The document provides an overview of the Reformation period in Europe and discusses factors that contributed to European expansion. It covers: 1) Key events and figures of the Protestant Reformation such as Martin Luther and John Calvin challenging the Catholic Church in the early 1500s. 2) The Catholic Counter-Reformation to respond to Protestant movements. 3) Reasons why European powers like Spain and Portugal turned outward including seeking wealth, resources, power, and spreading Christianity. 4) Trade networks before the age of exploration were dominated by Italian city-states like Venice importing goods from Asia.

2. Plan for Today:
• Continue Chapter 15; Touch on 16
• Reformation and Counter-Reformation
• Chapter 16 and European Globalism
• Next Time
• Review Day for the Final
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
The Ecstasy of St. Theresa

3. Reformation – Brief Overview
• 1517 – Martin Luther posts his 95 Thesis in protest (Protestant)
• 1520 – Luther published three works, denying the authority of the Pope
• 1521
• Luther appears before the Diet of Worms, and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, refuses
to recant, is excommunicated and declared a heretic.
• Henry VIII wrote The Defence of the Seven Sacraments. Pope Leo X names him
“Defender of the Faith.”
• 1522 – Luther published the New Testament in German (Old Testament in
1534)
• 1526 – Bible published in English
• 1530 – Augsburg Confession formalizes Lutheran doctrine
• 1534 – Henry VIII defies the Catholic Church, divorces Catherine of Aragon
(1533), and becomes head of the Anglican Church
• 1536 – John Calvin publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion

4. Counter-Reformation
• The response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant movements
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy_M4pDjafo

6. Why did many European powers turn to seaward
expansion?
• Wealth – 6
• Resources - 3
• Power - 2
• Christianity

7. European Trade Networks before the New World
• European trade was dominated by Venice and to a lesser extent other
Italian principalities
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-II_jBzzo&t=302s

8. Eurasian trade in the late Middle Ages

9. European trade in the late Middle Ages:

10. “Global” Trade in the late Middle Ages
● Spice/silk trade was dominated increasingly by Ottoman traders, spanning
from Eastern Africa to Southeast Asia, goods were brought to Europe via
the Mediterranean Sea.
● Genoese and Venetian merchants would trade with the Ottomans and take
these goods across the Mediterranean to the rest of Europe.
● Old overland trade routes (i.e. the Silk Road) became less viable with the
decline and collapse of the Mongol successor states and with the increase
in sea trade.
● The Iberian peninsula became more politically stable (Spanish unification,
and Portuguese borders established).
● Spain and Portugal feared further Ottoman expansion and dominance and
began to look for alternative trade routes.
● The use of astrolabes and nocturnals, and advances in timepieces,
shipbuilding, and the implementation of cannons on ships made sea trade
(and sea warfare) more viable for western Europeans.

11. Motivations
Why did the Catholic Kingdoms (Spain and Portugal) want to expand
trade routes?

12. Differences in Approach
Portugal
● Strategic control of ports and maritime trade routes
● Focus on goods for the homeland, or goods to sell for gold for the homeland.
● Exceptions in Brazil and in Atlantic islands.
Spain
● Resource and wealth extraction after taking control of as much of the land as possible.
● Subjugating indigenous groups for labor use.
● Then importing labor through the use of African slaves.
China
● Travel was more about showing dominance and wealth, rather than extracting it.
● No real religious motivations.
Dutch
● Focused on disrupting and displacing established networks in Asia and the Caribbean.
● Explored the Hudson Valley area of New York.
● Could often continue to work with cultures suspicious of Catholic missionaries (such as Japan).
Zheng He

13. Some Major Developments
1487 - Bartolomeu Dias (Portugal) traveled down the coast of Western Africa and around the Cape of Good
Hope.
1492 - ?
1494 - Treaty of Tordesillas (division of the new world between Spain and Portugal, by the Pope)
1498 – Vasco da Gama lands in Calcutta (Calicut), India
1501-1502 - Amerigo Vespucci is the first to demonstrate that the European voyages were not landing on parts
of Asia, but new continents all together.
1519-1522 - Ferdinand Magellan’s (for Spain) expedition circumnavigated the globe, even though he died in the
present day Philippines before completing the journey.
1599 - Dutch East India Company was founded, throughout the 1600s the Dutch would work their way into
maritime trade markets and try to establish their presence, by the end of the 1600s they had significantly
reduced the influence of Portugal in the Indian Ocean and SE Asia.
Mid 1400s-1600s - Muscovy exerted influence over most of present day European Russia and began expanding
further east into central Siberia.

15. What about Central/South American cultures
made them particularly vulnerable to European
expansion?
• Peru
• Complicated succession – 3
• Constant expansion/spread out empire - 4
• Aztec
• Confederation of different groups – 3
• Sacrifices depleted population
• Little focus on defense – 2
• Overpopulation

16. Indigenous contact with Europeans (the Spanish examples)
● Taino of the Caribbean.
○ Killed or forced into slave labor.
○ Culture and language completely lost, almost all of the people died.
● Aztecs in present day Mexico
○ Cortez (1519) and his Spanish soldiers used brutal force and advanced weaponry
against any resistance.
○ Spaniards capitalized on the cultural differences in warfare and exploited the political
divisions resulting from the violent suppression of the Aztec subjects by their leaders.
● Inca in present day Peru/South America
○ Pizarro (1532) capitalized on a recent civil war within the Incan Empire and by
understanding how important capturing the Incan ruler would be to establishing
dominance over the Incan people.
○ He captured the Inca, Atahualpa, and later killed him after using advanced weaponry
to overpower the rulers guards.
● Philippines
○ Magellan (1521) and Villalobos (1543) attempted to gain footholds by allying with
friendly locals and defeating (usually Islamic) resistance. Legazpi (1565) was far more
successful at building local alliances and defeating resistance.
● The key takeaway here is that the Spanish used a number of tactics to
displace, destroy, or subjugate any local groups, many of whom were well
established societies with distinct cultures long before the arrival of
Europeans.

17. Indigenous contact with Europeans(the Portuguese examples)
● Western Africa
○ African gold traders saw an opportunity for expanded trade beyond their overland
contacts.
○ Traded gold for goods from the expansive Portuguese seafaring networks.
○ Kingdom of Benin never really took an interest in Catholicism.
○ Further south, the Kingdom of Kongo’s rulers did accept Christianity, but were not as
rich in resources to trade. Continued commerce was dependent on the slave trade.
○ Portuguese did not limit their trade to the Kongo officials, though, which undermined
their trade alliance.
● Eastern Africa
○ Muslim leaders were not keen to trade with the Catholic Portuguese.
○ Christian Ethiopia relied on Portugal to help fend off expansion by their Muslim
neighbors.
○ Relations between the two soured, however, as Ethiopian rulers refused Catholicism.
● Indian Ocean
○ Initially trade was rebuffed by the wealthier Muslim rulers of port city/states.
○ When the Portuguese returned with their smaller faster ships (Caravels) with more
advanced weaponry they proceeded to take over ports with little resistance and destroy
their competition.
○ Vasco da Gama (1497 and after).
○ Ports that did resist the Portuguese declined after being severely limited in their trade.

18. http://nautarch.tamu.edu/shiplab/01George/caravela/htmls/Caravel%20History.htm

19. China and Japan
● After 1433 the Ming Dynasty focusednon internal development
○ Their presence in the Indian Ocean and SE Asia had never been about
expansion.
○ 1403-1433 - Zheng He
○ Was actually very costly for them because of their system of paying out
tributes, so they stopped.
● Japan
○ Had previously traded with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands
○ After the Spanish conquest of the Philippines the Japan Shogunate forbid
trade with Catholics, fearing that the presence of the missionaries that came
with it would lead to attempted subjugation.
○ Christianity was heavily persecuted, especially Catholicism.
○ This benefitted the Dutch, who were Protestant and not focused on
missionizing, though their trade was extremely curtailed.

20. Chinese Ships

21. Columbian
Exchange
What goods are surprising to
you?
What major aspect is
missing?

22. Final Thoughts
• What is the problem with calling this
the “Age of Exploration?”
• For next time:
• Review Day for the Final
• See you Thursday!