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Slide Notes
A Portuguese Caravel with a lateen or triangular sail for tracking against the wind and a vertical mounted stern-post rudder
Of course, from a global perspective Europeans did not discover the New World but from a European perspective these lands were not known until the late 1400s and early 1500s. The impulse to set sail across the Atlantic came partially from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. The Mediterranean trade that had made the Italian City-States so wealthy came to be completely replaced by these new sea routes. The caravel, lateen sail, stern-post rudder, improved maps and map projections (Mercator) and navigational instruments like the astrolabe and compass made this exploration technically possible. Most, if not all, of these improvements in navigation came from adopting technology from the eastern Islamic and Chinese empires. The competition among the European nations of Spain, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands and the desire to spread Catholicism during the Reformation provided additional motivation.
Of course, from a global perspective Europeans did not discover the New World but from a European perspective these lands were not known until the late 1400s and early 1500s. The impulse to set sail across the Atlantic came partially from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. The Mediterranean trade that had made the Italian City-States so wealthy came to be completely replaced by these new sea routes. The caravel, lateen sail, stern-post rudder, improved maps and map projections (Mercator) and navigational instruments like the astrolabe and compass made this exploration technically possible. Most, if not all, of these improvements in navigation came from adopting technology from the eastern Islamic and Chinese empires. The competition among the European nations of Spain, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands and the desire to spread Catholicism during the Reformation provided additional motivation.
AP European Commercial Revolution
Published on Nov 18, 2015
AP European History, Commercial Revolution, Price Revolution, Atlantic Exploration, Age of Discovery, Age of Exploration,
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
European Exploration
A Portuguese Caravel with a lateen or triangular sail for tracking against the wind and a vertical mounted stern-post rudder
Of course, from a global perspective Europeans did not discover the New World but from a European perspective these lands were not known until the late 1400s and early 1500s. The impulse to set sail across the Atlantic came partially from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. The Mediterranean trade that had made the Italian City-States so wealthy came to be completely replaced by these new sea routes. The caravel, lateen sail, stern-post rudder, improved maps and map projections (Mercator) and navigational instruments like the astrolabe and compass made this exploration technically possible. Most, if not all, of these improvements in navigation came from adopting technology from the eastern Islamic and Chinese empires. The competition among the European nations of Spain, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands and the desire to spread Catholicism during the Reformation provided additional motivation.
Of course, from a global perspective Europeans did not discover the New World but from a European perspective these lands were not known until the late 1400s and early 1500s. The impulse to set sail across the Atlantic came partially from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. The Mediterranean trade that had made the Italian City-States so wealthy came to be completely replaced by these new sea routes. The caravel, lateen sail, stern-post rudder, improved maps and map projections (Mercator) and navigational instruments like the astrolabe and compass made this exploration technically possible. Most, if not all, of these improvements in navigation came from adopting technology from the eastern Islamic and Chinese empires. The competition among the European nations of Spain, Portugal, England, and the Netherlands and the desire to spread Catholicism during the Reformation provided additional motivation.
Motives for Exploration?
The motives for exploration and colonization were both financial and religious. A newly re-energized Catholic Church during the Counter Reformation wished to add new believers to its ranks in the New World and in East Asia. Protestants often came to the Americas in search of more religiously tolerant societies.
The stronger Ottoman Empire provided an incentive for finding new routes to the Spice Trade that did not involve having to go through the Mediterranean.
Newly centralized states along the Atlantic were searching for ways to expand an empire to trade within. Raw materials and precious metals would come from colonies and be carried by a country's own ships. The purpose was to prevent any flow of capital to other European countries. Collectively these state-controlled policies would become known as Mercantilism.
The stronger Ottoman Empire provided an incentive for finding new routes to the Spice Trade that did not involve having to go through the Mediterranean.
Newly centralized states along the Atlantic were searching for ways to expand an empire to trade within. Raw materials and precious metals would come from colonies and be carried by a country's own ships. The purpose was to prevent any flow of capital to other European countries. Collectively these state-controlled policies would become known as Mercantilism.
Photo by alt-n-anela project
Motives
- Ottoman strength in the Mediterranean - Fall of Constantinople in 1453
- Access to trade routes - Spice Trade
- Search for sources of gold/silver
- Spreading Catholicism
Portuguese Routes
The Portuguese were the forerunners of Atlantic Exploration, mapping and establishing colonies on groups of islands like the Azores, Madeiras, Canaries, and trading up and down the African Coast. Their first profits came from the slave trade and they were the first to use African slaves in a plantation style work system that the Spanish and English would later copy in the Caribbean and in North and South America. The Portuguese were also the first to establish sea trading routes with India and the Spice Islands of Indonesia with Vasco da Gama rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
Portuguese Exploration
- First to round the Cape of Good Hope - 1488
- Vasco da Gama landing in Calcutta - 1498
- Colonization of Brazil - 1500
- Macao - 1st permanent European settlement in Asia
- Maluccas - Spice Islands in Indonesia
Columbus' Voyages
These are Columbus' first four voyages. An Italian, financed by Queen Isabella of Spain, Columbus became the first to establish contact and trade with what would become known as the West Indies. He would also garner a brutal reputation for his enslavement and murder of the Taino, and a tribute system that cut the hands off of every indigenous male not able to pay in gold or cotton. Bartolome de Las Casas would criticize Spanish policies toward the native islanders in his book "Destruction of the Indies".
Spanish Exploration
- Columbus's voyages 1492-1503
- Discovery of the West Indies - Caribbean Islands
- Colonized South and Central America
- Balboa - first European to find Pacific Ocean
Untitled Slide
The Spanish and Portuguese occupied the same Iberian peninsula at home in Europe and competed with one another for access to the riches of the New World. Pope Alexander VI and representatives from both countries agreed on the treaties of Tordesillas and Saragossa that provided for the establishment of spheres of exclusive trade and exploration for each country. The Spanish would control the continents of North and South America and the Caribbean and the Portuguese would stay within the Indian Ocean trading with Africa and East Asia.
Key Concept
- The Portuguese established a commercial network along the African coast, in South and East Asia, and in South America in the late 15th and throughout the 16th centuries.
- The Spanish established colonies across the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, which made Spain a dominant state in Europe in the 16th century.
First Circumnavigation
Magellan-Elcano 1519-1522
English and Dutch Exploration
- Refused to acknowledge the Treaty of Tordesillas
- 1568 - Dutch rebel against Spain and King Philip II
- With British help defeated Spanish Armada in 1588
- John Cabot, Francis Drake, Henry Hudson
- All tried to found Northwest Passage
As the 16th Century came to a close the Dutch rebelled against the Spanish and King Philip II for his policies of taxation and the increasingly repressive methods used against growing number of Protestants. The English under Elizabeth I, also moving away from the Catholic Church and competing against Spain for access to Atlantic Trade, saw an opportunity and together they defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Netherlands, with this victory became the financial center of Europe and Atlantic Trade and the English soon after established permanent colonies in North America. The English and French, in particular, searched in vain for a Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean and mapped much of the coast and inland rivers and bays of Eastern Canada.
Photo by CircaSassy
Key Concept
- The Atlantic nations of France, England, and the Netherlands followed by establishing their own colonies and trading networks to compete with Portuguese and Spanish dominance in the 17th century.
The Columbian Exchange
Unification of E. and W. Hemisphere
The Columbian Exchange is the exchange of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemisphere.
Key Concept
- The exchange of new plants, animals, and diseases – the Columbian Exchange – created economic opportunities for Europeans and in some cases facilitated European subjugation and destruction of indigenous peoples, particularly in the Americas.
The Commercial Revolution
1488 - late 18th century
The Moneylender and His Wife, this time by Quentin Metsys is clearly a product of the Northern Renaissance. It is a genre painting or painting about a particular subject that often contained a moral message. The wife in this painting is looking up from a religious devotional study as the viewer is reminded about the distracting influence of money and commercial activity. This painting highlights how traditional religious values were viewed within an increasingly commercially oriented society. These changes were accelerated by Atlantic Exploration, colonization, and the adoption of mercantilist policies by increasingly centralized states.
Effects of Atlantic Trade
- New foods + recovery from the plague = population growth
- Influx of silver from Americas
- Inflation known as the Price Revolution
- Shift in power from the Mediterranean to Atlantic states
- Growth in commerce created new class of elites - Gentry in England, merchants, bankers
Effects of Colonization
- Europeans expanded the African slave trade in response to the establishment of a plantation economy in the Americas and demographic catastrophes among indigenous peoples.
Commercialization of Agriculture
Enclosure Movement
Landed elites, like the Gentry in England, began fencing what was previously known as common land. They did this in response to a huge profit incentive provided by rising food prices due to inflation. Enclosure forced many peasants off of the land and drove them to towns and cities in search of work. This was an important step in the growth of a labor force that would fuel the industrial revolution in the late 18th century.
Photo by Sharon Drummond
Government Policies
- Monarchs supported the new Merchant Capitalists
- Supported the "Domestic System"
- Maintained national rather than local tariffs
- Established colonial empires for raw goods
- Established the new theory of Mercantilism
The New Monarchs, so named because of their increasing power over the state, would support the new merchant capitalists with policies that would later be called Mercantilism. At home this meant allowing the practice of putting out work to the countryside to circumvent existing guild laws in the town, dismantling local tariffs in favor of national ones, and putting all hands to work in the new textile industries to maximize domestic production with full employment. These New Monarchs would also establish overseas colonies and grant and enforce trade monopolies in order to import the necessary raw materials. See the Navigation Acts or any number of nationalized trading companies from your outline.
New Monarchs:
Henry VII: England
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand: Spain
Charles VII and Louis XI: France
New Monarchs:
Henry VII: England
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand: Spain
Charles VII and Louis XI: France
Banks
Amsterdam Exchange Bank
Banks like the one pictured here in Amsterdam would benefit from the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. These institutional banks and other geographically integrated capital markets came to eventually replace family banking houses. The Catholic Church under usury laws, had made it difficult to charge interest on loans and investments but many of the new Protestant denominations would differentiate between a reasonable rate of return and usury.
Stock Exchanges
Amsterdam Stock Exchange
Stock Exchanges were and still are an important way for companies to raise capital and spread risk. By the selling of portions of ownership (stocks), a company could use the money to expand, scale up, and spread out the risk of investment
Insurance Companies
Lloyd's of London 1688
Insurance companies allow subscribers to pool their money together in order to spread risk out. The larger the pool, the more effective this enterprise becomes and the cheaper premiums become. Overseas trade was particularly risky with privateers and natural disasters and with so much capital at stake in the new industries Insurance Companies became an attractive way to manage risk. Lloyd's of London was started in a coffee house in 1688.
These new institutions, banks, stock exchanges, and insurance companies couple with new laws would lay the groundwork for capitalism to emerge in the industrial revolution. The growth in population and labor force and concentration of capital in Europe would make the industrial revolution possible.
These new institutions, banks, stock exchanges, and insurance companies couple with new laws would lay the groundwork for capitalism to emerge in the industrial revolution. The growth in population and labor force and concentration of capital in Europe would make the industrial revolution possible.
Key Concept
- Innovations in banking and finance promoted the growth of urban financial centers and a money economy.
Urbanization
Growth of Towns and Cities
- Migrants to the cities challenged the ability of merchant elites and craft guilds to govern, and strained resources.
- Social dislocation, coupled with the shifting authority of religious institutions during the Reformation, left city governments with the task of regulating public morals
- Ex. English Poor Laws
