Lesson 16: Exploring New Routes

The New Voyages Craze

With the development of handicraft workshops and tenant farms, the market demand in Europe gradually expanded and the commodity economy became more and more developed. Europeans were eager to explore new trade markets.

Silk, spices, porcelain, precious stones, cloth and other goods from the East were extremely popular in the European market. The Italian Marco Polo portrayed China, India and other oriental countries in his travel chronicles, which were ancient and mysterious, but also rich and prosperous, which aroused Europeans' infinite imagination and yearning for the East, and European society had a boom of concern for the East.

In the middle of the 15th century, the Ottoman Turkish Empire destroyed the Byzantine Empire and controlled all the important trade routes between East and West. The Turks imposed high tariffs on merchants, and goods shipped from the East to Europe became even more expensive. As a result, Europeans were increasingly interested in finding new routes to the East.

The Europeans increasingly sought new routes to the East. With the development of European geography, the belief that the earth was round led some to try to navigate around it. Some scholars were able to roughly sketch the natural contours of the entire globe. They concluded that the East could be reached by sailing west from Europe.

In the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the "compass" navigation technique invented by the Chinese, which used a compass for navigation, was introduced to Europe by Arab traders. In the 13th century, European sailors had mastered the compass technology. At the same time, the shipbuilding technology in Europe made a major breakthrough, and the load capacity increased to 600-800 tons, which could carry more sailors, food and commodities. Ships became larger, faster, and more maneuverable.

Columbus discovered America

In 1487, Dias, with the support of the Portuguese crown, led a fleet of three light sailing ships south along the west coast of Africa, reaching the Cape of Good Hope in Africa the following year.

With this voyage, Dias had in fact opened the way to the East by bypassing the southern tip of Africa. In 1497, da Gama sailed from Portugal, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, northward along the eastern coast of Africa and crossing the Indian Ocean, reaching the western coast of India in 1498. This voyage, da Gama brought back a lot of pepper, cinnamon and other spices and gold to obtain dozens of times more than the cost of the voyage profits.

Spain was a commercial rival of Portugal. The success of the Portuguese sea adventure, stimulated the Spanish, the latter also wanted to seek a route to Asia. In August 1492, sponsored by the Spanish crown, Columbus set out from Spain with a crew of 87 men and three ships to cross the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas in October. After that, Cuba and Haiti were discovered. Over the next 10 years, Columbus sailed west three times. Columbus always believed that he had reached India in Asia and referred to the natives as "Indians", i.e., Indians.

Magellan's fleet sailed around the world

In 1519, Magellan was ordered by the King of Spain to continue his search for Asia, which was rich in gold and spices. After three years of voyage, the fleet crossed the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and returned to Europe in 1522. This voyage is a pioneer in the world's maritime history, Magellan became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean, his fleet completed the first round-the-world voyage, proving the correctness of the geocircle theory.

After the opening of the new route, direct commercial links were established between Europe and Asia, Africa and America, and the exchanges became increasingly close. The world began to be connected as a whole, and the concept of the world was gradually established from then on. From then on, human society entered a new era.