Why and How Europeans Sailed
Introduced| English |
|---|
| cartography |
| The rise of mercantilism/ðə raɪz ɒv ˈmɜːkæntəlɪzəm/ |
Three technical fields
- Advances in navigation, cartography 制图学 and military technology enabled Europeans to establish overseas colonies and empires.
- The CED's verb is enabled — technology made the voyages possible; it did not motivate them.
- Military technology is in the list, which tells you the empires were established by force as well as by seamanship.
Select all three technical fields the CED names.
Military technology in the list tells you empires were established by force too.
Wealth and state power together
- European states sought direct access to gold, spices and luxury goods to enhance personal wealth and state power.
- Direct is the key word: the goods already reached Europe through intermediaries, and the aim was to cut them out.
- The CED pairs personal wealth and state power, so a motive can be private and public at once.
The key word in the motive for seeking gold and spices is...
The goods already reached Europe through intermediaries.
Mercantilism gave the state a role
- The rise of mercantilism 重商主义 gave the state a new role in promoting commercial development and the acquisition of colonies overseas.
- Under mercantilism a colony exists to supply the metropole and buy from it, which makes trade a matter of state policy.
- So exploration is not merely commercial: the CED makes it a function of the centralising state of 1.5.
Follow Europeans out onto the ocean
Advances in navigation, cartography and military technology give the capability; the motives are older.
Under ____, a colony exists to supply the metropole and buy from it.
Which makes trade a matter of state policy.
Technology enabled the voyages; it did not motivate them. The CED uses enabled for navigation, cartography and military technology, and sought for gold, spices and luxury goods. Offering a technology as a reason for sailing answers the wrong objective.
Select both functions the CED gives Christianity here.
A motive for going, and a justification for what was done on arrival.
Christianity, as stimulus and as justification
- Christianity was a stimulus for exploration as governments and religious authorities sought to spread the faith, and for some it served as a justification for the subjugation of indigenous civilisations.
- The CED carefully separates the two functions: a motive for going, and a justification for what was done on arrival.
- For some is its qualifier on the second — the CED does not claim every actor used it that way.
The CED uses different verbs for technology and for motives.
Enabled versus sought — answering the wrong objective is the commonest error here.
Two objectives, two questions
- The technological objective asks what made voyages possible; the motivations objective asks why they were undertaken.
- Answering the wrong one is the commonest error here, and the CED's own verbs keep them apart: enabled versus sought.
- A complete answer gives one technology and one motive, and never confuses which is which.
Spices reached Europe long before 1450, carried through a chain of intermediaries who each took a share. The motive is not to obtain spices; it is to obtain them directly. That one word turns a want into a reason to cross an ocean.
Advances in navigation, cartography and military technology enabled Europeans to establish overseas colonies and empires. European states sought direct access to gold, spices and luxury goods to enhance personal wealth and state power. Mercantilism gave the state a new role in commercial development and colonial acquisition. Christianity was a stimulus, and for some a justification for subjugation.