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Notes on video lecture:
Columbus: Last Man of the Middle Ages, Vespucci: First Man of the Modern Age
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on January 21, 2014 (go to class or lectures)


Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
obliged, scientific, Brazil, conquer, Persians, Britain, Pinta, empty, Scandinavia, natural, German, Asia, complete, Zheng, colonize, sustained, data, compete, Japan, Middle, Ottoman, empires, 1602, uncharted, around
early European maps (e.g. 1459) left no part of the world was and gave you the impression of familiarity with the world
in the 15th century Europeans began to draw maps with many spaces, indicating that they were ignorant of large parts of the world
1492 Christopher Columbus' voyage was based his " " world maps from the Middle Ages
when the reached the first island in the Bahamas, Columbus thought he was somewhere in the Indonesian islands or India and so called the people Indians
Columbus never realized or admitted that he discovered a completely unknown continent
Columbus died a man of the Ages
Amerigo Vespucci
first demonstrated that and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts
Italian sailor started to sail in 1500
1504: texts argued something revolutionary
new lands were of a new continent unknown to philosophers, kings, and the Bible
Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1520)
cartographer
called the new continent "America" based on Amerigo Vespucci
the discovery of America was what really began the revolution because it taught Europeans to favor present observations over past traditions
it the Europeans to start searching for new knowledge quickly
if Spain and Portugal wanted to control the new territories, they would have to gather enormous amounts of new
even their maps with their blank spaces admitted that they didn't know what was out there
this was an admittance that there are important things that we don't know
the European explore-and- expeditions are so familiar to us, we tend to overlook how unique they were
nothing like it had ever happened before in history
long distance campaigns of conquest are not a undertaking even for empires
most empires were so busy with local conflicts with their neighbors, they never occupied themselves with long-distance discovery
at the most, empires would conquer familiar lands them
Rome conquered wider and wider areas to defend their outlying areas, but Romans wouldn't have sailed directly to , explore it and conquer it
even Alexander the Great's campaigns had the goal to take over a known and existing empire, the
closest parallel were the Chinese in the 15th century, their exploration of the Indian Ocean including East Africa
He had 300 ships and 30,000 sailors compared to Columbus' 3 ships
Zheng He explored the ocean, but he did not try to conquer or the countries he visited
after Zheng He, not explorer of his ambition never set sail again from a Chinese port
prove that Europe did not enjoy any technological advantage at the time, but what they did have was and unparalleled ambition
the Romans never had any interest in conquering or India
the Persians never attempted to conquer Madagascar or Spain
the Chinese learned fairly quickly about European's new discoveries, but they continued to believe that the world revolved around Asia, and so they didn't
even countries as small as Scotland tried to send out ships to conquer new lands in the Americas, but not one Chinese, Indian, , or Arab ship was sent to conquer new lands in America, they simply had no interest
the first time that a non-European power sent an expedition to the American continent was in World War II when sent an expedition to Alaska that managed to conquer two small islands, capturing 10 U.S. soldiers
so for 300 years after Columbus, Europeans could fight among themselves for the new lands in the newly discovered continents
it was the wealth that the Europeans gathered in the New World that enabled them to eventually compete against as an equal, and when the Asian countries realized this, it was to late.
the first world map in China that showed America was published in , and even that map was published by a European missionary
the first important science was geography, as it gave Europeans accurate knowledge of new lands and oceans
other areas of science followed, and in this way, opened the way for science, and science opened the way for empires
Ideas and Concepts:
Via today's History of Humankind class: "Columbus never realized or admitted that he had discovered a completely unknown continent. He had based his knowledge of the world on hundreds of years of maps. To understand Columbus' complete disbelief that he had encountered a new continent, you would have to imagine that, after Apollo 11 had completed its lunar landing and returned to earth, that people began suggesting to the astronauts that they had actually landed on another moon that had never been detected. It simply didn't fit into Columbus' understanding of the world, and he died thinking he had reached India, a man of the Middle Ages."
Via tonight's History of Humankind class: "The discovery of America was what really began the scientific revolution because it taught Europeans to favor present observations over past traditions. In this respect, Amerigo Vespucci was the first modern, scientific man, as he was the first person to have the courage to admit that there was a huge continent lying out there that no philosopher, no king, and no religious wise man had ever known of, and if Spain or Portugal or any other country wanted to control these vast, unknown territories, they would have to gather enormous amounts of new data about the geography, the climate, the animals, the people, and the languages of the continent. And thus, science was born out of the admittance of extreme ignorance, but ignorance combined with sustained ambition to gradually replace it with knowledge and power."