RIVAL Empires in the Age of EXPLORATION [AP Euro Unit 1 Topic 7 (1.7)]

okay now as European states began establishing Maritime Empires across the world that was going to lead to some spicy sauce between them and so in this video I'm going to tell you about their Empires and then I'm going to tell you about the tension that caused between

European States so if you're ready to get them bring cows milked well then let's get to okay so let's start with the major players in the Empire game and just for poops and Giggles let's start with Portugal actually it's not just for poops and Giggles like Portugal was the

first mover in all this so you know let's talk about now Portugal is jammed right here in Spain's bootiest Maximus and that meant that they had trouble conducting trade with other European states without Spain interfering so the Portuguese looked at the sea trade to

make that happen one of their Chief desires was to gain access to the lucrative spice trade going on in the Indian Ocean and so under the leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator Portuguese ships began making their way around the African Coast eventually an Explorer by

the name of Vasco de Gama made it all the way around the southern tip of Africa and into the Indian Ocean now once trade relations were established the Portuguese returned each year and established trading ports all throughout the Indian Ocean region so the term for

this that you should know is that the Portuguese established a trade post Empire the idea here is that the Portuguese were not that interested in taking over whole portions of land in their peoples to expand their empire rather they simply established trading

ports and from those trading ports the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean trade in the 16th century now not long after the Portuguese set sail to establish their trading post Empire Spain decided to get in on the Empire game as well but instead of sailing

around Africa they commissioned Christopher Columbus to sail west across the Atlantic to gain access into the Indian Ocean trade well as it turned out there were two giant honking continents that no one in Europe knew about so Columbus landed in the Bahamas and went

on to explore parts of Cuba and Hispaniola eventually Spain claimed much of the Caribbean Central America North America and the coastline of South America now the question is how was Spain able to claim that much land after

all the Conquistadors they sent you know guys like Hernan Cortez they didn't have that many men with them compared to the huge Empires that the Spanish toppled in the Americas well there are a lot of interweaving causes but probably the most significant one was the

introduction of European diseases like smallpox and measles for which the indigenous peoples of the Americas had no immunity now we'll talk more about how that happened in another video but the short version is that these diseases

wiped out an enormous percentage of the population in the Americans but you know Spain don't care they got themselves an Empire now baby so Portugal and Spain were the first major movers in the maritime Empire game but it wasn't long

before the Atlantic nations of France England and the Netherlands joined in as well France ended up claiming large parts of North America and Canada the Explorer Samuel DeSean plain founded France's first permanent settlement at

Quebec in 1608 but mainly the French were interested in trade and so they didn't end up establishing many colonies in which people actually went and lived rather they forged alliances with indigenous groups like The Huron Confederacy throughout their territory

and got in on the lucrative fur trade there England on the other hand was all about the settler colonies which were colonies where English people actually moved and settled to find a new life their colonies mainly hugged the Atlantic coast of North America and they

established a few in the Caribbean as well but they also established these colonies in order to compete economically with the other European states that I mentioned maybe one of the biggest contributions to that economic competition was the tobacco trade now

the Dutch would say those people from the Netherlands also established colonies in North America during this time but they like the Portuguese were mainly interested in trade so while they did reap some economic success in their new world colonies the main focus for

the Dutch was competing with the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean trade now this push to establish Empires all over the world eventually led to tensions arising between several European States now the most significant tensions would

eventually erupt into Wars like the war of Spanish succession in the Seven Years War but those don't occur until the next period so we're gonna leave those for another video but in the midst of this period the most significant tension in its resolution occurred between Portugal

and Spain and here's the story back in 1481 the pope granted all the islands south of the Canary Islands to Portugal now because no one had yet sailed West across the Atlantic at this point what they were thinking was that any Islands

discovered in this General region right here would belong to Portugal fast forward to 1493 and our boy Columbus was sailing back to Europe after claiming islands in the Caribbean for Spain before returning to Spain he stopped in Portugal and let the king know that he

had discovered more Islands to the southwest of the canary and because of that papal bull from 1481 the king of Portugal was like okay those belong to us but Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain were like y'all so crazy so you can see

this thirst for Empire starting to cause tension so Portugal went ahead and announced that they were sending a fleet to claim the islands that were rightly there so Spain knowing they could not best the superior Portuguese Navy

appealed to Pope Alexander VI and asked him to decide whose land this was going to be and eventually the result that calmed the tension was the Treaty of tordecias which drew a line of demarcation right here the treaty granted Spain all the land to the East

and Portugal all the land to the West now in truth Portugal and Spain didn't pay too much attention to this line as they built their overseas Empires but the point is it did calm the tension between the two Imperial States all right next you're going to want to click

right here for the rest of my unit one video they're going to tell you everything you need to know for unit one click right here to grab my AP Euro review pack which has everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam in May I'll catch you

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