Norsemen

Vikings

Portugal - Arab 

(motivations for exploration)

Portugal - 15th Century Exploration

(summary & bulleted list)

Vaulted past all rivals in 2 areas - The ability to navigate beyond the sight of land & the capacity to defeat any non-European fleet.  They mapped the prevailing winds and currents on the high seas over most of the globe.  

• Collected geographical information from classical sources, foreigners, and modern navigators.
• Studied the superior design of Arab vessels, copied and improved.
• Used compass and adopted the Arab's astrolabe (a device that permits accurate calculation of latitude).
• Learned how to mount heavy cannon on decks

Madeira Islands

Azores

Cape Verde

Sao Tome

1490s, Vasco Da Gama made it to Cape of Good Hope & made his way to Malibar Coast of India.  He traded for a profit of 20 to 1, and his voyage lasted for over 2 years.  He paved the way for Portugal's empire to the East.  To secure Asian trade, Portuguese established a chain of Naval bases from East Africa to Persian Gulf to Goa and then W. coast of India.  

As early as 1515, African and Asian trade accounted for 2/3s of Portugals state revenues.  Settlement was not a major goal of Portugal.  Only in Brazil (discovered by an accident) in 1500 had settlement become a goal.

From Genoa.  Sought to benefit from reclaiming of Granada.  He had served the Portuguese crown for years, engaged in slave trade from Africa and atlantic islands, married daughter of prominent Madeira planter, and may have sailed to Iceland.  He had pled for years for support to attempt to find a way to Asia by sailing West across the Atlantic.  People disagreed on earth's size.  He thought its circumference was only 16,000 miles.  He proposed reaching Japan or China by travelling only 3,000 miles.  Portuguese scoffed and guessed circumference was more like 26,000 (more accurate).  Isabella, who had resources and men to spare, was more willing to listen.  She appointed him "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" and put him in charge of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.  

Columbus' motives were both religious and practical.  He believed the world would end soon, and that God would make the gospel available to all mankind before the last days.  Columbus believed he had a role to play in bringing on the millennium, the period at the end of history when Christ would return and rule with his saints for 1000 yrs.  

He embarked in August of 1492, and headed south to Canaries.  He landed on San Salvador in the Bahamas and thought he was somewhere in the E. Indies.  He sailed around the Caribean for a while, and then the Santa Maria ran into rocks and had to be abandoned.  Columbus returned to Spain but by the time he came back, all the men he had left behind were murdered.  

He made 3 more voyages but Castilians never really trusted him.  He was sent back to Spain in chains during last trip.  Although later restored to royal favor, he died bitter in 1505.  

Other Explorers

Balboa

Ponce de Leon

Amerigo Vespucci

Magellan

Cortes

Became sedentary in more advanced cultures.  Most of those in North America were semi-sedentary.  They traveled only part of the year.  They Chose a site and men would clear it & burn the underbrush.  Burning helped fertilize the soil.  Women erected dwellings, & men hunted.  Women farmed, men hunted & fought.  Slash & burn slowly depleted soil, so they'd have to move after a decade or 2.  This semisendentary way of life contributed to a culture that did not value heavily on possessions.  They wanted to be able to move easily.  This impacted how Natives interacted with and viewed Europeans.  They also viewed land differently.  

Estimates vary, but moderate ones place the population of the Western Hemisphere at 50 million by 1492.  Technology remained stone age level.  Urban societies of Mesoamerica & Andes became the largest and most complex Stone Age society.  They used mostly bone, stone and they used obsidian for weapons.  They mostly used metals for ornate objects, not tools.  They did not use wheels or pulleys for anything functional.  

Appeared along gulf coast 1200 BC.  Parent culture to the region.  Olmec influence peaked during the domination of La venta which became an urban center 1100 BC and peaked 800 BC.  The Olmec centers were all too small to sustain a large army.  They created colossal stone heads to honor their rulers (their most distinctive artifact).  They built the first pyramids and first ballparks.  They learned how to write and developed a dual calendar system that lasted through the Aztec era.  They believed that every 52 yrs when these calendars both began again that they would face the wrath of god and that the only way to avoid this was through human sacrifice.  These believes date back to previous mesoamerican cultures as well.  The creation myths of Mesoamerica and Andes are similar, suggesting a common past.  Cortes happened to arrive at the end of one of these cycles.  

Olmecs succeeded by 2 Classic cultures: Teotihuacan & Mayan culture.  

went through similar cycle of Teotihuacan from urban to crisis.  It was also urban but less centralized.  It also built extensive and elaborate monuments.  For more than 1000 yrs, mayan culture rested on a network of competing city-states which shared similar values.  One of the largest cities was Tikal, and it controlled commerce with Teotihuacan.  Tikal housed 100000 at its peak by 800 AD.  Mayan engineers built canals to water crops needed to support the urban system, which was well established by 1st century BC.  Earliest Mayan writings dated to 50 BC but few survive from next 300 yrs.  About 300 AD, Mayans began to record their history in detail.  Mayan writings reveal the role of self-mutilation and human sacrifice in their religous practices.  Classic Mayan culture began to collapse about 50 yrs after Teotihuacan, which had disrupted Mayan trade.  Mayan aristocracy grew too quickly, outstripped local resources and generated irreparable ecological decay.  Frequent wars hastened decline.  

After 900 AD, Post-classic eara saw a Mayan renaissance in the northern lowlands of the Yucatan, where many refugees from the south had fled.  

3400 bc - luoisiana

2 main - Adena-Hopewell (traded from appalachia to rockies, to great lakes, to gulf, both mound building and trade ceased by around 400 ad for unknown reasons), then mississipean phase - 1000 - 1700 ad.  Elaborate mounds, largest mound in present day illinois.  burial grounds were more elaborate with this phase, mounds were places of worship.  similarities between mound and mesoamerica cultural practices exist, but there is no physical evidence that they communicated.  

ecomienda labor - mexico - gave way to debt peonage (where debt kept indians bound to labor), emerging slave society - haiti, dr, brazil, mita - andes - labor tribute, 

plus african slave trade (centered on coast of w. africa).  free labor in europe (where pop was dense), resurgent serfdom in e. europe (where pop was sparse)

any region devoted to growing staple crops for europe moved towards slavery (with africans gradually replacing natives) - as products such as tobacco became more available, prices dropped, increasing need for cheap labor (such as slavery)