CHAPTER 22 TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS LE Ons iy 1497 the Portuguese mariner ‘Vasco da Gama led a small fleét of four/armed’mefchant vessels with 170 crewmen out of the harbor at Lisbon/His destination was India, which he planned to reach by sailing around the continent of Africa and through the Indian Ocean. He carried letters of introduction from the king of Portugal, as well as cargoes of gold, pearls, ‘wool textiles, bronzeware, iroh-tools-and other goods that he hoped to exchange for pepper and spices in India. Before there would be an opportunity to trade, however, da Gama and his crew had a prolonged voyage through two oceans. They sailed south from Portugal to the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa, where they took on water and fresh provisions, On 3 August they headed southeast into the Atlantic Ocean to take advan- tage of the prevailing winds. For the next ninety-five days, the fleet saw no land as it sailed through some six thousand nautical miles of open ocean, By October, da Gama had found westerly winds in the southern Atlantic, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and entered the Indian Ocean. The fleet slowly worked its way up the east coast of Africa, engaging in hostilities with local authorities at Mozambique and Mombasa, as far as Malindi, where da Gama secured the services of an Indian Muslim pilot to guide his ships across the Arabian Sea. On 20 May 1498—more than ten months after its departure from Lisbon—the fleet anchored at Calicut in southem Indi In India the Portuguese flect found a wealthy, cosmopolitan society. Upon its arrival local authorities in Calicut dispatched a pair of Tunisian merchants who spoke Spanish and Italian to serve as translators for the newly arrived party. The markets of Calicut offered not only pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and spices but also rubies, emer- alds, gold jewelry, and fine cotton textiles. Alas, apart from gold and some striped cloth, the goods that da Gama had brought attracted little interest among mer chants at Calicut. Nevertheless, da Gama managed to exchange gold for a cargo of Pepper and cinnamon that turned a handsome profit when the fleet returned to Por- ‘ugal in August 1499. Da Gama’s expedition opened the door to maritime trade be- ‘een European and Asian peoples and helped to establish permanent links between, the world’s various regions. ently discovered portrait of James Cook painted by William Hodges about 1775 depicts a Meter 5 »ndon “emmined man, # National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Lond: 535 Scanned with CamScanner536 4 p NCE PART V THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL IN TERDEPENDE , 1500-1809 ersistent feature of historical develop, eraetions have been 2 " = Pet mpaigns of imperial expansion, any Cross-cultural int ancient times mass migra ee s shout the world. As a re ced societies throug ae long-distance trade deeply influenced soc ighout the world. As long.datane te cahism, Iam, and Cheistianity spread from their places of birth to the distan + falas fern hemisphere. Long before modern tines birth to the distant corners: of th arteries of long-distance trade serve plants, aninva id disease: Gee aed | disease ural interactions took place on a mauch lrg espn, ical seale, and encounters were often more disruptive than in care cenurs Equipped with advanced technologies and a powerfal military afsena), western Euro n large numbers during the early c c a e world’s oceans pean peoples began to cross the world’s « modem era, The projection of European influenc brought about a decisive shift in the global balance of power. During the millennium 500 to 1500 c:t.. the world’s most powerful societies were those organized by imperial states such as the Tang dy- hasty of China, the Abbasid dynasty in southwest Asia, the Byzantine empire in the eastern Mediterranean region, and the Mongol empires that embraced much of Eurasia. After 1500, however, western European peoples became much more promi- nent than before in the larger world, and they began to establish transoccanic em- pires that by the nineteenth century ruled most of the world The expansion of European influence also resulted in the establishment of global networks of transportation, communication, and exchange. A worldwide diffusion of plants, animals, diseases, and human communities followed European ventures across the oceans, and intricate trade networks gave birth to a global economy. Al though epidemic discases killed millions of people, the spread of food crops and do- mesticated animals led to a dramatic surge in global population. The establishment of global trade networks ensured that interactions between the world’s peoples would continue and intensify. aso as the principal conduits for exchanges of THE EUROPEAN RECONNAISSANCE OF THE WORLD’S OCEANS Between 1400 and 1800 European mariners launched a remarkable series of ¢* ploratory voyages that took them to all the earth’s waters, with the exception of those in extreme polar regions. These voyages were very expensive affairs. Yet private nvestors and government authorities had strong motives to underwrite the exped" tions and outfit them with advanced nautical technology. The voyages of explo ration paid large dividends: they enabled European mariners to chart the world’s ocean basins and develop an accurate understanding of world geography. On basis of this knowledge, European merchants and mariners estebliched global works of communication, tra f; ¥. : |, transportation, and exch — 1a ndsomely from their efforts. hange—and profited han Motives for Exploration A complex combination of motives prompted Europeans to oceans. Most important of them were y ‘ere the search for basic resources and able for the ci basic resources he cultivation ofeach crops, the deste to establish ew trae r" Asian markets, and the aspiration to expand the influence of Christianity explore the wort lands su Scanned with CamScannerCHAPTER 22 Mariners from the relati most prominent in the search for fresh resources Beginning in the thirteenth century, Portug coasts and into the open Atlantic Occan. They originally sought fish sede whale timber, and lands where they could grow wheat y , seals, whales, m to supplement the meager resources of Portugal. By the early fourteenth century, they had discovered the anishabiead Azores and Madciras Islands. They called frequently at the Canary Islands, inhabited by the indigenous Guanches, which Italian and Iberian mariners had vaited since the early fourteenth century. Because European demand for sugar was strong and increasing, the prospect of establishing sugar plantations on the Atlantic islands was very tempting. Italian entrepreneurs had organized sugar plantations in Palestine and the Mediterranean islands since the twelfth century, and in the fifteenth century Italian investors worked with Portuguese mariners to establish plantations in the At- lantic islands. Continuing Portuguese voyages also led to the establishment of plan- tations on more southerly Atlantic islands, including the Cape Verde Islands, Sio Tomé, Principe, and Fernando Po. Even more alluring than the exploitation of fresh lands and resources was the goal of establishing maritime trade routes to the markets of Asia. During the era of the Mongol empires, European merchants often traveled overland as far as China in order to trade in silk, spices, porcelain, and other Asian goods. In the fourteenth century, however, with the collapse of the Mongol empires and the spread of bubonic plague, travel on the silk roads became much less safe than before. Muslim mariners continued to bring Asian goods through the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Cairo, where Italian merchants purchased them for distribution in western Europe. But prices at Cairo were high, and Europeans sought ever-larger quantities of Asian goods, particularly spices. By the ounecath century the wealthy classes of Europe regarded Indian pepper and Chinese ginger as expensive necessities, and they especially prized cloves and nutmeg from the spice islands of Maluku. Merchants and monarchs alike realized that by offering direct access to Asian markets and eliminating Musim inches, aries, new maritime trade routes would increase the quantities Of sees 2 ‘Affican trade also beckoned to Europeans a pars vest African gold, twelh century Europeans had purchased swest Aftican gold, ivory and ses TAO Eee ene gs ara ene fem ob a er ane ea ows, Gold ess an especially important commodity because the precions met Te West Africa was their principal form of payment for Soe ne Te and of- case of Asian trade, maritime routes that ciminated Masini fered more direct access to African fete estas the boundaries of Christian- Alongside material i eae oe Like Buddhism and Islam, Christian . eeearspeans into the larger world: Li ism : — Europeans me Te New Teste specifically ureed Chis y is missionary religion. The sag spread the fi 00k pe sca hr th througout dhe wore, ES an Donnan Ti Tone Dering eer of the OE ese of comverts : : radia, central Asids a Begin: sionaries had traveled as far as India, ia, an ways a peaceful affair. Begi no means ala} Yet the on of Christianity was DY P “ad launched a series of crusades tng in he eeven etary Neer” ETS jean ln a he nd holy tiefims in Palestine, the Meche conguista came tO Ca a Neatly ton To Than forest y poor and hard-scrabble Kingdom of Portugal were to exploit and lands to cultivate. uese seamen ventured away from the anada fi TRANSO CEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS Portuguese Exploration The Lure of Trade Missionary Efforts Scanned with CamScanner 537= 538 PART V_ THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1500-159, eb purfabel tyr sanlenfanio- A detail from the Catalan Atlas, a magnificent illustrated representation of the known world produced about 1375, depicts a camel ‘caravan traveling from China to Europe across the silk roads. ® Bibliotheque Nationale de France weeks before Christopher Columbus set sail on his famous first voyage to the west: ern hemisphere. Whether through persuasion or violence, overseas voyages offered fresh opportunities for western Europeans to spread their faith, In practice, the various motives for exploration combined and reinforced each other. Dom Henrique of Portugal, often called Prince Henry the Navigator, pro- : moted voyages of exploration in west Aftica specifically to enter the gold trade, ds cover profitable new trade routes, gain intelligence about the extent of Muslim power, win converts to Christianity, and make alliances against the Muslims with any Christian rulers he might find. When the Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gama reached the Indian port of Calicut in 1498, local authorities asked him what he wanted there. His reply: “Christians and spices.” The goal of spreading Christianity thus became a powerful justification and reinforcement for the more material m0- tives for the voyages of exploration, The Technology of Exploration : cst Without advanced nautical technology and navigational skills, even the st0P8 : motives would not have enabled European mariners to reconnoiter the world oceans. Embarking on voyages that would keep them out of the sight of lan ee weeks at a time, mariners needed sturdy ships, navigational equipment, and seg techniques that would permit them to make their way across the seas and bit again. They inherited much of their nautical technology from Meclteranci” 2° i northern European maritime traditions and combined it imaginatively with cl™ of Chinese or Arabic o igin. Scanned with CamScannercHAPTER 22, TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 539 From their experience jeaned to construct ships strong enough to brave most adverse conh enn Begi ning about the twelfth century, they increased the maneuverability of then ce stn tuilding a rudder onto the stern. (The stemnpost rudder was a Chinese inventi y that had diffused across the Indian Ocean and probably became known to Been peans through Arab ships in the Mediterranean.) They outfitted their vessels with two main types of sail, both of which Mediterranean mariners had used since classi. cal times. Square sails enabled them to rake full advantage of a following wind (a wind blowing from behind), although they did not work well in crosswinds. Trian. gular “latcen” sails, on the other hand, were very maneuverable and could catch winds from the side as well as from behind. With a combination of squate and lateen sails, European ships were able to use whatever winds arose. Their ability to tack—to advance against the wind by sailing acros gions with uncooperative winds, The most important WW, navigational equipment on ye board these vessels were magnetic compasses and as- trolabes (soon replaced by cross staffs and back staffs). The compass was a Chinese invention of the Tang or Song dynasty that had di fused throughout the I dian Ocean basin in the eleventh century. By the nid-twelfth century Euro- pean mariners used com- passes to determine their heading in Mediterranean and Atlantic waters. The as- twolabe was a simplified ver sion of an instrument used : by Greek and Persian as- By using cross staffs to measure the angle of the sun or pole star tronomers to determine lat- hove the horizon, mariners could determine latitude, itude by measuring the angle of the sun or the pole . sur above the horizon, Portuguese mariners visiting the Indian Ocean in the late fi erviceable instruments for de Scemh century encountered Arab sailors using more serviceable instruments for de> termining latitude, which the Portuguese then used as models of cross staff and back staffs. Their ability to determine direction and lat semble a vast body of data about the earth’s gs “round the world’s oceans with tolerable accura ‘Ment of longitude requires the ability to measure ia Until the late eighteenth century, when dependable, aailable,) ing Ped with advan a anaes ee Socans and gradually comp al sont ad currents that determines a the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, stons Ships and Sails —was crucial for the exploration of re- Navigational Instruments d latitude enabled European mariners to ography and to find their way ind efficiency. (The measure- precisely and so had to wait spring-driven clocks became sical hardware, European mariners ventured Knowledge of chnologiea jody of practical knowledge about the Winds and Currents : possibilities in the age of sail. In iis blow regularly to create giant Scanned with CamScannerIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1509.14, 540 PART V THE OR MAP [22.1] Wind and current patterns in the world’s oceans. Scanned with CamScannerCHAPTER 22. TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 541 oe Scanned with CamScanner542 The volta do mar Dom Henrique PART V THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1500-1999 “wind wheels” both north and south of the equator, and ocean currents follow g similar pattern. Between about five and twenty-five degrees of latitude north and south of the equator, trade winds blow from the east. Between about thirty and sixty degrees north and south, westerly winds prevail. Winds and currents in the Indian Ocean follow a different, but still regular and reliable, pattern. During the summer Months monsoon winds blow from the southeast throughout the Indian Ocean basin, whereas during the winter they blow from the northwest. Once mariners un. derstood these patterns, they were able to take advantage of prevailing winds and Currents to sail to almost any part of the earth, | Prevailing winds and currents often forced mariners to take indirect routes to their destinations. European vessels sailed easily from the Mediterranean to the Ca- nary Islands, for example, since regular trade winds blew from the northeast. But those same trade winds complicated the return trip. By the mid-fifteenth century Portuguese mariners had developed a strategy called the volta do mar (“return through the sea”) that enabled them to sail from the Canaries to Portugal. Instead of trying to force their way against the trade winds—a slow and perilous business— they sailed northwest into the open ocean until they found westerly winds and then turned east for the last leg of the homeward journey. Although the vale do mar took mariners well out of their way, experience soon taught that sailing around contrary winds was much faster, safer, and more reliable than butting up against them. Portuguese and other European mariners began to rely on the principle of the volta do mar in sailing to destinations other than the Ca nary Islands. When Vasco da Gama departed for India, for example, he sailed south to the Cape Verde Islands and then allowed the trade winds to carry him southwest into the Atlantic Ocean until he approached the coast of Brazil. There da Gama caught the prevailing westerlies that enabled him to sail east, round the Cape of Good Hope, and enter the Indian Ocean, As they became familiar with the wind systems of the world’s oceans, European mariners developed variations on the volta do mar that enabled them to travel reliably to coastlines throughout the world. Voyages of Exploration: From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Exploratory voyaging began as early as the thirteenth century, In 1291 the Vivaldi brothers departed from Genoa in two ships with the intention of sailing around Aftica to India. They did not succeed, but the idea of exploring the Atlantic and es- tablishing a maritime trade route from the Mediterranean to India persisted. During the fourteenth century Genoese, Portuguese, and Spanish mariners sailed frequent into the Atlantic Ocean and rediscovered the Canary Islands. The Guanche people had settled the Canaries from their original home in Morocco, but there had been no contact between the Guanches and other peoples since the time of the Roman empire. Iberian mariners began to visit the Canaties regularly, and in the fifteenth century Castilian forces conquered the islands and made them an outpost for further exploration The pace of European exploration quickened after 1415 when Dom Henrique of Portugal (1394-1460) conquered the Moroccan port of Ceuta and sponsored 3 $° ries of voyages down the west Aftican coast. Portuguese merchants soon established fortified trading posts at Sto Jorge da Mina (in modern Ghana) and other strateEi€ locations. There they exchanged European horses, leather, textiles, and metals for gold and slaves. Portuguese explorations continued after Henrique’s death, 3” Scanned with CamScannerTEN CHAPTER 22. TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 543 NorTH ATLANTIC OCEAN... pzones ‘Christopher Cohumbus (1492-95) cananis Moy ALS calcu INDIAN OCEAN PACIEIC OCEAN ATLANTIC ay OCEAN ilove > Banwlomen Dias (1485-88) > Chstopher Columbus (1492-93) > Vasco da Gama (1497-98) MAP [22.2] in 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian .,opean exploration in the a Ocean. He did not proceed further because of storms and a restless crew, but the a isnic cea ( Toute to India, China, and the spice-bearing islands of southeast Asia lay open. The : Sea route to the Indian Ocean offered European merchants the opportunity to buy Silk, spices, and pepper at the source, rather than through Muslim intermediaries, 4nd to take part in the flourishing trade of Asia described by Marco Polo. Portuguese mariners did not immediately follow up Dias’s voyage, because do- Vasco da Gama Mestic and foreign problems distracted royal attention from voyages to Asia. In 497, however, Vasco da Gama departed Lisbon with a flect of four armed mer- ‘ant ships bound for India, His experience was not altogether pleasant. His fleet Went more than three months without seeing land, and his cargoes excited little Scanned with CamScanner544 Christopher Columbus Hemispheric Links PART ¥ THE GRIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDINCE, 1599... interest in Indian markets. His return voyage was especialy difficult, and tess, half of his crew made it safely back to Portugal Yet his cargo of pepper and cin mon was hugely profitable, and Portuguese merchants began immediately tg gy ¢ further expeditions. By 1500 they had built a trading post at Calicut, and pe tuguese mariners soon called at ports throughout India and the Indian Ocean hase By the late sixteenth century, English and Dutch mariners had followed the py: tuguese into the Indian Ocean basin ; F While Portuguese navigators plied the sea route to India, the Genoese mazng Cristoforo Colombo, known in English as Christopher Columbus (1451-1596 proposed sailing to the markets of .Asia by a western route. On the basis of wige reading in geographical literature, Coluniys believed that the Eurasian landmass covereg 270 degrees of longtitude and that the eanh was a relatively small sphere with a circum. ence of about 17,000 nautical miles, (In fac, the Eurasian landmass from Portugal to Kore, covers only 140 degrees of longtitude, and the earth’s circumference is almost 25,000 nautical miles.) By Columbus's calculations, Japan should be less than 2,500 nautical miles west of the Canary Islands. (The actual distance be- tween the Canaries and Japan is more than 10,000 nautical miles.) This geography sug gested that sailing west from Europe to Asian markets would be profitable, and Columbus sought royal sponsorship for a voyage to prove his ideas. The Portuguese court declined bis proposal, partly out of scepticism about his ge- ography and partly because Dias’s voyage of 1488 already pointed the way toward India. ‘The earliest surviving world globe, Produced in 1492 by the German Eventually Fernando and Isabel of Spaia ‘cartographer Martin Behaim, depicts the agreed to underwrite Columbus's expedition, eastern hemisphere quite accurately but. and in August 1492 his fleet of threc ships de shows almost no land west of Iberia parted Palos in southern Spain, He sailed souh to the Canaries, picked up supplies, and the turned west with the trade winds. On the mom ing of 12 October 1492, he made landfall st" island in the Bahamas that the native Taino it habitants called Guanahani and that Columbus rechristened San Salvador (3° known as Watling Island). Thinking that he had arrived in the spice islands known & miliarly as the Indies, Columbus called the Tainos “Indians.” In search of gold be sailed around the Caribbean for almost three months, and at the large island of Co? he sent a delegation to seek the court of the emperor of China. When Columbus" turned to Spain, he reported to his royal sponsors that he had reached islands js the coast of Asia. . Columbus never reached the riches of Asia, and despite three additional vo across the Atlantic Ocean, he obtained very little gold in the Caribbean. Yet n°" his voyage spread rapidly throughout Europe, and hundreds of Spanish, FA2 French, and Dutch mariners soon followed in his wake. Particularly in the be pat teenth century, many of them continued to seek the passage to Asian WH" ‘except for east Asia ® Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuenberg Scanned with CamScannerCHAPTER 22. TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 545 Columbus himself had pursued. Over a longer term, however, it became clear that the American continents and the Caribbean islands themselves held abundant op- ortunities for entrepreneurs. Thus Columbus's voyages to the w had unintended but momentous consequences, since they established links between the eastern and western hemispheres and paved the way for the conquest, settle- ment, and exploitation of the Americas by European peoples, tern hemisphere Voyages of Exploration: From the Atlantic to the Pacific While some Europeans sought opportunities in the Americas, others continued to seck a western route to Asian markets. The Spanish military commander Vasco Nuiez de Balboa sighted the Pacific Ocean in 1513 while searching for gold in Panama, but in the early sixteenth century no one knew how much ocean lay be- tween the Americas and Asia, Indeed, no one even suspected the vast size of the Pa- cific Ocean, which covers one-third of the earth’s surface. ‘The reconnaissance of the Pacific Ocean basin began with the Portuguese navi-_ Ferdinand Magellan gator Fern3o de Magalhaes (1480-1521), better known as Ferdinand Magellan. While sailing in the service of Portugal, Magellan had visited ports throughout the Indian Ocean basin and had traveled east as far as the spice islands of Maluku. He believed that the spice islands and Asian markets lay fairly close to the western coast Ama ? Prepared about 1812 by the Po olsh cartographer Jan Stobnicza shows eloquently that it took a tog time af eeographers to realize Pan es Bidiethe, the extent ofthe Americas and the Pacific Ocean. Here “Cipangu {ENS of Mexico, withthe Asian mainland just beyond, © Osertsichische National Vienna. Photo: Bildarchiv, ONB Wien Scanned with CamScanner546 PART ¥ THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1500-1800 PACIFIC OCEAN NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN Strait of PACIFIC ‘Magellan OCEAN map [22.3] European exploration inthe Pacific Osean Scanned with CamScanner(F52 toate of Ferdinand Magellan (1519-22) Frome ones Ck 768-79 FS Rote ot mes Con 1772.75 Fo Route ones Cook (1776-80) Scanned with CamScanner548 The Circumnavigation Exploration of the Pacific Captain James Cook PART V THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1500-1899 of the Americas, and he decided to pursue Christopher Columbus's goal of estab. lishing a western route to Asian waters. Because Portuguese mariners had already reached Asian markets through the Indian Ocean, they had little interest in Magel. lan’s proposed western route. On his Pacific expedition and circumnavigation of the world (1519-1522), Magellan sailed in the service of Spain. . Magellan’s voyage was an exercise in endurance. He began by probing the cast. em coast of South America in search of a strait leading to the Pacific. Eventually he found and sailed through the tricky and treacherous Strait of Magellan near the southern tip of South America. After exiting the strait, his fleet sailed almost four months before taking on fresh provisions at Guam. During that period crewmen survived on worm-ridden biscuits, leather that they had softened in the ocean, and water gone foul. Ship’s rats that were unfortunate cnough to fall into the hands of famished sailors quickly became the centerpiece of a meal. Lacking fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet, many of the crew fell victim to the dreaded disease of scurvy, h caused painful rotting of the gums, loss of teeth, abcesses, hemorrhaging, weakness, loss of spirit, and in most cases death. Scurvy killed twenty-nine members of Magellan’s crew during the Pacific crossing. Conditions improved after the fleet called at Guam, but its ordeal had not come to an end. From Guam, Magellan proceeded to the Philippine Islands, where he be- came involved in a local political dispute that took the lives of Magellan himself and 40 of his crew. The survivors continued on to the spice islands of Maluku, where they took on a cargo of cloves. Rather than brave the Pacific Ocean once again, they sailed home through the familiar waters of the Indian Ocean—and thus completed the first circumnavigation of the world—returning to Spain after a voyage of almost exactly three years. OF Magellan’s five ships and 280 men, a single ship with 18 of the original crew returned. (Another 17 crewmen returned later by other routes so that 35 members of Magellan’s original crew survived the expedition.) The Pacific Ocean is so vast that it took European explorers almost three cen- turies to chart its features. Spanish merchants built on information gleaned from Magellan’s expedition and established a trade route between the Philippines and Mexico, but they did not continue to explore the ocean basin itself. English naviga- tors, however, ventured into the Pacific in search of an elusive northwest passige from Europe to Asia, In fact, a northwest passage exists, but most of its route lies within the Arctic Circle. It is so far north that ice clogs its waters for much of the year, and it was only in the twentieth century that the Norwegian explorer Roald ‘Amundsen traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific by way of the northwest passage. Nevertheless, while searching for a passage, English mariners established many of the details of Pacific geography. In the sixteenth century, for example, Sir Francis Drake scouted the west coast of North America as far north as Vancouver Island. Alongside Magellan, the most important of the Pacific explorers was Captain James Cook (1728-1779), who led three expeditions to the Pacific and died in @ scuffle with the indigenous people of Hawai'i. Cook charted eastern Australia and New Zealand, and he added New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Hawai'i to Europe" maps of the Pacific. He probed the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean and a months at a time in the tropical islands of Tahiti, Tonga, and Hawai'i, where showed deep interest in the manners, customs, and languages of Polynesian people By the time Cook’s voyages had come t0 an end, Buropean geographers had 21° piled a reasonably accurate understanding of the world’s ocean basins, theit and their peoples. Scanned with CamScannerHAPTER 22 TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 549 | qRADE AND CONFLICT IN EARLY MODERN ASIA Ww ‘The voyages of exploration taught European mariners how to sail to almost any coastline in the world, Once they arrived at their destinations, they sought commer- cial opportunities. In the eastern hemisphere they built a scries of fortified trading posts that offered footholds in regions where established commercial networks had | hyeld sway for centuries. They even attempted to control the spice trade in the Indian Ocean but with limited success. They mostly did not have the human numbers or nilitary power to impose their rule in the eastern hemisphere, although Spanish and | Dutch forces established small island empires in the Philippines and Indonesia, re- ‘ spectively. Commercial and political competition in both the eastern and western , hemispheres led to conflict between European peoples, and by the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, English military and merchant forces had gained an initiative . over their rivals that enabled them to dominate world trade and build the vast British empire of the nineteenth century. ‘Trading-Post Empires Portuguese mariners built the earliest trading-post empire. Their goal was not to Portuguese conquer territories, but to control trade routes by forcing merchant vessels to call at_ Trading Posts fortified trading sites and pay duties there. Vasco da Gama obtained permission from. = local authorities to establish a trading post at Calicut when he arrived there in 1498. By the mid-sixteenth century Portuguese merchants had built more than fifty trad- ing posts between west Aftica and east Asia. At Sio Jorge da Mina, they traded in ; west African slaves, and at Mozambique they attempted to control the south African ~ gold trade. From Hormuz they controlled access to the Persian Gulf, and from Goa they organized trade in Indian pepper. At Melaka they oversaw shipping between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and they channeled trade in cloves and nutmeg through Ternate in the spice islands of Maluku, Posts at Macau and Na- sasaki offered access to the markets of China and Japan. Equipped with heavy artillery, Portuguese vessels were able to overpower most Afonso other craft that they encountered, and they sometimes trained their cannon effec- d’Alboquerque tively onshore. The architect of their aggressive policy was Afonso d’Alboquerque, commander of Portuguese forces in the Indian Occan during the carly sixteenth century. Alboquerque’s fleets seized Hormuz in 1508, Goa in 1510, and Melaka in 1511. From these strategic sites Alboquerque sought to control Indian Ocean trade by forcing all merchant ships to purchase safe-conduct passes and present them at Portuguese trading posts. Ships without passes were subject to confiscation, along with their cargoes. Alboquerque’s forces punished violators of his policy by execut- | __ ing them or cutting off their hands. Alboquerque was confident of Portuguese naval Superiority and its ability to control trade in the Indian Ocean. After taking Melaka, j he boasted that the arrival of Portuguese ships sent other vessels scurrying and that ¢ven the birds left the skies and sought cover Alboquerque’s boast was an exaggeration. Although heavily armed, Portuguese forces did not have enough vessels to enforce the commander's orders. Arab, In- dian, and Malay merchants continued to play prominent roles in Indian Ocean " Commerce, usually without taking, the precaution of securing a safe-conduct pass. Portuguese ships transported perhaps half of the pepper and spices that Europeans Consumed during the early and middle decades of the sixteenth century, but Arab Scanned with CamScanner550 PART V THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1809.145, ATLANTIC OCEAN ‘= otch rading ponts ad colons (Spanish ang pots ad coli fm Trgls ahng pnts fm French rang pos Portugese trading pots paciric OceAW “ « bl BUSSE) gree a P mtaavia 14a INDO NER, NS ‘ “ eb | 4 AetRAc by INDIAN OCEAN a “ape Town MAP [22.4] European trading-post empires. English and Dutch Trading Posts vessels delivered shipments through the Red Sea, which Portuguese forces never managed to control, to Cairo and Mediterranean trade routes. By the late sixteenth century, Portuguese hegemony in the Indian Ocean v3 growing weak. Portugal was a small country with a small population—about one million in 1500—and was unable to sustain a large seaborne trading empire for ve long. The crews of Portuguese ships often included Spanish, English, and Dut sailors, who became familiar with Asian waters while in Portuguese service. BY 8 late sixteenth century, investors in other lands began to organize their own expel tions to Asian markets. Most prominent of those who followed the Portuguese itt? the Indian Ocean were English and Dutch mariners. Like their predecessors, English and Dutch merchants built trading po °° Asian coasts and sought to channel trade through them, but they did not atten? control shipping on the high seas. They occasionally seized Portuguese Sites: ™ notably when a Dutch fleet conquered Melaka in 1641. Yet Portuguese author held many of their trading posts into the twentieth century: Goa remained cial capital of Portuguese colonies in Asia until Indian forces reclaimed it Meanwhile, English and Dutch entrepreneurs established parallel newt Wd i ras. merchants concentrated on India and built trading posts at Bombay, Ma Scanned with CamScanner PPLE LTA ES OEE | 4 : ; ypoeee FO, . » Afonso d’Alboquerque the mariner had a son of CHAPTER 22. TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS AFONSO D'ALBOQUERQUE SEIZES HORMUZ the same name who in 1557 published a long set of \ bistrical Commentaries on bis father’s deeds. His account of the battle for Hormus vividly illustrates the fiecriveness of Portuguese artillery, as well as the chaos and confusion of sea battles in enrly modern times. ‘As some time had passed since the king [of Hormuz] had received information about the [Portuguese] fleet and the destruction thar the great Afonso d’Alboquerque had wrought along the [Arabian] coast, he began to pre- pare himself to fight with him. For this end he gave or- ders to detain all the ships that came into the port of Hormuz and added a force of sixty great vessels into which he draughted off many soldiers and much artillery with everything that was required for the undertaking, ‘ ‘And among these great vessels there was one belonging i to the king of Cambay [in India} ‘ prince of Cambay were in the harbor about 200 galleys, which are long ships with many oars... There were also many barks full of small guns and men wearing sword-proof dress and armed from head to foot, most of them being and another of the And besides these ships there archers. All this fleet was rigged out with flags and stan- dards and colored ensigns, and made a very beautiful appearance. . . When Afonso d’Alboquerque perceived the gleaming of the swords and waving of the bucklers and other do- ings of the Moors [Muslims] on shore, . .. he under- stood by these signs that the king was determined t0 sive him battle. . . . When morning broke, . . . he or J dered a broadside to be fired. The bombadiers took aim gi 40 that with the first two shots they fired they sent 10 large ships which were in front of them, with all their men, to the bottom—one being the prince of Cambay"s SOURCE: Afonso d’Alboquerque. Commenta ‘de Gray Birch, London: Hakluyt Soci Calcutta while the Dutch operated mo: Batavia (modern Jakarta on the island of Java). ugh lish and Dutch merchants enjoy auese pred sailed faster, cheaper, ee oth an economic and a nity edge vet “Y conducted trade through an exceptionally ¢ 23tion—the joint-stock company-—sshich ensbled Profits while limiting the risk to their investments. a ship... . Afonso Lopez da Costa, who was stationed oon the land side, vanquished and sent to the bottom some portion of the galleys and. guard boats that his ar tillery could reach. Manuel Telez, after having caused great slaughter upon some vessels, . . . ran into a large vessel that lay close to him and killed a part of the men in it, while the rest threw themselves into the sea, and those who were heavy-armed went down at once. Joxo dda Nova too with his artillery did great execution among the ships that lay along the pile, as did also Antonio do Campo and Francisco de Tavora among the galleys that had surrounded them, and all night long, they kept on hooking their anchors together in order to catch the galleys in the middle of them. And although the Moors endeavored to avenge themselves with their artillery, our men were so well fortified with their defenses that they did them no harm, except on the upper deck, and with their arrows they wounded some people The fight was s0 confused on this side and on that, both with artillery and arrows, that it lasted some time without cither party seeing each other by reason of the smoke. As soon as this cleared off, and when ‘Afonso saw the discomfiture of the king’s fleet and the tunexpected victory that Our Lord had sent him and the Moors throwing themselves into the sea from fear of our antllery, thinking that they could eseape in that wa by swimming, . . . [Afonso] called out to the caps to take to their boats and follow up the victory. ries ofthe Great Afonso Dalbsquerque. 4 vols. Trans. by Walter 1875-84, 1:105, 112-14. (Translation slightly modified.) re broadly from Cape Town, Colombo, and -d two main advantages over their Por- and more powerful ships, which heir competitors. Furthermore, ient estors to realize handsome form of commercial organi Scanned with CamScanner552 The Trading Companies Conquest of the Philippines Manila PART V. THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1509.15, nwo especially powerful joint-stock co nies: the English East India Company, founded in 1600, and E Pate countemer the United East India Company, known from it initials as the VOC (Vereenigi? Gost-Indische Compagnie), established in 1602, Private merchants advanced fing, to launch these companies, outfit them with ships and crews, and provide them iy commodities and money to trade. Although they enjoyed government suppor, the companies were privately owned enterprises. Unhampered by political oversigh company agents concentrated strictly on profitable trade. Their charters granted them the right to buy, sell, build trading posts, and even make war in the comps. nies’ interests. ; ‘The English and Dutch companies experienced immediate financial success. jp 1601, for example, five English ships set sail from London with cargoes mostly of gold and silver coins valued at thirty thousand pounds sterling, When they returned in 1603, the spices that they carried were worth more than one million pounds ster. ling. The first Dutch expedition did not realize such fantastic profits, but it more than doubled the investments of its underwriters. Because of their advanced nautial technology, powerful military arsenal, efficient organization, and relentless pursuic of profit, the English East India Company and the VOC contributed to the early fr mation of a global network of trade. English and Dutch merchants formed a European Conquests in Southeast Asia Following voyages of exploration to the western hemisphere, Europeans conquered \digenous peoples, built territorial empires, and established colonies settled by Eu- ropean migrants. In the castern hemisphere, however, they were mostly unable to force their will on large Asian populations and powerfal centralized states. With the decline of the Portuguese effort to control shipping in the Indian Ocean, Europeans ‘mostly traded peacefully in Asian waters alongside Arab, Indian, Malay, and Chinese merchants, Yet in two island regions of southeast Asia—the Philippines and Indon: Europeans conquered existing authorities and imposed their rule. Though densely populated, neither the Philippines nor Indonesia had a powerful state when Eure Peans arrived there in the sixteenth century, Nor did imperial authorities in China ot India lay claim to the island regions. Heavily armed ships enabled Europeans © bring massive force to bear and to establish imperial regimes that favored the inte ests of European merchants. Spanish forces approached the Philippines in 1565 under the command of Migs! Lopez de Legazpi, who named the islands after King Philip TI of Spain. Legazpi came local authorities in Cebu and Manila in almost bloodless contests. Because He Philippines had no central government, there was no organized resistance t0 th i trusion. Spanish forces faced a series of small, distnited chiefdoms, most of whch soon fell before Spanish ships and guns. By 1575 Spanish forces controlled # coastal regions of the central and northern islands, and during the seventeenth &&™ tury they extended their authority to most parts of the archipelago. The main base outside their control was the southern island of Mindanao, where a large community stoutly resisted Spanish expansion, vil Spanish policy in the Philippines revolved around trade and Christianity. Mo") was already a bustling, multicultural port city—an entrepot for trade particu silk—and it quickly became the hub of Spanish commercial activiey in Asia. CHV merchants were especially prominent in Manila. They occupied a specially Scanned with CamScanner Ja Piete samen and its n ha VC tants 4 over to vocCHAPTER 22. TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS 553 pated commercial district of the city, and they « Manil’s forty-two thousand residents in the n «plied the silk goods that Spanish traders shipped to Mexico in the ee clog Rants » gallons. Their commercial success brought suspicion on theit community an re \ senfal Spanish and Filipino residents massacred Chinese merchants by the thon. sands in atleast six major eruptions of violence in 1603, 1639, 1662, 1686, 1762, and 1819. Nevertheless, Spanish authorities continued t0 rely heavily on the wealth that Chinese merchants brought to Manila, Apart fiom promoting trade, Spanish authorities in the Philippines also sought X10 spread Christianity throughout the archipelago. Spanish rulers and missionaries pressured prominent Filipinos to convert to Christianity in hopes of persuading oth- ‘ses to follow their example. They opened schools to teach the fundamentals of «Christian doctrine, along with basic literacy in densely populated regions through- out the islands. ‘The missionaries encountered sti resistance in highland regions, where Spanish authority was not as strong as on the coasts, and resistance drew sup. por from opponents of Spanish domination as well as from resentment of the newly arsved faith, Over the long term, however, Filipinos turned increasingly to Chris. ianity, and by the nineteenth century the Philippines had become one of the most fervent Roman Catholic lands in the world. Dutch mariners, who imposed theie rule on the islands of Indonesia, did not Conquest of Java worry about seeking converts to Christianity, but concentrated instead on the trade in spices, particularly cloves, nutmeg, and mace. The architect of Dutch policy was Jan Pieterszoon Coen, who in 1619 founded Batavia on the island of Java to serve asan entrepot for the VOC, Batavia occupied a strategic site near the Sunda Strait, and its market atracted both Chinese and Malay vessels. Coen’s plan was to estab lish a VOC monopoly over spice production and trade, thus enabling Dutch mer- chants to reap enormous profits in European markets. Coen brought his naval power to bear on the small Indonesian islands and forced them to deliver spices only to VOC merchants. On larger islands like Java, he took advantage of tensions be- tween local princes and authorities and extracted concessions from many in return for providing them with aid against the others. By the late seventeenth century, the YOC controlled all the ports of Java as well as most of the important spice-bearing, lands throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Dutch numbers were too few for them to rule directly over their whole southeast Asan empire. They made alliances with local authorities to maintain order in most re- sions, reserving for direct Dutch rule only Batavia and the most important spice- aring islands such as clove-producing, Amboina and the Banda Islands. They sought ‘ess to rule than to control the production of spices. The Dutch did not embark on f Campaigns of conquest for purposes of adding, to their holdings, but they uprooted Spice hearing plants on islands they did not control and mesilssy attacked peoples ho sold thee spices to merchants not associated with the VOC. Monopoly profs rom the spice trade not only enriched the VOC but also made the Netherlands the Most prosperous land in Europe throughout most of the seventeenth century. accounted for about one-quarter of mid-seventeenth century. They sup- (, Commercial Rivalries and the Seven Years’ War The voyages of exploration led to conflicts not only between Europeans and Asians “alo among, Europeans themselves, Mariners competed vigorously for trade in 8 and the Americas, and their efforts to establish markets—and sometimes monop- 4, les a8 well ted frequently to clashes with their counterparts from different lands. Scanned with CamScanner554 PART V THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE, 1500.14, TUE CLTTY OF BATAYLY “The city of Batavia as viewed from the sea in the mid-seventeenth century. The Dutch fortress stands a the center of the lower pictur Warehouses and wharves lined the numerous canals that drained the low-lying land of the region, Competition and Conflict 8 Rk, Re Indeed, throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, commer! hang and political rivalries led to running wars between ships flying different flags. Dust ing g vessels were most numerous in the Indian Ocean, and they enabled the VOC ® | dominate the spice trade. Dutch forces expelled most Portuguese merchants a Rag] southeast Asia and prevented English mariners from establishing secure foathe™” uy, there. By the early eighteenth century, trade in Indian cotton and tea from in ad} had begun to overshadow the spice trade, and English and French merchants va Ry; ing from trading posts in India became the dominant carriers in the Indian ae jerce competition again generated violence: in 1746 French forces seized the h, lish trading post at Madras, one of the three prineipal centers of British oper ; le Indi i 4 ‘Commercial competition led to conflict also in the Caribbean and the a feet nglish pirates and privateers preyed on Spanish shipping from Mexico, of Bo lish and French forces ¢ also contestif pean staes i ing vessels carrying cargoes of silver. F mished and fought over sugar islands in the Caribbean while ial claims in North America. Almost all conflicts between Euro} eighteenth century spilled over into the Caribbean and the Americas. Scanned with CamScannerCHAPTER 22. TRANSOCEANIC ENCOUNTERS AND GLOBAL CONNECTIONS sommercial rivalries combined with political dfferene com ars? Wat (1736-1763). The Seve I dlfferences and came to a head in the Se . 7 n Years’ War was a global conflict in incoit took place in several distinct geographical theaters—-Eusope, India, the Caribbean, and North America—and involved Asian and indigenous American peo. teas well as Europeans. Sometimes called “the great war for empire.” the eee Years’ War had deep implications for global affairs, since it laid the foundation for Tip years of British imperial hegemony in the worl. In Europe the war pitted Britain and Prussia against France, Austria, and Russia. In India, British and French forces each allied with local rulers and engaged in a contest for hegemony in the Indian Ocean. In the Caribbean, Spanish forces joined wvth the French in an effort to limit British expansion in the western hemisphere. In North America—where the Seven Years’ War merged with a conflict already under- way and, sometimes goes by the name French and Indian War (1754-1763)—1 h nd French armies made separate alliances with indigenous peoples in an effort to gutmaneuver each other. British forces fought little in Europe, where their Prussian allies held off massive amies seeking to surround and crush the expansive Prussian state. Elsewhere, how- ever, British armies and navies handily overcame their enemies. They ousted French merchants from India and took control of French colonies in Canada, although they allowed French authorities to retain most of their Caribbean possessions. They al- lowed Spanish forces to retain Cuba but took Florida from the Spanish empire. Vie- tory in the Seven Years’ War placed Britain in a position to dominate world trade for the foreseeable future, and “the great war for empire” paved the way for the estab- lishment of the British empire the nineteenth century. GLOBAL EXCHANGES European explorers and those who followed them established links between all lands and peoples of the world. Interaction between peoples in turn resulted in an un precedented volume of exchange across the boundary lines of societies and cultural regions. Some of that exchange involved biological species: plants, food crops, ani- ‘mals, human populations, and disease pathogens all spread to regions they had not previously visited, These biological exchanges had differing and dramatic effects on human populations, destroying some of them through epidemic diseases and enlarg- ing others through increased food supplies and richer diets. Commercial exchange ako flourished in the wake of the voyages of exploration as European merchants teaeled to ports throughout the world in search of trade. By the late sixteenth cen tury, they had built fortified trading posts at strategic sites in the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean basins. By the mid-eighteenth century they had established globe- Sirdling networks of trade and communication. The Columbian Exchange Proceses of biological exchange were prominent features of world history well be. es tates nee. “Tes macie apenas a wie kas iceman ipaalas Blunts and food crops throughout much of the eastern hemisphere during the period from about 700 te 1100 ce, and transplanted species helped spark demographic economic growth in al te lands where they took root. During the fourteenth Sentury the spread of bubonic plague caused drastic demographic losses when “mic disease struck Eurasian and north African lands. 555 The Seven Years’ War British Hegemony Scanned with CamScanner556 Biological Exchanges Epidemic Diseases Population Losses eer oc oben ea eee ea othe global diffusion of plants, food crops, ani. ian cach eens that took place after Noyes of ex re pas and other European mariners—had conse, hm aiid earlier rounds of biological exchange nemimbian exchange involved lands with radically Fr nvoea fauna and diseases. For thousands of years the various speties ofthe Sacinineniehere the hemisphere, and Oceania had cvolved along sepa. eastern hemisphere, the western hemisp! ee acne fat lines, By eeating links between these biological zones the European Yoages of taplorstion set off & round of biological exchange that permanently altered the world’s human geography and natural environment: Beginning in the early sixteenth century, infectious and contagious disease brought sharp demographic losses to indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Pacific islands ‘The worst scourge was smallpox, but measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, and influenza also took heavy tolls. Before the voyages of exploration, none Of thece maladies had reached the western hemisphere or Oceania, and the peoples of those regions consequently had no inherited or acquired immunities to their pathogens. In the eastern hemisphere, these diseases had mostly become endemic: they claimed a certain number of victims from the ranks of infants and small chit dren, but survivors gained immunity to the diseases through exposure at an early age. In some areas of Europe, for example, smallpox was responsible for 10 to 15 percent of deaths, but most victims were age ten or younger. Although its effets ‘were tragic for individual families and communities, smallpox did not pose a threat to European society as a whole because it did not carry away adults, who were mostly responsible for economic production and social organization. When infectious and contagious diseases traveled to previously unexposed popu lations, however, they touched off ferocious epidemics that sometimes destroyed en tire societies. Beginning in 1519, epidemic smallpox ravaged the Aztec empire, ofien in combination with other diseases, and within a century the indigenous popt- lation of Mexico had declined by as much as 95 percent, from about twenty-one million to one million people. By that time Spanish conquerors had imposed their rule on Mexico, and the po- aa litical, social, and cultural PXSS s traditions of the indigenous <=7 peoples had either disap- i we x 1G peared or fallen under RENE ASS | | Spanish domination SSE SESS Imported diseases took their worst tolls in densely populated areas like the Aztec and Inca empires, bit they did not spare other © gions, Smallpox and other diseases were so easily 3" Yet the “Colu mals, human populations, a ploration by Christopher quences much more profound th Unlike the earlier processes, the C S KS missible that thi a remote areas of ed ‘Smallpox vietims in the Aztec empire. The disease killed most of South America and te those it infected and left distiguring sears on survivors. © Courtesy epidemics even, - Dept of Library Senvces, American Museum of Natural Hiatuy, St European OF. pr rived in those regle the 1530s smallpo* +#4051(2) af Scanned with CamScannerIE’ ” OG HARTER 22 TRANSOCBANIC ENCOUNTERS ANDAGLONAIL CONNECTIONS 587, pave spread a8 fr from Mexico asthe Great Lakes in the north and the pampas of Argentina in the south, pans th te i nd magne as nck vulnerable populations with the same horrifying effects as in the Americas, albeit on asmaller scale. - ce a case epidemics sparked by the Columbian ex ‘change prob- ably caused the worst demographic calamity in all of world history. Between 1500 and 1800 upwards of one hundred million people may have died of diseases in- ported into the Americas and Pacific island: - Over a longer term, however, the Columbian exchange increased rather than di- Food Crops minished human population because of the global spread of food crops and animals and Animals that it sponsored. Wheat, vines, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens went from Europe to the Americas where they sharply increased supplies of food and ani mal energy. Wheat grew well on the plains of North America and on the pampas of Argentina—regions either too dry or too cold for the cultivation of maize—and cat- * detransformed American grasses into meat and milk that humans could digest. Food crops native to the Americas also played prominent roles in the Columbian American Crops exchange. American crops that took root in Aftica, Asia, and Europe include maize, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, manioc, papayas, guavas, avocados, pineapples, and cacao, to name only the most important. (A less nutritious trans- plant was tobacco.) Residents of the eastern hemisphere only gradually developed a taste for American crops, but by the eighteenth century maize and potatoes had «© contributed to a sharply increased number of calories in Eurasian diets. American bean varieties added protein, and tomatoes and peppers provided vitamins and zesty flavors in lands from western Europe to China. Peanuts and manioc flourished in tropical southeast Asian and west African soils that otherwise would not produce large yields or support large populations. "Mstratons in an cary-seventeenth-century book depict pineapple, potatoes, and eassava—all plants “HME to the Americas and unknown to Europeans before the sixteenth century. @ Courtesy of the Janes Ms Ford ell Library, University of Minnesota Scanned with CamScanner558 Population Growth Migration Transoceanic Trade The Manila Galleons PART V THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDETENDENCE, 1899.44, ‘The Columbian exchange of plants and animals caused a surge in world po Pe wvere recovering from epidemic bubor 4 tion. In 1500, as Eurasian peoples were recovering from nic ply stood at about 425 million. By 1600 it had increased More ¢f , creased less rapidly during they? world population 25 percent to 545 million. Human numbers a nee century, reaching 610 million in 1700. But thereafter they increased at a faster git than ever before in world history. By 1750 human population stood at 720 mitign and by 1800 it had surged to 900 million, having grown by almost 50 pereene gy 1e previous century. Much of the rise was due to the a nutritional aye mals. ing the pre of diets enriched by the global exchange of food crops and ai ‘Alongside disease pathogens and plant and animal species, the Columbian ¢, change also involved the spread of human populations through transoceanic mig, tion, whether voluntary or forced. During the period from 1500 t0 1800, nh, largest contingent of migrants consisted of enslaved Africans transported involunny. ily to South American, North American, and Caribbean destinations. A smaller by still sizable migration involved Europeans who traveled to the Americas and sete in lands depopulated by infectious and contagious diseases. During the nineteenth century European peoples traveled in massive numbers mostly to the westem hen. sphere but also to south Africa, Australia, and Pacific islands where diseases had minished indigenous populations, and Asian peoples migrated to tropical and sub- tropical destinations throughout much of the world. In combination, thee migrations have profoundly influenced modern world history. The Origins of Global Trade The trading-post empires established by Portuguese, Dutch, and English merchans linked Asian markets with European consumers and offered opportunities for Eur pean mariners to participate in the carrying trade within Asia, European vessel transported Persian carpets to India, Indian cottons to southeast Asia, south Asian spices to India and China, Chinese silks to Japan, and Japanese silver and op per to China and India, By the late sixteenth century, European merchants were a prominent as Arabs in the trading world of the Indian Ocean basin. Besides stimulating commerce in the eastern hemisphere, the voyages of Eu pean merchant mariners also encouraged the emergence of a genuinely global tat ing system. As Europeans established colonies in the Caribbean and the Ames for example, trade networks extended to all corners of the Atlantic Ocean basin. E ropean manufactured goods traveled west across the Atlantic in exchange for sist from Mexican and Peruvian mines and agricultural products such as sugar ani" bacco, both of which were in high demand among European consumers. Trale 8 human beings also figured in Atlantic commerce. European textiles, guns, nd ot manufactured goods went south to west Africa, where merchants exchanged for African slaves, who then went to the tropical and subtropical regions of the 8°" cern hemisphere to work on plantations val The experience of the Manila galleons illustrates the early workings of the 20%, economy in the Pacific Ocean basin. For 250 years, from 1565 to 1815, Sri galleons—sleck, fast, heavily armed ships capable of carrying large cargoes" plied the waters of the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines 2p pulco on the west coast of Mexico. From Manila they took Asian xu?) £2.49 Mexico and exchanged them for silver. Most of the precious metal made I * China, where a thriving domestic economy demanded increasing qu iar chi the basis of Chinese currency. In fact, the demand for silver was $0 a ec that European merchants exchanged it for Chinese gold, which they Scanned with CamScannerprofitably for more silver as well as luxury goods in Japan. Meanwhile, some of the Asian luxury goods from Manila remained in Mexico or went to Peru, where they contributed to a comfortable way of life for Spanish ruling clites. Most, however, went overland across Mexico and then traveled by ship across the Atlantic to Spain and European markets. By the late sixteenth century, European mariners had linked the ports of the World. During the next two centuries, the volume of global trade burgeoned, as English, Dutch, Erench, and other merchants contributed to the development of alobal markers, Durring the seventeenth century, for example, Dutel merchants im- Ported, among other commodities, wheat from south Africa, cowry shells from Tndia, and sugar from Brazil. The wheat fed domestic consumers, who increasingly é Worked as merchants, bankers, or manufacturers rather than as cultivators. English, Dutch, and other merchants eagerly purchased the cowry shells—which served as Surtency in much of sub-Saharan Africa—and exchanged them for slaves destined ‘or plantations in the western hemisphere. The sugar went on the marker at Amster~ comand found its way to consumers throughout Europe. During the eighteenth nod? NOTH trade became even more intricate as mass markets emerged for com- Womtt® such as coffee, tea, sugar, and tobacco. BY 1750 almost all parts of the | with the exception of Australia, participated in global networks of commer- Felations in which European merchant mariners played prominent roles. Five Spanish galleons stand in the waters off the port of Acapulco on the Pacific coast of Mexico in this sixteenth-century engraving. Smaller eraft ferry crewmen ashore, while dockworkers prepare t0 load cargo on the vessels # Rare Books Disision. Now York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Scanned with CamScannerCE, 1500. 560 PART V THE ORIGINS OF GLOBAL INTERDEPENDEN 0-18.09 G Cros comercial and biological exchanges arose from the efforts oF Foe Inatiffers to explore the world’s waters and establish ale ist would support © Jorig-cistance trade. Their search for sea routes to ed ¢ pemytar ee west “ hemisphere and the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. The geograpl al knowledge that they accumulated enabled them to link the world’s regions into a finely articy lated nctwork of trade. But commercial exchange was not the only result of this global network. Food crops, animal stocks, disease pathogens, and human migrants also traveled the sea-lanes and dramatically influenced societies throughout the world. Transplanted crops and animal species led to improved nutrition and increas ing populations throughout the castern hemisphere. Epidemics sparked by unfamil iar disease pathogens ravaged indigenous populations in the Americas and the Pacific islands. Massive migrations of human communities transformed the social and cul. tural landscape of the Americas and encouraged increased mingling of the world’s peoples. The European voyages of exploration, transoceanic trade networks, and the Columbian exchange pushed the world’s regions toward interdependence and global integration. CHRONOLOGY 1394-1460 Life of Dom Henrique of Portugal (Prince Henry the Navigator) 1488 Bartolomeu Dias's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean 1492 Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the western hemisphere 1497-1499 Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India 1519-1522 Ferdinand Magellan's citcumnavigation of the world 1565-1575 Spanish conquest of the Philippines (1786-1763. Seven Years’ War 5 1768-1779 Caprain James Cook's voyages in the Pacific Ocean FOR FURTHER READING KCN. Chaudhuri. Tnde and Cviiaton in he Indian Ocean: An Ezonomic History fom te Rix of dom 11750. Cambridge, 1985. A brillant analysis that places the European presence inthe Indian Ocein in its larger historical context. The Trading World of Asin and the English East Indin Company, 1660-1760. Cambridge, 1978 The best study ofthe English East India Company and its role in werkd toate Carlo Cilla Guns Sails and Empires: Technolegial Innovation and the Early Phase of European Espa sion, 1400-1700. New York, 1965. A well-written study of the naval and military technology available 10 European mariners, Aled NW. Cosby. Te Columbian Exelnnge: Biolaical and Cultural Consepuencesof 1492. Wess Gon» 1972. Focuses on carly exchanges of plants, animals, and diseases betreen Eerope and Ames Seolegicn!Inpevialisn: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, Cambridge, 1986. Ati pomany uy that examines the establishment of European biological species in the larger Wer Philip D. Curtin, CroseCultural Trade in World History. New York, 1984 Focuses om the voles of 08° cultural brokers inficiltating trade between different societon Stephen Frederic Dale. Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1600-1750. Cambridge, 1994, Scholarly analysis of Indian merchant communities trading in Russia, Persia and central Asis in ea moeT™ tim Andre Gunder Frank. ReORIENT: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley, 1998. lmportt! challenging analysis of global economic integration inthe early atoelern world and Scanned with CamScanner