THE GREAT DISCOVERIES AND THEIR EFFECTS (15th-16th centuries)
THE GREAT DISCOVERIES
1) Prerequisites
A) technical development
- caravel: new type of ship, best suited for long sea voyages
- compass
- astrolabe: used to measure how far north or south the equator was
B) scientific revolution
- geocentric worldview: Earth was the center of the Universe
- the map of Toscanelli: Map of the Atlantic Ocean according to him (later proved it
was false, Christopher Colombus used it and thats why he thought he reached India)
- Earth is a sphere! (Phyisicists in Rome reused Ptolemy’s map to reach this
conclusion)
D) Renaissance: science was challenging medieval worldviews
E) Humanism: ideology of renaissance
- living now, not for afterlife → need for adventure
- human was the center, celebrated itself and its achievements
- love for classical learning
- enjoying earthly pleasures → material luxury → more need for goods from East
1) Reasons
A) For the merchants
- population growth → need for more trade
↳ Levant (Holy Land, connected East with West)
↳ Hansa League (Northern Europe)
these were connected by the already existing Overland Route (bw Western
(manufactured goods) and Eastern Europe (agricultural goods))
- turks put extra taxes on the Levant trading route, and made it more dangerous
- luxury goods from the East, merchants could sell them on a very high price, with a
high profit
B) For monarchs
- possibility for colonization → extra income (taxes)
C) For the Church
- more people → conversion to christianity → more taxes payed
D) because of adventure (rooting from renaissance)
E) scientific discoveries
, 2) The Discoveries
- Portugal and Spain were the pioneers in colonising the New World bc of their
favorable
position
SPAIN (15th century) - internal problems
A) divided, Spanish kingdoms → aim: united Spanish kingdom → unity by marriage
(Isabelle of Castille 💍 Ferdinand of Aragon)
B) Moors (Islamic people in Spain) → 1492 : ’Reconquista’ - christians pushed them
out of Sp
1594: Treaty of Tordesillas - by Pope Alexander VI
- regulated the rights of discovery and conquest between Spain and Portugal
- line of demarcation : Cape Verde Islands
↳ Spain : West
↳ Portugal : East
THE GREAT DISCOVERIES
1) Prerequisites
A) technical development
- caravel: new type of ship, best suited for long sea voyages
- compass
- astrolabe: used to measure how far north or south the equator was
B) scientific revolution
- geocentric worldview: Earth was the center of the Universe
- the map of Toscanelli: Map of the Atlantic Ocean according to him (later proved it
was false, Christopher Colombus used it and thats why he thought he reached India)
- Earth is a sphere! (Phyisicists in Rome reused Ptolemy’s map to reach this
conclusion)
D) Renaissance: science was challenging medieval worldviews
E) Humanism: ideology of renaissance
- living now, not for afterlife → need for adventure
- human was the center, celebrated itself and its achievements
- love for classical learning
- enjoying earthly pleasures → material luxury → more need for goods from East
1) Reasons
A) For the merchants
- population growth → need for more trade
↳ Levant (Holy Land, connected East with West)
↳ Hansa League (Northern Europe)
these were connected by the already existing Overland Route (bw Western
(manufactured goods) and Eastern Europe (agricultural goods))
- turks put extra taxes on the Levant trading route, and made it more dangerous
- luxury goods from the East, merchants could sell them on a very high price, with a
high profit
B) For monarchs
- possibility for colonization → extra income (taxes)
C) For the Church
- more people → conversion to christianity → more taxes payed
D) because of adventure (rooting from renaissance)
E) scientific discoveries
, 2) The Discoveries
- Portugal and Spain were the pioneers in colonising the New World bc of their
favorable
position
SPAIN (15th century) - internal problems
A) divided, Spanish kingdoms → aim: united Spanish kingdom → unity by marriage
(Isabelle of Castille 💍 Ferdinand of Aragon)
B) Moors (Islamic people in Spain) → 1492 : ’Reconquista’ - christians pushed them
out of Sp
1594: Treaty of Tordesillas - by Pope Alexander VI
- regulated the rights of discovery and conquest between Spain and Portugal
- line of demarcation : Cape Verde Islands
↳ Spain : West
↳ Portugal : East
