Unit 3Global Encounters

Age of European Exploration

What would cause Europeans to explore?

Prince Henry the Navigator

Bartolomeu Dias

Vasco de Gama

Spain vs. Portugal

Treaty of TordesillasLands to the West of an imaginary vertical

line drawn in the Atlantic, including most of the Americas = belonged to Spain

Lands East of this line, including present day Brazil, belonged to Portugal.

Why would both sides agree to the Treaty of Tordesillas?

Mercantilism

Mercantilism• Exports greater than imports

•Favorable balance of trade

•Colonies provided home countries with raw materials

•European countries used these materials for manufacturing

•Colonies were then markets for finished goods

•Colonies were often prohibited from buying goods from other nations bc of laws passed by their home countries

Results• Major shifts in power occurred

• Spurred competition for overseas colonies = created rivalries

• Set a pattern for acquisition of lands and conquering native people

Results• Merchants & Monarchs saw

potential to increase wealth and power• Peasants saw opportunity to live in

the New World free from the hierarchy that bound them economically and socially.

Results• Opened an era of genocide, cruelty and slavery.

• Enslavement of the Indians - not successful• Result: African Slave Trade

What were the results of exploration?

1. Which items do you think had the most profound impact on the "New" World and why?

2. Which new items had the most profound impact on the "Old" World and why?

3. Were the benefits of the exchange equitable? Or did one Hemisphere benefit at the expense of the other?

What was the French

Motivation for settlement?

“The Beaver does everything perfectly well, it makes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread; and, in short, it makes everything.” He was making sport of us Europeans, who have such a fondness for the skin of this animal and who fight to see who will give the most to these Barbarians, to get it; they carry this to such an extent that my host said to me one day, showing me a very beautiful knife, “The English have no sense; they give us twenty knives like this for one Beaver skin.” (Lepore, 91)

Global TradeRise of Capitalism

Economic system based on private ownership and the investment of resources, such as money, for profit

Commercial Revolution – increase in commerce (trade)

Global TradeIncrease in nations $ supply

Inflation = steady rise in the price of goods

Joint Stock Company = investors buy shares of a stock in a company

EffectsGrowth of townsRise of merchant class – great wealth

Majority of people in Europe remained poor

Increased wealth of European nations

Creation of national identity

Closing QuestionIn your opinion, what was the most significant impact of the Columbian exchange on the world today?