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CHAPTER 2 – A CHANGING WORLD
For centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, the people of western Europe
were isolated from the rest of the world. Their world which was dominated by the
Catholic Church, was divided into many small kingdoms and city-states. People
who followed the Catholic Church were known as Christians.
Another religion, called Islam, was sweeping across the Middle East and Africa.
The people who followed this religion were called Muslims. As Muslim power
grew, European Christians became concerned that they would lose access to the
Holy Land, the birthplace of Christianity, in what is now Israel.
In 1100, the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, declared that Muslim Turks
had seized a portion of the Holy Land and he called for a war against the Muslims
to get it back. This war became known as the Crusades. The Crusades were a holy
war.
The Crusades were fought for 200 years! It brought Europeans into contact with
the Middle East. The Crusaders brought back stories of another part of the world as
well as carpets, silks, perfumes, precious stones and spices such as pepper,
cinnamon and cloves.
In 1271, two Italian brothers, the Polo brothers and a son of one of them, Marco,
traveled across Asia to China. Marco Polo spent 17 years there working for the
Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan. He learned a lot about the advanced culture of the
Chinese. Upon arriving back home in Italy, Marco Polo wrote a book about his
trip to China. It was called Travels.
His book was widely read. He told about how the Chinese used paper money to
buy goods and how they burned coal for heat. Marco Polo never knew that 200
years later, Christopher Columbus and other explorers would read his book and
would be inspired to sail in the opposite direction to reach the same destination.
In the 1450’s, Johann Gutenburg invented a printing press. It had movable
type. He printed the Bible. Because of his printing press, books became more
affordable. Knowledge of the world expanded. People began studying medicine,
astronomy, chemistry and art. This period of time was known as the Renaissance.
Why did the invention of the printing press increase people’s knowledge of the rest
of the world? _______________________________________________________
POWERFUL NATIONS EMERGE
With the population increase in western Europe, merchants and bankers wanted to
expand their business through foreign trade. If they could buy goods directly from
the East instead of having to go through Arab and Italian cities, they could earn
huge profits. Also at this time, strong monarchs (kings and queens) were coming to
power in Spain, Portugal, England and France. These ambitious monarchs were
trying to come up with ways to increase trade and make their country the strongest
and wealthiest.
Maps were a big problem for early navigators. In Portugal, Prince Henry the
Navigator started a navigation school (1400). In this school, mapmakers,
shipbuilders and instrument makers studied how to make navigation easier. The
magnetic compass, created by the Chinese, one of the instruments that made
navigation easier, showed where north was.
Shipbuilders started building ships that were capable of long sea voyages. The
caravel was a 3- masted ship that sailed faster and could carry more supplies than
earlier ships. It could also float in shallow water which allowed sailors to explore
closer to land.
The Portuguese began sending ships down the west coast of Africa, which
explorers had never visited before. [see ship on pg.45]
How did the caravel affect overseas exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries?
_______________________________________________________________
AFRICAN KINGDOMS
Africa was rich in natural resources. As the Portuguese sailed along the African
coastline in the mid-1400’s, they set up trading posts. They traded their goods to
the Africans for gold and for slaves.
EARLY EXPLORERS
Portugal took the lead in the exploration race. They wanted to find a new route to
China and India where they could trade for gold. If they could find a new sea route
around Africa, they could trade directly with China and India.
In 1487, the King of Portugal sent Bartholomeu Dias to explore the southernmost
part of Africa. As he approached the area, he ran into a terrible storm that carried
him off course and around the southern tip of Africa. When the King of Portugal
heard what had happened, he named the southern tip of land the Cape of Good
Hope – he hoped that the passage around Africa might lead to a new route to India.
Vasco de Gama set out from Portugal with 4 ships to find India. He sailed down
the coast of West Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope to the Indian Ocean. He
hired an Arab sailor who knew the Indian Ocean well and with his help sailed to
India.
After that, an explorer named Cabral following da Gama’s route, ended up at the
tip of Brazil in South America. He claimed the land for Portugal. Portugal now had
land in the Americas.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
Columbus had a different idea for reaching Asia. He thought he could get there by
sailing west instead of east like everyone else was doing. Although he was born in
Italy in 1451, he became a sailor for Portugal. As a sailor, he traveled as far north
as the Arctic Circle and as far south as the western coast of Africa picking up
navigational skills.
Columbus, along with most educated people of the time believed that the earth was
round. The problem was how large the earth was. Columbus underestimated this.
Columbus decided that the quickest route to Asia lay west – across the Atlantic
Ocean and it was his destiny to prove it. Before he could do any of this however,
he had to find a sponsor to pay for the voyage.
He had been to France, Portugal and England to find finances for his exploration
but with no luck. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain didn’t like him.
Isabella, however, wanted to share in the riches of Asian trade and was quite
unhappy that Portugal was having so much success. Finally, she agreed to support
Columbus because of her dislike of Portugal.
In August, 1492, Columbus set out with about 90 men and 3 ships, The Nina, the
Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, 1492, a lookout on the Pinta spotted
land. Today, that land is part of the Bahamas. Columbus went ashore and claimed
the land for Spain. He named it San Salvador. Although he didn’t know it, he had
reached the Americas. He was convinced that he had found the East Indies, the
islands off the coast of Asia. (he was off by about 8000 miles) Today the
Caribbean Islands are often referred to as the West Indies. Thinking he was in the
Indies, Columbus called the local people Indians.
Columbus returned home a hero. He made 3 more voyages hoping to find China.
On the second trip he discovered the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. His
3rd trip led him to Venezuela and his 4th took him to Honduras and Panama. He
never found what he was looking for, but instead found a new continent unknown
to Europeans, Asians and Africans. In the following years, the Spanish explored
most of the Caribbean region which led to the establishment of the Spanish Empire
in the Americas. [see Two Viewpoints, pg. 47]
An Italian sea captain named Amerigo Vespucci published sensational accounts of
his own voyages across the Atlantic. He decided that South America was a
continent, not part of Asia. A German mapmaker who was in the process of
drawing a map of the world was so impressed with Vespucci that he called the new
lands America.
Both Spain and Portugal wanted to protect their claims so they asked the Pope to
help. He drew a line of demarcation, an imaginary line running down the middle
of the globe. Spain controlled the lands to the west of the line and Portugal
controlled all land to the east of the line. This divided the entire unexplored world
between Spain and Portugal.
WHY DID SPAIN FINANCE COLUMBUS’S VOYAGES? _________________
__________________________________________________________________
Another explorer, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the governor of a Spanish town in
Panama, had heard stories of great waters beyond the mountains. He formed an
exploring party and hiked through rainforests and swamps. As he climbed to the
top of a hill, he looked down and saw a huge body of water. Four days later, he
walked into the waves, named it the South Sea and claimed it for Spain. It was
later renamed the Pacific Ocean.
The explorer who named the Pacific Ocean was Ferdinand Magellan. Sailing for
Spain, he had an expedition of 5 ships hoping to find a sea route through or around
South America to Asia. In 1520, he had sailed through a narrow strait at the end of
South America into the Pacific Ocean. The strait still bears his name. He expected
to reach Asia in just a few weeks after rounding South America, but the voyage
ended up taking 4 months. The crew ran out of food and ate sawdust, rats and
leather to stay alive. In the Philippines, Magellan was killed during a battle
between two rival groups but some of his crew continued. The trip ended up taking
almost 3 years. Only 1 of the 5 ships and 18 of the 200 crew members completed
the journey. These men were the 1st to circumnavigate, or sail around, the world.
See map on pg. 48.
SPAIN IN NORTH AMERICA
Stories of gold, silver and wealth beyond belief led the Spanish conquistadores, or
explorers, to search for fabulous riches. For the right to explore, the conquistadores
agreed to give the Spanish crown 1/5 of any gold or treasure found. This was a win
win situation for the Spanish rulers. If a conquistadore failed, he lost his own
fortune. If he succeeded, both he and Spain gained wealth and glory.
Juan Ponce de Leon made the 1st Spanish landing on the mainland of North
America, arriving on the coast of present day Florida. According to legend, Ponce
de Leon hoped not only to find gold, but the legendary “fountain of youth.” His
exploration led to the 1st Spanish settlement in the U.S., a fort in St. Augustine,
Florida.
EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA
[Read A European Story on pg 58]
Protestantism spread throughout Europe. When the Pope denied King Henry VIII
of England a divorce from his 1st wife, he broke away from the Catholic Church
and became head of the Church of England. England became a Protestant nation.
Throughout western Europe, people and nations divided into Catholics and
Protestants. When these Europeans crossed the Atlantic, they took along their
religious differences.
The voyages of Columbus and other explorers brought together parts of the world
that had never had contact with each other. The contact led to an exchange of
plants, animals and diseases that changed life on both sides of the Atlantic. This
was called the Columbian Exchange. [see pg. 60]
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE CROPS THAT THE EUROPEANS GOT FROM
THE NATIVE AMERICANS? _________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE CROPS THAT THE EUROPEANS BROUGHT
OVER HERE? _____________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
WHY DID NATIVE AMERICANS DIE FROM EUROPEAN DISEASES?
__________________________________________________________________
When Spain and Portugal divided up the world, it didn’t include England, France
or the Netherlands so they ignored the treaty. They sent their own explorers to
North America. They were after an easier way to get to Asia, a more direct water
route through the Americas that they called the Northwest Passage.
One French explorer, Jacques Cartier, sailed up the St. Lawrence River and
founded Montreal, Canada.
Henry Hudson, an English explorer wanted to find a passage through the
Americas to Asia. He discovered the river that bears his name in New York.
Deciding he hadn’t found a passage to India, he returned the next year and
discovered a huge bay, now called Hudson Bay. After months of searching for an
outlet from the bay, his crew rebelled and set him, his son and a few sailors adrift
in a small boat. He was never seen again.
[see map, French Explorers p. 61]
The French sent explorers to what is now Canada for fur trading purposes, not for
settlement.
Read Chapter Summary, pg. 64
On page 64, answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper using
complete sentences. Be sure to number each question:
6, 8, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23