1) New sailing ships, compasses, and gunpowder weapons gave European explorers technological advantages over other regions and allowed them to explore and colonize much of the world. 2) Portugal was an early leader in exploration, sending Henry the Navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, and Vasco da Gama to sail around Africa and reach India. Spain also explored and conquered lands, with figures like Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan, Cortes, and Pizarro. 3) Many European powers established colonies in the Americas and traded goods, slaves, and precious metals, fueling economic growth and the rise of mercantilism.

1. Chapter 16
The World Economy

2. New Toys
• Deep-draft, round-hulled sailing ships,
loaded with heavy armaments
• Compass (China-ME-Europe)
• Gunpowder related toys – same chain
– European metalwork allows for first guns and
cannons
– HUGE advantage

3. The pioneering explorers
• Portugal – excitement of discovery, potential harm to Muslim world,
and craving for wealth “potent mix”
• Henry the Navigator
• Dias
-- Cape of Good Hope (1488) – will become a filling station
• Columbus’s voyage in 1492 causes Portugal to up their efforts
• Vasco da Gama reaches India in 1498
– Annual visits to India
– Sometimes use ship’s guns to intimidate
– Blown off course to Brazil – establish colony
– Set up Mozambique in E. Africa and Gao in India
– Islands of Indonesia
– China
– By 1542 even Japan

4. Spanish Explorers
• Christopher Columbus – origin?
– Sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (Spain,
pushed out Muslims, reclaimed kingdom, Castille and Aragon)
– West Indies (Caribbean)
• Amerigo Vespucci (Italian) – “New World” and the
Americas
– Spain wins papal approval for control of land (Portugal will get
Brazil)
• Ferdinand Magellan – set sail in 1519
– Pass Southern tip of S. America
– Discover and name Pacific Ocean for Europe for “peaceful”
ocean
– Reached Indonesian islands in 1521
– Claims the Philippines and names them after King Philip II (will
remain a Spanish holding until 1898)

5. Spanish Conquistadors
• God, gold, and glory!
• Hernan Cortes – Tenochtitlan to Mexico City
• Francisco Pizarro – Inca Empire – Equador to Chile
• Soon all but Brazil of S. America all the way up to
California
• St. Augustine 1519
• Catholic Church and the Jesuits – chance to convert and
gain Catholic souls
• Silver and gold, silver and gold….FLOODS the European
Economy
• Glory! – Well, it’s obvious.

6. • Easily conquer the Americas
– Gunpowder
– Diseases
– Civil Unrest in the Americas

7. British, French, Dutch, Spanish
• Spanish Armada 1588
• French in Canada – 1534, Samuel de
Champlain – Quebec 1608, Great Lakes region,
Mississippi Valley
– Restrict protestants
• English – Jamestown 1607, Plymouth, 1622 (but
this one wasn’t economic)
– Restrict Catholics
• Dutch East India Company – 1602
– Taiwan
• British East India Company

11. Animals
Disease
Food

12. Mercantilism
• Economic concept –
• Import only from empire
– Import raw materials, manufacture at home,
export manufactured goods out
• Export as much as possible to as many as
possible
– Allow own colonies to only buy from your
kingdom

13. • Exploration
• Conquest when necessary
• Colonization
– Emergence of Coercive labor systems

14. Colonization Perks
• Precious metals and cash crops
– Sugar, spice, tobacco, and later on – cotton
– All very labor intensive
• Human labor becomes part of the exchange
• Encomienda and other systems used, but some
Europeans (Bartolome de las Casas) find these
systems morally appalling
– European kingdoms turn to Africans and enslave
them

15. Triangle of Commerce
Into Americas:
Axes, Cloth, Furniture, Muskets, Tools
To Africa:
Iron, Muskets, Silver, Textiles
To Europe:
Fish, Rice, Tar, Timber and Tobacco
Into Americas:
Slaves
To Africa:
Rum and Muskets

16. Ottoman Empire
• Established 1453
• Continues trading Arab trading
connections with E. Africa, India, and
China
• Loses B. of Lepanto in 1571 – setback
against Spanish navy in the E.
Mediterranean

17. China
• Participated less actively than Europe
• Benefits from world economy – excess of
American money a positive for China
• Avoid entering involvement of international trade
on anyone’s terms – limits trade to a trickle
– This just keeps China’s stuff in the “rare” category,
Europeans anxious to open China up
• Strong export pattern
• British government tries to get China to open up
– Effort turned down
– Haughtily inform Europeans that the Chinese have no
need for outside goods

18. Japan and Korea
• Japan – initially attracted by Western
expeditions in the 16th century
– Pulls back
– Show some openness to Christian missions
– Fascinated by Western gunnery and shipping
– Once they develop the ability to mimic W. weapons
they cut off contact
– Forbidden to travel or trade abroad
– Enter a period of near complete isolation from 17th-19th
century
• Exceptions? – Chinese contact (only a little) and Dutch
enclave in Nagasaki
• Korea – pulls back as well

19. India
• Mughal India – Persian for “Mongol India”
– Proceeded Dehli Sultanate
• Sold goods for New World silver
• British East India Company
• France
• Britain wins control after 7 years war

20. Russia
• Isolated by Mongols
• Open back up slowly – Ivan the III –
capital in Moscow
• Ivan the Terrible (IV)
• Time of Troubles early 1600s
• Michael Romanov appointed – establishes
Romanov line

21. Africa
• West Africa – become victims of the slave
trade
• East Africa – still trading with India, China,
and ME
• North Africa – still trading