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Chapter 20 – Science and Exploration
Section Notes
The Scientific Revolution
Great Voyages of Discovery
New Systems of Trade
Quick Facts
The Columbian Exchange
Supply and Demand
Chapter 20 Visual Summary
Maps
European Exploration,
1487-1580
Images
Greek Thinkers
Sir Isaac Newton
The Scientific Revolution
The Big Idea
Europeans developed a new way of gaining knowledge, leading to a
Scientific Revolution that changed the way people thought about
the world.
Main Ideas
• The Scientific Revolution marked the birth of modern science.
• Discoveries and inventions helped scientists study the natural
world.
• The Scientific Revolution had broad effects on society, changing
ideas about the physical world, human behavior, and religion.
Main Idea 1:
The Scientific Revolution marked the birth of
modern science.
• The series of events that led to the birth of modern
science is called the Scientific Revolution.
• Science was a completely different way of looking at the
world.
• Science starts with observations, and then scientists begin
to identify the facts.
• The explanations that scientists develop based on the
facts are called theories.
• Scientists design experiments to prove their theories.
Roots of the Revolution
• Many ideas of the Scientific Revolution had been
expressed in ancient times.
• Greek thinkers such as Aristotle and Ptolemy
were rationalists. Europeans studied their work
and also began to view the world in a rational
way, thinking like scientists.
– Rationalists looked at the world in a rational, or
reasonable and logical, way.
• Developments in Europe, such as the growth of
humanism, helped bring about the Scientific
Revolution.
Main Idea 2:
Discoveries and inventions helped scientists
study the natural world.
• Christopher Columbus set out to sail to Asia using a map
created by the ancient Greek Ptolemy.
• Columbus reached North America before he reached Asia.
• This proved that the ancient Greek authorities were
incorrect.
• This led other people to question the theories of the
ancient Greeks.
Advances in Astronomy
• In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus published a book that contradicted
what Ptolemy had written. Many historians believe that this book
marked the beginning of the Scientific Revolution.
– Ptolemy believed the earth was at the center of the universe.
– Copernicus said the planets orbited the sun.
• Tycho Brahe charted the positions of hundreds of stars, using
careful observation and detailed recordings.
• Johannes Kepler observed that planets moved in oval orbits, not
circular ones.
• Galileo Galilei was the first person to study the sky with a
telescope. He used experiments to test his theories.
Sir Isaac Newton
• Sir Isaac Newton was a British scientist who wrote the
book Principia Mathematica.
• Newton was one of the greatest scientists who ever lived.
• Some of his theories have been proved so many times
that they are now called laws.
• One of Newton’s laws is called the law of gravity. The
other three are called the laws of motion.
New Inventions
• A Dutch scientist developed the simple microscope.
• Galileo invented the first thermometer and built a muchimproved telescope.
• The barometer was invented by an Italian in 1643 to
measure air pressure. Barometers are used to help
forecast the weather.
• These inventions gave scientists the tools they needed to
make more accurate observations and to conduct
experiments.
Main Idea 3:
The Scientific Revolution had broad effects
on society, changing ideas about the physical
world, human behavior, and religion.
• The Scientific Revolution led to a dramatic change in the
ways people learned about the world. The new, scientific
way of gaining knowledge had far-reaching effects.
• The scientific method combined ideas from Bacon and
Descartes. It is a step-by-step method for performing
experiments and other scientific research.
Science and Government
• Some thinkers began to believe that certain laws governed
human nature, just like they did for nature.
• The use of reason to consider the problems of society led
philosophers to look at ways to improve society.
• The idea that all things in nature were equal led people to
believe that since all laws in society were equal, everyone
in society should be equal as well.
• This sense of equality led to the introduction of more
democratic ideas for government.
Conflicts between Scientists and the Church
The new field of science put forth ideas that conflicted with the
teachings of the church.
One such theory was that the earth revolved around the sun,
not that the sun revolved around the earth, as the church
taught.
Church officials believed that when scientific theories
contradicted the church, they weakened the church.
The church feared that people might start to doubt the key
elements of their faith.
Great Voyages of Discovery
The Big Idea
European explorers brought knowledge, wealth,
and influence to their countries.
Main Ideas
• Europeans had a desire and opportunity to
explore in the 1400s and 1500s.
• Portuguese and Spanish explorers discovered
new trade routes, lands, and people.
• The English and French claimed land in North
America.
Main Idea 1:
Europeans had a desire and opportunity to
explore in the 1400s and 1500s.
An interest in discovery and exploration grew in Europe in
the 1400s. Improvements in navigational tools, cartography,
and shipbuilding allowed European sailors to go farther than
ever before.
Reasons to Explore
• People in Europe wanted goods from Asia. Italy and Egypt
controlled the trade routes and charged high prices.
Europeans wanted to find their own trade routes so they
wouldn’t have to pay the fees.
• Christians wanted to spread their ideas about religion to
other parts of the world.
• Advances in technology made exploration possible.
Advances in Technology
• Sailors now had instruments such as the astrolabe and the
compass to find new routes.
• More-accurate maps allowed sailors to travel from one
port to the next by using the open sea and by not having
to follow the coast.
• Shipbuilders, especially the Portuguese, made new ships
with better sails and better steering.
Main Idea 2:
Portuguese and Spanish explorers
discovered new trade routes, lands, and
people.
Prince Henry the Navigator was responsible for most of
Portugal’s success on the seas. He built an observatory and a
navigation school and paid people to sail on explorations.
Exploration
• In 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and landed
on the west coast of India.
– This established the sea route to Asia.
• One Italian sailor, Christopher Columbus, believed that
he could reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic.
– The king and queen of Spain gave Columbus the money to
make his journey.
– In October 1492, Columbus landed on a small island in the
Bahamas. He believed that he had reached Asia.
• Ferdinand Magellan was the first explorer to sail around
the tip of South America and circumnavigate, or go all
the way around, the globe.
A “New World”
• Spanish explorers called the Americas the New
World.
• When Spanish explorers arrived, the Aztec and
Inca empires were at the height of their powers.
• Spanish explorers in the New World found gold
and silver as they conquered the empires there.
• They also passed along diseases to the native
peoples that killed possibly more than threequarters of them.
The English and French in America
• Since the Spanish and Portuguese already held
the southern routes through the Americas, the
English and French explored northern routes.
• Although a northern route to Asia was not
established, these explorers claimed northern
lands for England and for France.
The Spanish Armada
• The Spanish controlled the gold and silver from
the former Aztec and Inca empires.
• An English sailor named Francis Drake began
stealing gold and silver from the Spanish ships.
• The Spanish were angry with the English for
these raids and sent 130 ships, known as the
Spanish Armada, to attack England.
• The English ships were faster and had better
weapons. They were able to defeat the Spanish.
A New European Worldview
• The explorations brought new knowledge and geography
and proved that some old beliefs were wrong.
• Geographers made more-accurate maps that reflected
new knowledge.
• New trade routes gave more opportunities for wealth and
resources.
• Europeans spread their influence around the world by
establishing colonies and setting up new trade routes.
New Systems of Trade
The Big Idea
Exchanges between the Old World and the New World
influenced the development of new economic systems:
mercantilism and capitalism.
Main Ideas
• Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas exchanged plants,
animals, and ideas.
• In the 1600s and 1700s, new trade patterns developed,
and power shifted in Europe.
• Market economies changed business in Europe.
Main Idea 1:
Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas
exchanged plants, animals, and ideas.
Columbian Exchange
• The exchange of plants, animals, and ideas between the
New World (the Americas) and the Old World (Europe) is
known as the Columbian Exchange.
• Exchanges occurred when Europeans took seeds to plant
crops in the New World.
• Europeans also took animals such as cows, goats, sheep,
horses, and chickens to the New World.
• Accidental exchanges took place when Europeans brought
over diseases or animals such as rats that hid in ships.
New World Plants and Animals
• While Europeans introduced plants and animals to the New
World, they also found things they had not known about.
• They took samples back to their home countries as well as
to Africa and Asia.
• Vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes, and squash as
well as plants such as tobacco had never been seen
before.
• These products went around the world. Many of them
grew well in other countries, so they are now a part of
those cultures.
Exchanges of Culture
• Europeans introduced their culture to the places they
explored.
• Christians set out to convert people in the new lands to
their religion.
• Missionaries also taught European languages to the native
peoples.
Exchanges of Technology
• Europeans took guns and steel to parts of Africa
and to the Americas.
• The introduction of sheep and sugarcane created
new industries.
• People began to grow sugarcane on
plantations, or large farms.
Treatment of Native Americans
• Plantations and mines made money for Portugal, Spain,
and some colonists in the Americas.
• However, the plantation life and mining made for bad
treatment of Native Americans.
• The Spanish colonists forced Native Americans to work on
the plantations. Hard work and disease killed many.
• Europeans then started using enslaved Africans as
workers.
– Soon, thousands of Africans were being shipped to the
Americas as slave labor, and this continued until the late
1800s.
Main Idea 2:
In the 1600s and 1700s, new trade patterns
developed, and power shifted in Europe.
• Mercantilism is a system in which a government controls
all economic activity in a country and its colonies to make
the government stronger and richer.
• Mercantilism was the main economic policy in Europe
between 1500 and 1800.
• Governments did everything they could to get more gold
and silver.
• Countries tried to export more goods than they imported to
keep a favorable balance of trade.
New Trading Patterns
• One major trading pattern involved the exchange of raw
materials, manufactured products, and slaves among
Europe, Africa, and the Americas. This type of trade was
called triangular trade.
• The Atlantic slave trade was a major part of the trade
network.
• Enslaved Africans were crammed onto ships and sent
mainly to South America and the Caribbean.
• Between the 1500s and 1600s, millions of slaves were
shipped to the colonies in the New World.
The Shift of Power
• Portugal and Spain were leading economic powers in the
1500s, but that changed as the Dutch and English became
stronger.
• The Netherlands became a great trading power when Dutch
merchants formed a company that traded directly with
Asia.
• England benefited greatly from increased trade with China
and India as well as with North America.
Banking
• The Dutch and English set up banks due to increased trade.
• Banking improved business.
– Merchants could exchange money from different countries
and get the correct value.
– Money was loaned to people to start new businesses, which
contributed to economic growth.
Market Economies
• The growth of manufacturing economies was caused by
increased demand for goods.
• Demand was increased by a growing population, lower
expenses for food, and more colonies.
• As demand grew, businesspeople tried to find new and
better ways to produce their goods. They wanted to
increase their supply to meet the demand.
Capitalism and Market Economies
• Capitalism is an economic system in which individuals
and private businesses run most industries. Competition
among these businesses affects the cost of goods.
• Competition works best in a market economy, in which
individuals decide what goods and services they will buy.
• In the 1800s, capitalism became the economic system of
most countries in the world.