APEC - Ch. 14 Age of Exploration Cheat Sheet

The Portuguese were the first to reach China and at that time, the Chinese didn't really care about them and thought they were just Barbar­ians. When they got their China was in the Ming Dynasty; an era of greatness. However, the Ming Dynasty declined due to weak rulers and government corrup­tion. The Ming Dynasty turned to the Qing Dynasty where the Qing overthrew the Ming and had strong rulers. The Qing would correct all the problems and restore the peace. The Portuguese would be later taken over by the English.

The Portuguese were also the first to land on Japan. Portuguese ships vegan stopping at Japnese ports regularly to take part in the regional trade between Japan, China, and SE Asia. The Japenese were very fascinated by their tabacoo, clocks, eyegla­sses, and other stuff; while the novles were interested in their firearms in which they would use to defeat enemies and unify islands. However, the Catholic Missio­naries that came along would mess with the politics which made Tokugawa Ieyasu pissed. He was so pissed that he expelled all missio­naries and persecuted Japenese Christians and closed 2 major trading ports. They would only allow the Dutch to stay because they didn't mess with politics.

Spanish gained control over the Pihili­ppines which eventually became a major Spanish base in the trade across the Pacific. They would carry ships full of silk and other luxury goods to Mexico to trade for their silver.

Spain and Portugal had large colonial empires in the Americas in the 16th century; Portugal had empire in Brazil and Spain had large South America empire. However, Spain's importance as a commercial power began to decline rapidly because of a drop in the outut of the silver mines and poverty in the Spanish monarchy. At the 17th century, both Spain and Portug­al's faced compet­ition from the Dutch, British, and French.

The Dutch came along with the English and posed a major threat to Portugal. They first seized a Portugese fort then gradually took over the spice trade. They occupied most of the trading ports in the Indian Ocean. Later, they would drive the English traders out of the spice market. The Dutch also began to consol­idate politcal and military control over entire are and brought the inlang reguins udner hteir control to protect their position.

The Dutch were the first to establish settle­ments on the North American continent through Henry Hudson. However, in the second half of the 17th century, they faced compet­ition from the English and French along with years of warfare with them which led to decline of the Dutch commercial empire

The French North America was run autocr­ati­cally as a vast trading area of furs, leather, fish, and timber. However, the French state was unable to get people to move to Canda which left Canada thinly populated. Later, the French were unable to provide enough men or money as they mainly focused on the Contin­ental warr over their conquest of the NA continent. In 1763, the Seven Years War would force them to surrender the rest of their Canadian lands. However, they (along with British) were able to break into the Spanish Latin America market where the French Bourbons became the kings of Spain.

English and Dutch were competeing against each other and Portugal for regional trade in India. In 17th century, British presence in India would increase. Soon, the Dutch gave up on India for focus on their spice trade, but the French were really persistent and managed to compete succes­sfully with the British. However, the British were saved by Sir Robert Clive (ceo of BEIC). Eventu­ally, the French also died out in India because their government stopped giving them money; the French were later completely kicked out by British in 7 years war. The British began to expand their authority into the interior which would mark a major step in the gradual transfer of all of the India to the BEIC.

The English would replace the Portuguese as the dominant force. They operated through the East India Company which served as a trading unit and admini­strator of English colonies in Asia. They would establish trading ports and export tea and silk to England. However, China limited themselves from the British as they were confined to a small island outside the city walls from October to March. The British then got mad and demanded for them to be open to British goods and access to other cities. However, they got rejected which would later cause China's downfall.

The British Colonies of Jamestown pretty much was a big failure which made it evident that the colonizing of American lands wasn't conducie to quick profits. However, the desire to practice oen's own religious and their economic interest lead to a sucessful coloni­zation. This was evident through the Massac­hue­setts Bay Company as well ans how English had establ­ished control over most of the eastern seaboard in the US. They had thirteen colonies with own individual legist­lat­ures. British colonies were also assigned roles in the mercan­tilist theory which basically just prevented them from getting out of control and keep the trade favourable to the mother­land.

From 16th to 18th century, thousands to millions of Africans were removed from their homes and forcibly shipped to to planta­tions in the New World. At first, European explor­ation of the African coastline did not affect mos Africans living in the interior of the continet, but Africans living on the coast suffered a lot. Also, at first African slave were just simply replacing Europeans ones as domestic servants for rich people. However, Cane sugar and other labor intensive crops were introduced which drove up the demand for slaves. And since African land was not good for growing stuff, slaves were being shipped off to Brazil and the Carrbeean.

There import­ation of cheap manufa­ctured goods from Europe undermined local cottage industrues and forced countless families into poverty. The slave trade also led to depopu­lation of some areas and deprive African villages of strongest men. Not only that but African tribes needed to maintain a constant supply of slaves which led to war and violence between the tribes. Also, desipte humanism, slaves were still largely acceptable to Western society. Europeans still views blacks as infeior beings fit for slaves