration and Exploitation

I. The greatest event in modern history?

A. Immense implications of Europe's ventures at sea

1. modern world impossible to imagine without it

B. Inspirations for exploration

1. crusading tradition of Europe

2. humanist enthusiasm for knowledge of the world

3. commercial opportunities

II. Portuguese Exploits

A. Portugal's quest for greatness

1. becomes a kingdom in 1385

2. launches crusade to Ceuta, Africa

3. Prince Henry the Navigator creates a brain trust

a. best of Muslim and Jewish science

B. The African Coast

1. How far does it go?

a. Ptolemy's map

b. reasons to doubt Ptolemy's map--St. Isadore's map

c. might be easier to go west (thought Columbus)

2. Captain Eannes reaches West Africa (1444)

a. gold and slave trade initiated

3. Bartholomew Dias goes south and finds the end of Africa (1488)

a. Columbus asks the Spanish court for ships, and is rejected at first

C. Vasco de Gama reaches India

1. First trip (1497-99) [exploration]

2. Second trip (1502) [exploitation]

III. Columbus's Voyages of Folly

A. False assumptions reinforced by huge ego

1. underestimates the size of the earth

2. underestimates the distance to Japan

B. Never abandons the idea that he is in the Indies, despite the evidence

1. concludes that world is NOT round

2. Columbus is a man of middle ages, not modernity

C. Makes plans to conquer Indians (Americans) and convert them to laborers

1. plans fail mostly because of Small Pox

2. Columbus wanted to bring slavery, but brought death instead

IV. Conquest and Exploitation of America

A. Conquest of Aztecs and Incas

1. Americans unprepared for Western ways or diseases

2. Do Americans have souls?

B. The Columbian Exchange

1. People

a. massive expansion of slavery

2. disease

3. plants and animals