Download Westward Movement - Williston School District

Exploration of the New
World
Motives for
Exploration
Explain the political, economic, and technological factors that led to the
exploration of the New World by Spain, Portugal, and England, including
the competition between nation-states, the expansion of international
trade, and the technological advances in shipbuilding and navigation.
Economic
Factors
•Expansion of international trade. [both a cause
and a result of Age of Exploration]
•Merchants brought spices from the Far East to
Europe to trade for a profit.
•Other Europeans wanted more goods from the
East without the added expense charged by
these middle men.
Economic
Factors
•Because of the leadership of Prince Henry and
their geographic location on the Atlantic
Ocean, Portugal became the first to seek a
water route to Asia.
Let’s take a look at the
classroom map…
Economic
Factors
•Economic competition with Portugal
influenced Spain to sponsor Columbus and
others to explore unmapped lands in the New
World that were found by various explorers.
Let’s take a look at the
classroom map…
Political Factors
Competition between nationstates
•England and other countries became interested
in the New World, especially as the Spanish
found gold and silver that made them the most
powerful nation in Europe.
Political Factors
Competition between nationstates
•The English monarchs began to send explorers
to the New World and in the next few centuries
they would become the dominant country in
the settlement of North America.
Technological
Factors
Helped explorers
•Advancements in shipbuilding
•The construction of the
caravel-a smaller, faster ship
with triangular sails that could
sail into the wind
More
pictures of
caravels
Notice the
shape and
size…
Technological
Factors
Helped explorers
•Improvements in navigational skills
•Allowed sailors to venture further out to sea
Let’s check out some of
those new tools…
Astrolabe-measures height
of sun above the horizon
Reading celestial stars to
plot location and course
Compass-helped with
direction
Cartography
What is
cartography? Map
making skills
Cartography helped them
share their knowledge with
others and was taught at
the Portuguese School of
Navigation.
Not the same as maps we
have today