Chapter Overview
Wait a Minute??? Europeans in the Indian Ocean?
By about 1450 CE, the Foundations Period was over. The Crusades and the Mongols had given Europeans a taste of the Afro-Eurasian good life (sugar, spice, & everything nice). Now, in the Early Modern Period, they wanted more. To get these Asian commodities, Europeans used ideas and technologies that they inherited from Afro-Eurasians: rudders, astrolabes, lateen sails, and compasses. Even though China invented gunpowder, Europeans made the guns that helped them conquer other lands. Armed with these new technologies, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, and French sailors sailed to the Indian Ocean in pursuit of the Asian goods they desired. Once in the Indian Ocean, the Europeans used their superior gunpowder weapons to establish trading posts and colonies: the Spanish conquered the Philippines, the Dutch conquered the important spice island of Java, and the Portuguese, British and French established trading ports all along the coast of Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. For the first time in human history, Europeans were in the Indian Ocean!
Columbus Kills Pocahontas and Bambi … Making Him One of the Most Important Figures in Human History?
In an attempt to find a faster route to Asian silk and spice markets, Cristoforo Columbo thought he could sail west across the Atlantic. In fact, when he landed in Hispaniola (Modern-day Haiti & Dominican Republic), he thought he was in India, thus calling the Native Americans he encountered “Indians.” Columbus did not make it to Asia, but he did accidentally “discovered” something way more important: “the New World” a.k.a. the Americas. Columbus connected the Eastern and Western hemispheres, hemispheres that had been isolated for about 30,000 years! After Columbus died, Europeans kept coming. First, they crossed the Atlantic to conquer the Aztec and Inca Empires. Then, they moved to the Americas en masse, establishing vast sea-based empires. Europeans brought plants, animals and diseases with them to the Americas, which took over and wiped-out some American plants, animals, and people. North American deer populations died as European plants and grasses choked out their food supplies. The death rate among Native American human populations was possibly as high as 90%. Europeans also brought sugar to the Americas. Sugar grew well in the tropical climate of the Caribbean and Brazil. The only problem was that most of the natives were dead… Who was going to work on the sugar plantations? Africans. The Early Modern Period witnessed one of the largest forced migrations in human history as Europeans transported about fifteen million Africans across the Atlantic as enslaved labor.
By about 1450 CE, the Foundations Period was over. The Crusades and the Mongols had given Europeans a taste of the Afro-Eurasian good life (sugar, spice, & everything nice). Now, in the Early Modern Period, they wanted more. To get these Asian commodities, Europeans used ideas and technologies that they inherited from Afro-Eurasians: rudders, astrolabes, lateen sails, and compasses. Even though China invented gunpowder, Europeans made the guns that helped them conquer other lands. Armed with these new technologies, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, British, and French sailors sailed to the Indian Ocean in pursuit of the Asian goods they desired. Once in the Indian Ocean, the Europeans used their superior gunpowder weapons to establish trading posts and colonies: the Spanish conquered the Philippines, the Dutch conquered the important spice island of Java, and the Portuguese, British and French established trading ports all along the coast of Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. For the first time in human history, Europeans were in the Indian Ocean!
Columbus Kills Pocahontas and Bambi … Making Him One of the Most Important Figures in Human History?
In an attempt to find a faster route to Asian silk and spice markets, Cristoforo Columbo thought he could sail west across the Atlantic. In fact, when he landed in Hispaniola (Modern-day Haiti & Dominican Republic), he thought he was in India, thus calling the Native Americans he encountered “Indians.” Columbus did not make it to Asia, but he did accidentally “discovered” something way more important: “the New World” a.k.a. the Americas. Columbus connected the Eastern and Western hemispheres, hemispheres that had been isolated for about 30,000 years! After Columbus died, Europeans kept coming. First, they crossed the Atlantic to conquer the Aztec and Inca Empires. Then, they moved to the Americas en masse, establishing vast sea-based empires. Europeans brought plants, animals and diseases with them to the Americas, which took over and wiped-out some American plants, animals, and people. North American deer populations died as European plants and grasses choked out their food supplies. The death rate among Native American human populations was possibly as high as 90%. Europeans also brought sugar to the Americas. Sugar grew well in the tropical climate of the Caribbean and Brazil. The only problem was that most of the natives were dead… Who was going to work on the sugar plantations? Africans. The Early Modern Period witnessed one of the largest forced migrations in human history as Europeans transported about fifteen million Africans across the Atlantic as enslaved labor.
Internal and External Challenges to State Power
Concepts to know
Caravel Fluyt Lateen Sail Compass Astronomical Charts Renaissance smallpox measles malaria Tokugawa Shogunate Ming Dynasty Asante Kingdom of the Kongo chattel slavery mit’a system indentured servitude encomienda system hacienda system Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Muslim-European rivalry in the Indian Ocean Joint-stock companies Cossack revolts Maratha-Mughal conflict Maroon societies Russian boyars expulsion of Jews from Spain/Portugal, restrictive policies against Han China in Qing Dynasty Silver trade Casta system