Download Ch 2, Sec 2: Early Exploration

Ch 2, Sec 2: Early Exploration
Objectives
• Explain how Portugal led the way in overseas
exploration.
• Develop an understanding of how Columbus’s
plan for sailing to Asia led to the New World.
Early Maps
• Very limited in detail
• Created by people traveling coast lines and
drawing what they saw
• Only showed 3 continents:
– Asia, Europe, and Africa
– Ocean Sea-Western (Atlantic) and Eastern (Pacific)
Oceans
Vikings
• Reached North America in the 800s-900s
– Landed in Iceland and Greenland
• Discoveries were not well known to other
people in Europe
• Columbus would be the first European to
“discover” the Americas again.
Portugal takes the lead
• Had no port on the Mediterranean Sea
• Wanted a trade route to Asia for spices and
Africa for gold
• Paid explorers to find that route
Prince Henry
• Leader of Portugal
• Started a school for explorers, astronomers,
geographers, and mathematicians to work
together
• Known as Henry the Navigator
• Started sending ships down the coast of Africa
to trade
Portugal in Africa
• West Africa was a good source of gold
– Known as the Gold Coast
• Started buying slaves in the 1400s
• King John II wanted sailors to find a way
around the tip of Africa to India/China
Bartholomeau Dias
• Explored the Southern tip of Africa
• Ran into a storm that pushed him around the
bottom of Africa
– Cape of Good Hope
Vasco da Gama
• Took Dias’ route to India
• Explored Eastern Africa and created trading
stops for future ships
• First to reach India for an eastern sea route to
Asia
Alvares Cabral
• Followed in Da Gama’s footsteps to India
• Lisbon, India was a new trading center for the
world
• Went to far West and hit land in what is now
Brazil
– Land was claimed for the king of Portugal
– The reason why Brazil is the only country in South
America to speak Portuguese
Columbus
• Italian citizen
• Wanted to sail West to go to
India
– Thought it would take 2
months
• Started sailing for Portugal
for experience
Spain wants to explore
• Saw the success of Portugal
• Wanted to gain the advantage of spice trade
with Asia
• Italy and Portugal thought Columbus was
crazy for wanting to travel West to India, but
Spain supported him
Why did Spain support Columbus
• Columbus promised to promote Christianity to
everyone that he came into contact with
• If Columbus was right, he would gain a
new/better route to Asia for Spain
Columbus’s First Voyage
• Aug 3, 1492, Columbus left Spain heading
West
• 3 ships-Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria
• 90 men
• Had to convince his crew not to mutiny
First Voyage Cont.
• Columbus found San Salvador (Bahamas)
• Thought he was in the East Indies
– Caribbean Islands=West Indies
– Called the people Indians
• This proved a success and Spain under King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decided to fund
Columbus’s future trips
Columbus’ next three trips
• Went back to the Americas
– Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic), Cuba,
and Jamaica
• Ended up traveling up and down the coast of
South America/Central America (Mexico)
• Europe now understood that this was not Asia
and that it was a new continent
– Still did not understand how big of a land it was
Treaty of Tordesillas
• Pope Alexander VI put a line
on the map known as the
Line of Demarcation
– Spain got land to the West
– Portugal got land to the East
– Was in Spain’s favor-line was
pushed further West
• Split all land between both
countries in the New World
Amerigo Vespucci
•
•
•
•
Map maker
Mapped South American coast line
First to call South America a new continent
America was named after him
Balboa
• Governor in Panama
• Explored the lands of Central America
• First European to see the Pacific Ocean
Ferdinand Magellan
• Hired by Spain to find a route around South
America to Asia
– Strait of Magellan
• Named the
Pacific Ocean
– Means “peaceful”
• Died on the trip
• Only 1 of 5 ships made it after 3 years with 18 of
300 men
• First to circumnavigate the globe