Zheng He(Hajji Mahmud Shamsuddin)

1371-1433Chinese Admiral

Christophe Colomb’s and Zheng He’s Ships

A giraffe brought from

Malindi, Kenya, by the

fleets of Zheng He.

Henry the Navigator 1394-1460

Astrolabe

Portuguese caravel. This was the

standard model used by the

Portuguese in their voyages of

exploration. It could

accommodate about 20 sailors.

Lateen Sail

Portuguese Map of Western Africa, 1502 The map shows in great detail a section of African coastline that Portuguese explorers charted and named in

the fifteenth century. The African interior is illustrated with drawings of birds and views of coastal sights: Sierra Leone, named for a mountain shaped like a lion, and the Portuguese Castle of the Mine on the Gold

Coast.

Fernão Gomes15th CenturyPortuguese

entrepreneur who purchased from the king the privilege to explore in return for

trade monopoly.

The Portuguese Fleet Embarked for the Indies

This image shows a Portuguese trading fleet in the late fifteenth century, bound for the riches of the Indies. Between 1500 and 1635, over nine hundred

ships sailed from Portugal to ports on the Indian Ocean, in annual fleets composed

of five to ten ships.

Bartolomeu Dias 1451-1500

Vasco da Gama1469-1524

Portuguese Sailor

The route followed in Vasco da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499)

European Exploration, 1420–1542 Portuguese and Spanish explorers showed the possibility and practicality of intercontinental maritime trade. Before 1540 European trade with Africa and Asia was much more important than that with the Americas, but after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires

transatlantic trade began to increase. Notice the Tordesillas line, which in theory separated the Spanish and Portuguese spheres of activity.

Elmina Castle Erected in 1482 by the Portuguese in Ghana

Portuguese Port in Muscat erected in the 1580s

Fort Jesus, Mombasa Still standing on the Kenyan coast today, Fort Jesus was built by the

Portuguese in 1593. The fort was built not only to protect Portuguese trade interests in the Indian Ocean, but also to assert the Christian conquest of the

Swahili speaking Muslims of Mombasa. The Swahili word for a jail, gereza, derives from the Portuguese word for a church, igreja, indicating how the

residents of Mombasa themselves saw Fort Jesus.

Portuguese in India In the sixteenth century Portuguese men moved to the Indian Ocean Basin to work as administrators and traders. This Indo-Portuguese drawing from about 1540 shows a Portuguese man speaking to an Indian woman, perhaps making

a proposal of marriage.

World Map of Diogo Ribeiro, 1529This map integrates the wealth of new information provided by European

explorers in the decades after Columbus’s 1492 voyage. Working on commission for the Spanish king Charles V, the mapmaker has incorporated

new details on Africa, South America, India, the Malay Archipelago, and China. Note the inaccuracy in his placement of the Moluccas or Spice Islands, which

are much too far east. This “mistake” was intended to serve Spain’s interests in trade negotiations with the Portuguese.

A New World Sugar Refinery, BrazilSugar as the most important and most profitable plantation crop in the New

World. This image shows the processing and refinement of sugar on a Brazilian plantation. Sugar cane was grown, harvested, and processed by African slaves

who labored under ruthless conditions to generate profits for plantation owners.

Chinese PorcelainThis porcelain from a seventeenth-century Chinese ship’s cargo, recovered from the

sea, was intended for European luxury

markets.

Hernan Cortes1485-1547

Spanish conquistador

Mexico and Central AmericaThe Valley of Mexico was a populous region of scattered towns, most of which were

part of the Aztec Empire. As Cortés marched inland from Vera Cruz toward the valley, he passed through lands that for generations had been in an almost constant state of

war with the Aztecs.

Francisco Pizarro

1475-1541Spanish

Conquistador