Chapter 15 - The Maritime Revolution - to 1550

         The Vikings took over Iceland in 770, Greenland in 982, and parts of America in 986. Leif Ericsson established a brief colony in Newfoundland, but it soon moved South. The Chapter doesn't mention much about them, but they were important.
     In the Pacific, Polynesians had settled Easter Island, New Zealand and Hawaii and were moving on to South America by the 1300's. In 1368, the Ming overthrew the Mongols and began sending out explorers and traders led by the Admiral Zheng He (pronounced "Jung Huh", for those who were wondering). Muslim traders became common by 1400, and the Chinese interacted with them a lot. Chinese voyages were suspended and finally cancelled in 1433 due to rulers who did not want to further trade.
     The successful trading efforts of the Iberian Peninsula took the focus of trade away from Asia and brought it westward. Spain and Portugal sponsored many voyages because of trade revivals, alliances between merchants and rulers, struggles with Islam in and around Europe, and because they were just curious.
     Henry the Navigator (King of Portugal) promoted navigation and voyages in Western Africa in the 1400's. His sailors used caravels, small ships that were able to sail quickly and maneuver around rocks, to facilitate a slave trade and visit the Gold Coast, an area in Ghana where the gold exchange occurred. Portuguese explorers such as Bartholomeu Dias, Vasco de Gama, and Christopher Columbus (No, he wasn't Spanish. Spain sponsored his more famous trips, but he was Portuguese and first sailed on expeditions for Portugal.) sailed and mapped the world, bringing back treasures from foreign lands.
     The Treaty of Tordesillas gave all land conquered in Asia and Africa to Portugal (except Brazil, which they were allowed to keep) and gave Spain the right to explore the New World. In Africa, Portugal brought Christianity to Benin and the Kongo (it wasn't renamed "Congo" until later) and saved Ethiopia from Muslim invaders. In India, the Portuguese faced trading problems in Calcut but overcame them when Calcut's economy shrank due to decreased trading opportunities.
     The Spanish were brutal conquerors. Conquistadors took over Mexico, Peru, and all of Central America. Cortes took over the Aztec, their last king, Montezuma II dying in his captivity. Soon after, Pizarro brought down the Inca after killing their king Atahualpa (even though he gave Pizarro almost all of the gold and silver in his empire). Atahualpa's brother staged a rebellion in 1536 and led a small, independent kingdom of his own until he was finally conquered by the Spaniards in 1572. Pizarro and many of the other conquistadors were killed in a civil war, but the remaining few moved on to take over other parts of the Americas.