Technological Innovations

The sailors, moreover, as they sail over the sea, when in cloudy weather they
can no longer profit by the light of the sun, or when the world is wrapped up in
the darkness of the shades of night, and they are ignorant to what point of the
compass their ship’s course is directed, they touch the magnet with a needle,
which (the needle) is whirled round in a circle until, when its motion ceases, its

point looks direct to the north.

—Alexander Neckham (1157-1217)

Essential Question: How did cross-cultural interactions spread
technology and facilitate changes in trade and
travel from 1450 to 1750?

A\tinough land-based empires were important during this period, various
inventions allowed Europeans to venture long distances on the ocean. The
magnetic compass, originally created in China for fortune telling, helped
steer a ship in the right direction, as described by Alexander Neckham. The
astrolabe, improved by Muslim navigators in the 12th century, let sailors find
out how far north or south they were from the equator. The caravel, a small,
three-masted sailing ship developed by the Portuguese in the 15th century,
allowed sailors to survive storms at sea better than earlier-designed ships.
Cartography, or mapmaking, and knowledge of current and wind patterns
also improved navigation.

Demographic pressures pushed Europeans into exploration and trade. As
the population grew, not all workers in Europe could find work or even food.
Not all sons of the wealthy could own land because primogeniture laws gave
all of each estate to the eldest son. In the early 17th century, religious minorities
searched for a place to settle where people were tolerant of their dissent. All of
these groups, as well as those just longing for adventure and glory, were eager
to settle in new areas. Those who left their homelands in search of work, food,
land, tolerance, and adventure were part of a global shift in demographics.

Developments of Transoceanic Travel and Trade

Europe was never totally isolated from East and South Asia. The Indian Ocean
trade routes had long brought silk, spices, and tea to the Mediterranean by
way of the Red Sea. Islamic traders had long known of land routes from China
to the cities of Baghdad and Constantinople and from there to Rome. Then,

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS 191
in the 16th century, more and more Europeans became active in the Indian
Ocean, with hopes of finding wealth and new converts as their twin motives.
However, Europeans faced competition from Middle Eastern traders based in
kingdoms such as Oman. For example, the Portuguese set up forts in Oman
but were repeatedly challenged by attempts to remove them. The Omani-
European rivalry was one reason for Christopher Columbus’s search for a
new route to India.

The voyages by Columbus connected people across the Atlantic Ocean.
European traders became go-betweens linking Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.

¢ From the Americas, they obtained sugar, tobacco, and rum.
¢ From Africa, they obtained enslaved people.
* From Asia, they obtained silk, spices, and rhubarb.

This extensive trade transformed Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, and
Holland into maritime empires, ones based on sea travel.

Much of this trade was carried out by men. However, in Southeast Asia,
Europeans conducted most of their business with women, who traditionally
handled markets and money-changing services in those cultures.

Classical, Islamic, and Asian Technology

Western European countries such as Portugal, Spain, and England were
developing their naval technology. They were aware of traditions of sailing
that went back to the classical Greeks, such as using the stars to navigate.
They combined this knowledge with new ideas developed by Islamic and
Asian sailors and scholars, which they learned about because of the cross-
cultural interactions resulting from trade networks. Al-Andalus, in what is
now Spain, was a place where Islamic ideas diffused into Europe.

The leading European figure in this development was Portuguese ruler
Prince Henry the Navigator. While he never sailed far enough out to sea to
lose sight of land, he strongly supported exploration. He financed expeditions
along Africa’s Atlantic Coast and around the Cape of Good Hope. With his
backing, Portugal explored African coastal communities and kingdoms before
other European powers.

Advances in Ideas As scholars gathered knowledge, they improved the
safety of sailing on the ocean. For example, Newton’s discovery of gravitation
increased knowledge of the tides. As a result, sailors could reliably predict
when the depth of water near a shore would be decreasing, thereby exposing
dangerous rocks. As people kept increasingly accurate records on the direction
and intensity of winds, sailors could sail with greater confidence.

Improvements in cartography also improved navigation. An astronomical
chart is any map of the stars and galaxies. Mariners relied on these maps
to guide ships’ direction, especially before the introduction of the compass,
using the skies to help them determine their location. Ancient astronomers
in Babylonia and Mesopotamia had created star charts as early as the 2nd

192 WORLD HISTORY MODERN: AP® EDITION
millennium B.C.E. Charts by Chinese astronomers date back to the 5th century
B.C.E. Charts were also used widely by classical Greek astronomers. Using
telescopes to help create astronomical charts began in 1609, and the practice
was widely used to map the stars by the end of the 17th century. Astronomers
typically divided the charts into grids to help locate specific constellations and
astronomical objects.

Advances in Equipment Several developments in the equipment used on
ships made sailing safer and faster than ever. Ships moved adroitly, aided by a
new type of rudder, another idea imported from China. The astrolabe, improved
by Muslim navigators in the 12th century, allowed sailors to determine how far
north or south they were from the equator.

The compass is the primary direction-finding device used in navigation. It
works either with magnets or a gyroscope, which is a wheel or disk mounted to
spin rapidly around an axis in various directions. Other compasses determine
the location of the sun or a specific star. The magnetic compass, originally
invented in China, allowed sailors to steer a ship in the right direction. It is
the oldest and most familiar. It was discovered by mariners in both China and
Europe in the 12th century. This type of compass works as Earth itself acts as
an enormous bar magnet. Earth’s magnetic field is almost parallel to the north-
south axis of the globe, which means that freely moving magnets, such as those
in a compass, take on the same orientation.

The lateen sail, or a ship sail in the shape of a triangle, was a pivotal piece
of technology. Used by Arab sailors and in the Indian Ocean, it significantly
affected medieval navigation and trade. The ancient square sails that preceded
the lateen allowed sailing only in a single direction and had to be used with
the wind. The lateen, however, could catch the wind on either side of the ship,
allowing it to travel in different directions. When used with the square sail,
the lateen allowed sailors to travel successfully into large bodies of water,
including oceans, for the first time, thus expanding trade routes.

Source: Getty Images

Lateen sails are still used on
modern sailboats.

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS 193
New types of ships also improved trade. By adjusting the ratio of length to
width of a ship, adding or reducing the number of masts, and using different
types of sails, builders could adapt ships to improve their efficiency. (Connect:
Compare the technological advances of the Mongols and Chinese of the 12th
and 13th centuries with those in the chart below. See Topic 2.1.)

Three Types of Ships

Ship Typical Sails and Purpose Primary Centuries of
Length Masts Users Peak Use

Carrack 150 feet Square and | Trade Portugal 14th to 17th
lateen on
3-4 masts

Caravel 75 feet Lateen sails | Long Portuguese 15th to 17th
on2or3 voyages at and Spanish
masts great speed

Fluyt 80 feet Square on2 | Trade Dutch 16th to 17th
or 3 masts

Long-Term Results The long-term result of combining navigational
techniques invented in Europe with those from other areas of the world was a
rapid expansion of exploration and global trade. About the only part of the Afro-
Eurasia world not affected by the rapid increase in global trade was Polynesia,
since it was far removed from trading routes.

The introduction of gunpowder, another Chinese invention, aided Europeans
in their conquests abroad. Soon enough, however, sea pirates also used the new
technology, particularly the Dutch pirates known as Sea Beggars.

In North Africa and in the trading cities along Africa’s east coast, Islam
spread rapidly as a result of the growth of the Abbasid Empire, centered in
Baghdad, and the activities of Muslim merchants. Interactions among various
cultures inside and outside of Africa brought extensive trade and new technology
to the continent.

Navigational techniques continued to spread throughout the 17th century.
Russia’s Tsar Peter the Great visited Western Europe in 1697 to observe military
and naval technology. His interest in European technology led him to hire
technicians from Germany and elsewhere to help build Russia’s military and
naval power.

KEY TERMS BY THEME

ECONOMICS: Europe
primogeniture laws
Omani-European rivalry

TECHNOLOGY: Navigation
cartography
astronomical chart

GOVERNMENT: Europe
maritime empires

194 WORLD HISTORY MODERN: AP® EDITION
Exploration: Causes and Events

You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to
lose sight of the shore.

— Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

Essential Question: What were the causes and effects of the state-
sponsored expansion of maritime exploration?

Thanks in part to improved navigation techniques, Italian cities with ports
on the Mediterranean had a monopoly on European trade with Asia. By
controlling access to the trade routes, the Italians controlled prices of Asian
imports to Europe, driving Spain and Portugal, and later France, England, and
the Netherlands, into the search for new routes to Asia. Explorers hoped to find
riches overseas, especially gold and silver. In addition to these economic and
political reasons, explorers were interested in converting others to Christianity.
Also, technological breakthroughs in sailing and navigation made bold new
voyages possible.

Christopher Columbus, quoted above and credited with “discovering the
New World,” was fortunate in 1492 to gain the support of the Spanish monarchs,
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, for his voyages across the Atlantic. His
journeys helped increase the interest in discovery, and the English, French, and
Dutch supported later exploration.

The Role of States in Maritime Exploration

European states were seeking ways to expand their authority and control of
resources in the era of empire-building. Conquests brought new wealth to
states through the collection of taxes and through new trading opportunities.
In time it also brought great material wealth, especially in silver, to European
states. Rivalries among European states stoked efforts to expand before
another power might claim a territory. Religion was also a motivating force
for exploration and expansion. Many Europeans believed that it was their
Christian duty to seek out people in other lands to convert them.

For all these reasons, states were centrally involved in maritime exploration.
Voyages such as those Columbus undertook were expensive, and without the
financial support of a state, they would most likely have been too expensive

EXPLORATION: CAUSES AND EVENTS 199
for explorers and even most merchants to be able to afford. Since religion was
tightly woven into the government of most European states, preserving and
spreading a state’s religion became another reason for state involvement.

Also, in the 17th century, Europeans generally measured the wealth of
a country in how much gold and silver it had accumulated. For this reason,
countries set policies designed to sell as many goods as they could to other
countries—in order to maximize the amount of gold and silver coming into the
country—and to buy as few as possible from other countries—to minimize the
flow of precious metals out of the country. This theory, known as mercantilism,
required heavy government involvement.

Expansion of European Maritime Exploration

In no nation were the interests of the state and the interest of explorers
as closely tied as they were in Portugal, which led the way in European
exploration as it had in maritime innovations. (See Topic 2.3.)

Portuguese in Africa and India The small kingdom of Portugal, bounded
on the east by the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, could expand only
overseas. Three people led its exploration:

¢ Prince Henry the Navigator (1394—1460) became the first European
monarch to sponsor seafaring expeditions, to search for an all-water
route to the east as well as for African gold. Under him, Portugal began
importing enslaved Africans by sea, replacing the overland slave trade.

¢ Bartholomew Diaz sailed around the southern tip of Africa, the Cape
of Good Hope, in 1488, into waters his crew did not know. Diaz feared
a mutiny if he continued pushing eastward, so he returned home.

* Vasco Da Gama sailed farther east than Diaz, landing in India in
1498. There he claimed territory as part of Portugal’s empire. The
Portuguese ports in India were a key step in expanding Portugal’s trade
in the Indian Ocean and with points farther east.

Portuguese in Southeast and East Asia Early in the 16th century, the
ruthless Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque won a short but bloody
battle with Arab traders and set up a factory at Malacca in present-day
Indonesia. He had previously served as governor of Portuguese India (1509—
1515), sending strings of Indians’ ears home to Portugal as evidence of his
conquests.

China’s exploration of the outside world came to an end after Zheng
He’s final voyage in the 1430s. (See Topic 2.3.) However, less than a century
later, in 1514, the outside world arrived on China’s doorstep in the form of
Portuguese traders. At that time, Portugal’s superior ships and weapons were
unmatched among the Europeans. As a result of this advantage, the Portuguese
had already won control of both the African and Indian coasts. They had won a
decisive victory over a Turkish-Egyptian-Venetian fleet at Diu, India, in 1509.

200 WORLD HISTORY MODERN: AP® EDITION
Initial Portuguese visits had little impact on Chinese society. But the
traders were followed by Roman Catholic missionaries, mainly Franciscans
and Dominicans, who worked to gain converts among the Chinese people.

The Jesuits soon followed and tried to win over the Chinese court elite.
Scientific and technical knowledge were the keys to success at the court. Jesuit
missionaries in Macau, such as Matteo Ricci (an Italian, arrived 1582) and
Adam Schall von Bell (a German, arrived 1619), impressed the Chinese with
their learning. However, they failed to win many converts among the hostile
scholar-gentry, who considered them barbaric.

Trading Post Empire To ensure control of trade, the Portuguese had
constructed a series of forts stretching from Hormuz on the Persian Gulf (built
in 1507) to Goa in western India (built in 1510) to Malacca on the Malay
Peninsula (built in 1511). The aims of the fort construction were to establish
a monopoly (complete control over a market) over the spice trade in the area
and to license all vessels trading between Malacca and Hormuz. The forts gave
Portugal a global trading post empire, one based on small outposts, rather
than control of large territories. The Portuguese also restricted Indian Ocean
trade to those who were willing to buy permits.

Portuguese Vulnerability The Portuguese succeeded in global trade for
several decades, but Portugal was a small nation, lacking the workers and the
ships necessary for the enforcement of a large trade empire. Many Portuguese
merchants ignored their government and traded independently. Corruption
among government officials also hampered the trading empire. By the 17th
century, Dutch and English rivals were challenging the Portuguese in East
Asia, including islands that are today part of Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Dutch captured Malacca and built a fort at Batavia in Java in 1620.
From Batavia, the Dutch attempted to monopolize the spice trade. As a result,
the English focused on India, pushing the Portuguese out of South Asia.

In the early 16th century, the Portuguese also travelled to Japan to trade,
followed by Christian missionaries in 1549. They formed large Catholic
settlements until the 1600s, when Japanese rulers outlawed Catholicism and
expelled the missionaries.

Spanish in the Philippines Portuguese explorers such as Vasco da
Gama were the first Western Europeans to reach the Indian Ocean by sea
by going around the southern tip of Africa. Spanish ships, however, became
the first to circumnavigate the globe when the government sponsored the
voyage of Ferdinand Magellan. He died on the voyage in the Philippine
Islands in 1522, but one of the ships in his fleet made it around the world,
proving that the earth could be circumnavigated.

Spain annexed the Philippines in 1521 when Magellan’s fleet arrived
there. The Spanish returned in 1565 and started a long campaign to conquer the
Filipinos, who put up fierce resistance. Manila became a Spanish commercial
center in the area, attracting Chinese merchants and others. Because of the
Portuguese and Spanish occupations, many Filipinos became Christians.

EXPLORATION: CAUSES AND EVENTS 201
The Lure of Riches

Columbus and other European explorers sought a new route to Asia and hoped
to find gold, silver, and other valuable resources. The Spanish found so little of
value in their first two decades of contact that they considered stopping further
exploration. The English, after sponsoring voyages in the 1490s, made little
attempt to explore or settle for almost a century.

However, European interest in the Americas was rekindled when the Spanish
came into contact with the two major empires in the region, the Aztecs in
Mesoamerica and the Incas in South America. These empires had the gold and silver
that made exploration, conquest, and settlement profitable. In addition, Europeans
soon realized that, by using enslaved Native Americans and later enslaved Africans,
they could grow wealthy by raising sugar, tobacco, and other valuable crops.

Trade Across the Pacific China was a particularly enthusiastic consumer of
this silver from the Western Hemisphere. Silver, for example, made its way from
what is now Mexico across the Pacific Ocean to East Asia in heavily armed
Spanish ships known as galleons that made stops in the Philippines. At the trading
post in Manila, Europeans exchanged silver for luxury goods such as silk and
spices, and even for gold bullion. The impressive Manila galleons allowed the
silver trade to flourish. Indeed, the Chinese government soon began using silver
as its main form of currency. By the early 17th century, silver had become a
dominant force in the global economic system.

Spain’s Gold and Silver Imports
from the Americas, 1503-1660
253

20
5
0
1 woh 520 1541-1560 1581-1600 1621-1640

_L 1540 1561-1580 1601-1620 1641-1660

pee
a
L

Millions of Pesos
3
I

i

Period of Time

Source: Earl J. Hamilton “Imports of American Gold and Silver into Spain, 1503-1660.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 1929.

202 WORLD HISTORY MODERN: AP® EDITION
Spain’s rivals in Europe also explored and claimed regions in the Americas.
French, English, and Dutch explorers all looked for a northwest passage—a
route through or around North America that would lead to East Asia and the
precious trade in spices and luxury goods.

French Exploration In the 1500s and 1600s, the French government
sponsored expeditions in search of a northwest passage. In 1535, for example,
French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed from the Atlantic Ocean into the St.
Lawrence River at today’s northern U.S. border. He did not find a new route
to Asia, but he did claim part of what is now Canada for France. Eventually,
explorers such as Cartier and Samuel de Champlain (explored 1609-1616)
realized there were valuable goods and rich resources available in the Americas,
so there was no need to go beyond to Asia.

Like the Spanish, the French hoped to find gold. Instead, they found a land
rich in furs and other natural resources. In 1608, they established a town and
trading post that they named Quebec. French traders and priests spread across
the continent. The traders searched for furs; the priests wanted to convert
Native Americans to Christianity. The missionaries sometimes set up schools
among the indigenous peoples. In the 1680s, a French trader known as La
Salle explored the Great Lakes and followed the Mississippi River south to its
mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed this vast region for France.

Unlike the Spanish—or the English who were colonizing the East Coast of
what is now the United States—the French rarely settled permanently. Instead
of demanding land, they traded for the furs trapped by Native Americans. For
this reason, the French had better relations with natives than did the Spanish or
English colonists and their settlements also grew more slowly. For example,
by 1754, the European population of New France, the French colony in
North America, was only 70,000. The English colonies included one million
Europeans.

English Exploration In 1497, the English king sent an explorer named
John Cabot to America to look for a northwest passage. Cabot claimed lands
from Newfoundland south to the Chesapeake Bay. The English, however,
did not have enough sea power to defend themselves against Spanish naval
forces—although English pirates called “sea dogs” sometimes attacked
Spanish ships. Then in 1588, the English surprisingly defeated and destroyed
all but one third of the Spanish Armada. With that victory, England declared
itself a major naval power and began competing for lands and resources in the
Americas.

At about the same time the French were founding Quebec, the English
were establishing a colony in a land called Virginia. In 1607, about one
hundred English colonists traveled approximately 60 miles inland from the
coast, where they built a settlement, Jamestown, on the James River. Both the
settlement and the river were named for the ruling English monarch, James I.
Jamestown was England’s first successful colony in the Americas, and one
of the earliest colonies in what would become the United States. The first
colonies in the present-day United States were Spanish settlements in Florida
and New Mexico.

EXPLORATION: CAUSES AND EVENTS 203
Comparing Transoceanic Voyages, c. 1300-c. 1800

Sponsoring | Explorer Key Voyages Purpose Impact
Empire
China Zheng He * India To open up trade China decided
- Middle East networks with not to continue
‘ India, Arabia, exploring
* Africa and Africa

and to spread
Chinese culture

England John Cabot | + North To find a sea Claimed land in
America route to the East | Canada for Britain

going west from | and established

Europe a shorter, more

northerly route
across the Atlantic
than Columbus’s

route.
Portugal Vasco da - West coast To open a sea Portugal expanded
Gama of Africa route from trade and cultural
* India Europe to India | exchange between
and China India and Europe
Spain Christopher | + Caribbean To find a sea Spain led the
Columbus islands route to India European
* Central and China exploration and
America going west from | colonization of the
Europe Americas
Spain Ferdinand * South To demonstrate | Spain established
Magellan America that Europeans links between the

* Philippines could reach Asia | Americas and Asia
by sailing west across the Pacific
Ocean

Dutch Exploration In 1609, the Dutch sent Henry Hudson to explore
the East Coast of North America. Among other feats, he sailed up what became
known as the Hudson River to see if it led to Asia. He was disappointed in
finding no northwest passage. He and other explorers would continue to search
for such a route. Though it would travel through a chilly region, it offered the
possibility of being only half the distance of a route that went around South
America.

Though Hudson did not find a northwest passage, his explorations proved
valuable to the Dutch. Based on his voyage, the Dutch claimed the Hudson
River Valley and the island of Manhattan. On the tip of this island, they settled
a community called New Amsterdam, which today is known as New York
City. Like many port towns, New Amersterdam prospered because it was
located where a major river flowed into the ocean.

204 WORLD HISTORY MODERN: AP® EDITION
New Amsterdam became an important node in the Dutch transatlantic trade
network. Dutch merchants bought furs from trappers who lived and worked in
the forest lands as far north as Canada. They purchased crops from lands to
the south, particularly tobacco from Virginia planters. They sent these goods
and others to the Netherlands in exchange for manufactured goods that they
could sell throughout colonial North America (Connect: Explain how one of
the European explorers in 4.2 compares to Marco Polo. See Topic 2.5.)

KEY TERMS BY THEME

ECONOMICS: Europe GOVERNMENT: GOVERNMENT: Colonies
mercantilism Exploration Quebec
trading post empire Christopher Columbus New France
Manila Bartholomew Diaz Jamestown
Vasco Da Gama New Amsterdam

GOVERNMENT: Portugal

Prince Henry the Navigator Peli Magellan

northwest passage
TECHNOLOGY: Maritime Jacques Cartier
galleons Samuel de Champlain
John Cabot

Henry Hudson

EXPLORATION: CAUSES AND EVENTS 205 read this and answer my following questions