Download Explorers Packet

Name ___________________________________
AE.3 a & b
For your test, you will need to know the following things:
The hazards the explorers faced in their travels
The reasons they ignored the hazards – their motivation to explore
The results of their explorations
The Indians’ ideas about the world before the Explorers came and how they interacted with the
Europeans
How the Indians were affected by their coming to America
Know which country each explorer represented and where each explorer claimed land in the
New World for his home country
Marco Polo
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Occupation: Explorer and Traveler
Born: Venice, Italy in 1254
Died: January 8, 1324 Venice, Italy
Best known for: European traveler to China and the Far East
Biography:
Marco Polo was a merchant and explorer who traveled throughout the Far East
and China for much of his life. His stories were the basis for what much of
Europe knew about Ancient China for many years. He lived from 1254 to 1324.
Where did he grow up?
Marco was born in Venice, Italy in 1254. Venice was a wealthy trading city and Marco's father was a
merchant.
The Silk Road
The Silk Road referred to a number of trade routes between major cities and trading posts that went all the
way from Eastern Europe to Northern China. It was called the Silk Road because silk cloth was the major
export from China.
Not many people traveled the entire route. Trading was mostly between cities or small sections of the
route and products would slowly make their way from one end to the other trading hands several times.
Marco Polo's father and uncle wanted to try something different. They wanted to travel all the way to
China and bring the goods directly back to Venice. They thought they could make their fortune this way. It
took them nine years, but they finally made it home.
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When did he first travel to China?
Marco first left for China when he was 17 years old. His father and uncle decided to return. They had met
the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan during their first trip and had told him they would return. Kublai was
leader over all of China at the time.
Where did he travel?
It took Marco Polo three years to get to China. Along the way he visited many great cities and saw many
sites including the holy city of Jerusalem, the mountains of the Hindu Kush, Persia, and the Gobi Desert.
He met a lot of different types of people and had many adventures.
Living in China
Marco lived in China for many years and learned to speak the language. He traveled throughout China as
a messenger and spy for Kublai Khan. He even traveled far to the south to where Myanmar and Vietnam
are today. During these visits he learned about different cultures, foods, cities, and peoples. He saw
many places and things that no one from Europe had ever seen before.
Marco was fascinated by the wealth and luxury of the Chinese cities and of Kublai Khan's court. It was
nothing like he had experienced in Europe. The capital city of Kinsay was large, but well organized and
clean. Wide roads and huge civil engineering projects like the Grand Canal were well beyond anything he
had experienced back home. Everything from the food to the people to the animals, like orangutans and
rhinos, were new and interesting.
How do we know about Marco Polo?
After twenty years of traveling, Marco, along with his father and uncle, decided to head home to Venice.
They left home in 1271 and finally returned in 1295. A few years after returning home, Venice fought a
war with the city of Genoa. Marco was put under arrest. While he was under arrest, Marco told detailed
stories of his journeys to a writer named Rustichello who wrote them all down in a book called The
Travels of Marco Polo.
There were very few copies of The Travels of Marco Polo, since they all had to be done by hand. In the
mid-1400’s more of these books were printed they became very popular. It was translated into multiple
languages and read throughout Europe.
During the 1400’s there were a lot of nomads and marauders on the Silk Road. This made traveling very
dangerous. With each robbery and murder of the traders moving the goods back and forth, people
realized they needed to be able to go to the Far East by way of water.
Two Hundred Years Later
The Age of Exploration (also called the Age
of Discovery) began in the 1400s and
continued through the 1600s. It was a
period of time when the European nations
began exploring the world. They discovered
new routes to India, much of the Far East,
and the Americas. The Age of Exploration
took place at the same time as the
Renaissance.
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Why explore?
Outfitting an expedition could be expensive and risky. Many ships never returned. So why did the
Europeans want to explore? The simple answer is money. Although, some individual explorers wanted to
gain fame or experience adventure, the main purpose of an expedition was to make money.
How did expeditions make money?
Expeditions made money primarily by discovering new trade routes for their nations. When the Ottoman
Empire captured Constantinople in 1453, many existing trade routes to India and China were shut down.
These trade routes were very valuable as they brought in expensive products such as spices and silk.
New expeditions tried to discover oceangoing routes to India and the Far East.
Some expeditions became rich by discovering gold and silver, such as the expeditions of the Spanish to
the Americas. They also found new land where colonies could be established and crops such as sugar,
cotton, and tobacco could be grown.
Henry the Navigator
The Age of Exploration began in the nation of Portugal under the leadership of Henry the Navigator.
Henry sent out ships to map and explore the west coast of Africa. They went further south than any
previous European expedition and mapped much of western Africa for the Portuguese. In 1488,
Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa and
into the Indian Ocean.
Christopher Columbus
Soon the Spanish wanted to find a trade route to the Far East. Explorer Christopher Columbus thought
that he could sail west, across the Atlantic Ocean, to China. He could not get the Portuguese to fund his
expedition, so he went to the Spanish. Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand agreed to pay for
Columbus' trip. In 1492 Columbus discovered the New World of the Americas.
Portugal and Spain
Portugal and Spain became the early leaders in the Age of Exploration. Through the Treaty of Tordesillas
the two countries agreed to divide up the New World. Spain got most of the Americas while Portugal got
Brazil, India, and Asia.
Spain sent over conquistadors to explore the Americas and to conquer the peoples there. Hernan Cortes
conquered the Aztec Empire in Mexico and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire in Peru. They
made Spain rich with the gold and silver they found in the Americas.
Portugal sent out Vasco da Gama who found a trade route around the southern tip of Africa and to India.
They also explored much of the Far East and were the first Europeans to establish a trading colony in
China at Macau.
Colonies
Other countries such as Great Britain and the Netherlands established colonies in the New World.
Eventually Great Britain would surpass all of the European nations in terms of the size of their world wide
empire including the thirteen colonies in the Americas that later became the United States.
Geography
The Age of Exploration was one of the most important times in the history of world geography. A
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significant portion of the unknown world was mapped during this short period. Also, many advances were
made in navigation and mapping which helped future explorers and travelers.
Interesting Facts about the Age of Exploration
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During the Age of Exploration Europeans referred to the entire area of Southeast Asia and India
as the "East Indies".
The first expedition to circle the globe was led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
Unfortunately, Magellan was killed during the expedition and did not complete the voyage.
Some areas of the world were not fully mapped or discovered until well after the Age of
Exploration including Eastern Australia, the interior of Africa, the Arctic, and the Antarctic.
Many explorers such as Captain James Cook and Sir Francis Drake searched for a Northwest
Passage to East Asia, but it wasn't until 1906 that explorer Roald Amundsen completed the
journey.
The first Americans are believed to have arrived in North
America over 10,000 years ago. They crossed a land bridge
that existed between Asia and North American in the area that
is now the Bering Straits. The Native Americans developed
individual groups or nations. It is estimated that when the first
Europeans arrived in 1492 there were 15 to 20 million Native
Americans living in the land. They spoke over 1,000 languages.
Native Americans believed in the power of the spirits. The spirits were found in nature.
Their religious leaders were called Shamans. Native Americans believed that people should
live in harmony with nature. They did not believe that people should own land because the
land belonged to everyone.
The Race is On!
The Renaissance led directly to the Age of Exploration. Italy dominated the Mediterranean.
Other European powers envied the Venetians and Genoese their leadership position in
trade with the East.It was a lucrative trade that originated on the far side of Asia and came
through Arab traders of the Middle East. Other Europeans wanted to get a piece of this
action. Their imagination was further excited by the travels of a gentleman from Italy
named Marco Polo who had seen the wonders of the East and co-authored a popular book
about his experiences. The Portuguese were the first power to determine that there might
be a better way to these Asian markets than the long, arduous caravan routes over land.
They understood that it was far less expensive to transport goods by sea. A route might
be far longe by sea; nevertheless, it could be vastly more lucrative. Although the huge
continent of Africa was in the way, the Portuguese believed it could be gotten around. With
the encouragement and financial support of Prince Henry the Navigator Portuguese
sailors began to work their way down the coast of Africa, and in the process found that by
establishing "factories" (really trading stations) along the coast they could turn a profit that
would finance further exploration.
Spices Spur Sailors
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But what was it that the Portuguese were after? The answer: Spices such as
cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, and pepper that could not be grown in Europe. Some were
produced on only a few islands in the Indian or Pacific oceans. Tea was another delicacy
craved by the Europeans. Whoever could control the trade of these items would become
rich. A single successful trade voyage to the orient would bring back untold riches.
Would you sail into the
unknown?
It is a gray morning in 1430. You are standing on a dock in the European country of Portugal,
staring out at the mysterious Atlantic Ocean. You have been asked to go on a voyage of
exploration. Yet, like most people at the time, you have no idea what lies beyond the horizon.
The maps that have been drawn show some of the dangers you might face. And you’ve heard
the terrifying stories of sea monsters and shipwrecks (see map below). You also have heard
that riches await those who help explore and claim new lands. Now, you must decide whether to
go.
When Christopher Columbus set out in 1492 to seek a route to the riches of Asia, there
was much that was misunderstood about the world and the seas outside Europe.
It was this unknown element that made voyages of exploration so dangerous. Before
the end of the 15th century, European sailors had never crossed the oceans or
encountered the mighty ocean currents, mountainous rollers and violent storms.
The geographical knowledge of the time was unsuited to world exploration. In the first
place, no one knew for certain that the world was round. The Polish astronomer Niklaus
Copernicus said it was and Columbus himself believed it. Nevertheless, many people
thought the world was flat, and some sailors imagined they would fall over the edge if
they sailed too far out to sea.
There were several important facts geographers did not know. How wide was the
Atlantic Ocean? Until he crossed it, not even Columbus knew for certain. How wide was
the Pacific? Again, no one knew until the ships of Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet traversed it
in 1520-1522.
How long was the coast of Africa? Vasco da Gama had no idea when he set out from
Portugal in 1497 to sail the sea route from to Asia. Da Gama did not know, either, how
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far away India was.
Explorers also set out into the unknown oceans without proper sea charts or
navigational equipment. The charts used for sailing around Europe and in the
Mediterranean were plane charts on which the meridians were mainly shown as parallel
to each other.
Over short distance this did not matter very much. It was very different, though, when
explorers embarked on voyages lasting many weeks and covering very long distances
out of sight of land.
These problems were not solved until the Flemish geographer Gerhardus Mercator
provided sailors with a chart especially designed for ocean voyaging. But Mercator did
not produce his map until 1569, long after the voyages Columbus, Magellan, Vasco da
Gama and other early explorers took place.
Getting lost at sea during the Middle Ages often ended in tragedy as sailors ran out of
provisions before finding land. Cloudy skies blocking the sun and North Star could
cause even the most experienced seamen such as Christopher Columbus to fall
disoriented and drifting.
Sailors spent many days at sea -- so they had to take food with them that would
last. There was no fresh food. They preserved food by drying, salting, smoking and
pickling. They took food which kept naturally, like nuts. Food was often infested
with worms, and rats left their droppings in it. Other creatures like weevils got
into food too.
Since sailors did not eat fresh food they often had vitamin deficiency. These led to
diseases like scurvy making their teeth fall out and giving them lots of sores.
When water is stored at room temperature for a long time it gets fetid. That
means it gets foul – smells bad and tastes bad, and it gets slime growing on top of
it. The sailors had no choice but to drink this disgusting water and be glad to have
it because when that ran out, they were REALLY in trouble.
Sailing Technology
Before the 1400s such voyages were nearly impossible. Weather conditions
on the ocean made sea travel extremely hazardous. High winds and storms
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could easily destroy ships large enough to carry a cargo. The other problem was
navigation. How could sailing masters find their way around on an endless sea
pushed by capricious winds and unseen currents? If they got off course, how
could they figure out which way they should go? Another problem was that
navigators follow maps. Because no one had sailed east from Europe, no maps
had been drawn of this area of the world. To make matters worse, a Greek map
maker had actually drawn a map of
the world in about 300 B.C. His map
made Africa about a third of its actual size and did not include
North America, South America,
Australia,or Antarctica. This meant he
said the world was less than half its
actual size. Another issue was food
and water for the trip. They
did not have any means of
refrigeration and so they could not
have any
fresh food. Water goes bad after a
while, so even their water supply
would go bad.
Technology during the late fifteenth
century finally allowed European
sailors to face these hazards. A sturdy ship called the caravel was invented, with
multiple masts that could take advantage of whatever wind was available. Use of
the compass allowed navigators to determine basic direction. The magnetic
compass became one of the most important navigational tools. Its needle worked
with magnetized lode-stones to determine a ship's direction. Some believed the
needle had mystical powers incurred from black magic or the devil himself, but
the superstition did not prevent the magnetic compass from being used
extensively by those sailing across unknown waters.
Just as important as the compass, the sextant could measure the
angle of an astral body from the horizon. This allowed navigators
to solve half the problem of fixing a position at sea. Now a good
navigator could at least determine vessel's latitude. (It would take
several centuries before exact longitude could be determined.)
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Spanish Exploration of the New World
The year 1492 was a really good one for Spain. For much of the last several hundred years,
the Muslims had controlled parts of the Iberian Penninsula upon which she was situ ated.
Two Spanish monarchs, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, united through
marriage and policy, determined to reconquer territories lost to Muslim expansion.
The subsequent wars became known as the Reconquista. These wars absorbed
tremendous resources from Spain, so that while Portugal was exploring the coast of Africa,
her neighbor was fighting battles. This was one reason Spain was reluctant to gamble on a
proposed voyage by Columbus to seek a new route to China. Yet in 1492 the Spanish
completed the Reconquista by taking the southern city of Granada. Suddenly resources
were available. A spirit of optimism was in the air. Spain tallied up the cost and found that
sending three ships on a voyage into the unknown was about as expensive as entertaining
a foreign dignitary for a few weeks. They had seen the benefits from exploration accruing to
the Portuguese. Queen Isabella decided to take a chance on Columbus. She and Ferdinand
were very religious people and she wanted him to help convert the Indian people to
Christianity.
Columbus, with three ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria famously sailed west
to find the Far East. Columbus made four voyages. In the course of them, he never reached
China or Japan.
However, he ran smack into lands previously unknown in Europe. He claimed them for his
patron Isabella, the Queen of Castile. Publication of his discoveries sparked a race for
colonies in this New World that lasted for the next two centuries.
At first the Spanish expeditions did not show very much profit, but soon silver mines were
discovered.
Then gold began to pour into Spain from Mexico City and the conquered Inca Empire. The
Portuguese struck it rich with their attempts to go around Africa when Vasco Da Gama not
only rounded the Cape of Good Hope, but in 1498 reached Calcutta India where his ship
took on a cargo of spices. These successes interested other nations in exploration. The
British were especially keen.
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Soon the English began to set up colonies in the Caribbean and North America, especially
at Plymouth in New England and Jamestown in Virginia. They also moved into India.
Meanwhile in the early 1600s the French under Champlain were busy constructing a
colony in present-day Canada called New France. Champlain was an able administrator
and diplomat. Through his efforts New France became one of the few colonies that got
along well with the native population. Champlain found wealth for France, not from gold or
spices, but from the lucrative fur trade.
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado
(1510-1554)
He came to the Americas at the age of twenty-five as an assistant to New Spain's first viceroy.
Inspired by rumors of seven cities of gold and the travels of Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado led a royal
expedition of about 300 Spanish soldiers, over 1,000 Tlaxcalan Indians, and enormous herds of livestock
north into what is now the American West.
Coronado and his men found no gold in the Zuni pueblos, which drove them to make even more difficult
journeys.
Coronado sent out parties that ranged all the way to the Colorado River on the present border between
California and Arizona, exploring the Grand Canyon and much of what is now New Mexico. Coronado
himself led a party in search of the city of Quivira and its mythic riches, into what is now Kansas, but
found only a small village of what were probably Wichita Indians.
Although he failed in his quest for treasure to enrich the Spanish empire, Francisco Vázquez de
Coronado led one of the most remarkable European explorations of the North American interior.
Robert La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle was a French explorer. He
explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the
Gulf of Mexico.
René-Robert Cavelier was born on November 21, 1643, in Rouen, France. La Salle led an
expedition in 1669 in which he is alleged (by others, he never made this claim himself) to have
reached the Ohio River and followed it downstream to as far as what is now Louisville,
Kentucky.
Treatment of the Natives
Much is made of the cruelty of the colonizers to the native inhabitants during this time
period. It is true that native populations were exploited economically and devastated by
disease.
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Why were the Europeans able to so effectively over-run huge native empires and powerful
Indian tribes, including the Aztec, the Inca, and the Iroquois? The answer, of course, is twofold. First, the diseases incidentally carried by Europeans were far harder on the native
populations than the diseases they gave back to the Europeans. But more importantly, the
Europeans had vastly superior technology in weapons, tactics, and maneuverability.
This technological advantage allowed small numbers of Europeans to overcome huge
native armies. Ultimately, it was guns, horses, and dogs that allowed Cortez to conquer the
Aztecs.
The effect the Europeans had on the American Indians
When the Europeans first came to the Americas, the Indians were friendly and often helped the
new people survive winters by sharing food and teaching the settlers how to grow their own
foods.
The Native Americans did not have the necessary immune system to combat common European
diseases, and therefore many died and entire cultures soon became extinct. When the colonists
initially began settling, there was some tension between the Native American people and the
European colonists, as the Europeans would often seize the most fertile and favorable land from the
tribes. Due to this, the Native Americans often made an attempt at stiffly resisting these hostile
takeovers with violence, and despite often having a population advantage, the Europeans were
vastly more modernized in warfare than the tribes. The Europeans would trade goods with the
Native Americans, and this gave them horses, guns, cloth, etc. Also, many of the Europeans gave
the Indians knowledge of Christianity, which many adopted.
Ptolmey’s map of the world in 550 B.C. – this was used by the first of the European explorers.
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So why did Europeans explore the world during the Age of Exploration? Many different
European countries paid for explorations for many different reasons. Some of the
reasons that they explored were:
To find a sea route to the spices of Asia
To find gold, silver, and precious stones
To expand their knowledge of the world
To control a larger empire
To expand Christianity
To find animal furs
Sea Route in Search of Spices
In the 1400s, there was no refrigeration. To prevent meat from spoiling, people drowned
their meat in salt to preserve and dry it (like beef jerky). They also used a lot of spices
like pepper to cover up the taste of the salted or
spoiled meat.
Unfortunately for Europeans, these spices did not
grow anywhere in Europe. They were only found in
Asian countries like China, Japan, and India (these
countries were known together as "The Indies"). It
was very difficult to get the spices from Asia to
Europe. Spices had to be brought across thousands
of miles of dangerous mountains and deserts by
spice traders, with bandits waiting to rob the spice
caravans. The alternative was to bring the spices by
Land route from Asia to Europe
ship, but the sea voyage was also dangerous
because of pirates and storms. Since it was so
difficult to get spices from Asia to Europe, spices were very expensive.
In 1453, spices became even more expensive
and difficult to find in Europe when the land
route from Asia to Europe was cut-off by the
Turkish Empire. The European rulers tried
several times to defeat the Turks in battle, but
they were turned back each time.
Several European rulers finally decided to try
to find a route around the Turkish Empire. If a
country could find a way to get these valuable
spices to Europe, the rulers would be very rich.
Major European powers in 1500
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Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones
European rulers fought many wars. They fought against each other
and against the Turkish Empire. These wars were very expensive, so
they needed to find lots of gold, silver, and precious stones to pay for
them. They believed that Asia was loaded with gold, silver, and
precious stones, so they decided to find it and bring it back.
Once the New World was discovered, there were many stories about
places in America that had gold and jewels. One city was even
rumored to have streets paved with gold!
The Power of Land
Each of the European rulers of Spain, Portugal, France, and England knew that
whomever had the most land in the New World would have the most access to its
treasures, and therefore the most power.
Larger Empires
Some European rulers, especially the King of Spain and the King of Portugal, wanted to
claim as much land as they could. They wanted to take all of the natural resources from
this land such as wood, animal skins, and gold from their mines.
Expand Christianity
In the late 1400s, there was only one religion in Europe, Christianity. The
European rulers were very religious. They wanted to convert everyone to
Christianity.
Animal Furs
Eventually, the French found that animal furs, especially beaver hats, were very valuable
in Europe. It became the rage to wear these animal furs, so the demand for them was
very high. People were willing to pay anything to be one of the fashionable people with a
fur coat, hat, or muff. The French became very rich off of the furs they brought from the
New World.
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All of these explorers who came to the New
World for their many many reasons, claimed
land for their countries. They saw this land
as not belonging to anyone. They did not
care how the Native Americans felt about
this. The Indians were willing to share the
land, but as more and more Europeans
came to the New World to make their fortune
or to spread Christianity, they started
pushing the Indians off their land.
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