Bartolomeu Dias Impact In The Age Of Exploration

In the late fifteenth century the Portuguese were expanding its kingdom in Africa where it tapped into the existing gold and slave trades of the western Sudan and West Central Africa (Ehret 339). By the early sixteenth century, the Americas became a major player in the global commerce system as the Spanish and Portuguese began to carve at the land and importing and exporting sugar, tobacco, and slaves. Slaves in this moment were the chief commodity that the Portuguese sought from West Central Africa as they provided the free labor that was needed to cultivate and maintain sugar plantations in the Americas. However, the slave trade was not a one-sided system, in fact many African elites, like King Afonso a Nzinga of the Kongo allowed for the buying and selling of African people to Europeans. In other words, Europeans traded with Africa because Africa allowed it to happen, however, there are moment when the demand overshadowed the supply. The slave trade and its many complications is one way in understanding the expanding commercial exchanges between Europeans and West Central Africans during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This essay will analyze the letters King Afonso Nzinga wrote to the King of Portugal, Joao

When one queries the assessment of the European commercial activities and its impact in the Atlantic Islands and West Africa between the years 1415 and 1600, trickery, social violence, intrusion and the horrors of slavery comes to mind. There were many negative impacts such as population loss, loss of self worth and loyalty, the Europeans involved caused the demise of the European cloth industry. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to set foot in this area in the fifteenth century. During the history of Portugal (1415-1542), Portugal discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, established trading

Death, starvation, illness, and hostile natives are some of the difficulties explorers faced during the 15th century. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and Garcia Lopez de Cardenas were two Europeans who traveled great distances in hopes of discovering something new. Throughout their journeys, both men wrote down the problems and discoveries they made. With the passages from their journal one can compare and contrast their expeditions. In the upcoming paragraphs one will learn the similarities and differences between the two men during their expeditions.

The Portuguese traded with Africa War weapons in order to get gold, ivory, and jewels. They later began getting slaves produced by inter-African warfare. At first the slave trade was controlled by Africans. These Africans were knows as the Bakongo whom welcomed the Portuguese and the

Beginning in 1419, Prince Henry of Portugal, also known as “The Navigator”, began financing sailors, mapmakers, and shipbuilders that were devoted to finding new lands. These men were from different nationalities, ranging from Italy, Arabia, and Germany. Their primary focus was to sail around Africa, and land in India. Although at first they failed to go to India, they were successful in sailing down the west African coast, which was the beginning for one of the worse trades in the history of mankind, which is slavery. In 1444, the first 200 slaves from Africa were shipped to Portugal. Later, in 1488, Portuguese captain Bartholemeu Dias sailed around Africa, passing by the Cape of Good Hope. One decade later, Vasco de Gama went farther than Dias and came back to Portugal loaded with spices from the East. Then the Spanish came along. Unlike Portugal, that based its empire off of naval capabilities, the Spanish based theirs off conquest and colonization. There were many Spanish conquistadors, but the most famous of them all is Christopher

Although Vasco da Gama sailed around the southern tip of Africa in 1488 to find a trade route to India, he was also looking for other Christian kings and spices. Da Gama was known as “captain-major” to his crew-mates, and he was an ambassador for Prince Henry. When he landed in India, he gave two letters to the king of Calicut. In a cultural misunderstanding, Vasco da Gama tried to give gifts to the king that were laughed at because the poorest merchant would give gifts better than the gift that da Gama gave. Although Vasco da Gama gave the wrong gift to the king, he still

Prior to Prince Henry, voyages only covered small areas because of primitive navigation technology. There were no charted route to Asia by sea. Prince Henry, known as “the Navigator” was a skilled and experienced navigator, he came up with new ways to navigate the ocean. Henry was successful in mapping the west-African coast. Initially, Prince Henry was more concern about exploring and mapping new territories.

The first African slaves were believed to have landed in Portuguese in 1442, the Portuguese merchants of this time were known to trade goods for slaves with Nigerians. The Portuguese were well known for trading slaves prior to the Europeans discovering America in 1492. According to an article titled The Transatlantic Slave Trade, “By 1490 approximately more than 3,000 slaves a year were being transported to Portugal and Spain from Africa”. Once Europeans colonized American land this began the three-way slave trade between Europe, Africa, and America. Majority of the slaves during this time came from slave traders in Nigeria, which was known to be majorly controlled by the Aro, Oyo, and Hausa groups. These slave trade groups were often under heavy pressure of the slave economy to constantly provide slaves for trading which resulted in war amongst the groups.

History is such a significant thing in the United Sates, and to our counterparts all over around the world. It has many purposes that help advance us, and it creates a source to learn from what was successful and what was unsuccessful. History in simpler terms is a preservation of thought during a certain period of time, documented by a person. This is why, we have to think about how history has currently been documented and written. Often the source of our history comes from a person on one side, which usually is the more privileged side.

This essay is analysis essay to the excerpt from a journal “The Journal of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama” written by an anonymous during the early modern period, translated and edited by E. G. Ravenstein and published by the Hakluyt Society in 1989. The article is primary source of travel journal by sea of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator, from Africa to India in 1497-1498, the era of European commercial and imperial expansion. The article written by anonymous who was an eyewitness that participated in the voyage of Vasco da Gama to seeks new sea route from Portugues to India.This essay will summarize and analyze

At the time he did not know that he was in the Americas a new place never found before, he thought he was somewhere in Asia. Portuguese began importing Asian spices by the sea route around Africa. Spices that we use today would not have ever been spread across the world without The Age of Exploration finding new trade routes and exploring the world. With all of this new trade and imports going on, Antwerp, in the Netherlands became the richest trading city in

History is defined as the study of the science of humanity in the past. It's a broad subject that spans over countless people groups throughout the years that the world has been around. Even before the times we have written word history was still being made, and it is still extremely important. We tend to forget that in our average day to day lives we are still making history. That all over the globe everyone is taking part in what might be in a history book someday.

Portugal had a head start with discovering Africa, they discovered it 53 years before the trade with Asia even stopped. However, during this time, Africa was mainly used for enslaving the indigenous groups which lived there. When trade with Asia was stopped, Portugal had to go looking for other people to trade with, and Africa was a good choice for many reasons, the first being that they had already discovered it. The second reason was that the resources of Africa were large and not easily exhaustible. The third and most important reason was because Africa was near Portugal.

In 1415, Henry, his father and his brothers who were older then him led a attack on Ceuta, Morocco that was along the Strait of Gibraltar. When the attack was successful this made Portugal control it. Which made Prince Henry more curious about Africa and he can not ask anybody because the people of Portugal know little abut Africa. He also wanted to learn about the Muslims who lived in Africa so that Portugal can conquer them to spread the Christian

The history of slavery comes from many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. The social, economic, and legal positions of slaves were significantly different in systems of slavery and in different times. However, Portugal started the European slave trade with Africa. Prince Henry sent a trading expedition to Africa, which explored the continent in 1441, and by 1444, a cargo of 235 enslaved Africans had been brought to Lagos in Portugal. The Portuguese used slaves to work on sugar plantations off an island in Africa, by 1460. The Portuguese built the first slave fort in 1481, on the coast of modern Ghana. This was called Elmina Castle, which was the headquarters of the Portuguese slave traders. In the early seventeenth century, Portugal was a major trader in enslaved Africans. By this time, Portugal had permission to supply the Spanish colonies with slaves. This meant that the Portuguese were not only buying slaves for themselves, but for Spanish as well. This added to the total number of slaves that Portuguese ships carried. Records show the number of slaves imported from Africa was 4,650,000 slaves (i.e., footnote 1).