European+Expansion+1400-1550

__Motives for Exploration__  The Iberian kingdoms sponsored voyages of exploration for a number of reasons, including both the adventurous personalities of their leaders and long-term trends in European historical development: the revival of trade, the struggle with Islam for control of the Mediterranean, curiosity about the outside world, and the alliances between rulers and merchants. The city-states of northern Italy had no incentive to explore Atlantic trade routes because they had established a system of alliances and trade with the Muslims that gave them a monopoly on access to Asian goods. Also, Italian ships were designed for the calm waters of the Mediterranean and could not stand up to the violent weather of the Atlantic. The Iberian kingdoms had a history of centuries of warfare with Muslims. They had no significant share in the Mediterranean trade, but they had advanced shipbuilding and cannon technology. They were open to new geographical knowledge and had exceptional leaders.

__Portuguese Voyages__ The new anti-Muslim Crusades of 1396 and 1444 we launched by the Europeans because the expansion of the Ottoman Turks disrupted trade routes. The attacks started with the city of Ceuta when the Muslim government of Morocco in the northwestern part of Africa started to show weakness. The Portuguese’s attack on Ceuta in 1415 conjoined the aspects of a plundering expedition, a religious crusade, military tournament, and an information gathering expedition, particularly to gain knowledge about African caravans. This attack was led by **Henry the Navigator**, a Prince of Portugal, whose staff would study and improve navigational instruments like the magnetic compass from china and the astrolabe from Arab or Greek that would determine the location at sea by the sun or stars. Another Portuguese achievement is the **caravel.** Prince Henry wanted to explore the sea and it took him fourteen years to get a crew together because of the peoples fear of the stories that were heard about the South Atlantic, but after those fourteen years he had enough people for a crew and sailed farther south past Morocco. On the return voyages of Henry’s ship gave them the knowledge of ocean wind patterns that would help explorers find many other ocean routes. To pay for research Prince Henry used the income of The Order of Christ, which was a military order that he was governor of that was allowed to promote Christianity in all discovered lands. The Portuguese crown sponsored many exploration voyages, one of the explorations was Fernão Gomes, who discovered São Tomé, an island off of Africa that became a major source of sugar produced slaves on mainland. He also explored the Gold Coast which became the headquarters of Portugal’s West African trade. One of the final explorations of Africa by sea was trying to get around the southern tip to sail to India. In 1488 **Bartolomeu Dias** was the first Portuguese explorer to round the tip of Africa and get to the Indian Ocean. Then finally in 1497 **Vasco da Gama** led a Portuguese exploration that sailed around Africa and reached India. There was an error made in 1500 and ships under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral sails too far west and landed in South America and claimed Brazil for Portugal, which became the Western Hemisphere’s richest colonies.

__Spanish Voyages__ When **Christopher Columbus** approached the Spanish crown with his project of finding a new route to Asia, the Portuguese had already established their route to the Indian Ocean. The King and Queen of Spain agreed to fund a modest voyage of discovery, and Columbus set out in 1492 with letters of introduction to Asian rulers and an Arabic interpreter. After three voyages, Columbus was still certain that he had found Asia, but other Europeans realized that he had discovered entirely new lands. These new discoveries led the Spanish and the Portuguese to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which they divided the world between them along a line drawn down the center of the North Atlantic. **Ferdinand Magellan**s voyage across the Pacific confirmed Portugals claim to theMolucca Islands and established the Spanish claim to the Philippines.