Cultural Encounters and Travel Writing

Question 1

Cultural Encounters – Routes to the East:

Answer 1

The Silk Road – central to trade and culture - about 1500 – Asia, India and China centre of trade and culture – motivates efforts for trade and exploration – Europeans keen to get to the Silk Road or acquire things to trade on the Silk Road

Cultural Encounters and exchange not new to the EMP - yet from a European perspective trade and cultural encounters began to take place, depicting the Eurocentrism and teleology of history whereby there is a potential within a certain thing to reach its highest form, evident in the fact Europe’s final form was to reach the top

Question 2

Eurocentrism in the ‘Age of Discovery’:

Answer 2

Teleology – an inherent end, potential to reach its ultimate end

Aristotle

‘The Other’ – Civilisations v Barbarians and Savages

Europe had inherent destiny (teleology)

‘Discovery’ applied to Europeans – world existed was only ‘New World’ to Europeans

Mary Louise Pratt: argues the contact zone between cultures is ‘the space in which people geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and intractable conflict – Contact Zone

Albert and Irving: challenging the binary between active coloniser and passive colonised. Emphasise exchange and an uncertain balance of power. Challenging the idea of teleology.

Question 3

Henry the Navigator:

Answer 3

Infante Henrique of Portugal – Portuguese explorations of Africa – looking for gold and slaves - supported Portuguese explorations primarily to the West coast of Africa – funded skills needed and trades for maritime exploration

In addition to looking for gold and slaves in Africa they also intended to get around Africa

Silk Road started to break down in the Early Modern period thus Europeans couldn’t access the East via land routes thus turned to marital routes

Hub of exploration = Portugal

Question 4

Major European Voyages (1480-1525):

Answer 4

First mission not successful – De Garra travelled from Portugal to India

Christopher Columbus – Portugal attracted Columbus to come to Lisbon, but he then disagreed with the Portuguese and tried Spain – Columbus supported by Isabella discovered a ‘New World’

Question 5

Explorations in Asia:

Answer 5

Portuguese forcefully take over trade in Asia - set up fortified trading posts – Portuguese had greater machinery thus could use greater force to get what they wanted

Portuguese arrived in China in 1520 and Japan in 1540

Missionaries arrived in Asia, primarily the Catholic missionaries

Late 16th century – Portuguese enabled global trade

Early 17th century – English and Dutch took over trade in Asia

Question 6

Africa:

Answer 6

Missionaries travelled further than merchants into Africa – particularly into Congo, a powerful African state

Primary European influence in Africa = Slave Trade -driven largely by the demand for cheap labour to harvest sugar cane

More Africans crossed the Atlantic

By 1600 = Brazil responsible for the biggest industry of Sugar Cain in the Western world

Early voyages would die making voyages across the Atlantic

Slavery enhanced view of black Africans as machinery

Brazil – Black Africans became the dominant population

Black Africans = Inferior

Limited trading posts = focus on slavery

Black Africans = Inferior

Question 7

Americas:

Answer 7

European diseases played a big role

European diseases killed 90% of existing native populations in some areas

Europeans set up colonies – empty continent due to European diseases decimating populations

Question 8

Pizzario and Cortes:

Answer 8

By 1521 Cortes took the entire Aztec empire

Question 9

North America:

Answer 9

English and French largely compete for North America

Question 10

Columbian Exchange:

Answer 10

 Linked worlds and exchange
Movement of plants, foods, animals, diseases and technologies between the old and the new worlds

Neapolitan Cooking established – Coffee, tomatoes, Potatoes

Foods associated with countries only came about because of the exchange – Raymond A Sokolov = “Before the Columbian Exchange there was no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no potatoes in Ireland”

Drive of the exchange largely Asian and not European economies – economies in Asia already fully developed

Question 11

Maps:

Answer 11

T and O shaped maps = Jerusalem at the centre

East at the top of the T and O World Maps

T and O maps popular in the medieval world

Map would help you get to heaven

Asian maps centred around Geography

16th Century = the way the world was represented in maps changed

Ptolemy Cosmographia, 1467 = Original Map from 150 but reinstated by the Renaissance – indicated a round world – foundation for other maps in the EMP

Waldseemuller Map

Merecator Map, 1569, Map of the World

Ortelius Map, 1606, map of the world, shows territories and how the world is being conquered

Fools Cap Map of the World, c. 1500 – Flemish

Question 12

Travel Writing:

Answer 12

• Travel Writing not a set genre – so could involve many aspects of genres particularly political
• In Medieval and Early Modern Period, travel writing a means of many understanding various places as only the elite were able to travel. Ultimately, only means for many to explore.

Question 13

Travel Writing = Political:

Answer 13

1. Often contained political content

2. Often caught up in a political context

Question 14

History of travel writing:

Answer 14

Medieval: travel writing centred around religion and pilgrimage, ultimately what divine wonders could be found at the sight

Earliest forms of literature are about travel and journeying – EMP did not create travel writing

Mixing of fiction and fact within travel writing texts

Early Travel Writing such as Marco Polo inspired 15th and 16th century Europeans to travel to the East - tales of the 13th century and 14th century travels of Polo inspired the wealth to travel to the East

Question 15

Early Modern Travel Writing:

Answer 15

Christopher Columbus = shift in travel writing at the end of the 15th century

16th Century: writing became an essential element of travelling and growth in travel writing

For some travel writing was the sole purpose for travelling to a place

Question 16

Reasons for providing a written account of travels:

Answer 16

Cartography

Political or Commercial Interest

Investment

Settlers

Empire/Nationalism

Conquest

Personal Reputation

Critique practices back home

Question 17

Travel Writing standards related to:

Answer 17

1. Eye-witness accounts

2. Claim to independence (Francis Bacon: ‘New Continent of Truth’)

Question 18

The ‘Other’:

Answer 18

Europe = civilised and thus is opposed to barbarian and savage cultures that are elsewhere

Ideas of the other provided the legitimacy for colonisation and conquest

Construction of non-European countries gave legitimacy to the process of colonisation 
	Edward Said, Orientalism (1978) 
1.	Homogenised 
2.	Feminised 
3.	Essentialised

Question 19

The ‘Noble Savage’:

Answer 19

Orientalism and othering yet in an elevation of the Native person

Idealised perception of Native people as being uncorrupted by civilisation, in opposition to the violent savage which is uncontrolled by civilisation – still identifies the process of othering

Alexander Pope – Essay on Man (1734): noble savage = untouched by greed and socialisation yet still seen as an ‘Other’

Question 20

The Grand Tour:

Answer 20

17th Century Travel = moves to being fundamental for one’s education – idea that travel completes education

Travel moves from exploration and conquest to greater emphasis on education

Way of creating a nobleman’s education by going on the ‘Grand Tour’ – usually around Europe, particularly the great towns of the Renaissance, could be between 6 months to a couple of years

Question 21

Thomas More, Utopia (1516):

Answer 21

Fictional travel writing – riffs of existing travel writing

Published over 500 years ago

Character goes on a voyage – all characters are fictional

Utopia depicted as a place of happiness – as no greed, deception as is present in Europe

Vespucci’s travels – basis for much of Utopia and Utopians

New world travel writing

More uses tropes of travel writing from Amerigo Vespucci travels – links to Vespucci in More’s Utopia

Thomas More = humanist

Question 22

Key ideas explored in Utopia =

Answer 22

1. Value of Jewelry and Gold
2. Exchange of Houses
3. Epicureanism
4. Peace not war – uses ideas about native people to critique the society he is living in in England. For example, Utopia has S4 territories showing links to England

Question 23

1515 descriptions of Henry VIII:

Answer 23

Expensive war with France – More mocks these attributes in ‘Utopia’

Luxuries of Henry VIII - Utopians don’t need luxuries only seek pleasure by values, More levelling a critique at the customs of More’s society

Question 24

Prince Henry and Thomas Coryate:

Answer 24

Attracted to travel writing – Prince Henry wanted to travel but due to royal duties couldn’t travel

Important for Royals to have an understanding of the world around them

Coryate wrote for the Prince – Coryate travelled for the purpose of writing – Coryate wrote specific accounts for countries that were of political interest for the King such as Venice and France

Coryate gives a lengthy description of Venice and France – addressed nations that were particularly related to England suggesting material of politics at the highest level

Political context and content for the Prince who cannot go travelling himself

Much more of a pamphlet and satirical nature to the travel writing

Question 25

Travel Writing challenged world views on:

Answer 25

1. Bible and Christianity
2. Ancient knowledge
3. Sources of knowledge

Question 26

Dias:

Answer 26

Rounded the Southern tip of Africa but then had to return to Africa

Question 27

Da Game:

Answer 27

Rounded the Southern tip of Africa and reached the West coast of India via the Southern tip of Africa – first mission not successful as he was meet with resistance, yet he was lorded when returned to Portuguese

Question 28

Christopher Columbus:

Answer 28

An Italian who arrived in Portugal in 1447, to enter Henry the Navigator’s scholars – Portugal attracted people from all over as they had technologies to travel

Inspired by Italian humanists – he believed distance between West shorter than the East which was where the Portuguese were sailing

Left Portugal due to this disagreement and attracted Isabella and Ferdinand, as he sails from the Canary Islands and landed in an Island just off of Asia, calling the people Indians.

Came to realise he had discovered a ‘New World’ – a place unknown to Europeans

Question 29

John Cabot:

Answer 29

Finds Canada – claims ‘New found land’ for England, found a lot of Cod

Question 30

Ferdinand Magellan:

Answer 30

1518 – round the Southern tip of South Africa and into the Pacific – only one ship of five made it back to Spain

Question 31

Pizzario and Cortes:

Answer 31

1519 Cortes led a group of 600 men into Mexico

Took advantage of conflicts in the area by making alliances with Aztecs enemies

Cortes slaughtered the population

Small Pox enabled Cortes to take the entire Aztec empire

By 1521 Cortes took the entire Aztec empire

Pizzaro conquered Inkar empire in much the same way

Question 32

Ebstorf Map – 13th C:

Answer 32

Germany

Map of the World

T and O shaped map

Jerusalem at the centre

Christ is at the East

Orientation originated from the idea that the East is at the top

European map

Question 33

Asian Maps –

Answer 33

Born out of the concerns of the cultures that created them

Asian maps need trade routes thus more about geography

More recognisable to geography

Question 34

Ptolemy Cosmographia, 1467:

Answer 34

Renaissance brought back the map that originated from 150

Round world

Missing a continent

More recognisable geography

Foundation for other maps in the EMP

Question 35

Mercator Map of the World, 1569:

Answer 35

Starting to understand the geography of the Americas

Question 36

Map of the World from Abraham Ortelius:

Answer 36

Drawn from first atlas published in 1570

Addresses the way the world is being cut up by European territories – how the world is being conquered

Clearer understanding of the Americas

Question 37

Fools Cap Map of the World:

Answer 37

Nobody knows who produced

Designed to say the more you explore the world the more folly that is identified