Geographical explorations 15th-16th century

16th century travels

increased knowledge of the world Travels for: religious persecution; Cultural journeys (France and Italy); Trade (Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, and Russia); military ventures

Portugal
First country to undertake voyages of exploration: Privileged geographic position Christian tradition of reconquista and evangelization Interest in the Portuguese king Henry the Navigator in exploring African coasts

 1487 Bartholomew Diaz circumnavigates Africa. He reaches the Cape of Good Hope

1492 Colombus sails to reach the Orient

 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas: division of the newly discovered territories between Spain and Portugal, by drawing an imaginary line of demarcation (the territories 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands were assigned to the Castilian realm).

 1496-97 John Cabot explores North America (Labrador, Bay of Hudson) looking for a passage to Asia 1497-99 Vasco da Gama reaches India through the Cape of Good Hope 1519 Magellan circumnavigates the globe

Typus Cosmographicus Universalis, S. Grynaeus/H. Hoblein/S. Mnster, 1532

Sailing and trade:

East India Company (1600) Virginia Company (1606)

John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (London, 1624).

Colonialism
Colonies of exploitation/colonies of settlement

Travel accounts:
promotion of nationalistic ideas and ideologically oriented

Richard Hakluyt, Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America (1582) Nationalism and propaganda Second edition (1598-1600) significantly adds Traffiques to its title Explorations mainly linked to commercial enterprises

Colonies
1584 Walter Ralegh founds the colony of Virginia "To seek new worlds for gold, for praise, for glory,"

W. Ralegh, The Discovery of the Empire of Guyana (1585)

Description of Guyana as Eldorado Civilizing mission + political aim: liberating the land fro the Spanish influence

Sir Walter Raleigh trying to establish friendship with King Arromaia of Guiana

Colonialism and national identity

By the end of the sixteenth century the selling of space, both exotic and domestic, began to unify the British isles and propel England overseas. As the exploitation became systematic the idealization increased.
J. McLeod, The Geography of Empire in English Literature 1580-1745, 1999

Michael Drayton, Ode to the Virginian Voyage

You brave heroic minds, Worthy your country's name, That honor still pursue, Go, and subdue, Whilst loit'ring hinds Lurk here at home, with shame.

 Builiding of a national epic founded on discovery and conquest and on the civilizing mission

Virginia
Hardships and failures (starvation, fights vs the natives, illness). 1609 shipwreck of the Sea Venture sent to Virginia to support the colonizers Doubts and opposition to the colonial project threat the stability of the Virginia Company Need of propaganda: literature + sermons

Encounter with alterity

Monstrous otherness Myth of the good savage Passive and docile alterity to be subdued and exploited

New World encounters

Vespucci and America

Theodore Galle, after Stradanus (Jan van der Street), 1521

John Donne, Elegy XIX To His Mistress Going to Bed

O my America! my new-found-land, My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned, My mine of precious stones, my empery, How blest am I in this discovering thee! To enter in these bonds is to be free; Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.
Full nakedness! All joys are due to thee,

As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be To taste whole joys.