Section 2

Development of Portuguese Maritime Empire

1419: Prince Henry the Navigator founds a school for navigators
1441: Portuguese ships go to the Senegal river and bring a cargo of black slaves to Europe.
1471: Portuguese Explorers discovered a hump of gold on the coat of western africa, in an area which would come to be known as the Gold coast.
Portuguese leased land from local rulers and they built forts for trade

Portuguese in India

They heard reports of a route to India around the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope), in 1488 Bartholomew Dias rounded the cape but returned to Portugal fearing mutiny
~10 years later Vasco Da Gama rounds the cape and makes it to india from where he brings spices back to Portugal
- Leads to lots of profit
Portuguese fleets then decided they need to return to the area and in 1509 they defeat Arab and Indian forces and impose a blockade on the red sea.
Admiral Alfonso de Albuquerque aet up port facilities on goa.
1511 Albuquerque goes to the harbor of Malacca in the Malay Penninsula,
- Capture the city and kill local arabs
- Islands would become known as the spice islands
Quickly, the portuguese empire would become powerful as they expanded to china and secured export treaties with local rulers.
They never had the power or desire to colonize inside of asia, however.
Portuguese were very successful due to their ability to sail well and use guns effectively.

Voyages to the New World

Europeans had little knowledge of the circumference of the planet, therefore, some believed that they could get to china by going west.
Columbus persuaded the spanish to let him try this after the portuguese were like “Nah”.
He set sail with three ships
- Santa Maria, Nina, and the Pinta
Columbus landed in the Carribean and explored local islands including what is now Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
- He was convinced he had found asia and sent correspondence to spanish officials saying he would find gold and already had a golden opportunity to convert native “Indians” to Christianity.
- He would believe that he had found asia until his death.
King Henry VII authorized john Cabot to explore the new world, after meny explorers began to relize that they had not reached asia, rather, they had found an entirely new expanse of land.
Pedro Cabral would “discover” south america in 1500
Amerigo Vespucci would write many letters describing the new world, leading to the name “america” (A latin feminine version of “amerigo”) to be used as the name of the New World.
Vasco Nunez reached the Pacific ocean in 1513
In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan attempted to circumnavigate the planet.
He was killed by natives after reaching the phillipines but his crew was able to return home.
- Only one of the 5 ships survived the voyage around the Earth
In 1494 Spain and Portugal would divide up the New World in the treaty of Todesillas.
- Most of South America except for the eastern hump was controlled by Spain
- The route to Asia around the Cape of Good Hope was reserved for Portugal.

Spanish Empire in the New World

Conquistadors motivated by “God, Glory, and Gold”
- Privately financed, but authorized by Royal authorities
- They benefited from organization, superior weaponry, and the decimation of natives from diseases.
The Maya were a very successful civilization
- Located in Mesoamerica
- They built great temples and cities
- This civilization began to decline around 800 and would collapse about 100 years later
The Aztecs were also very successful
- Found their way to Lake Texcoco and built the city of Tenochitlan on an island.
- They built a complex network of causeways, temples, and even aqueducts.
They were great warriors
They were able to conquer most of modern day mexico
Their political system was basically a bunch of loosely associated city states which had rulers which had their authority confirmed by the Aztec ruler in exchange for payment.
In 1519 Hernan Cortes landed at Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico.
He made alliances with many cities who were tired of the Aztecs
- Tlaxcala was extra important because the Aztecs hadn’t been able to conquer it
When he arrived at Tenochtitlan their leader (Moctezuma) thought he was a representative of the god Quetzalcoatl.
Moctezuma gave them lots of gifts and a palace to stay in.
But violence would break out and Moctezuma would be kidnapped.
The locals drove Cortes out a year after he arrived.
But he would conquer them with forces from states he had befriended.
The Spanish would then destroy their temples and use the stone to build churches and government buildings.

Inca

Located in modern day Peru
Based in the city of Cuzco at an elevation of 10,000 feet, they would expand outwards
In the 1440s under the rule of the Pachakuti they expanded their empire and remained highly centralized.
- Topa Inca and Huayna Inca were the successors
They created an empire that extended between Ecuador, central Chile, and the edge of the amazon basin, including around 12 million people.
Divided into quarters, each governed by a governor.
- Quarters divided into provinces, each governed by a governor
Governors were usually selected from the ruler’s family.
They built a system of 24,800 miles of roads.
Roads extended from Quito to Santiago
Contained rest houses and some of the best pre-modern suspension bridges.
In December of 1530 Francisco Pizarro landed on the pacific coast of south america
- Had 180 men but they were armed with weaponry that was more advanced and very different than that used by the indigenous peoples.
The Incas were also devastated by an outbreak of smallpox.
- This killed the Incan emperor himself
His two sons both claimed the Incan throne, leading to division within the empire.
Pizzaro took advantage of this and was able to defeat one of the brothers, Atahualpa, and execute him.
Pizzaro and his Incan allies marched on Cuzco in 1535 and defeated the empire.
- He established a colony with a capital at Lima

Administration of the Spanish Empire

Conquistadors often pursued their interests in the most efficient way possible.
Queen Isabella of Spain declared that all native peoples were subjects to the Spanish monarchy
They declared that they were the subject of encomienda:
- Conquering Spaniards could collect tributes from and use the labor of indigenous peoples.
- In exchange the Spanish were supposed give them protection and good wages.
- In practice this led to the abuse and exploitation of indigenous peoples.
  - This was especially prevalent in the highly profitable gold and silver mines
Forced labor, disease, and starvation killed many natives.
in a 1510 sermon Anton Montecino criticized the encomienda system
Eventually letters from Bartolome de Las Casas in 1542 caused people to get upset about the system and the Spanish abolished it.
This system was replaced by a new system in which the Spanish divided their New World possessions into two kingdoms: New Spain and Peru.
Each was governed by a viceroy who was advised by councils called audiencias.
- Audiencias also were supreme judicial bodies
Soon many features of Spanish society were introduced to the New World
- The Pope had given the Spanish monarchs power over the spiritual matters of their new world possesions
- They introduced the Spanish Inquisition, first in Peru in 1570, then in Mexico in 1571.

Disease in the New World

Smallpox caused massive devastation in the New World
1518: Smallpox epidemic erupts and spread along trade routes in the Caribbean and Mesoamericas
Around a third of the native population died
The disease killed so many natives that by 1570 there were only 300 natives left alive for every 100,000 natives alive when Columbus reached the New World in 1492.
These deaths also spurred the import of African Slaves because so many natives died that the Spanish didn’t have a large enough workforce.

Christopher Columbus