The Age of Discovery: Maritime Expeditions and Their Impact
The Great Sea Voyages
1. The Great Sea Voyages
1.1 The Objectives of the Long Trips
East European trade was redone through the Silk Route that ran along the Mediterranean, came to Constantinople, and thence across Central Asia. In 1453, the Turks conquered Constantinople and hindered traditional avenues of trade with the Orient. Therefore, it became necessary to find new sea lanes. From the fifteenth century, a series of maritime expeditions developed.
1.2 The Portuguese Expeditions
Portuguese sailors were the first to venture south along the Atlantic. They established the African route, sailing westward to reach the islands of Madeira and the Azores. Continuing south, they reached the Gulf of Guinea, where they established trading colonies for gold, ivory, and slaves. Bartolomeu Dias arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. A new party led by Vasco da Gama reached the coast of India.
Castilla Found a New Continent
2.1 The Draft of Columbus
Cristóbal Colón, a sailor possibly from Genoa, thought he could reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic without having to go around Africa. Columbus presented his project to the Catholic Monarchs, and Isabella agreed to finance the expedition, signing the Capitulation of Santa Fe. It established that Columbus would receive titles of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy of the lands he discovered.
2.2 The Four Columbian Voyages
The first expedition of Columbus sailed from Palos. It consisted of one ship (the Santa Maria) and two smaller ships (the Pinta and the Niña). It stopped in the Canary Islands and then started across the Atlantic. On October 12, 1492, they made landfall on a small island in the Bahamas.
The success of the first journey permitted the preparation of a second expedition, which started in September 1493. They settled on the island named by Columbus, Hispaniola, where they established an economic system of trading posts.
On the third voyage, Columbus arrived in Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco River on the coast of the Americas. On the fourth trip, he covered the coasts of Central America.
The Catholic Monarchs asked the Pope to grant them sovereignty over the lands discovered by Columbus to explore and evangelize. However, Portugal also sought to control the seas and lands to avoid conflicts, leading to the establishment of the Treaty of Tordesillas.
The Earth is Round
1. Columbus’ Errors
Columbus made several errors, including:
- The belief in the sphericity of the Earth. Eratosthenes explained that the Earth was round and made a rough estimate of its circumference.
- The belief that there was only ocean between Europe and Asia, as he ignored the existence of the Americas. He thought that by sailing westward from Europe, he could reach the Indies.
2. The Discovery of the Pacific
The Portuguese and Spanish sailors who reached American shores began to question whether they had discovered Asian lands or unknown territories. It was the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa who confirmed their suspicions by discovering the Pacific Ocean.
3. The Name of America
One of the sailors who visited the shores of the New World after Columbus was the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who claimed to have been the first European to reach that continent.
4. The First Trip Around the World
The expedition organized to serve the Spanish Crown was led by Ferdinand Magellan and composed of five ships. Its goal was to find a sea passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Magellan reached the Marianas and then the Philippines. He died in this archipelago while trying to subdue the indigenous people. His captain, Sebastián Elcano, made his way back across the Indian Ocean and along the African coast. With this feat, Magellan and Elcano completed the first trip around the world, demonstrating that the Earth is round.