The Fall of Constantinople in May of 1453 marks a turning point in European history. The Ottomans went from formidable adversaries to a dominant power in one fell swoop.
Control of southwestern Europe meant that they could use their navy to capitalize on maritime trade across the region. With their economies dwindling and authorities challenged, European kingdoms were looking for novel ways to eke out a living and, if possible, tip the balance of power in their favor.
Necessity breeds creativity. The European powers wanted to bypass the Ottomans and play by their own rules.
Age of Discovery: European Expeditions and Voyages
Thus began a series of expeditions and voyages to chart remote lands, going where no European had dared to go before and discovering civilizations hitherto unknown.
This adventure began as a great European experiment but eventually turned into a calculated system of exploitation and polarization across the globe. This is the “Age of Discovery.”
Let’s travel back to 15th century Portugal where a prince named Henry, or as he later came to be known, “Prince Henry the Navigator,” encouraged exploration across the Mediterranean’s southern shore. He is often regarded as the progenitor of The Age of Discovery.
Portuguese Navigational Advances and African Exploration
By the mid-15th century, the Portuguese had started to make great strides in navigational technology. Technologies like astrolabes, magnetic compasses, the caravel, and sextant further helped fuel the passion for exploration. This passion manifested itself in the European desire to head into Africa.
Africans were rich in food, gold, and slaves – as exemplified by the Malian King’s hajj to Mecca in the years 1324 to 1325. Moving along the coastline, the Portuguese started to kidnap African locals to sell into European slave markets.
In 1488, another Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, one of the southernmost points of the African continent, essentially paving the way for the establishment of sea routes between Europe and Asia.
Vasco da Gama and Portuguese Colonial Expansion
Now that reaching the Indian Ocean was not an issue, another Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, made his way from Lisbon to Calicut in India.
The goods used in China and Southeast Asia were fascinating to European eyes, and they quickly developed a liking to the different luxuries of the continent. And with that, Portuguese colonialization was well underway. In Africa, they had developed fortresses and trading posts along the coastline.
They established their presence in Asia by capturing Goa and Malacca – the former served as their main base for almost four centuries. By controlling trading routes across the coastline and avoiding the Mediterranean routes and, consequently, the Arabian Peninsula, Portugal turned from a poor kingdom into one of the richest countries of its time.
Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of the Americas
In the late-15th century, a young Italian man by the name of Christopher Columbus was living in Lisbon. He had a keen interest in geography, astronomy, and history.
The aura of exploration attracted him, and the idea of traveling to Southeast Asia through the Cape route became more and more appealing to him. When his efforts in Portugal failed, he lobbied in multiple kingdoms to sponsor his voyage.
The Catholic monarchs in Spain agreed to fund his travels, and he finally set sail. In 1492, he landed on an island in the Bahamas (now called San Salvador), where he captured a handful of slaves. Word of the discovery quickly spread throughout Europe.
No one knew the size and shape of the American land, so ambitious sailors took to the seas after Columbus, exploring the American land from one end to the other.
John Cabot and Ferdinand Magellan: Expanding European Horizons
- Pre-Columbian America was a vastly different land than the Europeans had ever imagined, mostly because of two major civilizations.
- The Aztec Empire, a kingdom of abundant wealth and superstition, had controlled most of Mesoamerica since 1325 CA.
- In 1519, Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, landed on the coast of present-day Mexico and started moving inland.
- He allied himself with some indigenous factions; and massacred and plundered others.
- His exhibition was recalled, but Hernan chose to ignore the warning.
- The Governor of Cuba even sent emissaries to arrest Hernan, but his troops, along with the indigenous tribes, fought and won.
- He married a local woman named Dona Marina, who proved pivotal in the conquest that followed.
- He finally reached Tenochtitlan, the center of the Aztec Empire, where the Spaniards gawked and gaped at the wonder of the New World.
Francisco Pizarro and the Fall of the Incan Empire
After he defeated the Aztec Empire, his prestige grew, and the charges of mutiny were removed. In South America, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro was leading a campaign against the Incas. The Incan Empire was based in the Andes Mountains of central Peru and was a large empire of around 16 million people that extended around 2500 miles from North to South.
The Incas had built thousands of miles of roads that facilitated transport and commerce within the empire. In his third expedition to Peru in 1532, he captured the Incan emperor and executed him. With the appearance of Europeans, diseases also started to spread – especially diseases that were alien to the immune systems of the locals. Historians estimate that disease and conquest wiped out about 90% of the Native American population.
Conflicts and Colonization: Europe’s Global Impact
| Event | Details |
|---|---|
| Iberian Conquests and Conflicts | Iberian conquests begot conflicts between Portugal and Spain, and the Pope had to sign a treaty to settle the disputes. Spain received the better end of the deal, but other nations, including France, Netherlands, and England, refused to acknowledge the treaty. |
| Francis Drake’s British Incursion (Late 1570s) | In the late 1570s, Francis Drake initiated the British incursion into the Pacific Ocean and, by doing so, gave birth to conflict on the western coast of the continent. He also managed to circumnavigate the world and received a knighthood for the accomplishment. |
| Shift to Colonization and Exploitation (Beginning of 17th Century) | What started as a search for new lands and resources had taken quite a nasty turn. By the beginning of the 17th century, European nations had taken a liking to the idea of colonization and exploitation of the rest of the world. By chipping away at the ends of the ends, they slowly changed the face of modern politics and economics. |
Consequences of European Colonization on Africa and the Americas
Whereas Africa was wealthy and majestic before western involvement, it was home to poverty, slavery, and death after it. Similarly, the New World witnessed a perpetuated mass genocide of the Native Americans. The Aztec and Incan empires were among several civilizations the colonizers wiped out.
The African slave trade continued to destroy the lives of African generations as they were subjected to inhumane treatment in America long after the British retreated from the colonies.
Over the years, indigenous scholars have taken issue with the use of the word “discovery” for the sake of periodization since it negates the presence of indigenous civilizations. In Asia, the British East India Trading Company and the Dutch East India Company entered Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Indian subcontinent.
Dividing people across religious and discriminatory lines was often the core policy of imperialism. The Spanish did it in the Americas, where they pit local groups against each other. Similarly, the motto of the British East India Company was “divide and conquer,” which they used to pit different religious factions in the Indian subcontinent against each other. India eventually partitioned along religious lines in the 20th century.