The Age of Exploration

1
The Age of Exploration

• The Creation of the Atlantic System and the
  Eurocentric World
• 1433-1650

2
The Age of Exploration

• Three broad issues 1433-1650
• I. Expansion and impact on Europe
• II. Impact on non-European civilizations Europe
  bumps into
• III. Impact on world as a whole and worldwide
  system

3
The Age of Exploration

• In the 200 years between the 1430s and the
  1630s Europeans learned that all seas are one
  that seamen, given adequate ships and supplies,
  skill and courage, could in time reach any
  country in the world which had an ocean coast,
  andwhat was more importantreturn home.
• No other period in Western history equals this
  time in significance or dramatic interest.

4
The Age of Exploration

• Unfortunately, few actual accounts of early
  voyages exist because most expedition leaders
  were men who saw no reason to write and
  potentially give away valuable information
  (except to their employers).
• The employers wanted to monopolize the profits of
  the new-found lands.

5
The Age of Exploration

• Travel before this period was nothing newwhat
  was new was once rulers and financiers understood
  that more efficient ships, more accurate
  instruments and better methods of cartography and
  navigation had made long ocean voyages possible,
  they invested in exploring.

6
The Age of Exploration

• Their object was not discovery for its own
  sakethat was incidentalbut the opening of ocean
  routes to distant India, China, and Japan,
  countries known to exist and believed to be of
  commercial importance.

7
The Age of Exploration

• The men who did the work were tough
  professionals, willing to serve any ruler who
  would employ them, ready to go anywhere and
  investigate anything if they were suitably
  rewarded.
• Skillful, imaginative and bold, and often
  ruthless, they drew the map of the world we know.

8

The Age of Exploration

• By the end of the 15th Century, trade
  relationships with the rest of the world were
  starting to be dominated by Europe (China had
  withdrawn).
• Europe had traded with Asia for centuries through
  the long and dangerous overland routes (the Silk
  Road) or through the Middle East.

9
The Age of Exploration

• The Silk Road.

10
The Age of Exploration

• The Middle East (the Ottomans) put taxes/duties
  on goods bound for Europe, making the Middle East
  wealthy and angering the Europeans.
• Europe looked for way to cut-out the Middle
  Eastern middlemen.

11
The Age of Exploration

• Even though the medieval Europeans knowledge of
  Asia and Africa was vague, they were fascinated
  by these continents.
• The Bible had made Asia, home of the three Magi,
  and Africa, legendary source of King Solomons
  wealth part of the background of every Christian.

12
The Age of Exploration

• Medieval storytellers made Asia and Africa Lands
  of Marvels. For instance, it was believed that
  somewhere in Africa there was a river of gold
  that emptied into a seething tropical sea no man
  could reach and still live.
• Somewhere in Africa (or in Asia?) was a land
  filled with treasure guarded by dragons and
  hovered over by legless birds who spent their
  whole lives in the air.

13
The Age of Exploration

• Somewhere there were sheep the size of oxen
  giants who could wade into the ocean and grab a
  ship with one hand women whose eyes were made of
  precious stones that could slay a man with one
  glance and headless men whose faces were in
  their chests.

14
The Age of Exploration

• Starting in the 1430s, Portugal started
  exploring the West coast of Africa, initially
  searching for a faster route to China, India, and
  Spice Islands.

15
The Age of Exploration

• The Portuguese wanted easier access to the luxury
  fabrics (cotton/linen/silk) and spices of Asia.

16
The Age of Exploration

• Financed by Prince Henry (the Navigator),
  Portugal pressed further and further southward
  along the African coast.

17
The Age of Exploration

• Henry had set two goals to trace the source of
  the trade in gold, ivory, slaves and pepper, and
  to get in touch with Prester John, with whom he
  hoped to plan a crusade that would clear the
  Muslims from North Africa and the Holy Lands once
  and for all.

18
The Age of Exploration

• To accomplish these goals, Henry established a
  community of scholars dedicated to geographical
  studies.
• The knowledge they accumulated was to be used by
  the captains of his expeditions.

19
The Age of Exploration

• The fabled Christian kingdom of a priest turned
  king, Prester John.

20
The Age of Exploration

• This kingdom (believed to be somewhere in eastern
  Africa or Asia) was supposedly lost among the
  Muslims and pagans of the East.
• Europeans believed it had wealth beyond measure,
  monsters and magical plants, living jewels and
  extraordinary beasts.

21
The Age of Exploration

• The exploration of the west coast of Africa
  didnt present physical difficulties for
  Portuguese seamen, it caused psychological ones.
• It was widely believed that life was
  unsupportable near the Equator and that monsters
  lurked beneath the seas.

22
The Age of Exploration

• Cape Nun, on the northwestern coast of Africa was
  so named because of the legend that none of the
  seamen that ventured past it returned beyond
  Cape Nun, it was rumored, the boiling sea
  destroyed all who were not already burned black
  by the vertical sun.

23
The Age of Exploration

• Further down the coast lay the Antipodes, where
  according to the Church, only monsters lived.
• A final deterrent was that many believed that
  Africa could not be circumnavigated.
• But with Henrys urging and support, Portuguese
  seamen slowly began moving down the west coast of
  Africa.

24
The Age of Exploration

• Cape Nun was passed in 1434. In 1441, an
  expedition returned from the Rio de Ouro region
  with a cargo of slaves, beginning the European
  slave trade.
• By 1473 the Equator had been crossed without
  anyone bursting into flames or turning black.

25
The Age of Exploration

• The Portuguese (and other Europeans) sailed in
  small, maneuverable ships called caravels.
• A technological advantage was that they were fast
  and used triangular lateen sails (an idea
  borrowed from Arab sailors).

26
The Age of Exploration

• Caravels were round hulled and deep-drafted (they
  sat lower in the water so they could carry more
  cargo/provisions weapons).
• The compass and astrolabe improved navigation and
  allowed for better map making.

27
The Age of Exploration

• But the main difference was made with gunpowder
  weaponry (like cannons).

28
The Age of Exploration

• Conditions on board ships was appalling, even by
  the standards of their time all ships leaked
  and even with pumps, water was always sloshing
  around below decks which was polluted by the
  casual sanitary habits of the age.
• Roaches and rats swarmed everywhere.
• No specific sleeping quarters were provided
  except for the captain and pilot of the ship.

29
The Age of Exploration

• Ordinary seamen slept on or below deck wherever
  they could find room.
• Food not only ran short, but quickly went bad.
  Shipboard menus consisted of dried and salted
  meat, salted fish, biscuit, rice, dried peas,
  cheese, garlic, onions, oil, vinegar, water,
  beer, and wine.
• After a few days, the salted foods often turned
  to a slimy, mealy mess.

30
The Age of Exploration

• We ate only old biscuit reduced to powder,
  and full of grubs, and stinking from the dirt
  which the rats had made on it when eating the
  good biscuit, and we drank water that was yellow
  and stinking. We also ate the ox-hides
  (leather)also the sawdust of wood, and rats.
• From the chronicle of Magellans Pacific
  crossing.

31
The Age of Exploration

• Disease was very common on long voyages,
  especially since sailors ate few fresh fruits or
  vegetables, slept in cramped quarters infested
  with fleas and lice, and were often drenched for
  days on end.
• Fevers and the plague were common, but the worst
  was scurvy. A voyage was considered successful if
  20 or less died of scurvy along the way.

32
The Age of Exploration

• Scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) rotted away a
  sailors gums causing teeth to fall out or
  abscess.
• Blood poisoning followed, then usually death.

33
The Age of Exploration

• On long voyages it was common to lose 3-4 sailors
  a day to scurvythey were usually just thrown
  overboard into the sea.
• When a Scottish doctor discovered in 1747 that
  citrus cured scurvy, the British Royal Navy
  ordered sailors to eat limesthis is why
  Americans began calling the British limeys.

34
The Age of Exploration

• Under the best of circumstances it was hard to
  predict the length of a voyageColumbus on his
  fourth voyage took 21 days to go 3,000 miles (and
  he had good weather). Magellan crossed the
  Pacific going west in 98 days. The eastward
  crossing could take over six months. The average
  trip from Lisbon to India took seven months.

35
The Age of Exploration

• A ships speed was calculated by tossing a wood
  chip off the bow (front) and timing it to the
  stern (back).
• Then the wood chip was tied to a knotted line and
  thrown over.
• Relating the knots that slipped through his
  fingers to elapsed time gave the sailor the
  ships speedin knots. 1 knot approx 1.15 mph

36
The Age of Exploration

• It took over 50 years for the Portuguese to reach
  the tip of Africa (the Cape of Good Hope in
  1487).
• Rather than round the Cape, the weary sailors
  forced their expedition back up the coast of
  Africa towards home.

37
The Age of Exploration

• It would take another ten years before Vasco da
  Gama would be appointed by the Portuguese king to
  open the sea route to India.

38
The Age of Exploration

• Da Gama and his fleet left Lisbon on July 8,
  1497.
• After three months and a voyage of nearly 4,000
  miles, da Gamas four ships circumnavigated the
  Cape of Good Hope and Mossel Bay and became the
  first Europeans to sail into the Indian Ocean.

39
The Age of Exploration

• As the Portuguese moved northward along the east
  coast of Africa (the Swahili Coast), they found a
  community of Hindus living in Malindi (modern
  Kenya).
• Da Gama was convinced they were Christiansa sign
  that the elusive Prester John was not far away.

40
The Age of Exploration

• Da Gamas four small ships made their way to
  India (1498) with the help of a Hindu pilot they
  picked up in Malindi.
• As the Portuguese approached the west coast of
  India (known as the Malabar Coast), they
  mistakenly thought the Hindus were Christians
  because they thought Hindu temples were churches.

41
The Age of Exploration

• When they dropped anchor, the Portuguese had
  landed at the famous trading city of Calicut.

42
The Age of Exploration

• To the Arabs and Persians who dominated the trade
  between India and Africa, the Portuguese
  represented a threat.
• Unfortunately for da Gama, no one wanted what the
  Portuguese brought to sellthey only had crude
  items like iron pots.

43
The Age of Exploration

• Fortunately, they also had some gold so they were
  able to purchase spices and Chinese porcelains.
• After an unsuccessful attempt on his life, da
  Gama decided it was time to return to Portugal.
• The stretch across the Indian Ocean to Africa
  took three months, and so many men died of scurvy
  that da Gama had to destroy one of his ships
  because there werent enough men to sail it.

44
The Age of Exploration

• When da Gama sailed into Lisbon harbor in
  September 1499, he had been away for more than
  two years and had sailed over 24,000 nautical
  miles.

45
The Age of Exploration

• Of the 170 men who sailed with da Gama, only 44
  returned.
• He brought back a few place settings of Chinese
  porcelain which set off the craze for china and
  he made an incredible profit.
• He was given the title Admiral of the Ocean Seas
  by the king of Portugal.

46
The Age of Exploration

• As the Portuguese made more trips to India (about
  once a year), they substituted violence for their
  lack of attractive goods to trade.

47
The Age of Exploration

• Da Gama used guns and cannons to intimidate, and
  his sailors killed or tortured many Indian
  merchants to set an example.
• By 1514, the Portuguese had reached the Spice
  Islands (Indonesia) and China.
• By 1517, Portugal had forts throughout eastern
  Africa and India.
• By 1542, they had reached Japan.

48
The Age of Exploration

• Portugal dominated parts of Africa (starting in
  1433) and the Indian Ocean (starting in 1498)
  while Spain dominated the Americas (starting in
  1492).
• Increasing tension between Portugal and Spain
  over land rights caused the Pope to intervene and
  create the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).

49
The Age of Exploration

• The Treaty of Tordesillas divided the Atlantic
  world between the two monarchies.
• Portugal got Brazil (decided in 1500), West
  Africa, and the eastern trade routes to India
  while Spain got the oceans and lands to the west
  (meaning North and South America, over to Asia).
• A miscalculation of the location of South America
  allowed Portugal to claim Brazil.

50
The Age of Exploration
51
The Age of Exploration

• In 1512 another sailor from Portugal (but sailing
  for Spain), Ferdinand Magellan (Magalhaes), set
  sail looking for a shorter route to Asia and the
  Spice Islands.
• He convinced the king of Spain(Charles I) that if
  Spanish ships could slip under the southernmost
  point of the American barrier, they could have as
  easy access as the Portuguese found rounding
  Africa.

52
The Age of Exploration

• Unfortunately, Magellan received only
  half-hearted support when it came to outfitting
  the expeditionfive aged ships manned by old and
  ragged sailors.
• Even if Magellan reached the Spice Islands there
  was no guarantee that Spain could claim them
  because no was sure if they were in the Spanish
  zone.

53
The Age of Exploration

• Magellans five ships left Spain in late
  September, 1519 sailing west across the Atlantic.
  When he reached Brazil they sailed south
  reaching Patagonia as winter was setting in.

54
The Age of Exploration

• Magellan and his crews spent the next five months
  in a Patagonian bay.
• During that time, he lost one ship to a
  shipwreck, another by desertion, and was almost
  forced to turn back because of a mutiny.

55
The Age of Exploration

• Magellan did not set sail again until the summer
  of 1520. When he reached 52 degrees 30 minutes
  south he found the strait that would bear his
  name.
• In a masterly piece of seamanship, he guided his
  ships through a rock-strewn and stormy passageway
  filled with cliffs and zigzag turns.

56
The Age of Exploration
57
The Age of Exploration

• The 320 mile-long strait took 38 days but when
  they emerged, his theory was confirmedthere was
  a southwest passage to the Pacific.
• America did have a southern tip and did not, as
  many cartographers believed, form a part of the
  still unexplored Antarctic continent of Terra
  Australis Incognita.

58
The Age of Exploration
59
The Age of Exploration

• Magellans ships were now the first European
  ships to sail into the Pacific Ocean (and named
  it Mar Pacifico).
• Magellan turned north and followed the coast for
  1,000 miles enabling chart-makers to gauge the
  width and shape of South America.

60
The Age of Exploration

• Desperately short of provisions, and with no idea
  how far he would have to sail before reaching his
  goal, he forbade his men, under pain of death, to
  discuss the uncertainties that lay ahead.
• Unfortunately his course was all open sea, and
  the only group of islands they encountered was so
  barren, he named them the Unfortunate Isles.

61
The Age of Exploration

• Magellan finally reached Guam in early March 1521
  after his men suffered through three months of
  disease and near starvation.
• After replenishing their food and water, they
  continued, landing in the Philippines 10 days
  later.
• Seeing natives with gold ornaments caused
  Magellan to believe that he was near his goal and
  that wealth was within his grasp.

62
The Age of Exploration

• Magellan got involved in a local skirmish between
  tribes and was killed by natives in the
  Philippines.
• For the remaining members of the expedition, the
  nightmare wasnt over.

63
The Age of Exploration

• So few men were left to operate the three
  remaining ships that one ship was burned and her
  crew split between the other two.
• One ship was in such bad shape her captain was
  afraid it wouldnt make it around the Cape of
  Good Hope so he sailed east towards South America
  only to be turned around by unfavorable winds and
  land in the Moluccas (modern day Indonesia).

64
The Age of Exploration

• This ship was captured and the crew imprisoned by
  the Portuguese (who had controlled the area since
  1512).
• The remaining ship picked up a cargo of cloves
  and spices and limped back to Spain, arriving in
  September 1522three years after setting sail.
• Of his five ships and over 280 sailors, only one
  ship and 31 men made it back to Spain alive.

65
The Age of Exploration

• By the middle of the 16th century, the fabulous
  wealth Spain and Portugal generated caused other
  nations to get into the game (Britain, France,
  Netherlands)
• Britain in India and North America.
• France in Canada (Quebec) and other parts of NA
• Netherlands in South Africa and Indonesia
  (Malacca Spice Islands)

66
The Age of Exploration
67
The Age of Exploration

• The traditional story of Columbus (known as the
  Columbian Era 1492-1800)
• Spanish and Portuguese were few but successful in
  conquering the savages.
• British, French, and Dutch soldiers and settlers
  did the same.
• History focused on the struggle between Europeans
  to dominate the land.

68
The Age of Exploration

• Natives were seen as unimportantonly enemies in
  the fight over their lands.
• History written (mostly in 19th century) showed
  rampant nationalism, elitism, and racism.
• History ignored women, non-Christians, and
  non-whites it reinforced European ethnocentrism.

69
The Age of Exploration

• No one knew in 1405 that the huge armada under
  Zheng Hes command would be recalled in 1433,
  never to sail again.
• No one knew in 1492 that Columbus tiny fleet of
  three ships would utterly transform the world,
  bringing the peoples of two old worlds and two
  hemispheres permanently together.

70
The Age of Exploration

• The consequences set in motion by those three
  small ships included the Atlantic slave trade,
  the decimation of the native population of the
  Americas, the massive growth of world
  population, the Industrial Revolution, and the
  growing prominence of Europeans on the world
  stage.

71
The Age of Exploration

• As the Portuguese charted the African coast, to
  the west, there were only myths and some
  fragmentary reports concerning a few islands in
  the Atlantic.
• Several 15th Century maps showed a large,
  legendary island called Antillia far west of
  Portugal at the same latitude as Lisbon.
• Other maps showed a more northerly island called
  Vinlanda.

72
The Age of Exploration

• Only the Madeiras and the Azores, discovered in
  the 14th Century and the Canaries, discovered in
  1402 were known during Columbus time.
• It was believed that somewhere further out was
  the legendary land of Atlantis, seat of a
  vanished civilization mentioned by Plato and kept
  alive by medieval geographers (actually believed
  to have been found in southern Spain in 2011).

73
The Age of Exploration
74
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus, an experienced mariner, believed he
  could improve on the laborious Portuguese efforts
  to work down the African coast in search of the
  way around to the Indies a term that included
  all of eastern Asia.
• Columbus was convinced that he could reach the
  Indies first by going directly west over the
  open sea.

75
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus had studied The Travels of Marco Polo
  and the maps of Ibn al Idrisi and the ancient
  geographer Ptolemy.
• Based on his calculations, the distance between
  Europe and Asia was a mere 5,000 nautical miles
  (the real distance is nearly 12,000 miles).

76
The Age of Exploration

• He first made his case to the king of Portugal,
  who after careful consideration, turned him down.
• Columbus then appealed to Ferdinand and Isabella
  who agreed only after years of debate (they were
  tired of Portugals success along the coast of
  Africa).

77
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus set sail going West (instead of East) on
  August 4, 1492.
• He had two 70 ft. caravels (the Nina and the
  Pinta) and his flagship, the Santa Maria, was
  slightly larger.

78
The Age of Exploration

• After 33 days, he landed in the Bahamas (on the
  island of Guanahaniwhich he renamed San
  Salvador).

79
The Age of Exploration

• To give you a sense of scale, Columbus captained
  three ships with a crew of about 90.
• da Gama captained four ships with a crew of about
  170.
• Zheng Hes fleet had hundreds of ships and a crew
  of about 30,000.

80
The Age of Exploration

• According to recent scholarship,
• All the ships of Columbus and da Gama
  combined could have been stored on a single deck
  of a single vessel in the fleet that set sail
  under Zheng He.

81
The Age of Exploration

• As he sailed, Columbus kept two records of the
  distance coveredone which he kept to himself,
  and the other which was a deliberate
  underestimate he announced to the crew (hoping to
  prevent panic from being so far into the
  unknown).
• After the men had been at sea longer than their
  previous experiences, they were seized with one
  fear after another.

82
The Age of Exploration

• After 30 days of sailing on the Santa Maria, the
  crew demanded that Columbus turn back, and he
  promised to do so if they didnt see land within
  two or three days.
• Two days later, October 12 at 2 a.m., under a
  full moon, land was sighted by the Pinta (which
  was in the lead).
• The next day, Columbus and a small party went
  ashore.

83
The Age of Exploration
84
The Age of Exploration

• Because of the small gold ornaments the natives
  wore in their noses, Columbus thought he landed
  in the Indies (why he named the indigenous
  peoples Indians) and he was surprised that the
  natives didnt speak Arabic.

85
The Age of Exploration

• When Columbus first encountered the inhabitants
  of San Salvador, the gentle Arawak Taino Indians,
  he noted in his journal how they greeted the
  Europeans with friendly courtesy and they eagerly
  exchanged gifts with the crew.

86
The Age of Exploration

• Writing in his journal the day he landed in the
  New World, Columbus was certain that once he
  sailed through the outer islands of the Indies,
  he would reach the vast riches of China and
  Japan.
• He believed it was a short journey of less than
  an additional 1000 miles.

87
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus was convinced that once he reached
  China, he would be welcomed by the Great Khan, an
  emperor of incredible wealth who spoke Arabic and
  ruled over lands of gold, silver, gems, silks,
  spices, and valuable medicines.
• But Columbus never found India or China, and
  never found vast wealth in the New World.

88
The Age of Exploration

• So after a few days, He wrote in his journal I
  intend to go and see if I can now find the Island
  of Japan.
• So he left San Salvador, sailing for 15 days
  until he discovered Cubacertain he had found
  Marco Polos Cipangu (Japan).

89
The Age of Exploration

• But there were no silk-clad sages or palaces
  tiled with solid gold.
• He sent an expedition into the interior looking
  for an imperial city.
• The only thing of interest they found was some
  Indians smoking cigars, making this the first
  European encounter with tobacco.

90
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus calculated that he wasnt in Japan after
  all by his estimate he had sailed too far from
  Europe for that.
• No, this must be China.
• For three months his tiny fleet sailed through
  the uncharted and often dangerous waters of the
  Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola.

91
The Age of Exploration

• On Hispaniola, Columbus was elated by the gold
  ornaments worn by the natives and by a hammered
  gold mask he received as a gift.
• In a classic case of miscommunication, Columbus
  ordered his sailors to dance to the rhythm of a
  drum in order to attract some Indians who were
  lying some way off the ship in a canoe. The
  Indians thought it was a war dance and started
  shooting arrows.

92
The Age of Exploration

• Then he lost his flagship (the Santa Maria) when
  she ran aground late one night.
• Her timbers were salvaged to make the first
  European settlement in the New World, a fort
  which Columbus garrisoned with 40 men.

93
The Age of Exploration

• He then decided it was time to sail home to give
  Ferdinand and Isabella the great news that their
  venture had been no mere vision, that contact had
  been made with Cathay (India).
• After three months of bad weather, his two ships
  limped into Lisbon harbor.
• He immediately dispatched a letter to Ferdinand
  and Isabella talking about his exploits.

94
The Age of Exploration

• Describing the mountains of Hispaniola, Columbus
  wrote All are most beautiful, of a
  thousand shapes, and all accessible, and
  filled with trees of a thousand kinds
  and tall, and they seem to touch the skyAnd
  there were singing the nightingale and other
  little birds of a thousand kinds in the month
  of November.
• Like most things Columbus said, this was a wild
  exaggeration.

95
The Age of Exploration

• When Columbus arrived at the court of Ferdinand
  and Isabella in Barcelona (April 1493), he was
  addressed as Don Cristobal ColonAdmiral of the
  Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the Islands he
  hath discovered in the Indies.

96
The Age of Exploration
97
The Age of Exploration

• After Columbus first trans-Atlantic voyage in
  1492, a return expedition the next year
  established a colony on the island of Santo
  Domingo (Hispaniola).
• Hispaniola became the Spanish base of operations
  for further discoveries in the New World (so
  named for the first time in 1494).

98
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus then went on the first West Indies
  cruise. His sailors saw their first hammock and
  ate their first yams.
• Columbus doctor wrote with amazement about
  trees bearing wool, cotton trees as large as
  peach trees, trees producing wax as good as
  bees-wax, and wild fruits, some of which caused
  great heat and pain, driving the men mad.

99
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus discovered Jamaica and stopped,
  certain he had found the base of the Malay
  Peninsula.
• He was convinced that he would meet the Great
  Khan on another trip.
• When he returned to Spain, the colonists Columbus
  left behind from his second voyage were massacred
  by the natives.

100
The Age of Exploration

• His third voyage was in the spring of 1496.
• He first landed in Trinidad, and then a few days
  later his crew landed on a beach near the delta
  of the Orinoco River.
• At first he thought he had reached an unknown
  continent (actually South America), then he
  believed he was on the threshold of Earthly
  Paradisethat blessed domain.

101
The Age of Exploration

• He wanted to enter but his sailors threatened
  mutiny so he set sail for Spain, so the
  exploration of south America was left to other
  men.
• On this voyage, Columbus, who had been made
  governor of Hispaniola, was sent back to Spain in
  chains because he was a cruel and ineffective
  administrator.

102
The Age of Exploration

• Columbuss own sailors slandered him on their
  return to Spain, saying he withheld gold from the
  king.
• King Ferdinand began to realize he didnt need
  Columbus to conduct his explorations.

103
The Age of Exploration

• Columbus emphasized to Ferdinand and Isabella
  that Cathay (India) was within their grasp and
  how easy it would be to make the savages who
  had been seen eating spiders and wormsinto pious
  and noble Christians.

104
The Age of Exploration

• Returning to Spain he faced charges of illegally
  executing Spaniards and brutalizing natives.
• But by May 1502, Columbus (who was cleared of the
  charges against him) set sail on his fourth, and
  final voyage to the New World.

105
The Age of Exploration

• He had four ships and his mission was to explore
  uncharted areas to the west of the Caribbean,
  hopefully finding a passage west to the Orient.
• In the summer of 1502, Columbus discovered
  Central America, first reaching Honduras and then
  Panama.
• By now, Vasco da Gama had reached India, putting
  Portugal far ahead of Spain in the race to the
  Orient.

106
The Age of Exploration

• So it was crucial that Columbus find the passage
  way that would give Spain equal access.
• But his ships were damaged by a hurricane and
  termites, and they fell apart while he was
  exploring.
• Columbus and his men were stranded on Jamaica for
  about a year before being rescued.

107
The Age of Exploration

• They returned to Spain in late 1504.
• Unsuccessful in his previous missions, Columbus,
  the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, died at 55, an
  exhausted, broken man in political obscurity.

108
The Age of Exploration

• The conquest of the New World was not a unified
  movementbut rather a series of individual
  initiatives that usually operated with government
  (Spanish or Portuguese) approval.
• The conquest of the Americas was two pronged
  one directed towards Mexico and the other one
  aimed at South America.

109
Cortes and the Aztec

• In 1519 Hernando Cortes led an expedition of 11
  ships, 553 men, and 16 horses from the Spanish
  colony of Cuba to the coast of Mexico.
• Cortes once remarked We Spaniards suffer from a
  disease that only gold can cure.

110
Cortes and the Aztec

• In 1519 Moctezuma II was nearly 40 years old and
  had skillfully ruled for 17 years.

111
Cortes and the Aztec

• But recently his personality had changed gone
  was his ability in war and diplomacy, replaced
  with uncertainty accompanied with spells of
  brooding.
• He secluded himself in his palace and was rarely
  seen in public, consulting with priests and
  soothsayers, or meditating alone.

112
Cortes and the Aztec

• Aztec legend talked of a famous ruler who was
  associated with the god Quetzalcoatl (god of wind
  and father to humans), who was forced into exile
  in the east, the land of the rising sun.

113
Cortes and the Aztec

• Moctezuma II was particularly concerned about the
  exiled god Quetzalcoatl and his promise to
  return.
• That had been more than 500 years earlier, and
  the year the god said hed return was almost at
  hand.
• Then news came of strange men riding in
  white-winged ships on the eastern sea.

114
Cortes and the Aztec

• Along the coast before arriving at Veracruz,
  Cortes acquired an invaluable asset an extremely
  intelligent native girl who not only knew the
  local dialects but also the Aztec language.
• She learned Spanish so easily and quickly that
  she became Cortes interpreter, closest adviser
  (and mistress). She was totally loyal to Cortes.
• She also converted to Christianity.

115
Cortes and the Aztec

• Cortes named her Dona Marina (or Malinche).
• When the Spaniards arrived, Moctezuma controlled
  an area nearly twice the size of Pennsylvania
  with over 11 million people.

116
Cortes and the Aztec

• After hearing rumors of a great kingdom in the
  interior, the Spanish set off, fighting Aztec
  allied towns along the way.

117
Cortes and the Aztec

• When word reached Moctezuma of the light skinned
  Europeans, he seems to have been uncertain
  whether to welcome them with reverence as gods,
  or with violence, as invaders.
• Cortes, hearing from Malinche that Moctezuma
  considered him a god, dispatched a message asking
  permission to visit the capital.

118
Cortes and the Aztec

• A week later, Aztec nobles arrived in Cortes
  camp with magnificent offerings including large
  discs of gold and silver (representing the sun
  and moon) and 20 golden ducks, golden monkeys,
  and pumas.
• Some of the food he sent had been ceremonially
  doused with the blood of a sacrificial victim as
  was the Aztec custom.

119
Cortes and the Aztec

• The Aztec nobles then politely asked Cortes to
  leave Mexico.
• When Moctezuma heard that Cortes rejected the
  Aztec envoys (and their food), he changed his
  mind about the Spaniards intentions and had
  sorcerers cast spells on the Spanish to keep them
  away.

120
Cortes and the Aztec

• However, the Spanish proved resistant to Aztec
  magic and Cortes moved his troops towards the
  Aztec capital.
• As they pushed further into the interior, the
  Spanish allied themselves with Aztec enemies and
  as they moved closer to Tenochtitlan.

121
Cortes and the Aztec

• From a cold mountain pass between the
  awe-inspiring snow-capped peaks of Popocatepetl
  and Ixtaccihuatl, the nervous Spanish looked down
  on a remarkable series of interconnected lakes in
  the Valley, with well-ordered towns and raised
  fields on the shores, and a great city built on
  islands and causeways towards the western edge of
  the largest of the lakes.

122
Cortes and the Aztec

• Cortes, with Indian allies who hated the Aztec,
  eventually reached the island capital city of
  Tenochtitlan (tay-nawch-tee-Tlan).

123
Cortes and the Aztec

• According to Aztec legend, they built their main
  city, Tenochtitlan (tay nawch tee Tlan Place
  of the Prickly Pear Cactus) in a place
  identified by an eagle perched on a pear cactus
  with a snake in its mouth.
• It is believed that the city had 300,000 people
  (double the largest city in Europe at the
  timeParis).

124
Cortes and the Aztec

• As the Spaniards marched down on to the plain and
  neared the city, they went across one (of the
  three) causeways linking the island metropolis to
  the mainland and were astounded by Tenochtitlans
  size and beauty.
• The great temples and palaces rose from the water
  like a vision.

125
Cortes and the Aztec

• One member of the Spanish force later likened it
  to a city from a fairytale, a vision of
  enchantment.

126
Cortes and the Aztec

• When the Spanish force and its allies came into
  Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma met Cortes on the
  causeway atop a palanquin carried by four nobles
  and greeted him with the utmost respect.

127
Cortes and the Aztec

• A conquistador said of Moctezuma II many great
  lords walked before the great Moctezuma sweeping
  the ground on which he was to tread and laying
  down cloaks so that his feet should not touch the
  earth. Not one of these great chieftains dared
  look him in the face

128
Cortes and the Aztec

• Cortes and his men were greeted as gods (the
  Aztec had never seen horses and thought they were
  gods too).

129
Cortes and the Aztec

• The emperor was tall and thin and had a sparse
  black beard, and on his head he wore a plume of
  long green feathers that floated down his back.

130
Cortes and the Aztec

• Moctezuma gave Cortes a necklace of snail shells
  and shrimps fashioned from solid gold and a
  quetzal feather headdress, and in return was
  presented a string of Venetian glass beads.

131
Cortes and the Aztec

• Then in a fateful moment, Moctezuma invited the
  Spanish into his capital.
• The Spanish were quartered in the palace of
  Axayacatl (named after Moctezuma IIs father)
  near the heart of the city.

132
Cortes and the Aztec

• Once the Spanish were settled, Moctezuma came and
  visited Cortes.
• Through Dona Marina, the two men discussed their
  respective countries, and Cortes tried (but
  failed) to convert the Emperor to Christianity.
• An uneasy friendship developed.

133
Cortes and the Aztec

• Cortes was invited to the emperors palace where
  he saw hordes of courtiers and over a thousand
  wives and concubines.
• Cortes and his men were then given a tour of
  Tenochtitlan, where they saw the grisly temples
  and the bloody remnants of sacrifices.

134
Cortes and the Aztec

• Aztec society was patriarchal, but women received
  high honor for bearing warrior sons, and the
  spirits of women who died in childbirth were
  believed to help the sun god in his journey
  through the sky each day.

135
Cortes and the Aztec

• The Aztecs also had a large and powerful group of
  priests.
• They served as advisors to the king and his
  officials, and they conducted the elaborate
  religious rituals that were central to Aztec
  society.

136
Cortes and the Aztec

• The chief god, Huitzilopochtli, ruled from the
  position of the sun at noon, and in order to keep
  him in his proper place in the sky, the Aztecs
  believed he must be fed human blood.
• This blood came from frequent human sacrifices on
  altars that lined the main streets of
  Tenochtitlan.

137
Cortes and the Aztec

• The Spanish were particularly horrified by these
  Aztec blood rituals.
• Aztec blood rituals were particularly messy,
  with thousands of victims taken as war captives
  or tribute just for that purpose.

138
Cortes and the Aztec
139
Cortes and the Aztec

• A special part of the ritual was cutting the
  heart from the live victims chest, and the heart
  was then eaten by the Aztec nobility.

140
Cortes and the Aztec

• Priests used large obsidian (stone) knives.

141
Cortes and the Aztec

• Sacrifices were carried out in front of large
  crowds that included the leaders from enemy and
  subject states, sending the clear message of the
  power of the Aztec elite.
• The political message was equally clear
  rebellion, deviancy, and opposition were very
  dangerous.

142
Cortes and the Aztec

• Cortes didnt trust the unpredictable Moctezuma.
• Fearing attempts on their lives, Cortes and 30
  armed Spanish soldiers acted swiftly and with
  audacity by capturing Moctezuma in his own
  palace.
• Cortes had the emperor placed in his royal litter
  and carried back to their palace.

143
Cortes and the Aztec

• Moctezuma did not resist, and as the royal
  cortege made its way through the streets, the
  people stood watching silently, paralyzed in
  their belief in the legend of Quetzalcoatl.
• The ancient god had returned, they told each
  other, to rule over their nation in the guise of
  the blackbearded Spaniards.

144
Cortes and the Aztec

• Now in control of the city, Cortes rushed back to
  the coast, where he met 900 additional Spanish
  troops from Cuba.
• While he was away, Cortes second in command
  invited 600 Aztec nobles to a temple to celebrate
  one of their religious festivals.
• While they danced, the Spanish slaughtered all of
  them and stripped their bodies of their gold.

145
Cortes and the Aztec

• When this atrocity became known, the city
  exploded in anger.
• Moctezuma climbed to the palace roof and called
  for calm, but his warriors jeered him and then in
  a storm of arrows and stones, severely injured
  their emperor.
• He refused to be tended to.

146
Cortes and the Aztec

• He later died from these injuries (or secretly
  strangled by the Spanishaccording to differing
  accounts).

147
Cortes and the Aztec

• The Spaniards, led by the just returned Cortes,
  then stormed the Great Pyramid, set fire to the
  shrines, and ripped down sacred Aztec idols.
• Soon, the once invincible city was sacked and on
  fire.

148
Cortes and the Aztec

• The siege would last 93 days (of often brutal and
  bloody fighting).
• By the time it ended, 2/3 of the Spaniards had
  been killed or dragged off for sacrifice and
  those that were left were wounded.

149
Cortes and the Aztec

• But Cortes was able to maneuver his remaining
  troops across the lake and into allied territory.
• From there, Cortes was able to encourage revolt
  among those oppressed by the Aztecs.
• About this time Cortes received 600 well-armed
  Spanish reinforcements (including 40 cavalrymen)
  from Cuba.

150
Cortes and the Aztec

• At the end of December 1520, Cortes set out again
  to take Tenochtitlan.
• This time he entered the city with over 100,000
  Indian allies seeking revenge on their Aztec
  oppressors.
• The city was already being ravaged by smallpox
  (it had killed Moctezumas successor, his brother
  Cuitlahua) and thousands of Aztecs.

151
Cortes and the Aztec

• Cortes had Tenochtitlans aqueducts and chinampas
  destroyed (no fresh water or food) and access to
  the city cut off.
• Weakened by hunger and disease, the Aztec
  warriors fought on to the bitter end as their
  corpses piled up in the streets and clogged the
  canals.
• The fighting stopped when the last emperor,
  Moctezumas 25 year old nephew Cuauhtemoc, was
  captured.

152
Cortes and the Aztec

• When the mighty Aztec capital fell in 1521, Aztec
  poets wrote
• We are crushed to the ground,
• we lie in ruins.
• There is nothing but grief and suffering
• in Mexico and Tlatelolco,
• where once we saw beauty and valor.

153
The Age of Exploration

• By 1535, most of central Mexico had been brought
  under Spanish control as the kingdom of New
  Spain.
• From there, the Spanish pushed their conquest
  southward into Central America and northward into
  the area of north central Mexico.

154
Pizarro and the Inca

• The second wave of conquest led the Spaniards to
  northern South America and Panama.
• In 1532, Francisco Pizarro led his men to the
  conquest of the Inca Empire, which was already
  weakened by a long civil war.

155
Pizarro and the Inca

• By the early 1500s, the Inca ruled all the
  civilized peoples of South America.
• The Incan empire stretched from the modern
  borders of Ecuador and Colombia to more than
  half-way down the coast of modern Chile 2600
  miles (roughly the distance from Boston to LA or
  Madrid to Moscow).

156
Pizarro and the Inca

• Using treachery and deceit, fewer than 200
  Spaniards were able to bring down the great
  empire.

157
Pizarro and the Inca

• The twelfth emperor, Huayna Capac (1493-1526)
  ruled a stable, and expanding, empire.
• He went to the northern provinces to quell an
  outbreak of rebellion (in todays Ecuador) when
  he died of a mysterious disease (smallpox).

158
Pizarro and the Inca

• The Spanish had introduced smallpox into
  Mesoamerica and it quickly spread south,
  devastating all natives in its path (since they
  had no resistance to it).

159
Pizarro and the Inca

• The disease also killed his chosen heir.
• The deaths of the emperor and his heir
  immediately destabilized the empire.
• During Huayna Capacs illness, traders from the
  northern regions reported the appearance of
  bearded strangers in strange ships.
• These men (the Spanish) who were immune to the
  disease caused Huayna Capac to believe his
  disease was divine wrath and had been
  prophesized.

160
Pizarro and the Inca

• General religious belief among Andean peoples
  stressed the arbitrary nature and power of the
  gods, and the death of the emperor and his heir
  by a mysterious disease, and the ensuring civil
  war, must have been seen as divine retribution
  for something they had done.

161
Pizarro and the Inca

• Without a living designated heir, the imperial
  household was thrown into confusion.
• Huayna Capac had over 20 sons, so members of the
  imperial family split into factions lining up
  behind the two major contenders, Huascar and
  Atahualpa.

162
Pizarro and the Inca

• Huascar was the governor of Cuzco and controlled
  the largest part of the Empire (a son to
  Huanynas sister-wife), and his half brother
  Atahaulpa controlled the Kingdom of Quito (who
  was his son by his favorite concubine).
• Huascar Atahualpa

163
Pizarro and the Inca

• Huascar seized the throne and initially Atahualpa
  supported his claim, but rumors spread that
  Atahualpa was plotting a coup so Huascar declared
  him an enemy, a traitor, and an outlaw.
• Civil war ensued, but Atahualpa (the more able
  leader) had with him in the north the bulk of his
  fathers veteran soldiers.

164
Pizarro and the Inca

• The civil war lasted six years with Atahualpa
  eventually victorious when his armies took
  Huascar prisoner and they captured Cuzco (Huascar
  would eventually be murdered).
• This civil war ended just before the Spaniards
  landed in Peru.

165
Pizarro and the Inca

• There had actually been a prophesy that Huayna
  Capac was to be the last Inca and that the demise
  of the empire would come with the arrival of
  powerful foreigners.
• Incan priests saw omens of doom when a full moon
  had three halos (which they said represented the
  death of Inti, the sun god war among Capacs
  descendents and the break-up of the empire).

166
Pizarro and the Inca

• Many historians believe that by 1526 the empire
  was so big, the Inca couldnt control it and it
  was already beginning to fall apart.
• Even though Atahualpa won the civil war (after
  six years of turmoil) and controlled the army, he
  was disliked and distrusted by many Inca nobles.

167
Pizarro and the Inca

• Trying to consolidate his power when he occupied
  Cuzco, he ordered the provincial governors and
  chief administrators to attend him in the
  capital.
• Since many were of Huascars lineage or loyal to
  Huascar, Atahualpa ordered them put to death.

168
Pizarro and the Inca

• He then ordered the burning of the mummy of his
  grandfather (the predecessor of Huayna
  CapacTupac Yupanqui-the 11th Inca emperor) which
  the Inca considered a major sacrilegious offense.
• Atahualpa now claimed his lineage was the only
  legitimate one to the imperial throne.
• To the Inca, it must have seemed that Huayna
  Capacs prophesy of their doom was coming true.

169
Pizarro and the Inca

• The conquest of Peru by the Spanish (Pizarro)
  required three expeditions over nine years.
• The first (1524) ended in failure because of
  storms, the second (1526-7) was recalled by
  Spanish officials after Pizarro sailed to the
  Incan city of Tumbez.
• The hospitable people of Tumbez welcomed the
  Spaniards and showed them their temple, which was
  decorated with sheets of gold.

170
Pizarro and the Inca

• Under strict orders from Pizarro, the Spaniards
  pretended not to notice the gold and they treated
  the Peruvians with consideration and respect.
• The time for conquest and plunder had not come
  (yet).
• But Pizarro had a glimpse of the Inca at their
  peak of order and prosperity.

171
Pizarro and the Inca

• Had he attacked now, the Spanish would have met
  overwhelming forces that were organized and
  determined.
• It was Pizarros good fortune that the weakness
  of his forces compelled him to delay his assault
  on Peru until the Inca were distracted and
  weakened by civil war.

172
Pizarro and the Inca

• So Pizarro returned to Spain in 1528 to visit
  King Charles V. He showed the king gold drinking
  cups acquired at Tumbez as well as live llama and
  two young Inca he was training as interpreters.

173
Pizarro and the Inca

• Charles V was impressed and gave Pizarro a royal
  charter to conquer this land of gold, making
  Pizarro Governor and Captain-General of the lands
  he had yet to win.
• When he returned to Panama in the spring of 1531,
  he set sail for Tumbez with three ships, 180 men,
  and 27 horses.

174
Pizarro and the Inca

• Before he reached Tumbez, Pizarro was reinforced
  by 130 additional men and horses from Panama.
• When he reached Tumbez, he found the city almost
  deserted and largely destroyed.
• As the Spanish went down the coast, whole valleys
  were without men of military age, all of them
  conscripted by Atahualpas armies.

175
Pizarro and the Inca

• Learning that Atahualpa was camped near Cajamarca
  in the Andes, Pizarro left a garrison on the
  coast (110 men) and turned eastward into the
  mountains, following a narrow but well-paved
  road.
• The Inca were noted road builders, with roads
  varying from fully constructed paved roads to
  narrow paths.
• Road widths varied from 3ft to over 80ft.

176
Pizarro and the Inca

• No Inca opposed him the fortresses that watched
  the road were empty and silent, the bridges
  across mountain chasms undestroyed, the narrow
  passes unguarded.
• Pizarro had less than 200 men.

177
Pizarro and the Inca

• Up into the mountains they went, the horses
  having to be led.
• They were met by a high-ranking Inca noble envoy
  from Atahualpa who said the Inca wanted to be
  friends with the Spanish and that Atahualpa was
  awaiting them in peace at Cajamarca.

178
Pizarro and the Inca

• Pizarro and his men marched into Cajamarca and
  saw it deserted, thinking it was a trap.
• Once Pizarro secured the town, he sent Hernando
  De Soto (later the discoverer of the
  Mississippi River) and 15 horsemen to visit the
  Inca.
• Inca soldiers and noblemen, adorned in gleaming
  golden ornaments, surrounded Atahualpa, who sat
  on a low stool.

179
Pizarro and the Inca

• Even though Atahualpa had never seen a horse or
  the bright steel armor the Spanish wore, he gave
  no hint that he was impressed.
• The Spaniards rode up to him, bowed politely
  without dismounting and announced (through an
  interpreter) that their commander invited the
  emperor to visit him at his quarters.
• At first Atahualpa did not reply then he smiled.
  

180
Pizarro and the Inca

• Tell your commander that I am keeping a fast
  that will end tomorrow. Then I will visit him
  with my chieftains.
• De Soto noticed that the emperor was fascinated
  by the horses, so digging his spurs into his he
  gave a brilliant display of horsemanship, dashing
  away at a gallop, rearing, wheeling.

181
Pizarro and the Inca

• Then he rode full speed at Atahualpa, stopping
  the horse so close that flecks of foam fell on
  the emperors clothing.

182
Pizarro and the Inca

• Not a tremor of expression crossed Atahualpas
  face.
• Deeply affected by this display of fortitude (and
  also the hundreds of well-disciplined soldiers),
  the Spanish returned to Pizarro in low spirits.
• Atahualpa was obviously no weakling like
  Moctezuma, who was paralyzed by religious doubts
  and fear.

183
Pizarro and the Inca

• De Sotos report caused panic in the Spanish
  camp, but Pizarro was pleased, for only desperate
  men would be willing to risk the bold scheme he
  proposedhe convinced his men that their only
  hope of survival was to capture Atahualpa within
  the sight of his powerful army.
• Anything less would mean the destruction of the
  tiny band of Spaniards.

184
Pizarro and the Inca

• At dawn, Pizarro positioned his men around the
  towns plaza, and when the signal was given (the
  firing of a rifle), his men were to emerge and
  slaughter the emperors followers and seize the
  emperor.
• Shortly after midday the emperors procession
  moved slowly along the citys avenuefirst came
  attendants to sweep the ground followed by nobles
  whose golden jewelry blazed in the sun.

185
Pizarro and the Inca

• Then came Atahualpa riding in a golden litter
  carried on the shoulders of his highest-ranking
  noblemen.

186
Pizarro and the Inca

• A half-mile from the citys plaza, Pizarro
  relayed a message to Atahualpa that he was
  providing entertainment and he expected the
  emperor to join him for dinner.
• The emperor replied that he accepted the
  invitation and that he would leave most of his
  warriors behind, and those he brought would be
  unarmed.

187
Pizarro and the Inca

• To Pizarro, this was a sign that God was on the
  side of the Spanish.
• Historians believe that it never occurred to
  Atahualpa that the Spaniards might attack himthe
  power of the Inca was so absolute that any such
  action was unthinkable.

188
Pizarro and the Inca

• When Atahualpa entered the plaza no Spaniard was
  in sight. Where are the strangers? he said.
• Pizarros chaplain came forward and after a long
  discourse in Christian theology (that the Inca
  didnt understand) he told Atahualpa that he must
  change his religion and become a vassal of
  Charles V of Spain.
• Atahualpa was not pleased.

189
Pizarro and the Inca

• Atahualpa said I will be no mans vassal. I am
  greater than any prince on earth. As for my
  religion, I will not change it. You say your God
  was put to death, but mine and he pointed to
  the sun still lives.
• The priest handed Atahualpa his Bible and the
  emperor threw it down.

190
Pizarro and the Inca

• The priest screamed at Pizarro While we are
  arguing with this arrogant dog the fields are
  filling with Indians. Set on him! I absolve
  you.
• Pizarro waved a white scarf, a gun thundered, and
  the slaughter began.

191
Pizarro and the Inca

• Atahualpas retainers desperately crowded around
  the royal litter but they had no weapons.
• They clung to the horses so Atahualpa wouldnt be
  injured until the Spaniards cut them away with
  their swords.
• Fearing that the emperor might be injured,
  Pizarro shouted that any soldier that harmed him
  would be put to death.

192
Pizarro and the Inca

• Pizarro was slightly cut on the hand (by one of
  his own men) and that was the only Spanish injury
  that day.

193
Pizarro and the Inca

• Atahualpa was captured and dragged to a nearby
  building.
• Panic spread through the Inca warriors left
  behind and they fled ending all resistance to
  the Spanish.

194
Pizarro and the Inca

• The massacre had lasted little more than half an
  hour, but at least 2,000some reports say
  10,000Inca were killed, including the key nobles
  which were the Empires administrative core.
• When all was quiet, Pizarro invited Atahualpa to
  dinner as promised.
• The banquet was held near the plaza in a building
  still carpeted with the dead.

195
Pizarro and the Inca

• Pizarro sat next to his captive who showed
  remarkable composure.
• It is the way of war, the Emperor remarked with
  dignity, to conquer or be conquered.
• Pizarro ordered that Atahualpas court be brought
  to Cajamarca, including his favorite concubines,
  his cooks and other servants, and young girls who
  waited on him hand and foot.

196
Pizarro and the Inca

• Even though he was a prisoner, Atahualpa
  continued to live as the Emperor (including
  dining off of solid gold plates)but all orders
  given in his name were from Piz