European+Exploration+(586-591)

=European Exploration (586-591)=

European Exploration in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans ** -European mariners ventured the oceans for two main reasons: to spread Roman Catholic Christianity and profit from any commercial opportunities.

-Portuguese explorers were early leaders in Atlantic exploration and the search for a sea route to Asia through the Indian Ocean. In 1415 Portuguese forces captured the Moroccan city of Ceuta which controlled the Southern portion of the Strait of Gibraltar, the Portuguese saw this as a blow against Islam and a strategic way to move Christian vessels safely between the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. -Portuguese mariners discovered many new Islands throughout the Atlantic, many of which were used to cultivate sugarcane due to their Mediterranean climate.

-The Portuguese explored much of the western African coast and traded guns, textile, and other manufactured goods for African gold, ivory, and slaves.

-By the mid-fifteenth the Portuguese dispatched thousands of African slaves to be used as indentured servants throughout Europe and to perform heavy labor on many plantations throughout North America, South America, and the Caribbean region. As many as twelve million slaves were sent to work here.

-Towards the end of the fifteenth century Portuguese mariners were searching vigorously for an alternate sea route from Europe to Asia to avoid Muslim and Italian merchants through whom almost all Asian luxury goods reached Europe.

-By 1488 Bartolomeu Dias had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean but due to their distance from home Dias’ crew forced him to immediately return back to Portugal.

-In 1497 Vasco da Gama left Portugal in intentions of reaching India. After passing the Cape of Good Hope and sailing up along Africa’s east coast and found a Muslim sailor who taught Gama how to take advantage of the seasonal monsoon winds to sail across the Arabian Sea to India. By 1498 he arrived in India and in 1499 returned to Portugal with immense profits from his voyage.

-For nearly a century after Vasco da Gama’s voyage Portuguese mariners dominated trade between Europe and Asia. Their ships were armed with cannons and overpowered Arab, Persian, Indian, and Southeast Asian vessels signaling the start of European imperialism in Asia.

-The Genoese (Located in modern day Italy) mariner named Cristoforo Colombo, commonly known as Christopher Columbus in English thought of taking a different route to reach Asian Markets by sailing west. After the king of Portugal declined to fund his voyage, the Catholic Kings Fernando and Isabel of Spain agreed to fund his voyage.

-In 1492 Columbus left on his voyage to Asia on a fleet of three ships, eventually landing in San Salvador located in the Bahamas. He returned back to Spain without any riches he had planned to receive but was determined that he had landed on the islands near the Asian mainland and would make three more voyages to the Caribbean, Columbus never realized that he had reached the Americas instead of Asia.-

-By the end of the fifteenth century many other mariners explored the Americas and soon realized that it was actually a whole new continent.

-These discoveries sparked a new era of communication. The Indian Ocean linked China and Africa, and the silk roads Chinca to the Mediterranean Sea. People, goods, ideas, diseases, and much more traveled across these routes, shaping society. Most importantly, though, was the constant interaction between Oceania and the eastern and western hempispheres. This new network of communication would not be broken, shaping the world forever. (JK)

[Daniel Jaber]

[pictures by Kristen Kramer]