Exploration, Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
During this unit we will study the following content:
During this unit we will practice the following skills:
- Reasons for Exploration, Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.
- Important figures from the Scientific Revolution.
- The lasting political, social and economic effects of the Scientific Revolution.
- Enlightenment thinkers, their ideas and impact
- Long and short term causes of Exploration and its impact on Europe and the New World.
During this unit we will practice the following skills:
- Analyze historical documents using SOAPStone.
- Analyze different historical interpretations and points of view.
- Writing source based essays.
Unit 2 plan
What encouraged Europeans to explore?
Before exploration became important to Europeans, there were certain things in the world of Europeans that had to change. What were they?
You can make inferences from the following passage.
Most of the world was not written on maps. North and South America weren’t even known. In fact, up until the late 1400s Europeans didn’t even know where Africa ended! Most scholars and sailors knew the earth was round, although there were many people who thought the earth was flat. Even though sailors knew about a round planet, if they sailed too far from land they would probably get lost. The ships of the mid-1400s could only sail in the direction of the wind. Ships were big, slow, long, and needed to have men row heavy oars against the wind.
There was a lack of trade between regions in Europe and the world. Money (coins) didn’t have a fixed value, so the value of money always changed. Small estates owned by lords were too small and didn’t have enough money to invest in exploration. There were no concepts of balance of trade or tariffs, because there wasn’t much trade between nations. There wasn’t much thought about a national wealth, but more of individual wealth. In Europe, there wasn’t enough gold and silver to be a wealthy nation. Each region, as it developed, needed more resources to produce goods.
Thanks to Mr. Gildart
You can make inferences from the following passage.
Most of the world was not written on maps. North and South America weren’t even known. In fact, up until the late 1400s Europeans didn’t even know where Africa ended! Most scholars and sailors knew the earth was round, although there were many people who thought the earth was flat. Even though sailors knew about a round planet, if they sailed too far from land they would probably get lost. The ships of the mid-1400s could only sail in the direction of the wind. Ships were big, slow, long, and needed to have men row heavy oars against the wind.
There was a lack of trade between regions in Europe and the world. Money (coins) didn’t have a fixed value, so the value of money always changed. Small estates owned by lords were too small and didn’t have enough money to invest in exploration. There were no concepts of balance of trade or tariffs, because there wasn’t much trade between nations. There wasn’t much thought about a national wealth, but more of individual wealth. In Europe, there wasn’t enough gold and silver to be a wealthy nation. Each region, as it developed, needed more resources to produce goods.
Thanks to Mr. Gildart
Notable Early Explorers and their Impact
PORTUGUESE EXPLORATION
Portugal was the first European kingdom to explore other lands seriously. One reason was its geographic location on the Atlantic Ocean, with a long seacoast with good harbours. Another took the form of an often underrated historical figure, Prince Henry the Navigator. He wanted to increase Portugal's maritime influence and profits, and he also wanted to spread Christianity. From Portugal his ships ventured to the Strait of Gibraltar, where they seized the Muslim city of Ceuta, allowing Christian ships to travel safely between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Next Portuguese marines explored nearby islands, and eventually made their way down the coast of Western Africa.
Henry's influence was so great mainly because he started a school for navigators that trained some of the most famous and skilled mariners of the day. Two of his students solved an ancient mystery: Where is the southern tip of Africa? In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and returned to Portugal with the news. A few years later Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape, found the southern Swahili cities, and hired a Muslim guide that helped him to sail all the way to India. These voyages were the beginnings of sustained European sea travel that eventually led to Europe's rise to power.
For most of the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade. How did they capture this old sea route that had been shared by Arabs, Persians, Indians, and Southeast Asians? The most important single answer is technological: they had superior weapons. Their ships were armed with cannons that they used so skilfully that their relatively small ships could overpower almost any other type of vessel. The Portuguese were intent on converting all that they met to Christianity, although they often did more harm than good, infuriating the natives by burning down mosques and/or forcing conversions.
EARLY SPANISH EXPEDITIONS
Since the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade, other European kingdoms looked for other routes to the east, where they sought to capture some of the trade that so filled Portuguese pockets. Spain was one of the first to seek an alternate route when Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand sponsored the voyages of Italian sailor Christopher Columbus. Using maps devised by the Greek geographer Ptolemy, Columbus believed that the voyage west was possibly shorter than the Portuguese route from Europe around the tip of Africa and east. Ptolemy's maps were wrong, since they assumed that the circumference of the early was only 16,000 miles (as opposed to the actual 25,000), and Columbus of course landed in the Americas, "discovering" the new hemisphere for Europeans. He returned to Spain without the trade goods that he expected to find from the east, but he convinced the Spanish monarchs that he had landed in the islands off the Asian coast. On his subsequent voyages he explored more areas, but he never reached the mainland, nor did he ever publicly acknowledge that he had failed in his mission; finding a new route to Asia.
THE CONQUEST OF THE AMERICAS
What Diaz, da Gama, Columbus, and other early European explorers did do was unwittingly start an entirely new era of world trade and cross-cultural exchange (the birth of globalization?). Europeans conquered and claimed the territories and greatly increased their prosperity and power, and Christianity spread to a whole new hemisphere. Portugal and Spain even presumed to divide the world in two by seeking the Pope's blessing on the Treaty of Tordesillas, which drew a line through north and south through the Atlantic, giving Portugal the lands east and Spain the lands west. Portugal actually lost in the long run because the lands that they "received" were already claimed by empires that did not recognize the Portuguese claims.
During the 16th century the Portuguese slowly faded as a power while Spain claimed and kept more and more land in the western hemisphere. In 1519 a Spanish expedition led by Hernan Cortes marched to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and defeated the great empire with only a few hundred soldiers. How? Two weapons helped a great deal - guns and disease. Gunpowder technology revolutionized the world during the 1450-1750 era, and the Amerindian Empires were among its first victims. Disease also made a big difference. Shortly after the Spanish arrived in Tenochtitlan, a smallpox epidemic broke out in the city that killed or incapacitated the Aztec army. A few years later Francisco Pizarro attacked and defeated the Inca. With the fall of those two empires the Spanish gained virtual control of Mesoamerica and South America, with the exception of Brazil, which fell on the Portuguese side of the line set by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED
One event symbolizes, if not encapsulates, the accomplishments of the Europeans: the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan between 1519 and 1522. Magellan found the southern tip of South America and sailed west across the Pacific. He eventually made it to the islands off the coast of Asia, sailed through the Indian Ocean, around the tip of Africa, and home to Spain. Ironically, Magellan didn't make the entire voyage because he was killed in the Philippines, and only one of his ships actually made it all the way home. What they proved did not provide any particular financial gain. Instead, Magellan discovered just how wide the Pacific Ocean is and how impractical Columbus' earlier hunch really was. However, his voyage was the first to go around the world, and it symbolized the first union of the hemispheres and the resulting worldwide contacts that have characterized world history since 1522.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE MARITIME REVOLUTION
The new trade patterns could never have been established without some very important technological inventions, most of which they adapted from other cultures:
Portugal was the first European kingdom to explore other lands seriously. One reason was its geographic location on the Atlantic Ocean, with a long seacoast with good harbours. Another took the form of an often underrated historical figure, Prince Henry the Navigator. He wanted to increase Portugal's maritime influence and profits, and he also wanted to spread Christianity. From Portugal his ships ventured to the Strait of Gibraltar, where they seized the Muslim city of Ceuta, allowing Christian ships to travel safely between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Next Portuguese marines explored nearby islands, and eventually made their way down the coast of Western Africa.
Henry's influence was so great mainly because he started a school for navigators that trained some of the most famous and skilled mariners of the day. Two of his students solved an ancient mystery: Where is the southern tip of Africa? In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and returned to Portugal with the news. A few years later Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape, found the southern Swahili cities, and hired a Muslim guide that helped him to sail all the way to India. These voyages were the beginnings of sustained European sea travel that eventually led to Europe's rise to power.
For most of the 16th century, the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade. How did they capture this old sea route that had been shared by Arabs, Persians, Indians, and Southeast Asians? The most important single answer is technological: they had superior weapons. Their ships were armed with cannons that they used so skilfully that their relatively small ships could overpower almost any other type of vessel. The Portuguese were intent on converting all that they met to Christianity, although they often did more harm than good, infuriating the natives by burning down mosques and/or forcing conversions.
EARLY SPANISH EXPEDITIONS
Since the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade, other European kingdoms looked for other routes to the east, where they sought to capture some of the trade that so filled Portuguese pockets. Spain was one of the first to seek an alternate route when Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand sponsored the voyages of Italian sailor Christopher Columbus. Using maps devised by the Greek geographer Ptolemy, Columbus believed that the voyage west was possibly shorter than the Portuguese route from Europe around the tip of Africa and east. Ptolemy's maps were wrong, since they assumed that the circumference of the early was only 16,000 miles (as opposed to the actual 25,000), and Columbus of course landed in the Americas, "discovering" the new hemisphere for Europeans. He returned to Spain without the trade goods that he expected to find from the east, but he convinced the Spanish monarchs that he had landed in the islands off the Asian coast. On his subsequent voyages he explored more areas, but he never reached the mainland, nor did he ever publicly acknowledge that he had failed in his mission; finding a new route to Asia.
THE CONQUEST OF THE AMERICAS
What Diaz, da Gama, Columbus, and other early European explorers did do was unwittingly start an entirely new era of world trade and cross-cultural exchange (the birth of globalization?). Europeans conquered and claimed the territories and greatly increased their prosperity and power, and Christianity spread to a whole new hemisphere. Portugal and Spain even presumed to divide the world in two by seeking the Pope's blessing on the Treaty of Tordesillas, which drew a line through north and south through the Atlantic, giving Portugal the lands east and Spain the lands west. Portugal actually lost in the long run because the lands that they "received" were already claimed by empires that did not recognize the Portuguese claims.
During the 16th century the Portuguese slowly faded as a power while Spain claimed and kept more and more land in the western hemisphere. In 1519 a Spanish expedition led by Hernan Cortes marched to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and defeated the great empire with only a few hundred soldiers. How? Two weapons helped a great deal - guns and disease. Gunpowder technology revolutionized the world during the 1450-1750 era, and the Amerindian Empires were among its first victims. Disease also made a big difference. Shortly after the Spanish arrived in Tenochtitlan, a smallpox epidemic broke out in the city that killed or incapacitated the Aztec army. A few years later Francisco Pizarro attacked and defeated the Inca. With the fall of those two empires the Spanish gained virtual control of Mesoamerica and South America, with the exception of Brazil, which fell on the Portuguese side of the line set by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
THE WORLD ENCOMPASSED
One event symbolizes, if not encapsulates, the accomplishments of the Europeans: the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan between 1519 and 1522. Magellan found the southern tip of South America and sailed west across the Pacific. He eventually made it to the islands off the coast of Asia, sailed through the Indian Ocean, around the tip of Africa, and home to Spain. Ironically, Magellan didn't make the entire voyage because he was killed in the Philippines, and only one of his ships actually made it all the way home. What they proved did not provide any particular financial gain. Instead, Magellan discovered just how wide the Pacific Ocean is and how impractical Columbus' earlier hunch really was. However, his voyage was the first to go around the world, and it symbolized the first union of the hemispheres and the resulting worldwide contacts that have characterized world history since 1522.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE MARITIME REVOLUTION
The new trade patterns could never have been established without some very important technological inventions, most of which they adapted from other cultures:
- Guns and gunpowder - Although the Chinese invented explosives, Europeans adapted them for guns. European metalwork advanced to the point that smiths were able to forge the first guns and cannons. Their accuracy was limited, but their power as weapons was awesome by the standards of the time. Guns and gunpowder allowed European explorers to intimidate and defeat virtually any foe.
- New ship technology - The European ships were well suited for travel on the Atlantic Ocean.
- The compass - This technology was copied from the Arabs, who had earlier learned it from the Chinese. The compass pointed north, an important indication for ships traveling east to west.
- The astrolabe - Another invention of the Arabs, the astrolabe allowed a sea captain to tell how far north or south his ship was from the equator.
- Cartography - European explorers recorded the new territories on maps, and the art of accurate mapmaking progressed significantly. One new map style created was the Mercator Projection that distorted land size seriously in extreme northern and southern areas. However, the projection was relatively accurate for the middle ranges, and those were the routes that navigators were following.
The Columbian Exchange
The 'Columbian Exchange' as modern historians call it, brought the potato, the pineapple, the turkey, dahlias, sunflowers, magnolias, maize, chillies and chocolate across the Atlantic. On the other hand, tens of millions died in the pandemics of the 16th century, victims of smallpox, measles and the other diseases brought by Europeans (and don't forget that the African slave trade was begun by the Europeans, to replace the workforce they had decimated).
The Columbian Exchange Review
Exchange included a huge number of products that changed diets and work habits around the world. Generally, the goods traded according to this pattern:
- Europe to the Americas - horses, cows, pigs, wheat, barley, sugar cane, melons, grapes
- Africa (includes Asian products) to the Americas - bananas, coconut palms, coffee, sugar cane, goats, chickens
- The Americas to Europe and Africa - corn, potatoes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, squash, beans, pineapples, peppers, tobacco, chocolate
The Effects of European Exploration on the Americas
How Christopher Columbus caused inflation and globalization
Christopher Columbus is best known for discovering the Americas, but in fact his impact can be seen as being the beginning of globalization. The resulting Columbian Exchange also led to a dramatic increase in prices in Europe from the 1500's onwards. In class we will be examining the positive and negative impact of both globalization and inflation.
The Scientific Revolution
Before the Scientific Revolution people never questioned what the church told them, and those that did dared not to say. People didn’t question the Bible.
People began to realize that there are different ways of interpreting what they see and are told. Due to changes during the Renaissance people were more willing to question previously believed ideas about the universe. Magic and science were no longer viewed as the same. People began to follow Francis Bacon’s belief that nothing could be true until tested. Controlled experiments were now required to prove things. This became known as the scientific method. Scientists began organizing plants, animals and minerals in more carefully defined groups. Many new inventions were created during the Scientific Revolution (calculus, Arabic numeral use, geometry, theories of gravity, the telescope, microscope, air pump, thermometer, barometer, the scientific method).
Notable Scientists of the Scientific Revolution and their Impact
Andreas Vesalius studied the human body and anatomy; helped to establish anatomy as a branch of medical science; gave new insights to the human body, which encouraged research into functions of the body and cures for diseases. Rene Descartes studied how humans think and behave; believed humans were rational and could think of reasons for their actions; believed that people were affected by cause and effect. He said we should doubt everything until it could be proved with reason. Nicholas Copernicus thought of the heliocentric view of the universe; his theory challenged belief that earth was at the center of the universe; his beliefs made people angry, so he didn’t publish his theory until just before his death. Johannes Kepler found that planets move in circles called orbits and that one part of the earth/planets was always facing the sun. Galileo Galilei made a better version of the Dutch telescope to look at the universe; saw things on the moon no human had seen before; believed and promoted heliocentric theory. Isaac Newton studied math and was interested in weight and motion; was interested in how things on earth and in the ocean moved, as well as the universe; created laws of gravity; created calculus. During Francis Bacon's time many Aristotelian ideas, such as the position of the earth at the centre of the universe, had been overturned, his methodology was still being used. This held that scientific truth could be reached by way of authoritative argument: if sufficiently clever men discussed a subject long enough, the truth would eventually be discovered. Bacon challenged this, arguing that truth required evidence from the real world. He urged scientists to experiment by observing the world and drawing conclusions and thus developed the Scientific Method.
People began to realize that there are different ways of interpreting what they see and are told. Due to changes during the Renaissance people were more willing to question previously believed ideas about the universe. Magic and science were no longer viewed as the same. People began to follow Francis Bacon’s belief that nothing could be true until tested. Controlled experiments were now required to prove things. This became known as the scientific method. Scientists began organizing plants, animals and minerals in more carefully defined groups. Many new inventions were created during the Scientific Revolution (calculus, Arabic numeral use, geometry, theories of gravity, the telescope, microscope, air pump, thermometer, barometer, the scientific method).
Notable Scientists of the Scientific Revolution and their Impact
Andreas Vesalius studied the human body and anatomy; helped to establish anatomy as a branch of medical science; gave new insights to the human body, which encouraged research into functions of the body and cures for diseases. Rene Descartes studied how humans think and behave; believed humans were rational and could think of reasons for their actions; believed that people were affected by cause and effect. He said we should doubt everything until it could be proved with reason. Nicholas Copernicus thought of the heliocentric view of the universe; his theory challenged belief that earth was at the center of the universe; his beliefs made people angry, so he didn’t publish his theory until just before his death. Johannes Kepler found that planets move in circles called orbits and that one part of the earth/planets was always facing the sun. Galileo Galilei made a better version of the Dutch telescope to look at the universe; saw things on the moon no human had seen before; believed and promoted heliocentric theory. Isaac Newton studied math and was interested in weight and motion; was interested in how things on earth and in the ocean moved, as well as the universe; created laws of gravity; created calculus. During Francis Bacon's time many Aristotelian ideas, such as the position of the earth at the centre of the universe, had been overturned, his methodology was still being used. This held that scientific truth could be reached by way of authoritative argument: if sufficiently clever men discussed a subject long enough, the truth would eventually be discovered. Bacon challenged this, arguing that truth required evidence from the real world. He urged scientists to experiment by observing the world and drawing conclusions and thus developed the Scientific Method.
Why did this happen and how did it affect the time period and future behaviour?
Francis Bacon takes the Scientific Method a little too far.....
The Enlightenment
With changes in the way people viewed the church and life in general due to Humanist thought, political theory also developed. Theorists began writing about the best forms of government to maintain control of society. New ways of thinking also led to debate about religion, economics and education. These ideas were based on reasoning and logic.
THE EARLY EUROPEAN ENLIGHTENMENT
During the 17th century, the Scientific Revolution began to be applied to social and political areas of life, a movement known as the Enlightenment. Enlightenment philosophers believed that human reason that discovered laws of science could also discover the laws that governed social and political behavior. The movement was also inspired by the Reformation, which had challenged and revised accepted religious thought, and by contact with political and social philosophies from other parts of the world.
In England the English Civil War shaped political thought. (we will study this later) The king was decapitated, and political authority fell to Parliament, causing English political philosopher John Locke to reconsider the nature of government. In his famous Second Treatise of Civil Government, he argued that rulers get their right to rule not from the heavens, but from the consent of the governed. His philosophy laid the basis for rule of law, not by the whim of the monarch, an idea that was far from new. However, he added that if monarchs overstepped the law, citizens not only had the right, but the duty to rebel. His philosophy influenced thinkers in the late 1700s, who in turn inspired democratic revolutions in many places, including North America and France.
During the 17th century, the Scientific Revolution began to be applied to social and political areas of life, a movement known as the Enlightenment. Enlightenment philosophers believed that human reason that discovered laws of science could also discover the laws that governed social and political behavior. The movement was also inspired by the Reformation, which had challenged and revised accepted religious thought, and by contact with political and social philosophies from other parts of the world.
In England the English Civil War shaped political thought. (we will study this later) The king was decapitated, and political authority fell to Parliament, causing English political philosopher John Locke to reconsider the nature of government. In his famous Second Treatise of Civil Government, he argued that rulers get their right to rule not from the heavens, but from the consent of the governed. His philosophy laid the basis for rule of law, not by the whim of the monarch, an idea that was far from new. However, he added that if monarchs overstepped the law, citizens not only had the right, but the duty to rebel. His philosophy influenced thinkers in the late 1700s, who in turn inspired democratic revolutions in many places, including North America and France.
