Dr. Vess's World Civilization Virtual Library

The Voyages of Discovery

Objectives:


1.  Be able to explain the impact of the "discovery" of the New

World on the Old World.  What was the Great Disease Migration?

The Columbian Exchange?  The Price Revolution?



2.  Be able to locate the Straits of Magellan and the Cape of

Good Hope on a map.



3.  Be able to discuss the reasoning and evidence which led

Columbus to propose sailing west to reach the east.



4.  Be able to explain and discuss the motivations of the

Europeans in searching for an easier and cheaper way to reach the

east.



5.  Be able to discuss improvements in technology which made the

Voyages of Discovery feasible.



6.  Be able to discuss the role of Portugal in the early Voyages

of Discovery.



7.  Be able to discuss and evaluate the success and/or failure of

Christopher Columbus.





FOOD FOR THOUGHT:



     Columbus was the quintessential "Renaissance Man."  Self-

taught in the art of navigation, latin and many other subjects,

Columbus's discovery revolutionized Europe.  He, like many other

men of his time, read with avid curiosity the works of the

ancients, especially their geographical works.  Ptolemy's work

was long respected as the finest geographical description of the

Mediterranean, and hence, of the world.  In the hands of

Columbus, Ptolemy';s geography, although incorrect, spurred on

the greatest adventure of the time.  The discovery of the

Americas revolutionized the economy of Europe, and forever

altered native American life.  From 50-90% of the native

population of the Americas perished, an epidemic which made

number of deaths from the plague pale by contrast.  Africa was

forever changed by the voyages of the Portuguese.  The art of

Benin still bears the imprint of the Portuguese presence.  Even

China was not immune to the benefits from the new discoveries --

silver from the New World brought about the Silver Whip reform.  

     Tragically, Columbus never knew what he had discovered. 

Until the day he died, he believed that he had found the Indies

and the Americas are named after Amerigo Vespucci, not after

Columbus.  The man whose vision revolutionized life in the

fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, died in disgrace.  Columbus,

Admiral of the Ocean Seas, the true Renaissance man.    



Famous Quotations:



               "The weather was like April in Andalusia"... the

                 air is soft as in April in Seville, and it is a

                  pleasure to be in it."



               Here the people could stand it no longer and

               complained of the long voyage; but the Admiral

               cheered them as best he could . . . He added that

                it was useless to complain, as he had come to go to

                the Indies, and so had to continue until he found

                them, with the help of Our Lord."



               "At two hours after midnight appeared the land, at

               a distance of 2 leagues."

                         Journal of Columbus's first voyage



               "Your highnesses have an other world here, by

                 which our holy faith can be so greatly advanced and

                   from which such great wealth can be drawn."

                         Letter to the Sovereigns on the Third

                         Voyage, October 18, 1498.

                                

               I have always read that the world, both land and

               water, was spherical. as the authority and

               researches of Ptolemy and all others who have

               written on this subject demonstrate and prove, as

                do the eclipses of the moon and other experiments

                 that are made from east to west, and the elevation

                    of the North Star from north to south.

                         Ibid.



               I should be judged as a captain who went from

                Spain to the Indies to conquer a people numerous

                and warlike, whose manners and religion are very

               different from ours, who live in sierras and

               mountains, without fixed settlements, and where,

               by divine will I have placed under the sovereignty of

               the King and Queen our Lords, and Other World,

               whereby Spain, which was reckoned poor, is become

               the richest of countries.

                         Letter to Dona Juana de Torres, October

                         1500.



               I came to serve you at age 28 and now I have not a

               hair on me that is not white, and my body is

               infirm and exhausted.  All that was left to me and

                my brothers has been taken away and sold, even to the

               cloak I wore, without hearing or trial, to my

               great dishonor.



               Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth and

              justice! I did not come on this voyage for gain,

               honor or wealth, that is certain; for then the hope of

              all such things was dead.  I came to Your Highnesses

               with honest purpose and sincere zeal; and I do not

               lie.  I humbly beseech Your Highnesses that, if it

               please God to remove me hence, you will help me to

               go to Rome on other pilgrimages.                  

                         Lettera Rarissima to the Sovereigns,

                       July 7, 1503, on the Fourth Voyage.



               

                             OUTLINE



I.  The quest -- heroes, myths and the age of exploration



     A.  motivations for exploration:



          i.  the crusades -- exposure to the riches of the east

                    the need for spices

                    trading routes of the early fifteenth century



     B.  conditions which made the age of discovery possible:



            i.  developments in ship building: the caravel and

                         lateen sails

            ii.  The Printing Press and geographic works



II.  The Early voyages of discovery



     A.  Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal



               i.  the Kingdom of Prester John

               ii.  gold routes across the Sahara

               iii.  prevalent myths about the unchartered

               regions of the oceans at the time:      

                           the early explorers as knights!



     B.  Portugese expeditions



          i.  Bartholomew Dias -- 1488

               The Cape of Good Hope -- identify on a map

          ii.  Vasco da Gama -- 1498

                    The Malabar Coast

          iii.  The impact of the Portuguese presence in Africa

               and  the east:

               The Geography of Africa

               The Diversity of African Cultures

               Africa in the early modern period: Benin

               Portuguese weapons in Japan

               the impact of Portugal on Africa





III.  Spain: Christopher Columbus -- 1492



          i.  his background: The Renaissance Man!

          ii.  his interest in navigation:

                    Ptolemy and geographic fiction!!!!

          iii.  Columbus and Spain:

                    the unification of Spain vs.  Portugal

          iv.  his voyage(s)



                    techniques of navigation

                    problems with sailing:

                         Mercator's projection maps

                    disease and mutiny

                    LANDFALL



          v.  his return:



                    controversy

                    the Treaty of Tordesillas 1494





          vi.  Appraisals of Columbus:



                    Was he the greatest success or the greatest

                         failure in history??????

                    a.  never discovered what he set out to

                         find!!!!  AND America named for

                         Vespucci!

                    b.  his discovery opened a new era: 

                         Price Revolution of 16th century



                    c.   power of Spanish monarchy and control of

                                   sea

                         i.   his voyages as compared to those of

                                   the Ming

                         ii.  the exploitation of                

                              the New World:

                              Spanish Rule   

                              Bartolomeo de las Casa and the

                             Black Legend

                              Sepulveda

                         iii.   biological exchange:

                              The Great Disease Migration -- The

                              Columbian Exchange

                              a)   exchange of important

                               products,  animal and plant life

                               both ways; profoundly affected life

                              on both  sides of the ocean. 

                              b)   devastated the native American

                                   Population

                                   The Aztecs and Cortes

                                   



IV.  continued exploration:



          i.  Balboa 1513 -- Pacific

          ii.  Magellan 1519 -- circumnavigate

                         the globe

          iii. Northern voyages: Cabot, 1497