The Age of Exploration

Chapter 2

Section 1: Europeans Set Sail

• As Populations slowing began to grow during the late Middle Ages, it was halted by a devastating blow.

• Merchants from Asia carrying rats infected with the bubonic plague had begun to infected humans.

• The Black Death swept across Europe between 1348-1350 killing as many as 30 million people, or about 1/3 of Europe’s population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_death

Commercial Revolution• About a hundred years later, Europe recovered

from the Black Death, and with the rise in populations people began to fell better about their chances.

• A period of great change began in the European economy. This period of economic growth was called the Commercial Revolution.

• It changed the way people in Europe made, bought, and sold goods.

• Capital, or money earned to make more money, became very important to families.

• Merchants created joint stock companies to protect their investments. Point stock companies are groups of businesses that would pull their money together to prevent losing money that would result in a merchant having to close their business.

The Renaissance• With new wealth from the

Commercial Revolution, many Europeans began to invest in education and the arts. This led to the Renaissance, or rebirth, of learning.

• During this period classic Greek and Roman ideas were brought back to life like never before.

• Leonardo de Vinci, Baldassare Castiglione, and Michelangelo Bounarroti were some famous individuals to took part in this process.

• Inventions were also important to this period. Instruments like the astrolabe were invented

Trade with Africa and Asia• Much of the wealth gained from the Commercial Revolution came through

trade with other countries.• From Asia came silk and spices, From Africa came gold, ivory, salt, and

slaves, and from Europe came fancy clothing, delicious food, and expensive furniture. What Europe manufactured was only possible through trade with these other countries.

• Some countries in western Europe wanted to find an easier sea route to Africa and Asia. These included the French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Merchants from these countries had a monopoly, or complete control of a part of the market, on goods from Asia and Africa. They wanted to keep control of these markets.

The Portuguese Explore Africa• Portugal became one of the leaders in

exploration early on.• Prince Henry, known as the Navigator, used

the finest maps, a new invention called the compass, and a new kind of ship that could travel the open seas called a caravel.

• In 1487-88 Bartolomeu Dias began to explore the west coast of Africa. He discovered that ships could safely pass around the southern tip of Africa. This pass became known as The cape of Good Hope.

• Vasco de Gama was then enlisted to sail around Africa and find Asia. He succeeded and joined India to Europe through shipping.

Section 2: Voyages to the Americas

• Columbus had an idea that he could reach Asia by sailing west. He just needed money and ships to prove his idea.

• Christopher Columbus, being from Genoa, Italy, traveled to Portugal to meet King John II to fulfill his dream of exploring. King John decided not to fund Columbus.

• Columbus then traveled to Spain to meet with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. With Spain fighting a war with North African Muslims called the Moors, they initially said no.

• Then six years later Spain defeated the Moors and the Reconquista, the struggle to drive the Moors out of Spain, came to an end.

• Ferdinand and Isabella decided to fund Columbus’ idea with an agreement that he would claim any lands he found for Spain. They would reward him by making him viceroy, or royal governor, of the lands he explored.

Crossing the Ocean

• On August 3, 1492, just before sunrise, Columbus’ three ships set sail.

• The Nina and the Pinta were caravels. Columbus sailed in the largest ship the Santa Maria.

• He left with 90 sailors who were uncertain what laid ahead of them.

• On October 12, 1492 a cry rang out, “Land! Land!” The journey to the Canary Islands had taken 33 days.

Columbus’ First Explorations• The ships landed on an island in the Bahamas. He called the island San Salvador which means

“Holy Savior”.• He thought he was near the coast of China or Japan. He did not however know that he had

found a whole new continent. Believing that he was near India, he called the people “Indians”.• He searched for riches on other islands, such as Hispaniola. He met a native people called the

Taino who helped him understand the people and the culture.• He discovered very little treasures, but left back for Spain with a world of new information and

some gold.• Before he left he built a small colony called La Navidad. He left 40 of his men and the Santa

Maria, and told them he would return.• He set sail back for home in January of 1493.

Europe Learns of Columbus’ Voyage

• When Columbus returned to Spain, he told the king and queen about the wealth that was across the ocean. He brought them the gold he found, and they made him an admiral and a governor.

• When Columbus introduced the Taino he had brought back with him, Isabelle wanted to convert them to Christianity.

• Columbus, however, thought it would be ok to enslave them.• With this new claimed land for Spain, Ferdinand persuaded the Pope Alexander VI

to create a Line of Demarcation. This line would give Spain the sole right to explore and claim any lands and treasures found in this new world.

• The Portuguese King John II was unhappy about this and the two countries compromised in the Treaty of Tordesillas. This moved the line about 800 miles west of its original place. This gave Portugal more rights in the Atlantic.

Columbus’ Later Voyages

• Columbus returned to La Navidad in 1493 on his second voyage to find it destroyed and all the men killed. Though he was disappointed he began new settlements all over the islands.

• He also became the first European to see South America.• Columbus did meet some difficulties though. He had a

hard time growing European crops in the tropical climate, and he fought many small battles with the Taino, enslaving the ones he defeated. This angered Isabella.

• Columbus made 4 trips to Hispanola before finally returning to Spain where he died wealthy but lonely and sick.

Section 3: The Race for Trade Routes

• Christopher Columbus always believed that he had reached the islands near China.

• Others, however, didn’t accept his claim.• The Portuguese had already sent out Vasco de

Gama to find a route around Africa to Asia and he had done so.

• They also enlisted Pedro Alvares Cabral to explore. His discovery though was an accident.

• After he was blown off course by a storm en route to the Cape of Good Hope, he wandered westward for weeks.

• He finally landed on the coast of what we know today as Brazil. Thinking it was a large island, and because it was on Portugal’s side of the Line of Demarcation, he claimed it for Portugal.

• Portugal eventually built forts, trading posts, and settlements on the tip of Brazil.

John Cabot• Like Columbus, Cabot was an Italian who

was looking for knowledge, wealth, and adventure.

• He also wanted to find a sea route to Asia.• Cabot made an agreement with King Henry

VII of England saying that the King would grant a royal charter to any lands he found.

• Cabot sailed out in 1497 and 1498, but unlike Columbus, he sailed north.

• Cabot landed in present day Newfoundland and claimed it for England.

• One his second voyage out, Cabot and his ships mysteriously disappeared.

Amerigo Vespucci• Vespucci was also an Italian who worked

for the Spanish.• He worked as a business agent for the

powerful Medici family.• In 1501 he sailed to the present day coast

of South America. From there he sailed south and discovered the mouth of the Amazon River.

• There he met Indian groups and many “exotic” animals.

• He named this new land after himself, calling it America.

• Because of this new name, Europeans began to identify the two parts as North and South America.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa• Since most Europeans had discovered that

Columbus had not found China, they realized instead that they found two separate bodies of land. Now they were going to try to find a water passage around these bodies of land.

• Balboa, who lived in present day Panama as a local leader, heard stories about another ocean on the other side of the Americas.

• He set out with some troops to find this ocean. His trip when on foot through thick jungles and swamps.

• Finally Balboa reached the ocean. He named it the South Ocean, but today we know it as the Pacific Ocean.

Ferdinand Magellan• News of Balboa’s discovery interested another explorer

who was looking for a sea route to the Indies.• Ferdinand Magellan was reluctantly hired by the Spanish,

even though he was Portuguese, to find a water route through South America.

• Magellan set sail in September 1519 with 5 ships and 250 men.

• They found a strait, a narrow sea passage between coastal cliffs, that led around South America. It became known as the Strait of Magellan.

• He managed to sail through the world’s largest ocean and landed in the Philippines. There he got into a fight with local Indians where Magellan was killed.

• His crew managed to finally make it back to Spain in September 1522 with one ship and 18 men.

• His voyage proved that man could circumnavigate, or sail completely around the world. Magellan traveled 40,000 miles and proved what Columbus thought could be done.

Magellan’s Course

Section 4: The Opening of the Atlantic

• Because of these explorers, trade across he world changed dramatically.

• The Spanish and Portuguese were making lots of money from trade. So other countries were marking their own territory.

• England, France, and The Netherlands got involved, and by the 1500’s North America was being fished and explored like never before.

The Columbian Exchange

• Explorers carried many things across the Atlantic Ocean.• Many of these items included:

– Plants– Animals– Diseases: typhus and smallpox alone killed an estimated 1

million American Indians. By 1548 it was believed that there were only about 500 American Indians left in Hispaniola.

Most of these items were so unique and had never been seen before in Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Columbian_Exchange

The Search for the Northwest Passage

• Spain and Portugal were busy exploring Central and South America.

• This allowed other European countries to turn to North America.

• They hoped a path could be found around North America.• They called this path the Northwest Passage.

Jacques Cartier and Giovanni Verrazano

• The French took the first step in finding the Northwest Passage.

• They sent Giovanni da Verrazano who explored the coast of North America all the way down to present day North Carolina.

• The French then asked Jacques Cartier to help.

• He made two trips to Canada. One the first trip he sailed down the St. Lawrence River all the way to present day Montreal.

Samuel de Champlain

• Nearly 70 years later another French sailor began using Cartier’s old paths to explore North America.

• In 1615, he made journeys along the St. Lawerance River.

• He founded a small colony he named Quebec which began much of France’s claim to Canada.

Henry Hudson• The Dutch hired English captain

Henry Hudson to enter the race to find the Northwest Passage.

• Hudson sailed to present-day New York in 1609 and eventually sailed through a small strait that he thought took him to the Pacific Ocean.

• Instead it was a large bay that he named after himself, Hudson Bay.

• Hudson’s crew became impatient with him and eventually took him, his son, and loyal crewmembers, put them on a small boat and set them adrift. They were never seen again.