Europe
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 1, Lesson 1 World before the Age of Discovery
A discussion of the prelude to the Age of Discovery highlights the economic and intellectual factors that spurred European land expeditions across Eurasia. These expeditions, coupled with the decline of the Mongol Empire and the rise of the Ottomans, set the stage for maritime exploration and the subsequent Columbian Exchange.
Europe
Prelude to the Age of Discovery adapted from Statewide Dual Credit World History | CC By-SA
The prelude to the Age of Discovery was a series of European land expeditions across Eurasia in the late Middle Ages. These expeditions occurred within the context of late medieval European economic development and growth, along with a budding sense of curiosity about the world fostered by new universities. At the end of the eleventh century the initiation of the Crusades exposed Europeans to new opportunities for trade from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean across Asia, particularly merchants from the Italian city-states.
A series of European expeditions crossing Eurasia by land in the late Middle Ages also marked the prelude to the Age of Discovery. Although the Mongols had threatened Europe with pillage and destruction, Mongol states unified much of Eurasia and allowed safe trade routes, including the revitalized Silk Road, and communication lines stretching from the Middle East to China by 1206. A series of Europeans took advantage of these in order to explore eastward. Most were Italians, as trade between Europe and the Middle East was controlled mainly by the Maritime republics.
Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, dictated an account of journeys throughout Asia from 1271 to 1295. His travels are recorded in Book of the Marvels of the World, (also known as The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300), a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China, but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. The book inspired Christopher Columbus and many other travelers.
Europe
As the world approached the 1500s, old institutions and polities gave way to new structures. The decline of the Mongol Empire, which had controlled much of Eurasia for centuries, and the rise of the Islamic Ottoman Empire changed the course of human history. The newly dominant Ottomans began disrupting trade, especially the lucrative spice routes to Asia. In response, Europeans increasingly turned to maritime exploration to find new routes to Asia.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean, initiating a five-century interchange between the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. This “Columbian Exchange” circulated people, diseases, plants, goods and ideas throughout the world.
Europe in 1500 was comprised of numerous highly competitive states, many of which still exist today (although their borders and compositions have altered with time). European political and religious leaders during this period sought not merely to expand their kingdoms but to solidify power within their borders. A hierarchical society for most European polities, the monarch was the most powerful person in the realm. The monarch ruled over a class of nobles, people who acted as not only extensions of a monarch’s power but also a check upon it. Nobles and monarchs were special people who had their own rules, had the right to wear certain clothes, and owned most of the land and wealth. Most nobles were expected to serve the monarch, including providing military service when required. Below the nobility were a class of merchants, traders, artisans and craftsmen, some of which could be rather wealthy. Peasants who worked the land of nobles formed the lowest rung of the European social order. Regardless of whether they were sharecroppers who shared their produce with local nobles or serfs tied directly to the land, peasants had little to no freedom of movement.
Feudal Society in Medieval Europe
The chronic instability of Europe’s stratified and hierarchical social classes often fostered disunity, violence and even rebellion. Monarchs struggled against their nobility for control over the levers of power. One of the most successful in this regard would be the long-ruling self-proclaimed Sun King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) of France, who successfully controlled and managed his nobility. In contrast, in the 15th century, a bloody conflict between two houses of the Plantagenet dynasty (the Lancastrians and Yorks) turned into a civil war that tore England apart. The civil war would last until 1485 when Henry Tudor (r. 1485-1509), a scion of the House of Lancastrian, won the throne of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
Early modern monarchs struggled to control not just the minds and bodies but also the souls of their subjects. For most Europeans, the “Church” referred to the Catholic Church seated in Rome. A pillar of European society, the Church’s wealth, power and influence often rivaled that of the monarchs and emperors. For centuries, monarchs attempted to gain religious autonomy from Rome and to find ways to divert religious taxes into their own coffers. Following a split from the Catholic Church in 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church became the dominant religion, not merely in Central Europe but also parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Intense competition on the continent inspired European monarchs to look outside their borders and the known world for ways to tap into the riches of Africa and Asia. The combination of new maritime technologies and a desire to find new trade routes led to a period of naval expansion, which would change the world not only for Europeans but also for the people they encountered.