The early explorations were pivotal in the history of Europe. This era, which peaked during the 15th and 17th centuries, marked the start of Europe’s expansion beyond the Old Continent.
The early explorations
European powers such as Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands made adventurous trips over unfamiliar oceans and regions. Curiosity for the unknown, economic desire, an adventurous spirit, and, in many cases, religious considerations drove the first voyages beyond Hercules’ Pillars.
The origins of this era frequently refer to the figures of Christopher Columbus. He sailed the Atlantic in 1492 and arrived in what he thought to be the Indies. In 1498, Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India by circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope. However, these were only the most important discoveries. New trade routes opened up, allowing for the movement of goods, cultures, and populations; yet, this also marked the start of an era of colonization and exploitation.
The New World
In the late Middle Ages, the term “New World” referred to an uncharted region that Europeans imagined using maps based on legends and traditions. The Catalan Atlas of 1375, the most famous atlas of the medieval age, depicted this imaginary world as populated by naked and wild men who consumed fish and mermaids. Furthermore, in the Atlas, the Antichrist appeared while preaching. This was a symbol representing the attempt to harmonize the Bible and geography.
Ptolemy’s Cosmography (1482) depicts Asia to the map’s edges. Cathay and Cyprus (China and Japan) have vague dimensions, with Prester John’s dominion appearing in the center. In the communal imagination, such places were fantastic and prosperous. According to the ancients, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, there existed undoubtedly the mythological Atlantis, part of a mysterious planet.
“Barbarians” and Christian philosophy.
Next to it, the actual but undefined world of Africa appears, a country of savages, bizarre and exotic plants, and creatures. Here we have “the barbarians.” Since ancient times, the term referred to races that lived without laws, arts, and crafts. Later, Cicero and Augustine incorporated the notion into Christianity. With these authors, the word evolved to refer to the distinction between Christians and non-Christians.
Thus, in the sixth century, the name “barbarians” referred to pagans who did not follow religious practices. Therefore, in the Middle Ages, the potential of absorbing the “other” through baptism develops. Thus, Christian thought distinguishes between civilized man and barbarian peoples who live in faraway areas and pose a threat to the pre-established social order.
The European imagination drove the initial adventures.
These strange and exotic individuals and animals became the new frontier of the European imagination. The men and nature of the New World permeated European imaginations through Christopher Columbus’ descriptions. He “invented” a paradisiacal America where the myths of the Golden Age, the Promised Land, and all those kingdoms rich in treasures and chances could readily find an appropriate location.
Men, plants, and creatures from a world outside Europe became wonders. European man began to categorize and characterize these differences in order to make them consistent with Western culture and his worldview. The civilized world’s values excluded savagery and barbarism.
Stereotypes regarding the “other”.
The anthropological description of the New World’s populations was based on the prejudices that were prevalent at the time. The “other” held those negative characteristics that reinforced the European man’s positive supremacy. As a result, they justified the brutal subjugation of the uncivilized man.
The Savage differed not in his values but in his lack of them. As a result, when it came to celebrating the innocence of nature, the indigenous were naked and modest. However, they turned lustful and bestial when one sought to emphasize their inferiority and the need to dominate them.
The first journeys of exploration.
The Portuguese and Spanish were the first to explore the oceans. With their explorations, they marked the shift from the Middle Ages to the modern era. For the first time, Europeans set out to conquer fresh and unexplored worlds. The collaboration of Genoese financiers and the King of Portugal made possible this feat. Henry the Navigator conquered Ceuta in 1415, marking the end of the first expansion along Africa’s coasts.
From 1418 until 1427, the Portuguese conquered the Azores and Cape Bojador. In 1482-1484, Diego Cão reached the mouth of the Congo, and in 1487, Bartolomeu Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope. Vasco da Gama‘s turn to round the Cape of Good Hope and reach Africa’s eastern coast came in 1497. He then continued his journey to India, arriving at Calicut in 1498. The following year, he arrived in Lisbon on two ships loaded with spices. The new path to the Indies was now open.
The Portuguese Colonial Empire.
In 1500, Pedro Alvarez Cabral landed on the Brazilian shore. Thus, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Portugal had already set the groundwork for its colonial empire. The Portuguese established colonies in the Persian Gulf, India’s towns of Goa and Calicut, Ceylon, the Malacca Peninsula, the Moluccas, and Macau.
The Portuguese Empire conquered its most valuable and profitable Asian territories. The colonies on Brazil’s coast were particularly vital because they enabled the lucrative sugar trade to begin.
The Spanish Empire
Following Columbus’ initial expeditions and the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) that defined the boundaries of the Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence, the people of Seville began to fund journeys to the Americas. Participants in these voyages gained in proportion to their investment. In 1500, Vicente Yàñez Pinzón reached the Amazon River‘s mouth. Two years later, Amerigo Vespucci arrived in Venezuela’s Maracaibo lagoon. In 1508, he reached the Colombian and Panamanian shores. Vasco Nùñez de Balboa named the Pacific Ocean “the South Sea” after crossing the Isthmus of Panama in 1513.
In the same year, Europeans reached the Florida coast, and in 1518, two voyages left Cuba for Mexico, making their first contact with the Maya. The following year, Hernán Cortés traveled from Cuba to Mexico. The Spanish caused the Aztec Empire to collapse. In 1529, the Spaniards entered central Mexico. In 1530, Francisco Pizarro left Panama and conquered the Inca Empire in two years. From here, the Spanish traveled to Chile, where Pedro de Valdivia established the city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura in 1541. In 1540, the Spanish crossed the Magellan Strait and explored Argentina’s Atlantic coast. The first expeditions in these areas extended as far as the Rio de la Plata, the enormous plains of North America, Florida, and Oklahoma.
The Other Colonial Empires.
The English and French expeditions to the New World were less notable due to financial constraints. Giovanni and Sebastiano Caboto, Venetian navigators, set out for North America in service of England. They arrived at the beaches of Labrador (1497) and Greenland (1498) before reaching Hudson Bay (1500). Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Tuscan navigator, left for France and arrived in South Carolina in 1524. From Florida, he traveled to Massachusetts. In 1528, he arrived in the Caribbean Sea and was slaughtered by the natives.
In 1534, Jacques Cartier, from the island of Newfoundland, arrived in the St. Lawrence River‘s estuary and discovered the “Northwest Passage,” connecting the Atlantic and Pacific. It served to bypass the routes controlled by the Iberian empires. In 1555, the French established a hamlet on an island in Rio de Janeiro Bay, which the Portuguese promptly destroyed. The same fate befell the newly established French possessions in Florida.
The vanquished
During the first explorations, the Portuguese and the Spanish established the practice of robbing the defeated. But it’s not only that. The first period of European conquest in the New World resulted in a severe demographic collapse. In many places, the population halved within a generation. In Mexico, the population decreased from 25 to 11 million. The diseases introduced by the Europeans killed the Native Americans. Their immune system was unprepared to deal with unfamiliar infections. Forced labor, the implementation of new social institutions, and the destruction of indigenous cultures all contributed to the demographic collapse. The Andean plateau’s population fell from ten million in 1530 to two million just 30 years later.
Spanish chronicles recounted the tragedy of the European conquest. Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) appeared to be a nightmarish Babel, an urban monster that had developed too swiftly and uncontrollably. Conquerors and conquered, as well as black African slaves, were forced to dwell here. The locals suffered severe economic, social, and psychological effects. Everything changed for them: Christianity, alphabetic writing, compulsory work in mines and fields, taxes to pay, all disrupting their habits and customs.
Early European Explorations Gallery
