Legacy of World Civilizations
The great geographical discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries inaugurated the ascension of Europe as the catalyst behind the development of the modern world, helped spread Christianity on a global scale and led to the formation of the first colonial empires, namely those of Spain and Portugal. Between 1450 and 1550 several naval expeditions were organized at the orders of the kings of Spain and Portugal. These expeditions resulted in significant discoveries on the part of European explorers: America, central and south Africa, the shoreline of India, South-East Asia and the Far East. These expeditions were planned and organized efforts, based on strong resources of human energy and material support. The main incentives behind these discoveries were the spread of Christianity - by force where necessary, the need for gold, spices, silk and other precious resources that were not available in Spain or Portugal, as well as the search for glory and a spirit of adventure. Until the beginning of the 17th century, the Portuguese and Castilian outward empires had no competitors in Europe. The 1800s saw the ascension of the Dutch and English colonies and later that of the French (Payne: Chp10). The 16th century saw Spain and Portugal c
This is how, in 1494 a conference was held which resulted in the famous treaty of Tordesillas. As a result of naval development and economic support, it became possible in the 15th century for Hispanic conquistadors to sail to places such as India, China and Ceylon to retrieve the luxury goods themselves without turning to intermediaries. The local population of the conquered territories was free except for those who opposed the Spanish control and were murdered (Payne: Chp. According to this treaty, the Atlantic Ocean would be divided between Spain and Portugal using an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, three hundred and seventy leagues to the west of the Cape Verde Islands. This led to the discovery of other important goods such as West African pepper, Guinean gold, ivory etc. Nevertheless, it is true in their case, similarly to the Spaniards, that all the local decisions were reported to the Portuguese court. The Portuguese did not care about accumulating large territories; what they sought were the raw materials available in the respective territories, which were immediately shipped to Portugal. The successful military expansion politics of Portugal was even more remarkable than that of Spain. These technical advances were achieved by the Portuguese with considerable help from Spaniards and Italians. The Portuguese had a different approach to the newly conquered territories. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge the frailty of the Asian states the Portuguese tackled; also, despite the fact that some alliances were former among Asian states in the face of Portuguese attacks, these rarely lasted enough to pose a real threat to the Portuguese forces (Payne: Chp. From a psychological point of view, the Portuguese had great morale which was based on their history of expansion and success, an aspect that enabled them not to fear any opponent and to engage in battle with a lot of self-confidence. These territories were Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola in West Africa, S.
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