6.4.1 Text 资料文件与下载

6.4 Age of Discovery

Hi, this is the fourth part of chapter six, the age of discovery.

1. Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration is an informal and loosely defined period in the European history, from the end of the 15th century to the 18th century. There is a Chinses expression大航海, but in English it is called Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration. The Age of Discovery also started the slave trade and colonialization. From the perspective of Europeans, they discovered a new world previously unknown to them. But from the perspective of the local people already lived there for maybe millions years, it is an old world, their motherland; to them the Europeans are invaders from previously unknown countries.

Why did Europeans want to discover a sea route to India?

In 1453, The Ottomans conquered the Byzantine Empire. The name of this city changed into Istanbul, and it became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

We all know the Silk Road has a history as long as more than two thousand years, beginning in the Chinese Han dynasty, Zhang Qian expanded the section from Chan An to the Central Asia. The Silk Road played a significant role in the trade between the west and the East. Silk and spices reached Europe through the Silk Road. After the expansion of the Ottoman Empire this road had been blocked, both on the land and on the sea. But the demand for spices and silk continued to rise at a great rate than their supply. This is the reason for Europeans to discover a sea route to India.

We can see from the map, that’s the silk road, on the land and on the sea, but ottoman empire blocked the road from here.

2. Spices

The word spice comes from the Old French word espice, which came from the Latin. Spices are usually dried and produced from the plants, including leaves, flowers, seeds, bark, roots and fruits. Historians believe nutmeg was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BCE. Nutmeg is one of the four great spices, originates from the Banda Islands in Indonesia. Spices were among the most demanded and expensive products in Europe in the Middle Ages. The Four great spices are: Cinnamon肉桂, clove丁香, nutmeg肉豆蔻 and mace豆蔻香料. We can imagine how fast food could be rotten without refrigerator. Spices not only can add flavor, but also can be used as preservatives. Some spices were used as perfumes to battle the bad smell in the city streets and the living areas. We know that time sanitary conditions were terrible.

3. Portuguese were the pioneers in exploration and colonization. Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator 1394 –1460 was the son of king John I, he is regarded as the main initiator of the Age of Discovery. Through his administrative direction the Portuguese discovered the sea rout to India along the coast of Africa and cross the Indian Ocean.

1488 Dias passed the Cape of Good Hope

Bartolomeu Dias was explorer and a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household. In 1488 he sailed around the west coast of Africa, passed the Cape of Good Hope and the southernmost tip of Africa, reached the Indian Ocean, the first European have done so. He intended to go further but the mutiny of his crew forced him to return to Lisbon. Mutiny means rebellion. Dias said his goal is "To give light to those who are in darkness and to grow rich".

4. 1499 Vasco da Gama reached India.

Vasco da Gama 1460– 1524 was a Portuguese nobleman and explorer, the first European to reach India by an ocean route, after 2 years voyage, he brought back the most valuable spices of the East. His discovery connected the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. He opened the way for an age of global imperialism and for the Portuguese to establish a colonial empire in Asia. We can see his statue, that’s from the front that’s from the back; he’s looking at the sea.

5. Columbus 1451-1506 discovered a New World

Cristopher Columbus was an Italian adventure, Born in the Republic of Genoa. He believed that the world was round and to reach the East Indies a western course would be shorter than the route found by Portuguese which has to going through Africa. He was right; it is true he can reach India by going west. He was wrong, this route actually four time longer.

On the evening of 3 August 1492, Columbus started his sailing to the west across the Atlantic Ocean with three ships, the flagship Santa María was about 19 m long. On 12 October he landed on an island in the Bahamas that he named "San Salvador". Columbus believed he reached the East Indies, the lands of South and Southeast Asia. He called the Native Americans Indians. He proclaimed he had discovered a new world, in Spanish, Mundus Novus, and this New World belongs to Spain because his exploration was sponsored by the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

From 1493 to 1502, in his next three more voyages, he reached the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming all of them the Spanish territories. He was rewarded as the first Spanish Governor of the Indies.

It is wrong to say Columbus discovered a New World, it was an old world belong to the native Americans they had been living there for maybe 30,000 years, it was their motherland. The Europeans brutally conquered and colonized this vast land.

6. Landing of Columbus

This is the painting of the landing if Columbus

7. Gold, God, and Glory

Columbus was a bellwether, bellwether is a leader, and originally a bellwether is the sheep that leads the herd often wearing a bell. After Columbus waves of Spanish, French, Dutch, German and English rushed to conquer the new world. Their motive can be summarized in three words: Gold, God, and Glory. They want to plunder the resources and wealth, they want to Christianize the indigenous people, they want to bring honor to their kings and queens. Europeans sometime describe the indigenes people as dog-faced, dog-toothed. Sometime they were called satyrs; satyr is a man with strong sexual desires. Have you seen the film series: the Chronicles of Narnia. This guy is a satyr with a human head and goat body. Sometime the local people were called cannibal, people who eat human. Have you read Daniel Defoe’ Robinson Crusoe?  Robinson Crusoe’s servant Friday formerly was a cannibal.

Columbian Exchange

In 1972 an American historian Alfred W. Crosby, published a book The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Since then the term Columbian Exchange has become popular among historians and journalists. It refers to the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the new world and the old World after Columbus's voyage. The Europeans brought diseases like smallpox天花, typhoid伤寒measles 风麻疹 and influenza that killed millions of native Americans because they don’t have immunity, the Europeans also brought horse, pigs, cow, and other domestic animals to the new world while brought back to Europe tomato potato. Potato soon became very important food in Europe; we can’t imagine how many people would have died without this nutritious food in the old world.

8. Columbus Day

Columbus Day is a national holiday in Spain and many countries in the Americas which officially celebrates the anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. It became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937, the second Monday in October every year. When we think about the legacy of the discovery and Colonization of the new world, we should not forget what the Europeans did was not civilized, was not for God but for gold. The Europeans brought to the Native Americans not brightness but darkness. The Native Americans had been cheated, pillaged and killed. Finally they have been driven away from their land and lived a terrible life in some so-called reservations. Venezuelan President Chavez once said: "Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity."

9. 1519 Magellan. Circumnavigation

In 1519, a Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan also sponsored by Spain started his great circumnavigation around the world. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed in the Philippines in 1521, his successor Sebastian Elcano completed the journey. It took three years and one month, five ships only one left, the crew of 280 only 18 returned home. The circumnavigation first proved the world is round, also proved the vastness of the Pacific Ocean made a western route to India possible but uneconomical.

10. let’s look at this map, so we can see the first one 1487 Dias, he sailed from Europe to the cape of good hope and go to the south of Africa and came back and in  1497 Da Gama started from Portugal and along this way Europe and go to India along the Indian ocean ,and the third we can see Columbus in 1492 and started from Spain and going to the Bahamas and this area and come back , and the last one, 1519 Circumnavigation by Magellan started from here and go to south America and go to Pacific ocean and from here come back to Philippines and come back here and go around the world. That’s the four navigations.

11. Spanish colonization of the Americas

Beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, over three centuries, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized vast territory in Americas including the Caribbean Islands, half of South America, and north America and Three great civilizations Maya, Aztec and Inca, all destroyed by the Spanish invaders.

12. Hernando Cortes 1485-1547 was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of Spain. Conquistador in Spain means conqueror. In 1519 Cortes was a captain leading an expedition. They sailed from Cuba, across the Gulf of Mexico, landed at the west coast of the land. He first conquered Veracruz and from here he built a fortification. He left 200 soldiers there and sank his boats to show his determination of never turn back. Then he led 600 soldiers, 15 cannons, marched for 400 kilometers to the capital of the Aztec Empire Tenochtitlan, today’s Mexico City. Go along this way to here. He made alliances with indigenous tribes that the Aztec had conquered. Local people had never seen horses and iron armament. The Spanish cavalry terrified the Aztecs. Finally he conquered the Aztec and became the first Governor of New Spain. In 30 years the population of Aztecs reduced from 25 million to less than 2 million, the main reason was the diseases brought by the Spanish like smallpox, typhoid, and measles.

13. Slave trade

Slave trade is one of the ugliest, cruelest inhuman features of the Western Civilization. Portuguese first started the slave trade, followed by the other powers. The Popes granted Portugal a monopoly on the trade because the enslaved had not converted to Christianity. At the beginning they bought the slaves from trades, then they just raided the coastal villages to capture as many as possible. The Atlantic slave trade is the transportation of the enslaved Africans by slave traders mainly to the Americas. It was part of the Triangular Trade at that time between Americas, Europe and Africa. From this map we can see the triangular trade, from Africa slaves go the America, from America sugar tobacco cotton to Europe, from Europe to Africa textiles rum and manufactural goods,

14. Let’s look at how they cram the slaves into a British slave ship in 1788. It was so horrible!  You can see that’s the human beings like ants.

15. World-systems theory

American scholar Immanuel Wallerstein traced the rise of the capitalist world-economy from the "long" 16th century. He divided the countries into three categories: core countries, semi-periphery and the periphery countries. Core countries are some certain countries who become the world hegemon; they focus on higher skill, capital-intensive production. And the rest of the world focuses on low-skill, labor-intensive production and extraction of raw materials. The western powers are all core countries. I think one reason of their prosperity is the colonization of the periphery countries.

16. Zheng He 1405 -1533

During the Ming Dynasty, Chinese explorer Zheng He led 7 expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433. Why Columbus changed the world, but Zheng He didn't? The reason is Zheng He’s purpose is to extend the Tributary System, to impress foreign peoples, to express imperial benevolence. Not conquest, not colonization. In 1792 Emperor Qianlong from the Qing Dynasty once said to the English envoy McCartney: "the Celestial Empire is abundant for everything. Nothing we don’t have. We don’t need trade barbarian goods". China is the center of the world, others are barbarian, and of course this is arrogant. I call it the Celestial Empire mentality. But remember one thing: Zheng He didn’t conquer the other countries. Not colonization but a peaceful foreign policy.

17. His first fleet included 200 ships, 28,000 crewmen; the 62 big ships called treasure ships, it had 9 masts, 127m long and 52m wide, much bigger than Columbus’s flagship Santa María which is only 19m long, so this is Santa Maria and this is the Treasure ship.

18. Huntington

In his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Huntington said: "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion to which few members of other civilizations were converted. but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do". What is the organized violence? I think that is the conquest and colonization and they started from the Age of Discovery.

19. Let’s look at the key Words: Age of Discovery, Cristopher Columbus, Columbian Exchange, Ferdinand Magellan, World-systems theory

This is the end of the fourth part of chapter six, the age of discovery.