The Glaring Fact

Science, Technology and Colonial Expansion

• Science and technology, colonial expansion
• Capitalism, international trade and European expansion, new resources and land
• Technology (sailing ships, telescopes, clocks) and science (astronomy) and navigation, discovery and conquest, colonialism
  ASIDE: Technology and Navigation
  Mathematical equations: time, distance, angle, longitude or latitude
  Angles (sextants), direction (compass), position (telescopes), time (mechanical clock)
• Trade, conquest and colonization, population shifts, war and disease
• Christopher Columbus, 1492, Francisco Pizzaro, 1532, Cajamarca, Peru
• Inca Emperor Atahuallpa, 168 against 80,000
• Success attributed to efficiency and psychological impact of guns
• 4-1/2 million sq km (Peru + Chile + Mexico + Ecuador), 504,782 sq km Spain
• Europeans advantages: Horses (combat, speed, endurance), steel (weapons and armor), infectious diseases (decimating populations), centralized states (resources for colonization), writing + printing to gain information
• Number and accuracy of guns, decreasing psychological impact
• New world populations eventually adopted horse and guns
• Combat advantages of horses: vantage point, defense of height, speed, maneuverability, armor
• Horse collar, horse, stirrup, cavalry
• Steel weapons versus quilted armor, steel armor
• Smallpox, influenza, typhus and bubonic plague (95% of population)
• Technology, science and sailing ships
• Malaria, yellow fever and Europeans, Africa, India, SE Asia and New Guinea
• Resources of centralized nation states, market wealth
• Writing, inspiration, methods, maps, printing press
• Poor communication, information, misconceptions, speed, precedent