hey guys let's talk about early modern

Maritime Empires

um we've talked about the big five

before I want to dig in just a little

bit deeper um besides who sponsored the

big five Empires

um but where do they go and a little bit

more about their empire building as they

first expand and then eventually how do

they rule their Empires we're going to

talk a little bit about both today as we

go through here so first of all this is

the Spanish Empire this is the people

that we've been talking about um they

were not the first forerunners the

Portuguese were but they were the

biggest so between 1492 and Columbus

sailed the ocean blue to about the 1700s

they are going to be the Empire during

this time period

um they are going to have colonial rule

through what we call the vice royalty

system we talked about that or we'll

talk about that in the future a little

bit more but this is basically where

there's a governor over the areas they

set up a governor in the colonies and

then they are able to basically rule

instead of the king making all the

decisions all the laws Etc okay so the

vice royalty system and the Viceroy is

the governor that's in these Empires so

that's what they're doing in Spain the

biggest thing you need to remember big

picture about the Spanish Empire is they

are going to focus on despite them

wanting to find gold right that's what

they were looking for originally they

really are going to find silver and they

are going to be using a system of Labor

which you're going to learn about kind

of coming up

um called the encomienda labor system or

the Hacienda labor system you'll see

that in your notes coming up as we talk

about labor systems and then it

eventually will shift because the

encomienda will be so brutal and so

oppressive that people are going to

write and say like how bad it was and

that is going to then cause them to

switch the labor systems to what's going

to be called the repartamento which

basically meant it's still coerced labor

still forced labor but it's not like

slavery

but then we talked about that and how so

much of the native population is going

to be killed from like indigenous or

from the smallpox diseases and other

things that it's going to lead to the

trafficking of Africans but that's

coming um just as we start the Spanish

Empire is super super influenced by the

Roman Catholic church so that's super

influential

um again when we talk about our three

G's God goals Glory uh silver but either

way those are the things that are

guiding them as they start this up now

if you look at the map that you see in

the picture we know mostly we've been

thinking of

um their empire in Central America we've

talked about their empire in South

America what you probably have been less

familiar with is the Philippines as we

kind of look at that in just a second

Spain is going to again remember the

whole goal of early exploration was

trying to find a shortcut to the Indies

so when we're looking at the map over

here which you can't really see all the

way but if we're looking at the Indies

um and we're looking at the Indian Ocean

trade Network that's where people were

trying to go and because of these new

land-based empires or the Ottomans

safavid Mughal they can't get to those

spice markets

um in the traditional ways and so they

need to be able to go a different way to

get there so they're trying to kind of

the shortcuts through the sea routes by

going west finding the Americas when

they're really just trying to get again

to the Indies into the Indian Ocean

finding those spices that are there and

so Spain will set up a colony in the

Philippines I think that's important for

you to notice when you think of

Philippines today I want you to think a

lot of people in Philippines speak

Spanish a lot of them are Roman

Catholics so just kind of remembering as

we looked back into that image of Spain

not only is in the new world but they

are also in the Philippines okay so just

a few things about the Spanish Empire

one of the big five now the other one

that we were talking about was the

Portuguese they were the early leaders

they were the ones The Front Runners now

the big thing that we need to know is

because of where they are geographically

located in them in Spain are buddies

we're going to see that they are going

to have some issues and they're probably

going to go to war if they don't figure

out

um how to set up some

you know agreement to what they're doing

and so the first major agreement that

you need to know is the Treaty of

tortesius

don't say the else

Spanish

or Portuguese in this case but the

treaty tortillas is this agreement

between Spain and Portugal with even

like the pope stepping in as like a

mediator and saying like hey here's who

gets what land and so they created this

imaginary line at 370 leagues from the

Cape Verde Islands and it's saying like

hey Spain gets everything to the west of

the line and Portugal has everything to

the east so on this map you see here

basically like they have Brazil

Portuguese Brazil uh have control of

Brazil and that otherwise they're really

good Portuguese are going to be more

involved in Africa so as we look at the

map so there you kind of see the blue

areas that's the Portuguese the

Portuguese are going to be very involved

in the Indian Ocean because again they

sponsor trade that rounds the Cape of

Good Hope around what you see is Cape

Town there and arrives Vasco de Gama all

the way to the Indian Ocean into India

sets up trading between there so I mean

the Portuguese what you should think of

yeah Brazil but you should really be

thinking about how are they setting up

trade as they round Africa because the

Portuguese really are in the Indian

Ocean that's the thing you need to

remember is where they are at Vasco de

Gama kind of paves the way for that to

happen as we look at explorers now they

have a little bit different of an Empire

and what we're going to call this a

trading post Empire

um let me talk about the difference so a

trading post Empire TP as it says here

is an Empire that's very different from

a colonial government where people are

moving and settling in ruling like we

saw so many Spanish move to the Americas

now the goal with the trailing post

Empire is money okay it is to control

Commerce it is to get Goods move Goods

make money from those goods and as we

talked before about Prince Henry the

Navigator he is going to be right

royalty in Portugal that is going to

establish these posts and he opens a

navigation school but he's the one that

is sponsoring just kind of like Queen

Isabella and King Ferdinand Prince Henry

is the one that's really going to start

them exploring and they're going to

start establishing early on uh in

Western Africa Western Africa and the

map here

um they are going to be the ones that

are going to be setting up trading posts

kind of along the coast initially again

as Trading Places as getting goods from

Africa

um and selling Goods to Africans again

so that Portugal can make money and

again their goal was to get into the

Indian Ocean so they can get those

spices and other Goods that we remember

from when we did our kind of project

about trade routes

now they eventually will also as they

round the Cape because of first Diaz who

will get to the bottom and then dagama

who will make it all the way they're

going to set up New Ports along the

Swahili coast and because they have this

new technology like they're big ships

like gunpowder they're going to be very

successful and people aren't going to be

able to challenge them in fact they're

going to run into many different African

groups who are going to try to challenge

them but again they have this advanced

technology which will make them very

powerful so I want you to remember the

Portuguese Brazil yes but also the

Portuguese around the Coast Trading

Posts across the Swahili Coast in Africa

or on the west coast and again their

goal is to get to the Indian Ocean so

they're going to be very involved in

that area

um but they are in Brazil so I want you

to kind of like think this is going to

be more spanish-like

um but they are going to set up the vice

royalty of Brazil

um and they are going to be known for

sugar production

um and that is their major major

Plantation labor is going to be used

here

um they're going to switch to slave

labor

um and especially they're going to be

one of the biggest places that

trafficked Africans are going to be sent

to work there it is going to be

absolutely brutal we'll talk about that

more this unit

um but they will later find some gold

mines here in Brazil when again everyone

was wanting the gold even though silver

was really the new world good that we're

seeing this Plantation labor we're going

to see sugar plantations in Brazil and

the Portuguese are going to be highly

involved in that

all right so two down let's talk about

the British if you're from the United

States like the people in my class are

um this is going to be kind of one that

should sound pretty familiar so we know

that they set up the original 13

colonies there they are

um you learned valueless in middle

school now they also have other areas

where they have Holdings so you don't

need to write all these down but they

have a lot of places within the

Caribbean places like Saint Kitts and

Barbados Antigua Bahamas that'll switch

to the Spanish rule that's why there's

an S there Jamaica which will switch to

his Spanish control as well the British

Virgin Islands

Etc okay they later are also going to

set up if we kind of go back to this a

penal colony a prison colony in

Australia okay so just so that we kind

of remember there also again Indian

Ocean don't forget that people wanted to

get to the Indian Ocean and so that this

is another example of that okay

also as we're looking at here the big

kind of philosophy around economics at

this time is mercantilism what is it

like if you pause this video and you

look at this picture like what is going

on in this picture

okay so pause the video real quick

okay so when you're looking here you see

that there's the the Queen the mother

country if you will like the British and

we have colonies people who are serving

them and giving them things right gold

and silver food and goods raw materials

what is mercantilism well it's this it's

like colonies are giving Goods to the

mother country to make the mother

country Rich so here's another picture

that kind of goes into this

um mercantilism is economic nationalism

where you think of your nation first and

you want to build a wealthy and a

powerful State okay this is an economic

principle and this is the name of the

game right now is mercantilism now the

goal is to get lots of money in the

mother country's treasury in this case

Britain right and you want to make sure

that you have more exports than Imports

we're going to see what happens in Spain

is they're going to spend all their

money they're getting from all that

silver and they're going to buy Asian

Goods that's the opposite this is a not

a favorable balance of trade but the

British here are going to be trying to

import less Goods but from their

colonies get lots of items that they can

sell and Export those finished goods and

so this is kind of what happens this is

mercantilism you need to understand this

some people say mercantilism or

mercantilism but either way however you

say this this is the policy and that is

what the British and many of these

people are doing at this time using

their colonies to get Goods to make the

mother country really powerful

and this is just another example what

you want to do for that if you want to

pause this and look at this you can

otherwise we're going to continue on

so the British East India Company is

something that you're going to hear more

about as we go through unit four but

basically it's a private company it's a

private Trading Company that's involved

in trade okay they raise money to

sponsor their voyages by selling stock

this allows them to share the risk

instead of just purely uh gaining money

from like the monarchy which some people

did the British East India Company lets

Common People capitalists support what

they're doing by buying stock and you

share the risk because it's lots of

different people not just one person

sponsoring this and then if they make

money they share that with their stock

Brokers okay so they receive though the

British East India Company receives a

charter from the government that they

have a trading Monopoly and they

basically say you're the com you're the

one company that can trade in the Indian

Ocean on behalf of Britain okay so they

are the only ones they're like sponsored

by the government basically even though

they're a private Trading Company

also you have the ability to declare war

and make war to protect your assets and

money okay so this is the British East

India Company we'll also talk about the

VOC which technically stands for the

Dutch but we'll come back to that so

just so that you're aware a little bit

more about the economics here oh and

there they are so the Dutch

so the Dutch East India Company the

Dutch are going to set up they're so

tiny like think of the Netherlands

that's who the Dutch are very tiny

that's where modern day Amsterdam is

um and they are very tiny but they know

the name of this game is mercantilism is

the ability to sell goods and make their

tiny Nation powerful and so they start

setting up very small colonies if you

guys can see on the map wherever the

black is but they also are doing what

Portugal did right they're also smaller

and they set up these trading posts and

so we have Dutch trading posts and

they're also in the game and you notice

that they're very like you can compare

the Dutch and the Portuguese one but we

see these trading posts around here

where the Dutch are getting involved in

the trading game again to make their

mother country Rich to get these

resources to make this tiny nation of

the Netherlands super powerful okay so

when we're looking here the Dutch East

India Company is very similar to the

British East India Company and if they

started a joint stock company

which again is going to be engaged

really heavily right really heavily in

the Indian Ocean primarily like again if

we're zooming in and you look again at

this Dutch East India so they do set up

a colony and again they have a lot of

the power because they have the Strait

of Malacca that they're controlling now

the Dutch again tiny Netherlands they

set this up okay so going deeper on our

big five

we want to know where did they set up

their Empires right not just who

supported them that was our first thing

when we're looking at like 4.1 and 4.2

in our unit we're saying like how do

they get here how did the technology

allow them who sponsored them but then

really how are they expanding their

empire so I would make sure you know

these big five know where they

established their colonies how they did

that if they were more like settler

colonies which you see more in the

Spanish or are they more trading posts

like we saw the Dutch and the Portuguese

and again where are the colonies in here

so be able to name them I would write

down specifically for the Dutch the cape

Colony at the bottom of South Africa as

well as understanding like in Indonesia

they have set up kind of control as a

company so those are the big things you

need to know and I almost forgot the

French I'm sorry French I'm leaving you

behind the French guys the French are

going to be involved as well as we

talked about in class they're going to

set up an Empire basically colonies in

um Canada and Nova Scotia and Quebec

lots of French speaking there the

Mississippi River all the way down right

to Louisiana if we see the French

influence there and they're going to set

up one Colony that's really important

for our class and that's Haiti or Saint

okay so that's going to be a really big

deal as we fast forward when we get into

the new units we are going to talk about

how the British and French not only are

fighting back in Europe but I'll be

fighting in the Americas which is going

to be kind of really important as we

looked at these conflicting economic

interests these Mercantile mercantilism

right these Mercantile interests of who

has power over what resources especially

in North America okay so they're going

to fight with each other in something

called the French and Indian War where

it was the French and Native people the

indigenous people they got along way

better than the British and the native

people but we're going to see the French

and Indian War and they're going to

fight against the British the French are

going to lose

um and that is going to make the British

start gaining more power but they also

is going to lead to the American

Revolution we're going to talk more

about that which will then French again

to lose more lands to what will become

the United States so

there's our big five sorry

you're important

okay so there's the big five the things

you need to know of our major five early

modern Maritime Empires I hope that's

helpful have a great weekend or whenever

you're watching this