Welcome back.
We’re going to do this lecture; it’s called
European Exploration – causes and consequences.
We’ll probably break this up into two or
three short lectures, and these will be the
final lectures of the semester.
So let’s start with context, as usual.
The first big context is pretty obvious, it’s
globalization.
As the Europeans set out following Columbus,
they began to sort of bring the world together,
creating what today is obviously globalization.
This will take centuries to bring about but
it begins here.
A second context – Remember in 1453 that
Constantinople falls to the Muslims, it becomes
Istanbul.
At that point, trade with the East begins
to diminish because of the rise of the Muslim
middleman, which we talked about a few lectures
ago when we talked about Columbus.
So there’s this religious aspect to European
exploration.
Remember that Columbus, his whole venture
of sailing west to get to the Far East is
based in part upon the rise of these Islamic
kingdoms – the Ottoman; the Mogul; and the
Safavid – these Muslim middlemen.
And another obvious context here is one we’ve
talked about over the course of the semester,
east and west meeting and comingling – trading
languages; and cultures; and technology; and
faith.
Some significances – Neo-Europes, or new
Europes, or little Europes, are going to be
established all around the world.
There’s going to be a spread of Christianity
and Western culture as European exploration
results in European settlement in North and
South America; South Africa; Australia; New
Zealand; and other places.
So Columbus has set in motion here forces
that he has no grasp of; he has no notion
the consequences of his discovery.
These explorers are sort of the vanguard of
European culture, taking disease with them,
which will make the conquering of these new
territories much easier, as European pathogens
wipe out the indigenous people.
They take, of course, Christianity with them;
domesticated plants and animals; technology;
and other things.
And our final significance here ¬– European
exploration is going to allow what Western
Civilization, our course, to begin to merge
with World History, as western civilization
spreads around the world.
Let’s just do a brief recap of Columbus
to get us in the mood for this lecture.
We talked about Columbus’ pitch, those things
that he promised the monarchs of Spain that
he could access if they financed his project.
You remember, spices; and gold; and converts;
and contact with the Great Khan.
We talked about Columbus’ maps.
We looked at a series of maps that were significant
because they did not contain a Pacific Ocean
or a Western Hemisphere, thus allowing Columbus
to believe that he could sail from Spain to
China quickly and safely.
We talked about the Columbian Exchange, that
key breaking point in history where east and
west comes together; where Africa and Europe
are going to sort of collide with North and
South America, mixing all these traditions,
and ideas, and foods, and diseases, and on
and on and on.
Of course, the Columbian Exchange is going
to lead to colonization; it’s going to lead
to the production of commodity crops, and
the necessity for African slavery.
Remember also that those explorers who follow
Columbus, they know that there’s a Western
Hemisphere, and an emerging Pacific Ocean.
They’re not moving blindly into the world
sort of as Columbus did.
So I guess you could look at Columbus and
say it’s history’s most stunning accident
that en route to China he bumps into a New
World.
Again, having no notion of this; he goes to
his grave convinced that he had sailed along
the outskirts of the realm of the Great Khan
in East Asia.
Remember also that Columbus, part of the purpose
of his journey is to spread the faith.
I’ve read where he planted crosses along
the coast of Cuba on arriving there in 1492.
Now when Columbus goes back to Spain, after
that first journey, he writes a letter – sort
of an official recounting of his voyage – to
one of the Spanish court officials, and it’s
a very optimistic letter talking about spices;
and gold; and opportunities, and because the
printing press had been invented in the middle
of the 15th century, copies of this letter
are made and it’s rapidly disseminated.
I heard one historian say that this letter
is the founding document of European exploration.
News of Columbus’ discovery spreads rapidly
across Europe because of the printing press.
The pope will even issue a papal bull that
grants Spain all the lands discovered by Columbus
for the spread of the Christian faith and
for the discovery of gold.
This will be tweaked shortly thereafter.
The pope will issue what’s called the Treaty
of Tordesillas, dividing these new found lands
between Spain and Portugal.
And of course, always remember that the indigenous
peoples of these new found areas in the west
are – for the most part – wiped out by
European diseases.
This necessitates the use of Africans as slave
labor.
Let me mention a few factors here in European
expansion.
Ancient maps are uncovered.
I’m thinking of Ptolemy’s map here, for
instance, that we talked about when we discussed
Columbus’ maps.
Travel accounts are revealed.
Of course, Marco Polo, that we talked about
with Columbus; Sir John Mandeville, you may
remember that Mandeville’s travels are entirely
fictitious.
So whether these accounts, these travel accounts,
whether they’re genuine or fantastic, they
have an impact on European imagination.
Prester John, I don’t think we’ve discussed
him in this class.
He’s sort of a mythical Christian figure.
He moves around from Central Asia to Africa.
He’s viewed by European Christians as a
potential ally against Islam.
He is entirely fictitious.
There is another factor here.
There’s an Italian merchant community in
the Far East, sort of a beacon, a lure, for
other European merchants, and of course, by
the 15th century we have better maps; and
compasses; astrolabes; ways of navigating
over the ocean.
And also remember, we talked about the Mongols
and the establishment of this vast circuit
of trade in Eurasia.
The memories of this trade circuit linger
in the European mind.
And then the final factor I’m going to mention
here is the old Crusading ideology.
We talked about the Crusades in this class,
this notion of an identity, a European identity
based on Christendom is very powerful here,
and this Crusading ideology is a motivation
to go to the Middle East, to explore new lands.
Now what I want to do for the rest of these
lectures on European exploration is to introduce
you to three arguments put forward by historians,
well-known historians.
I suppose we could spend the rest of our time
sort of going down a laundry list of European
explorers, and talk about where they went,
what they found – from Magellan to Cortez;
and Pizarro; and Coronado; and Desoto; and
Cabot; and Cartier; and on and on and on – sort
of a laundry list of European explorers.
I’m not going to do that.
You can Google that on your own if you’re
interested in it; it’s readily available.
What I want to do is something a little more,
a little deeper, and a little more interesting,
and that is to talk about the three arguments
made by three historians – Alfred Crosby,
who wrote Ecological Imperialism; a very popular
history work, Jared Diamond’s book called
Guns, Germs, and Steel; and then finally,
Sapiens by Yuval Harari.
Each of these men make interesting arguments
about European exploration, why it happened,
what was established there, why did the Europeans
set sail instead of the people in the Americas
or the people in South Asia or the Chinese;
so we’re going to take a look at these three
arguments in our next lecture.
So we’ll pick that up next time.
Thank you.
