o Overview
-> Motives and state support
-> Portuguese routes
-> Spanish voyages
o Motives and state support
-> Asian spices and luxury goods promised high trade profits.
-> Europeans sought sea routes around costly intermediaries.
-> Existing overland trade continued; it was not fully blocked.
-> Monarchs pursued customs revenue, prestige, and rival claims.
-> Christian expansion accompanied commercial ambitions.
-> Royal funding and privileges helped finance risky voyages.
o Portuguese routes
-> Portugal sponsored voyages down Africa's Atlantic coast.
-> African trade supplied gold and enslaved people to buyers.
-> Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
-> Vasco da Gama reached India's Calicut by sea in 1498.
-> African and Asian pilots helped Europeans navigate routes.
-> Armed fleets and coastal posts sought a share of Asian trade.
o Spanish voyages
-> Spain backed Columbus's westward voyage to Asia in 1492.
-> He reached inhabited Caribbean islands, not Asian markets.
-> Repeated voyages began sustained Atlantic colonization.
-> Spain claimed lands and sought wealth and Christian converts.
-> Indigenous societies already had their own trade networks.
o Overview
-> Atlantic and Pacific links
-> Northern searches
-> Economic consequences
o Atlantic and Pacific links
-> Iberian rivalry led to the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.
-> It divided claims without Indigenous peoples' consent.
-> Portugal claimed Brazil after Cabral's arrival in 1500.
-> Spain backed Magellan's westward expedition in 1519.
-> Magellan died; Elcano's survivors completed it in 1522.
-> The circumnavigation demonstrated linked ocean routes.
o Northern searches
-> England, France, and Dutch merchants also sought Asia.
-> Northern voyages searched for a Northwest Passage.
-> John Cabot sailed under English sponsorship in 1497.
-> French voyages explored the St. Lawrence River region.
-> Hudson sailed for the Dutch in 1609 seeking an Asian route.
-> Failed passage searches still supported colonial claims.
o Economic consequences
-> New routes connected Atlantic commerce to Asian markets.
-> Portuguese ports tried to channel spices through their ships.
-> American conquest later yielded silver and plantation crops.
-> Exploration intensified competition for ports and resources.
-> Oceanic expansion reshaped, but did not erase, older trade.