Download The Age of Exploration

The Age of Exploration
8th Grade
American History
1. The Age of Exploration
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Was a period of time from the 1400’s to the
1600’s when Europeans began exploring the
world by sea.
The purpose of this exploration was to search
for trading partners, new goods, new trade
routes, and some were just looking for
adventure.
The Age of Exploration significantly helped in
the advancement of knowledge about our
world.
2. Trade Routes
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The goal of many Europeans was to get to
Asia so they could trade.
The main commodities the Europeans were
after was silk and spice.
3. First Journeys
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Portugal under Henry the Navigator was the
first country to begin these journeys to Asia.
Vasco Da Gama was the first explorer to
successfully navigate around Africa to Asia in
1497.
4. Cause/Effect
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The European exploration of the America's was
caused be several factors and has created several
effects.
Cause: Desire for gold and land
Cause: Search for routes to Asia
Cause: Desire to spread Christianity
Effect: Native American civilizations disrupted
Effect: New knowledge of geography
Effect: Native Americans die from European
diseases
5. Columbus
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Christopher Columbus is the man who is
credited with discovering the Americas in
1492.
His ideas were different from the
Portuguese because he proposed that if you
sail west in the Atlantic Ocean you would
eventually land in Asia.
Columbus was an Italian man, but he
gained support for his journey from Spain.
6. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
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The Spanish monarchs were jealous of the
exploration success of their neighbors the
Portuguese.
Columbus had been traveling around Europe
to try and gain support for his journey, but he
was not successful.
Finally, the Spanish monarchs decided they
would sponsor Columbus out of competition,
desire for wealth, and desire to spread
Christianity.
7. The Journey
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The journey from Europe to the Americas
took about 2 ½ months.
Columbus and 90 sailors were aboard three
ships.
After about one month the crew started to
become restless and concerned about their
future. They thought they were going to die.
8. The Logs
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On a daily basis Columbus would fill in logs
to mark how far they had gone.
He began to alter this information so his
sailors would not rebel against him.
He said “having trouble with the crew…I am
told that if I persist in going onward, the best
course of action will be to throw me in to the
sea.”
9. Land
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Finally, on October 12, 1492 Columbus and
his men landed in the Bahamas.
Columbus named the Island they landed on
San Salvador.
Columbus believed that he had landed in an
area named the East Indies in Asia. He called
the people Indians, and those islands are
commonly referred to as the West Indies
today.
10. Explorers
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Amerigo Vespucci – he is the man that the
America’s are named after. He traveled
around South America mapping the
continent. He is the one that realized
Columbus had not found Asia.
Ferdinand Magellan – A Portuguese captain.
He is credited with being the first person to
circumnavigate the world. He sailed west
from Europe, down South America and in to
the Pacific Ocean.