Human adaptation and innovation have resulted in increased efficiency, comfort, and security, and technological advances have shaped human development and interactions with both intended and unintended consequences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain how cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of technology and facilitated changes in patterns of trade and travel from 1450 to 1750.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

KC 4.1.II - Knowledge, scientific learning, and technology from the Classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds spread, facilitating European technological developments and innovation.

KC 4.1.II.A - The developments included the production of new tools, innovations in ship designs, and an improved understanding of regional wind and currents patterns—all of which made transoceanic travel and trade possible.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Innovations in ship design:

§Caravel ship design innovation

§ Carrack ship design innovation

§Fluyt ship design innovation

European technological developments influenced by cross-cultural interactions with the Classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds:

§ Lateen sails

§ Compass

§ Astronomical charts

Contextualization

European seafaring technology, built on Chinese and Islamic precedents, allowed them to cross the Atlantic with growing ease, transporting people and supplies across great distances.

• Ming emperors of China sponsored a series of seven massive maritime expeditions that visited all parts of the Indian Ocean basin. Although state-sponsored expeditions came to an end after 1435, Chinese merchants and mariners were prominent figures in east Asian and southeast Asian lands

• Ottoman mariners actively traded in the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea. This intensified after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, both merchant and military vessels established an Ottoman presence throughout the Indian Ocean basin.

  • • Ottoman subjects traveled as far as China

Innovations in ship design:

§Caravel ship design innovation

• developed by the Portuguese for exploring the coast of Africa

  • • rounded bottom, making them faster than other vessels of their time

• stern-post rudder

  • • increased the maneuverability of their craft by building a rudder onto the stern

    • a Chinese invention that had diffused across the Indian Ocean and probably became known to Europeans through Arab ships in the Mediterranean

• two main types of sail

  • • Square sails

      • • enabled them to take full advantage of a following wind (a wind blowing from behind)

        • these sails did not work well in crosswinds.

    • Triangular lateen sails

      • • very maneuverable and could catch winds from the side as well as from behind

        • lateen sails were used for shoreline sailing

        • a combination of square and lateen sails, European ships were able to use whatever winds arose

§ Carrack ship design innovation

• premier merchant ships of European powers

• larger than Caravel's and a deeper draw

• three masts

  • • mainmast and foremast being rigged with square sails

    • mizzenmast rigged with a fore-and-aft triangular lateen sails

• Portuguese adopted the carrack to move goods to Africa, India, and the Spice Islands.

• more stable on the open ocean than the Caravel and could carry enough men and food to be a ship of exploration.

§Fluyt ship design innovation

• first developed in Holland

• adept at sailing in colder climates and had a large cargo hold

  • • used for trade in the North Sea and the Atlantic during the early 17th century

• two-masted with a mainsail and topsail that were both square rigged. The mizzenmast carried a lateen sail

• used by Henry Hudson

European technological developments influenced by cross-cultural interactions with the Classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds:

§ Lateen sails

• very maneuverable and could catch winds from the side as well as from behind

• a combination of square and lateen sails, European ships were able to use whatever winds arose

§ Compass

• a Chinese invention of the Tang or Song dynasty that had diffused throughout the Indian Ocean basin in the eleventh century.

• By the mid-twelfth century (1100s), European mariners used compasses to determine their heading in Mediterranean and Atlantic waters.

§ Astronomical charts

• Astrolabe

• a simplified version of an instrument used by Greek and Persian astronomers to determine latitude by measuring the angle of the sun or the pole star above the horizon.

• Portuguese mariners visiting the Indian Ocean in the late fifteenth century encountered Arab sailors using simpler and more serviceable instruments for determining latitude, which the Portuguese then used as models for the construction of cross staffs and back staffs

• Note: The measurement of longitude requires the ability to measure time precisely and so had to wait until the late eighteenth century, when dependable, spring-driven clocks became available.

• winds and currents

  • • In both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, strong winds blow regularly to create giant “wind wheels” both north and south of the equator

    • ocean currents follow a similar pattern

Dom Henrique of Portugal, often called Prince Henry the Navigator, promoted voyages of exploration in west Africa specifically to enter the gold trade, discover profitable new trade routes, gain intelligence about the extent of Muslim power, win converts to Christianity, and make alliances against the Muslims with any Christian rulers he might find.

1.) Sugar Cane

• Azores and Madeiras Islands (Canary Islands) had visited since the early fourteenth century (1300s)

  • • European demand for sugar was strong and increasing--desire to establish sugar plantations on the Atlantic islands

    • Italian entrepreneurs had organized sugar plantations in Palestine and the Mediterranean islands since the twelfth century (1100s)

    • fifteenth century (1400s) Italian investors worked with Portuguese mariners to establish plantations in the Atlantic islands

• Continuing Portuguese voyages also led to the establishment of plantations on more southerly Atlantic islands, including the Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé, Principe, and Fernando Po.

2.) maritime trade routes to the markets of Asia

• Collapse of the silk road

  • • end of Pax Mongolia resulted in reduction of overland trade

• fall of Constantinople (1453)

  • • more symbolic -- desire to eliminate Muslim intermediaries

    • Muslim mariners continued to bring Asian goods through the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Cairo

    • Italian merchants purchased them for distribution in western Europe.

    • prices at Cairo were high, and Europeans sought ever-larger quantities of Asian goods, particularly spices

• Desired Indian Ocean Goods

  • • Indian pepper

    • Chinese ginger as expensive necessities

    • especially prized cloves and nutmeg from the spice islands of Maluku

• Desired African Goods

  • • west African gold, ivory, and slaves

    • desire to eliminate trans-Saharan camel caravans of Muslim merchants

Use the chart above to identify causes of the historical event or process of European exploration.

• the causes of maritime exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries

• organize your notes and understanding history through cause and effect relationships.

• differentiate between primary and secondary causes

• Remember, European maritime expansion would eventually lead to new empires in the Americas and the Columbian Exchange.

  • • primary causes are much more immediate.

    • Secondary causes lead to the event, but don’t make inevitable.

Key Takeaways

A.) European maritime expansion was more than just Columbus

• start with the crusades and the rise of Italian merchants

• Prince Henry of Portugal and the accumulation of knowledge and technology in a single location in Sangres

  • • sponsorship of expeditions

A) Understand the difference between primary and secondary causes.

Primary Causes:

• Portuguese desire for Sugar Cane plantations off the west coast of Africa

• desire for direct access to Indian Ocean trade

Secondary causes:

• diffusion of navigation technology from China, Dar-al Islam and the Indian Ocean

• Fall of Constantinople in 1453 and a desire to not support Ottoman Empire

Remember, European maritime expansion would eventually lead to new empires in the Americas and the Columbian Exchange.

Remember, primary causes are much more immediate. Secondary causes lead to the event, but don’t make inevitable.