States Paid for the Voyages
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| trading-post empire/ˈtreɪdɪŋ pəʊst ˈempaɪə/ | trading-post empire |
Exploration was a state project
- New state-supported transoceanic maritime exploration occurred in this period.
- State-supported is the load-bearing phrase — the CED's whole objective is the role of states.
- Voyages were too expensive and too uncertain for a merchant to fund alone, so a crown carried the risk.
A trading-post empire controls...
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It is the Srivijaya model at oceanic scale.
Portugal: a trading-post empire
- Portuguese development of maritime technology and navigational skills led to increased travel to and trade with Africa and Asia and resulted in the construction of a global trading-post empire.
- A trading-post empire 商站帝国 controls harbours and choke points, not territory.
- It is the Srivijaya model from unit 1, executed at oceanic scale by a European crown.
English, French and Dutch northern crossings were undertaken mainly to...
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What they found instead reshaped their economies — an unintended consequence.
Spain: the Atlantic and the Pacific
- Spanish sponsorship of the voyages of Columbus and subsequent voyages across the Atlantic and Pacific dramatically increased European interest in transoceanic travel and trade.
- The CED's effect word is interest — success in one direction pulled every other crown after it.
- Note and Pacific: Spanish routes ran to Manila as well as to the Americas.
Which sponsor, and what were they after?
Sort each voyage programme by its stated goal.
The CED's phrase for the exploration of this period is ____-supported.
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Voyages were too expensive and uncertain for a merchant to fund alone.
A trading-post empire is not a territorial empire. Portugal controlled harbours, forts and choke points along a route — it did not govern the interiors behind them. Treating it like Spanish territorial rule in the Americas confuses two different imperial forms the CED keeps separate.
Spanish transoceanic voyages crossed the Pacific as well as the Atlantic.
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The CED writes "across the Atlantic and Pacific"; Spanish routes ran to Manila.
The northern crossings had a different goal
- Northern Atlantic crossings were undertaken under English, French and Dutch sponsorship, often with the goal of finding alternative sailing routes to Asia.
- So England, France and the Netherlands were not initially after American territory — they were after a shortcut.
- What they found instead reshaped their economies, which is a nice case of an unintended consequence with named sponsors.
Select all the economic effects of exploration named in this lesson.
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The compass was borrowed long before, in subtopic 4.1.
Causes and effects, economically
- The second objective asks for the economic causes and effects of exploration by various European states.
- Causes: access to Asian goods without intermediaries, and rivalry with other crowns.
- Effects: trading-post empires, a surge of imitation, and the Atlantic system that 4.5 will describe.
The English, French and Dutch cross the northern Atlantic looking for a route to Asia and do not find one. The fisheries, furs and eventually the colonies they do find are not what the sponsors paid for — which is why an answer about "why states funded exploration" must give the stated economic goal, not the outcome.
New state-supported transoceanic exploration occurred in this period. Portugal built a trading-post empire in Africa and Asia; Spain's sponsorship of Columbus and later Atlantic and Pacific voyages dramatically increased European interest; English, French and Dutch northern crossings sought alternative routes to Asia.
Write from the Spanish crown paying Columbus
- Columbus proposed a westward voyage.
- The Spanish monarchs funded it.
Who paid, and what does that show about exploration?
Monarchs sponsored the oceanic voyages.
Who funded Columbus?
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Royal money made the voyage a state project.