1) The document discusses the emergence of modern states in 15th-16th century Europe through the rise of strong monarchies like France, England, Spain, and Russia. 2) It focuses on Spain, describing the union between Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, and their efforts to centralize power and expand territories through conquest and marriage alliances. 3) The Age of Discovery led Portugal to find a sea route to India by exploring along the west coast of Africa, with later Spanish expeditions reaching the Americas while seeking a route to Asia under Columbus.

1. BEGINNING OF THE
MODERN AGE
UNIT 6 - 2º ESO BIL.

2. Economic growth
-15th-16th Centuries -> Economy improved for several reasons:
. Population growth / urban growth
. Greater demand of all kind of products
. More trade due to geographical discoveries
-The banking system also improved, and new methods were
used:
. New payment methods (cheques)
. New lending methods (credits)
-Cities became important places for economy during these
centuries because artisans and trade were concentrated there.

3. DEMOGRAPHY
THE RECOVERY OF THE
POPULATION
●14th Century -> demographic crisis.
●15th Century -> Slow recovery of
the population.
●16th Century -> Considerable
population growth.

4. How did society change?
-The three estates from the Middle Ages continued to exist.

5. Society changes
-Some changes were happening:
.Clergy and nobility continued to be privileged estates.
.Peasants continued to have bad conditions, but in
Western Europe they improved because they became free in
many countries.
.A new powerful group emerged, the bourgeoisie. They
were rich merchants and bankers and they became influential
during this period.

6. POLITICS. The great kingdoms.
-Marriage alliances and wars / conquests were the
way to create big new states or increase their power.
-These systems were common in Europe, where
Authoritarian monarchies developed.
-Four of them were the most powerful:
.FRANCE, from Charles VII to Francis I.
.ENGLAND, from the early 16th
century with Henry VIII.
.SPAIN, the Catholic Monarchs.
.RUSSIA, Ivan the Great.

8. How did new states emerge?
-AUTHORITARIAN MONARCHIES
-What is the meaning of AUTHORITARIANISM? a philosophy
or system that believes in the necessity of strong authority and
strict obedience to it.
-During the 15th century European monarchs became
authoritarian, that means, they had more power.
-They reduced the power of the nobility,
the Church, the municipalities and the
Parliament. They began confrontations
against the authorities and in some cases
civil wars broke out.

9. -Monarchs had several ways to implement their decisions:
.They created a bureaucracy and a centralised administration.
(What does bureaucracy mean? It is a system of administration
based upon organization into bureaus, division of labour, a
hierarchy of authority, etc.; designed to dispose of a large body of
work in a routine manner.)
.They made the army stronger and permanent.
.They increased taxes (with the approval of the Parliaments).
.They created a diplomatic service.
(What is diplomacy? It is the conduct of the relations of one state
with another by peaceful means.)
-The court was permanent from this moment.
-In this way Authoritarian monarchies were born.

11. What were the Spanish Kingdoms?
-In the first half of the 15th
century there were 5 kingdoms in the
Iberian Peninsula:
.Crown of Castile
.Crown of Aragón
.Kingdom of Navarre
.Kingdom of Portugal
.Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.

12. -CASTILE AND ARAGÓN IN THE 15th CENTURY:
.Crown of Castile:
.Nobility revolts / weak kings
.Henry IV died in 1474 -> Civil War between the
supporters of her sister, Isabella, and of her daughter, Joanna.
.Isabella won and was proclaimed Queen of Castile in 1479.
.Crown of Aragón:
.1410 Martin I died with no heirs ->Compromise of Caspe -
> Ferdinand of Antequera was chosen king by the nobles of the
Crown of Aragón -> that meant a change of dynasty: Trastámara.

13. The Catholic Monarchs

14. -DYNASTIC UNION:
.In 1469 Isabella married Ferdinand,
heir of the Crown of Aragón.
.In 1474 after Henry IV's death
Isabella proclaimed herself queen
(after winning the civil war she was
totally recognised).
.In 1479 Ferdinand became king of
Aragón. They united and
governed both Crowns, but kept
its own institutions. They were called
the Catholic Monarchs.

15. .In 1504 Isabella died and her daughter Joanna the Mad
inherited the Crown of Castile. Queen Joanna was insane, so
her husband first, and after her father ruled for her as regents.
.Charles I (son of Joanna) inherited both Crowns unified for the
first time in 1516.

16. -TERRITORIAL EXPANSION
-In the Iberian Peninsula they tried total unification: Granada
(1492) and Navarre (1512). Portugal failed.
-Outside: Naples, cities in North Africa, Canary Islands, and the
Americas.

19. How did the Catholic Monarchs rule?
- DOMESTIC POLICIES
- The Catholic Monarchs established different measures to bring
peace to their kingdoms and to govern them with authority:
.Holy Brotherhood - judicial police force to control
crime.
.Royal Council - highest judicial body.
.Corregidores - maintain law and order.
.Royal treasury - to control the supply
of money and taxes.
.Professional army - permanent.

22. How did the Catholic Monarchs rule?
-RELIGIOUS UNITY
-The Catholic Monarchs wanted religious unification for their
kingdoms.
-In 1478 they founded the Tribunal of the Inquisition to
prosecute heretics.
-They published two Royal Decrees establishing the
expulsion or conversion of the Jews first (1492) and the
Mudejars after (1512).

23. Tribunal of the Inquisition

25. Expulsion of
the Jews and
Mudejars

26. Other videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PShFpcyaSnw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Xv4mV1BIs

27. Why were the discoveries made?
●Countries known to Europe in the 15th century

28. Marco Polo, 13th century
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler
whose travels are recorded in Il Milione (Book
of the Marvels of the World), a book which did
much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China.
He learned the mercantile trade from his father and uncle. The three
of them embarked in 1.269 on an epic journey to Asia, returning
after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa; Marco was
imprisoned, and dictated his stories to a cellmate.
He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married and
had three children. He died in 1324, and was buried in San Lorenzo.

31. Reason for the discoveries
1- Necessity of finding new trade routes to the East.
Spice Routes around Africa to Indies after 1453 Constantinople fall to Turks

33. Reason for the discoveries
2- A number of technological advances in navigation:
.New maps (portulan charts)
.Navigational instruments
.Ship improvements

34. Portulan charts
● Portolan charts are navigational maps based on compass
directions and estimated distances observed by the pilots at sea.
They were first made in the 13th century in Italy, and later in Spain
and Portugal. With the advent of the Age of Discovery, they were
considered State secrets in Portugal and Spain. They were very
valuable in the description of Atlantic and Indian coastlines.
● The word portolan comes from the Italian adjective portolano,
meaning "related to ports or harbours."

35. Astrolabe
An astrolabe is an elaborate instrument, historically used by
astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include
locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and
stars, determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa,
triangulation, etc. It was used from classical antiquity to the
Renaissance.
There is often confusion between the astrolabe and the mariner's
astrolabe. While the astrolabe could be useful for determining
latitude on land, it was an awkward instrument for use on the
heaving deck of a ship or in wind. The mariner's astrolabe was
developed to address these issues.

36. Quadrant
● A quadrant is an
instrument that is used
to measure angles up to
90°. It was originally
proposed by Ptolemy as
a better kind of
astrolabe. Several
different variations of
the instrument were
later produced by
medieval Muslim
astronomers.

37. Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that measures directions
in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the
earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions (or
points) – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are
also defined. Usually, a diagram called a compass rose, which shows
the directions (with their names usually abbreviated to initials), is
marked on the compass. When the compass is in use, the rose is
aligned with the real directions in the frame of reference, so, for
example, the "N" mark on the rose really points to the north.

38. RUDDER

40. 2- What were the
new sea routes?
PORTUGUESE
EXPEDITIONS
-From the early 15th century.
-They tried a new route to India surrounding Africa.
-Various expeditions were developed during the 15th century leaded
by the Portuguese monarchs and Prince Henry the Navigator.
-They discovered Madeira Islands, the Azores and all the African
coast to the Cape of Good Hope, opening the sea route to India.
-Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco de Gama were noted explorers at
the end of the 15th century.

41. What were the new sea routes?
-They established trading posts along the African coast and
the new route to facilitate later journeys.
-Portugal created a great empire becoming a world power.

43. Bartolomeu Dias
He was a nobleman
of the Portuguese
royal household,
was a Portuguese
explorer. He sailed
around the
southernmost tip of
Africa in 1488, the
first European
known to have
done so.

45. Vasco de Gama
●He was a Portuguese explorer, one
of the most successful in the Age of
Discovery and the commander of
the first ships to sail directly from
Europe to India.
●He is one of the most famous and
celebrated explorers from the
Discovery Ages, being the first
European to reach India through
sea. This discovery was very
significant and paved the way for
the Portuguese to establish a long
lasting colonial empire in Asia.

46. Spanish and Portuguese rivalry
● The Crown of Castile was the main rival of Portugal in this search
for new routes and territories.
● The Crown of Castile took another way and decided to sail to the
West across the Atlantic in a risky attempt to arrive to India,
following the idea of Christofer Colombus.
● He thought that the Earth was round but they did not know about
the size of it or the existence of America, another continent
discovered by the Crown of Castile in its journey to India.

47. The Caravel

50. Colombus routes

51. How was America discovered?
-Christopher Colombus was convinced that the world was
round, so he planned his route to India crossing the Atlantic
Ocean.
-The Catholic Monarchs decided to finance his expedition.
-He began the expedition on August 1492. It was formed by
three ships and 90 sailors.
-They reached land on 12 October 1492. They
thought it was India, but instead they were
“discovering” America without knowing it.

52. Christopher Colombus
-After the first expedition, Colombus made three more, always
financed by the Crown of Castile, he was improving the
routes and conquering territories for the Crown.
-Colombus died in 1506 in Spain, without knowing what he
really had discovered.
-In 1502 Amerigo Vespucci was the first in realising that it
was a new continent, and later it was name America in his
honour.

55. Treaty of Tordesillas
-Portugal and Spain signed a Treaty in Tordesillas in 1494 to
avoid problems in the unexplored regions. He divided the
world's map in two:

56. PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA

57. The Mayans
• Its peak was
between the 3rd
and the 8th
centuries. When
the Spanish
arrived they
were in decline.

62. The Aztecs
● They were at its peak
when the Spanish
arrived.
●They were an
aggresive people.

68. The Incas

74. The Inca’s
culture
●Large stone cities.
●Temple.
●Advanced government.
●Tax system.
●Road system.

75. What was the first voyage
around the world?
-Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He served
King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward
route to the "Spice Islands".
-Magellan's expedition of 1519–1522 became the first
expedition to sail from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean
(then named "peaceful sea" by Magellan; the passage being made
via the Strait of Magellan), and the first to cross the Pacific. His
expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth,
although Magellan himself did not complete the entire voyage,
being killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines.
-Elcano continued the expedition taking command.

77. Europeans supremacy
-But they were not alone in the world, and other European
countries began their expeditions as well.
-During the next five centuries there were a big rivalry
between these European countries.
-The discoveries brought progress in science (geography,
cartography and natural sciences), new plants and animals
were discovered.
-Social and knowledge exchanges were also a
consequence.
-Diseases from European people caused dramatic effect on
native people of America, that was a very bad consequence for
them.