Download Vasco da Gama

Age of Exploration:
Pushing “the Limits”
Essential Question:
Why would people take such great – and often dangerous!
– risks to explore places they know little about?
Freedom
Wealth
Religion
Land
Curiosity
Adventure
Trade
Fame
Vocabulary Terms
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Explorer
Leif Erikkson
Vinland
The Silk Road
Marco Polo
Prince Henry the
Navigator
• Caravel
• Bartholomeu Dias
• Vasco da Gama
• Christopher Columbus
• King John of Portugal
• Queen Isabella and King
Ferdinand
• Vasco Nunez de Balboa
• Isthmus of Panama
• Ferdinand Magellan
• Circumnavigate
• Amerigo Vespucci
What obstacles
might an explorer
encounter?
The Earliest Explorers
Leif Erikson
(aka The Viking!)
- Eriksson, Ericson, Leif the
Lucky
- Believed to be the first
European to reach North
American soil, called Vinland,
in 1000 A.D.
- Converted to Christianity by
King Olaf I with a mission to
spread the word of Christ
Video: Leif Erikkson (3:32)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3
GM3F7JZ2c
The Silk Road
Spices and Luxuries
• Trade route/s from Eastern
Europe (present day Turkey) to
China
– Over 4,000 miles and very
dangerous!
• Increased commerce ($$$)
between many important
kingdoms and empires
• Helped spread new ideas,
cultures, inventions, and
unique products
– Also spread disease like the
bubonic plague, otherwise
known as the Black Death
• Traded silk cloth, prized for
softness and luxury
– China = “land of silk”
• Traded teas, salt, sugar,
porcelain, carpets, and spices
– mostly expensive “high-end”
products, as well as cotton,
ivory, wool, gold, and silver
• Traveled in large caravans
with many guards
• Marco Polo one of the most
well-known explorers
– Italian merchant who traveled
the Silk Road most of his life
– 1254 to 1324
The Portuguese
Prince Henry
Bartholomeu Dias
Vasco da Gama
Prince Henry
the Navigator
• 1444-1446
• Established a school for the
study of the arts of navigation,
mapmaking, and shipbuilding
• Designed the caravel, a lighter
and faster ship
• Persuaded his captains to sail
beyond the “Green Sea of
Darkness”
• Sought new sources of gold
while mapping western Africa
• Goal of spreading Christianity
to western Africa
Prince Henry’s
Caravel Design
Bartholomeu Dias
– 1488 - Rounded the
southern tip of Africa
– Came closest to
discovering a water
route to Asia
Vasco da Gama
-1498 - Rounded the southern
tip of Africa AND reached India!
- Found a water route to Asia,
brought back a small (but
impressive!) collection of jewels
and spices, encouraged further
exploration
Monument to the Discoveries
Padrão dos Descobrimentos
The Spanish Explorers
Christopher
Columbus
• 1492
• Rejected by his friend, King
John of Portugal
• Sought a new trade route to
China
• Sailed for King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella of Spain
• “Discovered” many of the
Caribbean Islands, South
America, and Central America
Vasco NÚÑEZ
de Balboa
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1513 – Additional exploration
of the Caribbean Sea
Discovered the Isthmus of
Panama, the small strip of land
that connects Central America
and South America, which
then led to his discovery of the
Pacific Ocean
You Tube: Vasco Nunez de
Balboa (1:31)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
ggtksTWwl60
Isthmus of Panama
Ferdinand Magellan
• 1519
• Led the first expedition to
circumnavigate the world
• Sailed through the Straits of
Magellan and into the Pacific
Ocean
You Tube: Animaniacs: Ballad
of Magellen
Amerigo Vespucci
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Columbus had already
“discovered” several Caribbean
and Central American islands
Early accounts of Vespucci’s
voyages, now believed to have
been forgeries, had quickly
spread throughout Europe
In 1507, using these letters as his
guide, a German cartographer
created a new map, naming the
territory now known as South
America in Vespucci’s honor
For the first time, the word
“America” was in print.
Review & Discussion
1. What problem might there be with using Viking myths as historical
sources?
2. What was the importance of the Silk Road?
3. Why would explorers take such dangerous risks?
4. What were some of their fears or obstacles? Dangers?
5. How did the achievements of Balboa and Magellan change the way
in which people viewed the world?
6. Why do you think coastal European countries, such as Spain and
Portugal, sent explorers to North America, but inland countries did
not?
7. Who funded these explorations? Why?
8. Why were Europeans unaware of what they might find on their
voyages of discovery? What do we know now that they wouldn’t
have known then?