IES FRAY PEDRO DE URBINA. GEO.

AND HISTORY DEPARTMENT

MAJOR GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES

1. The great sea voyages: the Portuguese routes.

In the Middle Ages, European trade with the East (silk, spices) was realized through
the Silk Road that ran along the Mediterranean, came to Constantinople and from there
crossed Central Asia. But in 1453, the Turks conquered the Byzantine capital and closed
said path, so it became necessary to find new sea routes to continue to trade with the
East. So from the fifteenth century, a series of maritime expeditions that opened new
routes and expanded the then known world were developed.
The first venture was the Portuguese, who had already begun in the early fifteenth
century to sail west, reaching Madeira and the Azores. After that, they skirted the
coast of Africa to the south and reached the Gulf of Guinea (1460), where they
established trading colonies to obtain gold, ivory and slaves. Later, Bartolomeu Dias
reached the Cape of Good Hope (1488). From that moment, they organized expeditions
whose purpose was to reach India. Finally, in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached Indian shores
opening the later way to the Spice Islands.

Portuguese advance into India

For much of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese had a monopoly on trade in silk and
spices to Europe. Their expeditions were only possible thanks to a number of scientific
and technical discoveries that facilitated navigation as portulans, rudder, compass,
astrolabe or the caravel.

2. The discovery of a new world: the Castilian route.

In Castile, the Catholic Monarchs looked enviously Portuguese expeditions and also
sought to reach East to achieve trade in luxury goods. So they decided to fund the
project introduced them by a sailor of Italian origin who thought to reach Asia by
sailing west. Assuming that the Earth was spherical and smaller than its actual size,
Columbus intended to reach across the Atlantic East, but was unaware of the Americas.
Columbus convinced Ferdinand and Isabella and signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe
(April 1492), for which the Genoese would receive the title of admiral and viceroy of
the lands discovered and the tenth part of all the benefits obtained.
Columbus's expedition, consisting of a nao (Santa Maria) and two caravels (Pinta and
Nia) with 105 men on board, left Palos on August 3, 1492 and sighted land on October
12th in the small island Guanahani, which Columbus named San Salvador. In the following
months they explored other Caribbean islands and in 1493 returned to Spain. The
success of the first expedition carried up to prepare three other trips in which
Columbus discovered new islands and toured the coast of Central America. In La
Espaniola Island, now Haiti and Dominican Republic, he established the first European
settlement in the New World.

To avoid conflicts with the Portuguese Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) was signed: by
which, an imaginary line was established 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands
dividing the sovereignty of the new lands: West of the line would be to Castile, East to
Portugal.

The name was given to the New World from the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci, who
travelled there and wrote several stories about America, and whom it was attributed its
recognition as a new continent.

3. Pre-Columbian peoples.
When Columbus arrived in the New World, it was inhabited by peoples who lived on
agriculture and livestock, they did not know the wheel and had no draft animals.
However, some had managed to become great empires, such as the Mayans, Aztecs and
Incas.
The Maya spread through southern Yucatan peninsula between V and XV centuries,
living on maize and organized in independent city-states. They knew mathematics,
astronomy and hieroglyphic writing, and had also built beautiful temples and palaces in
the form of stepped pyramids.
The Aztecs settled in the valley of Mexico between the thirteenth and sixteenth
century, where he engaged in farming and trade. Their capital was Tenochtitlan, a city
where the emperor, which concentrated political and religious power, lived. He was a
very warlike people who also built important temples and palaces.
The Incas created an empire in the Andean highlands between the XII and XVI
century. They were a peasant people ruled by an emperor, who was considered a god
(son of the Sun). They built great fortresses in the Andes, the most important is the
Machu Picchu.

4. Conquest and organization of the American Empire.

To confirm that the lands discovered by Columbus were really Asian or unknown, the
explorer Vasco Nez de Balboa organized an expedition that crossed the Isthmus of
Panama and discovered a new ocean (Pacific), so confirming that America was a new
continent and that to reach Asia would continue sailing west.
In 1519, a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese Ferdinand of Magellan, looked to find a
sea passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific to reach Asia by sailing west. Finally, they
found it to the South of America (Strait of Magellan). Continuing westward, they came
to the Philippines, where Magellan was killed. Since then, Juan Sebastin Elcano
captained the expedition back to Spain. After three years of travel, 17 survivors of the
265 sailors who were out, could definitely prove that the Earth is round, it had been
the first world tour of history.

In 1511, the conquest of all the major Caribbean islands had virtually completed. In 1518
an expedition led by Hernn Corts landed on the continent in the territory inhabited
by the Aztecs. The Spaniards subjected them militarily after a series of battles, taking
5

their wealth and kidnapping his emperor, Moctezuma. Since then, the Aztec territory
became Castilian domain and new expeditions departed from there to dominate the area
of Guatemala and Honduras.
In 1531, another man from Extremadura, Francisco Pizarro led the conquest of the
Inca Empire, along with Diego de Almagro. They defeated the Incas in the Battle of
Cajamarca and there they seized their emperor, Atahualpa.
Finally, other conquests eventually complete the power of the Crown of Castile in
America and elsewhere: Nez Cabeza de Vaca explored Florida, Texas and California;
Almagro and Pedro de Valdivia conquered Chile; Orellana travelled the Amazon and the
Philippines were conquered by Legazpi and Urdaneta.
All these territories were incorporated to the Crown of Castile and received the
language, culture, religion and the laws of this kingdom. Royal officials and clerics came
to the new continent ready to evangelize the natives and organize the territory. The
Council of the Indies was in charge of American affairs from the Peninsula, and in
America two viceroyalties were founded: New Spain (Mexico, Central America and
Caribbean) and Peru (South America), which had various provinces ruled by governors.
Municipalities governed by councils and high courts (Audiencias) to dispense justice
were also instituted.

5. Financial exploitation of Spanish America.

The conquered lands belonging to the Crown of Castile, the award handed out at the
settlers. These lands were worked through the encomienda system, in which a group of
Indians worked in exchange for protection, livelihood and religious education by the
settlers.
The Crown also granted the exploitation of mines in exchange for a fifth of the
extracted material. By mita system, the Indians were forced to work in mines in
exchange for a wage. The most important mines of gold and silver meant an enormous
6

revenue for the Crown. New American products also reached Europe, such as corn,
potato or cocoa.
In return, Castile supplied wheat, cattle and sheep, vines, horses and weapons to
America. The monopoly of this trade was granted to the port of Seville, departing from
and arriving all ships. In 1503 the House of Trade was created in Seville to control the
commercial traffic and ensure the collection of the royal fifth (20 % of the wealth and
commerce) for the Crown.

6. Colonial society.

After the arrival of the Spanish, American society was divided into two groups. On one
side were those who came from Castile to exercise political offices and colonize lands.
They were the minority but had political and economic power. On the other hand, most
of the population was made up of very different native ethnic groups.
Among both groups were developing another groups: Creoles or descendants of settlers
and born in America; mixed races (mestizos), children of Indian and Spanish; and black
people, brought as slaves from Africa.
Both natives and blacks were exploited by the settlers as laborers in the fields and in
the mines. The Crown sought to avoid such abuses by Indian laws. Some voices, like the
Dominican Fray Bartolome de las Casas, denounced the situation and called for improving
the lives of the natives. Despite this, the settlement resulted in the death of millions of
natives by the practice of forced labor and diseases brought from Europe, for which
Indians had no immunity.

VOCABULARY
Portulan: Collection of drawings of various ports, bound in atlas form.
Astrolabe: Old instrument on which was represented the celestial sphere and was used
to observe the movement of the stars and determine the position of a ship in latitude.
Caravel: Very light ship, long and narrow, with a single deck.

ACTIVITIES
1. Pretend you are a sailor on the first voyage of Columbus. What surprised you from
Native American people?
2. Write a brief biography of Juan Sebastin Elcano, Hernn Corts and Francisco
Pizarro.
3. Search in an atlas which current countries correspond to the ancient pre-Columbian
civilizations.
4. Comment the following text:
Article 10. Indians are free people and vassals of the Crown and has always been the
real purpose to treat them as such [ ... ]
Article 24. It is one of the main duties of the high court (Audiencia) to find out and
punish the excesses committed against the Indians [ ... ]
Article 33. Those encomenderos who have abused their Indians will lose their lands.
New Laws, 1542
Summarize the text.
Why these laws were written? What problem existed in America?
What did the Audiencia? Who were the encomenderos?
What the Crown is committed?