AP European History
AP European History
The European encounter with the Americas, as a result of exploration and colonization, changed the world. Not only were Europeans forced to rethink cultural and intellectual assumptions, they gained access to riches, which shifted the balance of power politically in Europe and caused untold destruction to the colonized cultures. The resulting global economy, often termed the Commercial Revolution, altered economic and social structures in Europe. Moreover, this era also saw the effects of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations played out in a century of religious wars, never free from political and economic considerations. A major result of these developments was to shift the locus of European power from the Mediterranean to those nations on the Atlantic.
Europe’s outward expansion began in 1095 with the Crusades and continued throughout the Middle Ages, with the reconquista in Spain, Marco Polo’s journey to China, and the first tentative Portuguese steps to explore the coastline of Africa. What accounts for the burst of exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries? The usual explanation is “God, gold, and glory,” a mantra that captures the missionary impulse, economic incentives, and personal motives of the conquistadores. However, we should not overlook the role that technological developments played, as well as the sponsorship provided by competitive states eager to reap the political advantages of this exploration.
For centuries, Europe’s access to the coveted goods of the East was provided by Arab and Ottoman middlemen. Direct control of spices, silks, sugar, porcelain, precious metals, gems, and strategic minerals would reduce costs and ensure a ready supply of profit-making goods. With the growth of towns and commerce in the Middle Ages, merchants and governments were keen on exploiting opportunities to fill their private and state coffers with newfound wealth. And missionaries considered the lands of the East rich ground for spreading the Gospel message. Though many viewed religion as a pretext rather than a motive for exploration, others were genuinely driven by piety, even if it was misplaced. In fact, once the Reformation was under way, religious groups like the Jesuits viewed the new colonies as a proving ground of religious commitment. Motives, then, for exploration were clearly in place; now all that was needed were the means.
The 15th century climaxed a long chain of navigational and intellectual advances that supported overseas exploration. The Chinese had already made contact with Africa and the Indian Ocean basin in the early 15th century but did not follow up their successes. China considered itself culturally and economically superior and thus not desirous of the goods or ideas of other cultures. However, China’s ingenuity served Europe well, as its compass and axial rudder allowed Columbus and others the ability to conduct voyages far from their homelands. In addition, the quadrant (and related astrolabe) allowed explorers to measure the angle of the Pole Star to determine latitude. New maps, called portolani, provided detailed information about headlands and direction, though limited information regarding the open ocean. New ship designs, such as the caravel (a light maneuverable craft) and lateen (or triangular) sail, which allowed a crew to tack against the direction of the wind, made blue-water voyages possible. Finally, perspective geometry and the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s Geographica (a 2nd-century Greek astronomer) provided for the gridlike structure found on most modern maps, even if Ptolemy had overestimated the size of Asia (a fact that Columbus would use to his advantage).
Not all states were positioned to exploit these technologies. Because Portugal and Spain were the first to establish monarchical control over their diverse realms, they became the first nations to sponsor long-distance sea voyages. Setting up and administering colonies on far-flung lands required resources, bureaucracy, and sustained political energy. Though many early explorers hailed from Italy (Columbus, Vespucci, Verrazano, the Cabots), that country sponsored no overseas voyages; it couldn’t, because it was divided and preoccupied with foreign invasion. Also, centralized governments had gained a monopoly on violence and were thus able to employ new techniques and technologies in warfare, such as cannons, steel weapons, and plate armor, which simply overwhelmed colonial opponents.
One nation that experienced a substantial economic boost from exploration was Portugal. In retrospect, Portugal’s rise is amazing. A nation lacking natural resources with only about 1 million inhabitants, tucked in the southwestern corner of Europe, Portugal by 1510 had established a worldwide trading empire. Prince Henry (1394-1460), nicknamed The Navigator, founded a school for seafarers at Sagres, which trained the first generation of sailors who settled the Azores Island chain (a basing area for transatlantic voyages) and explored along the west coast of Africa. Though the Portuguese plucked the gold, pepper, and slaves of Africa, they still had not found the coveted sea route to the East. Then Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) in 1498 made it around the Cape of Good Hope and to the riches of India. The single returning boat earned a 1,000% profit for its investors!
Da Gama followed up his success by returning with cannons, which overwhelmed the advanced civilizations of the Indian Ocean basin. By 1510, the Portuguese had established control of several strategic choke points in the East, which allowed them to extract trade concessions and radically reduce the cost of luxury products. Though Portugal lacked the population and resources to maintain extensive settlements, their maritime empire fed Europe’s appetite for trade with the East until it was taken over by the Dutch at the end of the 16th century.
Not far behind the Portuguese were the Spanish. Though Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) completed four voyages to the Americas, he never recognized his miscalculation of the earth’s circumference. Subsequent explorers welcomed the prospect of exploiting two previously unknown continents, and in the decades that followed, the Spanish monarchy sponsored expeditions that would lead to the subjugation of an entirely “New World.” Before describing the Spanish empire, let’s review the accomplishments of several major figures in the history of exploration, keeping in mind that with this topic, the AP exam will focus less on personalities and more on motives and effects:
Hernando Cortez (1460-1547) Conquistador who overwhelmed the advanced Aztec civilization through use of horses, cannons, and diplomacy. Cortez helped establish the Spanish presence in North America.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) Skilled Portuguese seaman who sailed under the flag of Spain. He led his men through the treacherous straits at the tip of South America, now named for him, before perishing in the Philippines. Magellan is credited with the first successful circumnavigation of the earth.
St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) Jesuit missionary who used wit and zeal to establish Christianity in India, Indonesia, and Japan.
Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475-1541) Brutal conqueror of the Incas in the Andes. He was aided by disease, as he and less than 300 men laid claim to South America.
Following Columbus’s discovery, the Portuguese and Spanish negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which divided the world in half for purposes of colonization. Eventually Portugal laid claim to Brazil in South America, but the primary force in the Americas proved to be Spain, a presence that had profound consequences for both the colonizer and the colonized. Soon after the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the exploitation of native peoples began. To provide for the orderly development of the new continents, the Spanish introduced the encomienda system. According to this system, settlers were given grants of land and native labor, in return providing for the Christian instruction and protection of their workers. In reality, the indigenous people were brutally exploited in mining and other operations, prompting the rapid decline in their , populations. The Potosi mine in present-day Bolivia stands as a fearful example of how the system quickly went awry. Though the mine became the primary supplier of Spanish silver, this wealth came at the expense of the native civilizations.
The indigenous population found a defender in the Dominican monk Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566), whose Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies (1542) highlighted the issues of abuse and devastation. Las Casas’s account eventually led to the New Laws, which reformed the encomienda system. Unfortunately, it was too late; most of the native population had been decimated by neglect and disease. The resulting labor shortage led to another negative legacy from exploration: African slavery. Though the slave trade dated back to the early 15th century, it didn’t take off until exploitation of the Americas increased demand for menial labor. In all, approximately 12 million Africans suffered the horrors of the so-called Middle Passage across the Atlantic in Portuguese, Spanish, and ultimately Dutch and English ships. Though Africans were able to create new cultures in a new land, the issue of African slavery has left a deep imprint on the history of four continents.
Of all the colonial empires, Spain’s operated in the most centralized fashion. Policies were administered directly, if sometimes slowly, by the Council of the Indies, under the 90ntrol of the Spanish monarchy. Imperial administrators tended to be loyal to Spain rather than to the Spanish Americans they governed. The New World was divided into two viceroyalties – New Mexico and Peru – which were subdivided into captaincies-general for more direct control. To assist and oversee royal governors, audiencias served as advisory bodies and courts. To settle in Spanish America, one was required to adhere to the Catholic faith. Over time, remaining native peoples “ were converted to Catholicism, and the hierarchical structure of the Church was transferred to Spanish America, resulting even today in the largest concentration of Catholics in the world.