地理大发现英文讲义.doc

The Geographical DiscoveryThe great luxury trade with the East. Spices and condiments especially Pepper, were much in demand in Europe to relieve the monotony of diet. From the East also came precious stones, fine textiles, rugs, and tapestries. In exchange for such products as these, Europe sent large quintiles of coarse woo1en cloth, and the raw metals tin, copper, and lead. But there remained what in modern times we should call an unfavorable balance of trade: Europe gradually drained herse1f of gold and silver to Pay for her imported luxuries.There were three main trade route from the East-（1）the central route by way of the Persian Gulf, the Tigris Valley, Bagdad, and Aleppo,（2）the southern route by way of the Red Sea, Cairo, and Alexandria, and（3）the northern route by Way of Samarkand and Bokhara to the Black Sea. All these routes involved great difficulties and risks and man transfers of cargo. Protection of Commerce. To protect their growing commerce from the attacks of robbers and pirates and from the extortions of feudal lords who demanded tolls for the right to travel, a number of the German commercial towns entered into a confederation known as the Hanseatic League. Formed in the thirteenth century, the Hanseatic League grew rapidly. At the height of its power and prestige more than seventy cities were members. The Hanseatic League maintained trading Posts or counters in the principal Baltic and North Sea Ports, made treaties providing for commercial privileges, and supported a fleet of ships for the suppression of piracy. Impulse to Exploration. The lucrative trade with the East was, in the fifteenth century, largely the monopoly of the mercantile Italian cities, especially of Venice. This monopoly arose from the superiority of Venetian sea power in the Mediterranean and from the great length of time that the Italians had been engaged in the trade. They had built up their own organizations, routes, and trading-posts and had entered into commercial treaties with the Arab and Turks. Early in the fifteenth century the Possibility of discovering an all-water ode to India began to be discussed in western Europe. Such a route would not only break the Venetian monopoly but would enable the saving of the expense of caravan transport and of the loading and unloading which the use of the old trade routes involved.Advances in the science of navigation and in increasing know1edge of geography stimulated the spirit of exploration. The mariners compass had come into general use by l450. The astrolabe for measuring latitude came into use about the same time. The amazing account of the travels of Marco Polo（c.l254-c.1324）, who returned to Venice in I295 after spending twenty years in the Far East and China, where he had lived at the court of Kublai, the Great Khan, stirred the imagination of educated Europe. Although fictional and full of extravagant tales, the very popular Travels of Sir John Mandeville, which appeared near the end of the fourteenth century, was probably even more influential than the factual Book of Marco Polo in stimulating interest in foreign lands. A famous passage in this latter book asserts the roundness of the earth and declares that it wou1d be possib1e to sail around the world and return to ones country. The prices of spices and other articles of the East Indian trade did not rise perceptibly as a result of the Turkish capture of Constantinople in l453. The Venetian trade was carried on for many years with little interruption. The search for a new route to the East began many years before l453 not by the Venetians but by the Portuguese, Spanish, and English.Rise of Portugal. The lead in oceanic exp1oration was taken by the Portuguese early in the fifteenth century Under the direction of Prince Henry the Navigator（1394-l460）systematic exploration of the west coast of Africa and the adjacent At1antic was carried out. Prince Henry attracted a group of learned men, adventurous mariners and astronomers, to his court at Sagres, and throughout his lifetime Portugal was the acknowledged center of geographic and maritime science. Prince Henrys captains discovered the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and pushed down the coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea. Henry believed that it should be possible to sail around Africa, and to the end of his life he was pushing expeditions to achieve this exploit. Near1y thirty years after Prince Henrys death the southernmost Point of Africa was finally reached by the Portuguese Captain Bartholomew Diaz（1486）. Twelve years 1ater Prince Henrys dream was realized by Vasco da Gama, who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, up the east coast of Africa, and across the Arabian Sea to India. By this voyage Da Gama destroyed at a blow the centuries old preeminence of Venice in the Eastern trade and raised his country for a time to the Position of foremost coeternal Power in Europe.Spain and the Discovery of America. In the meantime Spain had entered the field of competition for the eastern trade. Ferdinand and Isabella furnished ships and men to the Italian adventurer, Christopher Columbus, who came to the Spanish court in l484 with his scheme for reaching India by sailing directly west across the uncharted Atlantic. After negotiating for eight years, Columbus was furnished with three small vessels in l492. He left Palos on August 3. Seventy days later he landed on a small island of the Bahama group, generally identified with the modern Watling Island. On this first voyage he also discovered the large islands of Cuba and Haiti. Between l493 and l504 Columbus made three other voyages, discovered Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and many of the stnal1er West Indian is1ands, reached the mainland of South America near the mouth of the Orinoco, and explored the coast of Central America. The first white settlements in the New World were established by Columbus on the island of Haiti. In 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian navigator sailed from Bristo1 and discovered Cape Breton Island, at the entrance to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. In the following year he made a much more extended voyage, explored the southern tip of Greenland, for the North American mainland coast of Labrador sailed south around New-foundland, and coasted the eastern shore of the United States as far south as Chesapeake Bay. Slowly the fact that no India, but a New World, had been opened up by these brave explorers began to dawn on the mind of Europe. The true character of this New World and a rough idea of its size were finally obtained in l519-l522 when the map of Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the straits at the extremity of South America, and then for more than three months ploughed across the vast Pacific Magellan himself was ki1led in an encounter with the natives of the Philippine Islands, Only one ship of the original five returned to Spain across the Indian Ocean and by the known route of Vasco da Gama. This was the first circumnavigation of the globe.Period of Colonization. Between I500 and 1550 a veritable army of explorers crossed the Atlantic, and discoveries cam thick and fast. Greed, Patriotism, the sprit of adventure, and religious zeal were mixed in about equal proportions as motives for this great exploring movement. Notable were Balboas discovery of the Pacific（l513, Cortez conquest of Mexico（l5l9-l521）, Pizzaros exploration and conquest of Peru（1531-l54l）,Cartiers voyages up the Saint Lawrence River（1534-l536）, De Sotos Penetration of the North American continent to the Mississippi （l539-1542）, and Francisco de Coronados march north from Mexico into the regions of southwestern United States（1540）Following these pioneer expeditions, as the realization dawned of the immensity of the new regions, there came a long Period of European colonization and the consequent spreading of European trade and civilization to a world-wide stage. During the sixteenth century the Portuguese and Spanish remained far in the 1ead in this scramble for colonies and trade（in l493 Pope Alexander VI issued a famous bull dividing the entire New World between the Spanish and Portuguese）; after the sixteenth century Spain and Portugal steadi1i declined in power and importance while the Dutch, French, and English rose to be the great maritime powers of Europe.PORTUGUESE COLONIAL EMPIRE. Vasco da Gamas discovery of the all-water route to India opened up a period of Portuguese expansion. War fleets and merchant ships were sent to the East, and within a few years the Portuguese had made themse1ves masters of several important ports, and they laid claim to all of Africa, southern Asia, and Brazil. The annexation of Portugal by Spain in 1580 and the c1osing of the port of Lisbon left some of her colonial empire to the mercy of the Dutch. Holland gained control of the East Indies, but Portuga1 was able to keep Brazil and other colonies.RISE OF THE DUTCH AS COLONIZERS. As a result of the union of Spain and Portage in l580 and the revolt of the Netherlands, the Dutch steadily rose to Power, succeeding to the Portuguese Empire. Throughout the seventeenth century they monopolized the trade with Asia.FRENCH AND ENGLISH. The French entered early the competition for colonial empire. French fishermen began to work the Grand Banks off Newfound1and within ten years of the discovery of America. Until the beginning of the seventeenth century, the French began extensive settlement in Canada. Eng1ish exploration languished for more than half a century after the pioneer voyages of John Cabot. Eng1ish sea-rovers such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake began to pillagd Spanish Continence and lay the foundations of Englands future maritime greatness. Hawkins discovered the immense profits to be m