UIUNG TUE PERIOD

western Europo enterad

an oi oversens exploration and economic
expansion that transformed society. by 1450,
Europe bbd recovextd contraction
of goutieentii century, peoduccd by plague
and marginal agriculture, and was jesuming
the economic growth bad been the pattern
in the and early thirteenth centuries This
new period ot growth. however, was no mere
extension of the enriict one, but a radical
departure from medieval economic forms,
Ovexseas exploration changed the patterns
ot economic growth and society. European
adventurers discovered a new way to reach tbo
deh trading centen of India by sailing around
Africa, fiey also conquered, colonized, and
exploited new world actoss the Atlantic; These
discoveries brought about an extraor• dinary
increase in business activity and the supply of
money, which stimulated the growth
capitalism. People'g values were transformed
into shapes that were alien and hostile to the
medieval outlook. By 1750 the model Christian
in northwestern Europe was• no longer the
selfless saint, but the enterprise ing
businessman. The world of secluded manors
and walled towns was drawing to a close.
world economy was emerging in which
European economic life depended on tbe
market in Eastern spices, African slaves, and
American silver. During thLs age of cxplo•
ration and eommercial expansion. Edrope gen.
crated a peculiar dynamism unmntched by any
other civilizatiom A process was initiated that,
by 1900, would give Europe mastery over most
of the globe and wide-ranging influence on
other civilizations.
lite economic expansion from 1450 to 1650
or did not, howcver, raise the living standards of
the masses. The vast majority of the people, SO
to percent, lived on the land, and their main was
the production of primary Oods-—tood€
especially cereals, and hr most of these
FOPle, tite hovered around tite subsistence
level, somenmes fau• ins subsis.tencc during
tim— of iamioe
 and disease. Wbcncvcr the standard of living
improved, any surplus resources would soon
be taken up by the survival of more children
and hence more mouths to feed. The bencfici•
aries of the cxpansion, those whose income
rose, were thc rich, especially thc nouveaux
riches.
In these respects, then, early mdern Eu• rope
should not be compared with an advanced
country today, but with an underdeveloped
country today whose society also consists of
two main economic groups. Thesc groups are a
small, wealthy elite and a large and gowing
population that exists on the margins of sub e
sistence and is wracked by recurrent hunger and
disease. The developments that took place
during the period of overseas exploration and
economic expansion should be viewed in the
context of these social conditions.

EUROPEAN EXPANSION

During the Middle Ages the frontiers of Eu s

rope had expanded, even if only temporariy. The
Crusaders carved out feudal Jdngdoms in the
Near East, Christian knights pushed back the
Muslims on the Iberian PenirEula, the Teutonic
Knights colonized Slavic lands, and Genoa and
Venice established commercial ports in the
Adriatic Sea, the Black Sea, and the eastcm
Mediterranean. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, western Europeans embarked on a
second and more lasting move• ment of
expansion that led them into the uncharted
waters of the Atlantic, Indi$tlt and Pacific
Oceans. What forces propelled Europe. ans
outward and enabled them to dominate Asiars,
Africans, and American Indians?

Forces Behind Expansion

The population of western Europe increased rapidly

1450 and 16m. This it-crease
occurred at Otl levels of society, and among
theta: gentry it was translated into land hunger.
the numbers of the landed classes exceeded:d,"
the supply of available land, the sons ot the!!!
aristocracy looked beyond Europe for the land;
and fortunes denied them nt home. Nor was itß
unnatural for them to do so by plunder and
conquest—their ancestors had done the same;t5•
thing for centuries. Exploits undertaken and
accomplished in the name of family, church, and
king were legitimate, perhaps the legitimate,
ways of earning merit and fame, as, well as
fortune. So the gentry provided the leadership—
Cortes is an example—for the expeditions to the
New World.
Merchants and shippers, as well as the sons of
the aristocracy, also had reason to look abroad.
Trade between Europe, Africa, and the Orient
had gone on for centuries, but always through
intermediaries who increased the costs and
decreased the profits on the European end.
Gold had bccn transported by Arab nomads
across the Sahara from the riverbeds of West
Africa. Spices Ead been shipped from India
and the East Indies by way of Muslim and
Venetian merchants. Western European
merchants now sought to break th05e
monopolies by going directly to the source—
to West Africa for gold, slaves, and pepper,
and to India for pepper, spices, and silks.
Moreover, incentive grew for such
commercial enterprise because between 1450
and 1600 the wealth of prosperous Europeans
increased dramatically. This wealth was
translated into new purchasing power and the
capacity to invest in foreign ventures that would
meet the rising demand among the prosperous
for luxury goods— spices, silk, porcelain, cotton,
sugar, tea, coffee, chocolate, and tobacco.
The centralizing monarchical statc also
played its part in expansion. Monarchs like
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, who had
successfully established royal hcgemony at
home, looked for opportunities to extend their
control oycrscas. The Spanish rulers looked
over their shoulders at their neighbors, the
Portuguese, and this spurred the efforts of both
countries in their drive to thc East. Later the
Dutch, English, and Frcnch cngagcd in a
ccntury-long rivalry. From overseas empires
came gold, silver, and commerce that paid for
cver-more expensive royal government at
homc and for war against rival dynasties
abroad.
Finally, religion helped 'in expansion. fie
crusading tradition was well established,
especially on the Iberian Peninsula where a
five-hundred•year struggle known as the
Reconquest had taken place to drive out the
Muslims. Cortés, for example, saw himself as
following in the footsteps of Paladin Roe land,
the great medieval military hero who had
fought to drive back Muslim and pagan. The
Portuguese too imbued with the crusading
mission. Prince Henry the Navigator (1394—
1460) hoped that the Portuguese expan• ston
into Africa would serve two purposes: the
discovery of gold and the extension of Chris-
tianity at the expense of Islam. In this second
aim, his imagination was Rred by the legend of
Prester Tohn, which told of an ancient Chris•
tian kingdom of fabled wealth in the heart of
Africa. If the Portuguese could reach that land,
Prince Henry reckoned, the two kingdoms
would join in a crusade against Islam.
Thus, expansion involved g mixture of eco•
nomic, political, and religious forces and mo•
tivcs. Europe differed markedly from the
older, more continuous, and more
sophisticated civilization of contemporary
China, which closed itself off from the outside
world. The West possessed a crusading faith;
divided into a handful of competing, warlike
states, it expanded by virtue of forces built
into its struc• ture and culture. Not only did
the 'Rest have the will to expand, it also
possessed the technology needed for
successful expansion. This factor also
distinguished the West from
China and Islam and helps to cxplain why
the West, not the Oriental civilizations,
launched an age of conquest resulting in
global mastery.
 Not since the Early Middle Ages had there
such a rapid technological revolution as
that which began in the fifteenth century.
Europeans learned about gunpowder from the Chinese as
early as the latc thirteenth century, and by the fifteenth
century its military application had become widespread. nte
earliest guns were big cannons meant to knock holes in the
walled defenses characteristic of the Middle Ages. In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, handhcld firearms
(particularly the musket) and smaller, more mobile field
artillery were perfected. Dynastic and religious wars and
overseas expansion kept demand fot