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Age of Exploration Notes
During the age of exploration explorers from all over the world
explored and conquered new lands.
Slave trade:
The Portuguese traded with Africans for slaves, gold, and other
items.
Slaves in Africa were at first prisoners of war then Africans
began to be kidnapped once explorers needed them for labor in
the Americas.
Columbian Exchange:
The exchange of slaves, goods, plants, animals and diseases
between the eastern and western hemispheres.
Negative Effects:
 Transfer of germs (smallpox, measles and the flu)
 Diseases killed more than 20 million Native Americans
Positive Effects:
 many plants and animals were brought to the Americas
and Europe
Two top countries of exploration:
 Spain
 Portugal
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): created by Pope Alexander VI
stopped both of the countries from claiming the same lands by
drawing an imaginary line from north to south through the
Atlantic Ocean.
 Spain received the right to claim all lands west of the line
(most of the Americas)
 Portugal received all new lands east of the line (lands in
Asia and Africa)
Exploration of the Spanish Conquistadors and Portuguese
Explorers:
 Christopher Columbus
 Established Spain’s first settlements on the
Caribbean islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. He
was mainly looking for Gold.
 Columbus did not find much gold so he turned
the land into sugar plantations
 He turned the natives in the Americas into slaves
 Priests came with Columbus and harshly
converted the natives to Catholic
 Hernando Cortes
 led an expedition that went to Cuba all of the
way to Mexico
 Conquered Aztec Empire (modern day Mexico)
 He found gold and silver which made Spain
wealthy
 His men also converted many natives to
Catholics
 Francisco Pizarro
 He conquered the Inca Empire (Peru) and the
city of Lima
 He made Spain wealthy too because he found
gold and silver
 Amergio Vespucci
 The Americas were named after him
 He discovered new plants and animals in North
America by which he concluded that Columbus
did not discover India or the Northwest Passage.
 Ponce de Leon
 Determined to find the Fountain of Youth
 Landed in St. Augustine, Florida in 1513
 Found Florida for Spain and named it Florida
after the Spanish saying “Feast of Flowers”
 Later settled in Dominican Republic and found
gold
 Named the island Puerto Rico and claimed it for
Spain
 Bartolomeu Dias
 Portuguese explorer who sailed around the
Southern tip of Africa.
 He actually was able to see the Indian Ocean
English, Italy, and France Explorers
 Seeking a northwest passage
 Europe and France refused to follow the Treaty
of Tordesillas
English and French were determined to find a
northwest passage in the seas to lead them in to the
Pacific Ocean to China and India
 John Cabot
 Italian navigator who was the first to attempt to
sail the northwest but founded Newfoundland in
Canada instead.
 Giovanni da Verrazano
 French explorer who set out to find a route to
Asia but discovered the coast of NC (Cape Fear)
instead.
 He paved the way to France’s claim to the new
world by sailing North
 He discovered the Chesapeake, Delaware, Rhode
Island and Maine
 Unfortunately, he thought he was in Asia.