Explorers

• Notes based on: Uncancelled History with Douglas Murray | EP. 07 Age of the Explorers

  • Christopher Columbus

    • Summary

      Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer sailing under the Spanish flag, is most notably known for his voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to the European awareness of the American continents. His major explorations can be summarized as follows:

      1. First Voyage (1492-1493): Columbus set sail in August 1492 with three ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. He reached the Bahamas in October, marking the first European contact with the Americas. He also explored parts of Cuba and Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), establishing a small colony in Hispaniola.
      2. Second Voyage (1493-1496): On his second voyage, Columbus led a larger fleet of 17 ships. He returned to Hispaniola and further explored the Caribbean, including the islands of Puerto Rico and Jamaica. This voyage was marked by the establishment of more colonies but also by conflicts with indigenous peoples.
      3. Third Voyage (1498-1500): During this voyage, Columbus sailed to the southern Caribbean, reaching the mainland of South America at the Orinoco River delta (present-day Venezuela). This was a significant discovery as it indicated the presence of a large landmass separate from Asia, challenging existing geographical theories.
      4. Fourth Voyage (1502-1504): In his final voyage, Columbus explored Central America, searching for a strait that would lead to the Indian Ocean. He traveled along the coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama but did not find the passage he sought. This voyage was fraught with difficulties, including shipwreck and conflicts with locals, and Columbus returned to Spain in relative disgrace.

      Throughout his voyages, Columbus remained convinced that he had found a new route to Asia, not realizing the true scale of his discoveries. His expeditions marked the beginning of sustained European exploration and colonization of the Americas, having a profound impact on global history. However, these explorations also led to the decimation of native populations through disease, warfare, and slavery, a dark and controversial aspect of Columbus’s legacy.

    • Didn’t know where he was going

    • Thought he was going to China

    • Thought the world was small in diameter

    • Was going to explore with the wind behind him

    • Was an extraordinary risky and daring

    • Mixture of virtues and values

    • Quite good person in the his time

    • Was a weavers son; humble background; wanted to be socially prominent

    • Explorer vocation was one of the few that would make you notable at the time

    • Atlantic had adverse winds

    • Two ways to get to Indian Ocean

      • The Nile
      • Cross the Ottoman Empire (was hostile to Christendom)

    • Thought Monsters were out in the ocean

    • Overcoming prejudices for the people on the other side of the Atlantic and seeing them as people

    • Didn’t really know what he was doing; choose a terrible route the first time

    • Everybody knew the world was round in his time; thought it was too round compared to what it really is

    • Had to deliver for his Patrons; to be a Lord; Tried to find evidence he was close to China

    • State of mind when he arrived and saw this new land and peoples

    • Didn’t have a great education; didnt know how to use the navigational tools

    • Look out for Chinese guys or Monsters due his prejudices as people at that time

    • Struggling as he’s conflicted when meeting the people in America

    • Maybe their nakedness was the innocence of Eden

    • Conclusion: Genuinely human people that are just like us

    • Saw wounds on the bodies of the peoples; seeing there’s lots of conflict with the aboriginal peoples already

    • Getting back was harder as they had to find the right wind

    • Was in a race with his second in command to tell the story and be the hero of the story

    • His diary was heavily edited

    • Was voice for the rights and freedoms of indigenous people of the Spanish monarchy

    • Although he didn’t find anything profitable; he told his patrons that he found real people with real immortal souls; since the King of Spain was committed to converting people to Christianity

    • His First success did lead to a stampede of people following him to the new world

    • King of Spain banned people following up on Columbus’s achievement until 1499

    • English and Portuguese tried to get in after 1499

    • Had no personal slaves

    • Success finding new routes to the New World

  • Ferdinand Magellan

    • Much worse guy than Columbus
    • Planning first circumnavigation of the world; accident
    • Massacred indigenous people
    • Starting conflicts
    • Exploiter
    • Failure
    • 90% of crew die, including himself

  • Most explorers died doing it

  • Disease

    • Morally neutral
    • They explorers had no idea about diseases; natural immunization
    • Terrible disaster for the colonizers as well; due to the Christian responsibility of their subjects
    • Needed their labor
    • Tremendous investment in health care for the indigenous especially by the Spaniards; 1000s of hospitals which were specifically for the poor indigenous and Africans
    • Plague was the normality of the day; a plague of a year normally
    • Terrible fact of plague is that its terrible if you, but great for the people that survive in a sense of resources
    • Many of the indigenous of the Spanish colonies were enriched by the demographic disaster of plagues as they emerged from it with more land etc..

  • Spanish as they were first, got the best parts

  • The Spanish left the indigenous to preserve their cultures; not because their nice guys but because it suited them economically

  • English exterminated or expelled the native populations; not because their bad people; but because it didn’t suit the economically they wanted

  Age of Discovery

  The Age of Discovery or the Age of Exploration, part of the early modern period and largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, was a period from approximately the 15th century to the 17th century, during which seafarers from a number of European countries explored, colonized, and conquered regions across the globe.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery

Late 15th Century:

• Christopher Columbus (1492-1504): Columbus, an Italian explorer sailing under the Spanish flag, embarked on his famous journey in 1492, discovering islands in the Caribbean and initiating European exploration of the Americas.
• John Cabot (1497): An Italian explorer sailing under an English flag, Cabot explored the coast of North America, likely reaching Newfoundland.

16th Century:

• Vasco da Gama (1497-1499): The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama became the first European to sail directly from Europe to India via the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, opening up a sea route to Asia.
• Ferdinand Magellan (1519-1522): Magellan’s expedition, though he didn’t complete the journey himself, was the first to circumnavigate the globe, demonstrating the vastness of the Earth.
• Hernán Cortés (1519-1521): Cortés led the Spanish expedition that resulted in the fall of the Aztec Empire in Mexico.
• Francisco Pizarro (1532-1533): Pizarro’s expedition led to the conquest of the Inca Empire in South America.

Early 17th Century:

• By the early 17th century, many of the major discoveries had been made, and exploration gradually transitioned to colonization and trade.

Important People:

• Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460): Prince Henry of Portugal played a crucial role in promoting and funding Portuguese exploration, particularly along the coast of Africa.
• Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512): The name “America” is derived from Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer who made several voyages to the New World and provided accounts that helped differentiate the continents.
• Bartolomeu Dias (1451-1500): Dias was a Portuguese explorer who became the first European to round the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope.
• Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) and Francisco Pizarro (1471-1541): These Spanish conquistadors played significant roles in the conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires, respectively.

Key Facts:

• The Age of Discovery was driven by a desire for wealth, fame, and the spread of Christianity, as well as competition among European nations.
• It led to the exchange of goods, ideas, and cultures between the Old World (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and the New World (the Americas).
• The Columbian Exchange facilitated the global transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies.
• The voyages of exploration had a profound impact on indigenous populations, often resulting in colonization, conflict, and the spread of diseases.
• The Age of Discovery laid the foundation for the vast European colonial empires of the 16th and 17th centuries.