Exploration

Focus Questions1. What are some of the causes and effects of Exploration?

2. How did geography (where they are located?) affect Portugal, England, and Spain’s ability to become naval powers and empires?

3. How did the Renaissance help bring about the Age of Exploration?

Trade Between Europe and Asia

A. For centuries before the Renaissance, European traders traveled back and forth across the Mediterranean.

B. Merchants commonly journeyed from southern Europe to North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

C. Spices were one of the most important items traded at this time.

The Spice Trade

A. Spices were in great demand by Europeans.

B. Before refrigeration, meat and fish spoiled quickly.

C. To help preserve food and to improve its flavor, people used spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves – from Asia.

The Spice Islands

The Italian Peninsula Controls Trade

A. For centuries, Italian merchants from Genoa and Venice controlled the spice trade.

B. They sailed to ports in the eastern Mediterranean (Holy Land), where they would purchase spices and other goods from traders who had traveled across Asia.

C. The Italian merchants would then bring these goods back to Europe.

D. Many countries wanted to enjoy the wealth that the Aristocrats in Italy were enjoying!

The Possibility of Great Wealth

A. Transporting goods across

these great distances was

costly.

B. Everyone along the way had

to be paid and wanted to earn a

profit.

C. By the time the spices

reached Europe, they had to be

sold at extremely high

prices…….Also, the Muslims and

Mongols (Huns) had control of

the trade routes…..sometimes

they did not play nicely………

especially after the Crusades!

D. European merchants and

rulers knew that if they could

trade directly with people in

Asia, they could make enormous

profits.

E. Goal – find a new trade route

to Asia!

Leaders In Exploration The small country of

Portugal is at the westernmost part of the European continent.

Portuguese sailors had navigated the waters of the Atlantic Ocean for centuries.

They traveled down the west coast of Africa and as far was as Madeira, the Azores, and the Canary Islands

Portugal Wins!

A. In the early 1400s, Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator sent explorers farther down the African coast – he believed a shortcut to Asia was around Africa.

B. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488.

C. Vasco da Gama and his crew reached the Indian coast less than one year later.

D. Now, the riches of Asia could be brought directly to Europe – after setting up trading posts along the way – Portugal ruled these waterways!

Christopher Columbus

Under the patronage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, Italian Christopher Columbus completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, started the Spanish colonization of the “New World” and the quest for other questions to gain control of the “New World” and a trade route to Asia.

Europe Enters A New Age A. Spain

Christopher Columbus Ferdinand Magellan Amerigo Vespucci Francisco Pizzaro

B. England John Cabot (Giovanni

Caboto) Sir Francis Drake

C. Netherlands Henry Hudson

The Race is on for: wealth, glory, gold, land & power, and anything else Europeans can steal!

Wars, violence, and general competition broke out for control of the “New World.”

Explorers and the Countries Exploring

The Outcomes of Exploration

A. Clash of Cultures Empires – countries such as Spain, Portugal, England, France became world

powers because of the great wealth gleamed from the products and control of land.

Wars – these countries often fought one another over territory. Imperialism – controlling another countries government and economy. Colonialism – having colonies outside of your nation.

B. Religious Conversion Protestant Catholic

Society of Jesus - Jesuits

C. The Spread of Diseases Europeans brought diseases to indigenous inhabitants (native people) that

they were not immune to. Tens – Hundreds of thousands of natives were killed.

D. Slavery Indigenous people were enslaved to work in the gold & silver mines and on

sugar plantations. Africans were brought in to work after the indigenous peoples were killed.

The Triangle Trade!