What Was One of the Main Reasons That European Nations Hoped to Discover New Trade Routes?

The Expansion of Europe

From the 15th through 17th centuries, Europe sought to expand its power and riches through a rigorous exploration of the earth.

Learning Objectives

Explain the reasons for the first few European excursions to the New Globe

Central Takeaways

Fundamental Points

• The Vikings were the commencement Europeans to state in North America; in the tenth century, they formed settlements in what is presently Greenland and Newfoundland.
• While Western history oft centers on Europeans as the earliest and about avant-garde explorers of the world, growing evidence suggests extensive transoceanic travel had been well underway long earlier the European Age of Discovery.
• In the 15th century, Europe sought to expand trade routes to notice new sources of wealth and bring Christianity to the East and any newly institute lands.
• This European Age of Discovery saw the ascension of colonial empires on a global scale, edifice a commercial network that continued Europe, Asia, Africa, and the New World.
• Christopher Columbus, supported by Spain, made four voyages to the Americas beginning in 1492. During his fell reign, he exploited the riches and resources of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. The contact between Europe and the Americas produced what is known every bit the Columbian Substitution: the broad transfer of plants, animals, foods, homo populations (including slaves), infectious disease, and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

Cardinal Terms

• Black Decease: A rat-borne and highly contagious affliction known equally the bubonic plague that swept through Europe in the 1340s, killing nearly one-third of the population.
• Columbian Exchange: The widespread trade of animals, plants, diseases, culture, people (including slaves), and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres that followed Kingdom of spain's 1492 voyage to the Americas.
• Age of Discovery: The period starting in the early on 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world.

Introduction

The Age of Discovery, also known as the Historic period of Exploration and the Nifty Navigations, was a menses in European history from the early on 15th century to the early on 17th century. During this menstruum, Europeans engaged in intensive exploration and early on colonization of many parts of the world, establishing direct contact with Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania. Historians often refer to the Historic period of Discovery to mean the pioneering menstruation of the Portuguese and Spanish long-distance maritime travels in search of alternative trade routes to the Indies. The contact between the "Old World" of Europe and the and then-chosen "New World" of the Americas produced what is chosen the Columbian Exchange: the broad transfer of plants, animals, foods, catching diseases, people (including slaves), and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

European Expansion: This map illustrates the main travels of the Age of Discovery, from 1482-1524. The travel routes spanned between Europe and the eastern coast of the Americas, down through the Atlantic Sea and around the southern tip of Due south America toward Southeast Asia, and downward through the Atlantic and effectually the southern tip of Africa toward India.

Early Explorations

While Christopher Columbus has been hailed in Us history for "discovering" America in 1492, there is growing archaeological evidence of cantankerous-continental travel and trade for centuries prior to Columbus' travels. In addition to the travel and settlement of the Vikings in North America over 500 years before Columbus, several theories take been proposed of extensive merchandise and travel to the Americas dating back thousands of years by Africa, the Centre Eastward, South asia, Eastern asia, and Polynesia. While a great bargain of Western history centers on Europeans as the earliest and near advanced explorers of the earth, growing evidence suggests extensive transoceanic travel had been well underway long earlier the European Age of Discovery.

The Vikings

The Vikings are idea to exist the showtime European explorers to arrive in North America, having landed in what is now Newfoundland, a present province of Canada, over 500 years before Columbus. Historical and archaeological evidence tells us that a Norse colony in Greenland was established in the tardily tenth century and lasted until the mid-15th century. The remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, are dated to effectually the year thou. Continental North American settlements were pocket-sized and did non develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, to collect timber for example, are probable to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of indelible Norse settlements on mainland Northward America.

Leif Erikson was an Icelandic explorer considered by some as the first European other than the Vikings on Greenland, to land in North America. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Leif was the son of Erik the Red, who was the founder of the get-go Norse settlement in Greenland. Leif established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse L'Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern-mean solar day Canada. Later archaeological evidence suggests that Vinland may accept been the area around the Gulf of St. Lawrence and that the L'Anse aux Meadows site was a ship repair station.

The colony in Greenland began to refuse in the 14th century, and it is probable that the settlements were defunct by the late 15th century. Several theories take been advanced to explicate the decline, such equally the Little Water ice Age, disunity inside the Viking civilisation due to the emergence of a unified Christian kingdom in Kingdom of norway, and a series of devastating bouts of epidemic disease in Europe. Explorations of a new land to the west would become a legendary tale of the feared Viking pirates, and nearly 500 years would pass before another European saw the American continent.

The Historic period of Discovery

Europe After the Middle Ages

The fall of the Roman Empire (476 CE) and the beginning of the European Renaissance in the late 14th century roughly bookend the menses known as the Middle Ages. Without a dominant centralized ability or overarching cultural hub, Europe experienced political, social, and military discord during this fourth dimension. This included the Crusades confronting the Muslims of the late 11th through late 13th centuries and the Black Death of the 1340s.

The Christian church building remained intact, however, and emerged from the period equally a unified and powerful establishment. A loftier birth rate after the Black Death, coupled with bountiful harvests, meant that the population grew during the next century. By 1450, a newly rejuvenated European gild was on the brink of tremendous change. Larger portions of western Europe had get familiar with the appurtenances of the Eastward as a result of the Crusades. A lively trade subsequently developed forth a diverseness of routes known collectively as the Silk Road, to supply the demand for these products. Brigands and greedy middlemen made the trip forth this route expensive and dangerous, and by 1492, Europe—recovered from the Black Death and in search of new products and new wealth—was anxious to amend merchandise and communications with the residue of the globe. The lure of profit pushed explorers to seek new merchandise routes to the Spice Islands and eliminate Muslim middlemen.

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 was a pivotal reason for European exploration, as trade throughout the Ottoman Empire was difficult and unreliable. Trade for luxuries such as spices and silk inspired European explorers to seek new routes to Asia. Portugal, under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator, attempted to send ships effectually the continent of Africa, and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Kingdom of spain hired Christopher Columbus to discover a route to the East by going west. As potent supporters of the Catholic church, they sought to bring Christianity to the East and whatever newly found lands, and hoped to find sources of wealth.

Christopher Columbus

It was against this backdrop that Christopher Columbus, a Castilian navigator and admiral, submitted his plans for sailing effectually the earth to Asia. Afterwards several approaches to the Italian, English, and Portuguese monarchies, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain finally decided to requite Columbus a chance, despite the counsel of their directorate. Male monarch Ferdinand thought Columbus might observe something that could give the Spanish an opportunity to compete with their neighbor and rival Portugal.

Columbus set out on his offset of four voyages on August three, 1492. Riding the merchandise winds westward beyond the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, Columbus landed on an island he called San Salvador, in the present-day Bahama islands, v weeks after embarking from Espana. During this voyage, Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola, where he established the settlement of La Navidad.

Upon his render to Espana, news of the discovered lands spread throughout Europe. Columbus made three more voyages to the New World between 1493 and 1504. Columbus' second voyage landed in the Caribbean, on an island he named Commonwealth of dominica, and continued northward through the Lesser and Greater Antilles. On his tertiary voyage, Columbus landed on the Portuguese Porto Santo Island before continuing on to Madeira; the Canary Islands and Cape verde, off the coast of Westward Africa; Trinidad, off the coast of present-day Venezuela; and mainland Southward America. Columbus'south fourth and terminal voyage beyond the Atlantic took him throughout Central America, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

These three subsequent voyages were fabricated to explore and exploit the riches and resource of the indigenous peoples in the Americas. Columbus had been granted authorization by the Spanish monarchy to claim state for Spain, begin a settlement, trade for valuable goods or gold, and explore. He was also made governor of all the lands which he establish and he proved to be a brutal and cruel governor. Columbus enslaved and stole from the ethnic people, at one point threatening to cutting off the easily of any person who failed to give him gold. His brutal reign would foreshadow the arrival of the Conquistadors—Castilian warriors who would plunder and destroy the large and wealthy Aztec, Incan, and Mayan civilizations.

The Rising of the African Slave Trade

Driven by the desire for raw materials, new trading outlets, and inexpensive labor, Europeans initiated an extensive slave merchandise out of West Africa.

Learning Objectives

Examine how economic desires gave birth to and perpetuated the Atlantic slave trade

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Europeans invaded and colonized the Canary Islands during the 15th century, converting much of the state to the product of wine and sugar.
• Using the Canary Islands as a naval base, Portuguese traders began to move their activities down the western coast of Africa, performing raids in which slaves would be captured to be sold in the Mediterranean.
• The Spanish were the starting time Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New World on islands such every bit Cuba and Hispaniola.
• The increased need for slaves due to the expansion of European colonial powers to the New Globe made the slave merchandise much more lucrative to many West African powers.

Key Terms

• Hispaniola: An island in the Caribbean, comprising the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Democracy.
• Canary Islands: An archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa, most Morocco and belonging to Spain.

Introduction

The major European slave trade began with Portugal'due south exploration of the west coast of Africa in search of a trade route to the East. Past 1444, slaves were being brought from Africa to work on the saccharide plantations of the Madeira Islands, off the declension of modern day Morocco. The slave trade then expanded greatly as European colonies in the New World demanded an ever-increasing number of workers for the extensive plantations growing tobacco, saccharide, and somewhen rice and cotton wool.

European Colonization and Slavery in West Africa

Upon discovering new lands through their naval explorations, Europeans soon began to migrate to and settle in lands outside their native continent. In the 15th century, the Spanish invaded and colonized the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa under the direction of the Kingdom of Castille. They also captured indigenous Canary Islanders to utilize as slaves both on the Islands and across the Christian Mediterranean.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese settlers found that the Canary Islands were platonic for growing carbohydrate, and they forcefully converted much of the land to the product of wine and saccharide. Saccharide growing is a labor-intensive undertaking, and Portuguese settlers were difficult to attract due to the heat, lack of infrastructure, and difficult life. To cultivate the sugar, the Portuguese turned to big numbers of enslaved Africans. Elmina Castle on the Gilt Coast, originally built by African labor for the Portuguese in 1482 to control the golden trade, became an important depot for slaves that were to exist transported to the New Earth.

Equally historian John Thornton remarked, "the actual motivation for European expansion and for navigational breakthroughs was little more than to exploit the opportunity for immediate profits fabricated by raiding and the seizure or purchase of trade bolt." European traders, mostly the Portuguese, began to move their activities down the western coast of Africa. Using the Canary Islands every bit a naval base, they performed raids to capture slaves and sell them in the Mediterranean.

Although initially successful in this venture, Portuguese raiding ships shortly met with resistance from African naval forces. The crews of several European ships were killed by African sailors whose boats were improve equipped at traversing the West African coasts and river systems. Many African peoples already practiced various forms of slavery (all of which differed significantly from the racial slavery that would ultimately develop in the New World), and eventually, deals were struck with some peoples of Africa to participate in the enslavement and subsequent trade for profit.

Slavery in the New Globe

The Castilian were the first Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New World on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola. The alarming death rate experienced by the indigenous population had spurred the first royal Spanish laws protecting them, and consequently, the offset enslaved Africans arrived in Hispaniola in 1501.

Increasing penetration into the Americas by the Portuguese created more demand for labor in Brazil—primarily for farming and mining. Slave-based economies quickly spread to the Caribbean and the southern portion of what is today the United States. At that place, Dutch traders brought the first enslaved Africans in 1619. These areas all adult an insatiable demand for slaves.

Growth of the Atlantic Slave Merchandise

Every bit European nations grew more powerful—peculiarly Portugal, Kingdom of spain, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands—they began vying for control of the African slave merchandise, with niggling effect on local African and Arab trading. Slap-up Britain'south existing colonies in the Bottom Antilles and its constructive naval control of the Mid-Atlantic forced other countries to abandon their enterprises due to inefficiency in cost. The English crown provided a charter giving the Royal African Company monopoly over the African slave routes until 1712.

The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the belatedly 18th century, when the largest number of slaves was captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa. The expansion of European colonial powers to the New Globe increased the demand for slaves and made the slave merchandise much more lucrative to many Westward African powers, leading to the establishment of a number of W African empires that thrived on the slave trade.

Historians take widely debated the nature of the relationship betwixt the African kingdoms and the European traders. Some researchers argue that it was an unequal relationship in which Africans were forced into a colonial merchandise with the more economically adult Europeans, exchanging raw materials and slaves for manufactured goods, and one that led to Africa existence underdeveloped. Other researchers claim the Atlantic slave trade was not as detrimental to diverse African economies as some historians purport, and that African nations at the time were well-positioned to compete with pre-industrial Europe.

The African Slave Merchandise: This map shows the routes that were used in the course of the slave trade and the number of enslaved people who traveled each route. As the figures indicate, most African slaves were jump for Brazil and the Caribbean. While West Africans made up the vast majority of the enslaved, the eastward coast of Africa, too, supplied slaves for the trade.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-expansion-of-europe/

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