Download Age of Exploration Notes

The Age of Exploration
Vocabulary:
Exploration: The act of searching for the purpose of discovery or resources
Land trade route: A network of paths over land across which people travel in
order to gain trade.
Mast:
Maritime trade route:
Conquistador:
Circumnavigate:
Obliterated:
Hierarchical:
Crash Course “15th Century Mariners”:

When was Zheng He an active sailor?

How many ships and sailors did he command?

Did he discover any land?

What was the purpose of his trips?
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Why did Portugal need to trade and discover new trade routes?

Who was Henry the Navigator?

What did Vasco de Gama do?

What are three myths about Columbus?

What is the line of demarcation?
1. The Age of Exploration:
(a) A period of time in which Europeans explored and mapped the world.
(b) Europeans searched for new trade routes, trade partners, and trade goods.
2. Trade before the Age of Exploration:
(a) The Silk Road
 Was a land trade route from Europe to Asia
 Travel was dangerous and lengthy
 Traded spices, perfumes, and silk
(b) Crash Course “The Silk Road”
 What parts of the world were connected by the silk road?
 How should we think of the silk road?
 List three items that were traded along the Silk Road.
 What are the three ways that the silk road effected the lives of the general person?
 How does this relate to the age of exploration?
(c) The importance of spices
 Used to flavor and preserve food
 Symbol of status in Europe
 The most common spices in Europe were black pepper, cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg,
ginger, and cloves
3. Why did Europeans begin Exploring
(a) The silk road was blocked
 When Constantinople fell the Silk road was blocked
 This prevented Europeans from obtaining important trade goods.
(b) Nations were wealthier and could fund exploration
(c) Technological advancement
 Navigation
 Compass:
 Astrolabe:
 Cartographers:
 Ships
 Lateen Sails: Triangular sail mounted at an angle
 The Caravel: Small, maneuverable two or three mast lateen rigged ship.
 The carrack: Three or four mast sailing ship
(d) The Three G's
 God:
 Glory:
 Gold:
4. Portugal begins exploration
(a) Prince Henry:
 Prince of Portugal but not a real sailor
 Nicknamed “The Navigator”
 Responsible for training and funding explorers which led to European maritime trade
with other continents.
(b) Bartholomew Dias
 First European to sail around the tip of Africa
 Opens direct sea route with India for trade
(c) Vasco de Gama
 First European to sail directly from Europe to India
 Enables Portugal to corner to spice market and greatly boosts its economy.
5. Spanish Claims to the Americas
(a) Christopher Columbus
 Thought he could get to the Asian trade routes by sailing westward
 During first voyage he landed in the Bahamas
 Led to the first lasting contact with the Americas
(b) Amerigo Vespucci
 An Italian explorer who first demonstrated that Columbus had NOT reached Asia but an
entirely new landmass.
 Continents in America are named after them
(c) Hernando Cortez
 Conquered the Aztec Empire and brought Mexico under Spain's control
 Ref. Primary source activity
(d) Francisco Pizarro
 Spanish Conquistador
 Conquered the Incan Empire
 Ref. Primary source activity
(e) Ferdinand Magellen
 The first european to circumnavigate the Earth
 Named the pacific ocean
6. Ways that an explorer could get his expedition funded.
(a) Bank loan
(b) Joint-Stock company
 Mostly English exploration
(c) Monarch
 Mostly Spanish, Portuguese, and French exploration
7. The Spanish Empire
(a) Administration
 Encomienda
 Crown grants conquerors the right to land and use of Native Americans as labor. In
return, conquerers were to protect the land, pay taxes to the crown, and convert the
native Americans
 Viceroys:
 Replaced the Encomienda system.
 Served as governors for the crow
 The Church
 The Church was in charge of the crown
 In charge of the mass conversions
(b) The Treaty of Tordesillas
 Divides the world into two parts
 Created by Pope Alexander VI
 East side of the line went to Portuguese and the west side of the line went to the Spanish.
8. New Rivals on the World Stage
(a) The English, French, and Dutch begin to explore and colonize in the late 1500's to 1600's
(b) Main goal was to find the Northwest passage and to establish colonies int eh New world
9. The Columbian Exchange
(a) The exchange of products, plants, animals, and disease between the Old and New World
 Crash Course “The Columbian Exchange”
 What was the most influential effect of the Columbian Exchange on Native
Americans?
 From where did Tobacco originate?
 What was one effect of the import of European animals on the New World?
 What was one effect of the import of New World plants on Europe?
10. The Impact of Europeans on the Americas and Asia
(a) The Americas
 Native populations are obliterated by disease and culture is replaced with European
 Spanish America had some multiracial society but it was extremely hierarchical
 Ref. Pinturas de Castas activity
(b) Asia
 Less impact, a few religious converts, minimal lasting influence
 Asian rulers limited contact with Europeans
11. Mercantilism: Countries should do anything possible to increase that country's wealth.
(a) Did this by taking wealth from other countries
(b) Trade: selling more goods than you are buying
(c) Tariffs: taxing imports to discourage buying foreign goods
(d) Subsidies: for business people to start new business ventures
(e) Gain control of overseas resources
(f) Measured in Gold and Silver