Modern World
History
From the Age of Discovery to the Present
Age of Discovery: 15th-16th century
Early World Powers: Portugal and Spain
Portugal:
Discovers Brazil sailing south around tip of Africa
to find India
Dominant force in Indian Ocean
Early Monopoly on Spice Trade
Spain:
New World Colonies extracted for wealth: gold
Plantation system
Slavery
Colonies: 1700s
Slave Trade
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Slaves captured or bought in Africa
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Shipped to Caribbean to work on Sugar plantations
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Slaves traded for sugar
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Sugar traded in Europe for manufactured goods
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European manufactured goods traded in Africa for slaves
Protestant Reformation: 16th century
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Germany, Netherlands, England
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Freedom from authority of Church
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Reading Bible in common language
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New thought and science were triggered
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Where the industrial revolution began
Martin Luther
Counter Reformation
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Spain, Portugal, Italy
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Repression of new ideas
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Banning foreign books, education
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Heresies punished to preserve Church
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Inquisition: Protestants, Jews, Moslems
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Fell behind in technology
Spanish Inquisition
Long term effects: Literacy in 1900
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Britain : 97%
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Italy: 52%
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Spain: 44%
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Portugal: 22%
Galileo
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Italian experimental scientist:
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Showed that earth must revolve around sun
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Published in Italian, not Latin
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Condemned by the Church for heresy: 1633
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Forced to confess error
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Huge blow for Italian science
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Church finally forgave Galileo 1981
Isaac Newton
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English scientist born the year of Galileo’s Death: 1642
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Invented calculus
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Discoveries in Optics, Gravitation, Motion, Mechanics
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Built on discoveries of Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo
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Founder of modern physical science
Why Early Leaders Declined
Spain and Portugal very wealthy in 16th century from New World gold
Spent money on wars and luxuries
Did not have to make things: could buy them
Did not have to improve agriculture: could buy food
Eventually money ran out
Italy was a renaissance center of trade and manufacture
But no colonies in New World
Old power structures prevented change
Dutch East Indies Company
Netherlands
Half the population lived in cities: industrial
Prosperous shipping, trading: Middlemen
Money lending allowed
Protestant
Spain wages war on Protestantism in Netherlands
Dutch send own ships to Indian Ocean: Dutch East Indies Company
Soon dominant in Spice Trade
Dutch East Indies Company had virtual Monopoly on spice Islands
of Indonesia
British Rise
British pirates: better ships, guns
American Colonies: settled by dissidents to start a new life
Britain ahead of Europe in
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Textiles
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Iron
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Coal
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Agriculture
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Roads
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Freedoms
Queen Elizabeth
British in India
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Set up trade in India
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Despotic and corrupt Mogul Empire in India ignores British gains
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British soon control India
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Export cotton from India to Britain
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Machine cotton spinning in Britain starts industrial revolution
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British empire expands: Africa, Asia, Australia
British Empire
Imperialism 1700s
Other European countries scramble to set up colonies all over world
France
Belgium
Germany
Denmark
Industrial Revolution
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Started in England: cotton spinning
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Produced goods for the masses
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Fortunes made: age of unrestrained capitalism
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Raw materials came from colonies. Colonies were guaranteed markets
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Spawned abuses of labor: women, children literally chained to machines
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Rich became richer: dominated world
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Abuses of industrial society, inequity of wealth lead to Socialism, Communism
Spanish Colonies: South and Central America
“Spain transmitted to us everything it had: its language, its architecture,
its religion, its dress and its food, its military tradition and its judicial
and civil institutions; wheat, livestock, sugar cane, even our dogs and
chickens.
But we couldn’t receive from Spain Western methods of production and
distribution, technique, capital, and the ideas of European society, because
Spain didn’t have them.”
Hunger Today
Colonialism and Repressive governments have had a huge impact on World
Hunger.
Return to
World Food Issues webpage