Download Age_of_Exploration_cause_effect_sheet

What was the Age of Exploration?
When : It was a period from the 15th century (1400s) to the 17th century (1600s).
Where: Europeans explored the world by ocean. Europe turned its attention away from trade in the Mediterranean
Sea and zoomed in on trade with the Americas and trade on the Atlantic Ocean.
What: Originally, Europeans were searching for a sea route to Asia. They were looking for trading partners and
particular trade goods, especially valuable spices.
Who: The giants were Columbus and Magellan. Columbus sailed to two continents that were unknown to the
Europeans: North and South America. He was the first to establish a permanent relationship between Europe and
the Americas. He launched the Columbian Exchange - the trading of goods between the two continents. The crops
grown in the Americas (corn, tomatoes, potatoes) were unknown in Europe. Magellan was the first to
circumnavigate the globe - that is, sail around the world. His voyage was the most dangerous of all.
How: New technology in shipping made long-distance sailing possible.
1. The astrolabe - Thanks to the Arab world, navigators could determine the latitude.
2. The magnetic compass - Thanks to China, navigators could use the compass.
3. The Caravel - Thanks to Portugal, this new ship could leave the calm Mediterranean Sea and sail out into the
dangerous Atlantic Ocean.
Why: To get to Asia! During the Middle Ages, the Europeans traded along the Silk Road. They bought wonderful
stuff from China and the rest of Asia. The spices, the silks, and the inventions were incredible. In 1453, the Ottoman
Turks captured Constantinople. From then on, the land route to Asia was closed. So Europeans tried to find a sea
route to Asia. In 1492, Columbus sailed to Asia. From Europe, he sailed west across the Atlantic. Instead of running
into Asia, he ran into two unknown continents - North and South America.
The Causes
Trade with Asia
-Silks & Spices
Europeans wanted to trade
with Asia, especially India and
China.
They wanted silks and spices.
Since the Middle Ages, they
had been trading with Asia
along the Silk Road.
During the Age of Exploration, the Europeans sailed to other continents. Why?
Land route closed
-Silk Road closed - In 1453, the
Silk Road came to a screeching
halt for European traders.
The Ottoman Turks captured
Constantinople. From then on,
the land route to Asia was
closed to the Europeans.
So Europeans tried to find a sea
route to Asia.
Sea route possible
-Technology - the Europeans
could make ocean voyages.
1. The caravel ship
2. The magnetic compass
3. The astrolabe determined
latitude.
The Results
What were the results of the Age of Exploration?
Europe
Americas
Africa
-The Atlantic trade
-Columbian Exchange
-The Atlantic Slave Trade
From then on, Europe focused
on trade across the Atlantic.
Trade between Europe and the
Americas. The Caribbean
became a major trading hub.
The Europeans enslaved
Africans to work in the
Americas.
-Epidemics
The Portuguese launched the
slave trade.
-Atlantic Ocean -- Spain
controlled this ocean.
-Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1494, the pope gave Latin
America to Spain; Brazil, Africa
and Asia to Portugal.
-Cartography
Mapmakers made new maps!
Native peoples died of
European diseases, like
smallpox.
-Cultural change
Spain imposed its language,
religion, culture, politics, (and
forced labor) on its subjects.
The World
-Imperialism The European powers carved up Asia, Africa, and the
Americas.
-Colonialism
Each had an empire of colonies & adopted the culture of the mother
country.
The Commercial Revolution --- Mercantilism
The majority of slaves were
sent to suga plantations in
Brazil and the Caribbean.
Asia
-Trading posts
The Portuguese set up trading
posts in Africa and Asia.
Later, the Europeans set up
colonies:
British in India.
French and Dutch in Southeast
Asia.
The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every society on earth, bringing destructive diseases that depopulated many cultures, and also
circulating a wide variety of new crops and livestock that, in the long term, increased rather than diminished the world human population.
This exchange of plants and animals transformed European, American, African, and Asian ways of life. Foods that had never been seen before by
people became staples of their diets, as new growing regions opened up for crops. For example, before AD 1000, potatoes were not grown outside of
South America. By the 1840s, Ireland was so dependent on the potato that a diseased crop led to the devastating Irish Potato Famine. The first European
import, the horse, changed the lives of many Native American tribes on the Great Plains, allowing them to shift to a nomadic lifestyle based on hunting
bison on horseback. Tomato sauce, made from New World tomatoes, became an Italian trademark, while coffee from Africa and sugar cane from Asia
became the main crops of extensive Latin American plantations. Also the chili / Paprika from South America was introduced in India by the Portuguese and
it is today an inseparable part of Indian cuisine.
Before the Columbian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no paprika in Hungary, no tomatoes in Italy, no
pineapples in Hawaii, no rubber trees in Africa, no cattle in Texas, no burros in Mexico, no chili peppers in Thailand and India, no cigarettes in France and
no chocolate in Switzerland. Even the dandelion was brought to America by Europeans for use as an herb.
Before regular communication had been established between the two hemispheres, the varieties of domesticated animals and infectious diseases were
strikingly larger in the Old World than in the New. This led, in part, to the devastating effects of Old World diseases on Native American populations. The
smallpox epidemics probably resulted in the largest death toll for Native Americans. Scarcely any society on earth remained unaffected by this global
ecological exchange.