EUROPEAN Exploration [AP World History Review] Unit 4 Topic 2

Hi and welcome back to Heimler’s History. We’re in Unit 4 of AP World History and in the last video we talked all about the new maritime technology that led to the growth of sea-based empires. In this video we’re going to talk about who it was that shelled out the scrilla to pay for all this new exploration: and the answer is, states.

So why did states sponsor the expansion of maritime exploration in 1450-1750? Well, let’s get to it and find out. So first, let me tell you in general why states sponsored exploration and then we’ll look specifically at several European states that did so.

So in general, we can say that states sponsored expansion of maritime exploration because of gold, God, and glory. First, gold. Now in order to talk about this, I need to introduce you to the economic system that dominated Europe during this time, namely, mercantilism.

Without getting into the finer details of this system, you should know that a mercantilist saw the world’s wealth like a giant pie, which is to say, there is only a fixed amount of wealth to be had because they measured that wealth in gold. And the thing about pie is, if I want a bigger piece, that means someone else has to have a smaller piece. And so one of the main reasons why rulers were motivated to expand their trade on the sea is because as they established trading posts, that meant more gold for their coffers.

New trading posts meant new wealth. Second, God. Europeans were, by and large, Christians.

And since Christianity is at its heart a missionary religion, they believed it was their duty to convert people in distant lands. And so there was a religious impulse to this expansion as well. Third, glory.

At the end of the day, nothing delivers more glory to a state than controlling a large empire. And as many states began to claim territories over the seas, a fierce competition grew up between them to claim lands before other countries did. In this sense they were kind of like three year olds playing with toys.

Three year old A picks up one of three year old B’s toys, and three year old A pitches a fit because he wants that toy. When his mom says, yes but you haven’t played with toy in a year, the three year old responds, no this is my favorite toy. But we all know that this kid doesn’t care about the toy, he just doesn’t want the other kid to have it.

Now this kind of behavior is to be expected with three year olds, but… Okay, so those are the general reasons states sponsored sea-based expansion. Now let me pause for a second and emphasize some change and continuity. People from all over the world had always explored the seas.

What is new here is the large-scale state sponsorship of those explorations. Okay, now let’s turn our attention to some specific examples of these states. And I reckon we should begin with Portugal.

It’s hard to think of another nation whose whole state/exploration knot was tied tighter. Why is that? Well, geography for starters.

Portugal juts right into Spain’s backside, and that means they only have one way to expand: into the sea. And there are a couple Portuguese explorers worth noting. First is Bartholomew Diaz.

In 1488 Diaz sailed all the way around the southern tip of Africa and then returned home. Second is Vasco de Gama. Ten years later he sailed around the southern tip of Africa and continued all the way to India.

And when he landed in India, he claimed that territory as part of Portugal’s empire, as one does. Now that was just the beginning. In 1514 Portuguese traders arrived in China.

Initially they had little effect on the Chinese, but after the merchants came the missionaries. Two sects of Catholic missionaries made it their aim to convert the Chinese. The Franciscans worked to convert the mass of Chinese people while the Jesuits worked to convert the elite.

Now they had some success, but the vast majority of the Chinese considered these Christians barbarians and therefore, overall, their impact was minor. But with all these accomplishments under their belt, the Portuguese began work on empire building. And for them it wasn’t the traditional means of empire building, which is to say, get as much land as possible under your command.

Rather, the Portuguese established what’s known as a trading-post empire. This means that they claimed small amounts of land at strategic locations around the African coast and throughout the Indian Ocean. And their goal was to possess a complete monopoly over the spice trade and to charge all other ships passing through the ports they controlled.

Now let’s turn our attention to the backside into which Portugal so unceremoniously jutted: Spain. The Spanish state also sponsored exploration and two names you should know here are Ferdinand Magellan and Christopher Columbus. Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the globe by going west and then south around the tip of South America.

And when he landed in the Philippines it wasn’t long before Spain annexed the network of islands and set up a significant trading post that attracted many Asian merchants. Then there’s our friend Christopher Columbus. The Spanish state sponsored this guy to seek a new westward route to Asia and to look for some gold and silver to boot.

Eventually that journey across the sea led Columbus into contact with the Aztec and Inca Empires where he found metric buttloads of the gold and silver sought by the Spanish. And that discovery made it worth the expense to keep travelling there. Eventually the Spanish discovered that if they enslaved the natives (and later Africans) and forced them into agriculture, they could become wealthy beyond their wildest imaginations.

Now of course Columbus’s contact with these peoples led to some massive changes known as the Columbian Exchange but I’m going to talk about that extensively in the next video. Okay, I reckon we need to talk about the English. In 1497 the English state sponsored an explorer named John Cabot.

His aim was to find a northwest passage to Asia so that they didn’t have to sail all the way around South America. Turns out he didn’t find such a passage, but he went ahead and claimed all the land from Newfoundland down to Chesapeake Bay for the English. In 1607 the English established their first colony called Jamestown in the Chesapeake Bay, and needless to say, that action had some consequences, but we’ll have to save those for another video too.

Alright, let’s talk about the French. The French state also wanted to find a northwest passage through the Americas and when they couldn’t they went ahead and claimed part of the land which is now Canada. Sorry.

And when they discovered how rich this land was in natural resources, they decided they didn’t really need to find a way to Asia. Canada would do just fine. Just one year after the establishment of Jamestown the French established Quebec.

But in general, the French did establish permanent settlements like the English. Instead they became more interested in using these new territories as trading posts with the natives. And as you might imagine, that meant that the French had better relations with the native Americans.

And finally, let’s talk about the Dutch. In 1609 the Dutch state sent Henry Hudson to seek a northwest passage to Asia. He found what would later be named the Hudson River and although it didn’t lead him to Asia, he went ahead and claimed the Hudson River Valley for the Dutch and called it New Amsterdam.

Okay, that’s what you need to know about state sponsored maritime exploration in Unit 4. Right here you can subscribe to the channel and I’ll keep making videos for you. Here you can support this channel if you are feeling so inclined.

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