The Age of European Exploration and Expansion

I. The Discovery of New Worlds

A. Portuguese Explorations

1. Initial Portuguese Efforts — Spain and Portugal, inspired by their struggle against Islam and a desire for the riches available through trade with the East, increasingly brought Europe into contact with the rest of the world. In 1433, Portuguese mariners began exploring the West African coast, seeking a way around Ottoman-controlled land routes to the east in search of the spice trade and inspired by rumors of Prester John’s mythical eastern Christian kingdom. Using newly developed caravels, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) financed many voyages with revenues from a crusading order. Early triumphs attracted more sailors, astronomers, and cartographers, who developed better navigation techniques.

2. The New Portuguese Trading Network — Searching for gold and slaves, the Portuguese built forts down the African coast, reaching the Cape of Good Hope by 1487–1488. A decade after that, Vasco da Gama led a fleet to Calicut, India, bringing back Chinese porcelain. By 1512, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor working for the Spanish, led an expedition to circumnavigate the globe. By 1517, the Portuguese had forts all along the Indian Ocean.

B. The Voyages of Columbus

1. Columbus’s Ambitions and the First Voyage — Born in Genoa, Christopher Columbus participated in these ventures and, underestimating the distance, planned his own expedition to China. The Portuguese refused to back him, but Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain agreed to do so. In 1492, Columbus sailed west with three ships, eventually reaching the Bahamas and believing he was near Japan. He explored the Caribbean islands in search of gold, and sought to subjugate and Christianize the Arawak natives he encountered.

2. The Second Voyage and Royal Intervention — Many joined Columbus’s second voyage in 1493, which had seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men. When they did not find gold, his men began enslaving native Caribs, the enemies of the Arawaks. Columbus proposed a permanent trade in slaves in 1494. The Spanish monarchy decided to send priests and officials to the Americas, which was named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who voyaged across the Atlantic from 1499–1502.

3. The Treaty of Tordesillas — To head off conflict between Spain and Portugual, Pope Alexander VI helped negotiate the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which divided the Atlantic between the two powers. The treaty allowed Portugal to claim Brazil in 1500.

C. A New Era in Slavery

1. Historical Slavery — European voyages of discovery initiated a new era in slavery by expanding its scale and by attaching race and color to servitude. Slavery had existed throughout history and was widespread, with slaves of all races toiling in galleys, as domestic servants, as agricultural laborers, and even as soldiers in the Ottoman army.

2. The New African Slavery — From the fifteenth century onward, Africans made up a growing proportion of slaves. Despite criticism from some clergy, Portuguese slave traders took advantage of war within West Africa. Most slaves toiled in Portuguese Atlantic islands and Brazil in the sugar plantations, although some worked in Portugal as domestics.

3. Slavery in the Americas — In the Americas, slavery expanded enormously. Some critics of brutality against native Americans, such as the Spanish Dominican Bartolome de Las Casas (1474–1566), defended the development of African slavery, arguing that they were constitutionally better suited for the labor.

D. Conquering the New World

1. The Conquests of the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas — The Aztecs and Incas in the Americas ruled vast empires from urban capitals. Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizzaro, prominent commanders in the Spanish Caribbean, organized gold-seeking expeditions from a base in the Caribbean. Cortes, with many native allies but only two hundred men, attacked and captured the Aztec capital in 1519. Two years later, Mexico was added to the Spanish empire, while Pizzaro conquered the Incan empire in 1532–1533. Later, the Mayan Empire on the Yucatan peninsula fell to Spain. Superior military technology added these vast territories, and the Spanish acquired vast mines of silver and gold, resulting in inflation in Europe.

2.  European Activity in North America — In North America, France sought a northwest passage to China and wanted to establish settlements in Canada. Because of harsh winters and native hostilities, however, permanent European settlements in Canada and the present-day United States would not succeed until the seventeenth century, by which time the English had joined the colonizing effort. When the Dutch broke free from Spanish rule, they began taking over Portuguese and Spanish trade routes, becoming wealthy through this commerce.

E. The Columbian Exchange

1. Definition of the Columbian Exchange — The Columbian exchange refers to the movement of goods, peoples, animals, plants, and diseases between Europe, the New World, and Africa. It was a crucial moment in human history, and dramatically altered the societies involved. The dynamic continued long after Columbus's initial voyages, but many of the later transformations are foreshadowed in the events of the early period of exploration.

2. Transfers Between Europe and the Americas — Diseases brought by Europeans devastated the natives of the Americas, killing up to 90 percent. Syphilis in some form came back to Europe. Tobacco, chocolate, potatoes, maize, and tomatoes changed consumption patterns in Europe, while African agriculture was also transformed by these and other crops. African yams, sorghum, millet, and rice, used to feed slaves in transit, likewise altered agriculture in the Americas.

II. The Protestant Reformation

A. The Invention of Printing

1. Gutenburg and the Development of Printing Technology — The fracturing of the unity of Western Christianity transformed the West, and religious reformers were heavily influenced by Christian humanists. The technology of printing helped spread new ideas. Movable type was developed in Europe in the 1440s by a German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenberg. The Chinese invented movable type in the eleventh century, but used woodblock printing better suited to their language. In 1467, the first press was established in Rome. The press, combined with the production of cheaper paper, did the work of thousands of scribes.

2. Early Consequences of Print Culture — The advent of printing was so important that it brought about a communications revolution. By the 1490s, Frankfurt in Germany was a center for printers and booksellers. The development of mechanical printing increased speed and lowered costs, expanding the audience for the printed word and creating a wider community of scholars. Printing increased the speed at which knowledge could be shared and encouraged free expression and the exchange of ideas. Political and religious authorities quickly instituted censorship regulations.

B. Popular Piety and Christian Humanism

1. The Development of Christian Humanism — Many devout believers had little understanding of official doctrine. Urban merchants and artisans, increasingly literate, sought a more active and better-disciplined faith. Christian humanism developed in urban areas in response, especially north of the Alps where the highly educated were less likely to be attached to wealthy households. The Brethren of the Common Life emphasized religious self-discipline and copying manuscripts.

2. Erasmus and Humanism — One pupil of the Brethren was Erasmus, an Augustinian friar given special permission by the pope to live the life of an independent scholar. Erasmus became well-known across Europe, devoting years to preparing a critical edition of the New Testament in Greek and Latin. Erasmus saw education as the key to reforming individuals and society, and he strove for a united, peaceful Christendom marked by charity and good works as well as learning and piety. His brilliant works urged a simple religion, devoid of greed and the lust for power, and satirized pomposity and wealth. Erasmus was peaceful and moderate, but was soon challenged by more radical and angry reformers; many of his ideas were condemned by the Catholic church even while he was increasingly isolated from Protestant thought.

C. Martin Luther’s Challenge

1. Luther’s Crisis of Faith — Luther was an Augustinian monk troubled about his salvation; he determined that God’s freely given faith alone, and not good works, was essential for salvation. Luther came into conflict with the church when he objected to the sale of indulgences, in return for the forgiveness of sins, as a corrupt practice. In addition, he rejected the sacrament of reconciliation as useless without faith.

2. Luther and the Evangelical Challenge — Luther presented ninety-five theses for academic debate in 1517, specifically rejecting indulgences and the sale of church offices. The theses were printed and widely circulated, unleashing a torrent of criticism throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Many younger humanists and clerics calling themselves Evangelicals supported Luther’s criticisms. Many were university-trained and from middle-class backgrounds. Literate artisans and many peasants also rallied around Luther, some believing the end of the world was near.

3. Luther’s Writings and the Church’s Response — Luther also published three fiery treatises that burned his bridges with Rome. In them, he rejected the papacy and many church doctrines, emphasized the “priesthood of all believers,” criticized the power of the professional caste of clerics, and argued that the Bible provided all the teaching necessary for salvation. He wrote in Latin and also in German, and condemned Italian influence on the church, calling on German princes to defend their nation and lead the reform of the church. The church underestimated his influence and the attractive power of his defiance, and his criticisms fused with social, national, and religious grievances. In 1521, Luther defended his faith before Charles V (r. 1519–1556) at the Imperial Diet of Worms, but was spared from the potential consequences of his actions because he enjoyed the protection of Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony. Lutherans printed propaganda that spread throughout Germany and Scandinavia.

D. Protestantism Spreads and Divides

1. Zwingli and Reformers in Zurich — Luther’s doctrines were challenged by many who also rejected the Catholic church. Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531), the chief preacher of Zurich, also attacked corruption, fasting, and clerical celibacy in the Catholic church, as well as the idea that the Eucharist had anything more than symbolic meaning. In 1529, Evangelical princes and magistrates tried to reconcile disputes among reformers at the Colloquy of Marburg, but they could not come to agreement on the nature of the Eucharist.

2. Calvin and the Institutes — John Calvin (1509–1564) also questioned Catholic teaching. A humanist law student in Paris, Calvin threw himself into the study of theology in connection with a crisis of faith. Influenced by the humanists, Calvin gradually abandoned the Catholic church. Following the Affair of the Plackards, the monarchy in Paris attempted a crackdown on the spread of Protestant broadsheets. Some Protestants were executed, and Calvin fled to Geneva, in French-speaking Switzerland, where many had renounced allegiance to the Catholic bishop there. Calvin came to lead the Genevan reform party and lived there until his death. His Institutes of the Christian Religion, published in 1536, presented an organized, systematic, logical, and coherent explanation of Christianity as Calvin understood it.

3. Calvinism in Geneva — Calvin’s work laid out the doctrine of predestination, in which he argued that God had preordained everyone to either salvation or damnation. According to this doctrine, God knew the identity of the Christian “elect,” who were marked out for salvation. Calvin and his followers lived with rigorous discipline, fusing church and society into the theocratic Reformed church. Calvin’s movement spread to France, the Low Countries, England, Scotland, the German states, Poland, Hungary, and later to New England. In Geneva, Calvin tolerated no dissent, and persecuted those who dissented from his teachings. Catholic and Protestant polemicists alike used violence to control, discourage, and punish dissent, and the persecution of Jews in particular intensified.

E. The Contested Church of England

1. Henry VIII and Religious Reform — King Henry VIII led religious reform in England for reasons that were personal and political. Ambitious and educated, Henry strongly opposed the early Reformation, which made little headway in England. However, in 1527 Henry sought a divorce from his wife, Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, because the marriage had produced no male heir, only the daughter, Mary. After falling in love with a courtier, Anne Boleyn, a supporter of the Reformation, the king argued that his marriage to Catherine was invalid, and demanded that Pope Clement VII annul it. When they failed to secure the annulment or support his policies, Henry arrested or executed his leading advisors. Two new Protestant advisors, Thomas Cromwell, the chancellor, and Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Cantebury, led Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy in 1534, which made Henry the head of the new Church of England.

2. The Struggle for Political and Religious Control in England — Henry made Anne Boleyn his queen and dissolved the monasteries, selling off their land to supporters to strengthen his Reformation. A large but unsuccessful rebellion in the north in 1536 showed that many of the English people retained Catholic sensibilities. When Anne produced only a daughter, Elizabeth, Henry accused her of adultery and had her executed. He married four more wives but had only one son, Edward. When Henry died in 1547, the principle of royal supremacy was well established, although Henry’s personal religious views were ambiguous. He kept the mass and clerical celibacy, but rejected papal authority.